Steelers Player Profile: Ryan Clark, Everyday Is a Great Day to be Alive!

Note: This will be a recurring section on The Confluence.

When you hear Pittsburgh Steelers, what words would you use to epitomize everything that the organization stands for? Hardworking, perseverance, loyal, caring. All of the words describe Ryan Clark, but one word may describe him better than any other, appreciative. Clark, like all of the Steelers defenders, loves playing for Dick Lebeau, when asked about the most important lesson Coach Lebeau has taught him, Clark quickly replies, "Everyday is a great day to be alive!"

However, there was a time when Ryan Clark didn't think he would be here, not the starting free safety and most underrated player on the best defense in the NFL. Not one of the most crucial pieces of the Steelers secondary. Not one of the hardest hitters in the NFL. Heck, there was a time Ryan Clark just wanted to be alive.

Flashback to Oct. 21st 2007 in Denver. The Steelers had just lost to the Denver Broncos, but Clark didn't feel right. He had previously played in Denver with the Washington Redskins and didn't feel right, but this was way beyond the normal aches and pains a player feels after a game. This was serious, Clark described the pain he felt that night, "If you were able to stick your hand inside your body and punch through your ribs, it would feel like it's trying to come out."


According to a 2009 article on ESPN.com by Greg Garber "Clark was born with sickle cell trait but had never experienced full-blown complications of the disease, in which healthy red blood cells turn sickle-shaped and compromise blood flow in and around the spleen. There are two factors, according to studies, that can cause this: extreme physical exertion and high altitude. Both were present in Denver, but no one understood the ramifications at the time. A week after returning home to Pittsburgh, Clark's condition worsened dramatically."


Amazingly enough Clark continued to practice and workout even though he would regularly spike a fever and be sent home. On one fateful night, laying in his bed freezing, but with an extremely high temperature, he actually felt that his life might end,"That was the only time through the whole process I thought I could die. I even said a prayer. I just asked the Lord to forgive me for anything, just asked his mercy upon my life because I thought that was it."


Clark's immediate thoughts were with his family, his wife and three kids,"You think about you've got a 7-year-old son," Clark said. "What's it going to be like without Dad? You think about your daughters. Who's going to walk them down the aisle? Who's going to take them on their first date, so they know how men should treat them? Who's going to marry my wife after I was gone?"


"The immediate crisis passed, however, and, despite spiking fevers and night sweats that drenched his pajamas, Clark tried to go to work each day. Even though he couldn't dress himself and needed a ride to the facility, doctors and coaches were optimistic he soon would play.


"When someone is telling you [that] you should be all right, all the tests check out, you want to feel OK," Clark said. "I'm training, fever is 102, 103. I'm lifting weights. I'm trying my best to walk around the field and people are saying things like, 'Oh, you should be ready Monday or Wednesday.'"


How did that make him feel?


"Angry. I felt like you're not going through this," Clark said of team doctors and coaches. "There's no way I can wake up every morning with a normal temperature, then by 2:30, 3, you have to send me home because I'm 103. I know that's not normal."



Clark would put on his clothes, look in the mirror, and didn't even know who he was looking at.

"That was another low point," the Steelers safety recalls, "looking into the mirror and seeing how small I was and just wondering will you ever be able to get back to a point where physically you can play the game. I did a lot of praying."


More from the Garber article on espn.com.


"After three weeks on the inactive list, the Steelers placed Clark on injured reserve. In December 2007, the Clarks reached out to Dr. Stanley Marks, a noted hematologist, at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Marks, who was in New York, suggested a Monday appointment.


"I remember Ryan's exact words were, 'Doc, I don't think I can make it until Monday,'" Yonka, Clark's wife, said. "Ryan went in on a Friday morning, and by noon they were calling, saying, 'We want you in the hospital.'"


The Clarks credit Dr. Marks with saving Ryan's life. Marks, through the Steelers, declined ESPN's request for an interview.


Clark's playing weight is 205, but when he entered the hospital he had lost 40 pounds There was Clark, laying in the hospital, wondering if he was going to survive, let alone play football ever again. Troy Polamalu, Clark's best friend on the team visited him."That was probably the most crying I did in the hospital, was when he came to see me," Clark said. "It was so much more than football for me and him. I hadn't cried, not one time ... he started crying, too."

In two surgeries, in the span of a month, doctors removed his ruined spleen and gallbladder. When Ryan started joking with the nurses and picking on the doctors, his wife knew he would recover. They cleared him to work out at the end of January and he traveled to Arizona to rebuild his dormant muscles.
"It was really awesome to see how he transformed when he started getting back in shape," Polamalu said. "This defense has been all about sacrifice, the way we throw our bodies around. Ryan's a prime example of that, obviously.""

After months and months of hard work and perseverance Clark was able to regain his muscle mass and get back to his playing weight. He returned for the 2008 regular season and looked like he didn't miss a beat.That season, Clark didn't just make a comeback, he returned looking as physical as ever. He had 113 tackles - second-most on the team - and some of them were bone-jarring hits. He flattened Giants wide receiver Steve Smith and New England's Wes Welker. Coach Tomlin addressed Ryan's battle during Super Bowl Week,

"What he has gone through in the last year is an inspiration that is bigger than the game of football," said Tomlin.

"Minus two organs and competing and playing at a high level, it really is a story about persevering and dealing with adversity and really it's a window of who he is as a person moreso than a football player.". 

That week ended with a victory in Super Bowl XLIII over the Arizona Cardinals. In the span of a little over a year, Clark went from the brink of death, to the top of the football world.

In November of 2009, Clark would have to face his health issue one more time, the Steelers had a Monday night game in Denver, Clark was cleared to play medically but Coach Tomlin had the final say about his availability for the game. It was a tough decision for Clark to make, he had this to say, “We’ll see. I’ve been cleared to play, everybody knows that, but it’s still a tough decision, Coach Tomlin briefed you on that, It’s still a tough decision, obviously in this game everyone gets a little ego, and I want to go there, not so much to beat the Broncos but because I’ve come full circle and I want to go there and play.”

Clark is not the kind of player to back down from a challenge but he said the decision was a family matter.

“My wife has been praying on it, she believes god brought us out of it,” Clark said. “But it would be hard for me to play if she didn’t want me to go play, the decision would be done. If she told me two weeks ago, or before the season, I wouldn’t be playing and having this conversation.”

He continued to elaborate.

“ It’s a tough decision to go home and tell your wife who has been worried for a year that you are going and it’s tough for me to tell the guys I don’t want to play even if I have been cleared,” Clark said. “This is a decision I am going to make with my family and obviously with coach Tomlin, he’s going to have the final say.”

His teammates weighed in on Clark's decision. Polamalu saw his good friend Clark at his worst in the hospital in 2007 and had this to say in regards to him playing in Denver again,"He almost lost his life the last time we played there, so it's kind of unfair to say I would or wouldn't [play] because I didn't undergo the torture and the suffering he had to go through," Polamalu said.

Hines Ward and other Steeler teammates all but said they wished he wouldn't play, "Whatever he decides, we're going to back him. But if it was me, personally, life is more precious than football," Ward said. "Any time you miss a game and don't feel injured, you want to play because that's one game you'll never get back. But you've got to look at the big picture. There's still a lot of football left and we'd rather have Ryan for the long haul rather than the short term."

Tomlin ultimately decided that Clark's health was more important and decided to have him sit out the game.

Flash forward to January 2011, the AFC championship game, the Steelers were trailing 21-7 early in the thrid quarter, when Clark decided to take over the game, causing a Ray Rice fumble and picking off a Joe Flacco pass shortly after. The Steelers turned those two turnovers into touchdowns. An Antonio Brown helmet catch later and the Steelers were on the way to another AFC Title Game. As is typical for most Steelers Clark was reluctant to take credit for his game changing plays, "It was good defense. The biggest thing was pressure, you started to see Kiesel, Harrison, and Woodley getting into the backfield. They call Flacco Joe Cool but any quarterback that has pressure like that is going to have to start forcing some balls and getting rid of it quickly."

One of the most feared hitters in the NFL (just search his name on YouTube) Clark plays the game with a passion and an very fierce edge. His hit on Willis McGahee in the 2008 AFC Championship game knocked both players out and sent McGahee to the hospital. Clark had this to say after the game in regards to the way he plays,"A lot of guys want to preserve their bodies. I guess I'm not smart enough and haven't figured that out yet. I don't want to hit anybody helmet to helmet. I don't want to knock myself out. I think I'm mildly attractive and slightly intelligent, and I'm trying to keep that."

Clark is a loyal teammate who is quick to come to the defense of his fellow teammates. When Ray Rice criticized Hines Ward for his alleged DUI (which has not been proven) Clark quickly responded to Rice in Ward's defense. He's the kind of guy you want in your corner when you go to battle. When asked to describe the vaunted Steeler D in one word, without missing a beat his response is, "Brothers."

You would think off the field he would be just as fierce as he is on the field. You couldn't be farther from the truth. Clark routinely signs autographs at Steeler camp as much, if not more than any other Steeler (it's hard to miss him with his cartoon backpack that his kids pick out for him every year). He even signs on game day.  He regularly interacts with fans on twitter, answering question after question, getting into discussions about his favorite TV shows or movies. He even offers fans tickets to Steeler home games via twitter. Clark clearly appreciates each and every single one of his fans. He is a breath of fresh air when a lot of athletes feel that interacting with fans on such a personal level is below them. Since recovering from his ordeal in Denver he has also been involved in Sickle Cell Disease awareness, research, and treatment. Ryan Clark sure does sound like somebody who appreciates every day that he is alive. He has been through enough in his life to truly know the meaning of the words, "Everyday is a great day to be alive!" 

Appreciative, that's Ryan Clark, someone who can take the simple gift of another day, because he knows better than most that tomorrow is never promised.