The opening week of the 2020 NFL season has been interesting, to say the least, as gestures to acknowledge Black lives along with symbolic displays of unity, have been heavily scrutinized over the past few days.
Before the start of the Dallas Cowboys – Los Angeles Rams game on Sunday night, while the national anthem was performed, the protesting among players and coaches for social equality continued. One of those protestors was Rams assistant special teams coach Tory Woodbury.
God blessed me with this platform, so it’s only right I use it for those who can’t!!! Thanks for the luv https://t.co/KNj4VGn25t
— Tory Woodbury (@T_Woodbury11) September 14, 2020
“God blessed me with this platform, so it’s only right I use it for those who can’t!!! Thanks for the luv.” he said in a tweet on Sunday.
Woodbury is no stranger to the HBCU sports. He was a record-setting quarterback at Winston-Salem State, where during his four years, the Rams went 28-15.
During his years as a starter from 1997 to 2000, the Rams won two CIAA titles and a Pioneer Bowl championship.
Woodbury has kept football close to him since departing from WSSU. He signed with the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 2001, spending two seasons with the franchise before getting released.
He also had stints with the New Orleans Saints and Buffalo Bills, the Ottawa Renegades of the Canadian Football League, the Cologne Centurions of NFL Europe, and the Arena Football League’s New Orleans Voodoo before retiring after the 2006 season.
He started coaching at the high school level before moving on to Delaware State in 2011. Woodbury remained at DSU through the 2014 season, then spent two seasons as an offensive coordinator at Johnson C. Smith University.
In that seven-year span, Woodbury said he juggled his coaching responsibilities with five different internships, including being a minority intern for the Jacksonville Jaguars in 2012, a scouting intern for the Cleveland Browns in 2014, a pro scouting intern for the Rams in 2015, and a scouting intern for the Senior Bowl Scouting Academy in 2016.
Finally, he got his big break, as his time with the Rams would pay off.
They interviewed him again in 2017 and brought him on as a college scout. He worked three seasons working in the Rams’ scouting department before finally getting his current position with the departures of John Fassel and Assistant Matt Daniels.
Woodbury has not forgotten the values and mores that HBCU life has taught him and fully understands that Black lives matter.
