Got word today from a team mate of Vince that he's in Emory Hospital in Atlanta after suffering a stroke. Here's a story I saved from a few years ago about some of health problems.
It's fourth-and-long for ex-Tide QB Vince Sutton, who counts his blessings, asks for prayers as he waits for a kidney transplant
By Don Kausler Jr.
on July 10, 2011 at 6:40 AM
View full sizeAs the head football coach at Dawson Street Christian School in LaGrange, Ga., former Alabama quarterback Vince Sutton led the Wildcats to three state championships in four years at the 8-man football level. He's shown here in 2006, the year the Wildcats made the transition to 11-man football. They made the Georgia Independent Schools Association's Class A playoffs and finished that season with a 6-5 record. Sutton's involvement with the team has been limited the past few seasons as he has battled health problems. (Al Yates/Photo Center Studio)
If anyone understands about football as a metaphor for life, how fun and fulfilling yet frustrating and forlorn each can be, how adversity and comebacks on and off the field can mimic each other, it's Vince Sutton.
As a quarterback almost three decades ago at Alabama, he often stood on the sidelines or sat on the bench, waiting for the call to get in the game.
Now with his job as a high school football coach at Dawson Street Christian School on hold, he lounges around his apartment in LaGrange, Ga., waiting for the call that will save his life.
Two weeks ago, former teammates brought him to UAB so his failing kidneys and pancreas could be examined. He was accepted onto a donor's list for a kidney transplant.
"They wished me a lot of luck and told me to be ready to answer the call," Sutton said. "I sit at home every day hoping one day the phone will ring."
He knows the wait will be more excruciating than the pain.
"So many people are ahead of me that have been waiting longer," Sutton said. "You just have to wait your turn and hope your number will get called. ... Tell all Alabama fans to just pray for me."
Exactly how is life for a former high school football phenom now, just as he was finding satisfaction as a high school football coach in his hometown?
"I have good days and bad days," Sutton said.
TO WISH VINCE SUTTON WELL
As former Alabama quarterback Vince Sutton struggles with his health, he says he would love to hear from Crimson Tide fans. They can write to him at:
110 Old Airport Road
Apartment 713
LaGrange, GA 30240
A good day?
"Being able to get up with no pain," said Sutton, 44, who has sons ages 26, 19, 10 and 7. "Maybe go outside and walk around. Play catch with my boy. That's a good day for me."
A bad day?
"It's hard to be able to even walk to the table to eat breakfast," Sutton said. "I'm just weak. My body's in pain. Some days are just real depressing."
As a result of a stroke, he is blind in one eye. His vision is limited in the other. His kidney problem is a result of diabetes that has run in his family.
It's fourth down in the fourth quarter.
He's been there before.
The ecstasy
Good days and bad days. What better way to describe his career from 1984-88 with the Crimson Tide?
He was electrifying at LaGrange High School, the hottest of the hot shots.
"I think he threw 400 passes and had two intercepted as a senior," said Danny Cronic, then the LaGrange coach. "I might be a little off on the 400 passes, but not the two interceptions. He was a fabulous football player, an unbelievable passer and a pretty good runner, too."
Sutton badly sprained an ankle and was unable to practice before the 1983 region championship game against Clarke Central, ranked No. 1 in the nation.
"He went out there and limped around and did a great job," Cronic recalled. "In the first half, he threw four touchdown passes and we led 28-0."
Vince Sutton (10) sat more than he played at Alabama after he was signed by coach Ray Perkins, right. His biggest moment of glory came when he rallied the Tide to a 31-27 victory over Kentucky in the 1988 season. (The Birmingham News file)
He sat more than he played at Alabama after he was signed by coach Ray Perkins. He started a few games as a freshman, but when Mike Shula emerged, then starred, Sutton faded into the background.
"Once you get there, you realize everyone's just as good as you are," Sutton said.
He was redshirted as a sophomore, and even as a fifth-year senior he went into the season as the third-team quarterback behind David Smith and Jeff Dunn.
But Smith was injured in the 1988 opener. Dunn started on Oct. 1 at Kentucky, but the Tide trailed 17-0 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, Sutton heard his name called. He was ready.
Kentucky still led 20-7 going into the fourth quarter and 27-17 with 9:39 to go, but with 5:06 left in the game, Sutton threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Greg Payne.
Then Sutton accounted for all 86 yards of a dramatic last-minute drive. Early in the drive, he ran 16 yards on fourth down.
"The middle just opened wide up, and instead of me throwing it, I took advantage and ran," Sutton recalled.
A 45-yard pass to Todd Richardson put Alabama in scoring position. Then the Tide faced fourth-and-goal at the 3-yard line. Sutton talked to offensive coordinator Homer Smith during a timeout.
"Coach Smith always said, 'You've got to do the dance. Faking the ball is like dancing. You've got to be good at it,'" Sutton said. "One of my best moves was the slide and the shuffle. So we went with the fake sweep left and bootlegged to the right.
"The fake was so great, by the tailback as well. I just rolled to the right and there was nobody there."
Nobody except tight end Gene Newberry, another fifth-year senior who had started his career as a quarterback. The touchdown beat the clock by 10 seconds. Alabama won 31-27.
"That was my biggest moment of glory," Sutton said.
Now another comeback is beginning. There's more at stake than a game. Sutton is about to begin dialysis.
The transition
Sutton came to Alabama with pro football on his mind. Five years later, he went home 1½ years short of a degree.
"I was one of those guys who thought I could go in there and be great and make it to the next level," he said. "I should have taken more advantage of the opportunity to get the degree. It's just something that I didn't do that I wish I had done."
During his senior season, he remembers Homer Smith talking about players he had coached who did not make it in pro football.
"He said, 'The person that can survive in life is the person that can adapt to change,'" Sutton recalled. "I learned that if doesn't work out, you've got to move on."
He moved back to LaGrange and worked as a lieutenant at the county jail. Those were good days.
"I was overseeing the younger inmates," Sutton said. "It was a way to touch kids who had made a mistake in their lives. I gave them compassion and let them know it wasn't the end of the world, that they could get better, but that they had to remember that whatever they did, they had to pay a price, but they still could come out and be a better person."
But something was missing during those dozen years.
"Football was still inside of me," Sutton said. "I played in a flag-football league with the guys. When an opportunity came to do something different and get a hold of kids and lead them, it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down."
While watching television, he saw a commercial advertising an opening for a coach at Dawson Street Christian School, which was starting a football program. Sutton knew the school's athletic director, A.J. Jackson III.
"I went by, and the day I got there, he said they just hired someone," Sutton said. "I said, 'Are you sure?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Would you think about it?' They talked to the guy they hired, and he thought I would be a better fit, so they gave me an opportunity."
Sutton was a senior at LaGrange High when Jackson was a freshman.
"Vince was always someone I looked up to," Jackson said. "I thought he was a good fit for the program. We started off playing eight-man football. The first four years, he won three state titles. Then we made the move to 11-man. The first two years, we made the playoffs. The last three years, we've been struggling, but Vince has helped a lot of at-risk kids and did a really good job."
Cronic wasn't surprised to see Sutton gravitate toward coaching.
"He was good with kids as a mentor," the former LaGrange High coach said. "Vince had a very high aptitude for football. He knew everything I knew when he graduated from high school."
Cronic also saw something extraordinary.
"He had great vision," Cronic said. "He could almost see a room without going in there. A lot of that was anticipation. He had a lot of field awareness. He was very special."
Now, on a good day, out of one eye, Sutton can see 10 yards in front of him.
"On a bad day," he said, "all I see are shadows."
The agony
One bad day in April 2009, Sutton had a headache and went to a drug store. He decided to check his blood pressure on a machine.
"It was 225 over 200," Sutton said. "I went, 'Whoa!' I drove myself to the emergency room. I was sitting there, and they had me hooked up to all these wires. I was talking to the doctor and all of a sudden this thing goes off and all these doctors and nurses start running into the room and I'm like, 'What's going on?'"
He was having a stroke.
"The doctor doesn't understand how I survived," Sutton said. "He said the fact that I was in great shape is what saved me."
Partial blindness was one of the lasting effects. Sutton has tried to stay involved with his high school football team. When he can be on the sidelines during a game, a chair is there when he needs to sit. On a good day, he can watch film with players. The good days are fading.
Yes, this is hard to accept.
"You get used to doing things at full speed," Sutton said. "Now you can't do 85 percent of the things that you used to do. It's very hard. Sometimes I sit down and think about it. What went wrong? I've always taken care of my body. I never drink. I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't understand how these health conditions come about, but some things are just inherited."
But he wonders where he would be without football, without those life lessons.
"I look back, and I'm so thankful that I went through some tough times at Alabama," Sutton said. "There was a push to do things. It's made this transition easier.
"Sometimes I don't feel like going, and I think about those two-a-days or offseason workouts on a hot June or July day in Tuscaloosa. I say, 'If you could make it through that, definitely you can get yourself up and do what you need to do.'"
It's fourth-and-long for ex-Tide QB Vince Sutton, who counts his blessings, asks for prayers as he waits for a kidney transplant
By Don Kausler Jr. on July 10, 2011 at 6:40 AM
If anyone understands about football as a metaphor for life, how fun and fulfilling yet frustrating and forlorn each can be, how adversity and comebacks on and off the field can mimic each other, it's Vince Sutton.
As a quarterback almost three decades ago at Alabama, he often stood on the sidelines or sat on the bench, waiting for the call to get in the game.
Now with his job as a high school football coach at Dawson Street Christian School on hold, he lounges around his apartment in LaGrange, Ga., waiting for the call that will save his life.
Two weeks ago, former teammates brought him to UAB so his failing kidneys and pancreas could be examined. He was accepted onto a donor's list for a kidney transplant.
"They wished me a lot of luck and told me to be ready to answer the call," Sutton said. "I sit at home every day hoping one day the phone will ring."
He knows the wait will be more excruciating than the pain.
"So many people are ahead of me that have been waiting longer," Sutton said. "You just have to wait your turn and hope your number will get called. ... Tell all Alabama fans to just pray for me."
Exactly how is life for a former high school football phenom now, just as he was finding satisfaction as a high school football coach in his hometown?
"I have good days and bad days," Sutton said.
TO WISH VINCE SUTTON WELL
As former Alabama quarterback Vince Sutton struggles with his health, he says he would love to hear from Crimson Tide fans. They can write to him at:
110 Old Airport Road
Apartment 713
LaGrange, GA 30240
A good day?
"Being able to get up with no pain," said Sutton, 44, who has sons ages 26, 19, 10 and 7. "Maybe go outside and walk around. Play catch with my boy. That's a good day for me."
A bad day?
"It's hard to be able to even walk to the table to eat breakfast," Sutton said. "I'm just weak. My body's in pain. Some days are just real depressing."
As a result of a stroke, he is blind in one eye. His vision is limited in the other. His kidney problem is a result of diabetes that has run in his family.
It's fourth down in the fourth quarter.
He's been there before.
The ecstasy
Good days and bad days. What better way to describe his career from 1984-88 with the Crimson Tide?
He was electrifying at LaGrange High School, the hottest of the hot shots.
"I think he threw 400 passes and had two intercepted as a senior," said Danny Cronic, then the LaGrange coach. "I might be a little off on the 400 passes, but not the two interceptions. He was a fabulous football player, an unbelievable passer and a pretty good runner, too."
Sutton badly sprained an ankle and was unable to practice before the 1983 region championship game against Clarke Central, ranked No. 1 in the nation.
"He went out there and limped around and did a great job," Cronic recalled. "In the first half, he threw four touchdown passes and we led 28-0."
Vince Sutton (10) sat more than he played at Alabama after he was signed by coach Ray Perkins, right. His biggest moment of glory came when he rallied the Tide to a 31-27 victory over Kentucky in the 1988 season. (The Birmingham News file)
He sat more than he played at Alabama after he was signed by coach Ray Perkins. He started a few games as a freshman, but when Mike Shula emerged, then starred, Sutton faded into the background.
"Once you get there, you realize everyone's just as good as you are," Sutton said.
He was redshirted as a sophomore, and even as a fifth-year senior he went into the season as the third-team quarterback behind David Smith and Jeff Dunn.
But Smith was injured in the 1988 opener. Dunn started on Oct. 1 at Kentucky, but the Tide trailed 17-0 at halftime. Early in the third quarter, Sutton heard his name called. He was ready.
Kentucky still led 20-7 going into the fourth quarter and 27-17 with 9:39 to go, but with 5:06 left in the game, Sutton threw a 7-yard touchdown pass to Greg Payne.
Then Sutton accounted for all 86 yards of a dramatic last-minute drive. Early in the drive, he ran 16 yards on fourth down.
"The middle just opened wide up, and instead of me throwing it, I took advantage and ran," Sutton recalled.
A 45-yard pass to Todd Richardson put Alabama in scoring position. Then the Tide faced fourth-and-goal at the 3-yard line. Sutton talked to offensive coordinator Homer Smith during a timeout.
"Coach Smith always said, 'You've got to do the dance. Faking the ball is like dancing. You've got to be good at it,'" Sutton said. "One of my best moves was the slide and the shuffle. So we went with the fake sweep left and bootlegged to the right.
"The fake was so great, by the tailback as well. I just rolled to the right and there was nobody there."
Nobody except tight end Gene Newberry, another fifth-year senior who had started his career as a quarterback. The touchdown beat the clock by 10 seconds. Alabama won 31-27.
"That was my biggest moment of glory," Sutton said.
Now another comeback is beginning. There's more at stake than a game. Sutton is about to begin dialysis.
The transition
Sutton came to Alabama with pro football on his mind. Five years later, he went home 1½ years short of a degree.
"I was one of those guys who thought I could go in there and be great and make it to the next level," he said. "I should have taken more advantage of the opportunity to get the degree. It's just something that I didn't do that I wish I had done."
During his senior season, he remembers Homer Smith talking about players he had coached who did not make it in pro football.
"He said, 'The person that can survive in life is the person that can adapt to change,'" Sutton recalled. "I learned that if doesn't work out, you've got to move on."
He moved back to LaGrange and worked as a lieutenant at the county jail. Those were good days.
"I was overseeing the younger inmates," Sutton said. "It was a way to touch kids who had made a mistake in their lives. I gave them compassion and let them know it wasn't the end of the world, that they could get better, but that they had to remember that whatever they did, they had to pay a price, but they still could come out and be a better person."
But something was missing during those dozen years.
"Football was still inside of me," Sutton said. "I played in a flag-football league with the guys. When an opportunity came to do something different and get a hold of kids and lead them, it was an opportunity I couldn't turn down."
While watching television, he saw a commercial advertising an opening for a coach at Dawson Street Christian School, which was starting a football program. Sutton knew the school's athletic director, A.J. Jackson III.
"I went by, and the day I got there, he said they just hired someone," Sutton said. "I said, 'Are you sure?' He said, 'Yeah.' I said, 'Would you think about it?' They talked to the guy they hired, and he thought I would be a better fit, so they gave me an opportunity."
Sutton was a senior at LaGrange High when Jackson was a freshman.
"Vince was always someone I looked up to," Jackson said. "I thought he was a good fit for the program. We started off playing eight-man football. The first four years, he won three state titles. Then we made the move to 11-man. The first two years, we made the playoffs. The last three years, we've been struggling, but Vince has helped a lot of at-risk kids and did a really good job."
Cronic wasn't surprised to see Sutton gravitate toward coaching.
"He was good with kids as a mentor," the former LaGrange High coach said. "Vince had a very high aptitude for football. He knew everything I knew when he graduated from high school."
Cronic also saw something extraordinary.
"He had great vision," Cronic said. "He could almost see a room without going in there. A lot of that was anticipation. He had a lot of field awareness. He was very special."
Now, on a good day, out of one eye, Sutton can see 10 yards in front of him.
"On a bad day," he said, "all I see are shadows."
The agony
One bad day in April 2009, Sutton had a headache and went to a drug store. He decided to check his blood pressure on a machine.
"It was 225 over 200," Sutton said. "I went, 'Whoa!' I drove myself to the emergency room. I was sitting there, and they had me hooked up to all these wires. I was talking to the doctor and all of a sudden this thing goes off and all these doctors and nurses start running into the room and I'm like, 'What's going on?'"
He was having a stroke.
"The doctor doesn't understand how I survived," Sutton said. "He said the fact that I was in great shape is what saved me."
Partial blindness was one of the lasting effects. Sutton has tried to stay involved with his high school football team. When he can be on the sidelines during a game, a chair is there when he needs to sit. On a good day, he can watch film with players. The good days are fading.
Yes, this is hard to accept.
"You get used to doing things at full speed," Sutton said. "Now you can't do 85 percent of the things that you used to do. It's very hard. Sometimes I sit down and think about it. What went wrong? I've always taken care of my body. I never drink. I've never smoked a day in my life. I don't understand how these health conditions come about, but some things are just inherited."
But he wonders where he would be without football, without those life lessons.
"I look back, and I'm so thankful that I went through some tough times at Alabama," Sutton said. "There was a push to do things. It's made this transition easier.
"Sometimes I don't feel like going, and I think about those two-a-days or offseason workouts on a hot June or July day in Tuscaloosa. I say, 'If you could make it through that, definitely you can get yourself up and do what you need to do.'"
