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| Left: Reed Doughty, Washington Redskins #37, takes down an opponent for a tackle. (Photo courtesy of the Washington Redskins) Right: Doughty picks up his son for a family candid. (Photo courtesy of Re |
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| Reed Doughty, “Dr. Defense,” on the field. (Photo courtesy of the Washington Redskins) |
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Washington Redskins safety Reed Doughty is humble and affable. A gentleman. The quintessential Mr. Nice Guy. Flip on ESPN during a Redskins game, however, and it will occur to you very quickly that there's a whole other side to this guy. As a safety, I get the chance to get my hands on the ball once in a while, Reed explains. But I also get to hit. And it is clear that #37 relishes every tackle.
Doughty is a lot tougher than he looks. From the time he was in high school, playing varsity football and earning straight As, Doughty struggled with a signifi ant hearing loss. Now 27, he estimates that he has about a 30 percent hearing deficiency in each ear, and it appears to be progressive. He started wearing hearing aids in college, though he admits he wished he had started wearing them sooner. I was always great one-on-one, says Doughty, but in a loud setting, I wasn't always able to hear people talking to me. I wasn't as outgoing sometimes because I worried about not being able to catch what others were saying. If I'd [been wearing hearing aids], I would have been more confi dent and direct, and maybe people might have thought I was nicer. Could that be possible of this handsome, blue-eyed, mild-mannered husband and father of two? The hardest part about being a Reed Doughty fan must be reconciling Mr. Nice Guy with the diametrically opposite Dr. Defense, who spends fall and winter Sundays vigorously tackling 200-pound running backs.
While many kids dream of being professional football players, Doughty never once entertained the thought of turning pro. In his senior year of college, Doughty realized he might have a chance at playing for the NFL when he was named a candidate for the Draddy Trophy (often referred to as the Academic Heisman). Although he didn't win the Draddy that year, in 2006 Reed was drafted straight out of the University of Northern Colorado by Washington as a free safety. He is now in his fourth season with the Redskins. - and incredible accomplishment for anyone, and even more so for a person with hearing loss.
In college, Doughty says he was forthcoming about his hearing loss with his professors and coaches and did what he could to maximize communication with his teammates. He would sit up front in class so that he could read the lips of his professors, and pay close attention to his coaches during practice. However, when Doughty found himself in the pros, it suddenly occurred to him that his hearing loss might be more of an issue. I wasn't trying to hide it, says Reed, but I wasn't jumping up, either. I had a new job that was predicated on my physical abilities. My coach noticed I would be staring intently at him really listening to him way more than the other guys. He finally said to me, 'Reed, I think you may have a hearing loss.' And I said, 'Coach, I know I have a.hearing loss.'
Doughty says his teammates take his hearing loss in stride, and he gets a lot of good-natured ribbing about it. But it is clear his fellow players respect him and are glad he's on their side. In 2008, Doughty was the Redskins' winner of the Ed Block Courage Award. Named for the late Baltimore Colts trainer, the award goes to a player on each team who is a source of courage and inspiration to his teammates, and is voted on by his teammates. No doubt, Doughty knows about courage.
Doughty and his wife Katie had their fi rst son, Micah, in 2006. Born prematurely, Micah suffered chronic kidney failure as an infant and received a kidney transplant. Micah's first few years were a tumultuous and uncertain time for the Doughtys. Reed had just started playing for the Redskins and Katie's life revolved around her son's trips to the doctor and countless medications. At the urging of his wife, Reed had actually started wearing hearing aids in college, though he admits that he only wore them sporadically. It was the chaos of having a new baby particularly one with a significant health issue that made Doughty realize he needed to be wearing them all the time. My son would be crying and my wife would be trying to talk to me in the dark, he says. I couldn't read her lips and I couldn't hear her.
These days Doughty wears Siemens® behind-the-ear hearing aids, with good results. For safety reasons, however, he can't wear them while playing football. So Doughty says he's considering Lyric® in-the-ear aids because he would be able to leave them in to play and because they are compatible with his iPod®. Until the day when he can wear hearing aids on the field, Doughty relies on other tactics to do his job.
We use a lot of hand signals in football to begin with, which helps, Doughty explains. Fortunately in my position [as safety], I anticipate instead of react. And playing defense, I don't have to listen to a count I just have to see the guy coming at me. But on those occasions when he needs to hear a play called or take direction from a coach, Doughty still has to lip read, which isn't easy when there's a facemask blocking his view. Even coaches today sport horizontal headsets on the sidelines, which almost entirely obscure their mouths.
So how 'bout them Redskins, anyway? At press time, Washington was 2-5, making it very unlikely that the team will be heading to the playoffs. It's been a frustrating season, Doughty says. We have a lot of talent on the team but we're not playing particularly well. For a guy who spent the off-season recovering from a back injury which kept him out of play for most of 2008, his team's lack of synergy this year is clearly disappointing. But even if his team goals aren't coming together the way he'd like, being completely healthy now and able to play almost every game this season is something for which he's grateful.
In the world of professional sports, gratitude can be hard to find. It's easy to get caught up in self-promotion, but Doughty credits his father, who also has a significant hearing loss, with not building him up as a youngster. He kept me humble, Doughty explains. With my dad, it was all about hard work and ethics, and about how you play the game. For both of us, integrity means a lot.
Doughty brings that integrity to his off-field endeavors, too. Because of his first-hand experience with hearing, back and kidney issues, earlier this year Doughty served as honorary chairman of the Hearing Loss Association of America's Washington, D.C. Walk4Hearing; the Washington-area Kidney Walk; and Spinal Research Foundation's We've Got Your Back Walk. He and Katie also support Kidney Kids, a needs-based organization that helps families make payments and improve their well-being when a child is undergoing kidney treatment or surgery.
It would be easy to assume that Doughty's life revolves entirely around physical matters: his hearing loss, athleticism and medical issues. Nothing could be further from the truth. My wife and I are very blessed and we trust God in every aspect of our lives, says Doughty. To me there's nothing better than coming home and having dinner with my family after a game. My kids give me a break from football. Although they've lived in Washington, D.C., since he started playing for the Redskins, Reed and Katie bought a house back home in Colorado last year, in the hopes of perhaps indulging in hobbies they both enjoy that have taken a backseat to football. As his sons grow up, Reed would love to introduce them to fly fishing, snowshoeing, hiking, camping, cycling all those things that keep him a Colorado boy at heart.
Doughty's sons both appear to have perfect hearing and that's another blessing for the family. Micah's kidney transplant was successful and he's doing well though, as Reed says, a transplant is not a cure because transplanted kidneys only last three to 20 years. More transplants are certainly in Micah's future and the Doughtys hope they will still have the NFL's excellent health insurance when that time comes. The Dr. Defense Reed Doughty knows he has many seasons left in him to make hits on the field that would knock the average guy senseless.
But always in the locker room after the game, a strange transformation occurs and out walks Mr. Nice Guy. Doughty realizes that he is an inspiration to young athletes with and without hearing loss and takes the job of mentor very seriously. He recently received an e-mail from a young man who asked his advice about playing football with a hearing impairment. With younger kids, a hearing loss can be seen as a social stigma, says Doughty. But I tell them what I wish someone had told me: It's better to be able to communicate than to be perceived as cool. I just tell [those kids] to be forthcoming with their coaches about their hearing loss, to put their best foot forward and try hard.
