Tag: LaMarr Woodley

Michigan football star LaMarr Woodley, softball legend Sierra Romero make Michigan Sports Hall of Fame

Congrats to these legends! #GoBlue

There will be ten players inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame come Sept. 14.

Two Michigan Wolverines will represent the class and those two are football star Lamarr Woodley and softball star Sierra Romero.

Romero played for Michigan from 2013-2016. She is now the sixth softball player to join the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame. Romero joins Jennie Ritter (class of 2022) and coach Carol Hutchins (class of 2011) as the other Michigan Wolverines to make the HOF.

Woodley starred for the Michigan football defense from 2003-2006. He played mostly defensive end and some linebacker for the maize and blue. Woodley is now the 28th Michigan football player to be inducted into the Michigan Sports Hall of Fame and the first since Charles Woodson back in 2019.

You can read the full press release below.

Sierra Romero

Named the 2016 USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year, NFCA Division I Player of the Year and the Honda Award recipient for softball, Romero completed the 2016 campaign with a .451 batting average, 76 runs, 73 hits, 19 home runs and 79 runs batted in. She ranked third nationally with 1.29 runs per game and 1.32 RBI per game and sixth with a .577 on-base percentage and .883 slugging percentage. She boasted 18 multi-hit games and 21 multi-RBI games and tallied a career-best 18-game hitting streak through the early-season tournament slate.

Romero, a native of Murrieta, Calif., became the first four-time NFCA All-American in Michigan program history, earning first-team honors each of the last three seasons, and was twice a top-three finalist for the USA Softball Collegiate Player of the Year (2014, ’15) before winning the top honor in 2016. She was the inaugural winner of the espnW Softball Player of the Year in 2015 and a three-time Big Ten Player of the Year (2013, ’14, ’16) and four-time unanimous selection to the All-Big Ten first team.

Romero completed her collegiate career as the NCAA record holder in career runs (302) and grand slams (11). With her 300th run, scored in NCAA Super Regional play, she became the first player to ever record 300 runs, 300 hits and 300 RBI. She ranks fourth all-time in career RBI (305) and slugging percentage (.882) and eighth in home runs (82) and walks (225).

A two-year Michigan team captain, Romero contributed to a senior class that posted a 210-43 record, won four Big Ten titles and a Big Ten Tournament title and made three WCWS appearances over four seasons.

LaMarr Woodley

LaMarr Woodley left Michigan as one of the most decorated defensive players in school history. He appeared in 49 career contests and made 33 starts at defensive end, amassing 177 tackles, including 52.5 tackles for loss and 24 sacks. He lists second all-time in career TFLs and is third in sacks. Woodley holds U-M’s career record with 10 forced fumbles while contributing five recoveries. He was twice selected All-Big Ten first team and was voted as the Richard Katcher Award winner as the team’s top defensive lineman/outside linebacker on two occasions (2004, 2006).

As a senior in 2006, Woodley tied Michigan’s then season sack record with 12. He made nearly half of his stops in the opposition’s backfield, with 16.5 of his 36 tackles being tackles for loss. Woodley was voted co-captain and became the first-ever Wolverine to win both the Lombardi Award (top lineman) and Ted Hendricks Award (top defensive end). Woodley was a consensus first-team All-American and won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and Big Ten Defensive Lineman of the Year awards after being a unanimous all-conference first team selection.

A second-round NFL Draft selection by the Pittsburgh Steelers, Woodley played nine seasons in the NFL, seven with the Steelers and one each with the Oakland Raiders and Arizona Cardinals. Woodley earned All-Pro honors and was selected to the Pro Bowl in 2009. He played in two Super Bowls and won SB XLIII with the Steelers, securing the victory with a game-ending sack, and forced fumble.

A Saginaw, Mich., native, Woodley attended Saginaw High School. Extremely active in the community, he started the Woodley Leadership Academy, a tuition free K-8 charter school and revitalized the Community Center by turning it into a learning center for adults.

The class of 2023 inductees are:

Lamarr Woodley (Michigan Wolverines football)

Sierra Romero (Michigan Wolverines softball)

Richard ‘Rip’ Hamilton (Detroit Pistons)

Henrik Zetterberg (Detroit Red Wings)

Ryan Miller and Rick Comley (Michigan State ice hockey)

Lorenzo White (Michigan State football)

Mike “Doc” Emrick (NHL analyst)

Colleen Howe (sports agent/manager)

Dawn Riley (USA Sailing)

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Fab Four: Selecting Michigan football’s Mount Rushmore of all-time recruits

On the eve of early signing day, Wolverines Wire recalls the most hyped commits in school history.

College football recruiting is a game within a game, so to speak. While results on the field can be indicative of the recruiting ranking that prospects have, it doesn’t tell the whole story.

You can win the recruiting game without playing a down against another team, as you often see prospects releasing lists of their top schools.

A recruit can commit to one school before flipping and signing with another. That recruit may never see the field for his team of choice, while unranked players have gone on to fruitful NFL careers.

Along with all of the other College Wire sites, WolverinesWire is looking at Michigan football’s version of Mount Rushmore when it comes to recruits who chose to sign and play football in Ann Arbor.

For our selection of four, we had one caveat: They had to play for more than one year with the maize and blue. This isn’t a list of the best players who have ever worn the winged helmet. It’s the four who made the most waves in the recruiting world when they chose to be a Wolverine.

More Mount Rushmore’s from the College Wire Network:

Bama / Aub / Fla / LSU / Tenn. / UGA // Mich. / Mich St. / Ohio St. / Wisc. // Okla. / Texas // ND // USC

NEXT: Let the debate begin with honorable mentions

Pages: Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6

Ben Roethlisberger: ‘This is not how I’m going out’

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger explained what it was like for him to sit out in 2019.

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger appeared on The Sirius XM Blitz Thursday with Bruce Murray and former teammate, Bruce Gradkowski.

Roethlisberger explained what it was like for him to sit out in 2019.

“It was tough on the sidelines last year. All of us are competitors, right? We all want to be out there. It’s what we love to do. As a quarterback, you feel like, ‘That’s my team out there and I want to be out there leading my guys. I want to help them and do everything I can, to go through the battle with them.’ And when you can’t do that, it’s so hard and it just tugs at you.”

“It put a little fire into me — this is not the end for me. This is not how I’m going out. I’m going to bust my butt to just give myself a chance to come back and try to be better than ever. I know that sounds kinda crazy; as you get older in life to get better. Your physical attributes might fall off, you might not be as fast or as big or whatever. But you still can be as sharp because you can be mentally sharp and maybe hone your skills differently.”

“I’ve been doing it for a long time, but I still feel like I’ve got gas in the tank and I’m excited.”

While it was difficult for Roethlisberger to watch helplessly from the sidelines, he was thrilled with what he saw from the defense.

“That whole defense was so much fun to watch,” Roethlisberger said. “Guys just stepping up; taking their game to another level. Man, it was fun watching those edge rushers come off the edge. It reminded me of [James] Harrison and [LaMarr] Woodley. It was neat to see in the backend seeing Minkah [Fitzpatrick] and T [Terrell Edmunds] and all those guys.”

Roethlisberger went on to say how the Steelers defense will be such an integral part of their championship run this season.

If the defense plays like it did in 2019 and Roethlisberger doesn’t suffer a setback, there’s no reason why they can’t be in the mix.

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