'Devastating': Rookie Colts TE Jelani Woods opens up on Virginia teammates, shooting victims

INDIANAPOLIS — Lavel Davis Jr. was a Jelani Woods doppelgänger, a towering wide receiver who saw himself in the big tight end’s breakout season at Virginia.

D’Sean Perry lockered next to Woods, long enough for the tight end’s big personality to help open him up to his teammates. Devin Chandler wanted to follow in Woods’ footsteps, use a transfer to Virginia as a catapult to the NFL. Before he chose the Cavaliers, Chandler reached out to Woods and forged a bond.

Woods lost them two weeks ago.

Lost them to an act of unspeakable, unthinkable violence that shook the University of Virginia campus to its core.

Woods was talking to a few of his other former Virginia teammates while it was happening. First it was the news that there was an ongoing mass shooting on campus. Then the realization that football players had been involved. Then an entire night spent awake, tapping away on his phone, trying to figure out what had happened.

A gunman on a bus, coming back from a field trip to a play in Washington, D.C.

Three names, the names suddenly becoming known in the wee hours of Monday morning, right before the sun began to rise.

Davis, Jr.

Perry.

Chandler.

“Devastating,” Woods said.

Woods, the rookie tight end who exploded in the Colts’ 24-17 loss to Pittsburgh on Monday night with eight catches for 98 yards, has spent the last two weeks dealing with unspeakable grief.

The first time Woods was asked about the shooting at Virginia, he tried to answer, only to stop himself short.

He wasn’t ready yet.

Woods was ready on Monday night.

“Those were my guys,” Woods said. “Even though I’ve been away, I still talk to them on social media, I even went to the Richmond game early in year. … I remember my guy Level going off in that game, stuff like that. It’s just a heavy heart.”

Woods was dealing with a shoulder injury when the shooting happened.

He spent most of the next three days in David Thornton’s office, pouring his heart out to the Colts’ director of player engagement.

Woods talked to Thornton, talked to fellow Virginia alum and Colts safety Rodney McLeod, talked to Indianapolis linebacker Zaire Franklin about what he’d learned when a teammate at Syracuse was shot.

More:Doyel: Virginia alum Rodney McLeod wore his sadness from head to toe after mass shooting

The more he talked, the more Woods wanted to be a source of strength for his former teammates back at Virginia.

The way he’d been a source of strength for Davis, Jr., Perry and Chandler.

Davis, Jr. tore his ACL in spring practice, shortly after Woods arrived from Oklahoma State. They’d already bonded over their 6-7 frames, but Woods became the older brother in that situation, helping Davis, Jr. deal with the disappointment of a season-ending injury.

“He was kind of sad,” Woods said. “I was trying to keep his head high. It’s kind of like mentoring a little bit, making sure he stayed on the right track. He was going to be able to come back, keeping him close with the team so he didn’t fall out or anything like that.”

Woods tried to give Perry some of his easygoing, ebullient personality.

“I tried to mess with him a lot, tried to get him to talk,” Woods said. “I used to play fight with him, stuff like that, and that’s kind of how we built our relationship, because he was my locker buddy.”

Chandler saw a role model in Woods; a player who’d transferred from Oklahoma State and made himself into a third-round pick.

“He was like, ‘I mess with you,’” Woods said. “‘I look up to you because I saw how you came in and did your thing, and that’s what I want to do.’”

Woods has spent the past two weeks trying to be the same sort of influence to the teammates he still has left at Virginia. He’s had so many conversations, tried to be a positive presence.

Battling the shoulder injury, Woods tried hard to get back on the field against Philadelphia last week, the first game for the Colts after the shooting.

Woods wore a shirt with his friends on it instead, resolved to get back in the lineup this week.

Woods had to fight his way past the physical pain, past the emotional pain he was feeling.

“Everything felt like a dark world I was under,” Woods said. "And then trying to get back on the field, it wasn’t working out how I planned it. All of that happened at the same time.”

Thornton and Franklin helped Woods find the right frame of mind.

Indianapolis needed him. The Colts didn’t have Kylen Granson, the team’s top receiving tight end, against a Steelers team that has been torched by tight ends all season long.

Virginia might have needed him more. Needed Woods the same way it needed McLeod to wear cleats memorializing the three players the week before against Philadelphia, needed any kind of support the Cavaliers could get.

Woods felt all of that as he took the field Monday night. He dropped the first pass that came his way.

“It can be nerve-wracking when you don’t click in your first comeback, and that’s kind of how I thought I was trending in the first half,” Woods said. “Then I was like, Naw. I kind of honed in, meditated a little bit, and I took that stress off. They need you. Let’s make a play.”

Woods made one play, then another, then made a key catch on the sideline, then broke free for a 28-yard grab to set up a go-ahead score in a game the Colts would eventually lose.

A rookie who’d shown mostly flashes made more catches, for more yards, than he’d had the entire season before that.

“He’s got a great attitude, a great heart,” Colts coach Jeff Saturday said. “The kid fights, and he made play after play for us.”

His friends never left his mind.

Davis, Jr. Perry. Chandler.

“Even when I was out there today, kind of thinking about them a little bit,” Woods said. “You know, just having that feeling that they’re always with you.”

The way he’s always going to be there for Virginia.

For his friends.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Colts' Jelani Woods opens up on Virginia teams, shooting victims