NFL Draftee Derick Hall on His Mom’s Fight for His Life as a Preemie
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NFL football player Derick Hall, who was drafted to the Seattle Seahawks on Friday, said he owes his success to his mother’s advocacy for his life as a barely viable preemie baby in 2001.
“He was actually born dead,” his mother, Stacy Gooden-Crandle, told AuburnUndercover. “The doctors wanted me to just let nature take its course. We decided we wanted to fight for him.”
Hall, according to the medical professionals at the time, had little chance of surviving after birth, with bleeding in his brain and other issues. He was tiny enough to hold in the palm of her hand for five months, Gooden-Crandle said.
“They said he’d never be able to walk or be able to talk,” she added. “They said he’d just be a vegetable. He’d be 85 percent mentally retarded. He wouldn’t have any quality of life. They said ‘we shouldn’t try to save this baby.'”
Now a 6-foot-3, 240-pounds outside linebacker for his new team, Hall defied the odds after a rough first chapter of life, thanks to the support of his family.
“A young woman being told all this, I was scared,” Gooden-Crandle said. “I didn’t know if I could financially support this kid. I didn’t know if I was prepared for the things I was being told. We just trusted God wholeheartedly, and look what we’ve got now.”
Hall realized his passion for the sport when he started playing flag football at four-years-old. He said he knew he was at a health disadvantage as a little boy, but that provided him with a sense of motivation and toughness that has served him well in his career.
“The earliest thing I remember is being 4 or 5 years old and having an asthma attack,” Derick said. “I was in the hospital for three weeks. Going through all that at a young age, going through breathing machines and treatments and stuff like that, getting through all of that every year at a young age really put me in position to learn how to fight, compete and face adversity.”
Despite often requiring inhalers as an adolescent, Hall soldiered on and grew into a stellar athlete, eventually landing at Auburn University where he played various positions.
“He’s an amazing kid,”Gooden-Crandle told the outlet. “He didn’t let the things he went through as a young man be a handicap. I told him you have to push through it and fight through it. He loved football. I got the coaches inhalers; I kept one in my purse. Everybody had one just in case he needed it. He’s just a fighter. I always encourage him to just keep being him.”
Hall said he’s grateful for his parents and all they’ve done to help him get to this point.
“My mom is my queen,” Derick said. “She is everything to me, how hard she worked raising two kids by herself at first, working two or three jobs. God blessed me with a great stepdad. I refer to him as my father, not my stepdad.”
