Pro Football Hall of Famer Rod Woodson shared a harrowing childhood story revealing that the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) tried to burn down his family’s home in Fort Wayne, Indiana, when he was 11 years old.
During a recent appearance on Outkick’s “The Craig Carton Show” Woodson recalled waking up in the wee hours of the morning to see flickering flames outside the window of the family’s two-bedroom home. Attackers had doused the exterior with gasoline. Born to a Black father and white mother in Fort Wayne, Indiana Woodson says the KKK doused the house in gasoline in an attempt to either kill them burn down their home and force them out of the neighborhood.
Woodson Opens Up On Near Tragedy
“I woke up, it was like 2:00 in the morning. I look up and we only had a two-bedroom house. So my mom and dad bedroom was right here. Our bed, all three boys stayed in the other side of the other bedroom. I wake up, I look and I see this flickering, these lights outside of the back of our window and I’m like, ‘What the heck?’”
“And I looked and our house is on fire, like right below our window.”
“We get a letter a week later from the KKK saying, ‘If you guys don’t get your mixed race butts out of this area, it’s going to happen again.’ And so, it was the KKK,” Woodson said.
“We stayed in the same house, you know, for all my childhood until I got to high school and then we moved out a little bit further out. “My dad used to just say, ‘You are who you are. You’re your best of both worlds. Everybody’s gonna ask you to choose, What are you? You black? Why? What are you? What are you?'” Woodson said.
“And they still ask that question. What are you? What? I’m like, listen, I am who I am.”
Woodson Says Family Dogs Saved Their Lives
Family dogs began barking, causing the attackers to scatter briefly. When the attackers returned, some of the gasoline had already partially dried, which prevented the house from immediately erupting into total flames and allowed the family to escape safely. The local fire department responded and investigated.
Woodson shared that his family faced hostility and harassment from multiple sides—including the KKK and the Black Panthers—because they were biracial. Despite the danger, Woodson in his comments shared his family stayed in that home until he reached high school.
Woodson Becomes All-American And Hall of Famer
Rod Woodson was a dominant, do-it-all athletic phenom at Purdue University, earning consensus All-American honors and setting multiple program records despite playing on struggling teams. Woodson, was drafted in the first round of the 1987 NFL Draft (10th overall) by the Pittsburgh Steelers.
In his illustrious 18-year career, Woodson played in 238 games, recording 1,158 tackles, 13.5 sacks and 71 interceptions. He returned 12 of those interceptions for touchdowns, an NFL record. He won the Super Bowl with the Baltimore Ravens following the 2000 season.
Woodson, is widely considered as one of the most complete cornerbacks to ever play the game because of his elite playmaking, physicality and tackling, unmatched versatility and world-class athleticism.