�First offensive play for the Flying Dutchmen - (Gio) Carmazzi hands off the ball to Vaughn Sanders, who has a hole - cuts across the 35, now across the 40, has one man to beat, across the 50, now down to the 30, across the 25, beat the man. .TOUCHDOWN! Vaughn Sanders takes it all the way from his own 25-yard line. Flying Dutchmen lead it six to nothing!� Play-by-play announcer for WRHU Vinny Maccuci makes the call.
It�s homecoming in Amherst for the University of Massachusetts. A rivalry between two of the top teams in the A-10 rages on into the second quarter. With the score tied at 14, it�s first and 10 from the 33-yard line as Flying Dutchmen quarterback Gio Carmazzi lines up behind center. It�s a draw play to running back Vaughn Sanders. �Sanders takes the ball across the 35 to the 40, finally taken down at just about the 39 yard line. . .� Maccuci announces.
Color analyzer Jeff Polizotto suddenly cuts in: �There is a flag on the play and Sanders is holding his knee down on the ground. He is injured.�
Sanders was seven yards shy of breaking the All-Time Rushing record for Hofstra University when he got hurt on that clear day in Amherst. With a broken left fibula and torn ligaments in the ankle, he was done for the season.
The injury didn�t just hurt his leg and career at Hofstra; it ended his attempt to make history.
But Sanders was not ready to give up his dream of breaking into the NFL. And like many a college athlete, he has found that his tumultuous struggles to become a professional ball player have called on as much resolve off the field as on.
Vaughn Sanders grew up in Cedarhearst, New York. A three-sport athlete at Lawrence High School, he excelled in football, ran three years of track, and spent two years on the varsity basketball team. In his senior year he was awarded the Thorpe Award, for being the most valuable football player in Nassau County. He was named Most Valuable Player in Long Island Heroes Bowl All-Star Game with 184 rushing yards and two touchdowns on only 19 carries. The highly touted running back was recruited by Syracuse and Michigan State. But, while the bigger schools wanted him to go to junior college for a semester, take his SATs over again and reapply for a scholarship, Sanders didn�t want to wait. �Hofstra stuck with me and gave me a scholarship,� Sanders says.
Sanders came to Hofstra with a chance to make an immediate impact on the football field. In his freshman season he carried the ball an average of eight times a game. In his best game, against Charleston Southern, he recorded 78 yards. Sanders had to learn the playbook faster than most freshmen. �When I got here I was expected to be more than I thought I was capable of doing at the time,� Sanders says. �My freshman year was difficult, but I got through it.�
In his sophomore year Sanders put up solid numbers while splitting time with senior running back Paul Que, until Que went down with an injury. It opened the door for Sanders to start the second half of the season.
Never the shy type, Sanders not only boasted he had the stuff off the field but also proved to everyone what kind of player he was on the field. �He talked the talk, but he also walked the walk,� says Head Coach Joe Gardi.
Junior year turned out to be Sanders� most complete season, rushing for over 1,000 yards, while scoring 15 touchdowns. The confidence in Sanders� play showed up on the field week in and week out. �I just really knew the offense to a tee,� he says. �It was like going through first grade all over again, and that�s where all of my talent came out.�
Come senior year big things were expected from Sanders, and for a while it looked like he would live up to expectations. While splitting time with fellow senior Jimmy Jones, he was well on his way to setting the record for all time rushing yards. On opening day, at home against the University of Connecticut, Sanders had his best game of the season, rushing for 164 yards. After four games the team was undefeated, heading into a big match-up against the defending national champions. Sanders came into the game a mere 84 yards away from breaking the record held by Bill Sanford. �I just wanted to break it, get it over with and move on,� Sanders remembers.
Sanders started things off with a bang on the 74-yard touchdown run. But in the second quarter, fate intervened in the form of All-American linebacker Kole Ayi. When he got hit, Sanders heard a popping noise and pain immediately shot though his ankle and upper leg.
The doctor told him his season would be over. Devastated as he was, Sanders understood the record was just not meant to be. �I shattered my ankle and broke my leg trying to fight for one more yard and if I had to do it again. . .I�d do it again,� he says.
But more was at stake then the record. Sanders was expected to be a late third round draft pick in the NFL coming into his senior season. Because of the injury and his questionable health he was not drafted at all. �Do I regret not breaking the record? No. . .I regret breaking my ankle and hampering my chances of getting drafted. I still got a chance to showcase my talent and do what I love doing,� Sanders says.
After the injury Sanders had problems on campus. While at a party he had a confrontation with Public Safety. Sanders was banned from campus, and was officially charged with disruptive behavior. �I was young, having fun, but I was under a microscope,� Sanders says.
With only a semester of classes left to graduate, Sanders decided that it was time to take a shot at the NFL. �At the time I figured the NFL wasn�t always going to be there, and this opportunity wouldn�t always be there, but I could always go come back and finish school.� He left school to rehabilitate his leg.
In May of 2000 the once highly-touted Sanders walked into the New York Jets mini-camp unsigned. It was a risky move for the running back. Sanders admits his ankle had healed, but mentally he just wasn�t ready to be there. �Those guys taught me about a lot of things besides football,� Sanders says. Jets Running back Curtis Martin singled him out on one of the first days of practice. �I give a lot of credit to Curtis Martin to tell me, �You�re not here to compete to be my No. 2 guy, you�re here to be No. 1.� For him to have that feeling toward me and that belief in me gave me that inspiration to go out there and compete every day. I�ll never forget that moment.�
Sanders played sporadically during the pre-season for the Jets, but was eventually cut on August 26, 2000. A dejected Sanders went back to school to complete what he had missed out on when he was injured: his degree.
Three weeks into the semester his agent called with an opportunity to be on the practice squad for the Oakland Raiders. Reluctantly, Sanders left school yet again to give the NFL a shot. He practiced with the team for eight weeks of the season before the kicker, Sebastian Janikowski, came down with a foot fungus. The Raiders were forced to sign another kicker, which left no room on the payroll for Sanders.
The next stop for the twice-rejected Sanders was with the Miami Dolphins. He was an unsigned free agent again when he walked into the Miami camp. The Dolphins had just drafted Travis Minor in the third round and put a lot of money into their investment. Sanders was forced into a tough situation, never really having a legitimate shot at making the squad. Still, Sanders loved his time in Miami. �I always say you get the three best things in life playing for Miami: playing football, making money, and the women,� he says. �I had the best time of my life in Miami.� The feeling became mutual between Sanders and the Dolphins as they sent Sanders to NFL Europe to work on his skills with the Scottish Claymores.
The night before going overseas, Sanders came back to say goodbye to his friends and girlfriend. But the goodbyes turned into yet another confrontation with Hofstra Public Safety. As Sanders tells the story, he and his girlfriend were saying their goodbyes in a campus parking lot and were �joke fighting� when someone called Public Safety. Before Sanders knew what had hit him, he was jumped and arrested.
Public Safety found the incident a little more serious when they tried to separate the couple. As an article in The Chronicle from March of 2001 reports, �. . .Sanders allegedly made threatening movements towards the officers and forced the officers to subdue him and place in him in restraints, (Ed) Bracht said.� Both Public Safety officers sustained minor injuries in the altercation with Sanders.
No charges were ever filed by police, but Sanders was banned from campus for the second time in his life, this time from both north and south sides. �It was blown out of proportion from what it really was,� Sanders says.
Despite his troubles in Hempstead, Sanders left for Europe the next day. He stayed with the Claymores for one season, battling an injury to his ankle for most of the time. In the five games that he did play, Sanders was the featured running back in the offense. With no assurance that his ankle would heal, the Dolphins released Sanders in November of 2001.
Less than three months later he signed with the San Diego Chargers. In San Diego Sanders finally got a legitimate shot at making an NFL team. A week before the first preseason game in August the starting running back for the Chargers, Ladainian Tomlinson, got injured and remained out for the entire preseason. Sanders began splitting time with Jesse Chatman as the starting running back. He had his best game against the Arizona Cardinals where he rushed eight times for 24 yards. By being used so much and getting solid playing minutes Sanders believed he had the position locked on the team. Then at the end of August Tomlinson came back to the Chargers and Sanders was cut from the team, his hopes dashed once again. �You could be starting one day and cut the next,� says Sanders now of the NFL �I really believe there is no loyalty in this business.�
The moment Sanders was released it changed his outlook on his life. It was finally time to put football aside and come back to college and receive a degree. When Sanders came back to Hofstra he was reminded immediately of the record that he was so close to breaking.
The current Hofstra running back, Trevor Dimmie, was on pace to break the record that Vaughn fell a mere seven yards short of. Dimmie wound up breaking the record against William and Mary University at Homecoming with a nine yard run, passing both Sanders and Bill Sanford on the same run. Dimmie gave some credit so Sanders for helping him to reach his goal. �He�s been a great inspiration, he�s been out here supporting me everyday,� says Dimmie. �For him to come around and show me some things and teach me some things, it�s great.�
Sanders was happy to help. �I don�t want to say I need football,� he says. �Football needs me. That�s where I want to be.�
If everything stays on path for Sanders he is expecting to gradate in May 2003. If the NFL pans out he'll be happy, but if it doesn't he believes that he'll make it in any job that he might have. "Whatever I do, I'm going to give a 110 percent. If I contribute to my job what I do on the football field I'll be successful."
