The Redskins Blog

Ma'ake Kemoeatu Wins Redskins Ed Block Courage Award

Redskins nose tackle Ma’ake Kemoeatu was named the recipient of the team’s 2010 Ed Block Courage Award. A player on each NFL is given this award, which rewards extraordinary courage in the face of adversity. Kemoeatu has rehabilitated a torn Achilles tendon prior to the 2009 season, and didn’t return to practice until this past offseason.

“I missed a whole year of football,” Kemoeatu said. “I tore my Achilles in training camp 2009, had to get it repaired, had surgery, and after the surgery the skin got infected so I had to have another surgery to get a skin graft. And when I first got here, Larry Hess and the trainers got on me quick, and from April all the way ’til training camp we’ve been working on it and rehabbing and making a comeback. It wasn’t normal until probably, maybe the end of preseason I started feeling like I could walk normal again.”

It was an injury that Keamoeatu briefly thought could end his football career. “It did cross my mind,” Kemoeatu said. “I was like, ‘Football could be over for me.’ And being that it was eight years, it could be over. Football’s not forever; it could be over any time.”

Keamoatu was grateful to his teammates for the honor. “That just shows me that they have my back through thick and thin,” he said.

And then, when Kemoeatu was done speaking to the media, Mike Sellers demonstrated for the cameras once again just how big Kemoeatu’s helmet is, this time even using Comcast SportsNet’s Chick Hernandez as a prop:

“It’s like a dome,” Sellers said. “We could practice under this.”

That’s one to add to the Gallery Of Chick Hernandez Hats, I guess.