Danny Woodhead at Chadron State (Photo Courtesy: NCAADII/Twitter)
Four months after retiring from the NFL, Danny Woodhead is headed to the Hall of Fame.
The Nebraska Football Hall of Fame, that is.
As Evan Bland reported for the Omaha World-Herald, the former running back is among six players who will be inducted for representing Nebraska on the gridiron. Woodhead, of course, never played for the Huskers, but he was a two-time Harlon Hill Trophy winner for the state’s Division-II Chadron State before a 10-year NFL career.
“As celebrated as any Nebraska athlete,” Bland noted, Woodhead went undrafted entering the pros despite winning “Division II’s version of the Heisman.” But he lasted another decade as a change-of-pace back for the New York Jets, New England Patriots, San Diego Chargers and Baltimore Ravens, totaling 32 touchdowns, 300 catches and almost 5,000 yards from scrimmage during his 10 years in the league.
Woodhead is set to be honored with a dinner on the Nebraska campus Sept. 14, per Bland, and will also be introduced before the Huskers’ game against Troy the following day.
Upon retiring this offseason, the 5-foot-8, 196-pound back used his platform to proclaim his Christian faith, saying, “God had crazy plans for a small little kid from North Platte” and that “without Him, my career wouldn’t have been possible.”
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Annabelle Hasselbeck (left) and Brady Russell (right). (Photo by Sports Spectrum)
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Charles Tillman in 2012. (AP Photo/Stephen Morton)
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Falcons players and their spouses — including Bradley Pinion (left) and Kaden Elliss (right) — walk through the Dominican Republic. (Photo courtesy of Compassion)
Many professional athletes are involved in some capacity with Compassion International and have served with the nonprofit in foreign countries. But until the Atlanta Falcons took a large contingent to the Dominican Republic in March, no professional sports organization had traveled as a group in partnership with Compassion.
Falcons president Greg Beadles, head coach Raheem Morris, seven players, plus staff and spouses went on the trip with Compassion, which partners with local churches to help release children from poverty. The group spent four days in the country meeting with church partners, participating in organized activities with the children, like a baseball game and football drills, and visited the homes of mothers and children facing struggles.
“One of my biggest takeaways from the trip was just the guys that went on it and seeing their hearts for Christ and seeing them outside of the football building and in a situation that can sometimes be a little uncomfortable, because of the level of poverty that you’re seeing,” Falcons punter Bradley Pinion, who spearheaded the trip with his wife Kaeleigh, told Sports Spectrum. “But then, seeing how my teammates just opened up and the joy that came on their face, and just seeing them serve and serving alongside them to the neediest of families in the Dominican Republic, it’s just something that I’ll never forget.”
The @AtlantaFalcons are making a difference beyond the football field! They recently visited the DR to see firsthand how Compassion is helping children escape poverty.
"The lives of these kids are being changed, and we've been changed too," said Bradley Pinion, punter for the… pic.twitter.com/0M2KMrZamx
— Compassion International (@compassion) April 7, 2025
Pinion has been serving with Compassion for many years. In 2023, he and Kaeleigh traveled to Tanzania to visit survival centers they helped fund, which provide critical prenatal care and access to food, clean water and medicine to mothers and babies.
This experience led to him launching “Punts for Purpose” later that year, for which he partnered with other punters around the NFL to donate $1,000 to Compassion for every punt that landed inside the 20-yard line, in support of 500 child survival centers.
When envisioning this trip to the Dominican Republic, he felt compelled to invite his teammates and other members of the organization to experience what Compassion is doing. However, he told Sports Spectrum, he was admittedly a little nervous to ask Beadles about the team partnering with Compassion, but he’s ultimately glad he did.
“It was just incredible to see, honestly, God in all of it and how it, from one simple [act of] stepping out in faith and being undaunted, led to me seeing teammates in a different light, and seeing different people within our organization in a different light, and our head coach in a different light, and our president in a different light,” Pinion said. “God has used that to draw people not only closer to Him, but also draw them to Compassion’s mission and the work that Compassion does.”
“We’ve never done anything like this before and I’m so grateful we had this opportunity,” Beadles said in a team press release. “We are a values-driven organization both on and off the field, and we’ve always wanted to be a positive, impactful force for good in communities.”
Morris echoed a similar sentiment.
“It’s what we preach every day,” he said. “When you get a chance to go live it, it means everything.”
Compassion President and CEO Jimmy Mellado commended the Falcons for their willingness to serve as a team. He said the Falcons organization is “dedicated to excellence and sportsmanship on the field,” but it went a step further because these efforts off the field were “lifesaving.”
“You can tell when a team has a culture: when they’re unified, when they’re powerful,” Mellado said in a video recap. “There are some teams that have the best athletes in the world, but they don’t ever reach their potential. But when you put ability plus culture plus that glue that puts you together, now that team is unstoppable.”
According to Compassion, 49% of households in the Dominican Republic live on less than $3.40 a day. Children in these communities are often exposed to “serious consequences of poverty,” including crime and gang violence, drug activity, human trafficking and other forms of exploitation.
Through its partnership with 234 church partners in the Dominican Republic, Compassion serves more than 62,000 children in its fight against poverty and its side effects.
“It’s what we are passionate about,” Pinion told Compassion. “We just want to bring other people along because we see the impact Compassion’s having. We want other people to see it, support it and give that same fire that we have.”
