"I think it's very fitting," Henson said. "I think he's just kind of a microcosm of our team. The way he's been down and he's fought back, he's battled back. This is a special group of kids. They've got a strong belief. They really do. And I'm just privileged to be a part of it."
"Couldn't have been a better guy," L'Damian Washington said. "Fought back. He's relentless. His personality basically reflects and describes this team. Relentless, fighters, competitors and I told him, I said, 'Man, I love you. I'm proud of you.' Great dude." [...]
The run touched off a party that will last all night in Columbia and carry on to Atlanta. As his teammates praised him, as his fans soaked in what his run meant, Missouri's emotional leader slipped quietly out the back door of the Tiger locker room, refusing interview requests to spend the rest of the evening with his son. He left his teammates to do the talking. And talk they did.
"That made me feel good," Markus Golden said. "I'd rather Henry Josey make that big play than me get out there and make a big play."
"I'd rather Henry Josey make that big play than me get out there and make a big play." Think about that statement for a moment.
For all intents and purposes, Missouri's regular season began and ended with Henry Josey.
Remember this?
And this?
We had no idea what awaited Missouri in 2013. All we knew that Henry Josey was back from just about the most catastrophic knee injury one can suffer, and on August 31, that was enough. But both Josey and the Missouri football team had bigger things in mind.
Sports are incredibly frustrating sometimes. You are, as they say, a fan of laundry, and sometimes the people who wear your team's colors turn out to be awful human beings. You're basically asking the people in these uniforms to win games and not embarrass you off the field, and they often do neither. This Missouri team has gone above and beyond in both facets, and the human side of the men on the field last night made an incredible night and season even better. There are too many human interest stories to count on this team. Henry Josey's is at the top of the list. There is nothing in the world more fitting than the fact that Josey's score won the East.