Pats linebacker Rosevelt Colvin is back to the Super Bowl this season, and this time he'll be playing, not wondering if he'll ever play again.

09:02 AM EST on Friday, January 28, 2005

BY SHALISE MANZA YOUNG
Journal Sports Writer

FOXBORO -- It had been a heck of a year for Rosevelt Colvin in 2003.

Journal photo / Bill Murphy

The Patriots' Roosevelt Colvin, with pictures of his family in locker behind him, talks to reporters before practice yesterday at Gillette Stadium.

His free-agent contract would pay him north of $20 million over six years, allowing him to take care of his parents and growing family -- which had just added its fifth member. And the Patriots' money allowed him for the first time to buy a house.

It had been a heck of a year for Rosevelt Colvin. Until Sept. 14, that is.

That day, he felt a loss so great he compared it to death.

Football was taken away from him.

Colvin, the former Chicago Bears linebacker Bill Belichick coveted and brought to New England before last season, broke his hip in the Patriots' second game of the year, against Philadelphia.

Football, the thing he had worked so hard for, from his days as an All-State player in Indianapolis to an All-Big Ten career at Purdue, to his stellar 2001 and '02 seasons with the Bears when he totaled 21 sacks, was snatched from under his feet like a cut block from a dirty opponent.

"Everything that was going on in my life was pretty much good," Colvin said yesterday. "I felt like I was, not necessarily that I was The Man, but I felt good about who I was, and (the injury) was something that kind of humbled me."

At first, it looked like Colvin might never play again. His career with the Patriots started and ended in less than two games.

But the doctors said with surgery, he'd likely be able to suit up again.

What they didn't say was how hard that would be to achieve.

That he'd have to relearn how to walk properly. That he wouldn't be able to play with his three kids for a while. That he'd be bedridden for more than two months. That when he did get out of bed, he'd have to wear a brace so his hip didn't come out of place.

That even more than a year after the injury, he'd still feel pain.

Colvin, all 6-foot-3, 250 pounds of him, leaned on his faith. He "got saved" during his days with Chicago. His parents and his wife Tiffany, whom he calls "the greatest person I've ever met", aided him greatly during his recovery and rehabilitation.

One of the positives during that time was that Colvin spent a lot of time with Xavier, now 8, Nijah, 5, and Raven, born less than three months before the injury.

And the old soul -- he talks about the "slower times," the 1950s, '60s and '70s, likes old-school music and recently purchased a 1964 Lincoln Continental -- learned more about himself and his spirituality.

Most of all, he learned that football isn't the end-all and be-all.

"It provided me the opportunity to see things differently. To see life differently," Colvin said of his forced sabbatical. "Football is not everything and it's not going to always be there and you have to prepare yourself for things that may happen or may not happen.

"I just try to take a one-day-at-a-time attitude, and what's there I try to take advantage of it, if not I move on."

He has moved on so far past the injury that he'll be playing in the Super Bowl in nine days, not standing on the sidelines like he was last year.

"I think (Super Bowl week) will be a lot easier this time to take it all in because there is so much other stuff that you are involved in, like practice and meetings, so it will be more like a game to me," Colvin said. "Last year I was sitting back and watching and it seemed like to took forever for the game to get here."

Because of his injury, Colvin was placed on injured reserve a little more than a week after breaking his hip, meaning he would not have been able to play in the Super Bowl even if he had been healthy.

So he understands the Eagles' Terrell Owens' desire to want to be on the field for the biggest game of his career.

Still, it seems he doesn't understand Owens' need to make a big deal of things. It's why Colvin stayed away from the press last year.

"You know, it wasn't about me. It was about these guys that were going out on a weekly basis and winning games, and for me to get in front of the TV cameras and talk and speak and have big articles about me, I felt that was wrong. That's my opinion," he said. "I just wanted to step back into the background and try to prepare myself for what I had ahead of me, which was trying to get back into the league."

Colvin's first game back, New England's first preseason game this year, was against Philadelphia. The last game of the season will be against Philadelphia. The irony of it all is not lost on him.

"It's crazy. I'm tickled just to be back, I was tickled just to play at the beginning of the year. When I lined up against them in the preseason, I was just tickled to be out there," he said. "Now I'm just tickled to be in the playoffs and in the Super Bowl."

And there's one more thing that has him tickled -- he revealed yesterday that he and Tiffany are expecting again. Their fourth child is due in August.