INDIAN LAND, S.C. (CAROLINA SPORTS LIVE) -- You’d think it would have been a near-death experience that changed the path of former Panthers player Derwin Gray. However, as it turns out, it was just a run-of-the-mill football play.

“We were playing the Buffalo Bills in Buffalo, and their running back broke through the line,” Gray recalls, then a defensive back with the Carolina Panthers. “I just came up and smashed him. But at the bottom of that pile, I heard a voice say, ‘What are you still doing out here?’”

It was 1998 when the answer started to take shape. Just three games into his tenure with the Panthers, the 5-11 former BYU star blew out his knee. Only 27 years old, he probably could have come back. Except he didn’t want to.

“The desire to play was leaving. So during injured reserv

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