Jordan Hamm
Craig Roh is the best of us.
I was stopped in my tracks on Wednesday morning when I was scrolling Instagram and came across one of Craig’s posts.
Typically, his timeline was riddled with tips and tricks for defensive lineman. He was an All-American at Chaparral High School before attending Michigan – setting the consecutive starts record in that historic program – and then he played pro ball for the Carolina Panthers, BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers. During his time on the field, he wanted to mentor younger players. In his post-playing career, he worked hard to build D-Line University as a resource for the next generation of pass-rushers.
But on Wednesday, it was a post authored by his wife Chelsea.
I wanted to let all of his followers know that after an 18-month battle with Stage IV colon cancer, God brought Craig home on Monday, February 26th. Craig was not very public with his battle, as he truly just wanted to focus on bringing the best content and building the best products he could. He laid out a timeline for his business so stay tuned… Many have asked how they can help, I’ve attached our GoFundMe to this post.
Craig had just turned 33 years old.
Craig and I were at Chaparral at the same time. We had a few classes together and played together in a pick-up basketball game or two, but I’m not going to pretend I was in his inner-circle.
But the thing that always stuck with me about Craig was that you didn’t have to be in his inner circle for him to care about you. It didn’t matter if you were the most popular kid on campus (second to Craig) or one of the faces in the crowd, Craig was genuinely interested in how your day was going. He was happy to make a stupid joke, a lot of times at his own expense, to break the ice during a group project. He then would be the one leading the charge on said group project.
That’s the other thing that stood out to me about Craig: No one has encapsulated the term “student-athlete” more than Craig Roh.
I was in Human Physiology and Anatomy with him my senior year. It was far from a senior-itis class to fill up some remaining credits on the transcript. Many of us knew what our next steps would by the time April rolled around. That meant a decent chunk of the class had just ever-so-slightly taken our foot off the gas academically. No one would have faulted Craig for doing so. He had signed with the University of Michigan that February. He could have slept-walked through all of his classes and taken the first flight to Ann Arbor and no one would have had a second thought.
But I remember having a review day before the final. Graduation was less than a week away. Most of us were studying to ensure we didn’t fail and risk not walking at graduation. Craig was in the back of the class with piles of note cards because he wanted to get as high of a grade as possible. He didn’t need to abide by the class’s standards. He needed to because of his standards.
That’s just who he was…the best of us.
You can support Chelsea and their two-year-old son Max through this GoFundMe account.
