Even Super Bowl champions are overcome with emotion preparing for the Knicks’ first championship parade in 53 years.
Bronx native Willie Colon, who won a Super Bowl on the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 2008 offensive line, is heading to Manhattan on Thursday with a lot on his mind and his heart after seeing Jalen Brunson and Co. fulfill his childhood dreams for his hometown team.
“The Knicks parade is full circle because I was a kid watching the games with my dad, and now I’m a dad being able to watch a Knicks parade with my son,” Colon, 43, said Wednesday on the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard podcast. “It’s an emotional ride. I never thought I would see one. I just never thought I would see one.”
Colon posted his own backyard champagne celebration on Instagram when the Knicks clinched in Game 5 and noted “I’m not the only one that shares these emotions.”
“If you’ve been combing through social media, you’ve seen a lot of middle-aged men have emotional breakdowns over the big win,” he said laughing.
His emotions stem from how deeply his passion for the Knicks is entwined with his relationship with his father, the late Willie Colon, who worked as a manager in the kitchen at St. Luke’s Hospital in New York City and passed away in Feb. 2008.
“I remember growing up in the South Bronx, living in my two-bedroom apartment with my whole family, and my dad was a big sports guy,” Colon said Wednesday. “He loved the Knicks and Giants and Yankees, but the Knicks was his thing. He loved the Knicks. So our time together was sitting at the edge of his bed watching the Knicks.
“He would talk about his life, my family, father-son stuff. He was just pouring life into me,” Colon recalled. “While doing all that, we were still focused on the Knicks.”
Family means everything to Colon. He is hosting his 12th Annual Willie Colon Golf Outing on Monday at Canoe Brook Country Club in Summit, N.J., to continue raising money for the Lupus Research Alliance.
His mother, Jean Davis, who died in July 2020 at age 70, suffered from lupus and battled it throughout Colon’s life. Ever since he entered the NFL, he has tried to give back. The majority of those affected by lupus are minority women.
“When I was able to get drafted to the Pittsburgh Steelers, I wanted to use my platform to raise awareness about the disease and bring to light all the lupus community is trying to do,” he said, “which is to find a cure and find money to fund the necessary research. I just try to do my part and be a flag bearer.”
In preparation for Thursday’s parade, Colon remembered what it was like climbing to the mountain top as an NFL player with the Steelers one year after his father passed.
“Me winning my Super Bowl was surreal in so many ways,” he said of the “daunting” journey that included having to beat the Baltimore Ravens three times just to reach the Super Bowl. “When I got to the Super Bowl I was tanked, mentally, physically, spiritually. I came from Hofstra where we only played 10 games.
“The journey, winning it the way we won it, I was on zero,” he continued. “Turning down the [street] and seeing the confetti was the perfect ending. And I think I partied all the way up until the next season. I had to remind myself this is a whole new season, and I think the rest of the team had to do the same.”
This Knicks championship from Colon’s perspective as a diehard fan is different. It is the culmination of so many memories and disappointments and hopes.
“When you grow up watching those ’90s Knicks with [Patrick] Ewing, [Charles] Oakley, [Anthony] Mason, [John] Starks and [Derek] Harper — and the list goes on — we had some really strong teams, but we always lost,” Colon said. “That was a time when [Michael] Jordan was king. Jordan sent me to bed crying a lot — Jordan and Reggie Miller.”
And even when Jordan wasn’t in the way, the Knicks got close but couldn’t get past the Houston Rockets in 1994 or the San Antonio Spurs in 1999.
“It’s been years and years of disappointment,” Colon said. “In ’99 we had a shot to beat the Spurs and lost that one, and from then on I’ve seen a lot of bad Knicks teams. It was years and years of not having the team I grew up loving being relevant in any regard.
“So now that the Knicks are champions,” he said with a grin, “they’ve healed a lot of my childhood trauma.”
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Go to the Talkin’ Ball with Pat Leonard YouTube channel for Colon’s full interview that includes NFL analysis of the Giants, Jets and Rams, and visit lupusresearch.org to learn about the disease and support the cause to fund research and find a cure.