Michigan 2020 Hall of Honor: Law Recalls a Football Journey to the Summit
10/15/2021 9:00:00 AM | Football, Features
A member of the 1992 national-champion Wolverines, a two-time All-Big Ten first team selection, a first team All-American and a 15-year veteran of the NFL who won three Super Bowls and was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2019, Ty Law will be inducted into the Michigan Athletics Hall of Honor during a Friday, Oct. 22 ceremony as a member of the Class of 2020 along with Sarah Cain (women's gymnastics), Kelli Gannon (field hockey), Jim Paciorek (baseball), Tripp Welborne (football) and Lexi Zimmerman (volleyball).
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Ty Law is the solid-gold link between two eras of University of Michigan football that achieved so very much.
Law was a freshman starting at cornerback in 1992 -- the final season in a string of five consecutive Big Ten championships.
And before becoming a first-round NFL Draft pick of the New England Patriots in 1995 and embarking on a pro career that ended with enshrinement in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Law helped recruit Charles Woodson, who won a Heisman Trophy and a national championship in 1997.
He came to the Wolverines out of Aliquippa, Pa., a rough-and-tumble steel mill town that also produced Hall of Famers Mike Ditka and Tony Dorsett, his uncle and inspiration.
Law laid down the law in the secondary and across the entire field, making 164 tackles, eight interceptions and 19 pass breakups (ranking third on Michigan's career list at that time) while becoming a unanimous All-Big Ten first team selection in 1993 and 1994, when he also was an All-American.
He'll be inducted Oct. 22 into Michigan's Hall of Honor, joining strong safety Tripp Welborne (1989 and 1990 unanimous All-American) as the 10th and 11th football players chosen from teams playing over the last 40 years.
"My college experience was great," Law told MGoBlue.com. "It was a real journey, and I was always willing to compete. I had an unfearful willingness to compete. I didn't win every battle, but I won most of my wars. I set the bar high and shot for the moon."
Law credits Jim Herrmann, then a defensive assistant coach, for convincing him to sign with Michigan as an athlete, and junior cornerback Alfie Burch "for taking me under his wing." Law wasn't pleased to find himself listed ninth on the cornerback depth chart when practices began in 1992, but won his share of the scrimmage battles with All-America receiver Derrick Alexander.
Then the Parade All-American from Aliquippa High did something very rare in those days. He became the first freshman to start more than one game in a season since tailback Jamie Morris in 1983, earning six starts, including the Rose Bowl win over Washington.
"To be there on that stage and play well was special," said Law, who made five tackles against the Huskies in Pasadena.
His signature game was the 28-0 win over Ohio State in 1993, when he made two interceptions and broke up two more, including a deep pass to Buckeyes receiver Joey Galloway, who was limited to three catches for 47 yards.
"I had asked to cover the top receiver all year," Law, then a sophomore, told me for a Detroit Free Press story. "I got that chance against Joey Galloway. Coach (Lloyd) Carr (then defensive coordinator) gave me the assignment and said, 'Don't let him take his helmet off.' Galloway likes to do that after touchdowns. He never got to take his helmet off and I played my best game ever. I felt like taking my helmet off."
Galloway was the eighth overall pick in the first round in 1995, while Law went 23rd overall.
"I always joke now and say I should've sent Joey a Rolex or something," said Law. "He helped me get drafted (that high) ... My proudest moment was actually just getting drafted. I had so much emotion. The dream was to get drafted and setting yourself and your family up for success. Then, the end game, was making the Hall of Fame."
He led the NFL in interceptions twice (nine for New England in 1998 and 10 for the New York Jets in 2005) and ranked 24th in the league with 53 for his career, including six returned for touchdowns. Woodson finished his pro career tied for fifth with 65 interceptions, and would've teamed with Law at Michigan in 1995 had Law not entered the draft after his junior year.
"I recruited Charles (out of Fremont, Ohio)," said Law. "It was supposed to be me and him. I was recruiting him full-time and was his host. We're tight to this day, and he was there at my Hall of Fame enshrinement (Woodson was enshrined this past August with the Class of 2021). That brotherhood has been locked in ever since. We played in Pro Bowls together."
Law scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl XXXVI with a pick-six against St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner.
"That one there is always going to stand out," said Law, who added eight tackles and two pass breakups in that game culminating the 2001 season. "It's that one and the (2003) AFC championship game, but I know I've had better games, it just didn't show up on the stat sheet as much as those."
He intercepted Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning three times in a 24-14 win in that 2003 conference final that sent the Patriots to the Super Bowl, where they beat the Carolina Panthers.
"Because of the stage you could say it's my top game," said Law. "But my goal always was to not give an opponent what they were used to getting: 'You are playing a different guy now.' But to be in the AFC championship against Peyton Manning, one of the greatest of all time, and be able to do what I did, definitely stands out as one of my top three games. But then you can talk about the Super Bowls, and the score in the game that started it all (against the Rams). To choose one is tough."
Law made five Pro Bowls (earning one Pro Bowl MVP honor) in 15 seasons, and said his career reached a new level in 2001, after his first offseason spent conditioning with Bob Kersee ("He pushed me beyond the limits where I could push myself."), the conditioning and speed coaching guru whose wife, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, is an Olympic gold medal sprinter.
"I wasn't the fastest guy," said Law, "but I wasn't the slowest, either. Being out there on that island (in man-to-man coverage), you have to be an individual. But when I got into that little box, that phone booth, I was going to be the one to get out. I looked at everything that way: 'Let's get in the phone booth and fight right here.'
"And it was training my body and mind that was huge. I said, 'You didn't out-work me or out-study me.' I always felt like if the game was on the line, I wanted to be that guy on the spot to have to make a play.
Law played in four Super Bowls and won the last three along with Wolverine quarterback Tom Brady, who had this to say when Law was enshrined in Canton, Ohio, in 2019: "Ty played with a swagger. There was so much confidence he had as a really shut-down corner. To have someone play the way he did for as long as he did for this team was exceptional. That's why he's in the Hall of Fame."
Law said: "Wow, that coming from Tom was special. He wrote a letter, and I had no idea he did, to the voters on the selection committee. I wanted to make it on my own merit, but I really appreciate him stepping out like that. That's the GOAT; he doesn't have to do a damn thing. Bill Belichick (the Patriots' secondary coach before becoming head coach) wrote a letter, too. So, that was pretty cool.
"Anybody who said they expected Tom to do what he did coming in (as a sixth-round pick), that's a damn lie. But I did see something in him from a competitive standpoint and a hunger standpoint. He wanted it. He started one game when (Drew Bledsoe) was hurt, and told me, 'I ain't giving it back.' I thought, 'Yeah, that's the attitude.' Now, at the same time, Drew was making $103 million. But Tom wasn't kidding. Even when we tore him up in those early practices, he'd come back at us.
"I sold Tom my house when I signed my first big contract because he wasn't making anything. Now, I can probably fit my whole house into his kitchen! He earned every bit of what he has because he has a work ethic like no other."
Law laughed heartily at that thought.
His NFL Hall of Fame bio reads: "As one of the most dynamic cornerbacks to ever play the game, Law dominated the league for 15 seasons."
The Law family: Back row - daughter Taija, Ty, son Ty Jr. Front (clockwise, from left) - son Dallas, daughters Phoenix and Sydney.
Law's half-hour induction speech in Canton was memorable. He left a rose on two seats at the ceremony for his grandparents, Ida and Ray Law, who had passed away. Tears streamed down his cheeks as he spoke.
"He was my everything," Law told me. "I definitely wouldn't be sitting here today if not for my grandfather. My mom (Diane Law) had me when she was 16 and my grandparents took me on as legal guardians. My parents (father Larry Jeter) are great now, but at the time, it was tough. The drug epidemic ran through there once the steel mills closed, and people were looking for jobs. I could've easily gone the other way, but my grandfather helped keep me grounded.
"And I had a dream, and I was going to chase that. Starting in high school, I spent the summers in Dallas with Tony Dorsett and my cousin, Anthony Dorsett (Jr., who spent eight seasons as an NFL safety), and I saw something different. I said, this is what I want, and Tony was a major motivator for me. I wanted to earn a living at football, a game I love."
Tony attended when Ty was presented his Hall of Fame bust and gold jacket.
"It was surreal," said Law. "When I was a rookie, during one of my first interviews, I was asked what my goal was. I said, 'To be immortalized in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.' To be able to achieve that and be on the same team now as Tony. He knew what my work ethic was, what my dream was. I used to stare at his Heisman Trophy and Hall of Fame bust all the time. I said, 'I'm going to get me one of these!' I wasn't going to let anything -- the streets and the drugs -- stand in my way. And I did not want to disrespect my grandfather's name."
Law has five children -- Taija, Ty Jr. (TyTy), Dallas, Phoenix and Sydney -- and splits time between residences in Lincoln, R.I., and Plantation, Fla. He sold the majority of his interest in Launch Trampoline Parks (which he founded) and Airtime Trampoline, and now is an equity partner in V-One Vodka, which Patriots owner Robert Kraft now offers for games at Gillette Stadium.
Law made the Hall of Fame and has taken care of his entire family, including his parents, just as he dreamed of doing as a young boy.
"I gave my Hall of Fame bust to my mom and she has all my stuff," said Law.
Law took on every challenge in life just like one-on-one pass coverage. His mental toughness and dedication to being the best made for quite a journey -- from Aliquippa to Ann Arbor, from Foxboro, Massachusetts to Canton.
