Finding Charles Rogers

Charles Rogers walked into the Michigan State University football building for the first time in 15 years on a cold cloudy day last November.

He'd been reluctant to return to the campus where he’d been a star, worried that the disappointments were all anybody would remember.

Without prompting from former MSU teammate TJ Duckett, he might not have come.

“I was facing my fear, bro,” Rogers said, skinny now, emphatically throwing his tattooed arms into the air.

But inside the Skandalaris Football Center that day, he and Duckett found themselves in front of a pillar encased in glass. Rogers' photo was inside along with a replica of the 2002 Biletnikoff Trophy, given to the nation’s top wide receiver.

Two of his former coaches, Mark Dantonio and Ken Mannie, were in the building. Mannie, the Spartans strength coach, greeted him with a hug.

“It was a beautiful thing,” Rogers said, wiping a tear off his left cheek. “It took so much off my shoulders, man. The joy I felt to see everybody, and no one throwing judgment on you was like I never left. I was just touched. I was in tears, man. I was really crying. Just the shit I have been through, I didn’t know how they would respond to me.”

“They said, 'MSU is your home. You are always welcome.'”

That was the moment Rogers realized he wasn’t alone, Duckett said.

Robert J Sakimano wrote:holy hell.. cancer and liver disease? Was awaiting a transplant?

Former Saginaw High and Michigan State star Charles Rogers died Monday from liver failure, according to his former Saginaw High coaches.

“I called his mom at the hospital over the weekend and got a chance to talk to Charles,” former Saginaw High football coach Don Durrett said. “He said he was going to the Lord.”

According to Durrett and former Saginaw High basketball coach and athletic director Marshall Thomas, Rogers also battled cancer.

MLive article

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:Craziest catch I've ever witnessed was that touchdown he caught vs ND in the back of the end zone. I thought Smoker was throwing the ball away. Of course we blew the game on the next ND drive, but in that moment I was amazed.

Sad.

DWags wrote:Good read.

Charles and Stu.

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