by Jeremy Hawkes, Sun Devil Media Relations
His teammates used to refer to him as "The Professor". He prefers to think of himself as a "lifetime student".
But most people who cross his path these days simply know him as "Dr. Richardson".
The quest for knowledge has always been the driving force in Damien Richardson's life. It started even before his successful three-year tenure as Arizona State's starting strong safety from 1995-97.
Football was never his end game. But football was the cornerstone on which he would build the foundation that would propel him through a Harvard education, medical school and into his current position as an orthopedic surgeon at the Newport Orthopedic Institute in Newport Beach, Calif.
"I'm always learning. I'm always interested in figuring things out," Richardson says.
His passion for learning started with his upbringing and he credits his parents for instilling that desire in him to constantly better himself through education. It was ironic, then, that that very same desire to pursue higher education deterred several Pac-10 programs from recruiting him to play college football.
"A lot of institutions and athletic programs that were recruiting me weren't very enthusiastic about the fact that I was serious about pursuing my academics as an engineer," he said. "I think they thought it might have taken away from my time on the field and my dedication to the team."
But Arizona State embraced that passion from the jump. Bruce Snyder and his staff went out of the way to introduce Richardson to professors in the engineering school and the athletic department's academic personnel in order to let him know he would be supported in his academic endeavors at ASU.
While his initial intrigue came in technology and engineering, Richardson noted that he needed more from life than the day-in and day-out of solving problems on paper. He wanted human interaction and the ability to make a difference in someone's life.
"I just had a passion for helping people," Richardson said. "I wanted to put all the tools I was given to use from a personality and educational standpoint and the ability to reach out to humans at different levels. Medicine gives you an opportunity to do that."
As a result, Richardson shifted his focus toward bioengineering during his sophomore year with his eye on being able to apply his love for technology and his desire to impact people's daily lives and interact with individuals in a way that was intimate and personal.
"It requires being almost a jack-of-all-trades to be a doctor," he said. "I'm not good at just one thing. I have a passion for everything."
But his desire to pursue a medical career coincided with his being named the Sun Devils' starting strong safety in the second game of the 1995 campaign – starting a streak of 33 consecutive games as the team's starter to end his career.
The football honors came with that streak. A Pac-10 champion and an appearance in the 1996 Rose Bowl. A Second Team All-Pac-10 pick as a senior. A spot of the Thorpe Award watch list.
But the academic honors were just as prevalent. A three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection. The Woody Hayes National Scholar-Athlete Award. National Football Foundation Hall Scholar-Athlete nominee.
Despite the rigors that came with being a starter for a prominent Division I football program, Richardson never let it hinder his performance in the classroom.
And as he took the field for the final time as a Sun Devil in the 1997 Sun Bowl, his mind was already on that "next step" in his career. And that next step didn't necessarily include a spot on a professional football team.
"I probably came to ASU as one of the least recruited guys in that class," Richardson said. "I never saw myself as strictly a football player. I always had my mind on a life outside of football because I never really thought I was that good to make it to the pros."
Richardson made three tackles in that final game, bringing his career total to 212. In his mind, that very well could have been the end of his football career.
"I was loving what I was doing and I felt fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to play and start when I did and I think I made good of that opportunity," he said. "But I think medicine just really spoke to me."
But he kept following that football path and the next thing he knew, he was invited to the 1998 NFL Combine. Once there, his shuttle times were elite. He had solid measurables. And on April 19 of that year, he heard his name called in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers with the 165th overall pick.
Medical school was going to have to wait. Damien Richardson was going to play in the NFL.
"Most guys probably have their eyes set on playing in the pros from the jump," he said. "I kind of just fell into it just doing what made me happiest."
Richardson claims he barely made the team his first season but ended up as the team's starting safety for seven games that year as the Panthers labored to a 4-12 campaign. While he knew it was a solid year for a rookie, he also knew in the back of his mind he was going to have to continue to plan for the next step in his career.
He remained a member of the Panther two-deep and an exceptional member of the special teams unit for his first five seasons in Charlotte, each year taking him another year away from continuing his education. His time with the team included a conference championship and a trip to Super Bowl XXXVIII. But he never let the medical field leave his sights.
In the offseason, he would do volunteer work at hospitals. The Carolina team doctors would set up shadowing experiences in emergency rooms and research laboratories. He refused to allow his academic acumen to dilapidate because he knew there would come a time when football would come to an end.
Unfortunately, a pair of season-ending injuries accelerated that timeline and all of that planning toward a next step would finally be coming to fruition. But leaving the sport you have dedicated your life to is not easy, even for someone like Richardson who had prepared rigorously for that day.
"You play football for so long and you're so passionate and it's so ingrained in you. There's the physical, emotional and social side of it," he said. "You become addicted to the locker room and the comradery and it was hard to let that go."
Richardson notes that everyone has their own timing when it comes to leaving that life behind. It's an emotional roller coaster out of high school, college or the pros.
"The longer you're in it and the deeper you go, I think the more of you that is touched by the game," he said. "It would have been an easy switch to go into coaching, but I felt like I had to make that transition into the next part of my life."
Richardson left the NFL after the 2005 season and got his bearings before applying and being accepted into the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. As if that weren't impressive enough, Richardson took a year off from medical school to attend Harvard University and earn his Master's in Public Health in quantitative methods from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2011.
One year later, he earned his Doctor of Medicine in 2012 from UC San Francisco. The "Professor" had officially become the "Doctor".
Richardson returned to Arizona to begin his residency at Banner – University Medical Center in Phoenix. After completing that in June of 2018, he spent a year as a Foot and Ankle Fellow ast Massachusetts General Hospital before taking his current position as a Foot and Ankle specialist at the Newport Orthopedic Institute.
While medicine has become his career, Richardson credits his roots in football for making him a better doctor.
"It's not easy (making the transition to medicine) because you can't replicate that sense of loyalty you get with playing with someone for four years or having a teammate you can count on," he said. "That's what's special about football and something I think we should miss but also something we can take with us and be able to forge those times of relationships and that kind of community in the workplace."
Being away from the game has also allowed Richardson to take an introspective look at his time at Arizona State. After all, he is always learning - even if it's about himself. A fact reflected when he looks back at taking the field for that final hurrah alongside Pat Tillman and company.
"In hindsight, it reminds you of how immature you were and how as young men you kind of took those things for granted. I don't really think I grasped it at the time. You're so focused on that game that it's not until you step away that you look back and realize that it was everything that led up to the game that made that time so special," he said. "It just evokes a lot of emotion and happiness when I think about Camp Tontozona and what you thought was a struggle then and now you realize those were the good times."
His teammates used to refer to him as "The Professor". He prefers to think of himself as a "lifetime student".
But most people who cross his path these days simply know him as "Dr. Richardson".
The quest for knowledge has always been the driving force in Damien Richardson's life. It started even before his successful three-year tenure as Arizona State's starting strong safety from 1995-97.
Football was never his end game. But football was the cornerstone on which he would build the foundation that would propel him through a Harvard education, medical school and into his current position as an orthopedic surgeon at the Newport Orthopedic Institute in Newport Beach, Calif.
"I'm always learning. I'm always interested in figuring things out," Richardson says.
His passion for learning started with his upbringing and he credits his parents for instilling that desire in him to constantly better himself through education. It was ironic, then, that that very same desire to pursue higher education deterred several Pac-10 programs from recruiting him to play college football.
"A lot of institutions and athletic programs that were recruiting me weren't very enthusiastic about the fact that I was serious about pursuing my academics as an engineer," he said. "I think they thought it might have taken away from my time on the field and my dedication to the team."
But Arizona State embraced that passion from the jump. Bruce Snyder and his staff went out of the way to introduce Richardson to professors in the engineering school and the athletic department's academic personnel in order to let him know he would be supported in his academic endeavors at ASU.
While his initial intrigue came in technology and engineering, Richardson noted that he needed more from life than the day-in and day-out of solving problems on paper. He wanted human interaction and the ability to make a difference in someone's life.
"I just had a passion for helping people," Richardson said. "I wanted to put all the tools I was given to use from a personality and educational standpoint and the ability to reach out to humans at different levels. Medicine gives you an opportunity to do that."
As a result, Richardson shifted his focus toward bioengineering during his sophomore year with his eye on being able to apply his love for technology and his desire to impact people's daily lives and interact with individuals in a way that was intimate and personal.
"It requires being almost a jack-of-all-trades to be a doctor," he said. "I'm not good at just one thing. I have a passion for everything."
But his desire to pursue a medical career coincided with his being named the Sun Devils' starting strong safety in the second game of the 1995 campaign – starting a streak of 33 consecutive games as the team's starter to end his career.
The football honors came with that streak. A Pac-10 champion and an appearance in the 1996 Rose Bowl. A Second Team All-Pac-10 pick as a senior. A spot of the Thorpe Award watch list.
But the academic honors were just as prevalent. A three-time Pac-10 All-Academic selection. The Woody Hayes National Scholar-Athlete Award. National Football Foundation Hall Scholar-Athlete nominee.
Despite the rigors that came with being a starter for a prominent Division I football program, Richardson never let it hinder his performance in the classroom.
And as he took the field for the final time as a Sun Devil in the 1997 Sun Bowl, his mind was already on that "next step" in his career. And that next step didn't necessarily include a spot on a professional football team.
"I probably came to ASU as one of the least recruited guys in that class," Richardson said. "I never saw myself as strictly a football player. I always had my mind on a life outside of football because I never really thought I was that good to make it to the pros."
Richardson made three tackles in that final game, bringing his career total to 212. In his mind, that very well could have been the end of his football career.
"I was loving what I was doing and I felt fortunate and blessed to have the opportunity to play and start when I did and I think I made good of that opportunity," he said. "But I think medicine just really spoke to me."
But he kept following that football path and the next thing he knew, he was invited to the 1998 NFL Combine. Once there, his shuttle times were elite. He had solid measurables. And on April 19 of that year, he heard his name called in the sixth round of the NFL Draft by the Carolina Panthers with the 165th overall pick.
Medical school was going to have to wait. Damien Richardson was going to play in the NFL.
"Most guys probably have their eyes set on playing in the pros from the jump," he said. "I kind of just fell into it just doing what made me happiest."
Richardson claims he barely made the team his first season but ended up as the team's starting safety for seven games that year as the Panthers labored to a 4-12 campaign. While he knew it was a solid year for a rookie, he also knew in the back of his mind he was going to have to continue to plan for the next step in his career.
He remained a member of the Panther two-deep and an exceptional member of the special teams unit for his first five seasons in Charlotte, each year taking him another year away from continuing his education. His time with the team included a conference championship and a trip to Super Bowl XXXVIII. But he never let the medical field leave his sights.
In the offseason, he would do volunteer work at hospitals. The Carolina team doctors would set up shadowing experiences in emergency rooms and research laboratories. He refused to allow his academic acumen to dilapidate because he knew there would come a time when football would come to an end.
Unfortunately, a pair of season-ending injuries accelerated that timeline and all of that planning toward a next step would finally be coming to fruition. But leaving the sport you have dedicated your life to is not easy, even for someone like Richardson who had prepared rigorously for that day.
"You play football for so long and you're so passionate and it's so ingrained in you. There's the physical, emotional and social side of it," he said. "You become addicted to the locker room and the comradery and it was hard to let that go."
Richardson notes that everyone has their own timing when it comes to leaving that life behind. It's an emotional roller coaster out of high school, college or the pros.
"The longer you're in it and the deeper you go, I think the more of you that is touched by the game," he said. "It would have been an easy switch to go into coaching, but I felt like I had to make that transition into the next part of my life."
Richardson left the NFL after the 2005 season and got his bearings before applying and being accepted into the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. As if that weren't impressive enough, Richardson took a year off from medical school to attend Harvard University and earn his Master's in Public Health in quantitative methods from the T.H. Chan School of Public Health in 2011.
One year later, he earned his Doctor of Medicine in 2012 from UC San Francisco. The "Professor" had officially become the "Doctor".
Richardson returned to Arizona to begin his residency at Banner – University Medical Center in Phoenix. After completing that in June of 2018, he spent a year as a Foot and Ankle Fellow ast Massachusetts General Hospital before taking his current position as a Foot and Ankle specialist at the Newport Orthopedic Institute.
While medicine has become his career, Richardson credits his roots in football for making him a better doctor.
"It's not easy (making the transition to medicine) because you can't replicate that sense of loyalty you get with playing with someone for four years or having a teammate you can count on," he said. "That's what's special about football and something I think we should miss but also something we can take with us and be able to forge those times of relationships and that kind of community in the workplace."
Being away from the game has also allowed Richardson to take an introspective look at his time at Arizona State. After all, he is always learning - even if it's about himself. A fact reflected when he looks back at taking the field for that final hurrah alongside Pat Tillman and company.
"In hindsight, it reminds you of how immature you were and how as young men you kind of took those things for granted. I don't really think I grasped it at the time. You're so focused on that game that it's not until you step away that you look back and realize that it was everything that led up to the game that made that time so special," he said. "It just evokes a lot of emotion and happiness when I think about Camp Tontozona and what you thought was a struggle then and now you realize those were the good times."