GREELEY, Colo.—Rafael Mendoza carries a long stick with him at night.
He said he won’t be caught unprepared again.
The Northern Colorado punter was attacked from behind last Sept. 11 outside his apartment. It left him with a deep gash in his kicking leg, but he later returned to the team.
“I always carry something … something just to try to defend myself,” Mendoza said Wednesday. “You never know. It could always happen again.”
Mitch Cozad, a former backup punter at Northern Colorado, is currently on trial for the knife attack and faces charges of attempted first-degree murder and second-degree assault. Prosecutors said the stabbing was a bid to get the starting job.
Mendoza addressed the media following a day in which the jury spent more than eight hours deliberating the case. The judge dismissed the jury for the evening without reaching a verdict.
The 22-year-old Mendoza testified he could not see who attacked him.
“I don’t know if it was him,” he said. “If they come back with the guilty verdict, it had to be him. If not, he (the attacker) is still out there and we’ll go from there.”
Being a witness, he didn’t get to hear any of the case. However, he did listen to the closing arguments and was stunned by the facts.
“I was able to find out stuff I never knew before,” Mendoza said. “A lot of it was surprising. A lot of it was shocking.”
Like what?
“Some of the stuff Mitch said to investigators,” Mendoza said. “I can’t say any specifics. It was tough to listen to.”
Mendoza said his right leg is better and that he’s been kicking all summer. The Bears had their first football practice Wednesday night and he was eager to get back on the field. It’s been his safe haven ever since the attack.
“Last season, it was tough for me to sleep, go to school,” Mendoza said. “As soon as I stepped on the football field, my whole mind cleared and I had nothing going on in my mind other than my teammates and playing football.”
Mendoza returned to the team two weeks after the attack, but had to alter his style of kicking because he couldn’t fully extend his leg. He went with more of a rugby approach of just dropping the football and booting it. He averaged 39.9 yards on 56 punts.
“Now we’re going to go back to the normal style of punting,” he said with a grin. “My flexibility is as good as I can get. As far as I can tell, there are none (limitations).”
At practice, held at night under the bright lights of their new practice field, Mendoza trotted onto the field, participated in stretching exercises, and then consistently boomed 50 yard punts.
He did not speak to the media afterward.
“This is where he comes to relax,” coach Scott Downing said, adding the team has moved on. “The other kids don’t talk about it very much. It’s something that’s in their past. They’re young, it happened. It was an unfortunate incident but by the time they got done with all it, it was way last fall.”
As the jury deliberated over the case, Mendoza spent the day hanging out with family and friends. He said it’s still hard to believe the attack happened.
“It’s unreal,” he said. “You never think something like that’s going to happen. I’m glad it happened to me because I was strong enough to fight through it.”
Yet he’s taking no chances of having it happen again. He carries a “big, long stick” at night and he’s moved into a house with a garage so he can park directly in it.
Mendoza was asked if he’s thinking about a book or movie deal about the case.
“Jokingly, people have mentioned it,” he said. “But I want to focus on school and football.”
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Associated Press writer Eric Bolin contributed to this report.
