Vietnam Vet From Lauderdale Lives to See Son in the NFL

Cletis Mays hasn't been quite the same since he shipped off to Vietnam. The adventure left him with some memories he won't revisit, and it cost him his legs. But Mays, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, survived. He then had a son. And now Corey Mays is a linebacker for...

By Thomas Francis

August 17, 2009

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Cletis Mays hasn't been quite the same since he shipped off to Vietnam. The adventure left him with some memories he won't revisit, and it cost him his legs. But Mays, who lives in Fort Lauderdale, survived. He then had a son. And now Corey Mays is a linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs.

Father and son were the subject of a recent feature article in Kansas City Star. With the help of his three-wheeled scooter, Cletis Mays is watching his son at Chiefs training camp in River Falls, Wisconsin.

Corey Mays, who's 25, has faced his own adversity -- though it pales by comparison. He spent four years on the bench at Notre Dame before finally seeing the field in his fifth, only to be cut by the New England Patriots as a pro. He's only just now finding a home on the Chiefs defense. And for all the misfortune that Cletis Mays has known, he's sitting pretty now: It so happens that he's got a job with US Airways that -- along with his hand scooter -- enables him to follow his son's football games around the country.

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