ARLINGTON, Texas — The checklist is finished, but also glaringly incomplete. Charles Woodson has it all, but he knows there’s an emptiness that forces him to admit, “I need it,” when the discussion turns to what’s at stake Sunday.
“Look back over my career, the accomplishments as an individual, I think I just about have ’em all,” Woodson said yesterday at Media Day inside Cowboys Stadium, which he hopes will be the site of his greatest glory. “For me, to win the ultimate prize, to win a Super Bowl, win that team goal is the most important thing I’m doing right now.”
If Woodson is successful in beating the Steelers in Super Bowl XLV and bringing the Lombardi Trophy back to Green Bay, he will have tied a brilliant bow on a career that has enjoyed great highs, endured stark lows and appears to be concluding in grand style. A case can be made Woodson, after eight seasons with the Raiders and five with the Packers, after seven Pro Bowl selections and 47 interceptions (10 returned for touchdowns), should be a Hall of Famer. That case will be a whole lot stronger if he adds “Super Bowl champion” to his resume.
At 34 years old, after 13 NFL seasons, it is rare a player can survive at cornerback, which certainly is a young man’s position. Although he’s not retiring any time soon, he understands what’s behind is greater than what’s ahead. That is why he says he cherishes this Super Bowl much more than he did when he made it with the Raiders eight years ago.
“I do appreciate it more because I’m closer to the end of my career than the beginning,” Woodson said. “It’s taken a long time to get back here. You never know when you’ll get back, if you’ll get back and if you’ll win it, so every second counts.”
The last time he got here, he barely knew what hit him. There was only one week between the AFC title game and Super Bowl XXXVII in San Diego, and before Woodson knew it, he was at the site and getting buried by the Buccaneers, losing 48-21, a day in January 2003 he’d like to forget.
“It just all went too fast,” he recalled.
Much has gone fast for Woodson. He helped unbeaten Michigan to a national championship in 1997 and remains the only player to win the Heisman Trophy as primarily a defensive player. He beat out a tall quarterback from Tennessee named Peyton Manning. Woodson, the No. 4 overall pick in 1998, was the NFL Defensive Rookie of the Year and was on his way to stardom in Oakland.
By the end of the 2004 season, though, Woodson had run his course in the Bay Area. Injuries caused his performance to decline and when he hit free agency the next year, there was shockingly little interest.
“I had a bad rap,” Woodson said. “I was a little bit of a wild child. I enjoyed myself as a young man. I guess they were tired of it. That is one of the reasons why I was out of Oakland and why nobody wanted to take a shot on me.”
Plenty of teams were called. Most didn’t bother to return the call. He landed in Green Bay for a simple reason: “Green Bay was the only team that was calling my agent,” he said. “The decision was pretty much made for me.”
Woodson had eight interceptions in 2006, his first year with the Packers, and he has firmly reestablished himself. He calls last season (career-high nine interceptions, three touchdowns) his finest, and there was no argument — he was named the NFL’s Defensive Player of the Year.
Age and defensive coordinator Dom Capers have changed Woodson’s game. Tramon Williams and rookie Sam Shields play the outside cornerback spots, allowing Capers to use Woodson in the slot, in blitzes and as a safety. Woodson loves it.
“This is my 13th year, who knows how long I’ll play,” he said, “so you’ve got to get it done. Urgency is a great word.”
paul.schwartz@nypost.com
