Titans' Willard helps rescue family from burning car
Tennessee Titans rookie Jonathan "Tig" Willard was hailed Tuesday for his big play off the field -- saving a family and its dog from a burning car.
Williard, a linebacker who played at Clemson and signed with the Titans as an undrafted free agent, was traveling from South Carolina to Nashville for the start of training camp on Tuesday when he came upon the vehicle in trouble on Interstate 40.
Pulling alongside the car, he alerted the female driver who had three children and a dog inside, that it was on fire.
"I saw this car in front of me, and it had all kinds of black smoke coming out of it," Willard told TigerNet.com. "I tried to speed up and get up next to the car to let them know the car was on fire."
"When she pulled over, the car was really on fire at that point. The driver, she acted like she was in some kind of daze or something. She told me that she didn't stop because she didn't think it was her car that was on fire. Another guy stopped, and we managed to get the kids and the dog out and get them to safety, and then I finally got the woman out."
The car went up in flames and black smoke billowed from it after the family and the dog were safely outside.
"I was thinking that I was just doing what everybody else would do, but there were cars just going past us and no one else was stopping, so I don't know if that is what would happen or not," Williard told TigerNet.com, which covers Clemson sports.
