UK football’s Willie Rodriguez finds strength in sister’s Rett syndrome battle
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Willie Rodriguez draws strength from sister Gabby's lifelong battle with Rett syndrome.
- Gabby's rare neurological condition shaped Rodriguez's perspective on adversity.
- Rodriguez balances SEC football commitments with deep family responsibilities.
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Even when he was on the football field during games as a star player at Covington Catholic High School, Willie Rodriguez always knew when something had excited his younger sister, Gabby: He would hear her distinctive scream from the stands.
For most of his life, hearing his sister’s cries has both inspired and saddened Rodriguez.
A starting Kentucky Wildcats tight end as a sophomore, the 6-foot-4, 252-pound Rodriguez is among the physically blessed. “Just very athletic for that size of body,” Covington Catholic football coach Eddie Eviston said. “For such a big body, he’s got some (fast) twitch to him.”
Gabby Rodriguez has drawn a tougher lot in life.
As a toddler, Gabby was diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder known as Rett syndrome. A malady that primarily afflicts girls, Rett syndrome is caused by genetic mutations that distort brain development.
“Symptoms can vary depending on the child,” said Jody Rodriguez, Willie and Gabby’s mother. “But I always describe (Rett syndrome) to people as having severe autism with kind of like a cerebral palsy.”
Now 18, Gabby is nonverbal, lacks purposeful hand movement and even her family is not entirely sure what she does and does not comprehend.
For Willie Rodriguez, 19, Gabby serves as more than an inspiration to make the most of his own blessings. When he comes up against a sports frustration — like Kentucky’s recent 30-23 home loss to Mississippi — he gains perspective by thinking of Gabby.
“What am I gonna be mad about from a football game when I have a sister who can’t talk or do things on her own?” he said.
‘He was always so sweet, older brother with her’
Gabby was around 1 year old when her family began to notice concerning behavior. At first, they observed their little girl was having a hard time pulling herself up to stand.
By 18 months, Gabby started regressing in her ability to use her hands to play with toys. “She started just repetitively clapping her hands, and not really using her hands to manipulate objects,” Jody Rodriguez said. “And then she started doing some odd behaviors, like staring at corners and opening and shutting doors.”
Early on, Gabby had learned to say her own name and other simple words such as “mom” and “pop,” “dog” and “baby.” But rather than continuing to expand her vocabulary, Gabby’s ability to speak began to regress. “She started just making noises, and stopped talking,” Jody Rodriguez said.
Initially, doctors were stumped over what was happening to Gabby.
“She did get blood work for, like, a whole bunch of other genetic tests, and those came back negative,” Jody Rodriguez said. “So we actually were hopeful it wasn’t a major diagnosis.”
However, the focus of one doctor was drawn to Gabby’s repetitive hand movements, her continuous clapping and hand-wringing. “He recognized that as a signature symptom of Rett syndrome,” Jody Rodriguez said. “So they got her tested for that specific gene mutation, and it came back positive.”
The condition is named for Dr. Andreas Rett, an Austrian physician who provided the initial description of the malady in a German medical journal in 1966.
At the time, Jody and her husband, Willie (in the Rodriguez family, the father and the son who is a UK football player both go by Willie), had never heard of Rett syndrome.
“It was like a punch in the gut,” Jody Rodriguez said of the severity of the diagnosis.
Of six Rodriguez children, Willie and Gabby fall third and fourth, respectively, in order. When they were children, Willie was Gabby’s protector.
“He was always so sweet, older brother with her,” Jody Rodriguez said. “We have tons of pictures of Willie holding her and hugging her when he was little.”
The Rodriguez family sent their children to Catholic schools. However, because of Gabby’s special needs, only the public schools were equipped to educate her. One day when Willie was in grade school, Jody Rodriguez said he came home from school with a severe look on his face.
“He goes, ‘I just don’t understand,’” Jody Rodriguez recalled. “And I said, ‘What don’t you understand?’ He goes, ‘I don’t understand why Gabby can’t go to school with me?’ So I explained to him why. … But, that like to broke my heart.”
‘As her mom … that is torture’
For Willie Rodriguez, middle school and the sensitivity to peer pressure that often arises at that age put stress on his bond with Gabby.
“It’s hard because kids hit middle school and it gets a little awkward, right?” Jody Rodriguez said. “They have a nonverbal sister, who may act oddly and then they start to worry a little bit more, or maybe become embarrassed. And we had to guide him through that.”
By the time Willie was in high school at Covington Catholic, he had developed into one of the top college football prospects in the commonwealth of Kentucky’s class of 2024. To secure his services, UK had to win a spirited recruiting battle against schools such as Auburn and Tennessee.
Gabby seemed to take pleasure in seeing Willie in his CovCath football uniform.
“When I would see her after my games and come over to her, she would smile or look at me,” Willie said. “Obviously, you don’t know, she can’t talk, but she knows it’s me. She sees me every day. She knows I’m a brother. Every time, after the game, after I came off the field, she’d stare at me. It was pretty cool.”
At various times, Willie would visit his sister’s class at Scott High School. ”They (had a) really good teacher there,” he said. “They’re doing a lot of, like, hands-on stuff, trying to get them to point out stuff, or trying to figure out ways to communicate with them.”
Her teen years have been challenging for Gabby. Imagine going through all the changes, physical and emotional, that accompany adolescence but not having the ability to share with others what you are experiencing.
“The biggest challenge for me is, it’s not changing diapers, it’s not having to feed her,” Jody Rodriguez said. “It is when Gabby is in distress, when she’s either angry or upset or sad, and I cannot figure out, as her mom, how to help her. That is torture.”
‘We see Gabby as a blessing’
This season, through Kentucky football’s first three games, Willie Rodriguez has caught five passes for 68 yards.
“Willie is a very good football player that’s done a good job,” UK coach Mark Stoops said. “(He is) getting better. He’s still very young.”
Unlike the Covington Catholic days, the Rodriguez family does not bring Gabby to Kroger Field to see Willie play in college. The large crowds coupled with the travel from Taylor Mill to Lexington would be too stressful, they feel.
So Gabby did not see Willie catch his first college football touchdown pass in UK’s 48-23 win against Eastern Michigan on Sept. 13. “But she’s sure heard us talking about it,” Jody Rodriguez said.
Though Gabby is no longer at his games to scream, Willie Rodriguez said the impact of having her in his life is ever present.
“Just puts a big perspective on life for you and how grateful we should be for how we were born,” he said. “Me and my whole family, we see Gabby as a blessing.”
This story was originally published September 23, 2025 at 6:15 AM.
