My good friend John called me the other day and left his usual rambling sports message on my voicemail. John was born and raised in Littleton, MA and needless to say is a die hard Boston sports fan. We worked together in Wilkes-Barre in the late 80's and have been best friends ever since. We almost always agree on sports topics, and he always calls me for my take on the Philly fan's view and I call him to find out what his friends (the recovering alcoholics, professional alcoholics and fellow die-hard Boston sports fans who grew up with him in Littleton... more about these guys in a future blog) as well as the yakkers on WEEI sports radio are saying. "It's a sad day for me Mick-man" his message started. "Tedy Bruschi retired, and I just listened to the press conference. What a CLASS act this guy is. Man, I'm going to miss him." Me too.
Forget the fact that this guy had a stroke and returned to play pro football, as good as he was before he was stricken. Ted Bruschi was one of the toughest, hardest-hitting linebackers I've seen in recent years. I suspect that this is a guy that just LOVES to play football, and cared more about the X's and O's and less about the $$ signs. He's probably the closest thing I've seen to my hero Chuck Bednarik (he's from my hometown of Bethlehem) in recent memory (you can substitute your all-time favorite linebacker there like Lambert or Singletary.) You know, the guy who eats nails for breakfast and often forgets to wear his helmet at practice and doesn't notice until someone reminds him.
I love Tedy Bruschi although he was NOT my favorite Pat's linebacker on the super bowl teams.... that would be Mike Vrabel, his grandfather being born and raised in the same hometown as my father- Summit Hill, PA. which gave him a slim advantage over #54. My father would always tell me how much he looks like his grandfather... how he has that "Vrabel nose." That explains why Vrabel was so tough... he's got coal region blood in his veins. Now that Vrable is on the Chiefs, Tedy Bruschi would have been elevated to my "favorite" status this season. He has also been added to my all-time favorite Patriot's linebacker hall of fame: Steve Nelson, Andre Tippett, Don Blackmon, Willie McGinest and Ted Johnson.
Here are some highlights of Bruschi's career which I plunked off the Patriots web site: In 14 seasons he played in 189 games, more than any linebacker in team history. He played in 22 playoff games, most in team history. He appeared in 5 Conference title games and 5 Super Bowls, earning 3 Super Bowl rings. He has averaged 105 tackles over the last 6 seasons, has a career total of 448 solo tackles and has 30.5 sacks in his Patriot's career. Not bad for a 3rd round pick out of Arizona, where he.... oh yeah, shares the NCAA Division I-A career sack total with 52. Amazingly, Bruschi only made one Pro Bowl appearance in 2004.
Two other things I liked about Bruschi (besides the obvious name sounding like a beer thing):
He's from San Francisco, one of my favorite cities, AND, in 2006 he was inducted into the Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame! My grandparents would push Mike Vrabel out of the way to give Tedy a big hug! OK, I had no idea that the R.I. I-A HOF even existed... but now we ALL do and Tedy's a member.
An e-mail 2 days later from John pointed this out: "Tedy had the class to retire during training camp when he felt he could no longer play at a top notch level. Brett Favre has retired 3 times and he's still playing!" True, but I like Brett Favre and will cut him some slack here. Once you walk away from the field you're NEVER coming back, and that has to be tough. Tedy Bruschi
realized it was his time and leaves pro football with class, dignity, the respect of his teammates, fellow NFL players and fans. And oh yeah, those 3 Super Bowl rings. My lasting image of him will be the big smile on his face and the three fingers he's holding up when he won his third Super Bowl. Live long and prosper Tedy, and have a cold Narragansett on me (he's in their Hall of Fame so I assume he drinks their beer!)
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