Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo has been named to the Pro Bowl three times as a special teams player, including last season with the Ravens. (Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox / August 26, 2008) |
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Playing special teams might be the closest a man will get to a game of human pinball.
For the most part, it's the lowest rung on the NFL food chain, where rookies bide their time until they earn the right to start, and where undrafted free agents scratch and claw to prove they belong. The best special teams players sacrifice their bodies on a regular basis, and it's not a surprise that every kickoff or punt ends in a tangled pile of limbs and shoulder pads.
Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo is a millionaire because he does it about as well as anyone in football. He has been named to the Pro Bowl three times as a special teams player, including last season with the Ravens. He's so good at what he does that in 2008 the team signed him to a four-year contract worth $4.9 million even though it had no plans to use him in its regular defensive rotation.
Ayanbadejo's special teams skills might even be the least interesting thing about him. A history major at UCLA, Ayanbadejo's passions cover a wide variety of fields, touching on everything from theater and architecture to politics and economics. He occasionally writes opinion pieces for The Huffington Post - including one this year in defense of same-sex marriage, and another against the bank bailout - and he says his dream job, when he retires from the NFL, is becoming UCLA's first African-American athletic director. He's hoping to get an MBA in sports and business administration in the next few years.
"Football is my career, but my hobbies are my passion," Ayanbadejo said. "I have so many more interests. Right now I'm living my dream, but there is a dream after this dream. People who are overachievers don't just stop at one thing. They're always moving on to the next thing. I really want a world championship with the Ravens, but I also really want to wake up one day and be the athletic director at UCLA."
A job in sports is just a means to an end, Ayanbadejo believes. He wants to use athletics as the carrot that encourages people to change their lives through education. When he was at UCLA, he co-founded an organization whose members volunteered to spend six hours a week in elementary schools teaching kids the arts, which were being cut from school curriculums for financial reasons. He also was one of the students who went to the UCLA administration to protest the dwindling number of African-Americans being accepted for enrollment who weren't athletes. In Chicago, he annually hosts the opening night of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, which showcases local performers.
"There is always something to fight for," Ayanbadejo said. "That's something I learned at a young age."
And he's not shy about articulating his thoughts about that, and on a variety of other subjects. Take his position on gay marriage, for example.
Homosexuality can be a prickly topic in a locker room, but that didn't stop Ayanbadejo, who has a daughter, Anaya Lee, from arguing in the Huffington Post: "If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and go get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can't a loving same-sex couple tie the knot? How could our society grant more rights to a heterosexual, one-night-stand wedding in Vegas than a gay couple that has been together for 3, 5, 10 years of true love?"
It's an experience to stand next to the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Ayanbadejo and carry on a conversation. Physically, he's an intimidating presence, with muscles so sharply defined, you can imagine him doing push-ups and crunches in his sleep. There isn't another player on the Ravens, from Ray Lewis on down, who takes fitness and nutrition as seriously as Ayanbadejo.
But he's also one of the worldliest Ravens, a definition that fits him both figuratively and literally. Although Ayanbadejo was born in Chicago in 1976, he and his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria, when he was 1 and lived there for three years before returning to the United States.
In 1999, after Ayanbadejo graduated from UCLA, the NFL wasn't interested in his skills, even though he was first-team All-Pacific-10 as a senior. His football wanderings began. Ayanbadejo played in the Canada Football League in 2000 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts. The Ravens signed him in 2001 but sent him to NFL Europe, where he played for the Amsterdam Admirals. He returned to Canada in 2002 to play for the British Columbia Lions before catching on as a special teams player with the Miami Dolphins in 2003.
"Europe was crazy because you sleep in a twin-size bed and that's considered luxurious," Ayanbadejo said. "People live simply there, but they're also a little healthier. It was a great time to learn about different cultures and immerse myself in that lifestyle. In Canada, the people there were like halfway between Europeans and Americans. So that was pretty cool to see the different ways people live."
Still, it was Ayanbadejo's football talents that caught the eye of NFL coaches. He has what coaches often describe as a "motor," meaning he doesn't stop until the whistle blows. He made the Pro Bowl twice as a member of the Chicago Bears, and he was the first free agent the Ravens signed after John Harbaugh, the Philadelphia Eagles' special teams coach for nine years, replaced Brian Billick as head coach in 2008.
"It was him and a bunch of rookies basically out there," Harbaugh said of Ayanbadejo's first year on special teams with the Ravens. "But he helped show those guys how to practice and how to train. He teaches technique along with our coaches. I think he's one of the premier special teams players, really, ever to play the game. That's a pretty good building block."
As good as Ayanbadejo is on special teams, it still feels a bit like a backhanded compliment. Yes, he's good at what he does, but if he were a truly great football player, he'd be on the field a lot more. The Ravens say they might use Ayanbadejo as part of their regular defensive rotation this year, but nothing is guaranteed.
"The hardest part is that you're underachieving as a football player," he said. "But at the same time, I have a bigger responsibility to the team. That's the role I've been given, that's what I'm best at, and that's what I'm here to do. I wish I could contribute more, and I think I'm capable of it, but at what expense to what I do best will that be?"
For now, he'll contribute however he can, trying to make a difference with his body and his mind, in matters both big and small.
For the most part, it's the lowest rung on the NFL food chain, where rookies bide their time until they earn the right to start, and where undrafted free agents scratch and claw to prove they belong. The best special teams players sacrifice their bodies on a regular basis, and it's not a surprise that every kickoff or punt ends in a tangled pile of limbs and shoulder pads.
Ravens linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo is a millionaire because he does it about as well as anyone in football. He has been named to the Pro Bowl three times as a special teams player, including last season with the Ravens. He's so good at what he does that in 2008 the team signed him to a four-year contract worth $4.9 million even though it had no plans to use him in its regular defensive rotation.
Ayanbadejo's special teams skills might even be the least interesting thing about him. A history major at UCLA, Ayanbadejo's passions cover a wide variety of fields, touching on everything from theater and architecture to politics and economics. He occasionally writes opinion pieces for The Huffington Post - including one this year in defense of same-sex marriage, and another against the bank bailout - and he says his dream job, when he retires from the NFL, is becoming UCLA's first African-American athletic director. He's hoping to get an MBA in sports and business administration in the next few years.
"Football is my career, but my hobbies are my passion," Ayanbadejo said. "I have so many more interests. Right now I'm living my dream, but there is a dream after this dream. People who are overachievers don't just stop at one thing. They're always moving on to the next thing. I really want a world championship with the Ravens, but I also really want to wake up one day and be the athletic director at UCLA."
A job in sports is just a means to an end, Ayanbadejo believes. He wants to use athletics as the carrot that encourages people to change their lives through education. When he was at UCLA, he co-founded an organization whose members volunteered to spend six hours a week in elementary schools teaching kids the arts, which were being cut from school curriculums for financial reasons. He also was one of the students who went to the UCLA administration to protest the dwindling number of African-Americans being accepted for enrollment who weren't athletes. In Chicago, he annually hosts the opening night of the Hip Hop Theatre Festival, which showcases local performers.
"There is always something to fight for," Ayanbadejo said. "That's something I learned at a young age."
And he's not shy about articulating his thoughts about that, and on a variety of other subjects. Take his position on gay marriage, for example.
Homosexuality can be a prickly topic in a locker room, but that didn't stop Ayanbadejo, who has a daughter, Anaya Lee, from arguing in the Huffington Post: "If Britney Spears can party it up in Vegas with one of her boys and go get married on a whim and annul her marriage the next day, why can't a loving same-sex couple tie the knot? How could our society grant more rights to a heterosexual, one-night-stand wedding in Vegas than a gay couple that has been together for 3, 5, 10 years of true love?"
It's an experience to stand next to the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Ayanbadejo and carry on a conversation. Physically, he's an intimidating presence, with muscles so sharply defined, you can imagine him doing push-ups and crunches in his sleep. There isn't another player on the Ravens, from Ray Lewis on down, who takes fitness and nutrition as seriously as Ayanbadejo.
But he's also one of the worldliest Ravens, a definition that fits him both figuratively and literally. Although Ayanbadejo was born in Chicago in 1976, he and his family moved to Lagos, Nigeria, when he was 1 and lived there for three years before returning to the United States.
In 1999, after Ayanbadejo graduated from UCLA, the NFL wasn't interested in his skills, even though he was first-team All-Pacific-10 as a senior. His football wanderings began. Ayanbadejo played in the Canada Football League in 2000 for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts. The Ravens signed him in 2001 but sent him to NFL Europe, where he played for the Amsterdam Admirals. He returned to Canada in 2002 to play for the British Columbia Lions before catching on as a special teams player with the Miami Dolphins in 2003.
"Europe was crazy because you sleep in a twin-size bed and that's considered luxurious," Ayanbadejo said. "People live simply there, but they're also a little healthier. It was a great time to learn about different cultures and immerse myself in that lifestyle. In Canada, the people there were like halfway between Europeans and Americans. So that was pretty cool to see the different ways people live."
Still, it was Ayanbadejo's football talents that caught the eye of NFL coaches. He has what coaches often describe as a "motor," meaning he doesn't stop until the whistle blows. He made the Pro Bowl twice as a member of the Chicago Bears, and he was the first free agent the Ravens signed after John Harbaugh, the Philadelphia Eagles' special teams coach for nine years, replaced Brian Billick as head coach in 2008.
"It was him and a bunch of rookies basically out there," Harbaugh said of Ayanbadejo's first year on special teams with the Ravens. "But he helped show those guys how to practice and how to train. He teaches technique along with our coaches. I think he's one of the premier special teams players, really, ever to play the game. That's a pretty good building block."
As good as Ayanbadejo is on special teams, it still feels a bit like a backhanded compliment. Yes, he's good at what he does, but if he were a truly great football player, he'd be on the field a lot more. The Ravens say they might use Ayanbadejo as part of their regular defensive rotation this year, but nothing is guaranteed.
"The hardest part is that you're underachieving as a football player," he said. "But at the same time, I have a bigger responsibility to the team. That's the role I've been given, that's what I'm best at, and that's what I'm here to do. I wish I could contribute more, and I think I'm capable of it, but at what expense to what I do best will that be?"
For now, he'll contribute however he can, trying to make a difference with his body and his mind, in matters both big and small.
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@ HoustonRaven
I think articles that mention an athlete's 'strong faith' as a positive thing are much more prevalent in the 'liberal press' than features about someone who is worldly and tolerant like Brendon. The whole 'liberal press' notion is such a joke. The press is corporate and conservative for the most part. Let me know when op-eds by liberals like Noam Chomsky start showing up in the Washington Post or WSJ next to the ones by neocons like Paul Wolfowiz, and John Bolton, then we can talk about how 'liberal' the press is.
That being said, the Britney Spears analogy isn't the best argument for gay marriage. The best argument is that it is unconstitutional for the majority in this country to withhold rights from the minority... because it's a violation of equal protection. (Thank God) Our history is full of examples like this and eventually reason wins out. Those opposing same sex marriage are joining countless other groups throughout time that eventually found themselves on the wrong side of history. My suggestion to them is to stop digging and worry about their own lives, this isn't about them.
RoryBellows (09/03/2009, 5:04 PM )