Each week, we bring you a Q&A with a Ravens player to help you get to know him better. Today's guest is safety Haruki Nakamura, 24, a third-year veteran who grew up in a family of judo champions and played football to forge his own identity in the family.
Question: How far back does you family's judo tradition run?
Answer: It started with my father (Ryozo). He was actually being shuffled around the world to teach judo. He came from Japan to the United States in the 60s and ended up being one of the top referees in judo. So he really made his mark in judo here in the United States. He finished as an eighth-degree black belt.
Q: He came to the U.S. to teach judo?
A: That's what he loved to do. And that's where he met my mother [Karen]. My mother's also a fourth-degree black belt. They met at a judo clinic in Rhode Island. That's how that kicked off. There was no messing around in my house. Even after my father passed away, my mom was still laying the law down.
Q: What was the atmosphere like in your house?
A: It was a very, very disciplined household. He let us develop our own skills as far as judo goes. He always taught us hard work, strong work ethic. He had all of us start judo at 2 years old. My mom really carried on the same tradition, the same work ethic, because after my father passed away, she was it, that's all we had. We had four kids in the household and she never missed a day of work. Every day she got up, went to work, whether she was sick, felt like she was dying, the depression phase she was going through. Every day, she said, 'I have a family to take care of. This is my responsibility.' But she never complained, she never harped on her situation. And the thing is, she didn't realize she was teaching us life lessons at that time. … I always looked at kids who had so many different things, whether it was a toy or brand-new bike or a Play-Station, and I looked at my mother and said 'That stuff doesn't matter to me,' because whatever my mom gave to me, I appreciated that much than anything else she could have done for us. That's how we all felt. That's why my brother Yoshi works on Wall Street, I'm here in the NFL, my brother Mako has been asked to be a principal in an elementary school in Pennsylvania. My sister Kimiko was a volleyball player at the University of Cincinnati and now she's starting her coaching career.
Q: How many of your siblings were judo champions?
A: We were all national champs. My brother Yoshi was an eight-time national judo champion. I was a national judo champion, my sister was a champion, my older brother Mako was a national champion. We have a very competitive background. The reason people don't know too much about it is that we don't talk about it. We're very proud of it, but we don't want to be like, 'Hey, look what I did.' That's not what we were raised to do. We were raised to work hard, and do things the best we can.
Q: What happened to your father?
A: He died of lung cancer. He was the type of guy, he would fall asleep with a cigarette in his hand. He was a big-time smoker. He also dealt with stomach cancer. He actually beat stomach cancer, then eventually lung cancer took his life at 61. I was 5 at the time.
Q: Where did football fit with all this judo?
A: We were not allowed to do any sort of contact sport other than judo because my father was so worried about us being injured in another sport. His ultimate goal was to have us compete in the Olympics in judo. There has yet to be an Olympic gold medalist in the United States in judo, and that was his ultimate goal for us, especially for my older brother Yoshi. When he passed away, my mom tried to keep us on the path of judo, [but] we started realizing there was other sports out there. I really started liking baseball, and I started developing a little more of an aggressive attitude. My brother Yoshi realized it and he snuck me into a Catholic Youth Organization [football] league. My mom had no idea whatsoever. She didn't want me to play football. Next thing you know, I'm coming home with a pair of shoulder pads and my mom says, 'What the hell are those?' I said, 'Ma, I got a game on Sunday.' Ever since then, she's been my biggest fan. So my mom goes from the person who didn't want me to play football to the person, when I broke my wrist that first year, she said, put a cast on it and go play. I played running back then.
Q: Were you ultra competitive with your brothers?
A: I was. Nothing was ever said. But when I was going into high school, Yoshi had been a two-time state wrestling champion. His senior year he was unbeaten, and he didn't have a point scored on him. I realized I was not as good as him. I knew my future was in football.
Q: Have you ever been to Japan?
A: I've never been there. I planned to do a youth football camp [last offseason], but then I broke my ankle [in a game at Cleveland]. My goal is still to do a youth camp over there and bring guys from here. I'm paying my respects to my father. We did everything he taught us to do, and I want to thank him because what he taught me paid off.
Q: You're getting married soon?
In June to Jamie Pentaudi, from Dayton, Ohio. She ran track at Cincinnati. We already have a little one, Hina. She's 18 months and she's a wild child. It's never a dull moment with her because when I come home, she's either running around the house going crazy or she's screaming about something else.
Q: At 18 months, is she ready for judo?
A: We have her in a My-Gym class. I'll be honest, if I can find a really good judo institute around here, I would love to put her in it. Because that's our background, that's what we did when we grew up.
Q: You wouldn't teach her?
A: I don't think I would do it in a way that I was taught. I'm more respectful of the way judo's taught. I've been out of it for so long, someone properly should teach her. But I feel like she needs the discipline, the same way I was brought up – the discipline, focus, hard work brought in from judo.
Q: When you went to Cincinnati, was your thought to play in the NFL?
A: I was very thankful I was going to play for a team that was going into a BCS conference. I never thought about the NFL. I looked at it as an opportunity to play in a strong conference. As a high school player, you see these teams playing on ESPN, and you see all the big conferences getting all the publicity. Cincinnati was the only big school that truly gave me an opportunity.
Q: Ohio State didn't give you a look?
A: No, they gave me a preferred walk-on. When I took my visit [to Cincinnati], I fell in love with it. It was everything I wanted as far as team goes and I just ran with it.
Q: Did you think you were going to be drafted?
A: Going into my senior year, I knew I had an opportunity. I had a rough junior year and I felt like I played really well. I actually had a stress fracture in my fibula my entire junior year, and I played with it. They asked me, 'Either you can sit out or play till it breaks.' I said, 'Let's just play till it breaks.' It never broke. I had the mentality to just push. That was the most pain I put myself through outside of my ankle last year.
Q: Did you play more than just safety?
A: My sophomore year, I was the punt returner and a little bit of kickoffs, and safety.
Q: Did you try to play receiver in college?
A: My freshman year, they tried to do a little bit of it, but I didn't really like it because I didn't like getting tackled. I hated it.
Q: Was it a good thing or a bad thing when you got drafted in the sixth round?
A: It was a great thing, especially to here. As a defensive player, if you're drafted by the Baltimore Ravens, that means someone in an organization that has a great defense feels you can play. When that opportunity comes, what else could you ask for? I was extremely excited. The biggest thing for me was, I didn't get invited to the combine. That was more frustrating for me than being drafted in the sixth round. I was very thankful for what my situation brought me. The opportunity Baltimore's given me, I've tried to take full advantage of it.
Q: When he broke your ankle in Cleveland last year, did you think your career was over?
A: My first two months after surgery, that was the two darkest months of my life. I had no idea what was going on. I had six or seven different pain pills I was taking at an hourly time. It was just really rough. I didn't know what to do with myself. I didn't know if I was going to be able to come back. I was losing all this weight. I think I lost 22 pounds total. It was bad.
Q: What got you through that period?
A: I stopped saying, 'Why me?' Those first couple months, I was saying 'Why did this happen to me?' But I finally said, 'I pushed through so much crap in my life that this isn't going to be the one that stops my career.' I just started taking that one-day at a time [attitude], I started changing my workload. When I was able to start running, I was up here at 5:30, 6 in the morning before everybody else got here.
Q: What do you want to accomplish in the NFL?
A: Coming in, I said my ultimate goal is to play 10 years and it still is my goal. I feel like I'm a good enough player to make it 10 years. Not one of those guys [who's going] to struggle to make it for 10 years. Obviously you want to be a starter. [But] the way I look at this situation, we have two of the best safeties in the NFL. You'll never, ever hear me complain about playing time here. I'm in a situation where I can learn. And this is my time to learn from two of the best safeties in the league, a guy like Dawan [Landry], who can make tons of plays down in the box and at the same time, force fumbles and get interceptions like he did last year. And then, obviously, I have the greatest safety that ever played the game in Ed Reed. There's so much I can learn from those guys. I've been sitting back and enjoying my time here, and am very thankful I have this opportunity.
Q: The team lists you at 200 pounds. When you came as a rookie, you were 205. What's the difference?
A: I purposely got lighter. When I got injured, I couldn't keep weight on. My leg looked like my crutch, that's how thin it was. When I first came in, I was starting to listen to people saying, 'You're too small, you've got to gain some weight, you've got to build some muscle.' You know what? When I was playing in college, I was playing against some very fast, very physical guys. I was 190-195 pounds. My second year, I realized I don't need to be that big. I don't feel comfortable being that big. I felt the lighter I got, the faster I started playing. I think that really helped me as far as getting my instincts back. I'm about 193 pounds now. When I was 205 pounds, I felt sluggish. I feel the lighter I am, the more explosive, the quicker I am. And that benefits my style of football.