More from The Q&A: Charlie Johnson
Usually when I have leftover goodies from one of my conversations for The Q&A, I share them in one fell swoop on my blog.
Not today.
I talked with Charlie Johnson earlier this week. The Indianapolis Colts left tackle is preparing for his second Super Bowl in this, his fourth season in the NFL. It’s been quite a journey for the former Oklahoma State standout. He talked about some of that in The Q&A, but there was so much more that he shared during my 15-minute conversation with him. He talked about being part of an offensive line that allowed the fewest sacks in the NFL this season, about being considered the offense’s biggest question mark heading into the season, about the fines that the linemen dole out to each other.
We’ll get to that in my blog this week as the Super Bowl gets closer, so you’ll want to stay tuned for that.
But I wanted to share something about Johnson: he’s one of the good guys in sports.
So often we hear about the troublemakers and the lawbreakers, but Johnson is a guy who’s quietly made his way in the NFL and become a key cog in one of the league’s premier franchises. After all, they don’t let just anyone protect Peyton Manning’s backside. To think, he only started playing on the offensive line five years ago when he moved from tight end before his senior year at OSU.
But beyond the on-field performance, Johnson is thoughtful and articulate. He’s become one of the de facto spokesmen for the Colts’ offensive line.
And I can tell you from experience, he is the opposite of a big-timer. A couple years back, I came by his cell number. To reporters, cell numbers are like gold. We hang on to every single one. We guard them with our lives. Yet, those numbers are only as good as the person on the other end. If they don’t want to call you back, if they don’t want to answer your messages, you’re out of luck.
I sent Johnson a text Tuesday morning to see if we could chat about going to the Super Bowl. Less than five minutes later, he replied with a yes. Less than three hours later, we were chatting.
Johnson could’ve big-timed me or could’ve just said he was too busy. Frankly, I would’ve understood — this is, after all, one of the biggest and busiest times of his life — but he isn’t that way.
He is one of the good guys.
All-Star Game: NBA gets it
More from The Q&A: Brian Davis
Brian Davis talks for a living, so as the Thunder’s television play-by-play man, he was the perfect subject for The Q&A.
He had more good stuff to say than we could fit in the newspaper, so here’s an outtake from my interview with Davis where I ask him to reminisce a bit:
Jenni Carlson: Tell me about your favorite memories from your broadcast career. Is there a favorite game, a favorite call, anything like that?
Brian Davis: There are two that come to mind, and one … I wasn’t actually calling the game. I was the analyst. It was Northwestern; I was on their radio crew. It was Northwestern at Illinois, and Northwestern came back from three scores down in the fourth quarter. This was two years before they got to the Rose Bowl when everybody still didn’t understand that they had a chance to be pretty good. But they were three scores down at Illinois, and they came back in the fourth quarter to win. That was just an incredible thing to be a part of. And then by the same token, I was doing … Oregon at Washington State. What’s interesting is that Aaron Brooks from the Rockets and Kyle Weaver from our team were in this game. Oregon was down double digits within, like, five minutes to go in regulation, and then Aaron Brooks just got busy and started hitting shots from everywhere on the floor — for two, for three — and then with one-tenth of a second left, they had a center named Marty Leunen who got fouled right underneath the basket. And Marty Leunen had not taken a shot all day, had not scored a point all day and has to go to the free throw line and make both to send the game into overtime. And he does. And Oregon winds up winning in overtime. That was incredible. Those are the sorts of games that you live for to call.
JC: Have you talked to Kyle about the fact that you were at that game?
BD: Well, he knows because I was a regular over there in Pullman for awhile. You know what? He and I have never talked about that game, but Brooks and I have. I still think that might have been Aaron Brooks’ greatest game.
JC: What about this season? What’s your favorite memory so far?
BD: The game in Atlanta (on Monday). Yeah. To win on the road against a good team and to win it the way we won it. This goes back to Jeff (Green) not only making the shot but defending Jamal Crawford, and the fact that our team … they didn’t neutralize Joe Johnson but they really reduced his danger. This team has done this to everybody’s great scoring threat pretty much all season long, and they continue to do that. That’s something that I probably think it’s on everybody’s radar screen yet, but it will be. We take the other guys’ greatest scoring threat, and we don’t shut ‘em down, but we do not allow them to do the kind of damage they normally do. But … that game (Monday) at Atlanta was as good as it’s gotten so far. The nice thing is I can stand here and say to you that “Yeah, that was cool, but I think there are better moments yet to come.”
OKC stereotypes? Bring ‘em
Mr. Treadmill reaches another milestone
Brendan Brustad has become known for his amazing and somewhat crazy feats of endurance before the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.
Two years ago, he ran from Altus, where the airman is stationed at Altus Air Force Base, to Oklahoma City. The trip covered 168 miles, one mile for every victim of the Oklahoma City bombing.
A year ago, he spent a week on a treadmill and broke the world record for most miles run on a treadmill in a week. He ran more than 450 miles, averaging about 60 or 70 miles a day. He ran so many miles that bits of the treadmill belt flaked off, fell off the back and collected into a pile. It wasn’t a huge pile, but when you consider what it was and why it was there, it put into context the distance that he ran and the time that he spent on that treadmill
And after accomplishing each feat, he ran and finished the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon.
Brustad is celebrating another amazing feat this week — becoming a father.
His wife, Misty, was in labor early Wednesday morning. It will be the couple’s first child.
Needless to say, there will be plenty of sleepless nights ahead for the Brustads, but that doesn’t mean the new dad is cutting back his training much. And it doesn’t mean he has no plans for more craziness marathon week.
Check out the message that he sent me on Facebook:
“OKC this year, I’ll be back at it again. The treadmill record was broken, twice already. So it will be another fun week, but I’m also going to try and break seven records en route to it. Details to follow.”
Fatherhood doesn’t seem to be slowing down Brustad.
Sooners add wins despite losses
Cowgirls continue amazing season
Hey, wasn’t this supposed to be a tough year for the Oklahoma State women’s basketball team?
The Cowgirls, picked to finish in the bottom half of the Big 12, have reached the highest ranking in program history. The Associated Press poll has them 12th in its newly released poll.
With the loss of a good senior class and the arrival of a bunch of youngsters, this was pegged to be a season of building for the future. It was a tough thing, no doubt, for Andrea Riley to hear. The senior star is in her last season, and after failing to make the NCAA Tournament last season, you know she wanted to take the team back in her last year as a Cowgirl.
Now, it seems like she’ll get to do just that.
(We’ll save talk of her one-game NCAA Tournament game suspension for another day.)
The Cowgirls have been nothing but impressive. Their victories are impressive, and their losses as few. The games that they have lost have been to quality opponents, and there’s hardly any shame in that, especially when they’re balanced by some stellar wins.
So, why has this season been so much better than everyone expected?
The easy answer is oftentimes the thing that teams struggle with most — chemistry.
It just wasn’t there last year. You could see it. You could sense it. The Cowgirls had more talent than their record indicated, but they just didn’t have the right mix of personalities and ideologies.
This season, they are clicking. I’m not sure I entirely understand why either. First, you’ve got this inexperienced group of players that are being depended on heavily. Second, you’ve got a senior leader in Riley who has been unpredictable emotionally at times during her career. She can be great one minute, encouraging and mature, and she can be off-kilter the next minute.
It seems as though Riley has grown, and it also seems that this team is just a good mix.
The answers for that improved chemistry might not be obvious, but the impact of it is. You can see it on the floor, you can see it on the scoreboard, and now, you can see it in the ever-rising rankings.
Dez Bryant: ‘Forever a Cowboy’
Dez Bryant had the best of times at Oklahoma State.
The worst of times, too.
The former Cowboy wide receiver was investigated, then suspended by the NCAA last season after he lied to an NCAA investigator. That caused the messy and unceremonious end to his college career; Bryant declared himself eligible for the NFL Draft the day that his final NCAA appeal was denied.
So, how does Bryant look at his time in Stillwater?
“To be honest, me coming to Oklahoma State, that’s the best thing that ever happened to me,” Bryant said in a telephone interview Friday after he met with the media in Tampa, Fla., where he is now training.
“I enjoyed being there. I enjoyed being around the fans. I enjoyed being around the little kids. It’s just a nice place to be.”
It’s a place he intends to return, too.
“I know I’m going to go back” and visit, he said. “I’m going to make my presence known.
“I’m going to forever be a Cowboy.”
Bryant is expected to be one of the top picks in this spring’s draft, and wherever he ends up playing, he will proudly list his alma mater as OSU.
“Always,” he said. “That’s not going to change.”
Want to know why Dez Bryant held a press conference in Florida, then spoke with me for more than 25 minutes Friday afternoon? Want to know why he opened up about what happened at Oklahoma State and with NCAA investigators? Then you won’t want to miss my column Saturday in The Oklahoman and on NewsOK.com.
Capel pushing Sooners’ buttons
Don Demeter: Count me as a fan
The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame announced its 2010 induction class today.
It’s quite the star-studded cast.
Troy Aikman is the headliner, but Pete Incaviglia, Michele Smith and Ricky Bryan are memorable and beloved stars who will command headlines, too. Don Demeter is the fifth member of the class, and while the former Major League Baseball player may not have the name recognition that many of these younger superstars have, he may have become my favorite in the group.
During a luncheon today, he joined Incaviglia, Smith and representatives of the Bryan family — Ricky Bryan died unexpectedly last summer — at the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame and Jim Thorpe Museum. They will be inducted into the hall in August and give formal speeches then, but each of them said a few words during the luncheon. All of them were gracious. All of them were thankful. But Demeter stole the show.
Oklahoma City Mayor Mick Cornett introduced him by saying that Demeter once went 266 consecutive innings during his big-league career without an error.
Then, Demeter stepped to the microphone.
“What Mick failed to tell you was that when I moved to the infield, I made 266 consecutive errors,” Demeter said.
Later, he mentioned that he was sitting between players who’d led the college ranks in home runs. Incaviglia led college baseball in homers during his time at Oklahoma State while Smith led college softball in homers during her time in Stillwater.
“I didn’t even lead my neighborhood in home runs,” Demeter said.
I knew little of Dom Demeter before today’s luncheon, but now, I can’t wait to learn more.
The Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame induction ceremony will be Aug. 3 at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Go to http://jimthorpeassoc.org/ for more information.
