WampusCat43
Footballguy
According to Bengals.com:
Dave Lapham, the Bengals radio analyst who himself played 10 seasons along the Cincinnati front, framed Rich Braham’s retirement best Wednesday.
“He’s a Norman Rockwell portrait of an offensive lineman,” Lapham said. “In everything. I’ve never seen anyone tougher. His pain tolerance has been unbelievable.”
It was 12 Norman Rockwell calendars, plus a month ago that Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally and tight ends coach Paul Alexander took a pair of double takes when they saw Braham’s name on the NFL’s Nov. 18, 1994 waiver wire from Arizona. To this day, the day Braham retired after 146 games, 142 starts, four arthroscopic knee surgeries, two sprained ankles, a herniated neck disc, a broken toe, and, finally, one tibial plateau fracture, they remember what they were thinking when they saw the name they knew from the ’94 draft.
“One tough guy,” said McNally on Wednesday from Buffalo, where he’s the Bills offensive line coach. “He was mean. He had an attitude. A mean streak. And you knew he was going to be at every practice and every meeting trying as hard as he could. And you always think that can make a good player.”
Alexander, now the Bengals offensive line coach, got to sit next to Braham at Wednesday’s retirement news conference and recalled his workout at West Virginia when Braham knocked him down during a pass blocking drill and Alexander thought, “we have to get this guy.”
“This guy” is now going to have what amounts to a day Sunday with a pregame ceremony at the regular-season finale at Paul Brown Stadium against Pittsburgh as the seventh player to play at least 13 seasons in Cincinnati.
"It will be pretty emotional, but I think it will be kind of neat,” Braham said. "To sit there and get a happy farewell from great fans."
The first 40,000 fans receive a poster of Braham at a game where he won't dress, but shows off why he was so important to the Bengals offense.
“I think the last two or three seasons he’s been a big reason in Carson’s (Palmer) development and for this so–called high-scoring offense,” said Pro Bowl right tackle Willie Anderson. “Richie’s contribution is known for a long time by his teammates. Defenses can’t confuse Carson because they couldn’t confuse Richie.”
Eric Ghiaciuc, the second-year center Braham has schooled since breaking the top of his lower leg in the second game of the season, gets his second start of the season against the Steelers and like Anderson said, “that would be tough (even) for a 13-year guy.”
First there is Pittsburgh’s multiple 3-4 looks that wreak havoc in pass protection and must be diagnosed immediately by the center to get the right protection called. Secondly, there is Steelers 320-pound Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton lined up across from Ghiaciuc.
“I was a center but certainly not at Richie’s level,” said Bengals assistant offensive line coach Bob Surace, the former Princeton anchor. “When I first got here and was looking at film, I was thinking, ‘Look at this guy. He’s making a fake to get to the linebacker.’ Or, ‘He’s using all kinds of tricks with his hands.’ When Paul talks at clinics about center play, it’s basically an hour talking about Richie and showing tape of him.”
At 305 pounds, Braham is a significant player in the evolution of the NFL, according to the studious Surace. When the Bengals switched Braham to center in 1999, it was at an age when defenses were stacking the line with giant road graders.
“Richie was one of the first big centers who wasn’t supposed to be light and fly around and get to the linebackers so quickly,” Surace said. “He was strong enough to take on the big guys.”
Another reason the Pittsburgh game is fitting for Rich Braham Day? It could be the last game for Steelers center Jeff Hartings, another 300-pounder in the same mold and two years younger than Braham who got more ink and money than Braham down through the years probably because he was on better teams.
Braham, 36, no doubt heard more praise Wednesday than in his 146 weeks combined.
Head coach Marvin Lewis: “Richie has not missed a Saturday night at the hotel this season. That tells you right there what kind of pro he is. He’s been there for his teammates. He’s been on the road with us. I had to tell him to quit answering the questions in the meetings. It’s because of habit, and that’s what he means. If he ever wanted to be a coach, he’d be a great football coach, but I think he’s probably smarter than that.”
Palmer: “I told Richie last week when he told me he was retiring that I wish he was born eight years later and I was born eight years earlier because we would have had a heck of a run together. I've always thought that Richie's as good as it gets at his position. He's a great person, a great guy, an unbelievable teammate, and a very unselfish teammate. But athletically and physically, he's as good as it gets at that position.”
Anderson: “His career embodies what every person on this team should strive to be; a tough-nosed, smart, willing-to-do-anything-for-the-team-to-win-type player.”
Braham did what he always does and shrugged it off. But not before he admitted, “In football, not only being a good player, but respect can be a factor. It’s good to know you’re respected.”
Braham supplied his own epitaph: “Just someone who came to work every day, played hard, and went home.”
Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh always felt at home when Braham was in the lineup. He said it back in May and June - the two most important players on the offense were Palmer and Braham.
“When Richie got hurt, that’s when we started losing,” Houshmandzadeh said. “We won that Pittsburgh game, but Carson got killed. I was shocked when I heard he was retiring, but not really. He wants to play with his kids and all the hits on his body have taken a toll. You can’t blame him. I just wish we could have sent him out on top. That’s one of the reasons I’d like to make the playoffs; give him something to look forward to.”
Braham can no longer play this season. He doesn’t know if the tibial plateau fracture, which occurs at the top of the shin bone and involves the cartilage surface of the knee joint, is going to heal next week or next year. He pretty much knew his career was over when he couldn’t get back for the Nov. 30 game against Baltimore after being unable to stay on the practice field.
"It felt good until you practice on someone like Sam Adams and you're like, 'Oooh, it still hurts.' It got to the point I could barely walk," Braham said.
He let Lewis off the hook for describing the injury the last 15 weeks as “a bone bruise.”
“It broke and slid down into my leg and spread down,” Braham said with a smile. “The thing about it, it was crushed. When it crushed, it bled and bruised, so Coach Lewis was technically right when he said it was a bruise. He just didn’t put the broken bone part in.”
Bengals president Mike Brown, sitting on the other side of Braham at the news conference, wouldn’t let Braham catalogue his many injuries. Braham shrugged again.
“Luckily none of them were severe injuries,” Braham said.
Judge for yourself:
1995: On season-ending injured reserve with severe ankle sprain.
1998: Ran streak to 44 straight games at left guard despite broken toe for 3-13 team. Missed the last four games with a kneecap injury that required arthroscopic knee surgery.
2000: Began training camp with another knee scope, started first two games but missed the next seven with yet another knee scope when problems recurred, and returned to play the final seven games for a 4-12 team.
2001: Played all 16 games despite being diagnosed with a herniated neck disc after the third game for a 6-10 team.
2002: Missed one game with an ankle sprain. Had arthroscopic elbow surgery during the bye week and didn’t miss a game because of it for a team that was 0-6 at the bye.
2004: After knee scope two weeks before the regular season, he had to leave opener before returning for nine games before another knee injury knocked him out of the last three games for an 8-8 team.
2005: Knee strain kept him out of one game for 11-5 team.
2006: Suffered tibial plateau fracture, around the knee, missed the last 14 games, and announced his retirement before the last one for an 8-7 team.
Told the neck problem seemed to be quite severe, he said, “Just a little bulge.”
As you can see, Braham put a lot on the line for bad teams. Picked up on waivers in the heart of Blakemania, Braham, along with Anderson, are the only guys who blocked for Boomer Esiason and Palmer and all of the 1,000-yard seasons by Corey Dillon and Rudi Johnson.
But Braham says he doesn’t dwell on the 1997 offer sheet from the future three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots that the Bengals matched.
“A couple of rings,” he said with a smile. “No, I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve been here. Not many guys play (all their games) in one place.”
It was kind of like a wake Wednesday with the stories that were flowing, although Braham said it was a happy day. After all, he just wanted to play a second year “after getting fired my first year.” Never mind playing 13.
Braham remembered getting Bills Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith to go the opposite way of a draw play that went for about 15 yards and Smith said, “Young man, you’ll never be able to do that again.”
Alexander remembered how Braham would pull so quickly and well as a left guard and how he would hit foes so hard he would hurt himself. Hits like that are called “goats,” as in two goats butting heads, and Braham’s nickname quickly became “Goat.”
“We didn’t know if he’d last his whole career because he used to hit guys so hard,” Alexander said. “He used to beat himself up. Since he couldn’t control himself, we had to control him.”
Braham shrugged. He says he’ll miss the meetings and the camaraderie and the guys. The guys said the same thing.
“I never saw Richie get into a fight,” Houshmandzadeh said. “You always see linemen get into fights, but everybody had too much respect for him to do him that way.”
The Goat taught the kids well.
Dave Lapham, the Bengals radio analyst who himself played 10 seasons along the Cincinnati front, framed Rich Braham’s retirement best Wednesday.
“He’s a Norman Rockwell portrait of an offensive lineman,” Lapham said. “In everything. I’ve never seen anyone tougher. His pain tolerance has been unbelievable.”
It was 12 Norman Rockwell calendars, plus a month ago that Bengals offensive line coach Jim McNally and tight ends coach Paul Alexander took a pair of double takes when they saw Braham’s name on the NFL’s Nov. 18, 1994 waiver wire from Arizona. To this day, the day Braham retired after 146 games, 142 starts, four arthroscopic knee surgeries, two sprained ankles, a herniated neck disc, a broken toe, and, finally, one tibial plateau fracture, they remember what they were thinking when they saw the name they knew from the ’94 draft.
“One tough guy,” said McNally on Wednesday from Buffalo, where he’s the Bills offensive line coach. “He was mean. He had an attitude. A mean streak. And you knew he was going to be at every practice and every meeting trying as hard as he could. And you always think that can make a good player.”
Alexander, now the Bengals offensive line coach, got to sit next to Braham at Wednesday’s retirement news conference and recalled his workout at West Virginia when Braham knocked him down during a pass blocking drill and Alexander thought, “we have to get this guy.”
“This guy” is now going to have what amounts to a day Sunday with a pregame ceremony at the regular-season finale at Paul Brown Stadium against Pittsburgh as the seventh player to play at least 13 seasons in Cincinnati.
"It will be pretty emotional, but I think it will be kind of neat,” Braham said. "To sit there and get a happy farewell from great fans."
The first 40,000 fans receive a poster of Braham at a game where he won't dress, but shows off why he was so important to the Bengals offense.
“I think the last two or three seasons he’s been a big reason in Carson’s (Palmer) development and for this so–called high-scoring offense,” said Pro Bowl right tackle Willie Anderson. “Richie’s contribution is known for a long time by his teammates. Defenses can’t confuse Carson because they couldn’t confuse Richie.”
Eric Ghiaciuc, the second-year center Braham has schooled since breaking the top of his lower leg in the second game of the season, gets his second start of the season against the Steelers and like Anderson said, “that would be tough (even) for a 13-year guy.”
First there is Pittsburgh’s multiple 3-4 looks that wreak havoc in pass protection and must be diagnosed immediately by the center to get the right protection called. Secondly, there is Steelers 320-pound Pro Bowl nose tackle Casey Hampton lined up across from Ghiaciuc.
“I was a center but certainly not at Richie’s level,” said Bengals assistant offensive line coach Bob Surace, the former Princeton anchor. “When I first got here and was looking at film, I was thinking, ‘Look at this guy. He’s making a fake to get to the linebacker.’ Or, ‘He’s using all kinds of tricks with his hands.’ When Paul talks at clinics about center play, it’s basically an hour talking about Richie and showing tape of him.”
At 305 pounds, Braham is a significant player in the evolution of the NFL, according to the studious Surace. When the Bengals switched Braham to center in 1999, it was at an age when defenses were stacking the line with giant road graders.
“Richie was one of the first big centers who wasn’t supposed to be light and fly around and get to the linebackers so quickly,” Surace said. “He was strong enough to take on the big guys.”
Another reason the Pittsburgh game is fitting for Rich Braham Day? It could be the last game for Steelers center Jeff Hartings, another 300-pounder in the same mold and two years younger than Braham who got more ink and money than Braham down through the years probably because he was on better teams.
Braham, 36, no doubt heard more praise Wednesday than in his 146 weeks combined.
Head coach Marvin Lewis: “Richie has not missed a Saturday night at the hotel this season. That tells you right there what kind of pro he is. He’s been there for his teammates. He’s been on the road with us. I had to tell him to quit answering the questions in the meetings. It’s because of habit, and that’s what he means. If he ever wanted to be a coach, he’d be a great football coach, but I think he’s probably smarter than that.”
Palmer: “I told Richie last week when he told me he was retiring that I wish he was born eight years later and I was born eight years earlier because we would have had a heck of a run together. I've always thought that Richie's as good as it gets at his position. He's a great person, a great guy, an unbelievable teammate, and a very unselfish teammate. But athletically and physically, he's as good as it gets at that position.”
Anderson: “His career embodies what every person on this team should strive to be; a tough-nosed, smart, willing-to-do-anything-for-the-team-to-win-type player.”
Braham did what he always does and shrugged it off. But not before he admitted, “In football, not only being a good player, but respect can be a factor. It’s good to know you’re respected.”
Braham supplied his own epitaph: “Just someone who came to work every day, played hard, and went home.”
Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh always felt at home when Braham was in the lineup. He said it back in May and June - the two most important players on the offense were Palmer and Braham.
“When Richie got hurt, that’s when we started losing,” Houshmandzadeh said. “We won that Pittsburgh game, but Carson got killed. I was shocked when I heard he was retiring, but not really. He wants to play with his kids and all the hits on his body have taken a toll. You can’t blame him. I just wish we could have sent him out on top. That’s one of the reasons I’d like to make the playoffs; give him something to look forward to.”
Braham can no longer play this season. He doesn’t know if the tibial plateau fracture, which occurs at the top of the shin bone and involves the cartilage surface of the knee joint, is going to heal next week or next year. He pretty much knew his career was over when he couldn’t get back for the Nov. 30 game against Baltimore after being unable to stay on the practice field.
"It felt good until you practice on someone like Sam Adams and you're like, 'Oooh, it still hurts.' It got to the point I could barely walk," Braham said.
He let Lewis off the hook for describing the injury the last 15 weeks as “a bone bruise.”
“It broke and slid down into my leg and spread down,” Braham said with a smile. “The thing about it, it was crushed. When it crushed, it bled and bruised, so Coach Lewis was technically right when he said it was a bruise. He just didn’t put the broken bone part in.”
Bengals president Mike Brown, sitting on the other side of Braham at the news conference, wouldn’t let Braham catalogue his many injuries. Braham shrugged again.
“Luckily none of them were severe injuries,” Braham said.
Judge for yourself:
1995: On season-ending injured reserve with severe ankle sprain.
1998: Ran streak to 44 straight games at left guard despite broken toe for 3-13 team. Missed the last four games with a kneecap injury that required arthroscopic knee surgery.
2000: Began training camp with another knee scope, started first two games but missed the next seven with yet another knee scope when problems recurred, and returned to play the final seven games for a 4-12 team.
2001: Played all 16 games despite being diagnosed with a herniated neck disc after the third game for a 6-10 team.
2002: Missed one game with an ankle sprain. Had arthroscopic elbow surgery during the bye week and didn’t miss a game because of it for a team that was 0-6 at the bye.
2004: After knee scope two weeks before the regular season, he had to leave opener before returning for nine games before another knee injury knocked him out of the last three games for an 8-8 team.
2005: Knee strain kept him out of one game for 11-5 team.
2006: Suffered tibial plateau fracture, around the knee, missed the last 14 games, and announced his retirement before the last one for an 8-7 team.
Told the neck problem seemed to be quite severe, he said, “Just a little bulge.”
As you can see, Braham put a lot on the line for bad teams. Picked up on waivers in the heart of Blakemania, Braham, along with Anderson, are the only guys who blocked for Boomer Esiason and Palmer and all of the 1,000-yard seasons by Corey Dillon and Rudi Johnson.
But Braham says he doesn’t dwell on the 1997 offer sheet from the future three-time Super Bowl champion New England Patriots that the Bengals matched.
“A couple of rings,” he said with a smile. “No, I’ve enjoyed every minute I’ve been here. Not many guys play (all their games) in one place.”
It was kind of like a wake Wednesday with the stories that were flowing, although Braham said it was a happy day. After all, he just wanted to play a second year “after getting fired my first year.” Never mind playing 13.
Braham remembered getting Bills Hall of Fame defensive end Bruce Smith to go the opposite way of a draw play that went for about 15 yards and Smith said, “Young man, you’ll never be able to do that again.”
Alexander remembered how Braham would pull so quickly and well as a left guard and how he would hit foes so hard he would hurt himself. Hits like that are called “goats,” as in two goats butting heads, and Braham’s nickname quickly became “Goat.”
“We didn’t know if he’d last his whole career because he used to hit guys so hard,” Alexander said. “He used to beat himself up. Since he couldn’t control himself, we had to control him.”
Braham shrugged. He says he’ll miss the meetings and the camaraderie and the guys. The guys said the same thing.
“I never saw Richie get into a fight,” Houshmandzadeh said. “You always see linemen get into fights, but everybody had too much respect for him to do him that way.”
The Goat taught the kids well.
