Built To Last

As he sits there spilling over his chair in a way expected of a linebacker in the NFL, those at the National Signing Day party sat dumbfounded when they were given a tip from a reliable source.

Jasper Brinkley has not always been this big.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about Jasper is that he’s always been this NFL linebacker prototype. Actually, he was rather skinny as he was coming up through our program,” says John Barnett, Defensive Coordinator at Thomson High School during Brinkley’s tenure there.

Gasp. It’s even surprising to hear it myself, as Jasper and I were teammates at Georgia Military College (GMC), and I just assumed he was always the alpha male he was at that time, especially during the Oklahoma drill. But regardless of his size before then, and now, he actually got there by practicing two words many of us preach to ourselves all too often and never completely sellout to. Hard work. “It’s more of a zone that you go into than anything else,” notes Brinkley. That’s right, no over-the-top nutrition plan or wacky fitness gimmick. Just plain ole hard work. And it was on the practice field with Coach Barnett, and fiery Georgia High School Coaching legend Luther Welch where his drive and attention to detail were instilled.

It would be too easy to just chalk up Jasper’s competitiveness to having an identical twin brother who also played in the NFL (Casper, who is a former member of the Carolina Panthers). Yes, because when he wasn’t too busy taking on someone his own size, he was being pushed by the eventual ’02 AAA State Football Champs on a daily basis. Oh, and then there’s the matter of having a head coach who never missed a practice in 56 consecutive seasons. “The discipline that Coach Welsh had is kind of the same as being in a military school,” says Brinkley. Kind of you say?

Upon finishing their championship reign at Thomson, Jasper and his brother, due to academic issues enrolled at GMC. They found the underlined mission statement at GMC to be reminiscent of Coach Welsh’s: Separate men from boys. Soon Jasper added cadet duties to his daily routine, which amounted to pretty much everything seen in the movies: scrubbing bathrooms with toothbrushes, shining floors until YOU might eat off them, standing at attention for hours on end. Basically anything but getting a good night’s rest. All this to play at one of the premier JUCO’s and compete with better, faster competition.

After a stellar two-year stint at GMC, Jasper headed to play at South Carolina, in the Southeastern Conference (SEC). Jasper starred in a conference that has taken the last five National Championship trophies with players whose freakish athleticism alone bring you to call your cable provider to-- budgeted or not-- upgrade to HD. After making the All-SEC team as a senior, Jasper knew he was one step away from making his boyhood dream a reality.

Every time he moved up a level, Jasper had to build his body to take the increased punishment each one doled out. This is seen even in his preparation for the NFL combine. A round-the-clock schedule of speed conditioning, weights and flexibility training that has nothing to do with football, but is monumental in the draft process. And his hard work paid off for him as he was drafted in the 5th round of the 2009 NFL Draft to the Minnesota Vikings as a run-stopping linebacker who could soon replace an aging E.J. Henderson, the starting middle linebacker.

And as high as he’s pushed the bar in just this short amount of time, he expects to keep up with his progress and always stay hungry for more. Even talking with him makes you wanna go out and, I don’t know, do something! “Just compete when you’re out there, no matter what it is you are doing. Compete,”

Weekend Roundup

Favre wondering how many times you'll fall for the ol' retirement trick.

I wanna start with a special thanks going Patrick Willis’ way.

The punishing sack from Willis was all that Brad Childress needed to see to determine that Brett Favre’s day was done. Finished. If you are wondering how many snaps Favre took part in against the San Francisco 49’s, the number on his jersey tells the story. Four plays. We knew coming in that he would only take part in one or two series at the most, but regardless of what plans anyone who has their checks signed by the Minnesota Vikings had for Favre in his first preseason game, they were jettisoned after the vicious sack by Willis. While others got in some quality work, Favre in fact did not. This brings me to the other thing that bugged me watching the game. For as many replays as you will see today about how the sack was the deciding factor is pulling Favre, attention will not be paid to the pathetic block attempt by Adrian Peterson. It is only preseason and the Vikings have a long daunting task in trying to get Favre to play near the same level as last year, but hop-stepping into a block, and keeping your weight on your heels with a middle linebacker coming free has never been the answer. Not on any level of play. In fact, it could have been potentially season ending if struck the wrong way. Just ask my former teammate at Valdosta State, Maurice Leggett, now a member of the Kansas City Chiefs, who was taken off the field on a golf cart during their preseason game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers this weekend. Just because on one play the stars did not align and one play was all it took to deliver a serious injury to a guy going into his third season, much less his 20th as Favre is. Adrian Peterson is paid to run the football without abandon not block that way. I get it. But for a player that supposedly likes physical play and needs to have a standout year to get back on track, that kind of play makes my mind wonder towards betting the under on total wins for the Vikings this year.

Other Thoughts…

- Love the backup QB play from both teams. Joe Webb of the Vikings is physically gifted and very raw for the NFL now, but if the 49’s didn’t get stellar play from their soon-to-be clipboard holder, Nate Davis, we could just as easily be talking about the prospects for the Vikings, who could end up dropping Sage Rosenfels and sticking with Webb-excuse the pun- and Tarvaris Jackson. That move would give them two dual threat QB’s to one pro style-Brett Favre. Very interesting to look forward to in watching these last few preseason games.


- Former Stanford Cardinal Toby Gerhart could make a comfortable place for himself on this Viking squad if they can keep getting that kind of production out of him on screen passes and inside runs. He is heavier so his running style will feature even less lateral movement-not a negative-than we’ve seen from him in the pass, and with continued development blocking out of the shotgun formation could be called on early if Peterson is not overly effective running the ball and continues to show his major deficiencies involving fumbles and picking up blitzes with success.

- The entire game was bloated with Favre talk to the point of the entire first half previewing and teasing the Al Michaels halftime interview, at halftime the interview was finally played-BOOOOO!!!!- and finishing up by breaking down Favre’s answers for the entire second half. That’s just the way the broadcasts work these days, I guess I’m going to have to shut up and keep watching.

- During the interview with Favre that took place late in the game, you could tell Favre was annoyed at being pulled so early. Not a good day of work for Favre and you could tell that he understands how limited and valuable this time is before these games start counting for real. They can say that he and Childress have worked out their differences, but I’d bet you could cut the tension between the two all season long with a knife.

- Prep Thoughts: Hopefully Williston-Elko has replaced the Kool-Aid with Gatorade in their coolers or what a shame this season would be with all that firepower and talent. If I were a betting man I’d say head coach Dwayne Garrick has handled this with his team already.

- With the first full slate of high school games starting this Friday, we’ve already had two attention-grabbing games to kick off the year, I’d say expect some great things from this area in high school football this year.