Romberg Plugging Away In the Trenches
Brett Romberg is standing in the Atlanta Falcons locker room as he talks on the phone in slightly reverential tones.
"I'm looking at Tony Gonzalez over there," he says. "He's probably the best player at his position in the league's history. He's in what -- his 13th season? And he still looks and plays like he's 23."
"There's Roddy White," he continues. "He is ridiculously fast and doesn't drop a thing. And Michael Turner -- I didn't even recognize him when I first met him because he's kind of small, but he's thick. Thick enough to run through you, but then you're amazed at how he can get out on the corner and run around you. Always because of Ovie's blocking, of course."
He lets out a quick laugh at this point because fullback Ovie Mughelli has been dressing in the stall beside him and listening in while the 29-year-old Canadian centre goes on about the Falcons offence.
After a short pause, Romberg continued, "We have weapons here that you don't normally see on any one team. It's not a matter of whether we're going to score on you. It's how quick are we going to do it."
You could excuse the native of tiny Belle River, Ontario if he seems a little overzealous when it comes to the subject of his new team. After all, he spent the last three years at the centre, figuratively and literally, of one of the biggest messes in the National Football League. In Romberg's three seasons playing with the St. Louis Rams, the team went 8-8 (2006), 3-13 (2007) and 2-14 (2008). The Rams, a team once famously known as "The Greatest Show on Turf," got turfed by their opponents with greater regularity last season than any other club short of the winless Detroit Lions. The "For Sale" sign was reportedly hung out on the Rams franchise just shortly after Romberg fled as a free agent to the Falcons.
"It's a pretty great blessing to be here," he says with conviction. "As an athlete, you just know when you're part of something special."
Romberg certainly knows "special." He won a championship in high school, took his junior club team from Windsor to the Canadian national final and anchored the offensive line of what some view as the best U.S. college team ever, the 2001 NCAA Champion Miami Hurricanes.
He has blocked for stars like Clinton Portis, Willis McGahee, Fred Taylor and Steven Jackson. He has played alongside the likes of All-Pros Ed Reed, Andre Johnson, Torry Holt and Rashean Mathis. His 2005 Jacksonville Jaguars team went 12-4, only to be upended in the playoffs by the eventual Super Bowl Champs from New England.
This is a player who is accustomed to success and expects it in Atlanta, with the defending NFC South Division champs. "This is a winning program," he says. "With nothing but good things ahead. Coach Smitty [Mike Smith] always talks about enjoying the journey. We're going to do just that."
For Romberg, his own journey has taken him from Belle River to a college scholarship at "The U" in Coral Gables and then on to pro football in Jacksonville, St. Louis and now Atlanta. "I totally have the greatest job in the world," he says in the kind of voice that lets you know he means it. "Yes, it's ridiculously hard from a physical and mental standpoint, but there are plenty of benefits."
He says all of this acknowledging the struggles of people back in his hometown, an area where the unemployment rate has soared to near 16 percent. "Easily three-quarters of my family is employed or directly affected by the auto industry," he says. "My mom saw her hours cut back from full-time to part-time at her job. My whole family has always kept me grounded and reminded me of the good life that I have been lucky enough to earn through football."
This is not to say football has been all good to Romberg. As a centre, he is regularly subjected to the kind of physical beating most people endure in small car wrecks. "My whole body creaks now," he says. "It's so hard to get up in the morning and just go to the bathroom."
Remember, this is a young man speaking, still four weeks shy of his 30th birthday.
Those aches and pains don't diminish his love for the game that has provided for him, his wife Emily and the family they are now looking to start in their new home in Miami. "I feel my age out on the field now," he says. "But I'm going to play until the wheels fall off."
"Enjoy the journey," he says again thoughtfully. It's a phrase that Romberg clearly has a deeper understanding and appreciation for. "Enjoy the journey and you'll like the outcome. That's what coach always says to us." The next leg in Romberg's own remarkable journey begins on Sunday when his Falcons play host to the Miami Dolphins.
Atogwe: A Rising Star
Quick! Name the defensive Pro Bowler that has the most takeaways -- interceptions and forced fumbles -- of any player in the NFL over the past three seasons.
It's got to be super safety Troy Polamalu, you say. No -- he might now have a shiny new Super Bowl ring, but the Steeler star can't lay claim to this title. Guess again.
Ray Lewis or Ed Reed? There's good reason to rave about those Ravens, but it's not them either.
Ball-hawking corners Champ Bailey or Nnamdi Asomugha? Bailey's not the champ, nor is Nnamdi.
The answer is Canada's very own Oshiomogho ("O.J.") Atogwe, a safety with the Rams who grew up in Windsor, Ontario.
The 28-year-old has been with the Rams for four years now and has started every game since the start of the 2006 campaign. According to the Rams records he has produced an astonishing 16 interceptions and 16 forced fumbles since he moved into the starting lineup. That's more than Polamalu...more than Reed...more than any other player in the league. When asked about this, Atogwe provided a typically Canadian response. Speaking in a quiet voice and measured tones on a phone in the midst of a loud locker room, he said, "That's nice and it's an added bonus when you can see it affect the result of the game. But I can only do my job and produce like that if my teammates are doing their jobs."
Atogwe was certainly doing his job well in a recent preseason game against the Bengals, forcing a fumble that was returned for the game-winning touchdown. Atogwe described the play in the simplest of terms - "I was down in the box and they ran to the weak side. Our defensive end got to the back first and started to wrap up when I laid a little bit of a hit on him. The ball bounced to James [Butler] who ran it back."
This is Atogwe at his unassuming best. If you actually watch the play, you'll see he chose to leave a few important details out. Like how he skillfully avoided two Bengals while bursting towards the ball carrier. Or how he savagely ripped the ball from the back's hands. Or that he laid blocks on three different players during the runback, personally escorting Butler over 73 yards to the end zone. Clearly, there's no Ochocinco and not even a hint of T.O. in O.J.
"He's just such a professional," says his fellow Canadian NFLer Brett Romberg. The two were high school rivals in Windsor, but teammates on the Rams for the past three seasons.
"When I was there he just worked so much harder in practice and spent so much more time watching video than the other players," says Romberg who joined the Atlanta Falcons as a free agent this offseason. "That was amazing to me because he never seemed to take anything serious in high school. I mean, who does?"
"He's right," says Atogwe who chose the words nonchalant and lackadaisical when asked to describe his younger self. "When you're a kid you just don't appreciate the gifts God has given you, like athletic ability or intelligence, and how blessed you are. But as you age, mature and move to higher levels of achievement in football or other fields, you see others that are just as talented and gifted as you. What ultimately separates you from them? Dedication, commitment and the time you spend working at your craft in whatever interest you pursue."
It's ironic that a player so famous for his takeaways is becoming equally well known for giving back. Atogwe was recently nominated for the Jefferson Award for Outstanding Public Service. "Working through my foundation has given me the chance to help others achieve their dreams," he says. "Oftentimes what I find is those who perform public service are the ones that actually receive the most out of it."
When asked about it, Atogwe played down his nomination. He never once brought up the names of past winners like Oprah Winfrey or Bill Gates or other nominees like Steve Nash and Venus Williams. Instead he talked of his foundation, food giveaways, donations to St. Louis schools and other community-based projects. He talked of responsibility and accountability. But rarely ever talked of himself. Refreshing, isn't it?
As successful as Atogwe has been on an individual basis, he hasn't yet been able to lift his team to a winning record. The Rams went 2-14 last year and only escaped national embarrassment thanks to the record futility of the 0-16 Detroit Lions. Now the Rams enter a new season, with a new coach, a number of new players and Atogwe says, a whole new outlook. "There's only one outlook and it's a positive one," he says. "You can't look to the past to see where you fell down and where things went wrong. You look to the past to see where you can go to move forward successfully. If you believe, only good things will follow."