The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - September 9, 1991 - Page 3 B&a: aste fix B3aaretatter Brandstatter The former 'M' tackle talks of life on the other side of the mike Jim Brandstatter played offen- ive tackle at Michigan from 1969 olo 1971. He played in Bo Schem- bechler's first years in Ann Arbor, and one of the highlights of his ,career was the legendary victory ever Ohio State in 1969. Today, he is the host of "Michigan Replay," '(the Sunday morning coach's show) and is also an analyst for WWJ- /?adio's broadcasts of Wolverine football games. Daily sports writer Adam Miller called Brandstatter to *get his thouglts on the current state of Michigan athletics. Daily: How does broadcasting a game compare to being in one? Brandstatter: In broadcasting, the difference in doing a game - es- pecially I do an analyst's job as op- posed to play by play - you look at a more overall picture of what the offense is doing and what the de- fense is doing to stop what the of- *;fense is doing. So as an offensive lineman, you are more concerned in a game of one specific job, block this guy, keep him away from a passer. As a broad- caster, you look at the overall pic- ture a little bit and what's happen- ing in the game and what kind of a pattern the game is taking. D: You also work doing Lions broadcasts. How does it compare to doing a Michigan game on Saturday? - B: I think at the college level there is a great deal more emotion. It's not a business, as much as it is in the National Football League. It's still the same game but motivation to some degree for the players is different. At the college level for the most part out of the starting 22, 16 or 17 of them will never go on *-and play professional football. They ,are out there for the love of the .game. The NFL game, without ques- ,tion, has more skilled athletes and at every position. They're high-qual- ity players. The guys are faster, they're bigger. But at the college level, I think that the beauty of it is the joy that the kids show in playing the game. D: What's the thing you like most about being a football broad- caster? B: I think it's the fact that I en- joy the game and I have the opportu- nity and I'm very, very, very lucky to have the opportunity to get into the games for nothing and talk about the games on the radio. I think every game is a separate Sstory with a beginning, a middle and the end. And if I can help the lis- tener understand the story a little more and make it a little more fun for him to listen to the game and en- joy the process of going from the beginning to the middle and getting to the end, then I think I've done a good job. D: What's it like doing Michi- gan Replay?. B: Basically it's a pretty straight :television show. Bob Lipson and I :pick highlights of what we think are key plays during a drive. I try to tell the story of a game in a seven- minute segment of highlights. We also try to take on some is- sues. We are planning this year, as a matter of fact, to talk to President Duderstadt and talk to him about the Council of 10 and some of the involvement now of college presi- dents in collegiate athletics. As op- posed to being just a football show, we want to be able to entertain and inform. 'I think at the college level there is a great deal more emotion. Its not a business, as much as it is in the National Football League' D: For a while people didn't call it Michigan Replay. They called it the Bo Show. Now that Moeller's there, how's the show changed? B: It hasn't changed a bit. Our format hasn't changed at all. The only change was that in Bo's last 10 years as coach, he was really a very important spokesman for collegiate football. He had success, he had experience, he was past President of the Ameri- can Football Coaches Association, so what he said was important and he was not unwilling to say things that might have been controversial. I think that in Mo's first year, it's just like being a rookie at any- thing. You're a little bit less con- troversial. You want to make sure everything is just right. You don't want to rock too many boats. And now I think Gary Moeller is the coach of Michigan and I don't think you'll hear as much talk about Bo this year as you did last year. And I think Gary Moeller will ma- ture and develop into his own per- sonality and create his own kind of image and I think Michigan Replay will help that. D: How do you handle the situa- tion where you're both an outsider as a member of the media now, but you still have great ties to the Uni- versity? B:You know, in collegiate ath- letics, I don't very much get on kids as far as saying, "You should have done this," or "Should have done that." These are kids still; they're students. I might be a little more critical of a guy playing a profes- sional game because he's being paid to do it. If I say something positive, peo- ple will say "Oh he's a Michigan guy," so there are occasions when some things happen that I'll bite my tongue a little bit. I don't think that's fair to me, but I understand it because the perception from other people is because that I graduated, but I try to be as objective as I pos- sibly can. D: What are your main recollec- tions of playing Michigan football? B: Oh, I think the friendships that I made with the members of the team. You become a family and I think that Bo created that when he came in there. As a member of a Michigan football team, you became a member of a family and that's a very close, tightly knit family. You go to practice every day. You get beat up and all of this seems like you talk to veterans from certain wars, they'll tell you that, "Man, if I want to go to war, I want to go to war with that guy." D: Has your relationship with Bo (Schembechler) changed now that you were the broadcaster with him on Michigan Replay and you did play under him before? B: Oh, not really. I don't think your relationship ever changes from when you are a player. Once a player for Bo, you're always a player, no matter what it is. It's not that we're afraid of him, but we're his friends now and yet, and we have great re- spect for the man and yet you al- ways have this thing where any minute he might tell you, "You know, you're just too fat and you ought to lose some weight." You know, he just has that ability. D: Everyone has heard the story about the time that he kicked you in the rear end. Is that exactly as Bo told it or is there another side to it? B: It's a legendary story, isn't it? It was the Tuesday after we got beat by Missouri in 1969. We had a punt blocked in that game. So on Tuesday, when we first day go in pads, we lined up to do special teams practice 'Once a player for Bo, you're always a player, no matter what it is' and he told everybody on the defense that they better button up the chin straps and come hard because he was going to solve this problem of why we were getting punts blocked. So we basically went live punts, and Dierdorf had a hip pointer and I was playing the starting strong tackle. So I got in there and I made my block and I ran down field and I looked up and there was no ball. Somebody had gotten in and blocked the punt. Now Bo thought the guy came over me. Now he didn't. I know he didn't because I made sure that I got a piece of both guys who were to my outside, which was my assignment and then I took off. Well he ran, oh 30, 40 yards down field, screaming at the top of his lungs, and at the time we were practicing in the sta- dium and it was an empty stadium so it was echoing throughout the stadium. The entire practice field stopped. And he took off, oh I'd say two to three yards from me and kicked me and told me I was the worst tackle in the history of inter- collegiate football and to get off of the team. Now, I was running back to the huddle because I knew it wasn't my fault. As a matter of fact, when I saw that the punt got blocked, I said to myself, "Ooh, somebody's in big trouble." And I'm running back, kind of curling out and running back down the sidelines to get back into the huddle, and he keeps changing di- rection running right at me. You know at that point, he was not in the mood to talk about it. So I headed up the tunnel. I was on my way out. I thought "Well, that's it for me. My college career is over," and Jerry Hanlon came over and got me and said "No no, don't worry about it. Don't worry about it." And I said, "Well he told me to leave." And he said, "Don't worry about it. It wasn't your guy." And I said, "Why don't you tell him that." And he said, "Not right now." So, it was about two days later in practice when Bo came back up to me and says, "You don't think that was your fault, do you?" And I said, "Well, as a matter of fact, I know it wasn't, because I know who the guy was and I know it wasn't my guy" And he said, "Yeah, well maybe you just jabbed out too far." And I left, but we got over that very easily. Jeff SheranfR Today, Tripp enjoys game from his couch Tripp Welborne relaxed in front of the television Saturday, watching Michigan open its season at Boston College. It's been a while since he re- laxed on game day. He watched Otis Williams play strong safety, the position at which Welborne earned all-America honors, the position at which he thought he'd be playing right now in the NFL. While he watched, he bounced two-year-old Ryan on his scarred right knee, feeding him saltine crackers. Ryan is Williams' son and calls Welborne "Uncle." Though called "Tripp" since birth, Welborne's real name is Sullivan Anthony Welborne III. His nickname comes from being the third Sullivan in the family. He plans on making his own son the fourth. "I guess I'll call him 'Q,"' he said. He doesn't take bouncing Ryan on his knee for granted. Though there was a time when Welborne used to make razor-sharp cuts with that knee, there was also a time when he couldn't walk on it. It's been 10 months since the Minnesota game. Since the punt return. Since the injury. On that 31-yard return, Welborne suffered a host of injuries that would make an arthroscopic surgeon cringe: torn anterior cruciate liga- ment, torn medial collateral ligament, torn patella tendon, broken kneecap, and further damage that seems minor compared to the other problems. He remembers the play. "I got up, and I was like 'No, uh-uh, this didn't happen"' he said. "I tried to take a step, and there was nothing there. "Usually when I get banged up, they help me off the field and (cornerback and close friend Lance) Dottin would ask, 'Are you all right, man?' I'd always have something to say. "This time, when they took me off the field, Lance kept asking. I had nothing to say. He could just see it in my eyes." Welborne felt the physical pain; it was nothing a standout safety couldn't handle. But then there was the mental pain. "When I woke up in the hospital bed and couldn't get up to go to the bathroom, it hurt." It hurt others also. Desmond Howard called Welborne's injury, ."the worst thing since Len Bias' death." Welborne remembers how his friends handled the tragedy. "I was able to smile soon after that. I like smiling. But Desmond came in my, room two or three times, we'd talk, and next thing I know I see tears in his eyes. And I'm like, 'This is a time for me to laugh.' "We'd been close for a very long time," Welborne said of Howard. "I was almost like the poster boy for the team - the example that every- one tried to follow to succeed. When I got hurt, it sort of ruined his vi- carious dreams." Walking on crutches, Welborne returned to the team during its Gator See SHERAN, Page 7 0 WHAT'S HAPPENING U .-I You can make a difference and Earn Credit! The Homeless Project The Adult Literacy.Project The Elderly Project The Youth at Risk Project A 2-4 credit service learning course. RECREATIONAL SPORTS Intramural Sports Program SPORTS OFFICIALS NEEDED SPORT SOCCER FOR FALL TERM CLINIC BEGINS TUE SEPT 10 SOFTBALL TUE SEPT 17 FOOTBALL TUE OCT 1 ICE HOCKEY WED OCT9 ALL CLINICS CONDUCTED AT IMSB BEGINNING 7:00PM CALL 763-3562 FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Trained Volunteer Corps Room 2205, Michigan Union 763-3548 1y' UNION ADVENTURE. DON'T MISS THE BOAT. History is happening in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Learn one of the key languages of that region; go there and experience the difference for yourself. 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