IM Wedesday
FOOTBALL
From Page 4B
Roundtree is a fan of the game first. At the mere men-
tion of his teammates or his favorite players, his eyes light
up. He's so impassioned that during our interview, he often
forgot I wasn't inside his head, as he told me fragments of
stories and omitted names. Those kinds of interviews can
be frustrating, but his excitement was so contagious that I
didn't mind listening a bit closer.
As I listened, I was reminded of a lecture in one of my
classes. Physics Prof. Robert Savit told us about Einstein's
Theory of Relativity - how time can't be understood in a
linear way because as we move relative to each other, time
can actually bend and shift in speed depending on our per-
spective.
Savit's explanation of relativity sounded similar to
Roundtree's description of the way he feels when he is
catching aball during abig play:
"It just seems like everything slows down once the ball's
in the air," he said. "Your mind is so set on focusing on that
football - you don't hear nothing. It's just silent. Once that
ball's in the air ... You think you'd hear the crowd, but you
don't see the crowd because you're so zoomed in on that tar-
get."
' This odd combination of science and sport gave me my
first insight into the mind of the players I capture every
weekend: Roundtree isn't just another player on the field
who is in the right place at the right time - he is a craftsman
of time, a strategist, but most importantly, Roundtree is an
individual with his own perspective.
Roundtree discovered the sport after his family moved
from Pahokee, Fla. to Trotwood, Ohio.
"I didn't know nothing about football at the time because
I was young and I wasn't really focused on football - I was
focused on lizards. I wasn't a sports junkie until I moved to
Ohio at 5 years old. That's when I really focused on football.
As I got older, it was just something I always worked hard
fr."
In Ohio, Roundtree met his current roommates and
teammates, senior running back Michael Shaw and senior
tight end Brandon Moore, and they bonded over football.
Roundtree learns best by example and he has had a lot of
teachers.
"I watched Mario Manningham throughout high school,
Braylon Edwards, Steve Breaston. Randy Mossawas the wide
receiver I looked up to though," he said. "I just loved Randy
Moss. The way he took the game - the way he went up for
the ball, ran his routes. He was a fast, big wide receiver. He
used to Moss people. That's what they would call it: 'Moss-
ed.'"
When Roundtree watches his idols play,he isn't just enter-
tained. He is studying. He watches their technique, physi-
cality and the way they conduct themselves off the field and
toward fans. He remembered his first visit to the Big House
during his sophomore year of high school - the era of wide
receiver Steve Breaston and quarterback Chad Henne.After
the game, he was lucky enough to meet Breaston.
"I was with Brandon Moore and his father, and he was
like, 'Go ahead and take a picture with him.' I was shy. (I
thought), 'He isn't going to take no picture with me.' I did
it though. I got a picture with him," Roundtree recalled.
"After the games now, I see all the little kids and think back
to when I was scared to ask for an autograph so 1 give it to
them, take pictures with them, too.
"Just seeing the people who support us every Saturday,
you have no choice but to give back. It's not mandatory for
them to come to the games, it just shows how much they
care about Michigan football, and, you know, we take that in
and embrace ita lot. Every time we walk through that tun-
nel, and we see 110,000 people, that's the stuff you can't ask
for."
Roundtree knows how lucky he is to be here.
"Signing (at) Michigan, I felt like I accomplished some-
thing. I told my mom that I was going to work hard soI can
get a scholarship to play college football, once I signed on
that dotted line, I saw the tears of my mom and my dad and
that was something I did. Now I'm working on that degree
so I can make them cry again, so I can feel like I did my job."
Hoke tells his players to play for the man next to him,
and Roundtree really takes that to heart. For him, football
is more than a sport - it's a community and a family. When
I asked him about having to miss celebrating Thanksgiv-
ing with his family to prepare for the Ohio State game this
weekend, he was insistent that despite loving and missing
his family, this is where he needs be. I realized that, for
Roundtree, the hard work and long hours aren't a sacrifice,
but an expression of his love of the game and the people he
plays it with.
"Once I got to college, there was no free time, more study-
ing, lifting weights a lot," he said. "You know your body be
tired - all you want to do is go to sleep when you get home.
Youaren'thome withyour parents, soyou can't say,'Ohmom
can you cook for me?' The transition was very, very hard.
Most of us stayed together though and made it through it."
Even though Roundtree puts the work in and takes the
game and influence he has on fans seriously, it is refreshing
to see him recognize football should be fun. For him, foot-
ball means meeting new people, traveling to new places
and getting the chance to play the game he knows inside
and out.
Roundtree is a fan and that gives him a unique perspec-
tive as a player. He doesn't think that the time he takes to
ReTweet a message from a Michigan fan on twitter or sign
an autograph is going above and beyond the call of duty. For
him, it's just as much a part of the job as running his routes
every Saturday.
THE LEGACY
Though it onlytakes 10 minutes to get to Central Campus,
Senior saftey Troy Woolfolk's version of college life could
not seem more foreign to me.
Immediatelyupon entering his apartment, I'm welcomed
by his dog Julius, his cat Jasper and the sounds and smells
the dinner his girlfriend Ashley is cooking in the kitchen.
There is something distinctly adult about the way Troy
lives. He is far removed from the rest of campus, and that
is no accident.
"When I was in the dorms my freshman year, I had my
campus experience and it was fun," he said. "I feel like I
need my own time, my own space, to just go home and get
my thoughts recollected. Just play with my dog or chill with
my cat. Ijustneed mytime. This is myman cave, and no one
can come here."
The setup in his apartment is basic: a couch, TV, kitchen
and bedroom. The only decorative accents are two framed
Michigan jerseys featuring the Woolfolk name: one displays
No. 29 and the other No. 24. The latter is the number his
father Butch wore when he was a running back for Michi-
gan.
Butch was a star athlete. Not only did he lead the Wol-
verines in rushing for three consecutive seasons - setting
the school record with 3,850 rushingyards - but Butch was
also an All-American track athlete at Michigan.
Woolfolk followed in his father's footsteps. He has been
running track since he was 8years old and is now playing for
his father's alma mater.
Because of his father's legacy, Woolfolk arrived at the
University with a predetermined identity - something he
has strived to change by making a name for himself.
"I didn't have a name freshman and sophomore year.
My name was Butch's son," he said. "He was a great run-
ning back, and everyone knows about him. Once I got here,
it exploded on me. I just thought my accomplishments
were being overshadowed by my dad's figure. I just wanted
acknowledgement for my own accomplishments as well."
Woolfolk related how he appreciates being recognized
for his own identity.
"I specifically remember the first fan that came up to me
and said, 'Try Woolfolk,' and thatwas big for me,"Woolfolk
said. "I got my own name, and I'm becoming my own person
and that was really special to me."
The expectations of his team, family and fans, coupled
with the very sobering reality of multiple potentially career-
ending injuries, have made Woolfolk tougher than the aver-
age undergraduate student. On Aug. 17, 2010, Woolfolk broke
his leg during practice.
"You could visibly see something was really messed up,"
he recalled. "The realization of being able to see your bone
dislocated, just chilling outside in a spot it's not suppose to
be, is really scary."
Woolfolk was out for a year after that injury. Instead of
spending his time on the field with his teammates, Wool-
foolk's spent his time on the couch in his one-bedroom
apartment - causing him to suffer from a bad case of cabin
fever.
"When I was able to get off the couch with crutches ... I
found myself on campus a lot," Woolfolk said. "I would even
try to go out just so I wouldn't have to come home. Being in a
spot too long, you want to leave it naturally."
Now that he is back on the field as a fifth-year senior, his
view of football has shifted more than even he anticipated.
"Going back out there for the first few games, I felt like a
freshman again because it had been so long since I had been
on the field," Woolfolk said. "So I had to refocus myself and
re-teach myself skills that I once had, but seem to have lost,
and I am still doing that now."
The injury that kept him off the field for a year is never far
from his thoughts.
"I would be lying if I told you (the injury) doesn't (affect
me)," he said. "It is going to take me getting over the past,
and realizing that it was a freak accident and being able to
move on to become a good football player. I am slowly but
surely getting over it, but it is something I think about."
It's not surprising that Woolfolk keeps returning to the
field. He knows football, having grown up in a sports cul-
ture. He also has all the physical prowess that a player at his
level could hope for, but a body prone to injuries that prohibit
him from utilizing those strengths.
But that is only part of it.
He spends so much time studying the game off the field
that technical schemes and strategic plays roll off his tongue
like lyrics to a favorite song. Yet every game forces Woolfolk
to put aside reason and trick himself into thinking he can
bring order to situations completelyoutside his control.
"You lose asense of control in awaywhenyou don'tknow
what's going to happen to you at any given play, any given
tackle. You don't control that," he said. "I wish I could, so I
could go on the field and play without worry, but you can't.
That's football."
While Woolfolk's approach to life is practical in a lot
of ways - like his home and focus on his education and
future - the fact that he keeps getting back up after getting
knocked down over and over again speaks much more to his
character than his last name can.
Like Prof. Savit's explanation of physics and time, what it
means to watch and play Michigan football shifts with per-
spective. The more players I speak with, the moreI realize
just how little I know about what it means to play Michigan
football.
I can never hope to capture everything that goes into
a game in a single frame. All I can do is narrow my focus,
shoot from as many angles as possible and hope that my
experience of the game can do it justice.
Wednesday, Noveber 23, 2011 // The Stateent EM
news in review
Five of the most talked-about stories of the week, ranked in ascending order of actual importance
9l
First Lady Michelle Obama and The mysterious death of film star The police chief of the University Amid growing concern of Iran's Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernan-
wife of the vice president Jill Biden Natalie Wood is being reinvesti- of California, Davis was put on nuclear program, the United dez, a 21 year old who allegedly
got booed by NASCAR fans at gated after 20 years of inactivity. administrative leave on Monday States, Canada and the United attempted to assassinate President
the Sprint Cup finale in Florida Wood disappeared in a boating after campus police sprayed Kingdom ordered new sanctions Barack Obama jn the White House
Sunday. They attended the event accident in 1981. Her body was dis- protesters affiliated with Occupy against the country on Monday. on Nov.11, underwent a psychiatric
to promote legislation designed to covered Sunday within one mile of Wall Street with pepper spray. An Iran maintained the nuclear pro- evaluation Monday to see if he's
boost veteran employment. the yacht on which fell overboard. interim police chief was named. gram is only for civilian purposes. competent to stand trial.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _-_- - _-_- _ _-_-_- - _-- - - - - ----
0 . . 1. 1 . 1 .. 27 1.3 4 1 1 . . 5. 1 . . 6I 7 I B I 9" I 10
quotes of the week from the archives
"He would always have beautiful girls with him, Greenwood's got sole
but Ihad no idea he was paying them to come. Ijust
thought he was a playboy."
SILVIO BERLUSCONI, FORMER ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER, denying
allegations that former associate Giampaolo Tarantini was recruiting
prostitutes for his use.
"It is only fairfor the Libyan people that he is tried
here." I
MAHMOUD SHAMMAM, LIBYAN INFORMATION MINISTER, on
the government's insistence that Muammar Gaddafi's son, Saif al-Islam
Gaddafi, be tried at home instead of the International Criminal-Court.ILLUSTRATIONBYHANNAH____
LLUTATN YH ANNA H DOW
unior quarterback Denard Robinson undoubtedly boasts the University's best
recognized set of kicks (the kid's name is "Shoelace," after all). Beyond the Big
the rules . House, however, is an equally iconic display of footwear: the shoes draped by
students on the Greenwood Avenue powerlines, the history of which The Michigan
Daily explored in a 1997 article ("These shoes were made for hanging," 4/17/97).
No. 365: No. 366: No. 367: As observed in the article, there is hardly a definitive genesis of the Greenwood
The University says Pre-game hard for Black Friday is for tradition. One student interviewee, for example, tied it to graduation: "You are
throwing up shoes and, in the process, leaving something behind." Conversely,
Thanksgiving break the OSU game. catching up on another student credited his grandfather - in the mold of military men "who
starts Wednesday, After this weekend, sleep. Give your threw their boots up" - as the street's first sneaker slinger. And, unsurprisingly,
but we all know it's you'll be knee deep shopping list to a more uncouth explanation was posited: "A lot of drunks get wasted, then throw
their shoes up there." Some people can't hold their liquor; apparently, oters can't
really Tuesday. in finals. your mom. hold their shoes.
by the numberst
COURTESY OF FOX NEWS
Counts of child sex abuse former Pennsyl- In hundreds of thousands of dollars,the Grade of the youngest boys who
vannia State University assistant football approximate amount raised in 2008 and participated in football sleepover
coach Jerry Sandusky faces. 2009 through Sandusky's charity, camps held on Penn State's campus.