Nate Ebner - Special Teamer

[danwismar]

It was hard to miss Nate Ebner on Saturday. #34 was making almost every tackle on both kickoff and punt coverage. He had a sack late in the game, and came very close to blocking an Akron punt.

The announcers mentioned him a few times...that he was a walk-on who never played H.S. football...was a rugby player at OSU (Fickell has since awarded him a scholarship...and he sure earned it vs Akron.)

This video makes him even easier to like....the story of how his dad was murdered in his place of business in a robbery attempt, and the motto that has driven him ever since.

I was one of several folks in here singling him out for criticism last year...(mostly just for being a walk-on playing on a coverage team that looked very bad at times....against Miami and Wisconsin especially). But he played like a freaking demon Saturday...and he looks much bigger and stronger and faster this year somehow...anyway...watch the video...

[furls]

I was guilty of saying his name in vain a few times last year. In any case, there are lots of sad/tragic stories about these guys (read Troy Smith's if you are interested) and it is really easy to sit back and call them all kinds of things on message boards and in your home, but they are in fact human beings. They are someone's son/uncle/brother and sometimes even father. Moreover, none of these guys wakes up on Saturday morning and says, "How am I going to fuck up the game to ruin Furls' day today" (only my wife does that). I try to keep that in mind when I post/write, but sometimes you need to see an interview like this to remind yourself.