Ferguson lets family, heart & soul be his guide

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Ferguson lets family, heart
& soul be his guide

Monday, December 25th, 2006

D'Brickashaw Ferguson takes one glance at the script and knows it isn't for him. It hits all the right angles about football's glory, about how the sport generates teamwork and commitment, leadership and friendship, and the audience at Syosset High's awards banquet is poised to lean forward and lap it up.
No offense, Ferguson tells Jared Winley, the Jets' media relations manager who has penned the three-page speech for the rookie lineman. "It's good," Ferguson says, "but I'm speaking from the heart," and off he goes toward the podium, without any prepared lines as a crutch, with only his self to expose.

He doesn't have to be here on this chilly Tuesday night, especially with only two games remaining in the Jets' unexpectedly marvelous season. Ferguson could be home prepping for the Miami Dolphins' pass rush, but instead he has embraced this stop on his personal voyage because he has a message to spread, and who better to reap it than teenagers not much younger than he?

"Don't worry if you aren't sure where life will take you," he tells the crowd of football players, their parents, coaches and cheerleaders. "The journey will take you somewhere positive as long as you make the right choices."

There are times when Ferguson sounds like such an old soul. It's as if his brain is cluttered with so much wisdom, so many positive thoughts, he sometimes needs to pause before fully completing a sentence. At 23, and graced with the talent and the luck to be working not more than a few miles from where he spent his childhood, Ferguson is nearly a man in full. He has perfected the comical clichs Eric Mangini demands of his players, but ask Ferguson who he is once he sheds the pads and his answer is void of pretense.

Does he consider himself a football player before all else? A few minutes remain before Ferguson and the rest of the Jets must report for practice, on the day after his speech at Syosset High on Long Island. He takes a long moment to consider the question, because it is something he has pondered, and will for the rest of his life.

Who is he? Is he the Jets' first-round draft pick (fourth overall) who signed a contract worth some $17 million and is expected to anchor the left side of the line for the next decade? The lithe tackle who jokingly refers to himself as "a beast" and the "bodyguard" of quarterback Chad Pennington? The kid who had major heart surgery in third grade, and filled the next few years not with sports but civic activism? The college student who earned a degree in religious studies in just 3-1/2 years, who now engages his teammates in existential conversations that cause their heads to spin?

"When I leave here, I feel that when people ask me what I do, I don't need to say I'm a football player. That's what I do and some might even say I do it well, but there's so much more I want to be," he says. "Early on, I never expected this, never wanted it. It was just a matter of taking an opportunity and doing my best. I'd rather not concentrate on long-term goals and instead focus on where today might lead."

The holidays are a fine time to reflect on the benefits of a strong family foundation. It matters, on Christmas Day and every other. Ferguson, the man and the athlete, was a high school All-American at Freeport High on Long Island, in the thick of Jets territory, but he hasn't much interest in revisiting those glory years.

Edwin and Rhunette didn't raise their two sons - Edwin Jr. is working on his doctorate - to brag about all they've done. No, it's what they can do that matters, who they should be and how they should give back, and with D'Brickashaw it began when his parents christened him with a name plucked from "The Thorn Birds," a popular novel and subsequent TV miniseries. Father Ralph de Bricassart, the saga's central character, struggled between his religion and his love for a girl named Meggie Cleary, a human conflict Edwin found fascinating. The Fergusons changed the name slightly, to make their son even more unique, and it was thus no mere happenstance when years later the boy grew to be fascinated by world religions.

D'Brickashaw chose Christianity and Islam as the two he would study at the University of Virginia, where he also happened to be a pretty fine, if underweight, lineman, so long and nimble, with a wing span six inches inches greater than his 6-6 height and feet that danced like a cobbler's puppet.

"I was more interested in the philosophy behind the two cultures," he says. "Christianity is what I was reared on. Islam, I wanted to know more about it than what we were reading or hearing in the media. We have so many similarities and I wanted to understand them. I wasn't planning to be a priest or go to the seminary. I just think, as someone who occupies space on this planet, it's our obligation to ask why we're here and for what purpose.

"There's got to be more to life," he says, and he takes another long pause before continuing, "It's got to be more than just making a lot of money or being famous or being successful in your chosen field."

Virginia coach Al Groh once said of Ferguson: "There's no bling in his life. He's interested in being, not having." Ferguson, still rumored to cut his own hair, says he finds happiness more in "the experiences, the people you surround yourself with," and not necessarily in material goods.

The Fergusons' faith defines their existence. Edwin, a retired logistics manager for an engineering company, says, "Christianity was first and foremost the foundation. ... The second was family. We tried to teach the boys, Don't let anything come between you and God or you and your family."

When the birth defect his son was born with became worrisome, when doctors had to cut into the 9-year-old's chest and perform heart surgery, nobody remembers D'Brickashaw being frightened. He certainly didn't worry about his future as a pro football player, because that was never in his plans. "Sports weren't a major issue," he says with a shrug. "We did other things as a family." He learned to play the saxophone, took up karate, became a district rep in junior high. Weren't all students meant to be well-rounded? They sure were in his family.

When her son continued to sprout, when his heart had healed and everyone was pushing D'Brickashaw toward the basketball court, Rhunette saw him heading another way. She was the head school nurse as well as a health teacher, and the violence of football scared her. D'Brickashaw was 13; the gridiron seemed like one more cool activity to master along the way.

"I remember going to the doctor to get his approval so I could play, but I still had to convince my mom. She didn't want me to play at all," he says. "I wasn't going to allow the things that had happened with my heart to not allow me to try. My mind was set. I was going to do this. I was going to find a way."

He was so light, he nearly quit Freeport's junior varsity team, then went on to be named the top player in Nassau County, a heady award for a lineman. His determination, his belief in a higher power guiding his journey, took Ferguson from Long Island to Virginia and back again to Long Island. Ferguson blends in like all rookies should, and never will he be lured into talking smack about his season. But Mangini sees the growth, the subtle improvements in Ferguson's blocking and hand techniques; more than that, the coach notices signs that convince him Ferguson and his football family will have a long and happy relationship.

"I really like the way he is becoming more vocal, and not just on the field, but also in the meeting rooms," Mangini says. "That happens with playing with the same guys and feeling more comfortable and really understanding what's happening."

At some point today, either at the team's Miami hotel or on the field before the Jets' game against the Dolphins, the Fergusons plan to rendezvous and exchange small gifts. The gathering will be quick and joyous, just Edwin Jr., up from Virginia, and Edwin Sr. and Rhunette, who travel from their home in Pennsylvania for every game, and their son who was named after a priest. What a fine place for their journey to intersect. What a blessing.

"We've always spent Christmas as a family," D'Brickashaw says. "There's no reason to change that now."

 

I thought this was a good article, brick is going to be a great nfl player.