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Sidelines Kalani Simpson |
LaBoy finds
his balance
with WarriorsTHERE is the wonderful story of Bob Brown, the great offensive lineman who was monstrously talented and perhaps more monstrously misunderstood: It seems that Brown, a terror, the man the great Deacon Jones once called "a painful experience," was a bit of a character. His coaches weren't sure what to make of him.
He wasn't much of a practice guy. Something was always wrong with him. The coaches knew Brown would be a great one -- make that an even greater one -- if they could only figure him out.
This particular story (and not the one in which he took down a goal post with one crack on his first day as a Raider) finds Brown on the practice field in college. He's in the middle of telling his coach he's too sore to practice. Again. But then Brown spied a strange man on the sideline.
"That's a pro scout," the coach told Brown. "He came all the way to watch you practice. But I guess ..."
Well, Brown suddenly felt much better. He tore everyone apart.
And the guy? This is the best part. The coach had never seen him before. It was just someone who had stopped by to watch practice.
A great story. And now June Jones is telling it. But this time the guy on the sideline is real.
What got into Travis LaBoy on Saturday?
"I think it had to do with the 12 NFL scouts that were at the game," Jones told the Honolulu Quarterback Club yesterday.
"Travis was unreal," Jones told the media at his press conference. "He gets ... when we go up there and all those NFL people get around, he gets stoked up, like a lot of people would."
Like Bob Brown would.
But Brown would later say his story is more complicated than the anecdotes, and LaBoy's is, too. No matter which version you've heard.
LaBoy has always been another Noga brother. The problem has been getting on the field.
He's always had a lot of nagging stuff that he's played (if not always practiced) through, and he's had a coach who doesn't stand for missed practice time. A delicate balance of what his body can take and what his coaches need to see.
He's had quite a tightrope to walk on that one, falling off a few times along the way.
But the thing that shines through, beyond the power and speed and the ability to dominate football games, has been his guys. Through all the stops and starts in his career, when another day in sweat clothes frustrated fans and coaches alike (and him, too), it was his teammates -- the guys there with him on the defensive line -- who seemed to just love him unconditionally.
That says something about a person.
And now he has come along and grown up and worked harder and toughed it out and found that balance. Yes.
But you have to believe he's not the only one to have taken a step toward making this work. It seems like he's a little more understood.
So now LaBoy is playing great, the way everyone always knew he could.
And there's Jones telling him all about those pro scouts.
And suddenly, this story is pretty good, too.
See the Columnists section for some past articles.
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com
