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Old 08-22-2010, 01:16 AM  
Tribal Warfare Tribal Warfare is offline
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Mellinger:Disappointment has no place in Josh Freeman's plan

Disappointment has no place in Josh Freeman's plan
By SAM MELLINGER
The Kansas City Star

TAMPA, Fla. | A man hits a button on a remote control and the lectern raises six inches. The franchise quarterback is on his way, fresh out of the shower, khakis and a blue blazer and a positive spin on this city’s news of the day.

“It’s minor,” Josh Freeman says, looking down at a thumb secured with a splint and wrapped in tape.

Freeman knows they’re watching. People have been watching ever since he can remember, before Kansas State, before Grandview High.

Tonight, they’re watching how he reacts. Freeman is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ starting quarterback and a few hours into digesting the first real setback of his professional career. His thumb banged on Tamba Hali’s helmet on the Bucs’ first drive of a preseason game Saturday, and that’s a wrap.

He freaked out a little bit when they told him about the fracture. But then he took a deep breath and remembered that people are watching. They’re always watching. Josh is 22 years old with a $36 million contract that paid for a Range Rover and a house near the beach. That’s a lot to live up to.

People here didn’t think much of Josh when the Bucs made him the 17th overall pick in last year’s draft. They wanted defense, not some oversized quarterback who never won much in college. But they’re starting to come around now, and it’s because of moments just like this.

“It’s not like I’m going to be sitting on my butt doing nothing,” he says. “I’ll still be working, going through footwork. … I’m looking forward to attacking this thing.”

People are watching. They’re listening. Josh makes sure they like what they see and hear. He likes to tell them his biggest strength is working hard, then he likes to spend long days living up to his words.

• • •

People always talk about Josh’s size. That’s the obvious thing.

Josh was bigger than all but one starting quarterback in the NFL by his junior year at Grandview. He is two pounds lighter than Ray Lewis, the same height and weight that NBA rosters listed Charles Barkley.

He could dunk by eighth grade, and by high school graduation he was throwing tight spirals some 80 yards on the fly. This has always been Josh’s best trick. Focus on the power forward playing quarterback over here, pay no attention to the football junkie breaking down film over there.

Josh may have won the genetic lottery, but he works like he’s going paycheck to paycheck.

“This is what I’ve been working for,” he says. “This is my life.”

• • •

Josh first mentioned The Plan back in high school, and first devised it much before that. Being a starting quarterback in the NFL is only one step. Get him honest, and the plan isn’t even halfway complete yet.

The Plan goes 15 years or so in the league, with Pro Bowls and at least a championship or two. Then retirement, preferably on a beach.

Josh first imagined this life back in grade school, when he fell in love with football, and started making it real in junior high, when he began studying film. His reputation went national at Grandview High, then continued to spread at Kansas State, where he dragged an otherwise mediocre group of talent to a few special nights.

So none of this surprises him. If anything, he missed a few checkpoints. He wanted to win a state championship in high school, at least a conference title in college, maybe even the Heisman Trophy. Success has never been much of a worry to Josh.

He is perfectly unimpressed being the centerpiece of an NFL franchise in what could have been his fifth year of college.

“I think I need to work on everything,” he says.

This whole thing is a long time coming.

• • •

Back in high school, he was bigger than all his offensive linemen. You could read the frustration on his body at times, and who could blame him? Pass rushers sometimes came through unblocked, though in three years at Grandview High, none of them ever took Josh down alone. Better bring a friend.

He went to K-State as one of the nation’s top quarterback recruits. Oklahoma wanted him bad. They settled for Sam Bradford. An assistant at K-State called Josh “a Greek god,” and when a 316-pound senior defensive tackle said he couldn’t wait to hit him …

“I can’t wait to run you over,” Josh responded, and the older man laughed.

Josh beat out three older quarterbacks with starting experience by the fourth game of his freshman year. The late Dylan Meier was one of them.

“If I’m going to lose my spot,” he said, “it’s better I lose it to someone like Josh.”

Josh started 32 games over three seasons at K-State, the Wildcats winning just 14 despite averaging more than 30 points. He beat Texas twice, once prompting coach Ron Prince and president Jon Wefald to do some unfortunate dancing in the locker room.

By the end, Josh became the 17th pick in the 2009 draft, the future of a Buccaneers franchise now building its roster around his strengths. No Kansas City-area kid had been drafted that high in 18 years, and according to Pro-Football Reference he’s the first born in our area to take an NFL snap in 25 years — since Paola’s Lynn Dickey retired.

This is a Kansas City sports story that’s still evolving. People back home are talking, some taking credit, but Josh left clues of a coming stardom all along.

• • •

Here’s a quick story: Josh is 14 years old and in Arizona visiting his uncle Bob when they come across a rattlesnake in the desert one morning.

Josh’s obsession with snakes has been going on for years by now. It started with Steve Irwin, the late “Crocodile Hunter,” and took off from there. Josh got his first python at 10.

Anyway, by now Josh knows that rattlesnakes are sluggish early in the morning, when it’s cool, so his legs and hands are steady as he approaches the snake and captures it with a wire mesh cage. He and uncle Bob leave the snake out in the sun and by noon, the thing is hissing and darting back and forth.

Scary stuff. Josh is entranced.

The next morning, the air cool and the snake slow again, Josh and uncle Bob unlock the cage and let the snake go.

High stakes and a little danger never scared Josh.

Not as long as he felt prepared.

• • •

Josh knows his NFL history. He knows the stories of physically gifted men who became failed quarterbacks because they missed reads or blew protection calls or jumbled their feet.

Ron Freeman is a former pro and was the defensive coordinator at Grandview High during his son’s years there. Freeman used to call combination coverages and advanced blitz schemes without warning at practice sometimes, and if he had to pinpoint the moment he believed his son might become a pro, it might be when Josh picked apart those defenses without much coaching.

Not that it’s always been easy. Josh’s rookie year came rough. There were highlights, like leading a fourth-quarter comeback against the Packers and a win at New Orleans. But he completed just 55 percent of his passes with 18 interceptions and 10 fumbles in just over eight games.

Quarterback ain’t easy, but remember a lot of guys in Josh’s high school class are still playing college ball. This is a process.

“He’s not a repeat offender,” says Alex Van Pelt, the Bucs’ quarterbacks coach. “He’ll make a mistake here and there, but rarely the same mistake twice.”

• • •

Back in high school and even at K-State, Josh was always big enough and strong enough to get by. He didn’t have to stay after practice at Grandview to make extra throws or polish his three-step drop. He’d have been offered scholarships regardless.

He didn’t need to make a standing date in then-K-State offensive coordinator James Franklin’s office to break down film at 6 every morning. He’d have been drafted anyway. Josh didn’t need to spend regular nine-hour days in the offseason at the Bucs’ training facility, the only absent weekend being to take his linemen on a fishing trip to the Bahamas.

Even now, if he was content with his place in the NFL and millions in his bank account, he wouldn’t be reading “The 17 Essential Qualities of a Team Player.” But then, just signing a scholarship, just getting drafted, that’s only part of the Plan.

This drive borders on obsessive. Even touchdown passes get criticized, like one against Texas his freshman year — “could’ve been better. I underthrew it.” — and this is Josh’s genius. He never got lazy, never took the shortcut, never allowed himself to be happy relying on his size and arm strength.

The Plan is too ambitious for that.

Josh is only getting started.

“I think I need to work on everything,” he says.

• • •

One time that he can remember, Josh felt himself wowed in the moment. Happened in the first game last season, when he scanned the Patriots’ defense and thought, Hey, that’s Junior Seau across from me.

“Then he came through on a blitz and blew me up,” Josh says.

He laughs at the memory, but there’s a lesson here. People see a man blessed with size and arm strength and athleticism and they think that’s all there is to it. Like Mr. Universe could make All-Pro.

Josh knows better. He’s aware of his advantages. If he’s a half-second late, sometimes he can still juice a completion. If he misreads a blitz, sometimes he can still shake off the linebacker and make a play.

But those are last resorts. Josh takes pride in being able to make the protection calls now, after relying on his center last season. The Bucs drafted receivers and schemed up plays to highlight his gifts. They made this his team on the surface, and now Freeman is consumed with making it his team in the ways that only his teammates feel.

The thumb injury is his next chance, because they’ll be watching, just like always. The coaches and players and fans will be curious how their anointed leader responds to his first real setback.

The ones that know Josh’s history expect him to work through it.
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Old 08-22-2010, 01:28 AM   #2
teedubya teedubya is offline
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Dude. I love that kid's attitude. The anti-Jamarcus... I think he will give KStaters a reason to be proud.
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Old 08-22-2010, 01:42 AM   #3
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Old 08-22-2010, 02:16 AM   #4
Al Bundy Al Bundy is offline
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There are some idiot Buccaneers fans that have said they would trade Freeman for Tebow straight up.... I call them idiots to their faces. Freeman will be the real deal.
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