Saying something nice about ol’ Al
The guy could prepare kids for the NFL, even if he had a hard time winning games
Column by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Ambivalent about college athletics as I am, I’ve wondered over the years about whether or not we might not want to expect college coaches to think, you know, about things other than wins and losses. The thinking on that line being, well, college teams are attached, at least in name, to a college, i.e. a learning institution, so why not teach ‘em something, too, along the way?
Regular readers of my columns know how critical I was over the years of Al Groh and his failed tenure at his (and our) alma mater – how he couldn’t beat Tech, heck, couldn’t beat anybody consistently other than Duke, and even couldn’t do that at the end, that sort of thing.
Turns out he was taking care of business behind the scenes in one way that I would like to see more coaches emulate.
“I think a lot of people wonder, How does UVa. have so many players playing in the NFL when the team wasn’t doing well at the college level? I think one of the reasons is that Coach Groh ran an NFL system, so the transition and the learning curve for us wasn’t as steep as it was for some other college players,” four-year NFL veteran and 2006 UVa. alum Brad Butler told me recently.
Butler had just spoken to a group at a local high school about civic participation, a key interest of his dating back to his days on Grounds at the University. I admitted to him later that I hadn’t been following his NFL career as closely as I had some of our fellow alums. You can tend to forget the O linemen, especially when they play in obscurity in Buffalo, aka the team in the AFC East that never makes the playoffs. Read more
Butler: Life lessons, and some football
Former UVa. standout, NFL veteran talks politics, civic engagement at WHS
Story by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
Without football pads, wearing dress slacks and a light blue Oxford, no tie, Brad Butler could have passed for the high-school government teacher that he basically was for an hour at Waynesboro High School Thursday afternoon.
Which isn’t to say that the University of Virginia alum hadn’t been prepared by the NFL for the worst that the teens in the audience were capable of giving him.
“I play for the Buffalo Bills, and we have some pretty tough fans. I’ve heard just about everything in the book, so I’m not above being confrontational,” said Butler, a four-year NFL veteran in the fall and early winter, and a politico the rest of the year.
Butler’s visit to WHS was sponsored by the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Butler, a 2006 UVa. graduate and four-year starter at right tackle, interned at the Center for Politics, and learned the way of famed UVa. political-science professor Larry Sabato well. The message he scrawled on a flip chart at the front of the room relayed Sabato’s “Politics Is A Good Thing” mantra, and Butler told his personal story to try to relate to the teens how an informed and involved populace can make for good politics, good government and a good country. Read more
