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LB Andy Katzenmoyer (1997 Butkus Award)

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KAT

I still have both Missouri games on tape. Cant tell you how many times Ive watched that hit. Jones later said it wasnt any harder than a normal hit. I also have both ND games on tape

:oh: :io:
 
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Best Buckeye said:
I still have both Missouri games on tape. Cant tell you how many times Ive watched that hit. Jones later said it wasnt any harder than a normal hit. I also have both ND games on tape

:oh: :io:
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Right. Jones was kicking the Bucks asses until that hit. Then, he got reeeal tentative. That was the best hit I've seen ever. One moment he's going one way and the next .000001 second he is on his ass.

Amazing.
 
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Katzenmoyer lives life out of the New England spotlight
By Tom Curran
NBCSports.com
Posted: May7, 2007, 10:46 am EDT

Andy Katzenmoyer turns 30 this December.

Today, Katzenmoyer is leading the proverbial quiet, normal life: getting married next month, finishing up his sociology degree at Ohio State and serving as defensive coordinator for Westerville South High School.

He doesn?t do interviews.

?People call all the time,? says Rocky Pentello, the head football coach at Westerville South. ?He tells me, throw them away. He?s just really, really private.?

?He didn?t want to not play,? Katzenmoyer?s father, Warren, told NBCSports.com recently. ?He debated it over and over again. But the injury he had did a double job on his spine. When he got hit in the Buffalo game he had surgery to relieve that injury plus a bulging disc. Then he blew another disk when Spires hit him.

"After that surgery to fuse his spine, he doctors told him that, above and below that spot, his spine was compromised. He took it hard and he didn?t want to quit. For a year or two after his release he struggled with it and I could tell. We?d play golf and he?d tell me he wanted to be back in the game but he knew that with one his he could be paralyzed for life. Everybody in football deals with that. One hit is all it takes. Hey, it?s a high-risk, high-reward spot. The rewards are publicized but the risks really aren?t.?
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http://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/1478179/detail.html
 
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Big Kat's new life
Former OSU star is married, in college and happy to coach
Wednesday, October 3, 2007 3:50 AM
By Mark Znidar
The Columbus Dispatch

It didn't matter that rain was freight-training in from the west, that practice was in its final minutes or that an errant football would bounce in from the adjacent field and hold up play.

The Westerville South defensive coordinator, with a whistle around his neck and a ball cap turned backward, was locked in. He bobbed in and out of the huddle to make calls, pulled players aside for one-on-one instruction and even played the part of option quarterback for the scout team.

When things went askew, his voice boomed like a car radio with the bass control cranked all the way up.

It's a small stage, but Andy Katzenmoyer is in his element these days. And he's smiling a lot.

Yes, that Andy Katzenmoyer, the Butkus Award-winning linebacker who was the James Laurinaitis of his day at Ohio State and a first-round NFL draft pick of the New England Patriots.

Since 2004, central Ohio high school football fans have grown accustomed to seeing Katzenmoyer wearing a headset in press boxes.

What they might not know is that Katzenmoyer, 29, has moved on with his life after a bulging disk in his neck took away his playing career six years ago.

That summer of 2001, Katzenmoyer walked out of Patriots training camp without saying a word to coach Bill Belichick or teammates. The following year, he was waived after failing a physical. He played in just 24 NFL games.

"I went through a hard time after the injury," Katzenmoyer said. "I felt like I wasn't good enough. Then I came to the conclusion that it wasn't anything I did wrong. I couldn't help that I got hurt. My disk just gave out. I have neck pain to this day. My only wish was to play a full season healthy. It never happened."

The man they used to call "Big Kat" has a brand new life. He's building a house with his wife, Ashleigh, and completing work on a degree in health promotion and fitness at Otterbein.

"I have everything I want," Katzenmoyer said. "My roots are in Westerville and with Westerville South. I owe Westerville and Westerville South a lot. Whatever knowledge I have about football, I'm giving it back."
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BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : Big Kat's new life
 
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sandgk;948167; said:
Plus Otterbein is just down the road in his home town of Westerville. Probably makes it a lot easier on his family life.

And, it is a good school.
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Andy and I played football @ WSHS and graduated together. I could give quite a few examples as to why he is such a great guy...but this article sums it up nicely.

He is paying it forward...
 
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