scott91575
Resident hater
Notice the Titan in the background is #27. There hasn't been a Titan wear 27 since Eddie left.
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Sunday, 06/25/06
Acting is a whole new ballgame for Eddie George
Amun Ra youth fundraiser gives former Titan an ideal way to flex his acting chops
By FIONA SOLTES
For The Tennessean
Eddie George holds the room in the palm of his outstretched, oversized hand.
Granted, it's a small room.
But this is a personal story about redemption. And that hand is one accustomed to carrying a certain measure of promise.
It's Friday night, and 10 or so folks are gathered in a hot, well-worn portion of St. Augustine's Episcopal Chapel, just off the kitchen. It smells faintly of recently cooked spices, and the doors are open in hopes of a breeze.
It comes in the form of George, who takes the floor to deliver a practice monologue for an upcoming performance of James Weldon Johnson's ''God's Trombones.'' He tries it twice, first from the standpoint of a condemned inmate, and then, as a married man suddenly aware of his own failings.
Yes, George is acting, and he's actually keeping up with the pros who watch, looking them square in the eyes as he valiantly speaks his lines from memory. No one misses the fact that he's the first in the room to fully know his part.
He goes on about sin, judgment and salvation, leaving one to wonder: Is it a rebirth of the famed Tennessee Titan? Not exactly. The way he sees it, it's more an expansion of the field on which he chooses to play.
''I've learned a lot about myself lately,'' he says on another day, lounging his 6-foot-3 frame across a couch for a one-on-one. ''Especially in terms of my thinking. I've realized that in the past, I put myself in a box, but my mind is open to a vast majority of things.''
For much of his life, that box was labeled ''football.'' He had such a desire to run the ball that it overran virtually everything else. It paid off with the Heisman Trophy, the NFL Rookie of the Year Award and a Super Bowl bid. But things changed. The Titans released him in 2004 due to a salary cap. A dark year followed with the Dallas Cowboys, and the depression set in.
''That was a long, long season in Dallas,'' says George, now 32. ''The thing that was most dear to me had disappeared. I had headaches. My heart was heavy. I was stressed, and there was the fear of uncertainty. I knew I wanted to do something, but I just didn't know what. I had to work on finding myself, and new ways of being challenged.''
He stops for a moment at the sight of his wife Tamara and 1-year-old son, Eriq, entering the room. ''Kisses? Kisses? Kisses?'' he coos, as the boy gleefully drops his stuffed frog in Daddy's lap. ''Excuse me,'' he says, smiling a broad smile as he turns and watches Eriq scamper off for his next adventure.
''I used to think football was all I had,'' he says. ''It was all about emptying my clip onto the football field. But it wasn't in God's plan for me to keep doing that. So now, if I still want to have an impact, I've got to empty that clip somewhere else.''
The new playbook
Ask anyone who knows him, and the words ''focus,'' ''determination'' and ''intensity'' fly through the air like a perfect pass. Back when he won the Heisman in 1995, coach John Cooper said George had the best work ethic of any player he'd been around.
It was a game, George says, that prepared him for life. But it went beyond just being part of a team.
''Within one game, you go through every emotion you can go through,'' he says. ''You feel the joy of success, the pain of failure. Now stretch that to a season, and then to a career. It reveals your character, and builds your character, too, just through the mental and physical challenge of working up that inner strength to be dominant. You're always asking yourself, 'Can I do this?'''
He laughs now about a couple of fumbles he made as an Ohio State University freshman, but he wasn't laughing then; the fumbles cost the team the game and he ''cried like a baby.''
''The whole state of Ohio booed me for two hours,'' he says. ''After, I was in the lunch hall, and people kept coming up to put their hands under my lunch tray as if I was going to drop it. That was pressure.''
But then he set his jaw, and set his course.
He went on to become known as the ''king of rushing yards,'' and arguably one of the best tailbacks in the NFL. He was a jewel in the Titans crown, recognized as much for his character as his game.
The influence began spreading beyond the field. There was the start of a successful landscape architecture firm and themed restaurants. He formed a non-profit called Visions With Infinite Possibilities (V.I.P.), began hosting a TV show for video gamers and started a holistic health company called EGX Lifestyle.
But more recently, a different kind of stage opened up. About a year ago, George began quietly working with Amun Ra Artistic Director jeff obafemi carr on public speaking and commentary, and one thing led to another. It had been a long time since his childhood days at the Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, but somehow, he always figured he'd come back to the arts.
''I've always been a fan of the arts,'' he says. ''I DJ on the side, and have a real passion for music. But it's not something I've put 'on blast.' It's just been something I've been working on to better find out who I am and have some fun.''
Tamara, George's wife of two years, applauded George's shifting focus. Herself a performer with the singing group SWV, she says she watched him ''perch,'' look around, and recognize new opportunities.
''When he said he wanted to take acting lessons, I said, 'Cool,' '' she says. ''I've never seen him as just a football player. He has so much potential that I was all for it.''
But then came the day when George, in a private meeting with carr, nailed a reading for the first time.
''Everything was right,'' carr says. ''He claimed it. He owned it. And right then, it was like he was a kid again, making a touchdown for the first time. It was a real moment of self-discovery.''
The wheels began turning. And the idea for a presentation of ''God's Trombones'' began forming. Not only could it be a theatrical debut for George; it could also be a fundraiser for Amun Ra's Youth Summer Performing Arts Academy; ironically, carr's program for kids was based on the same one George had attended as a child.
''I'm pretty sure I'll be nervous,'' George admits. ''But I'm going in with an open mind, ready to take direction and learn all I can.''
Robert L. Poole, director of the production, remembers well the moment the call came from carr — and the realization that one of his actors would be George.
''I was kind of shocked,'' he says. ''I think, before I started to work with him, that I was intimidated by the prospect of working with someone who had never acted before. And that would go for anyone, never mind a great name like Eddie George. But the first time I heard him read, all of my fears were relieved.''
Others, however, aren't the least bit surprised that George could be good at that, too. Odell Winn, for example, George's business manager for the past several years, says George's unquenchable thirst for knowledge is what makes all the difference. He exhibits what Winn calls ''the wow factor,'' an excitement and energy for learning new things. And as for theater in particular?
''We joke about it all the time,'' Winn says. ''In the business of professional sports, those guys are always acting. On a daily basis, they're talking to fans they may not want to talk to, being asked questions by reporters that they really don't want to answer.''
In typical all-out Eddie George style, though, there's more to all this than the upcoming production. He's working with Amun Ra to secure and develop a permanent theater space in north Nashville that will be open to small and mid-sized companies without homes of their own, and he was also recently appointed to the Metro Arts Commission. Norree Boyd, executive director of the commission, said the talks began due to Eddie's experience as an art collector. But his humility, down-to-earth personality, warmth, gentility, creativity and thoughtfulness were what led to the position.
''Football,'' he says, ''is a young man's game. But through this process, I've evolved into a man. Yeah, I'm still a kid at heart. But now, I see things from a different perspective. I see more of what's around me. I see the things that are really important.''
Sunday, 06/25/06
Acting is a whole new ballgame for Eddie George
Amun Ra youth fundraiser gives former Titan an ideal way to flex his acting chops
By FIONA SOLTES
For The Tennessean
Eddie George holds the room in the palm of his outstretched, oversized hand.
Granted, it's a small room.
But this is a personal story about redemption. And that hand is one accustomed to carrying a certain measure of promise.
It's Friday night, and 10 or so folks are gathered in a hot, well-worn portion of St. Augustine's Episcopal Chapel, just off the kitchen. It smells faintly of recently cooked spices, and the doors are open in hopes of a breeze.
It comes in the form of George, who takes the floor to deliver a practice monologue for an upcoming performance of James Weldon Johnson's ''God's Trombones.'' He tries it twice, first from the standpoint of a condemned inmate, and then, as a married man suddenly aware of his own failings.
Yes, George is acting, and he's actually keeping up with the pros who watch, looking them square in the eyes as he valiantly speaks his lines from memory. No one misses the fact that he's the first in the room to fully know his part.
He goes on about sin, judgment and salvation, leaving one to wonder: Is it a rebirth of the famed Tennessee Titan? Not exactly. The way he sees it, it's more an expansion of the field on which he chooses to play.
''I've learned a lot about myself lately,'' he says on another day, lounging his 6-foot-3 frame across a couch for a one-on-one. ''Especially in terms of my thinking. I've realized that in the past, I put myself in a box, but my mind is open to a vast majority of things.''
For much of his life, that box was labeled ''football.'' He had such a desire to run the ball that it overran virtually everything else. It paid off with the Heisman Trophy, the NFL Rookie of the Year Award and a Super Bowl bid. But things changed. The Titans released him in 2004 due to a salary cap. A dark year followed with the Dallas Cowboys, and the depression set in.
''That was a long, long season in Dallas,'' says George, now 32. ''The thing that was most dear to me had disappeared. I had headaches. My heart was heavy. I was stressed, and there was the fear of uncertainty. I knew I wanted to do something, but I just didn't know what. I had to work on finding myself, and new ways of being challenged.''
He stops for a moment at the sight of his wife Tamara and 1-year-old son, Eriq, entering the room. ''Kisses? Kisses? Kisses?'' he coos, as the boy gleefully drops his stuffed frog in Daddy's lap. ''Excuse me,'' he says, smiling a broad smile as he turns and watches Eriq scamper off for his next adventure.
''I used to think football was all I had,'' he says. ''It was all about emptying my clip onto the football field. But it wasn't in God's plan for me to keep doing that. So now, if I still want to have an impact, I've got to empty that clip somewhere else.''
The new playbook
Ask anyone who knows him, and the words ''focus,'' ''determination'' and ''intensity'' fly through the air like a perfect pass. Back when he won the Heisman in 1995, coach John Cooper said George had the best work ethic of any player he'd been around.
It was a game, George says, that prepared him for life. But it went beyond just being part of a team.
''Within one game, you go through every emotion you can go through,'' he says. ''You feel the joy of success, the pain of failure. Now stretch that to a season, and then to a career. It reveals your character, and builds your character, too, just through the mental and physical challenge of working up that inner strength to be dominant. You're always asking yourself, 'Can I do this?'''
He laughs now about a couple of fumbles he made as an Ohio State University freshman, but he wasn't laughing then; the fumbles cost the team the game and he ''cried like a baby.''
''The whole state of Ohio booed me for two hours,'' he says. ''After, I was in the lunch hall, and people kept coming up to put their hands under my lunch tray as if I was going to drop it. That was pressure.''
But then he set his jaw, and set his course.
He went on to become known as the ''king of rushing yards,'' and arguably one of the best tailbacks in the NFL. He was a jewel in the Titans crown, recognized as much for his character as his game.
The influence began spreading beyond the field. There was the start of a successful landscape architecture firm and themed restaurants. He formed a non-profit called Visions With Infinite Possibilities (V.I.P.), began hosting a TV show for video gamers and started a holistic health company called EGX Lifestyle.
But more recently, a different kind of stage opened up. About a year ago, George began quietly working with Amun Ra Artistic Director jeff obafemi carr on public speaking and commentary, and one thing led to another. It had been a long time since his childhood days at the Freedom Theatre in Philadelphia, but somehow, he always figured he'd come back to the arts.
''I've always been a fan of the arts,'' he says. ''I DJ on the side, and have a real passion for music. But it's not something I've put 'on blast.' It's just been something I've been working on to better find out who I am and have some fun.''
Tamara, George's wife of two years, applauded George's shifting focus. Herself a performer with the singing group SWV, she says she watched him ''perch,'' look around, and recognize new opportunities.
''When he said he wanted to take acting lessons, I said, 'Cool,' '' she says. ''I've never seen him as just a football player. He has so much potential that I was all for it.''
But then came the day when George, in a private meeting with carr, nailed a reading for the first time.
''Everything was right,'' carr says. ''He claimed it. He owned it. And right then, it was like he was a kid again, making a touchdown for the first time. It was a real moment of self-discovery.''
The wheels began turning. And the idea for a presentation of ''God's Trombones'' began forming. Not only could it be a theatrical debut for George; it could also be a fundraiser for Amun Ra's Youth Summer Performing Arts Academy; ironically, carr's program for kids was based on the same one George had attended as a child.
''I'm pretty sure I'll be nervous,'' George admits. ''But I'm going in with an open mind, ready to take direction and learn all I can.''
Robert L. Poole, director of the production, remembers well the moment the call came from carr — and the realization that one of his actors would be George.
''I was kind of shocked,'' he says. ''I think, before I started to work with him, that I was intimidated by the prospect of working with someone who had never acted before. And that would go for anyone, never mind a great name like Eddie George. But the first time I heard him read, all of my fears were relieved.''
Others, however, aren't the least bit surprised that George could be good at that, too. Odell Winn, for example, George's business manager for the past several years, says George's unquenchable thirst for knowledge is what makes all the difference. He exhibits what Winn calls ''the wow factor,'' an excitement and energy for learning new things. And as for theater in particular?
''We joke about it all the time,'' Winn says. ''In the business of professional sports, those guys are always acting. On a daily basis, they're talking to fans they may not want to talk to, being asked questions by reporters that they really don't want to answer.''
In typical all-out Eddie George style, though, there's more to all this than the upcoming production. He's working with Amun Ra to secure and develop a permanent theater space in north Nashville that will be open to small and mid-sized companies without homes of their own, and he was also recently appointed to the Metro Arts Commission. Norree Boyd, executive director of the commission, said the talks began due to Eddie's experience as an art collector. But his humility, down-to-earth personality, warmth, gentility, creativity and thoughtfulness were what led to the position.
''Football,'' he says, ''is a young man's game. But through this process, I've evolved into a man. Yeah, I'm still a kid at heart. But now, I see things from a different perspective. I see more of what's around me. I see the things that are really important.''
Upvote
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LoKyBuckeye
I give up. This board is too hard to understand.
looks like Eddie will be on MTV's "Made" series on July 10th.... from his web site:
MTV's MADE
Watch Eddie on MTV's MADE. Eddie will help an overweight teenager be "MADE" into prom king.
Premieres at 4:30 EST
it looks like he's relaunched his web site with a new design....
www.eddiegeorge.com
MTV's MADE
Watch Eddie on MTV's MADE. Eddie will help an overweight teenager be "MADE" into prom king.
Premieres at 4:30 EST
it looks like he's relaunched his web site with a new design....
www.eddiegeorge.com
Upvote
0
OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
I saw him in a little teaser for this season's "Made". Man that kid was fat!
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0
OhioState49
Hall of Fame
wow, i dont see him helping a kid be a prom king. i think he should help someone into being a football player.
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OregonBuckeye
Semper Fi Buckeyes
Just because he's a football player doesn't mean he doesn't have more to offer.
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0
LoKyBuckeye
I give up. This board is too hard to understand.
Eddie is a leader on and off the field... I'm sure he's got plenty to offer people besides football.
Upvote
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OSUScoonie12
Hall of Fame
Another great write up about Eddie getting inducted at buckeyecommentary.com
Still the best, and maybe most famous OSU picture out there.
Still the best, and maybe most famous OSU picture out there.
Eddie George Headed to the Hall
July 06 2006 11:00 PM
Buckeye legend Eddie George is slated to be inducted into the Ohio State Hall of Fame. The official induction ceremony will take place at half-time of the OSU/Cincinnati game in Ohio Stadium. George already has his name adorning the greatest stadium in college football for being the 1995 Heisman Trophy winner. He went on to be an NFL Pro-Bowler but, for Buckeye fans, George will be most remembered for his game against Notre Dame and subsequent photo:
His 314 yard performance against Illinois (who featured LBs Dana Howard, Kevin Hardy and DE Simeon Rice) is another game that's left an indelible mark. Plus, he's just a good guy no matter your allegiance. Congrats, Eddie.
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hawaiianbuckeye
Where's YOUR Gold Pants?
Has anyone mentioned this?
Sorry if so, but I don't remember seeing it anywhere!
http://ohiostatebuckeyes.cstv.com/
Eddie George to be inducted to Varsity O HOF
HAYN
Sorry if so, but I don't remember seeing it anywhere!
http://ohiostatebuckeyes.cstv.com/
Eddie George to be inducted to Varsity O HOF
HAYN
Upvote
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hawaiianbuckeye
Where's YOUR Gold Pants?
Still can't figure out your way around this site can you?
Nope. May be if you placed a "yellow brick road" of Hefeweizens I could find out where I'm wanting to go all time!
HAYN
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