The End Of An Era

As many of you know, I am a huge Rutgers University football fan. I’m sure many of you also know that my favorite player to ever play for the school is current Rutgers fullback, Brian Leonard. Tomorrow night Brian will play his last game in the Scarlet and White and I’m truly saddened.

I used to think it was incredibly hokey when I’d see how big a deal UNC, Duke or some huge SEC football power would make out of senior day by retiring numbers and creating a big emotional scene. I guess it’s because I never had anything to compare it to. Now that Brian Leonard is about to play his last game, I finally understand.

I could go on and on about how great a player he was and what he meant to the program, but I’ll let Hall of Famer, Jerry Izenberg of the Star Ledger do that. These snippets from his NJ.com article today frame Leonard’s RU career perfectly:

Rutgers, the school that started the whole thing 137 years ago and wandered for so many decades, lost in a kind of Football Death Valley, will play in its third bowl game over all that time tomorrow night in the Texas Bowl against Kansas State. Over all those years, two names stand above the combined Rutgers roster now in its third century.
You can talk about an undefeated team or two. You can talk about a spectacular victory or two. But when it comes to what you need to fill a football pantheon with heroes, you get a little light in the display case -- until now.
Over the test of time, only two names stand head and shoulder pads above all the rest -- Paul Robeson and Homer Hazel ... two college football Hall of Famers ... two long-gone standard-bearers of a time when Rutgers played in Yankee Stadium and the Polo Grounds and Ebbets Field ... when Walter Camp was alive and well and picking the only acknowledged All-America teams.
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Brian Leonard punched his own ticket to ride in this elite company in so many ways it boggles the mind. That he even went to Rutgers is part fairy tale and part morality play. What he did when he got there is all superstar. And what he surely will be involved in tomorrow night (because he is involved in so much of what Rutgers football has become) could present that punctuation mark that stamps him with the best of all that Rutgers football has been for parts of there centuries.
He is the school's all-time leading scorer and leader in career rushing attempts, touchdowns and pass receptions and second on the entire list of active NCAA players in all-purpose touchdowns.
Additionally, he won the national scholar-athlete and sportsmanship awards. If there were no Brian Leonard, Rutgers would have had to invent him. He is the glue that has held together the greatest long-term turnaround in college football history.
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This is the kid who scored more touchdowns than anyone in the history of New York state high school football but chose to go to Rutgers over Syracuse and Notre Dame and what seems like half the other colleges in the free world. He did it out of loyalty to the school that did not turn its back on his older brother when injuries put him out of football.
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"Is he the best all-time, all-purpose Rutgers ever had?" Schiano said later. "I never saw the other two, but he very well may be. He legitimized this program when he decided not to jump to the NFL. He stayed and led us on the field and in the locker room.
"The best ever at Rutgers? You know," he said, pausing to think of all he's done for the Schiano Knights, "yeah, he could be."

Although, the one thing Jerry lacks to mention is probably the thing I’ll remember most about Brian Leonard. People forget that Leonard was a Heisman candidate coming into the season. (There was even an ad campaign for him in Times Square.) To Brian's credit, he sacrificed his own stats to block for the new Heisman Candidate, Ray Rice, and help the team to its best season in 30 years. Can you see many other of today's pampered athletes making such a sacrifice? I didn't think so.

However, what I’ll remember in addition to his skills on the gridiron is this picture:

Look at his face. It’s tough to tell who is happier to be there. This kid has no pretense about him. He is a leader. He is a player/student you can be proud of. He is the "new" Rutgers Football.

On a Philly related note, I might cry tears of joy if the Eagles are lucky enough to draft Leonard next year. (Yes, to say I have a man crush on this guy is probably an understatement.)