Post by lazarus on Apr 26, 2005 10:59:59 GMT -5
Posted on Tue, Apr. 26, 2005
Chiefs find the Boomer that they sorely lacked
JOE POSNANSKI
Here's a little Chiefs fan advice: You might want to beat the Christmas rush and go get your Boomer Grigsby jersey right now. The Boomer right now is listed as No. 95 on the Chiefs, but the number doesn't really matter. You just have to put the word “Boomer” on the back. Before long, everyone will know who you are talking about.
The Chiefs really, really needed a Boomer. In fact, that was probably their No. 1 need going into the weekend's NFL draft. Those pre-draft stories should have listed the Chiefs' needs like so: Linebacker, cornerback, wide receiver, punter, boomer. The last three years, the Chiefs played football with the treble way up and the bass way down — you couldn't hear any booms. It was acoustic football. It was pigskin unplugged. The Chiefs were getting run over. They were softer rock than Dan Fogelberg.
They went into this draft needing to add some muscle, some power.
And in the fog of the fifth round, they found a Boomer.
“I've been Boomer since the day I was born,” Boomer Grigsby says. “I guess I was a little bit wider than tall. And then the name just fit me, you know. The football. The tattoos. The gorilla muscles. The little wild-man attitude. Boomer, man.”
Boomer, man.
I'm not telling you that Boomer Grigsby, a fifth-round pick out of Illinois State, a linebacker who made a ridiculous 580 tackles there, a three-time finalist for the Buck Buchanan award (given to the best defensive player in Division I-AA), is going to turn around the Chiefs' defense. He's not likely to even play defense this year.
No, I'm telling you this: Boomer Grigsby is about to become Kansas City's favorite football player.
He has the perfect football story. He's a small-town Midwesterner, born and raised in Canton, Ill., pop. 14,000. He was barely recruited out of high school — an Illinois State recruiter happened to see him working out in the weight room and started to call Boomer every week. Nobody else called. The Boomer didn't know that you are allowed to send other colleges your tape and resume. He says when Illinois State called to offer him a scholarship, he thanked the coach, said he'd think about it, and then went to school.
“You didn't commit?” his Canton High coach asked.
“No,” Boomer said.
“Are you crazy?” the coach asked. “What if they take it back?”
So the Boomer skipped first period to call Illinois State to take the scholarship.
“I don't have any regrets,” he says. “It worked out great for me. But, man, I was naïve then. I was just dumb.”
At Illinois State, Boomer exploded. He was utterly unblockable. The Boomer is strong (he benches 460 pounds) and fast (he's run a 4.52 40-yard dash), and he picked up all sorts of agility because his mother runs a trampoline team — yeah, a trampoline team. The Boomer is a trampoline champ. Anyway, he led Illinois State in tackles right away in his freshman year. In his junior year, the Boomer made 179 tackles, second in the nation. He made 21 tackles against Illinois in front of 60,000 people.
“They didn't recruit me,” he says. “It felt good to rock their world.”
The Boomer just loved playing football, getting in people's grills, fighting off blockers — and teams sent swarms of blockers at him. He set the school record for tackles. He was picked for another All-America team every other day. In the East-West Shrine Game he forced a fumble as part of the kickoff team. Here's how he described that moment to a reporter after the game:
“I realized that their wedge was all offensive linemen. and they were all about 330 (pounds),” he said. “I just went in there and hit them as hard as I could. There was a massive collision. I think I broke part of my helmet and mouth guards were flying everywhere.”
“Man,” he says now, “it feels good to be in the middle of the hitting.”
Oh yeah, Kansas City is going to love the Boomer as much as he loves Kansas City. And he does love Kansas City. He says that he was watching the draft alone — “To me, having a draft party, that's just ignorant,” he says. “I mean if you get drafted it's fine, but what if you don't? Then you're just sitting there looking at each other going, ‘OK, now what do we do? Play cards?' ”
And when he was picked by the Chiefs in the fifth round, he looked out the window and saw 40 family members — including his aunt and uncle who live in Kansas City — running down the street. “Man, that was some sight,” he says. “When they got to me, they were too tired to drink the champagne.”
Yeah, he's excited. He can't wait to get here. He can't wait to get on special teams, do some hitting, do some blocking for Dante Hall.
“I just want to be on the field with him, man, and hit anybody that gets close to him,” he says. “And then I can watch him run into the end zone, and I'll go ‘Whoo! He'll be the hero. But I'll still be able to go ‘Whoo!' ”
He can't wait to meet Chiefs first-round pick Derrick Johnson.
“He was the best linebacker in the country,” Boomer says. “And I'll say that to his face. I'm comfortable enough in my masculinity to go up to him and say, ‘Man, you're the real deal.' ”
He can't wait to be a part of the team.
“I hope someone will take me under their wing,” he says. “But even if they don't, I'll be able to watch them and learn.”
Basically, he can't wait. The NFL is a tough league – it's not easy for fifth-round picks to make a team, make a contribution. But you get the feeling that the Chiefs need a whole lot of Boomer.
And it's fair to say this guy is a whole lot of Boomer.
“I always meet people who say, ‘Come on, tell me your real name,' ” the Boomer says. “I say, that's my name. And they say, ‘Well, I'm not going to call you that,' and I say, ‘Well, then you're not going to talk to me.'
“I mean, come on, calm down. Look at me, I play football. Call me Boomer. It's not like I'm asking people to call me call ‘Your highness,' or ‘King.' ”
Good thing, too. Those names are already part of Carl Peterson's official title.
To reach Joe Posnanski, call (816) 234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com.
=========================
Zach Thomas
Position: LB
Ht: 5-11 Wt: 230
Born: 09/01/1973
College: Texas Tech
NFL Experience: 10
Fifth-round draft choice (154th overall) in 1996
Rookie year:
Year Team Gm Tot Tckl Ast Scks Int Yds Avg Lg TD Pass Def
1996 Miami 16 155 120 _35 _02 _ 03_64_21.3 27 01 _ 02
==============================
JAMES "Boomer" GRIGSBY
Position LB
Ht: 5-11 Wt: 249
Birthdate 11/15/1981
College: Illinois State
Years Experience R
Fifth-round draft choice (138th overall) in 2005
rookie year
????
Chiefs find the Boomer that they sorely lacked
JOE POSNANSKI
Here's a little Chiefs fan advice: You might want to beat the Christmas rush and go get your Boomer Grigsby jersey right now. The Boomer right now is listed as No. 95 on the Chiefs, but the number doesn't really matter. You just have to put the word “Boomer” on the back. Before long, everyone will know who you are talking about.
The Chiefs really, really needed a Boomer. In fact, that was probably their No. 1 need going into the weekend's NFL draft. Those pre-draft stories should have listed the Chiefs' needs like so: Linebacker, cornerback, wide receiver, punter, boomer. The last three years, the Chiefs played football with the treble way up and the bass way down — you couldn't hear any booms. It was acoustic football. It was pigskin unplugged. The Chiefs were getting run over. They were softer rock than Dan Fogelberg.
They went into this draft needing to add some muscle, some power.
And in the fog of the fifth round, they found a Boomer.
“I've been Boomer since the day I was born,” Boomer Grigsby says. “I guess I was a little bit wider than tall. And then the name just fit me, you know. The football. The tattoos. The gorilla muscles. The little wild-man attitude. Boomer, man.”
Boomer, man.
I'm not telling you that Boomer Grigsby, a fifth-round pick out of Illinois State, a linebacker who made a ridiculous 580 tackles there, a three-time finalist for the Buck Buchanan award (given to the best defensive player in Division I-AA), is going to turn around the Chiefs' defense. He's not likely to even play defense this year.
No, I'm telling you this: Boomer Grigsby is about to become Kansas City's favorite football player.
He has the perfect football story. He's a small-town Midwesterner, born and raised in Canton, Ill., pop. 14,000. He was barely recruited out of high school — an Illinois State recruiter happened to see him working out in the weight room and started to call Boomer every week. Nobody else called. The Boomer didn't know that you are allowed to send other colleges your tape and resume. He says when Illinois State called to offer him a scholarship, he thanked the coach, said he'd think about it, and then went to school.
“You didn't commit?” his Canton High coach asked.
“No,” Boomer said.
“Are you crazy?” the coach asked. “What if they take it back?”
So the Boomer skipped first period to call Illinois State to take the scholarship.
“I don't have any regrets,” he says. “It worked out great for me. But, man, I was naïve then. I was just dumb.”
At Illinois State, Boomer exploded. He was utterly unblockable. The Boomer is strong (he benches 460 pounds) and fast (he's run a 4.52 40-yard dash), and he picked up all sorts of agility because his mother runs a trampoline team — yeah, a trampoline team. The Boomer is a trampoline champ. Anyway, he led Illinois State in tackles right away in his freshman year. In his junior year, the Boomer made 179 tackles, second in the nation. He made 21 tackles against Illinois in front of 60,000 people.
“They didn't recruit me,” he says. “It felt good to rock their world.”
The Boomer just loved playing football, getting in people's grills, fighting off blockers — and teams sent swarms of blockers at him. He set the school record for tackles. He was picked for another All-America team every other day. In the East-West Shrine Game he forced a fumble as part of the kickoff team. Here's how he described that moment to a reporter after the game:
“I realized that their wedge was all offensive linemen. and they were all about 330 (pounds),” he said. “I just went in there and hit them as hard as I could. There was a massive collision. I think I broke part of my helmet and mouth guards were flying everywhere.”
“Man,” he says now, “it feels good to be in the middle of the hitting.”
Oh yeah, Kansas City is going to love the Boomer as much as he loves Kansas City. And he does love Kansas City. He says that he was watching the draft alone — “To me, having a draft party, that's just ignorant,” he says. “I mean if you get drafted it's fine, but what if you don't? Then you're just sitting there looking at each other going, ‘OK, now what do we do? Play cards?' ”
And when he was picked by the Chiefs in the fifth round, he looked out the window and saw 40 family members — including his aunt and uncle who live in Kansas City — running down the street. “Man, that was some sight,” he says. “When they got to me, they were too tired to drink the champagne.”
Yeah, he's excited. He can't wait to get here. He can't wait to get on special teams, do some hitting, do some blocking for Dante Hall.
“I just want to be on the field with him, man, and hit anybody that gets close to him,” he says. “And then I can watch him run into the end zone, and I'll go ‘Whoo! He'll be the hero. But I'll still be able to go ‘Whoo!' ”
He can't wait to meet Chiefs first-round pick Derrick Johnson.
“He was the best linebacker in the country,” Boomer says. “And I'll say that to his face. I'm comfortable enough in my masculinity to go up to him and say, ‘Man, you're the real deal.' ”
He can't wait to be a part of the team.
“I hope someone will take me under their wing,” he says. “But even if they don't, I'll be able to watch them and learn.”
Basically, he can't wait. The NFL is a tough league – it's not easy for fifth-round picks to make a team, make a contribution. But you get the feeling that the Chiefs need a whole lot of Boomer.
And it's fair to say this guy is a whole lot of Boomer.
“I always meet people who say, ‘Come on, tell me your real name,' ” the Boomer says. “I say, that's my name. And they say, ‘Well, I'm not going to call you that,' and I say, ‘Well, then you're not going to talk to me.'
“I mean, come on, calm down. Look at me, I play football. Call me Boomer. It's not like I'm asking people to call me call ‘Your highness,' or ‘King.' ”
Good thing, too. Those names are already part of Carl Peterson's official title.
To reach Joe Posnanski, call (816) 234-4361 or send e-mail to jposnanski@kcstar.com.
=========================
Zach Thomas
Position: LB
Ht: 5-11 Wt: 230
Born: 09/01/1973
College: Texas Tech
NFL Experience: 10
Fifth-round draft choice (154th overall) in 1996
Rookie year:
Year Team Gm Tot Tckl Ast Scks Int Yds Avg Lg TD Pass Def
1996 Miami 16 155 120 _35 _02 _ 03_64_21.3 27 01 _ 02
==============================
JAMES "Boomer" GRIGSBY
Position LB
Ht: 5-11 Wt: 249
Birthdate 11/15/1981
College: Illinois State
Years Experience R
Fifth-round draft choice (138th overall) in 2005
rookie year
????
