Roman Oben is my hero
On this past week's episode of NFL Films Presents, the topic was "For the Love of the Game." Thankfully, it wasn't about the horrid Kevin Costner baseball movie, rather focusing on two players who exhibited extraordinary character, courage, and honesty due to their undying love of the sport of football.
The first piece was on Robert Smith, the super-smart Viking running back who walked away from the NFL at the age of 28. After a few years of retirement spent writing a book and looking back on his career, he decided he missed the game too much. He now coaches at a high school in Florida, and most amazingly, he also educates his players on topics outside the field. The subject he teaches? Astronomy.
Now onto the reason I'm making this post. The second profile was on Chargers tackle Roman Oben. Oben, who also narrated the previous segment on Robert Smith, is a respected journeyman who has experienced the highs (Super Bowl ring with the Bucs) and lows (the Browns) of the NFL. His time in San Diego started out wonderfully until October 30, 2005 in a home game against Kansas City when a catastrophic foot injury nearly ended his career.
Defending a furious pass rush on a swing pass to LT, Oben's left foot was folded in half. His toes touching his instep. Nobody on the team's medical staff had seen an injury like this before. Doctors couldn't guarantee a surgical procedure would let him play again. In fact, the surgery, which involved the insertion of two screws, would most likely cause complications later in life. Oben, unable to quell his love for competition and the sport of football, went ahead with the surgery and began the long road to recovery.
Since the injury was the only of its kind, there was no telling if and when he'd return to the sport he loved. Determined to be the first athlete to return after such an injury, Oben proved the skeptics wrong by playing in the 2nd half of San Diego's dramatic 20-17 win over Seattle on Christmas Eve 2006, some 14 months after being helped off the field.
Due to the stellar play of 2nd-year phenom Marcus McNeill, Oben is now a backup and mentor to the younger San Diego players. That is something the Cameroon native relishes after 12 NFL seasons. Even with a reduced role with less of a direct impact on the game, Oben still recites this William Ernest Henley poem before kickoff.
In this day and age of dog-fighting, steroids, and other tabloid headlines, it's stories like Roman Oben's that make me proud to be a sports and of course, San Diego Chargers fan.
- Matto
The first piece was on Robert Smith, the super-smart Viking running back who walked away from the NFL at the age of 28. After a few years of retirement spent writing a book and looking back on his career, he decided he missed the game too much. He now coaches at a high school in Florida, and most amazingly, he also educates his players on topics outside the field. The subject he teaches? Astronomy.
Now onto the reason I'm making this post. The second profile was on Chargers tackle Roman Oben. Oben, who also narrated the previous segment on Robert Smith, is a respected journeyman who has experienced the highs (Super Bowl ring with the Bucs) and lows (the Browns) of the NFL. His time in San Diego started out wonderfully until October 30, 2005 in a home game against Kansas City when a catastrophic foot injury nearly ended his career.
Defending a furious pass rush on a swing pass to LT, Oben's left foot was folded in half. His toes touching his instep. Nobody on the team's medical staff had seen an injury like this before. Doctors couldn't guarantee a surgical procedure would let him play again. In fact, the surgery, which involved the insertion of two screws, would most likely cause complications later in life. Oben, unable to quell his love for competition and the sport of football, went ahead with the surgery and began the long road to recovery.
Since the injury was the only of its kind, there was no telling if and when he'd return to the sport he loved. Determined to be the first athlete to return after such an injury, Oben proved the skeptics wrong by playing in the 2nd half of San Diego's dramatic 20-17 win over Seattle on Christmas Eve 2006, some 14 months after being helped off the field.
Due to the stellar play of 2nd-year phenom Marcus McNeill, Oben is now a backup and mentor to the younger San Diego players. That is something the Cameroon native relishes after 12 NFL seasons. Even with a reduced role with less of a direct impact on the game, Oben still recites this William Ernest Henley poem before kickoff.
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
Black as the Pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.
In this day and age of dog-fighting, steroids, and other tabloid headlines, it's stories like Roman Oben's that make me proud to be a sports and of course, San Diego Chargers fan.
- Matto
posted by matto619 at 8:14 PM
4 Comments:
Good for Roman...
But I think we're gonna need to see a pic of that injury.
On the show, Oben took a shoe and just folded it in half upwards to show the injury. The angle on the game footage wasn't that great so we'll have to live with that description.
JDub. Game Sunday?
10am is pretty early. I'll probably wake up just in time for kickoff...It's going to be a late night tonight.
I'm thinking a 1pm game would be better.
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