Re: brian aka "cutie" westbrook

[destiny5]

[destiny5]

[destiny5]

A Special Mother's Day Moment

May 8, 2004
By BOB KENT

Brian Westbrook's mother, Zelda, says her oldest son never learned how to walk. He started out running and hasn't stopped. "He ran to do everything," said Zelda, who was featured with Brian in the "That's My Baby" section of the May 2004 issue of Philadelphia Magazine.
In honor of Mother's Day, the special section spotlighted a number of Philadelphia athletes and their moms, and included a photo of mother and son. Brian and his mom were pictured outside the family's home in Fort Washington, Maryland.

"It was definitely exciting for me and my mother," said Brian of the magazine feature. "Me and my mother are very close. She's one of my best friends. I talk to her probably three times a day.

"She's supported my career."

Actually, Zelda admits in the magazine -- which boasts a 138,000 circulation -- that she encouraged Brian to play a sport other than football.

"He was in the Boys & Girls Club, playing T-ball and basketball and soccer," Zelda explained. "But I was the cheerleading coach, and he was around the football teams all the time. He was nine when he first asked to play football. I wasn't really happy about that.

"I tried to convince him not to. I told him soccer players were smarter."

Of course, today she's glad Brian chose football. And so are the Eagles.

A true playmaker as a returner, runner and receiver, Westbrook averaged 5.2 yards per rush and led the team with 613 yards on the ground in 2003. He also returned a pair of punts for touchdowns. Unfortunately, Brian missed the playoff run after tearing his triceps in his left arm during the final game at Washington.

"It's hard to see him get hurt," Zelda said. "You want to run out there. But by the time he's a pro, he's surrounded by staff. And the last thing they want is for Mom to show up."

Speaking of showing up, with his younger brother now playing college football, Brian says his parents find a way to watch his brother on Saturdays and still make his games on Sundays.

"What am I thinking when I watch him? I'm thinking, 'Don't drop the ball. Hold onto the ball,'" said Zelda.

For his record-setting success in college and his early success at the professional level, Brian owes a great deal of thanks to his blockers. But even more important is the support of his parents.

And in this month of May, it is his mother Zelda who gets all the props.

Other athletes featured with their mothers in the magazine include Sixers star Eric Snow, St. Joe's college baskteball star Jameer Nelson, Temple women's basketball coach Dawn Staley and Kixx forward Don D'Ambra.

[GeorgiaEagle]

Girl, you are right on time with this thread...thanks for digging up all this eye-candy! Looking at all of that cuteness is kinda therapeutic in light of the depressing news.

He is too adorable for words...and just look at those calves! I am a sucker for nice, rock-hard-looking calves on a man. In fact, his entire body is not bad at all.

I just love that picture with his mom - I saw a version of this pic on the Eagles site earlier this year, but that pic didn't show their faces as well as this one.

[GeorgiaEagle]

P.S. - maybe you and I should fly up to Philly and kidnap him and hide out with him until the playoffs. (LORD KNOWS THAT WE CANNOT AFFORD AN INJURY TO ANOTHER KEY PLAYER NOW!) We will take good care of him until he is needed again.

Sounds like a good plan to me!!

[destiny5]

brian westbrook is so hot... there are no words to describe how hot he is.
he is the cutiest guys i have seen in a long time. his parents did a great job. i can only to them. i would like to know what his dad looks like.

i thought that he was cute for a very long time but since a couple of months i started to realize how cute he is. it also seems that he a smart guy and that makes him even more attractive.

girl... i never really paid attention to his calves but since you mentioned them... they are sexy
have you always been a sucker for calves?

brian looks just like his mom. they have the same nose and the same shaped head. its just a very cute picture

[destiny5]

kidnaping brian sounds like a very good plan. i am with it ;D
just tell me when and where... i am going to be there.
i am more than sure that we would take good care of him. how could we treat him bad... we love him

[GeorgiaEagle]

destiny5 said:

brian westbrook is so hot... there are no words to describe how hot he is.
he is the cutiest guys i have seen in a long time. his parents did a great job. i can only to them. i would like to know what his dad looks like.

i thought that he was cute for a very long time but since a couple of months i started to realize how cute he is. it also seems that he a smart guy and that makes him even more attractive.

girl... i never really paid attention to his calves but since you mentioned them... they are sexy
have you always been a sucker for calves?

brian looks just like his mom. they have the same nose and the same shaped head. its just a very cute picture

Yes, Brian is the type of man who makes you just want to thank his parents for bringing him into the world. ;D They sure did do a wonderful job creating him - both inside and out!

I'm really curious to see what his dad looks like, too. I'm thinking that Brian may look more like his dad than his mom, because I don't see the strong resemblences that you see between Brian and his mom - at least not in that pic. They do have the same nose, though!

You're right about Brian's smartness making him even more attractive - I guess we think alike in that regard. It seems like he didn't go to college just to play football -from what I've read he was pretty serious about getting his degree. He has a bachelor's degree and I believe I read that he was even taking some graduate courses. Seems like this man has it all going for him (::sigh:: )

Yea girl, I think I've always had this thing for calves -- especially recently. But basically, I have a fixation on most body parts! Lately, I've just been compelled to take note whenever I see some hard, sexy calves...lol. Another player who has some really nice calves (to me) is Thomas Tapeh. That's not the only thing I like about him, either - his whole body is lovely. Nice, good-looking, solid fella. He's just been a guy who has also gotten my interest. He's a rookie and he's hardly ever been out on the field - but somehow I'm kinda infatuated with him. Aren't I terrible - being interested in a guy who hasn't even played a down? LOL His life's story is really interesting...he and his family came from Liberia.

I think Michael Lewis is the other guy whose calves are amazing -- I know this thread is supposed to be about Brian, but if I can find the pictures of these guys and their sexy calves I will post!

Anyone besides Cutie-Pie Brian you have your eye on (on the Eagles)?

[destiny5]

yeah brian was very serious about his education. i really respect him for that

what other eagle do i have my eye on? let me think...
lj smith, sheldon brown, lito sheppard, quintin mikell. i really cant think of many players right now.

[destiny5]

cutie-pie pic

[GeorgiaEagle]

destiny5 said:

some more cutie-pie pics

::GE swoons like a silly teen ::

TOO CUTE FOR WORDS!

[GeorgiaEagle]

destiny5 said:

i forgot to mention this guy....

Okay...most of the time I'm really feeling Terrell as a bonafide cutie...but to me, this is not the most flattering pic. His eyes look jaundiced - I hope he's not on the juice, lol. j/k

(Ever since the BALCO story broke, I've encountered a few people who want to associate him with that infamous lab - the "evidence" being that he's ripped and spent years in the Bay Area. )

[destiny5]

girl... dont you love brians face in that picture? he is so cute. i could look at him the whole day

i know that the terrell owens picture is not the best but i couldnt find a better one. i know that sound crazy ... but thats the truth.

[destiny5]

i found a nice article about brian:


Posted on Mon, Dec. 15, 2003

TEXT

By DANA PENNETT O'NEIL

[e-mail]


BRIAN WESTBROOK knows he could play with Donovan McNabb, Troy Vincent and the rest of the Eagles who fashion themselves as NBA players trapped in a world of shoulder pads.

Westbrook just doesn't feel the need.

"I just figure I'll let my reputation stay where it is," he says. "I'm sure I can hang with them, but just in case I couldn't...I'll let them keep thinking what they think of me."

And so instead of nailing three-pointers and slashing his way to the hoop on the Eagles' offseason basketball team, he lets the hat sitting in his locker do the talking.

It says DeMatha.

Anyone who knows anything about basketball knows DeMatha. The all-boys Catholic school just outside of Washington is to high school basketball what UCLA once was to the college game. The legendary Morgan Wootten, a Hall of Famer who no one less than John Wooden once deemed the best basketball coach in the country, patrolled the DeMatha sideline for 46 years, producing countless college and NBA players.

His teams won 32 league titles, including one in 1996, when a certain point guard led the team in field goal percentage and assists. His name was Brian Westbrook.

As the Eagles face Miami tonight, many are just learning about Westbrook, a cat-quick player who has taken the NFL by storm and begun a love affair with a city that adores hard-working underdogs.

Westbrook, however, is hardly a stranger to athletic accomplishment. This is simply the first time the national limelight really has found him. For years, he's been on the radar screen, first at DeMatha, later at Villanova. People just didn't know where to look.

"If you lined up my top five point guards at DeMatha, including some guys who are in the NBA, he'd easily be in the top five," Wootten says. "The guy is a winner. I can't tell you how many games he won for us, either hitting a big shot or with defense. There are certain guys who know how to win. That's Brian."

It was a single play against the Giants on Oct. 19 that put Westbrook into the spotlight. His 84-yard punt-return touchdown likely turned the Eagles' season around and proved Westbrook was exactly what his high school hoops coach said he was - a guy who wants the ball at the end of the day.

But Westbrook isn't like a lot of athletes who star when the game is on the line. He doesn't need or covet the bright lights. He is quiet, preferring fishing on a rented boat with his hometown buddies or hanging with his 11-month-old puppy, Capone, to late-night partying.

"At Villanova, he was always in the shadow of the basketball team," Wildcats football coach Andy Talley says. "People knew he was a great player, but he was never put on that same pedestal. He never cared even a little bit."

A "coach's dream,'' "humble'' and "respectful'' are just some of the words his former coaches use to describe Westbrook. For once, they are not hyperbole. The spotlight might have found Westbrook. That doesn't mean he has to bask in it.

Talley would love Westbrook to visit campus more often, and Westbrook does go when he can, but he is reluctant to make it a habit.

"I don't want to bother those guys," Westbrook says. "And I don't want to take away from what they've done. I did a lot of good things when I was in college, but this is their time, not mine."

Maybe that's true on the Villanova campus, but everywhere else in and around Philadelphia, it is Westbrook's time. He is not just a role player or nice little success story. He is on the path to bona fide NFL superstar. His jersey is flying off Philadelphia-area shelves. Talley said a wife of one of his assistants went to an area store to buy her son a Brian Westbrook jersey; the man behind the counter laughed.

"He told her, 'Yeah, you and about 150 other people want one,' " Talley says. "They actually had a waiting list."

Talley even hopes to convince the university bookstore to start carrying Westbrook Villanova jerseys.

It's all a little funny to Westbrook, the delicious irony that after a career of trying to prove he belonged, he suddenly finds himself thrust full bore into the fray.

Wootten figures Westbrook eas-ily could have been a Division I basketball player.

Wootten, who retired in 2002, remembers him as a pure point guard, just as happy to dish off pretty passes as he was to score.

But Westbrook always had football. And when he and Wootten sat down to carve his future, they saw a dead end in basketball and a potential open road in football.

"In basketball, at the end of his college career, he probably would have hit a wall because of his size," Wootten said. "It would have been a stretch for him [to be in the NBA] because he wouldn't have passed the eyeball test. Maybe if the right coach took a chance on him and said, 'This guy is so unique.' But that's a huge risk. In the NBA you have to fit a certain mold, and if you look at him, Brian didn't."

Too small. It's the story of Westbrook's life.

In the ninth grade, the puny, 5-2 running back couldn't even get a sniff of the field. His freshman coach took one look at him and said no way the kid would ever factor in a football program, made him second string and kept him on the sideline.

Frustrated and angry that no one would even give him a chance, Westbrook went home in tears.

It was the last time anyone pushed Westbrook aside. He started for an 11-0 team his sophomore year and hasn't let go of the ball since.

At Villanova, the question for Talley wasn't if Westbrook would touch the ball, but how. If he could have schemed a way for Westbrook to heave the ball downfield and catch it, he probably would have.

"We'd line him at flanker, in the slot, from the backfield," Talley says. "We'd let him run the ball, return punts, kickoffs. However we could get him to touch the ball, we did."

As a result, Westbrook holds the NCAA record with 9,885 all-purpose career yards.

Yet, a trophy case of awards later, ask Westbrook about that freshman-team brushoff and the sting is as fresh as it was almost a decade ago.

"It hurt me because I didn't even get a shot," Westbrook says. "Especially when you're a high school freshman, just learning the game, that's so important."

He's not sure if that fueled an inner fire, but perhaps not coincidentally, he hasn't stopped working since.

[destiny5]

This past offseason, his position on the Eagles solidified, his money in the bank, Westbrook split time between Lightning Fast in Princeton, N.J., where he worked on his already-impressive quickness, and Athletic Dominance in Maryland, where he concentrated on conditioning and football skills.

Macarthur James, a childhood friend of Westbrook's and the man behind Athletic Dominance, said he was amazed at his client's single-mindedness. On days off, Westbrook would call James and ask if they could go out and field, oh, 50 punts. James would gently remind him it was his day off, too.

"His determination is a lot higher than a lot of players I've seen," says James, who has worked with his fair share of professional athletes. "A lot of guys, they get in the league and they really don't feel like they have to work as hard. Not Brian. He doesn't just want to be a part of the league. He wants to stand out."

He has come a long way from the scrawny little high school freshman who got pushed behind the bigger kids.

But a decade later, the tag still follows Westbrook. He is a small player (5-8, 200) from a small school, an anomaly in the beef-and-brawn world of the NFL. Talley remembers going to the Hula Bowl where Westbrook, despite his Walter Payton Award, was "just some kid from Villanova."

The Villanova coach heaps credit on an Eagles staff that not only recognized Westbrook's potential but was willing to go outside the NFL running-back prototype.

"There are obviously very good players at the I-AA level, but he was something special," says Tom Heckert, the Eagles' vice president of player personnel, who pushed hard for the team to use its third-round pick in 2002 on Westbrook. "Our biggest concern wasn't if he'd make it, but if we could get him. That was the big question."

However, like Wootten's worry with the NBA eyeball test, skeptics didn't think Westbrook could be a featured back in the NFL, arguing he didn't have the size to withstand the constant beating that is the everyday life of an NFL running back. So far, thanks to Andy Reid's three-headed running back, Westbrook hasn't had to be the go-to guy, but there is no question the Eagles think he can be.

Heckert is quick to point out that the only injury Westbrook suffered during his Villanova career came not on the football field, but when he slipped on ice.

"There's not many guys his size in the league playing at all, so I think it's an unfair knock to say he can't play," Heckert says. "He did it in college, and I know people will say it's at a lower level, but look at what he did. We thought and still think he can be the guy."

And as for the notion that all this work will make him a bruised and battered player, well, you'll have to catch him first.

"He can make a 90-degree cut at full speed," Talley says. "There aren't a lot of guys in the league who can do that. And he's squirmy enough that you rarely get a chance to put a real big hit on him. He's the kind of guy who can actually last longer because he's not going to absorb as many hits."

A week ago, Westbrook corraled a pass from Donovan McNabb against the Cowboys. At the end of the 20-yard gain, Roy Williams nailed him. Except the little guy who supposedly can't absorb a hit popped up and went back to work. Williams took two steps and face-planted onto the Cowboys' sideline.

It ignited a crowd already loving the demolishment of the bad boys from Dallas and already in love with Westbrook.

If Westbrook was looking to make a statement, that was it.

Of course, the reserved Westbrook never would go for such obvious grandstanding. Besides, at this point, Westbrook doesn't need to defend himself any longer. Just like with his teammates and basketball, he can let his reputation do the talking.

"I'm not surprised by what's happening," Westbrook says. "A lot of people are, but I've worked so hard to put me in the position to achieve what I've achieved.

"I'm just glad people appreciate it. I think people like the fact that I didn't go to Florida State and I'm not some great big guy. I went to Villanova, around the corner, and I look like a normal guy walking down the street. People here like that. It's kind of like 'Rocky.' "