CoölStoryBro, Part MDXLVI: An Adrian Arrington Anecdote

Submitted by StateStreetApostle on

So got to spend a little time with our own Adrian Arrington tonight at my cousin's wedding.  My cousin was starting OL on Cedar Rapids Washington's 2004 state runner-up where of course Adrian was WR1. He was remarkably kind and chatty; he was probably pretending when he said he remembered me, though I wasn't pretending when I remembered his 80-yard TD in the first quarter of the 4A Iowa state championship. (To say nothing of the 16 TD he scored in maize & blue!)

Long story short; since leaving pro football (remember, he had tons of injuries, starting with that KR sophomore year) he returned to his home town and had tried his hand at several different things--but when HC Marvin McNutt reached out to him, he became the OC for the Cedar Rapids Titans, a team in the Indoor Football League, an 8-man league.  He described it as a lot of fun (seems like the perfect air-it-out league for a WR HC and a WR OC) but not his full-time job as he seeks to provide for his son.

He expressed wistfulness over Erik Campbell (his old WR coach who got a raw deal at Iowa) and excitement over Harbaugh, saying that we really needed somene who could connect with top recruits.  

(Which is, of course, similar to what we say, but it seems much different to hear it from a former top recruit himself.)

And by way of a final note about what a great guy he was, and is: I come from an ND family, and though he wasn't all-that-seriously considering the Irish back in the day, he took my two uncles with him on his recruiting trip so they could get the full Irish experience.

Here's to Michigan Men, for four years, for forty years, for forever.  Hail Harbaugh!

WichitanWolverine

August 26th, 2017 at 11:15 PM ^

TL;DR but I've met Adrian a couple times before and he is an awesome dude. As I've said before, every single football player I've had the fortune to interact with had been great, except for one.

WichitanWolverine

August 27th, 2017 at 12:35 AM ^

My roommate and I were both very young for our "grade," i.e. turned 21 our senior year. So when the youngest of us turned 21 on a Tuesday in 2006 it was a big deal.

We did what we always did when celebrating and went to the Brown Jug that October night. And we had several friends come down from MSU and CMU for the occasion. We walked in and the place was entirely empty except for the one table in the back. We recognized a few faces there...Ortmann, Long, and Rivas. Even though we were die-hard football fans, we decided to give them their space and sat up front by the glass windows.

The night went on without any problem, until Rivas saw that we were chewing tobacco in our booth up front (not proud of it, but it was a college thing). He asked if he could have a pinch and I said, "absolutely; we're football fans so you can have one no problem." He said "thanks" and took a pinch and then put the lid on the tin. After pretending to hand it back to us, he did a quick 180 and threw it at the bartender across the bar. The bartender had to duck to avoid getting hit by it. We all stood up with a chorus and said, "What the fuck?" and at that point Long and Ortmann grabbed him and took him out of the bar while apologizing for his actions. He then tried to continue the altercation while being dragged West down South U by his teammates.

That's the only negative encounter I've had with a Michigan football player.