This made me laugh. I liked the article as I was a sheep and bought the McGuffie hype, so he'll always have a place in my heart, but the title certainly doesn't "say it all".
Im not(eh..) ashamed to admit that I own a #2 McGuffie jersey that I purchased before he enrolled.
IT'S BOBSLED TIME!!!
How time flies. Interesting article about the twists and turns in McGuffie's athletic career. Also more insights as to why he left UM. I was always under the impression that he left solely for family reasons. Apparently, not so much.
I understand that speed is the most important factor in a bobsled race, and I understand that there probably (?) isn't a huge youth and college Bobsled team system in the US, but it still seems weird that they'd just have a combine to put together a team.
One year to sit and out 15-20 lbs of muscle in his frame and he would have been a beast here.
I doubt that. He ran too high, and didn't have the "feel" to lessen or avoid big hits. I bought the hype as well, and maybe he could've made a good slot guy, but not a RB.
Agree on the RB aspect. However, as a slot with his speed in open space catching a throwback screen or slant past the D-line at the 2nd level he would have been a nightmare for the opposition.
“I heard (former NFL running back) Herschel Walker did it and people just told me, 'Man, you should try out for the bobsled team,' ” McGuffie recalled. “I'm like, 'What the hell are you talking about? Bobsled? What?'”
Admittedly, my first introduction to bobsledding was the 1979 movie "Animalympics", where when talking about avoiding crashes and catastrophes, you hear the following exchange:
"You've been around the sport a long time. What can they do to avoid this sort of thing?"
"Take up golf instead."
In all seriousness, it would be kind of cool to see McGuffie on the US team.
He had a disappointing freshmen season but after reading the article I didnt realize how the poor guy had bad luck about at every turn. Im glad its working out for him.
i brought up Kelly Baraka a week or two ago in another thread...
Latest I've found is that he's in the boxing ring.
http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2016/09/post_464.html
Did some time in MMA, also.
aw i wanna boobsled!
and definitely an interesting journey for Sam. Good luck with making the team and hope to watch you in the next Olympics.
Great now I want to watch Cool Runnings.
There was a Winter Olympic themed internet game I used to play, probably around the 2002 Olympics, back when Candyland games were a thing. The only one I played was the bobsled game, and you had to steer it down the track. If you didn't steer into the corner well enough, the sled flew off the track and (I assume) the guys inside all died. Why I kept playing it so much as a kid, I'll never know.
That's all I have to add. Good luck Sam.
Thanks for the post.
I wish him luck. Jeez, I didn't realize Steve Holcomb died. He was great.
Good article. Thought I'd mention that he also has been trying to get involved in rugby in the past couple years. He trained with Tiger Rugby in Columbus, OH, where they have an excellent rugby academy that has placed several players onto the USA Rugby 7s team (a couple made the 2016 olympic squad). He played with them and 1823 (a Columbus men's club rugby 7s team) in the national championship tournament last summer, and also trained with the Ohio Aviators for a bit (a former professional rugby 15s team that was based out of Obetz, OH just south of Columbus). He must have taken a step back from rugby to focus on bobsledding again ahead of next year's Olympics, because I haven't seen anything about him in rugby since last summer.