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The Longhorns Love Halle Berry
The typical Texas Longhorn football player stands 6-foot-2, weighs 230 pounds and likes to listen to music in the locker room before the game. He loves watching SportsCenter, playing Madden or NCAA Football video games, and will tell you he came to Texas because of the family atmosphere. Also, he loves Halle Berry.
These are the things you learn by leafing through the 2009 Texas Football Yearbook, which landed in mailboxes this week. For season ticket holders, it replaces the hulking media guide of years past, which once grew to more than 460 pages thick. This year's guide is just 136 glossy magazine pages, but still manages to serve its dual roles as reference guide and recruiting tool.
The best part of any media guide or yearbook is the player biographies. Too often, football players are dehumanized under their helmet and pads. The bios remind you there's a real person -- a funny, interesting person -- behind the jersey number. I can remember looking at the Dallas Cowboys yearbook as a kid, memorizing details not just about stars like Roger Staubach and Tony Dorsett, but for lesser-known players like Larry Cole (nicknamed "Bubba", went to three colleges). Flipping through the pages, I wondered how Charlie Waters and Cliff Harris made such a seamless pair at safety when one was a long-haired, good-looking Clemson boy and the other a balding military veteran from Ouachita Baptist.
This year's Longhorn squad lists some things that make sense for the group -- Lil Wayne is listed as a musical favorite for most players and "Remember the Titans" is most everyone's favorite movie -- but it's the unexpected answers that make individual players memorable. A sampling:
- Offensive tackle Adam Ulatoski loves to play Rock Band. What must those tiny guitars and drumsticks look like in the massive hands of the 6-8, 300-pounder?
- More than one player can't believe he watches "The Hills", but not Jeremy Hills, who can't believe he watches "Hannah Montana".
- What could 18-year-old Garrett Gilbert, who's probably never even been near a cubicle, find funny about his favorite show, "The Office"?
- Sophomore Blake Gideon's tastes also skew older, with favorites like "Forrest Gump", Mel Gibson, George Strait, and Charlie Brown.
- Fozzy Whittaker leads the team in pets, with a dog (Milo), two turtles (Michelangelo and Lance), a ferret (Kiko) and a catfish (Whopper).
- Superfan Matthew McConaughey loves the Longhorns, but they don't love him back. Not a single player named UT's best-known sideline-hanger as their favorite actor. Denzel Washington was the clear winner there.
Which brings us to Ms. Berry, the far-and-away winner in the "Favorite Actress" category. Sure, her charms are undeniable, but she's old enough to be any of the players' mom (she's 43; the oldest player turns 24 in December).
How about some more perspective? She's five years older future head coach Will Muschamp and 12 years older than assistant coach Major Applewhite. She's closer in age to head coach Mack Brown (57) than any of the players.
I'll cut them a little slack, though. Berry's been a leading symbol of beauty for nearly 20 years now. She's been among the hottest women on the planet for as long as most of the players have been alive. So it's understandable that she comes to mind when they think of movie idols.
So whether it's through the football yearbook or its expanded edition online, take some time to find out more about your favorite player. You may appreciate Colt McCoy's accurate passing and leadership ability, or the fact that you both love to hunt and fish. You may marvel at Sergio Kindle's relentlessness on defense, or at the idea of you sitting down to watch your mutual favorite show, "Family Guy". Either way, knowing more about the person behind the facemask will help you enjoy the season.
