[TekeRam]

Copied from my post last night about none other than Chris Long:

Son Emerges From Long Shadow
By Adam Kilgore
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 19, 2007; E01
CHARLOTTESVILLE
Chris Long is running alone under the floodlights at the Virginia football team's practice field. The rest of his teammates have walked off the field and into the locker room, content to be done with their first practice of the preseason. Stripped down to a pair of gray spandex shorts and soaked in sweat, with blades of grass sticking to his body in the thick summer air, Long sprints up and down the field.
He's running because in a few weeks, he'll play a mile above sea level for the first time at Wyoming, and as a third-year starter and the current face of the team, he needs to be ready. He's running because he finds out what everyone else does, and then he does more. He's running because of the tattoo on his back that's almost too small to see: small, green letters that spell "PRIDE."
He's running because he has discovered that upholding his own reputation is even more difficult than escaping family comparisons. He is no longer Howie's kid, son of a Hall of Famer; he is one of the best college football players in the country, a lock to be one of the first 10 players picked in the NFL draft.
Mostly, though, Chris Long is running for the same reason his father did years ago. He is afraid.
"Fear of failure," Long said. "I have the same fears that he does. That's the eerie part. We both are petrified of coming out and getting embarrassed. You've got to take pride in what you do. People are counting on you -- teammates are counting on you, fans are counting on you. If you go 100 miles an hour, at least at the end of the day, you worked yourself silly out there. That's all you can do."
Famous Father
It's almost midnight this past Monday, and Long is at CVS with Clint Sintim, his roommate and an outside linebacker. They need a new alarm clock for their house, but Sintim plans to get more out of the trip.
"This is Chris Long!" Sintim shouts, running behind an aisle to hide. He won't let up. "Number 91! Howie Long's son! Son of a Hall of Famer!"
Long can be brutal when he needles his friends, always needing to get in the last joke. This is their recourse. Aaron Grossman, Long's one roommate who does not play football, walks up to strangers and says, "Do you know this is Howie Long's son?"
Long blushes, like he always does, but he laughs, too. He tells them to cut it out, but doesn't seem to mean it.
"We wouldn't do it any other way," Grossman said. "He's not 'Howie Long's Son' anymore. He's Chris Long. The joke is just a joke."
Growing up, Long was oblivious to his father's fame. He rarely even watched him play. As he reached high school, though, the idea of following his father began to weigh on him. It made him not want to play football at all.
"That's a heck of a thing to compete with," Long said. "I kind of resented it."
Genetics made the comparisons unavoidable. Howie and Chris were each born with six fingers on one hand. They share that granite jaw line. The first time John Blake, Long's coach at Charlottesville's St. Anne's-Belfield School, watched Long crouch into a stance, he blurted: "Oh, my God. That's his dad."
Long was afraid when his name landed atop recruiting charts. Was he getting credit only because of who his dad was? After his basketball games, Chris retreated to the basement at St. Anne's-Belfield. Still wearing his uniform, he would do power clean lifts. He'd call Blake and ask to run on the practice field. He worked harder than anyone Blake had ever coached. Yet he still struggled with his father's legacy.
Long had several long talks with Blake, wrestling with his father's impact on his career. "Your dad is never going to play another down of football," Blake told him. More and more, Long realized Howie had nothing to do with his results on the field.
"After a while, it's not a competition," Long said. "It's not a shadow I need to move out of or anything like that. Once I found out this is what I'm passionate about, this is what I'm good at, I just welcomed that with open arms. It's a help."
Howie had never pushed football on his boys. Chris's younger brother, Kyle, could have played football but instead chose to play baseball at Florida State. Howie Jr. is heading toward lacrosse.
Chris happened to choose football. "If you're going to play," Howie told him, "play the game the right way."
Howie, who lives five minutes from Charlottesville, does his best to blend in. He has been to a handful of practices, but only the open ones that fans and reporters can attend. "I'm just like every other parent," he said. He stands quietly off to the side, trying to not be noticed, his trademark flattop notwithstanding.
"I'm not coaching Chris," Howie said. "That's important for people to know. Chris is singularly responsible for his success."
Still, they speak at least once a day. Football, naturally, comes up: "It's not like plumbing is the family business," Howie said.
Dominating
The fear hasn't melted away yet. Midway through last season, Long became frustrated with his performance and went to his parents' house with a load of game tapes. Watching with his son, Howie noticed Chris trying new moves, not just using his quickness or hand-to-hand techniques. Howie told Chris to forget about the experiments and stick with what he does best: "Do you," he said.
It was a turning point for Long that has carried over to this season. Long's greatness is both obvious and subtle. At 6 feet 4, 280 pounds, he chases ballcarriers like a maniac, like someone who is afraid.
But a defensive end in the 3-4 alignment favored by Al Groh is designed to be anonymous. Long is responsible for plugging two gaps every play, not just charging upfield like typical ends. Asked how often he sees Long do something amazing that a fan would not notice, Groh responded, "Every play."
Defensive ends in the 3-4 shouldn't pile up gaudy stats. But Long has 40 tackles, second on the team, and eight sacks, fifth in the nation. "That's unreal," Sintim said.
"I've only had the pleasure to coach one other player who was as dominant in his level of competition as Chris is: 56" Groh said. He meant Lawrence Taylor.
Long's performance has made his father's shadow vanish. When Grossman was a freshman living down the hall from Long, other students asked him, "Does Howie ever come by the dorms?" This year, when Grossman's living arrangements come up, no one mentions Howie. Instead, he's grilled with, "Oh my God, you live with Chris Long?"
"I feel more pressure," Long said. "Now I have my own name that I have to uphold every day when I play. Now, people look at you for who you are. That's a blessing, but also, you have to be cognizant of the fact that things change. You have to watch out for your own name."
The Nerd
Attending college so close to home allows for some perks -- laundry day, for instance. On Wednesday night, Kyle Long, the middle brother, came to Chris's house with a basket of sheets their mother had washed.
Long looks after his brothers fiercely. When Kyle was choosing a college and a sport, Long told him, "Do what you love." When Kyle needs help on an essay in high school, he asks Chris.
"He's a better writer than he is a football player," Kyle said.
As chaotic as Chris is on the field, he's calm off it. He likes to go camping or tubing on a lake. He discusses music almost every night with Grossman. He has the messiest room in the house. He's a Discovery Channel devotee.
"He's a nerd," Kyle said. "It'll be Saturday night. 'You going out, Chris?' He'll say, 'Nah, I'm watching "Planet Earth," man.' He sits there by himself watching polar bears."
Said Grossman: "If it wasn't for his stature, he could fit in anywhere. He's smart and witty, and if it wasn't for football, he would a great student here."
Of course, he's not like everyone else. Even when he relaxes, football never leaves his mind. During spring break, he thinks about spring practice. In the summertime, camp is around the corner.
"He's afraid he's going to get beat by somebody," Kyle said.
On Saturday, Long and the Cavaliers will play Maryland on national television, perhaps the most important game of their season. During the telecast, ESPN2 will likely show clips of Howie.
Howie hates that. Chris doesn't mind so much. But the fear is still there. And it's not going away.
"It increases," Long said. "The higher the stakes, the more you feel pressure to perform. That's not a bad thing. For somebody to say they don't feel pressure, fine. That's just not me. I feel pressure. And I thrive on it."