The Football Podcast

Henry Byrd was a second-team All-Ivy League offensive tackle in 2019.

As an offensive tackle, he stands 6-5 and just short of 300 pounds. Can you picture of man of that size tap-dancing?

Byrd spoke about his high school, Ensworth High School in Tennessee, and the art requirement it had for every student, on the most recent "First In Football" podcast. Byrd and the moderator, Cody Chrusciel, spoke about how the big lineman started out and then advanced in tap, and, ultimately how it helped make him a better football player by helping his footwork.

The podcast includes three interviews - with assistant coach Chris Zarkoskie, then Byrd and then former player Marc Ross. It's a little more 30 minutes, and it's entertaining throughout.

You can listen to it HERE.

If you did listen, it won't be hard to figure out the part that TigerBlog liked the most. Hint - it came when Ross mentioned him.

Cody asks Ross about his former Princeton teammate, Keith Elias. Before Ross answered, TB paused the podcast and thought about the word he'd use to describe Elias. Then when he restarted it, Ross used the same word: Intense.

Listening to Ross talk about Princeton football when he played certainly took TB back to those teams. And to Elias especially.

If any player at Princeton since Elias graduated in 1994 can even scratch his level of intensity, it was John Lovett. And this isn't a knock on anyone else who has played football at Princeton since. It's just that those two are just a bit different.

It was also Lovett who beat Elias' record for rushing touchdowns in a season, something Lovett did when he had 20 in 2018. Elias had set the record with 18 as a junior in 1992 and then broken it with 19 as a senior a year later.

Actually, the Lovett/Elias comparison is a pretty good one.

When TB thinks about Elias, he doesn't think about the records, the 20 or so he still holds. He doesn't think of Lovett in terms of statistics either.

He thinks of both of them for the way they simply imposed their will on every game they played. He thinks of the way that they had that rarest quality, where every time they touched the ball, the entire crowd waited to see if something special was about to happen.

They both used that intensity and their intangible qualities to carve out places in the NFL as players. Elias played for five NFL seasons. Lovett is in his second, after now earning regular playing time with the Green Bay Packers as a fullback after winning a Super Bowl ring with Kansas City a year ago.

Ross told a few stories about Elias that TB knew and one that he didn't know, that Elias liked to greet the visiting teams at Palmer Stadium by standing outside their locker room when they arrived. 

Ross used the word "ferocity" to describe Elias. It's a word that TB has used before to describe him as well, and it fits really well.

Ross also said how the other team knew Elias was going to get the ball the majority of the time and that he never took a play off. Neither did Lovett.

Elias and Lovett are probably the two best Princeton football players of the last 40 or 50 years. TB respects other opinions, and a case can be made for some others, but that's how good those two were.

As for Ross, he was a great player in his own right as a wide receiver and punt returner, and he still holds records of his own.

He's gone on to a long career in the NFL in scouting and player personnel, and he has two Super Bowl rings with the Giants' teams he helped build into champions. 

These days he's doing a lot of television work, and he's excellent at it. TB supposes he still wants to get back into an NFL front office, hopefully as a general manager.

For this week, it was great to hear him on with Cody.

Thanks for the shout out, and thanks for taking TB to a really fun time to be around Princeton football.