| Certain things in life are destined to be taken for granted,
never given the proper appreciation that is deserved. Take the farmers of America, for
example. When we are about to take a bite out of our corn on the cob, do we think about
the farmer whose hard work led to the food on our plate?
Of course not. We’re thinking: Does the corn need more butter and salt on it?
Offensive linemen are the farmers of the NFL (hint: foreshadowing at work). When a
running back busts a big run, do we think about the offensive line? Of course not. We rave
about the great move the back made 15 yards down the field. When a quarterback completes a
40-yard pass, do we think about the great pass protection provided by the offensive line?
Of course not. We rhapsodize about the touch displayed by the quarterback and prattle on
about the speed of the receiver.
Take the Rams, for instance. The whole world is in love with QB Kurt Warner’s
rags-to-riches story. The headlines that don’t go to Warner usually are gobbled up by
RB Marshall Faulk or WR Isaac Bruce. All deserve the glowing reviews. Four stars. Two
thumbs up. Bravo.
Just don’t forget about the Rams’ offensive line, which is more than just an
idle observer to the team’s offensive explosion this season.
More specifically, don’t forget about OG Adam Timmerman. He, more than anyone else
on the team, is the farmer (hint: foreshadowing at work) we are forgetting to pay homage
to for the offensive bounty the Rams have provided for our viewing pleasure this season.
Timmerman — a smart, tough, steady player and excellent technician — is
playing at an All-Pro level for the Rams. He has been the best free-agent pickup in the
NFL this season, edging out C Mark Stepnoski of the Cowboys.
The secret to Timmerman’s success is a work ethic developed growing up on the
family farm in Cherokee, Iowa. Prima donnas don’t volunteer to play offensive guard.
This is a position cloaked in anonymity. It is a position where you pack your lunch, punch
the clock, put in a long, sweaty, grueling day and then receive absolutely no glory. What
better place to look for an offensive guard than a farm in a town hardly anyone has ever
heard of.
As a kid, Timmerman bailed hay, pulled weeds and beans and basically did, in his words,
"anything they told me to do."
That included cleaning hog pens and cattle yards.
"It’s not terrible, but you’re still dealing with the smell,"
Timmerman says. "I’m sure people that don’t grow up around it, it seems a
little — I don’t know what you want to say — low-man-on-the-totem-pole type
of job."
Was this guy born to labor tirelessly in the trenches of the NFL or what?
The family farm was a successful operation, but money was not exactly plentiful. A
lavish lifestyle it was not.
Chuckling, Timmerman says, "There’s one thing we always joke about. Our
vacations were somewhere you could drive to that day and drive back from the following
day. If we stayed overnight in a hotel, that was a big vacation for us."
Timmerman’s partial football scholarship at South Dakota State did not come close
to covering all his expenses, so he spent several summers in Iowa bailing hay on
neighboring farms at $6 an hour to cover the shortfall.
On Draft Day in 1995, Timmerman and a high school friend hung out at the farm but could
not watch the proceedings on ESPN because cable TV was not available. The Packers drafted
him in the seventh round. His signing bonus amounted to about $15,000 after taxes. He used
it to make a down payment on a John Deere 750 seed drill for the farm. What? You expected
him to use the bonus money on a fast car or glitzy house like a typical rookie?
"Well, my bonus probably wouldn’t have bought much of one of those,"
Timmerman says, laughing.
If you want to get the true measure of Timmerman’s work ethic, consider the
following: Every spring he still goes back home to help plant crops on the farm. Imagine
the shock on the part of Kent Timmerman, Adam’s younger brother, who has run the farm
since their father died in 1998, when Adam first returned from the NFL and asked what work
needed to be done.
"It was surprising the first couple of times he came home to do it," says
Kent Timmerman. "It’s just like, ‘Why?’
"I didn’t know what to say to him, because he’d never really asked me
before, because him and dad always told me what I was supposed to be doing."
Adam Timmerman says, "I just really enjoy it as far as the type of work and being
out there, just enjoying nature and all of the things that go along with it."
Timmerman is not just some mellow nature boy breathing in the fresh air on the farm. On
the football field, he is Ram-tough. As a rookie with the Packers, he earned the nickname
"the Brawler" for the fights he got into in practices while trying to establish
himself and earn the respect of the organization. That Christmas, some of his teammates
anonymously gave him a pair of boxing gloves.
He hasn’t been a practice-field fighter since joining the Rams, but he still has
brought toughness to the offensive line. This is, after all, a guy who played on a broken
leg for a week in high school — "He just ignored it," says his brother
— until the injury was finally discovered.
Asked about the toughness he has brought to the Rams’ offensive line, Timmerman
says, "I think it’s been something I’ve prided myself on. Not missing
practice, not taking time off for little nicks and stuff like that."
It’s no coincidence that OT Orlando Pace has gone from an underachieving player
who seemed to have lost his aggressiveness to an All-Pro-caliber performer since Timmerman
arrived. It’s also no coincidence that the Packers’ offensive line has struggled
since Timmerman left.
Timmerman signed with the Rams for $19 million over five years. On an Iowa farm, that
will buy many lifetimes worth of seeds and equipment. In the NFL, it bought a true
difference-maker. |
