Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, July 24, 1995 TAG: 9507240103
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
DATELINE: FROSTBURG, MD. LENGTH: Long
When he pass-rushes from his defensive end spot, Nottage needs to struggle around or through a block. The route to the quarterback never will be the toughest yards Nottage travels, however.
His life is one of those that could be a movie. Yes, he started one game as a rookie last season, against Super Bowl champion San Francisco. The script should start long before that November day, however.
``I had a long way to come,'' Nottage said, still sweating after a Saturday workout at the Redskins' training camp. ``I'm not fooling myself. I still have a long way to go.''
The NFL isn't just a job for Nottage. It's an adventure. He's already had plenty of jobs. The Redskins chose him in the sixth round of the 1994 college draft - but Nottage hadn't played college football since 1991.
``Sometimes I think I appreciate where I am and what I have more than some other guys because of what I've been through,'' Nottage said. ``Then, I remember that they all went through four or five years of schooling.
``They had to get up for class, they had to practice. Some of them got a degree. That's responsibility. Still, what happened to me, I don't wish on anybody.''
At Hollywood Hills High School, Nottage was a Florida state discus champion and football star. He went to Florida A&M, and in two seasons he was headed toward an NFL future.
He got married that winter, and he and wife Roxanne went to Miami in the spring of 1992 to visit Nottage's mother. She was in bed, ill, with heart trouble. A couple of months later, Nottage's sister was struck by a van while on the job.
``My mom and my sister wanted me to stay in school and keep playing football,'' Nottage said. ``I couldn't do that. I had a wife. My mom and sister couldn't work. It was up to me to help.''
So, Nottage quit school after his sophomore year. He went to work. So did his pregnant wife, who soon had to quit her job as a parking attendant when their son was born prematurely.
Nottage started with an office supply company, doing inventory and hauling furniture. He washed cars for a Toyota dealership. He took his wife's place at the parking lot. He hauled telephone cable.
Those were the days. At night, he was a security guard. He started work in Hollywood at 9 p.m., but he left his apartment in the tough Overtown area of Miami about 5 each afternoon.
He rode a bicycle four hours to and from work, 30 miles each way. His salary was $150 a week as a guard.
He also worked for a cable television company as an overdue-bill collector. He was very effective, if for no other reason than he was 6 feet 4, 270 pounds.
``I was trying to work out and stay in shape, too,'' Nottage said. ``And I took my mother to therapy seven days a week.''
That was after Nottage bought a car. The couple had saved $300, and spent half of that on a 1979 Corolla they saw sitting on the side of a road one day.
He kept riding his bike for exercise, however. He couldn't get invited to the NFL scouting combine for college players, so he went to a camp for the uninvited in Tampa, Fla.
He ran 40 yards in 4.73 seconds. He had a vertical jump of 31 inches. He bench-pressed 275 pounds 20 times. And just like that, the NFL discovered Nottage.
``It was like a dream,'' said Nottage, who began his second camp with the Redskins' as their first backup at both defensive end spots. ``When I was drafted, my family was excited, but I still had to come out and show what I could do.
``Once I was in pads again, and that seemed strange, I knew I could do it. Now, I've gained weight [to 291 pounds], I know more about what I'm doing. I want to be able to start, but I know I have to be more consistent.''
Bob Karmelowicz, the Redskins' defensive line coach, says Nottage ``has the chance to be something special. He's got speed, size and the desire to be great. ... He mentally understands the game. Now, he has to take the next step and translate what he knows in his head onto the field. He just needs repetitions.''
Nottage, 24, signed a three-year, $360,000 contract last year. Anything the Redskins get from him is a bonus. That's reality. Nottage was into reality long before most teammates his age.
The January 1991 night he and Roxanne eloped, Nottage picked her up at her A&M dorm. They drove to the Leon County Courthouse in Tallahassee, got married, and went to the Dragon Room Restaurant for dinner.
Then they went back to their separate dorms and went to class the next day. They didn't live together until that spring, when Nottage left school.
``You do what you have to do,'' he said. ``I'm responsible for what I do. I'd like to think I have the ability to be one of the greatest to play my position.
``But I need to see that in me before others can see it. I'm a big guy, and like they say, the biggest room in the house is often the one that needs the most work.''
by CNB