Post by The Hammer on Nov 29, 2006 19:33:36 GMT -5
In the print version that I have they have a pic of Animal in his LOD gear.
From the USA Today:
Buckeyes linebacker Laurinaitis has a hold on stardom
Posted 11/16/2006
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When No. 1 Ohio State hosts No. 2 Michigan on Saturday, middle linebacker James Laurinaitis' usual fan section will be among the 102,000 other crazies.
The Legion of Laurinaitis is what they call themselves, a few Ohio State students who dress like James' father, Joe, did when he was "Animal" in his popular pro wrestling tag team, Road Warriors, aka Legion of Doom. The costume will be the same, except with an Ohio State twist. They will have the spiked shoulder pads with his jersey number, 33, written on top, and their faces will be painted in scarlet and gray.
Other students probably will be wearing T-shirts or holding signs that read "I have Laurinaitis," and surely the Buckeyes are thankful they have Laurinaitis as well. On a defense that had to replace nine starters, including its three star linebackers from last year, no one has had a bigger impact than Laurinaitis (pronounced lore-in-EYE-tis), one of three finalists for the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker.
The 6-3, 244-pound sophomore, who's only 19, leads the Buckeyes with 91 tackles and is tied for the Big Ten lead in interceptions with five. His teammates joke that he's lucky when it comes to interceptions, that he has a magnet in his chest that he turns on to make the ball hit him right in the numbers. But they know that his good fortune is mostly a product of his hard work. Wherever the ball is, Laurinaitis seems to be there, too. Laurinaitis, who deflects any credit, says if the ball comes his way, it's only because "our D-line gets great pressure."
Surprisingly, the biggest pro wrestling fan on the team is not Laurinaitis; it's fellow linebacker Marcus Freeman. "Marcus is in a wrestling fantasy league, even though it's fake!" says Laurinaitis, also known as "Little Animal" or "Animal Jr." "I'll always say to him, my uncle (John, a vice president for WWE) works for them, and I can probably get who's going to win every match and help you win this fantasy league."
In the weight room, the two linebackers occasionally engage in fake punches or other wrestling maneuvers to entertain the weight staff. There was the time when Freeman hit Laurinaitis with a folding chair. Freeman once wanted to throw Laurinaitis through a table for fun, before Laurinaitis convinced him that "our linebacker coach would not be pleased if one of us had a piece of wood shoved in his midsection."
Before practice, Freeman, in an exaggerated WWE announcer voice, will introduce himself to his "millions and millions of M-Free fans," and Laurinaitis, who lived all of this for real, will just laugh.
It's hard to imagine a childhood more fun than the one Laurinaitis had in Hamel, Minn. There were wrestling parties in elementary school in which all his friends dressed up as their favorite wrestlers and held mock matches, with his younger sister, Jessica, as the announcer. There were the trips with his hockey team to see his dad perform and to meet heroes like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or "The Rock."
There was the trampoline and the pool in the backyard to practice the "Doomsday Device," his father's signature finishing move, and a willing little sister and older brother, Joey, as his tag-team partners. "I would put my sister on my shoulders in the pool, and then my brother would jump off the diving board and clothesline her as she was doing a back flip off my shoulders," Laurinaitis says.
This also explains why all three kids are fearless today. Joey, 25, served in Iraq with the Army and is training to be a police officer. Jessica, a high school junior, is fielding ice hockey college scholarship offers. "That's probably why she's in the penalty box so much," says her father about those days in the backyard with her brothers. "She's beautiful from the neck up, but the meanest kid on the ice."
Joe, who played football in junior college before beginning his pro wrestling career, coached James in baseball and football, and the 6-3, 325-pounder who still sports a Mohawk even learned to skate so he could coach James in hockey, too.
"He'd yell at me, and he's got this loud voice from the entertainment business, so people would think he'd want to kill me out there," James says of his dad. "But once they got to know my dad, they realized he's the biggest family man around and a sweetheart, a real teddy bear."
In his apartment on campus, James still has action figures of his dad as well as a photo of him in his Animal garb. The signed picture reads, "James, Keep living the dream, Love, Dad."
"I keep it in my room to remind myself of the success he had, the hard work he put into it," Laurinaitis says. Nearby, is also a picture of his dad and mom, Julie, who was a standout prep swimmer and runner and former powerlifter. Fittingly, Julie met Joe in a gym, when she asked him to spot her on some squats.
"What a meatball," James says to his dad. "You met Mom in a gym."
Truth is, despite the over-the-top job his dad had, the Laurinaitis family is about as typical as, say, coach Jim Tressel's, minus the sweater vest and the little white dog named Cuddles pictured in Tressel's family portrait in the football media guide.
A decade ago when Joe Laurinaitis was traveling through Ohio for one of his pro wrestling matches, he picked up an Andy Katzenmoyer jersey for James. It was the first football jersey James ever owned.
Now Laurinaitis has a chance to be the first sophomore since Katzenmoyer in 1997 to win the Butkus Award. "This is something," Joe says. "For him to have the chance to be just the third sophomore in history (Oklahoma's Brian Bosworth in 1985 was the other), this just blows my mind."
From the USA Today:
Buckeyes linebacker Laurinaitis has a hold on stardom
Posted 11/16/2006
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
COLUMBUS, Ohio — When No. 1 Ohio State hosts No. 2 Michigan on Saturday, middle linebacker James Laurinaitis' usual fan section will be among the 102,000 other crazies.
The Legion of Laurinaitis is what they call themselves, a few Ohio State students who dress like James' father, Joe, did when he was "Animal" in his popular pro wrestling tag team, Road Warriors, aka Legion of Doom. The costume will be the same, except with an Ohio State twist. They will have the spiked shoulder pads with his jersey number, 33, written on top, and their faces will be painted in scarlet and gray.
Other students probably will be wearing T-shirts or holding signs that read "I have Laurinaitis," and surely the Buckeyes are thankful they have Laurinaitis as well. On a defense that had to replace nine starters, including its three star linebackers from last year, no one has had a bigger impact than Laurinaitis (pronounced lore-in-EYE-tis), one of three finalists for the Butkus Award as the nation's top linebacker.
The 6-3, 244-pound sophomore, who's only 19, leads the Buckeyes with 91 tackles and is tied for the Big Ten lead in interceptions with five. His teammates joke that he's lucky when it comes to interceptions, that he has a magnet in his chest that he turns on to make the ball hit him right in the numbers. But they know that his good fortune is mostly a product of his hard work. Wherever the ball is, Laurinaitis seems to be there, too. Laurinaitis, who deflects any credit, says if the ball comes his way, it's only because "our D-line gets great pressure."
Surprisingly, the biggest pro wrestling fan on the team is not Laurinaitis; it's fellow linebacker Marcus Freeman. "Marcus is in a wrestling fantasy league, even though it's fake!" says Laurinaitis, also known as "Little Animal" or "Animal Jr." "I'll always say to him, my uncle (John, a vice president for WWE) works for them, and I can probably get who's going to win every match and help you win this fantasy league."
In the weight room, the two linebackers occasionally engage in fake punches or other wrestling maneuvers to entertain the weight staff. There was the time when Freeman hit Laurinaitis with a folding chair. Freeman once wanted to throw Laurinaitis through a table for fun, before Laurinaitis convinced him that "our linebacker coach would not be pleased if one of us had a piece of wood shoved in his midsection."
Before practice, Freeman, in an exaggerated WWE announcer voice, will introduce himself to his "millions and millions of M-Free fans," and Laurinaitis, who lived all of this for real, will just laugh.
It's hard to imagine a childhood more fun than the one Laurinaitis had in Hamel, Minn. There were wrestling parties in elementary school in which all his friends dressed up as their favorite wrestlers and held mock matches, with his younger sister, Jessica, as the announcer. There were the trips with his hockey team to see his dad perform and to meet heroes like "Stone Cold" Steve Austin or "The Rock."
There was the trampoline and the pool in the backyard to practice the "Doomsday Device," his father's signature finishing move, and a willing little sister and older brother, Joey, as his tag-team partners. "I would put my sister on my shoulders in the pool, and then my brother would jump off the diving board and clothesline her as she was doing a back flip off my shoulders," Laurinaitis says.
This also explains why all three kids are fearless today. Joey, 25, served in Iraq with the Army and is training to be a police officer. Jessica, a high school junior, is fielding ice hockey college scholarship offers. "That's probably why she's in the penalty box so much," says her father about those days in the backyard with her brothers. "She's beautiful from the neck up, but the meanest kid on the ice."
Joe, who played football in junior college before beginning his pro wrestling career, coached James in baseball and football, and the 6-3, 325-pounder who still sports a Mohawk even learned to skate so he could coach James in hockey, too.
"He'd yell at me, and he's got this loud voice from the entertainment business, so people would think he'd want to kill me out there," James says of his dad. "But once they got to know my dad, they realized he's the biggest family man around and a sweetheart, a real teddy bear."
In his apartment on campus, James still has action figures of his dad as well as a photo of him in his Animal garb. The signed picture reads, "James, Keep living the dream, Love, Dad."
"I keep it in my room to remind myself of the success he had, the hard work he put into it," Laurinaitis says. Nearby, is also a picture of his dad and mom, Julie, who was a standout prep swimmer and runner and former powerlifter. Fittingly, Julie met Joe in a gym, when she asked him to spot her on some squats.
"What a meatball," James says to his dad. "You met Mom in a gym."
Truth is, despite the over-the-top job his dad had, the Laurinaitis family is about as typical as, say, coach Jim Tressel's, minus the sweater vest and the little white dog named Cuddles pictured in Tressel's family portrait in the football media guide.
A decade ago when Joe Laurinaitis was traveling through Ohio for one of his pro wrestling matches, he picked up an Andy Katzenmoyer jersey for James. It was the first football jersey James ever owned.
Now Laurinaitis has a chance to be the first sophomore since Katzenmoyer in 1997 to win the Butkus Award. "This is something," Joe says. "For him to have the chance to be just the third sophomore in history (Oklahoma's Brian Bosworth in 1985 was the other), this just blows my mind."