here you go, remark (although it links just fine both on my home and work pc)
"Driven to succeed
Brian Robison has a history of exceeding expectations, and he is determined to reach his goals in his rookie season.
BY SEAN JENSEN
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 06/03/2007 11:30:28 PM CDT
Defensive end Brian Robison says one goal he has for this season is to break the Vikings' rookie sack record. "Goals are very important to me, and I try to set them very, very high, almost unreachable," he said. Keith Millard set the Vikings' rookie record of 11 in 1985. (BEN GARVIN, Pioneer Press)Defining moments generally happen at mature stages of life, perhaps after college, marriage or the birth of a child.
Vikings defensive end Brian Robison confronted one in middle school, before many boys even hit puberty, and the occasion was so significant that he clearly remembers the minute details.
That Robison, then a squirmy sixth-grader, was flanked by his parents - father Jimmy to his left, mother Terri to his right - in the office of the guidance counselor at Splendora (Tex.) Junior High, about an hour north of Houston.
That the guidance counselor had a lamp to her right, a window covered with blue blinds to her left, and a massive calendar as the centerpiece of her desk.
That she was blonde, although he suspected she dyed it that color.
That she waved a black pen with gold writing in her right hand as she talked.
And that she made two predictions that stirred him and sparked his academic and athletic career.
"For the most part, I was zoned out," Brian said. "But then I remember her saying, 'I'm sorry to tell you this, Mr. and Mrs. Robison. But I don't think your son is college material. I don't think he will ever make it to college, and I don't think he'll be able to graduate with a degree.' "
Brian did go to college, starring at the University of Texas, and the Vikings selected him in the fourth round of the NFL draft. Last week, Brian recounted how the initial adversity impacted his life.
Brian was in the office because his
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grades were so poor that the three adults were discussing whether he should repeat the sixth grade. After the counselor's comment, Brian's mother excused her son from the office.
"I walked out, and I don't know what they said to her," Brian said, "but I heard her say again, 'Well, Mr. and Mrs. Robison, I'm sorry. I just don't believe he's college material.' "
Just before she stormed out of the office, Terri said, "Well, we'll see about that."
Then, the adolescent Brian made a grown-up decision; he insisted on staying back, even though that meant he would not be able to play football for his school with his friends.
"I was taught when I was small that education was always No. 1," Brian said.
"So when I saw my grades slip, I said, 'I will skip a year of football, get my grades straight, and then I can start up again.' "
FULFILLING DREAMS
Brian first proclaimed his dream when he was 5 years old, Terri recalled.
"Everyone around here told him, your dad is short," Terri said. "You can't do anything. But my dad is 6 foot 7, and all the boys on my side are 6 foot 2."
Brian got the size from his mother's side of the family, but he got his love for football from his father. Jimmy Robison was a 5-foot-6 safety who redshirted when Ranger College won the Junior College National Championship in 1979.
"I wasn't nothing great," Jimmy said. "Before the next year, I got the feeling I was so far from home, and I didn't think I was getting a fair shake, so I came home."
Jimmy had a few different jobs before joining the Houston Police Department, where he has worked the past 24 years. He regrets giving up his football dreams, although he knows the NFL wasn't an option, but he regrets more not getting his college degree.
When he was a boy, Brian would commit his goals to paper, for every sport.
At Splendora High School, Brian played five sports, and he ended up tallying 16 varsity letters. He would jot down short- and long-term goals, and he would immediately raise the ante once he reached one.
"Goals are very important to me, and I try to set them very, very high, almost unreachable," Brian said. "But I expect to reach them. If people tell me I can't do something, then that's a goal for me. My goal is to prove them wrong."
Like his junior high track and football coach.
In seventh grade, Brian watched older boys throwing the shot put.
"I can throw it further than that," Brian recalled telling a coach. "He said, 'No, you're too small.' "
Naturally, Brian did as he promised.
In eighth grade, a new football coach wouldn't let Brian play running back.
But after he intercepted a pass and juked his way into the end zone, Brian was anointed a fullback, and he got his chances to tote the rock.
Despite his accomplishments, though, Brian knew he was a big fish in a small pond. Splendora's population was 1,275, and he remembered attending a football game of North Shore Senior High, a Houston athletic powerhouse.
"That really changed my thinking," Brian said. "Not only do I have to be better than people in my town, I have to better than these people in Houston and San Antonio. My dad always told me, 'You always have to work to be better than the next person, because once you become better than one person, there's always another person who is better than him.' "
THE SUPPORT NETWORK
Brian never told his parents why he struggled so much in sixth grade. Terri, a nurse, was perturbed by doctors misdiagnosing Brian's attention deficit disorder. One psychologist insisted he be medicated with a stimulant.
"I said, 'Are you crazy?' " Terri recalled. "It was a long learning process.
"I had to educate myself."
That was only part of the problem, Brian said. That year, he was being bullied often, and although he wasn't small, he didn't defend himself.
"I was always getting grounded because my grades were bad, and I never told my parents why," Brian said. "At the end of the year, I told them what was going on. I was being threatened. Really and truly, it was my fault for letting it happen. The next year, it was a different story."
Inspired by his counselor to rededicate himself, Brian also intended to send a message to his antagonists. So, during the first week of school, Brian fought back when someone picked on him, and he convincingly dominated the other boy.
"That's when things changed for me," he said. "I didn't get picked on after that."
As he neared graduation, Brian met a girl with whom his mother and sister, Misty, became acquainted through barrel racing. Jayme Miller, who was two years his junior, lived in Tomball, Texas, about an hour southwest of Splendora.
Brian was so enamored with Jayme that he gave her a promise ring before he left for the University of Texas.
"Originally, I think she thought I was proposing to her," Brian recalled.
"But I told her, 'I plan on marrying you.' "
Also goal-oriented, Jayme said she figured she would get married in her 30s, determined to chase her own dreams.
"It scared the crap out of me," Jayme said. "Who knows where life is going to take us? 'It's not going to work, buddy. We're young and dumb.'
"But, sure enough, life brought us together."
Brian proposed in January, and they plan to get married in February, after the Super Bowl.
But Jayme was a professional athlete first, and her "Super Bowl" is in December. A professional barrel racer - a timed sport that consists of a rider guiding a horse around three 55-gallon barrels - Jayme was the Women's Professional Rodeo Association rookie of the year for Texas in 2003. She has been riding horses since she was 3 years old, and she turned pro at 18.
It's a challenge for Jayme and Brian to juggle their demanding careers, but they are connected by competition. They sometimes play PIG or HORSE at a basketball court, and they incessantly play rock, paper, scissors.
"We'll be stopped in line, and he'll want to play," Jayme said, "but he's been doing that since college, so he, of course, wins every time. He's got it down."
Jayme, though, insisted she has the upper hand in figuring out the answers on Wheel of Fortune.
"He'd probably argue with you," Jayme said, "but it's a known fact.
"Everything we do, there's some kind of winner."
DREAM FULFILLED
Brian knows the guidance counselor's full name.
"I can tell you exactly who she is," Brian said, "but I'm not going to put that out there."
He is motivated by doubters, but he's not consumed by the doubts.
The guidance counselor wasn't the only one from Splendora who didn't expect much from him. Given his small-town roots, people in Splendora didn't think he'd be much of a factor at Texas. Brian played in 49 games for the Longhorns, starting 36 of them, and he finished his college career with 181 tackles and 15 sacks, including a team-high seven during the team's national championship run in 2005.
"There is so much jealously in Splendora," said Misty Robison, Brian's 16-year-old sister. "All the rumors that have gone through Splendora, he proved them wrong. They always said he wouldn't get to the next level; he always proved them wrong. He makes me very proud, and he deserves everything he's gotten, because he's worked for it."
Despite an excellent performance at the NFL combine, Robison was selected below predraft projections, going in the fourth round to the Vikings. A handful of teams teased him with phone calls and empty promises, he said.
He said the New England Patriots considered taking him with their second pick in the first round, but they ended up trading that selection to the San Francisco 49ers.
The Philadelphia Eagles and Chicago Bears told his agent that they would take him in the second or third round. Both passed. Several times.
Then, the New Orleans Saints said the week of the draft that they would select him in the second round. The 49ers and Indianapolis Colts also expressed interest.
But he is targeting one team.
"I can tell you this, as far as the NFC North goes, Chicago is really going to regret their decision. I can tell you that right now," Brian said. "I will look forward to all my games, but Chicago is in our division, and I'm going to do everything I can to make sure that they realize they made a bad decision."
Brian, though, is thankful to be a Viking, especially since they traded up to get him. When a team official called to tell him the news, Brian immediately cried, along with his father and fiancee.
"It was a long, hard road," Jimmy said. "He's never had anything easy. It was a dream come true."
Being a goal-setter, Brian already has one in mind for his rookie season.
Given the experience on the team, Brian isn't set on starting, but he does have a lofty record in mind.
"One goal that I can put a number on is, I want to break the Vikings' rookie sack record," Robison said. "Then, if I break the Vikings' record, then I'll go for the NFL record."
The numbers?
Eleven for the Vikings (Keith Millard, 1985), and 14.5 (Jevon Kearse, 1999) for the NFL.
Sean Jensen can be reached at
sjensen@pioneerpress.com."
"S-CB Ethan Kilmer (6-0, 204, second year)
