Rudi on the Web
By Rudi Johnson
Special to the Enquirer
Some guys like to go out after a game. After the game, the best thing for me to do is go home, grab a bite to eat, kick up my feet up, and watch highlights and Sunday night football.
I'll eat anything I probably shouldn't eat during the week. I'll have a slab of barbeque ribs. I'll treat myself to dessert, too. I love carrot cake and sweet potato pie.
But I'm a football fan, an NFL fan, even if I wasn't playing. It's football season. It's that time of year. It's time to watch football.
I check out our highlights on "NFL Prime Time" on ESPN. I enjoy it. I see how my peers did.
I had just got a phone call from a friend of mine a couple of weeks ago to tell me that Takeo Spikes got hurt. He's my boy. He's from Auburn and I was his teammate here. Takeo plays linebacker for Buffalo.
It was shocking to see he was hurt and out all year with his torn Achilles tendon. I saw him the other night. He's trying to keep his sprits up. He had successful surgery. It just put a bad taste in my mouth to see the film of Takeo getting hurt.
But I like to check on my home boys from Auburn. I'm part of a group of running backs from Auburn who have gone on to the pros and done well. I check on Stephen Davis; he's my boy. I've got two more Auburn boys to check on this year: Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown.
We know how to produce in college and how to produce in the NFL. We've got great running backs. We go back to Joe Cribbs and James Brooks. We have a lot of pride. A lot of schools have good college running backs that do well at university. But they don't do well in the pros. Auburn backs do well in the pros.
The highlights are always a lot more fun to watch when we win. It was great to get a game ball from ESPN's Tom Jackson on the highlights show. That's what you play for, why you work hard all week. It's a great feeling but also a great accomplishment for the whole team.
It's not as much fun to watch highlights if we don't win, but I still watch. I'm a big football fan. I love watching.
A lot of people say they fall asleep before the Sunday night game is over. I can stay awake. I love to watch.
I have my new house, and I have a big-screen TV in the basement. Guys come over all the time. There are too many to name. We kick back and relax. Shaun Smith is a regular. I played with Shaun in junior college, and he's my teammate again with the Bengals.
