Brady Poppinga: I Could Remember His Name

I've been watching Linbacker Brady Poppinga since the first day he came to camp as a Green Bay Packer. The reason for this is really quite simple: I could remember his name. That is to say, I made a silly phrase out of it.

This guy was going to be "popping ya" on the line. So I followed him.

I liked his name. Not the fact that he was a star at Evanston High School in Evanston, Wyoming, or the obvious fact he locked down a spot on the Cougar's roster at Brigham Young University and was a star. Nope, I liked his name.

But it has been a very interesting ride getting to know the guy behind the stats and the uniform.

First of all, I like the "gun show" he puts on every weekend. Poppinga has a nice set of pipes that he wraps around the defenders or pops one in the mouth as he rushes the passer.

He has a real nasty streak in him and I like to watch the way he plants defenders. His motor runs at full speed and I know that he will be giving it everything when he walks onto the field.

But the only way I can "truly" get to know him is to watch the video clips posted online at Packers.com. And that is an interesting adventure in itself.

I have come to realize that Poppinga is a football guy with little time for fanfare and pompous dialog.

He appears to be focused on doing his job with little patience for extrapolating too much out of a great win or a depressing loss. Furthermore, I get the idea that he is a linear and sequential thinker who is dominated by the left hemisphere of his brain.

Watching a clip of Poppinga in a locker room interview leads me to believe that he is a Guy, who represents the quintessential human, relying on Maslow's hierarchy of needs, to put the NFL into a layman's perspectiveve.

Work hard, shut up, focus, practice the fundamentals, and do the job they pay you to do. So, if you are looking for a player who is going to give you a Farvian interview on the self-actualization of the nuances of the game, you are sadly mistaken.

What have I've come to respect most about Poppinga? "Next question, let's move on people!"