Just curious. If we did, it would shock me because we never seem to cut anyone before their contract expires. Keep in mind I have only been following this team since 1997 so I may not know as much this team's past as others posters.
Did we cut Grutts before his contract expired?
- Thread starter mdsisquo
- Start date
az643dp
"The Tugboat"
Yes we did, however we will only take a small cap hit. I wouldn't be surprised if Grutt ends up being a coach down the line...or maybe a full time artist.
az643dp
"The Tugboat"
Here is a story about Grutt's art work:
http://www.azcardinals.com/press/pressdetails.php?sid=652
Center Mike Gruttadauria Breaks the Mold
Story by Chrissy Mauck, azcardinals.com
Cardinals center Mike Gruttadauria never aspired to be a professional athlete even though he is now entering his seventh year in the NFL. As a young boy, he most certainly never imagined he would one day play in a Super Bowl and win a championship with the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
Instead, Gruttadauria’s entry into football came late in his junior year of high school when he thought the sport might help him make friends. After playing only one year, he was offered a partial football scholarship to the University of Central Florida.
There was just one snag: Gruttadauria also was offered a partial scholarship to an art college in Mississippi.
“Art always had been a part of my life,” explains Gruttadauria. “When I was offered scholarships for both football and art, it was a tough decision because I always had envisioned myself as an artist. I am glad I made the choice to play football and I never question that decision. I eagerly anticipate football season and being physical on the gridiron, but I do look forward to when I am done playing ball and I can create a studio in my house to devote my time to sculpting. Thanks to football, I won’t have to be a starving artist.”
Gruttadauria, a product of a tight-knit Italian family that moved around several times during his childhood, spent most of his time with his older siblings and his nose in his sketchpad. At a very early age, Gruttadauria began drawing his favorite cartoon figures and selling them to kids at school.
He has fine-tuned his skills by taking specialized art classes, but he also credits his mother and grandfather for his innate artistic ability. His grandfather created self-portraits, chronicling his emotional and physical progression over the 10-year span following a disfiguring car accident. Gruttadauria learned from viewing his grandfather’s work how personal emotions are revealed through art. He also recalls the first “lesson” his mother shared with him when he was about 4 years old.
“I used to color things and I would have trouble staying inside the lines,” he muses. “My mom taught me to take a black crayon when I finished coloring and just thicken the outlines where I had messed up. It was very remedial, but I started learning how to apply different techniques to achieve a cleaner look.”
Gruttadauria’s skills have outgrown the coloring books. His use of medium varies from charcoal pencils to bronze, while his skills include sketching, pottery, painting, and sculpting. While Gruttadauria and his wife, Christine, were dating, the pair was shopping when he picked up a guitar in a music store and started playing a song.
Christine asked in mock despair, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
With Gruttadauria’s wide array of talents, it is best to expect the unexpected. The 6-3, 280-pound offensive lineman takes offense at the typical jock stereotype as much as he does the defensive pass rush on Sundays. To use artful terms, he is complicated imagery. His tough, physical, and intense play on game days clashes with his patience and eye for detail in his crafting.
He also revels in exceeding people’s expectations. Gruttadauria’s decision to retire from football was virtually complete following surgery to repair a ruptured disc in his neck in 2000 until reading newspaper accounts of his imminent retirement.
“It makes me angry when people assume something about me,” explains Gruttadauria. “Don’t ever tell me I can’t do something because it is going to light a fire under me. I took the newspaper’s assumption I couldn’t recover from this injury and used it to motivate me throughout my rehab. It is the same with my art. People don’t seem to be able to fathom that a football player also can have the patience and emotions to create a moving piece of art.”
Gruttadauria has focused his artistic inclination over the last few years to bronze sculpting, a medium he first became familiar with through his assistant line coach in St. Louis, all-pro Ed White. After relocating to Arizona, Gruttadauria had the good fortune of coming into contact with renowned bronze sculpting artist Keith Christopher. Through Christopher’s guidance and advice, he is slowly becoming an accomplished sculptor in his own right. Although he and his wife host a collection of art ranging from flea market knick-knacks to gallery purchases, his prized piece is a bronze fragmented torso of his wife’s pregnant stomach he created 10 days before their twins were born.
Gruttadauria will be teaming with the Phoenix Fire Department this fall to visit schools to discuss fire safety, and he is also creating limited editions of a larger-than-life sketch of a firefighter. He initially created the piece after viewing a television program about four fire fighters who lost their lives during a rescue mission in Worster, Massachusetts.
“I was still rehabbing my neck and just feeling pretty worthless about myself when I saw these men on television who sacrificed their lives to save people,” says Gruttadauria. “I just wanted to do something to show my appreciation. I hope to one day sculpt a bronze statute of the sketch as a memorial to the fire fighters.”
Football and art may seem like two polar opposites on the color spectrum to most people, but for Gruttadauria, they are on the same parallel.
“Art has always been a balance for me,” states Gruttadauria. “Even though football and art use different parts of the brain and body, whether I win a Super Bowl or create a well-crafted piece of art, the pride and sense of success is very comparable for me.”
http://www.azcardinals.com/press/pressdetails.php?sid=652
Center Mike Gruttadauria Breaks the Mold
Story by Chrissy Mauck, azcardinals.com
Cardinals center Mike Gruttadauria never aspired to be a professional athlete even though he is now entering his seventh year in the NFL. As a young boy, he most certainly never imagined he would one day play in a Super Bowl and win a championship with the St. Louis Rams in 1999.
Instead, Gruttadauria’s entry into football came late in his junior year of high school when he thought the sport might help him make friends. After playing only one year, he was offered a partial football scholarship to the University of Central Florida.
There was just one snag: Gruttadauria also was offered a partial scholarship to an art college in Mississippi.
“Art always had been a part of my life,” explains Gruttadauria. “When I was offered scholarships for both football and art, it was a tough decision because I always had envisioned myself as an artist. I am glad I made the choice to play football and I never question that decision. I eagerly anticipate football season and being physical on the gridiron, but I do look forward to when I am done playing ball and I can create a studio in my house to devote my time to sculpting. Thanks to football, I won’t have to be a starving artist.”
Gruttadauria, a product of a tight-knit Italian family that moved around several times during his childhood, spent most of his time with his older siblings and his nose in his sketchpad. At a very early age, Gruttadauria began drawing his favorite cartoon figures and selling them to kids at school.
He has fine-tuned his skills by taking specialized art classes, but he also credits his mother and grandfather for his innate artistic ability. His grandfather created self-portraits, chronicling his emotional and physical progression over the 10-year span following a disfiguring car accident. Gruttadauria learned from viewing his grandfather’s work how personal emotions are revealed through art. He also recalls the first “lesson” his mother shared with him when he was about 4 years old.
“I used to color things and I would have trouble staying inside the lines,” he muses. “My mom taught me to take a black crayon when I finished coloring and just thicken the outlines where I had messed up. It was very remedial, but I started learning how to apply different techniques to achieve a cleaner look.”
Gruttadauria’s skills have outgrown the coloring books. His use of medium varies from charcoal pencils to bronze, while his skills include sketching, pottery, painting, and sculpting. While Gruttadauria and his wife, Christine, were dating, the pair was shopping when he picked up a guitar in a music store and started playing a song.
Christine asked in mock despair, “Is there anything you can’t do?”
With Gruttadauria’s wide array of talents, it is best to expect the unexpected. The 6-3, 280-pound offensive lineman takes offense at the typical jock stereotype as much as he does the defensive pass rush on Sundays. To use artful terms, he is complicated imagery. His tough, physical, and intense play on game days clashes with his patience and eye for detail in his crafting.
He also revels in exceeding people’s expectations. Gruttadauria’s decision to retire from football was virtually complete following surgery to repair a ruptured disc in his neck in 2000 until reading newspaper accounts of his imminent retirement.
“It makes me angry when people assume something about me,” explains Gruttadauria. “Don’t ever tell me I can’t do something because it is going to light a fire under me. I took the newspaper’s assumption I couldn’t recover from this injury and used it to motivate me throughout my rehab. It is the same with my art. People don’t seem to be able to fathom that a football player also can have the patience and emotions to create a moving piece of art.”
Gruttadauria has focused his artistic inclination over the last few years to bronze sculpting, a medium he first became familiar with through his assistant line coach in St. Louis, all-pro Ed White. After relocating to Arizona, Gruttadauria had the good fortune of coming into contact with renowned bronze sculpting artist Keith Christopher. Through Christopher’s guidance and advice, he is slowly becoming an accomplished sculptor in his own right. Although he and his wife host a collection of art ranging from flea market knick-knacks to gallery purchases, his prized piece is a bronze fragmented torso of his wife’s pregnant stomach he created 10 days before their twins were born.
Gruttadauria will be teaming with the Phoenix Fire Department this fall to visit schools to discuss fire safety, and he is also creating limited editions of a larger-than-life sketch of a firefighter. He initially created the piece after viewing a television program about four fire fighters who lost their lives during a rescue mission in Worster, Massachusetts.
“I was still rehabbing my neck and just feeling pretty worthless about myself when I saw these men on television who sacrificed their lives to save people,” says Gruttadauria. “I just wanted to do something to show my appreciation. I hope to one day sculpt a bronze statute of the sketch as a memorial to the fire fighters.”
Football and art may seem like two polar opposites on the color spectrum to most people, but for Gruttadauria, they are on the same parallel.
“Art has always been a balance for me,” states Gruttadauria. “Even though football and art use different parts of the brain and body, whether I win a Super Bowl or create a well-crafted piece of art, the pride and sense of success is very comparable for me.”
az643dp
"The Tugboat"
Similar threads
Staff online
-
ShaneComin for you! -
Dback JonDoing it My Way -
DevilmaycareKing of Technicalities