azdad1978
Championship!!!!
DILLON: Desire pushes Robert Gallery
Dennis Dillon
On a chilly, cloudy morning in early March, a parade of minivans creeps along the road leading to the recreation building on the University of Iowa campus. The local elementary schools are closed today because of a teachers conference, so students will exercise their bodies instead of their minds.
They have come here for the Jump Rope for Heart competition that benefits the American Heart Association. And judging by the number of passengers disembarking from the vehicles, every third, fourth, fifth and sixth grader in Iowa City is participating.
Just a hop, skip and jump from the back of the recreation building is the Iowa football facility. There, in the weight room, 11 players begin a different set of physical movements.
They run through agility ladders to sharpen their quickness and coordination. They do maneuvers to improve hip strength and flexibility while wearing elastic resistance bands around their lower legs. They perform torso-stabilizing exercises by tossing 15-pound medicine balls against a wall from various positions. Finally, it's time to lift weights.
Stepping up to a platform in the southeast corner of the room, his customary spot, Robert Gallery grasps a barbell loaded with 325 pounds. He lifts it to his chest, then hoists it upward. In this triple-extension exercise, Gallery applies force against the ground using his hips, knees and ankles. Football translation: an offensive lineman exploding out of his stance and getting leverage on his opponent.
After testing well at the combine, Robert Gallery should be the first offensive lineman drafted.
Michael Conroy/Associated Press
Gallery could have stayed in bed this morning. He graduated in December with a liberal arts degree in elementary education, so he doesn't have any classes to attend. He worked out and participated in all the drills at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, so with the exception of one test, he's not preparing to impress coaches and scouts at Iowa's upcoming pro day.
What's driving Gallery can't be appraised by a stopwatch, a tape measure or a Wonderlic test. None of those tools can calibrate a player's craving to be the best ever. And Gallery's desire is as big as the size-60 XL tux he wore to the Walter Camp Foundation awards dinner in January.
While NFL teams are tying themselves up in knots arguing whether Eli Manning of Mississippi or Ben Roethlisberger of Miami (Ohio) is the better quarterback, Gallery — a 6-7 1/8, 323-pound tackle who started 44 consecutive games for the Hawkeyes, gave up only one sack as a senior and won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best lineman in 2003 — is the most foolproof pick in this year's draft. Recent history shows that using a premium draft choice on a quarterback is risky business, but tackles picked high have a good track record of becoming longtime offensive pillars. And Gallery appears to be a risk-free choice.
"I think Gallery is probably as prepared as any lineman I've seen coming out of college ever, other than Anthony Munoz," says an NFL assistant who has coached offensive linemen, both in college and the NFL, for more than 30 years.
Several coaches had roles in polishing this prospect. Under head coach Kirk Ferentz, an offensive line coach with the Browns and Ravens from 1993 to 1998 before taking over at Iowa in '99, the Hawkeyes run a pro-style offense. Ferentz's offensive line coaches — Joe Philbin (now an assistant with the Packers) and Reese Morgan — have emphasized the fundamentals of both pass sets and run blocking. Then there's Chris Doyle, of whom Ferentz says: "If there's a better strength coach in the country, I don't know who it is. He understands what linemen do and what's going to make them better."
Last year, three Iowa offensive linemen were drafted: guard Eric Steinbach (second round, by the Bengals), center Bruce Nelson (second, Panthers) and guard Ben Sobieski (fifth, Bills). A fourth lineman, tackle David Porter, signed as a free agent with the Packers.
Now comes Gallery, the best of them all. Some mock drafts have him going to the Giants with the fourth overall pick, but the first two teams in the draft — the Chargers and Raiders — also could use the best tackle in the nation. The Browns have a major hole at left tackle, and there have been reports that they are trying to put together a trade that would allow them to move up from the seventh spot and grab him.
Gallery is trying to make it difficult for any team to pass him up.
"I'm the top-rated lineman, but that's not good enough," he says. "I'm doing everything I can to be the first pick. That's my goal — to be on top of everyone's board."
That's why Gallery returned to Iowa for his senior season in 2003 instead of coming out last year, when he was projected to be a late first-round draft pick. That's why he stayed in Iowa City this winter after the Hawkeyes' Outback Bowl victory over Florida and continued working with Doyle. That's why he is in the weight room at 9 a.m. and will come back this afternoon to join Iowa's offensive players in a "skills and drills" session on the outdoor practice field.
And that's why he will do the bench press again on Iowa's pro day. Gallery thought he lifted 225 pounds at least 30 times at the Combine in Indianapolis, but NFL scouts credited him with only 24. He's determined to prove he's stronger than they think.
A digital clock hanging on a wall in the weight room counts down the time until Iowa's first spring practice: 22 days, 06 hours, 08 minutes. In Gallery's mind, the clock reads: 54-01-08 — the time left until the NFL draft. He lies down on a bench, lifts the 225-pound barbell and pumps out three sets of 20 reps.
Mr. Versatility
A three-sport athlete (football, basketball, track) at tiny East Buchanan High in Winthrop, Ia., Gallery was recruited to Iowa as a 240-pound tight end. He was redshirted in 1999, and when the 2000 season began, he weighed 270. It was just a matter of time before Iowa would move his broad shoulders to tackle, and injuries on the offensive line forced the position switch five games into that season.
A prototype NFL tackle, Robert Gallery was actually recruited to Iowa as a tight end.
Preston Mack/The Sporting News
"It was unfair what we did to him," says Philbin. "We kind of threw him into the fire."
After playing parts of two games at right tackle, Gallery started the final six games there in 2000. In the spring of 2001, he moved to left tackle, where he was a fixture for three seasons. Doyle worked with him on strength, conditioning and nutrition, Philbin and Morgan honed his technique, and Gallery became a student of the game. Ferentz gave him tapes of some of the best offensive tackles in the NFL. He studied Jonathan Ogden and Tony Boselli "and guys from back in the day I didn't even know, but my coach said they were the best at that time," he says.
Last season, Gallery carried a spiral notebook with him in which he kept detailed notes on his performances and what he needed to work on. On Mondays, the players' day off, Iowa coaches posted the two-deep lineup of the next opponent and Gallery studied tape of the player he was about to face. After every practice, he sat in Morgan's office, watched tape from the practice and critiqued himself.
During practice, Gallery often would run an extra 20 or 30 yards downfield after a play. One day, Morgan asked him why he did that. "Coach, there's two reasons," Gallery replied. "If there's a big play, I can get down there to make a block or recover a fumble. Plus, those extra yards I run will help get me in shape for the NFL."
One thing NFL scouts question about Gallery is the length of his arms. Gallery says he wears dress shirts with 37/38-inch sleeves, but they were measured at 32 1/4 inches — short for an offensive lineman — at the Combine. But that shouldn't deter Gallery from performing at a high level in the NFL. He compares favorably with the Rams' Orlando Pace (first overall pick in 1997) and the Ravens' Ogden (fourth overall pick in 1996) when they came out of college.
"Pace was just a real physically dominant player, probably a little more aggressive as a run blocker," says Eric DeCosta, the Ravens' college scouting director. "Ogden, to me, is just a freakish athlete. He moves like a 245- or 255-pound man. I don't think Robert is at that point yet. That being said, I think Robert is probably equal to both those guys in the way he conducts himself play to play. He's not as dominant an athlete as Jonathan or as physically powerful as Pace, but in terms of the overall picture he's pretty close."
Growing up Gallery-style
Mike and Mary Gallery own a 600-acre corn and soybean farm near Masonville, a town about 70 miles north of Iowa City. Masonville consists mainly of a park, a grain elevator, a Catholic church and Our Place, a restaurant/bar famous for its fish fries on Friday and Saturday nights. Mike is 6-4, Mary is 5-11. Not surprisingly, their five children grew tall and played sports. In order, there was Jay (6-4), who played Division III football; Nick (6-4), a punter who played one game with the Jets in 1998; Julie (6-3), who was a high jumper at Iowa; Robert, and John (6-2), another punter currently on Iowa's roster.
When they weren't playing or practicing sports, the kids helped on the farm. One of Robert's first jobs was to walk the fields and pick up rocks, which came up through the soil and could tear up machinery. As he grew older, he unloaded corn and soybeans from wagons and fed them through an auger up into storage bins. He also drove combines during the harvest season. But gentleman farmer is not in his plans after football.
"I think I had enough of it growing up and seeing the struggles my dad went through," he says, digging into a slice of deep-dish mushroom pizza. He is sitting in a back room at the Wig and Pen Pub, a restaurant near the Iowa campus. "Some years you do well; other years you don't make anything."
Gallery did more than play sports and work on the farm. His resume seems almost too good to be true: altar boy, senior class president in high school, academic All-Big Ten. He is a former Eagle Scout whose special project was to build a flower box shaped in a giant "M" (for Masonville) and spruce up the town park.
Hair-raising experience
But one thing doesn't fit the profile. The coiffure. In high school, Gallery wore his hair "high and tight," and Mary would trim it with clippers every 10 days or so. But he hasn't had it cut in more than
2 1/2 years — "My mom used to send me $20 for a haircut, but as you can see it never made it to the barber shop," he joked at a team banquet two years ago — and he now wears his dark brown hair (he estimates it's 14 inches long) in a ponytail that hangs just below his shoulders. When he plays football, however, he lets his hair down; it flows out the back of his helmet and spills out the front over his pads.
Gallery is not a retro hippie. He wears his hair long simply because he got tired of spending money on haircuts. Plus, he thinks he looks better with it. "I've kind of got a misshaped head," he says. "I'd look weird with short hair."
Some NFL coaches — Tom Coughlin of the Giants comes to mind — might not be receptive to Gallery's long locks. But that shouldn't deter them from picking Gallery high in the draft. Nor should they be concerned about his bench press.
Gallery erases that doubt on Iowa's pro day. He lifts the 225 pounds slowly and deliberately, making sure each repetition is perfect. He doesn't stop until the count reaches 30.
Dennis Dillon
On a chilly, cloudy morning in early March, a parade of minivans creeps along the road leading to the recreation building on the University of Iowa campus. The local elementary schools are closed today because of a teachers conference, so students will exercise their bodies instead of their minds.
They have come here for the Jump Rope for Heart competition that benefits the American Heart Association. And judging by the number of passengers disembarking from the vehicles, every third, fourth, fifth and sixth grader in Iowa City is participating.
Just a hop, skip and jump from the back of the recreation building is the Iowa football facility. There, in the weight room, 11 players begin a different set of physical movements.
They run through agility ladders to sharpen their quickness and coordination. They do maneuvers to improve hip strength and flexibility while wearing elastic resistance bands around their lower legs. They perform torso-stabilizing exercises by tossing 15-pound medicine balls against a wall from various positions. Finally, it's time to lift weights.
Stepping up to a platform in the southeast corner of the room, his customary spot, Robert Gallery grasps a barbell loaded with 325 pounds. He lifts it to his chest, then hoists it upward. In this triple-extension exercise, Gallery applies force against the ground using his hips, knees and ankles. Football translation: an offensive lineman exploding out of his stance and getting leverage on his opponent.
After testing well at the combine, Robert Gallery should be the first offensive lineman drafted.
Michael Conroy/Associated Press
Gallery could have stayed in bed this morning. He graduated in December with a liberal arts degree in elementary education, so he doesn't have any classes to attend. He worked out and participated in all the drills at the NFL Scouting Combine in February, so with the exception of one test, he's not preparing to impress coaches and scouts at Iowa's upcoming pro day.
What's driving Gallery can't be appraised by a stopwatch, a tape measure or a Wonderlic test. None of those tools can calibrate a player's craving to be the best ever. And Gallery's desire is as big as the size-60 XL tux he wore to the Walter Camp Foundation awards dinner in January.
While NFL teams are tying themselves up in knots arguing whether Eli Manning of Mississippi or Ben Roethlisberger of Miami (Ohio) is the better quarterback, Gallery — a 6-7 1/8, 323-pound tackle who started 44 consecutive games for the Hawkeyes, gave up only one sack as a senior and won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best lineman in 2003 — is the most foolproof pick in this year's draft. Recent history shows that using a premium draft choice on a quarterback is risky business, but tackles picked high have a good track record of becoming longtime offensive pillars. And Gallery appears to be a risk-free choice.
"I think Gallery is probably as prepared as any lineman I've seen coming out of college ever, other than Anthony Munoz," says an NFL assistant who has coached offensive linemen, both in college and the NFL, for more than 30 years.
Several coaches had roles in polishing this prospect. Under head coach Kirk Ferentz, an offensive line coach with the Browns and Ravens from 1993 to 1998 before taking over at Iowa in '99, the Hawkeyes run a pro-style offense. Ferentz's offensive line coaches — Joe Philbin (now an assistant with the Packers) and Reese Morgan — have emphasized the fundamentals of both pass sets and run blocking. Then there's Chris Doyle, of whom Ferentz says: "If there's a better strength coach in the country, I don't know who it is. He understands what linemen do and what's going to make them better."
Last year, three Iowa offensive linemen were drafted: guard Eric Steinbach (second round, by the Bengals), center Bruce Nelson (second, Panthers) and guard Ben Sobieski (fifth, Bills). A fourth lineman, tackle David Porter, signed as a free agent with the Packers.
Now comes Gallery, the best of them all. Some mock drafts have him going to the Giants with the fourth overall pick, but the first two teams in the draft — the Chargers and Raiders — also could use the best tackle in the nation. The Browns have a major hole at left tackle, and there have been reports that they are trying to put together a trade that would allow them to move up from the seventh spot and grab him.
Gallery is trying to make it difficult for any team to pass him up.
"I'm the top-rated lineman, but that's not good enough," he says. "I'm doing everything I can to be the first pick. That's my goal — to be on top of everyone's board."
That's why Gallery returned to Iowa for his senior season in 2003 instead of coming out last year, when he was projected to be a late first-round draft pick. That's why he stayed in Iowa City this winter after the Hawkeyes' Outback Bowl victory over Florida and continued working with Doyle. That's why he is in the weight room at 9 a.m. and will come back this afternoon to join Iowa's offensive players in a "skills and drills" session on the outdoor practice field.
And that's why he will do the bench press again on Iowa's pro day. Gallery thought he lifted 225 pounds at least 30 times at the Combine in Indianapolis, but NFL scouts credited him with only 24. He's determined to prove he's stronger than they think.
A digital clock hanging on a wall in the weight room counts down the time until Iowa's first spring practice: 22 days, 06 hours, 08 minutes. In Gallery's mind, the clock reads: 54-01-08 — the time left until the NFL draft. He lies down on a bench, lifts the 225-pound barbell and pumps out three sets of 20 reps.
Mr. Versatility
A three-sport athlete (football, basketball, track) at tiny East Buchanan High in Winthrop, Ia., Gallery was recruited to Iowa as a 240-pound tight end. He was redshirted in 1999, and when the 2000 season began, he weighed 270. It was just a matter of time before Iowa would move his broad shoulders to tackle, and injuries on the offensive line forced the position switch five games into that season.
A prototype NFL tackle, Robert Gallery was actually recruited to Iowa as a tight end.
Preston Mack/The Sporting News
"It was unfair what we did to him," says Philbin. "We kind of threw him into the fire."
After playing parts of two games at right tackle, Gallery started the final six games there in 2000. In the spring of 2001, he moved to left tackle, where he was a fixture for three seasons. Doyle worked with him on strength, conditioning and nutrition, Philbin and Morgan honed his technique, and Gallery became a student of the game. Ferentz gave him tapes of some of the best offensive tackles in the NFL. He studied Jonathan Ogden and Tony Boselli "and guys from back in the day I didn't even know, but my coach said they were the best at that time," he says.
Last season, Gallery carried a spiral notebook with him in which he kept detailed notes on his performances and what he needed to work on. On Mondays, the players' day off, Iowa coaches posted the two-deep lineup of the next opponent and Gallery studied tape of the player he was about to face. After every practice, he sat in Morgan's office, watched tape from the practice and critiqued himself.
During practice, Gallery often would run an extra 20 or 30 yards downfield after a play. One day, Morgan asked him why he did that. "Coach, there's two reasons," Gallery replied. "If there's a big play, I can get down there to make a block or recover a fumble. Plus, those extra yards I run will help get me in shape for the NFL."
One thing NFL scouts question about Gallery is the length of his arms. Gallery says he wears dress shirts with 37/38-inch sleeves, but they were measured at 32 1/4 inches — short for an offensive lineman — at the Combine. But that shouldn't deter Gallery from performing at a high level in the NFL. He compares favorably with the Rams' Orlando Pace (first overall pick in 1997) and the Ravens' Ogden (fourth overall pick in 1996) when they came out of college.
"Pace was just a real physically dominant player, probably a little more aggressive as a run blocker," says Eric DeCosta, the Ravens' college scouting director. "Ogden, to me, is just a freakish athlete. He moves like a 245- or 255-pound man. I don't think Robert is at that point yet. That being said, I think Robert is probably equal to both those guys in the way he conducts himself play to play. He's not as dominant an athlete as Jonathan or as physically powerful as Pace, but in terms of the overall picture he's pretty close."
Growing up Gallery-style
Mike and Mary Gallery own a 600-acre corn and soybean farm near Masonville, a town about 70 miles north of Iowa City. Masonville consists mainly of a park, a grain elevator, a Catholic church and Our Place, a restaurant/bar famous for its fish fries on Friday and Saturday nights. Mike is 6-4, Mary is 5-11. Not surprisingly, their five children grew tall and played sports. In order, there was Jay (6-4), who played Division III football; Nick (6-4), a punter who played one game with the Jets in 1998; Julie (6-3), who was a high jumper at Iowa; Robert, and John (6-2), another punter currently on Iowa's roster.
When they weren't playing or practicing sports, the kids helped on the farm. One of Robert's first jobs was to walk the fields and pick up rocks, which came up through the soil and could tear up machinery. As he grew older, he unloaded corn and soybeans from wagons and fed them through an auger up into storage bins. He also drove combines during the harvest season. But gentleman farmer is not in his plans after football.
"I think I had enough of it growing up and seeing the struggles my dad went through," he says, digging into a slice of deep-dish mushroom pizza. He is sitting in a back room at the Wig and Pen Pub, a restaurant near the Iowa campus. "Some years you do well; other years you don't make anything."
Gallery did more than play sports and work on the farm. His resume seems almost too good to be true: altar boy, senior class president in high school, academic All-Big Ten. He is a former Eagle Scout whose special project was to build a flower box shaped in a giant "M" (for Masonville) and spruce up the town park.
Hair-raising experience
But one thing doesn't fit the profile. The coiffure. In high school, Gallery wore his hair "high and tight," and Mary would trim it with clippers every 10 days or so. But he hasn't had it cut in more than
2 1/2 years — "My mom used to send me $20 for a haircut, but as you can see it never made it to the barber shop," he joked at a team banquet two years ago — and he now wears his dark brown hair (he estimates it's 14 inches long) in a ponytail that hangs just below his shoulders. When he plays football, however, he lets his hair down; it flows out the back of his helmet and spills out the front over his pads.
Gallery is not a retro hippie. He wears his hair long simply because he got tired of spending money on haircuts. Plus, he thinks he looks better with it. "I've kind of got a misshaped head," he says. "I'd look weird with short hair."
Some NFL coaches — Tom Coughlin of the Giants comes to mind — might not be receptive to Gallery's long locks. But that shouldn't deter them from picking Gallery high in the draft. Nor should they be concerned about his bench press.
Gallery erases that doubt on Iowa's pro day. He lifts the 225 pounds slowly and deliberately, making sure each repetition is perfect. He doesn't stop until the count reaches 30.
