Q&A With Offensive lineman Tony Wragge

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Q&A With Offensive lineman Tony Wragge

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Get to know eturning offensive lineman Tony Wragge in this Q&A! Interviewed by Chrissy Mauck, azcardinals.com.

Coming in as an undrafted free agent, what were your expectations? Did you feel like you had to work even harder than everyone else?

Oh yeah, I had to prove myself and I am still proving myself. A lot of guys think they’ve been around for a while and think they have seniority. I don’t agree with that. I think you have to prove yourself every year. You have to prove it to yourself. Me not being drafted, I knew I had the talent. I wasn’t going to bring myself down because I wasn’t drafted. I knew I had to work a little harder than other guys, but I think that will just help put me ahead of the game in the future.

You were cut and then re-signed with the team last October. Were you working out that whole time? and where were you training at? Was that kind of hard to not have things set and be in that holding pattern?

When we played the Broncos in the third preseason game I was the only rookie to get to play and that is a very important game for the front five. I thought everything went good and then two days later I was let go and thinking gosh, what did I do wrong? It was very frustrating. I went back to school and tried to take care of my degree and just tried to stay in shape. It never crossed my mind to give up. I worked out for quite a few teams and then the Cardinals called me back and there was a feeling in the pit of my stomach that I had to prove myself all over again both physically and mentally. There were 3 weeks left in the season and it got to the point where I was actually comfortable with the mental parts of the game and I think that really helped my confidence.

What are some of the things that go into the mental aspect of the game?

Well a spectator goes to the game and just sees physical aspects and how hard this quarterback can throw the football and how accurate, but there is a game inside the game. We are at work. A player has to know his plays, his audibles, the defensive fronts, most things people don’t have a clue about. No one likes to fail a test, I know that much and we all get tested every week. No one even likes to get one wrong. I don’t want to mess up on a test and have my buddy over here thinking, gosh, he got that wrong and if he gets in there he’ll blow the play. I’ve endured the mental part of it now and really know the offense and I think this training camp in July, I’ll be more ready to just focus on the physical part of it.


Can you talk about your off-season training? Have you been working out this whole time?

I was finishing up some school back at New Mexico State and worked out there for about 5 weeks. Then the 24th of March came around here and I came back for the start of the program here at the facility.

What are you trying to get your degree in?

I am working on my bachelors degree in kinesiology. I am 6 credits away so just two classes. Hopefully, I can finish that up in the fall on-line over the internet with my teachers and get my degree.

If you weren’t playing ball, what would you be doing?

I think I’d like to be a strength and conditioning coach. I’ll probably get certified through the National Strength and Conditioning Association. I am a member right now so I’ll probably get certified through them. I’d like to be a personal trainer probably with professional athletes that want specific training. There are a lot of professional athletes that really need more guidance, nutritionally as well as physical training wise. They’ve been taught only one thing, it is not that one thing is bad, but we are getting more scientific. If I am going to be a strength coach, I want to be the best at it --that is just the way I am.

How many days a week are you working out?

Right now, I am working out about 5 days a week, lifting 3 days a week and running twice a week and then on Fridays we’ve been playing racquetball.

Yeah, what is with this racquetball kick -- is that just cardio or just to do something different?

Well, I’m no good at it that is for sure. We’ve been trying to get together to do a little extra cardio and there are racquetball courts here and everybody is talking a lot of smack, but most of us aren’t very good. Steve Grace is pretty good. He’s got everybody running all over the court. He just stands in the middle and whacks the ball and makes us run. Every week we’ve gotten a couple of more guys in there. We are not getting any better but we are getting more guys in there.

It seems like most of the offensive line has been in working out together?

A lot of the guys are here and working out and it seems like the participation is really up in the off-season program this spring. I think the guys are not satisfied. You can’t ever be satisfied, but the word I would use is hungry. We are determined. You score touchdowns as a team. You work tirelessly to stop your opponent defensively as a team. I think every group this off-season is focusing more on teamwork. We are watching more film together and just more determined.

As offensive linemen, we want to dictate the tempo for everyone else and we feel like we can do that. We run together, we lift weights together and we are just setting the tone for this upcoming season. We want to be ahead of the game and be in the best physical condition possible. We want to be in training camp shape by the time our first mini-camp even rolls around.

Where do you get your motivation and your work ethic from?

I’ve done everything that I’ve wanted to do up to this point. I started a game in the NFL so I’ve already accomplished those things and now I have bigger goals. I want to win a Super Bowl. I want to have a winning record. I want to go to the Pro Bowl someday. Every guy that has come before me in this game and shows desire and hunger make me want to work hard. If you are ever complacent, whether you are a rookie, a second-year player, or a ten-year veteran, you won’t last. You have got to be hungry. You have to want to be the best. As an offensive lineman, you want to get your running back a lot of yards, you want to protect your quarterback. Those are personal goals I have. I don’t want to give up sacks. I don’t want to have a run for a loss. Those are consciously in the back of my mind and I don’t want to dissatisfy anybody, especially myself.

Coming from a small town, what was life like growing up? Did you really live on a farm? What were you chores?

I grew up on a dairy farm. We had machines and stuff but milking cows was horrible. Anybody that has ever milked cows, it just consumes your life. You have to get up in the morning at like 5:45 before school and then you come home and have to milk them again. You have to do it twice a day. It just consumes your life and there are no days you can’t milk cows. Christmas rolls around, you have to milk cows. Thanksgiving rolls around, time to milk cows. It is just horrible. And the smell, it stinks. I have fallen in manure quite a few times in my day.

Have you ever been kicked by a cow?

Yeah, it is no fun. I have been kicked quite a few times and had some pretty big bruises.

So when you go home you get to play farmer?

Oh yeah, I love playing farmer. I like driving tractors around. That sounds corny but I like to drive tractors. It makes me feel bad because I am here playing football, and I have never been home when my dad is combining beans or anything. I was like, ‘Dang it!’ when he got the new combine. I mean, I was like how come you get the new stuff after I left. He stopped milking cows after I left. He says he had to have bigger equipment since I wasn’t there to help it. I miss it. I can’t say I’d ever be a farmer but I’d like to own some farm land.

I also work cattle when I go home. I told Jake Plummer that and he thought I was crazy. I am sure Coach Mac wouldn’t be happy about me being in there, but it is fun.

You hold the powerlifting record back in Nebraska for dead lifting 580 pounds, benching 365, and the overall mark of 1,400 pounds. What were they feeding you?

If I had known back then what I know now, those records would probably even be higher. Back then, I just loved lifting weights. I still love lifting weights. If I don’t become a strength coach, I would probably be doing World’s Strongest Man or something. That is my favorite show. I am crazy about that stuff. It is so awesome. Those guys get crazy. But, yeah, I grew up in Nebraska and grew up on steak, potatoes and corn and working on a farm, throwing hay bales--I knew what physical labor was. I just love to lift weights and at my parent’s house I have about 550 pounds of free weights in their basement. I’ve got it all set up and it is awesome. It has never been easy, but I just like doing it.

My brother-in-law is from your small town of Creighton and I’ve visited there. I’d have to imagine that you have a pretty big following?

Everybody is backing me and I am very proud of where I am from. It is a very, very rural community so people like to see kids have success coming out of there. I don’t know that a lot of people thought I would actually make it. I never went to the University of Nebraska so everybody thought I was crazy. I was a very good high school player and had lots of scholarship opportunities but everyone thinks you have to go to Nebraska to be successful. I always had a plan, it just didn’t involve the Cornhuskers. I was talking to some of my high school graduates when I had to go home when my grandmother passed away a while back and I told them I had this plan and they were all like, “You did?” And I said ‘Yeah, I knew what I wanted to do, I followed through and now I am where I am at.’ They all said, ‘We knew you were good, but we didn’t have any clue you wanted to do this,’ and I said it was because I never TOLD anybody.

So when did you first start playing ball?

I was a 7th grader. I was goofy. I loved defense and played defensive tackle and in high school I got a lot taller and got up to about 270 my junior year and 285 my senior year and played defensive end. My junior year I was all-state at defensive end and then my senior year all-state at offensive lineman. When I went to college, Richard Glover was the defensive line coach and Ronnie Cotton was the o-line coach and who now is the offensive coordinator at Nebraska. Ronnie told me they almost had a fist-fight about where I was going to play and that he won so I played offensive line.

What are hobbies/interests do you have?

I am a pretty normal guy. I like to play x-box, watch movies. I like to shop actually. I know most guys don’t like to go to the mall, but I like to go shopping and go to the record store and look at c.d.’s. I love Audioslave and Godsmack. They’re awesome. I am always listening to those guys. I’d actually like to go to a couple of more concerts while I am here. I am trying to play golf too, but oh my gosh, my golf game is horrible. I need to take some lessons next weekend. I seriously want to play better golf but the ball is not doing what I want it to do and bad words come out of my mouth and that is not good.
 

Tangodnzr

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Great article. I'm impressed.

Not only with the job Chrissy Mauck does.

But my estimation of Wragge just jumped a lot too. This guy looks like a real keeper....and will always come to play.....lookin' good.



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