Nice Writeup on Madison Hedgecock today

[BleedinBlue]

This is from Giants 101 MVN.

 

Nice story....and they even skip the part about biting the nuts off of sheep.

 

Hard Hits and Hard Work Motivate Giants Fullback

 

By ANNA KATHERINE CLEMMONS

Published: April 8, 2008

 

WALLBURG, N.C. — Hours after dumping a cooler on Coach Tom Coughlin in the closing moments of the Giants’ Super Bowl victory, Madison Hedgecock hit the road. Not to the beach, a Vegas casino or Disneyland. Rather, he took his celebration to the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Ky.

 

After that postgame bacchanal, Hedgecock spent the off-season working on his family’s farm here, near Winston-Salem in north-central North Carolina, before returning to the Giants’ facility in New Jersey for the team’s conditioning program.

 

A 6-foot-3, 266-pound fullback, Hedgecock emerged early last season as a hard-hitting success story for the Giants. Having joined the team for the second game after being released by the Rams, he quickly displayed his knack for plowing over defenders and creating running lanes for Brandon Jacobs.

 

“I just love to hit,” he said. “Man, do I love it.”

 

He also loves to farm. Hedgecock estimated that members of his extended family owned 300 to 400 acres in this area, and he said his family’s roots on the farm where he works in the off-season could be traced back to the 1750s.

 

“Our house was built by my great-grandfather in 1913, but that’s just the house,” he said of the two-story home where his parents live. “We’ve got family here that dates back to selling liquor to the troops during the Revolutionary War.”

 

In the rolling green hills scattered around the Forsyth County line, Hedgecock’s immediate family works farms on both sides: the Hedgecock farm, which handles tobacco, strawberries and cattle; and the Smith farm, which has tobacco and cattle.

 

Hedgecock, 26, grew up working primarily on the Hedgecock farm, which is now run mostly by his cousin Scott. Hedgecock’s older brother, Allen, is the main operator of the Smith farm. But when Hedgecock is home, he helps on both, whether it is planting tobacco seeds in the greenhouse or handcrafting new machinery.

 

“I had my own tobacco plants starting when I was 13,” he said.

 

Walking through the old barns, he spoke of scorching summer days when tobacco leaves singed his arms as he tossed 50-pound leaf bags into trucks alongside migrant workers.

 

“People say football is hard work, but I just laugh sometimes,” he said. “Until they’ve worked on a tobacco farm, they don’t know what hard work is.”

 

His workman’s attitude is a major reason he has been so successful on the field. “He’s got this mentality that just breathes fullback because he’s so intense,” said Giants linebacker Zak DeOssie, a close friend of Hedgecock’s. “Let’s just say I’m glad he’s on my team and not the others.”

 

DeOssie recalled the time he and his roommate, safety Craig Dahl, were decorating a Christmas tree in their apartment. “We told Madison to get some ornaments,” DeOssie said. “He shows up with a John Deere ornament set. He sat on the couch, naming every year, make and model. It’s crazy how much he knows.”

 

Hedgecock returns to the farm for long weekends when time allows. His Australian cattle dog, Susie, follows him everywhere and rides in the back of his truck. The routine is much different when he is with the Giants. His only vehicle, a gray 2001 Chevrolet pickup, sits in the driveway of his rented apartment in Harrison, N.J. The owner of the two-family building, 32-year-old Arlyn Polanco, is both his landlord and friend, he said. Occasionally, she cooks Dominican specialties for Hedgecock or helps with his laundry. “His mother away from home,” Dahl said.

 

In return, Hedgecock sometimes gives Giants tickets to Polanco and her boyfriend. He has no plans to move out of Polanco’s house, even though he has signed a contract extension through 2012.

 

“He’s always thinking about back home, his family and the farm,” Polanco said.

 

While his teammates might have splurged after the Super Bowl, Hedgecock said he was still weighing his options for how to spend his money.

 

“My great-grandpa has a 1950 Ford F2 that they kept parked in a shed for 20 years, so I’ve thought about having it redone,” he said.

 

Hedgecock keeps his Super Bowl jersey and helmet in his childhood bedroom. His mother assembled a scrapbook of photographs, ticket stubs and news articles. It sits in the living room and is brought out for guests.

 

“This is the greatest football team I’ve ever played on,” Hedgecock said. “And this may be the best year of my life.”

 

 

[Lubeck]

Good read.

[Virginia Giant]

Know what would be a cool sig or wallpaper? A pic of Hedgecock running, lowering his shoulders about to lower the boom on some unlucky defender. The defender has some kind of crosshairs on him. Maybe some jungle scenery? And some kind of play on words or a smaller pic of Carlos Hathcock lining up a shot in the corner.

[BleedinBlue]

My bad about biting the nuts off of sheep to castrate them. That was Grey Ruegamer, not Hedgecock. Both farmboys, but clearly different in their approach to farmwork.

[Lubeck]

Know what would be a cool sig or wallpaper? A pic of Hedgecock running, lowering his shoulders about to lower the boom on some unlucky defender. The defender has some kind of crosshairs on him. Maybe some jungle scenery? And some kind of play on words or a smaller pic of Carlos Hathcock lining up a shot in the corner.

 

Carlos was one intense MFer.