By Mark Concannon
FOXSportsWisconsin.com
February 1, 2011
Media Day at the Super Bowl. A day when reporters who for the most part haven't regularly covered either team during the season ask the players questions they've heard hundreds of times during the season.
By now, Packers fans know that Green Bay has overcome many injuries to get this far and that Ben Roethlisberger is a tough man to tackle.
But do they know that special teams ace Jarrett Bush was nearly brought to his knees by a tuba?
"I was a little band nerd in high school," Bush told me, carefully keeping his voice down so that the cadre of international press wouldn't overhear his true confession.
"The Tuba is pretty heavy," Bush said. "You've got to have a little muscle on you, because the thing's heavy. It's got some girth on it.That was tough growing up because I always had to carry it and I was so little at the time. The tuba's pretty easy. It's big; it's got four valves on it. It has a little deeper bass on it. It's fun to play."
Fun to play, but not so fun to carry around. But Bush persevered with his instrument of choice as a 14-year-old middle schooler.
"It weighed about a good 60 pounds. It was brass; it's pretty heavy for a little 14-year-old. But I mean, I did it. I think it made me better down the road, doing that. I don't know what made me better about it. I think the discipline of practicing and doing it helped me down the road now."
Bush was in the high school marching band (when he wasn't playing football) and still plays the trombone today.
"I like the trombone because you can do jazz, you can do wind ensemble. Symphonic bands, so it's very well rounded. The jazz part of it I like a lot. That would be my favorite. I haven't picked it up maybe in a year. But I usually pick it up every offseason, a little bit and get back into it."
Every Packers fan knows about the squad's five wide receivers, but do they know about Greg Jennings five guitars?
"That's all for the offseason," Jennings said. "I tried to stay active doing something different things. When I first got to Green Bay it was like nothing to do. I was here by myself. My wife was back home pregnant. I didn't have a hobby. So I went and bought a bass guitar and I started teaching myself to play the bass. Just kinda progressed into something and now I can play."
But Jennings still doesn't think he's good enough to do a few riffs on his prize musical possession.
"I have a Fender," Jennings said. "I think my one pride and joy is called the "Black Beauty" by Fender but it really doesn't get played much. Because it really only comes out, I'm not that good to where I can brag about the Black Beauty yet, but once I get there, she'll definitely come out."
Desmond Bishop has put on quite a show filling in for Nick Barnett at middle linebacker. But Bishop also wants to put on a show for the big screen in Hollywood. He's working on a screenplay about an inner city high school basketball player from New York, dealing with the challenges of growing up. And Bishop is getting writing advice from an expert.
"It's coming along pretty well," Bishop said. "Charlie Peprah, one of his friends is a scriptwriter in L.A. and he's actually helping me build my script so I got about 40 pages, about 40 minutes, so I'm looking to get another maybe 100 pages or so. So it's definitely coming along good. I've had a few people read it and they like it. So I'm just still developing, still learning, trying to make sure my foundation is strong so when I'm done it can be delivered in a good way."
Could Bishop win a Super Bowl ring and an Academy Award? Bishop's eyes widened at the thought of it. "Ah, man!" Bishop said, "How awesome would that be?"
While Bishop dreams of the big screen, teammate Cullen Jenkins has thoughts of standing in front of a big blackboard. He'd like to teach elementary school when he's finished with football.
"You know I went to school for education and it was more of an elementary emphasis," Jenkins said. "Probably more of a middle school, maybe third or fourth grade between that and middle school. I want the kids to be younger. I can't deal with the high school thing, so."
Jenkins said dealing with the occasional Lambeau locker room hijinx has helped to prepare his for any youthful foolishness he might encounter in the classroom. But I can't imagine too many kids cracking wise to a teacher who once made a living brushing past 300-pound lineman and sacking NFL quarterbacks.
Jordy Nelson has had quite an education in his three seasons in Green Bay. He's developed a great chemistry with Aaron Rodgers, become proficient at running routes and learned about 15 new card games.
"Oh my goodness," Nelson said. "From playing spades, to not only card games. Spades, cribbage, backgammon, euchre and there's a bunch of other little card games that people invented on their own. It's what happens when you're in training camp. You get bored, gotta play cards."
Nelson said he's involved in a regular battle that makes two-a-days look like a walk on the beach.
"Greg (Jennings) and I play spades against James Jones and Donald Driver. That's our little receiver game we play and Greg and I are by far the champs. I'll just clarify that right now. We win quite a bit."
Daryn Colledge cuts an imposing figure lining up at left guard on the Packers offensive line. But his mother has to deal with far more imposing figures in her job. She's a State Farm insurance agent in Alaska.
"Moose hits, moose breaking into houses, stuff like that," Colledge said about some of the claims his mother handles in the Great White North. "She gets a couple of eccentric ones every once in awhile but she's doing very well."
The Packers media session was ending and I felt pretty good about the ground I had covered until I heard a woman reporter from a TV network in Europe ask center Scott Wells if he thought his beard was "itchier" than Steelers defensive end Brett Keisel's.
So many stories. So little time.
