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Ruud Making His Own Name

Tribune photo by CLIFF McBRIDE

Barrett Ruud sacks Minnesota Vikings Gus Frerotte.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 23, 2008

TAMPA - "He's got a cool sounding name."

Bucs defensive lineman Greg White was talking about his teammate the middle linebacker. He'd kill to have that name: Barrett Ruud.

"That's a great one. Yeah, like you get a Ruud awakening if you come his way, a rude welcome. You got it. The name, it works," White said.

It's all working right now for one of the best kept secrets in football.

You hear the name soft, then loud, then louder when Barrett Rudd makes a play, and he makes a lot, with 104 tackles heading into today's game with the Lions.

It's a sound, and a game, that will be heard.

Then why can't anyone hear it?

The 25-year-old Ruud clearly has established himself as elite or soon to be elite, but you never hear about him nationally. You don't hear much about the 7-3 Bucs, either.

Ruud smiles and admits the problem.

"I'm a pretty boring person during the season," he said.

He had 18 tackles in the Bucs' win at Kansas City. He made an amazing interception at Chicago. More often than not, he's there.

"He's Barrett," White said. "No nickname needed. He's Barrett Ruud, and he's there."

Whether he toots his horn or not (it's not, in a runaway), Ruud is the leading edge of a new generation of Bucs, the kind who might be around a while, who one day get the kind of send-offs that Mike Alstott and John Lynch already have received.

We're going to get to know Barrett Ruud better and better, even if nobody else does.

"I wish he could get more respect as one of the up-and-coming stars of this league," Bucs coach Jon Gruden said, "Not that I'm sensitive to it, or I hear a lot of it, but I don't feel like people know about him like they do some of the other middle linebackers who play football in the league."

He has no Ray Lewis dance. He has no menacing Brian Urlacher persona.

"You'd never know this guy was a middle linebacker in the NFL if you saw him on the street," Bucs defensive lineman Chris Hovan said. "He looks like a ... golfer."

Ugh.

But ...

"If you're talking about middle linebackers in the NFL, he's at or near the top," Hovan said.

Actually, the man in the middle, a 6 handicap, can hit it 310 yards off the tee. His favorite movies are "Forrest Gump" and "The Shawshank Redemption." His favorite food is steak and ...

Don't tell us: potatoes.

"Any fish that's prepared well," Ruud said.

He grew up in Nebraska, not far from the University of Nebraska's Lincoln campus.

"No, we didn't have cows in our back yard," he said with a grin.

He starred for the Cornhuskers. Not that he made any All-American teams ...

"I thought I did pretty well, but I didn't get a sniff," Ruud said. Another friendly Ruud grin.

When he was 5, Ruud went to a Nebraska game and saw the great Barry Sanders cut through the Cornhuskers, unreal stuff. What also stuck with him was how Sanders, after scoring a touchdown, just gently laid the ball in the end zone.

Barrett Ruud would have loved to have met Paul Newman. His favorite jam bands are the Grateful Dead and The Allman Brothers. He likes soul guys James Brown and Al Green, too. He's a throwback like that. He's a throwback in a lot of ways, strong, silent - a force.

For a while in high school, Ruud tried a fist pump after big plays. Bo, his younger brother and former teammate (now a New England Patriot) would always say the same thing:

"Don't do that stuff. You look awful."

"I did," Barrett Ruud says today.

The compliments he loves come from real players. Zach Thomas once stopped him after a game to tell him how he liked his game. Vikings linebacker Chad Greenway did it just last week, after the Bucs beat the Vikings.

"When guys I still enjoy watch playing are talking to you, it means a lot," Ruud said.

He wants to be here and play here.

"That's everybody's goal, to grow with one team, to grow with one group of fans."

Ah, the idea of the Pro Bowl ...

"Once you get that tag, it's a great tag to have," Ruud said.

We're going to get to know him better and better.

Now, if only someone would notice.

Pro Bowler.

That's a cool sounding name, too.

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