TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Sunday, November 13, 2005
"The film don't lie."
That was Casey Hampton's response when asked if his lack of height might cause him to drop into the second round of the 2001 NFL Draft.
It didn't. Hampton, generously listed at 6-foot-1 and conservatively listed at 325 pounds, went 19th overall to the Steelers, who were enamored with the notion of a havoc-wreaking nose tackle.
Five seasons later, Hampton has become the rock -- OK, the boulder -- on a defense that has gone 19 consecutive games without allowing a 100-yard rusher.
He is, according to his teammates and coach Bill Cowher, playing at least as well as he was before he sustained a torn ACL early last season.
"He's playing better than he's played since I've been here," said linebacker James Farrior. "He's in the backfield on every play."
That tends to show up on film, and the film has always been Hampton's friend. The film is what landed him a scholarship to the University of Texas.
Hampton was tentatively headed to Missouri until some Texas coaches inadvertently saw him on tape. They were analyzing a stud offensive lineman, but the guy he was trying to block stole every scene.
"They thought the offensive lineman was one of the best in Texas," said Gary Wilson, one of Hampton's former coaches and a key figure in his life. "But they kept seeing Casey whup him upside the head, and they said, 'Who is this kid?' "
Nobody knew better than Wilson, who was Hampton's middle-school coach, an assistant on Hampton's Galveston Ball High School team and a father figure.
Hampton was in ninth grade when his father, who lived in Houston, died.
Hampton and his brother and two sisters were raised by their mother, Ivory Anderson, in government housing in a violent, drug-infested section of Galveston. The key to Hampton's survival, in Wilson's words: "He never stood on the corner, and he was always in the weight room."
He also had a strong support system, headed by Anderson, who worked a variety of food-service jobs that enabled her to stay off welfare and keep food on the table. Lots of food. Hampton has never been small. His Steelers teammates call him "Big Snack."
"He's always got something in his mouth," said defensive end Aaron Smith. "He's like a vending machine."
Though he mostly avoided trouble, Hampton was nearly killed as an innocent bystander in a shooting when he was in seventh grade. He said he was at his friend's house playing video games when a man crashed through the front door. The man jumped on Hampton's back, as another man, wielding a gun, barged in and fired three shots.
All three shots hit the man on Hampton's back. None hit Hampton.
"I felt lucky, but that wasn't the only time I was around that kind of stuff," Hampton said.
Hampton discovered early that football was his ticket out of the projects. Others in the neighborhood -- even the dope dealers, he said -- recognized his potential and steered him away from the streets.
"My thing was, it was always the NFL," Hampton said. "No question in my mind that was the only way I was going to get out of there, and I had some coaches who kept me on track."
Wilson started Hampton out as an oversized middle-school fullback. It made sense. Hampton anchored the school's 400-meter relay team before a 50-pound growth spurt around ninth grade.
"He was the fastest man in school and the biggest," Wilson said. "But he wasn't a very good fullback. He ran like a board. He didn't have any lean to him."
The God-given ability was obvious, but a lot of kids where Hampton came from had ability. He had some other qualities, including a ferocious competitive desire and a heart that's 10 times bigger than his tree-trunk legs.
When Hampton signed his first NFL contract, he bought his mother a house.
"All she ever wanted was a big backyard," Wilson said. "Casey got her a house with a big backyard."
Wilson has experienced Hampton's generosity first-hand.
"I get to go up about every year and see him play," Wilson said. "I stay at his house. He treats me like gold. He hasn't changed a bit. He's the most humble young man you'd ever want to meet."
He also hates to lose. Hampton's teammates talk about how he's perfectly quiet until some running back gashes the defense for a few decent gains.
"He goes nuts," said defensive end Kimo von Oelhoffen.
"I call him a crybaby sometimes," Smith said, laughing. "He starts crying and complaining to everybody, but that's when the other team's in trouble."
Hampton is surrounded by plenty of talent with the Steelers, and that is nothing new. In high school, nine of 11 starters on the Galveston Ball defense went on to play major college football, and the quarterback was Brandon Backe, who now pitches for the Houston Astros.
One of Hampton's teammates on the Galveston Ball basketball team was Damon Jones, who now plays for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Hampton's Texas teams were filled with recognizable names such as Ricky Williams, Cedric Benson, Roy Williams, Chris Simms, Quentin Jammer and Hampton's fellow defensive tackle, Shaun Rogers.
Injuries are about the only thing that has ever stopped Hampton. He tore an ACL during his sophomore year at Texas (the opposite knee from last year's injury).
When he was injured last season, against Dallas, Hampton limped to the bench and wept into a towel. It killed him to miss the Steelers' magical season. The only saving grace was that he got to spend more time with his 4-year-old son, Casey Jr.
The Steelers were so convinced that Hampton would return to form that they lavished him last summer with a $6.98 million signing bonus -- third-highest in team history -- as part of a five-year, $22.78 million contract.
Hampton has rewarded them richly, using that low center of gravity and that freakish quickness to destroy opposing centers. Teams have little choice but to double-team him, which frees teammates to make plays.
You don't measure Hampton by his stats, but by his teammates'.
"Every game this year I've seen him push the center in the backfield, five yards deep," said Steelers guard Kendall Simmons. "You don't see that very much. I mean, you have some guys like (Jacksonville's) Marcus Stroud and John Henderson and (San Francisco's) Bryant Young. I've seen them do it. But Casey Hampton does it consistently."
Don't believe that? Check the film.
The film don't lie.
Joe Starkey can be reached at jstarkey@triweb.com.
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