Konrad's No. 44 His No. 1 Problem
FED EX ORANGE BOWL
December 31, 1998|By MIKE BERARDINO Staff Writer
MIAMI - — Rob Konrad never asked for the comparisons. lie never asked Syracuse football followers to chart his every move, obsess over each injury, fret over the decoy status he often assumed in the Orangemen's egalitarian offense.
He never demanded a place alongside Hall of Famers Jim Brown, Ernie Davis and Floyd lAttle on the Mount Rushmore of college football in snowy Central New York.
All Konrad did was ask to keep the jersey number he wore in high school: 44. He liked the way it looked when stretched across his broad back. He chose it as a tribute to a pair of his early football heros, Tom Rathman and Tommy Vardell, powerful fullbacks who wore the same number and played his kind of game.
The minute Konrad pulled No. 44 over his pads at Syracuse, his life changed.
"It's like a lightning rod," says Bob Konrad, the player's father. "When you wear No. 44 at Syracuse, everybody's looking at you under a microscope, as much off the field as on."
The university zip code at Syracuse is 13244, changed several years ago from 13210. A decade ago the university phone prefix was switched from 423 to 443. A popular student hangout is a bar called "44's."
Brown, Davis and Little wore No. 44. So did '60s running star Jim Nance. Terry Richardson, a former star at Northeast High, wore No. 44 in the early 1990S.
Has Konrad been 44-caliber? In some ways, yes. In others, no. He would be the first to admit that.
Saturday night in the Orange Bowl Classic against Florida, Konrad completes an uneven senior season and a college career that has tantalized more often than it has delivered, frustrated more than it has satisfied.
Pro scouts view him as a likely firstrounder next spring, but gaudy statistics have nothing to do with that esteem.
Blame it on numerology. Only the 10th player since 1954 to wear No. 44 for Syracuse and the first fullback so honored, Konrad finds himself facing an uncertain legacy.
With 11 more total yards, Konrad will reach 2,000 for his high-profile career. So much more was expected of the kid who was everybody's All-American out of St. John's Prep in North Andover. Mass. So much more was predicted for the kid who dared to wear that hallowed jersey number.
"A lot of people talk about the pressure," says Konrad, who has met with Brown and Little on several occasions. "Regardless of what number I wore, I was going to come here and do the best I could. If that wasn't good enough, so be it. I can't do any more about it."
There is resignation in his voice, a weariness that his wan smile cannot mask. These past four years have not been the joy ride he must have imagined when he committed to Syracuse in the spring of his junior year in high school.
Injuries caused him to miss five games as a Syracuse junior, including the Fiesta Bowl loss to Kansas State. Konrad suffered broken ribs in a freak collision with a teammate. Later, he underwent season-ending surgery to reattach a tendon that had ripped free from his left knee.
