NFL player puts education first

The football standout said getting a college education is his greatest accomplishment.

By WILLIAM K. ALCORN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

STRUTHERS — Nick Eason, Pittsburgh Steelers and former Cleveland Browns defensive end, says he’s the same person he was before becoming a professional athlete.

In fact, Eason, who grew up in the small town of Lyons, Ga., told an auditorium packed with excited Struthers Middle School pupils that though he loved sports growing up, his focus in high school was to get a college education.

As a result, the straight-A student said he separated himself from friends who were “not on the same page.”

At the time, Eason, 27, said it wasn’t his dream to play in the National Football League.

He earned Class 2A all-state football honors as a tight end as a junior. But his favorite sport in high school was basketball, in which he was named the Class 2A Player of the Year and achieved first team all-state in Georgia.

“I was die-hard basketball,” he said.

His high school football coach, however, convinced him that “football was my ticket” to college.

He had offers from a number of high-profile college football programs, and chose Clemson University in Georgia when he earned a bachelor’s degree in three years with a major in sociology and a minor in business. He continued to play football at Clemson while earning a master’s degree in human resources.

While he was in college, he was involved in community activities and after his senior year was named to the Goodworks Team by the American Football Coaches Association.

He was drafted in by the Denver Broncos in the fourth round of the 2003 NFL draft. In 2004, Eason was waived by the Broncos after training camp and was signed by the Browns. He became an unrestricted free agent in 2007, and the 6-foot 3-inch, 300-pound lineman was signed to a one-year contract by the Steelers.

Eason smiled good-naturedly as he came onto the school stage and was greeted with mainly applause by the pupils in grades 5-8.

“I’m assuming I’m getting some cheers and little bit of booing, but that’s OK. I used to be a Browns player myself. But now I’m a Steeler, and it was a great pleasure to go 2-0 against the Browns this year,” he said.

He told the pupils how important education is to him and to them.

When he suffered an Achilles tendon injury in Denver and didn’t know if he could continue to play football, he said he “felt at peace because I had my degree.” He said getting a college education is his greatest accomplishment.

Eason was invited to the school by the Moore family of Lowellville, with whom he is friends, and Shelby Ruozzo, a member of the Moore family, who is a sixth-grader at the school.

He told the pupils that life is about choices and gave an example of a bad choice on his part that people still remember.

During his rookie year in Denver, a couple of veterans got hurt, and he had to do most of the playing in training camp.

“I was getting beaten up physically and mentally, and I decided to leave camp and drive to Las Vegas. I was listening to the radio and heard that I had been reported missing. My face was on ESPN. I ended up going back to Denver” and getting it straightened out, he said.

That was years ago, but he said it was one of the things the Steelers asked him to explain before they signed him.

“It was a bad choice. I’ve seen people ruin their lives in a matter of seconds,” he said.

Eason, who said he wants to work for the Secret Service when his football playing days are over, signed autographs before and after the assembly, and during the assembly answered pupils’ questions.

He said the person in football he most looked up to was Reggie White, whom he described as a “great player and a great person.”

He said his best friends in football are Pittsburgh’s Troy Polamalu and the Browns’ Andre Davis.

The biggest adjustment from college to professional football for him is the amount of game preparation that is needed.

“The NFL is a game of inches, and every aspect is magnified. You have to play with a lot of technique and prepare for opposing teams and individuals by studying film to learn their tendencies,” he said. “You have to be smart and disciplined and mentally tough to play in the NFL.”

Eason, who starts on the Steelers’ kickoff return and field goal protection teams, said he wants to win every game, and he felt signing with Pittsburgh gave him the best chance to do that.

Cleveland is improving, but Pittsburgh has the advantage of having a winning tradition, a system in place in which the players believe, and players who have been together a long time and have learned to trust and depend on each other, Eason said.

Outside of football, Eason, primarily reared by his grandparents, said his grandmother is his hero. “She inspired me in life and spiritually,” he said.

alcorn@vindy.com