We have known for a while that there are few guys in our football team like to write. We have been tracking ATV's blogs posts through out this summer. We have been following ATV's weekly posts on the official site which started this past summer. We have also blogged a number of times about a weekly column in a local paper entitled "Keeping it Bruin: A Look Into UCLA Athletics," written by ATV's team-mate - Tobi Umodu. Actually Toby himself has fanshotted his column here on BN.
Well it looks like Tobi has made the big time. He is now going to be blogging periodically in the Quad, the college football blog for the New York Times. In his first post Tobi gives us a little taste about the camaraderie that exists among UCLA football team:
My football team at U.C.L.A. is no exception. Our team consists of more than 100 guys from different walks of life and different racial backgrounds, but we have no problem getting along with each other. One good example would be life in our locker room. Some of my teammates set up speakers so they can play music while we get ready for practice or just hang out. Every day, the music being played is by a rap, hip hop, or R&B artist, and everyone enjoys it, dancing along and singing the lyrics. Now I’m sure some of them would rather listen to country or rock than Gucci Mane and Young Jeezy, but no one would ever know.
Another interesting thing: the nicknames. I have a few personal nicknames for some of my teammates who are good friends. First is Alterraun Verner, who I’m sure many of you have heard of. He is on every watch list you can think of and is an all-American candidate at cornerback. Some people like to call him Al, a few broadcasters call him ATV, but to us in the locker room he is fondly known as the Receptionist because of all the attention he receives. He probably won’t like that I wrote that but since we are a family I’m sure he will forgive me.Next is running back Jonathan Franklin. He is a bit different from everyone else because he has quite a few nicknames. People on the team call him Flaps, Jet Ski, among other names, but I prefer to call him Hollywood Ski because he used to be on the show "Baldwin Hills" on BET. My fellow fullbacks Chane Moline, Trevor Theriot, and Jason Almond all have their own nicknames as well. I like to call Chane, Sugar Chane Moline; everyone refers to Trevor as Moose (I’m still not quite sure why); and Jason Almond is called Almond Joy for obvious reasons.
You can read rest of his post here. You will want to click on it because it's a fantastic read.
All I can say, congrats Tobi. Now it would be even cooler if you come back here and cross post your stuff in our fanposts. We know you are reading.
GO BRUINS.