CPD
12/16
OHIO STATE FOOTBALL
Intellectual Gonzalez makes great catches beyond reason
Thursday, December 15, 2005Bill Livingston
Plain Dealer Columnist
Columbus
- He sure couldn't fly on the St. Francis de Sales field. Mud put skill players in leg-irons and reduced the game to a primitive scrum. And then Anthony Gonzalez made the play that beat the play that beat Michigan, at least according to his high school coach, Chuck Kyle of St. Ignatius.
"It was an awful field, just a bog, and Tony made a catch and run in that slop that put us in the playoffs," Kyle said.
"I figured he would say that," said Gonzalez, Ohio State's sophomore wide receiver. "There were 5½ minutes left, and I went 65 yards."
It was good training for what came later: The first-series touchdown bomb from Troy Smith that whipped Ohio State's home crowd into a froth in the 2004 upset of Michigan; the diving, fingertip catch of an underthrown pass from Justin Zwick that gave the Buckeyes an early lead they never relinquished in the Alamo Bowl; the 27-yard catch-and-run at the start of the first of OSU's two touchdown drives in the last 8 minutes at Michigan.
And most of all, in that game, his jump for Smith's pass on the threshold of the Michigan goal in the last minute and change nearly a month ago. Gonzalez was no longer a part of everyday life on this planet when he came down.
"If I rated the Michigan catch on a scale of 1 to 10, it's about an 8," Kyle said.
Perhaps it is like Willie Mays' catch of the drive of the Indians' Vic Wertz. Mays said the context of the World Series magnified what he did because everyone saw it.
In the same way, the Michigan game defines an Ohio State player. In future years, that play will probably convey on Gonzalez what passes for immortality in sports. "Every time they show an Ohio State-Michigan flashback, he'll be making that catch," Kyle said.
Gonzalez, Ohio State's third wide receiver, broke off his square-out pattern, which was designed to clear space for the game-breakers, Santonio Holmes and Ted Ginn Jr. When Smith started scrambling, OSU's receivers did what they were schooled to do. Short guys go long, long guys come back to try and find something not full of striped helmets.
Smith first started to run, then eluded linebacker Dave Harris, and threw the pass Gonzo caught while his legs were snagged on cornerback Grant Mason's shoulder pads. Mason cartwheeled him down, the sky whirling in his facemask, but Gonzalez held on at the Michigan 4. Game, set, comeback, Ohio State.
"It was what John Stuart Mill defined as utilitarianism - the greatest good for the greatest number of people," said Gonzalez, a philosophy major and thinker of deep thoughts.
Gonzalez, who has been nominated as an Academic All-American, flubbed that one, because stunned Michigan fans far outnumbered jubilant Ohio State supporters. "I guess we really didn't create a lot of happiness," Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez dropped the concept of Aristotle's "Golden Mean" on some hard journalistic heads before the season began. It means a balance, between pessimism and optimism, temperance and passion.
He regains his balance anytime anyone raves about his catch. "You're only as good as your last catch. If I drop my first pass in the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame, nobody is going to remember I was the guy who caught that pass against Michigan," he said.
Better catches? "Michael Jenkins had a better one [in 2003] against Penn State, for sure. He jumped and took the ball off the defender's helmet for a touchdown," Gonzalez said.
His teammates don't buy the modesty. "Gonzo is a white boy who's really fast," Ginn said. "He has hops and a little shake [elusiveness], too."
"I just got tangled up with the defender, so it looked like I had a great vertical jump," Gonzalez said.
Maybe it was a trick of perspective. Or maybe it really was "The Catch."
Plato held that substantive reality was only a reflection of a higher truth. Somewhere out there, he would say, is the essence of, well, catchiness.
"I don't know what the ideal catch would be, but it couldn't be in defeat," Gonzalez said. "It would have to be a factor in the ideal result, a victory."
Gonzalez's native Cleveland has seen enough of big plays that begin with "The." There was "The Drive," "The Fumble," and "The Shot." Even "The Catch" (NFL Division) made Dwight Clark famous enough to become a very bad Browns' general manager.
Let "The Catch" (NCAA Division) go for us for a change.
To reach this Plain Dealer columnist:
blivingston@plaind.com, 216-999-5754
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12-11-2005, 02:24 PM
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