11-06-2009, 07:56 AM
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Head Coach
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 10,793
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Total Points: 499,267.27
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Quote:
COVER STORY
Tight end Jake Ballard and his twin brother Josh have always shared an unbreakable bond
Thursday, November 5, 2009
By Tim May
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
PHOTO (top): Tight end Jake Ballard tries to manuever past Blake Carter of Navy after making a catch in the season opener in Ohio Stadium. (Jonathan Quilter, Dispatch)
The Ballard twins knew they were in for double trouble if they didn't act fast.
During the course of normal hijinks in the downstairs family room, they had knocked over the huge tube television. Upstairs, their parents, Ben and Debby Ballard, were showing the home to prospective buyers. Not only could the knocked-over TV possibly short-circuit the deal, but you know how parents can be.
"So we looked at each other. We knew what we had to do," Josh Ballard said.
"We picked it up, and put it back on the stand," Jake Ballard said.
They got away with it for a while, until a crack was found on the back of the TV, and a drawer in the stand was found to be broken. That's when Debby Ballard started asking questions, and her twin boys came clean.
"I couldn't believe it," she said. "It was a big, heavy TV sitting on a not-very-wide stand. After it fell off, the two of them actually picked it up together and put it back up."
But here's the kicker.
"They were 4 years old!" she said the other day, still incredulous at the feat of strength.
They are 21 now.
Jake is a senior tight end for Ohio State. Josh was a junior starting linebacker for Morehead State until the middle of this season, when a reduction in playing time caused him to re-evaluate his priorities and drop football.
"Now I can go watch Jake's games and enjoy his senior year," said Josh, who planned to join the family for the Buckeyes' game at Penn State this afternoon.
"I don't feel good that he had to give up football, because he was a very good player," Jake said. "But I do like having him around."
That figures, because before college came along and split them up, they had been together since before birth. But there were some differences - they were fraternal, not identical, twins.
As they grew from 4-year-old TV lifters to physical forces in pee-wee football, baseball and basketball, Jake was always a little bigger. Today, he stands 6 feet 7 and weighs 260 pounds, and Josh is 6-2, 225.
"I'd say, 'Mom, so did you guys just quit feeding me at one point, or did Jake steal all my food when we were younger?'" Josh said, laughing. "I would have taken just another couple of inches, not much, and that would have balanced things out a little bit more."
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