FanHouse CountryMusic

Is Adam Ballard not the coolest fullback ever?

After telling you about the Navy fullback's love for country music last month, I stumbled across an actual performance of his (cowboy hat and all) while browsing around the NBC website.

To watch Adam give his rendition of the Hank Williams Jr. classic "Family Tradition" with a college football spin, check out NBC Sports.com and click the link on the left sidebar which says "Love of Country". As a fine connoisseur of country music, I can say that this wasn't exactly the pinnacle of the Nashville influence, but who's going to argue with a bruising back like Ballard?Let's just say it was a splendid attempt in front of a National TV audience.

Trey Hines, your thoughts?

"Stick to running the ball"

Coach Johnson?

"George Jones is safe for awhile"

Well for what it's worth I enjoyed it. Keep on strumming Adam.

Adam Ballard is so much more then just a big, bruising fullback who routinely knocks defenders on their backs. In fact, according to the Baltimore Sun, Adam Ballard is a big, bruising fullback who wants to grow up to be a country music singer. Gee, I thought I was the only one.

In all seriousness, this is pretty much the coolest thing I've seen all day. In a world where we as fans routinely see football players bobbing their heads and spewing out profanity laced rap lyrics, it's great to see someone like Ballard take it old school, ala Hank Jr. The fact that this is actually a viable career choice for the future United States Marine Officer makes it all the more intriguing.

"To be a good country music singer, you don't have to have a real good voice," the Texas native told the Sun last week. "Some of the best country singers have raspy voices. But there aren't a lot of country music singers who don't play guitar. Besides football and serving in the military, that's what I want to do."

And ain't that the American dream? Ballard originally garnered a lot of attention out of high school, nearly drawing scholarship offers from schools like Purdue, Arkansas, and UTEP. However, the big man was moved to wide receiver during his senior year, and only Navy was still there to offer him a scholarship. And whomever made that decision (I'm assuming Coach Johnson) should be given a medal, because Ballard has turned into one heck of a football player. After running for more then 100 yards in each of his first three starts last year, Ballard has provided a solid option in this year's offense, rushing for over 100 yards against Stanford and for nearly 100 against ECU. He's quicker and stronger then he was last year, evident enough in an 81 yard run he broke off against UConn. Oh yea, and that stinger he suffered in the third quarter, not a big deal according to Coach Johnson, who said he should be able to play against Air Force on Saturday.

With multiple career option, it's likely Ballard will have to put the Toby Keith Jr. routine on hold for the time being. But as it stands, he's the one singing "How Do You Like Me Now" to all the teams which passed him up out of High School. (If you don't listen to country music, I realize that's probably the worst closing line of a blog post ever. All i can do is suggest the Toby Keith Greatest Hits Volume Dos)