Life-giving gift offers solace to Reuland
Real life for Ottawa Redblacks receiver Austin Reuland has been an especially emotional rollercoaster ride the last eight months or so. It’s the kind of thing you make movies about.
In this script, there are tears, buckets of them. And there are the feel-good moments and more crying. Within the storyline, a baseball legend is saved and the heart of a son and a brother lives on.
It’s a story about three brothers, basketball players until high school, who discover a passion for football.
The oldest, Konrad Reuland, works and works to get to the NFL. He plays three seasons (2012, 2013 and 2015) as a tight end with the New York Jets and Baltimore Ravens.
Then on Nov. 28, 2016, he suffers a brain aneurysm. Two weeks later, he’s dead at 29. In San Juan Capistrano, Calif., it was devastating for parents Ralf and Mary and brothers Warren, now at med school, and Austin.
It’s heartbreaking, then heartlifting.
A couple of days after his death, Konrad’s heart and a kidney were transferred into the body of Baseball Hall of Famer Rod Carew, who had survived a massive heart attack in 2015.
Austin, who was selected by the Redblacks in the sixth round of a CFL supplemental draft July 6, says he still lives with the pain of losing an older brother far too young.
“I’ve been bawling my eyes out, I’ve had trouble sleeping,” Reuland said. “I’m not getting used to it, I think about him all the time before everything I do on the field. I have a tattoo on my chest. It’s a ‘K’ with a halo over it, it has the heartbeat, on top is what he used to write on his gloves before the games: MDWA — mom, dad, Warren and Austin. Underneath is his birthday, April 4, 1987 — in roman numerals.”
Carew, whose children went to school with the Reulands, has become family. Through the stethoscope of Ralf, who is a doctor, they’ve listened to Konrad’s heart beating within Carew. It’s provided solace and comfort in pushing aside the enormity of the grief.
“We’ve been meeting with (Carew),” Austin said. “He wants to be part of our family, he even says he wants to be on our Christmas cards. I was with my mom at the grave for Konrad’s birthday when he would have turned 30. Rod showed up. So for Konrad’s birthday, I was with his body, but I was with his heart. I’m so thankful that they’re willing to meet us and be part of our lives. It’s comforting knowing that a part of him is still down here on Earth. We listen to his heart. It’s a powerful heartbeat.”
When Austin got the call from that he was coming to the CFL, he was alone at home.
“I was so emotional, I was by myself,” he said. “I yelled out as loud as I could, my dogs went crazy, then I started bawling my eyes out because I knew (Konrad) could be celebrating right beside me. He was the one who always encouraged me to keep playing if I could, he was kind of my motivation to make it this far. He always included me with all his friends, he didn’t care that I was young. We spent so much time together since I was a little guy.
“He was the healthiest person I’ve ever met. He did everything the right way, trained three times a day, doing yoga classes, lifting, running routes, everything he possibly could. The one thing he couldn’t control was the aneurysm in his head. If he would have had a concussion in football, they would have found it because there would have been a scan. I got my head scanned, my other brother did as well. Everything’s fine.”
It’s the first time in Canada for Austin, who went to school at Yale and qualified for the draft because his dad is Canadian.
“I’ve known all along that I’m a dual citizen, but I had to go through the process of getting proof,” he said. “It’s only supposed to take a few months, but it was taking a long time — the government was sitting on it. I contacted some people I knew in Canada and we got the member of Parliament’s office involved and literally the day before the draft I was approved.
“(The Redblacks) handed me the playbook (Monday), so I have to make that my best friend and get to know it really well. I want to know multiple positions to help me get on the field faster. I feel like I’m versatile. I played running back and receiver, outside and inside, whatever they need from me.”
BURRIS WEIGHS IN: Retired QB Henry Burris weighed in on the Redblacks Wednesday morning on TSN 1200. Speaking about the team’s failed gimmick play (where on second-and-20, receiver Brad Sinopoli caught a short pass and attempted to boot it a couple of yards ahead and recover it so Ottawa could retain possession) in a 26-25 loss to Toronto, Burris said: “I wasn’t a fan of it. It’s a play you don’t rep a lot.” He wondered why they would try it deep in their own end, saying it might have been a better gamble if tried around midfield. Burris also didn’t agree with the release of cornerback A.J. Jefferson Monday. “When it comes to performance, A.J. is as good as anybody out there,” he said.