The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Fusco bringing ‘attitude’ to Atlanta’s offensive line BRANDON FUSCO FILE
Veteran of 80 NFL starts set to compete at right guard.
The Falcons’ major offseason acquisition has been right guard Brandon Fusco, who signed a three-year, $12.75 million contract.
Fusco has made 80 starts in the NFL, and his new contract will pay him like a starter, but the Falcons insist he will compete with Wes Schweitzer.
“With Fusco coming in, we’re excited about him joining our offensive line,” Falcons General Manager Thomas Dimitroff said. “It’s going to be a really competitive situation at the right guard this year between Wes and (Brandon). I think having Fusco in here, he’s got a lot of starts in this league and that adds to our offensive line.”
Fusco, in a phone interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, discussed his decision to sign with the Falcons.
Here’s what Fusco had to say:
How do you feel about coming to the Falcons?
Pretty good, man. I’m very excited. It’s a fresh new start, and I’m looking forward to it.
Did the scheme fit help Sun Sentinel (TNS)
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. — H. Wayne Huizenga once was asked for the difference between having the billions of dollars he accumulated in life and not having $1,500 to pay for a used truck, which is how he started.
“You have more options,” he said.
Huizenga took the option of publicly founding Fortune 500 businesses and privately investing in youth educations. He took the option of collecting sports teams the way kids do bubble gum cards and elevating South Florida’s presence as a majorleague region. And he took the option of never forgetting how it all started.
“The fun is going up the mountain, not reaching the top,” he once said.
Say good-bye to Mr. H., as his employees always called him, mostly with fondness and forever with respect. He finally came up against the road with no option, no matter how rich or smart or influential you are. He died Thursday at age 80.
Take a moment to thank him, too. It says something that a man with not enough money to buy a used truck rose to build three corporate empires — Waste Management, Blockbuster Entertainment and AutoNation.
It says something more that a man who never played beyond center for Pine Crest High School’s football team is remembered as the greatest sports name in South Florida.
No one did more for South Florida sports than Mr. H. Not Joe Robbie, who brought the Dolphins here. Not Don Shula, who brought the first winner. Not Pat Riley, who is this generation’s Shula.
Huizenga brought pro baseball and hockey to South Florida within a span of months. He bought the Dolphins from the Robbies. For a few hours, he even controlled the Miami Heat, until Micky Arison stepped in and activated a clause to keep it in his family. Huizenga shrugged.
“I go to enough games,” Age: Turns 30 on July 26 Official height: 6-foot-4 Weight: 306
40-yard dash: 5.18 seconds Wonderlic score: 30 Vertical: 28-1/2
Broad jump: 9-0 (best of the centers coming out) 225-pound bench press: 26 repetitions
Arms: 33-3/4
Hands: 10 inches
College: Slippery Rock Draft: Vikings, sixth round 2011 (172nd overall)
NFL experience: 83 games, 80 starts, including all 16 games last season for the 49ers.
you in making your decision?
Yeah, I enjoyed the offense that Kyle (Shanahan) ran last year (in San Francisco). Atlanta runs very similar stuff. So, it will be an easy transition for me. I’ll fit right in.
Did you meet with offensive line coach Chris Morgan?
I’ve talked to him, but I haven’t gotten the chance to sit down in person with him and talk. We talked on the phone. I’ve heard nothing but great things. I’m excited to work with him.
Do you know any of the other linemen?
No, I don’t really know anyone on the team. I chatted with a couple of guys through Florida mogul H. Wayne Huizenga created the Marlins and Panthers. he said later.
To understand Huizenga’s sports accomplishments, don’t look at wins and losses. Listen to a scene from the 1986 movie “Running Scared,” when Gregory Hines tells Billy Crystal they could retire in Miami.
“Miami?” Crystal responds. “They don’t even have baseball. Baseball is the watershed of civilization.”
Huizenga changed that. South Florida enjoyed all four pro sports, thanks to him. Baseball became Huizenga’s momentarily highest and eternally lowest sports moment. He won the World Series.
He then turned the franchise into a chop shop, selling off players because the Marlins weren’t a good business, and better and worse, he was all about business. He knew what that fire sale meant to his legacy.
Years later, he looked over a table full of business awards in his office.
“Those will be my legacy in business, and nothing I do from here can probably change that” he said. “In sports, it will be the fire sale of the ’97 Marlins. That’s just how it is.”
He never quit being the businessman. He cried tears of relief when the Dolphins won their lone game in 2007, then called prospective buyer Steve Ross the next morning.
“The price just went up $40 million,” he said.
His Panthers went to the Stanley Cup Finals in ’96. Those ’97 Marlins won the World Series. Only his Dolphins never won. Not really. They were his favorite, too, as he had season tickets to Dolphins games since their 1996 expansion season. text. They all seem like great guys, and I’m excited to get to work with them.
Do you plan on being on hand for OTAs and all of the offseason stuff ?
Yeah, I’ll be on hand for everything.
Coming out of Slippery Rock, do you ever look back on your NFL journey and how you’ve been able to establish a solid career?
Yeah, I’ve been fortunate. It’s a tougher path for smaller school guys to make it. I know the odds are against smaller school guys, and it’s tougher than any other (FBS or FCS) player, but yeah, I’ve beaten the odds. But I really don’t try to think back on that. I’m an eight-year vet now and I just try to be up to level and up to par with everyone else and just play my game.
How would you describe your game and your attributes?
I feel like I’m pretty well-balanced (in pass protection and run blocking). I play with an attitude. That’s the way I been playing my whole life, and I plan to continue to do that with Atlanta.
Have you been a right guard the whole time or have you flopped to left?
I played right the whole time. I played left one year, but I was a center in college so I can play all three inside positions.
‘Mr. H’ did more than anyone to build South Florida sports
He tried everything. Worked with coach Don Shula. Hired coach Jimmy Johnson. Flew to Baton Rouge, La., to close the deal for Nick Saban when everyone considered him the next great NFL coach.
Wayne and his wife, Marti, then also unknowingly had a final meal after the 2006 season at the home of Saban and his wife, Teri. The meal was odd fare for such big names — boiled hot dogs and beans. “Beany-weenies,” the Sabans called it.
It was served under a dangling light bulb, as the chandelier was removed. Saban told Huizenga he was returning as Dolphins coach. The next day, Marti called Wayne after seeing a moving van at the Sabans.
“Are you sure we still have a coach?” she asked.
He never said a bad word about Saban, though. Maybe because leaders take the high road. Maybe because he’s had to make tough, personal decisions on his road to the top himself. The only thing he was better at than building companies — he took three to the New York Stock Exchange — was selling them at the perfect time.
“My business decisions were great,” he said. “My sports decisions?”
He waggled his palm back and forth. “Ehhhhh.”
Owners get into sports for various reasons. For some, it’s ego. For some, it’s a higher civic platform. For some, it’s fantasy sports. For Huizenga, it was part business and part something else.
“I want to make this a better place,” he said.
Only once in all the years around him did I hear him waver on the decision to get into sports. Life is about options, remember, and he sat in his office on Las Olas Boulevard after he sold the last of his teams, the Dolphins, and wondered if he did right.
“Maybe I should have just put all my money into kids’ educations,” he said. “I probably would have done better that way.”
He talked to all his friends as the years went on about “QTL” — Quality Time Life. He encouraged them to enjoy it. The hope is he got plenty, too. No one did more for South Florida sports than Mr. H.