The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Montano taking path less traveled to NFL
Christian Montano walked into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, for the first time Tuesday. He was part of a private tour. There were the fully immersive experiences, the exhibits and, of course, the bronze busts of the more than 300 enshrined.
“They brought us back to all the archives, too, three million documents back there,” Montano said. “It was awesome. As a kid I always was a Patriot fan, so to see some of their memorabilia was exciting. But I think my favorite part was the case of all the Super Bowl rings from Super Bowl I on. It’s funny. They started out with like a little engagement ring and now they’re almost the size of a fist.
“Every player’s name is inscribed someplace there. Even if you play one snap (in the NFL) your name will be there. That’s my goal.”
The Walter Camp Connecticut College Player of the Year from Orange is taking an unprecedented path to reach that goal. Then again, Montano — who got an economics degree from Brown before starting at center as a graduate transfer at Tulane — has demonstrated at a young age he is unafraid of the path less traveled.
After being unable to hook on with the Steelers and Browns, Montano has become among the first to enter the NFL Alumni Academy that opened last month on the grounds of the Hall of Fame Village and inside facilities in nearby Massillon.
Rather than players returning home and staying in the best shape possible after being released, the mission of the in-season program is to create a farm system for top free agents to be totally ready when an NFL team needs to fortify its roster. NFL legend Gil Brandt has long pushed for such an idea. The academy has been in the planning stage for a few years and with the roster
uncertainties caused by COVID-19, 2020 turned out to be a good year to start. Practice squads have expanded to 14 this year and 16 next.
Former Vikings running backs coach Dean Dalton is the academy’s executive director. Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz, former Vikings head coach Mike Tice, Pete Esser, Moe Williams, Jermon Bushrod and Jay Hayes are among those running the camp and coaching the invited players.
The academy reached out to Montano’s agent, Joe Linta. Montano didn’t know it existed.
“We both thought it was a great opportunity,” said Montano, who arrived in Ohio three weeks ago. “This is kind of a unique thing going on here. I really don’t know of any organization that has the tie-in they have here. This is kind of the frontier.
“The guys who are running this have either coached or played in the NFL for a long time. Guys who have lived it and have NFL connections to this day.”
Offensive and defensive linemen and running backs comprised the original group, although more positions are being added. Montano said there are five offensive linemen at the academy, with three at NFL workouts or signed by teams. Norwalk’s Evan Adams, a fouryear starter at Syracuse, has been working out with the Bengals this week. There currently are 15 players at the academy, Montano said. According to the Canton Repository, meal and lodging are covered and the players can pay the fee for attending after they make an NFL practice squad. That pays about $8,400 a week in 2020. If this all sounds like an HBO episode of “Hard Knocks,” the Repository reported the academy is considering such a possibility.
After playing for Linta at Hamden Hall, Montano went on to play at Brown before sustaining a broken foot in the 2018 season opener that would require surgery. The Ivy League doesn’t allow graduate students with remaining eligibility to compete. So he went to Tulane, started all 13 games at center and worked on finishing a master’s degree. Oh, almost forgot to mention that along the way Christian Montano donated bone marrow that helped save the life of a New York man named Jim Calhoun. Like we said, he has taken the path
less traveled.
Montano played in the Tropical Bowl All-Star game and trained at the TEST Football Academy in New Jersey for six weeks. With Pro Day looming, he had a week-long layover to see his family in Connecticut. There would be no Tulane Pro Day in New Orleans.
“It was the week COVID went from a blip on the radar to the forefront of everything thing in the country,” the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Montano said. “The week everything exploded.”
Alocal workout with the Giants? Canceled. One with the Patriots in Foxborough? Canceled.
“Erased in a matter of four days,” said Montano, working primarily as a guard for the pros.
Not taken in the seven rounds of the NFL draft in late April, he was immediately signed by the Steelers as a free agent. There were daily meetings on Zoom. As camps opened on July 21, the NFL announced there’d be no preseason games and camp rosters would be reduced from 90 to 80. Montano was cut Aug. 2.
No Pro Day exposure. No preseason film because there was no preseason. 2020 is tough year for young players on the edge. He would get a tryout with the Browns with three other linemen.
“We worked out with offensive line coach Bill Callahan for like 45 minutes to an hour,” he said. “An agility station almost, a pretty good workout.”
Montano was one of two told to stay. They went to the hospital for physical examinations. They were told to wait at the hotel.
“The Browns ended up signing the other guy,” he said.
Pro football is a tough, tough business.
“It was a good experience overall,” Montano said. “Meeting more coaches, shaking more hands, every
thing is filmed at the workouts. I gained confidence that I basically can compete with these guys. I’m the same size as them, just as strong, just as fast.”
Do you feel like you’re close? “Definitely,” he said. The mental health of athletes has been a frequent topic during COVID. Now think about the pressures of trying to make a team coming out of college, while not knowing from week to week what the pandemic could bring to an entire sport. Calling resilience. Calling perseverance.
“There is a physical, mental and mental health or spiritual side to it all,” Montano said.
So he works as hard as he can in training, knowing NFL teams can check the academy portal and see video even before they bring in a player for a tryout. Not having classes after all these years does feel weird. He uses his spare time to study for the Chartered Financial Analyst exams and on FaceTime with family and friends. With the academy open through the conclusion of the regular season, Montano is staying at Springfield Suites near the Hall of Fame. Ahotel in the village is supposed to be ready in a few weeks.
“This has been a great experience, but I hope that I’m not here still,” he said.
That would mean an NFL team had called.
“If you sit around on the couch sulking in your own misery, you’ll never step forward from it,” Montano said. “Whenever you have setbacks, you have to keep your goal in mind and keep working toward it.”
The goal is to get his name inscribed somewhere in that building across from where he’s sweating and chasing his dream.