Friends Of Bloggers: Iowa State’s Mike Brandtner
For a while now, I’ve been trying to find an excuse to do a completely self-indulgent blog post about a close family friend. “How,” I thought to myself, “can I work this in on MPS blog, without it looking completely unprofessional?” As if I value professionalism. Ha. Right.
Well guess what? The Des Moines Register, the most disproportionately powerful political newspaper in all the land, has officially given me my excuse:
Who would you chose as Iowa State’s most valuable player for this season? A nomination: punter Mike Brandtner. This isn’t written as sarcasm, but is a serious vote of support for the Cyclones’ most reliable performer during a 2-9 run that will culminate with Saturday’s game at Kansas State. The junior from Bettendorf has averaged 41.6 yards on 49 kicks, ranking him third in the Big 12 Conference. More important, Brandtner has had 19 of his punts (38.8 percent) downed inside the opponent’s 20-yard line.
“I really try to place them all in the 20,” he said. “It’s not always about crushing the ball.”
Not only is Mike a very solid punter on an Iowa State team that, with all due respect, needs a punter far more than any football team should, he’s a close friend of yours truly. More specifically, his family is like a second family to me. His older brother is one of my best friends, who, despite never, ever beating me, still comes over to play FIFA 09 all the time. His mother is like a surrogate mother, or some sort of incredibly sweet aunt. They’re awesome people. Mike, obviously, is no different. He just got all the family’s athletic talent.
Lest you think I wrote this merely to name-drop a friend, let me give you a quirky blog tidbit: Mike is the best Halo 2 player you’ll ever meet in your life. Like, gets-invited-to-nerdy-tournaments good. Remember when ESPN did that whole feature about Adam Morrison and J.J. Reddick? Eff that. Get a camera to this kid’s Xbox Live setup immediately.
Anyway, if nothing else, it’s proof positive that bloggers can have real social connections, and sometimes those social connections can have actual athletic talent. Even if he is just the punter.
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