Texans RB Arian Foster: The most interesting man in the NFL

When Foster was a junior in college, he made a crucial decision about his career. If he had entered the 2008 NFL draft, he probably would have gone in the second round, but he returned to Tennessee for his senior season. He was miserable, beaten down by criticism, injuries, lack of playing time and the chaos of a faltering program. Fulmer, the school’s longtime coach, was fired at the end of that season.

Arian means “water bearer, holder of knowledge,” and he uses water as an analogy in his writing and in describing his running style. After he went undrafted, he was a river bound by a dam, going nowhere.

His then girlfriend, now wife, researched which teams he would have the best chance of making as a free agent. They settled on the Texans, which was convenient because they were interested in him, too. Slowly, his river of dreams broke through the dam and started to flow again. He made the Texans’ practice squad and before Week 11 of 2009 was called up primarily for special teams duties. He was the featured running back in the final two games and did well, though not so well anybody saw 2010 coming. Then again, nobody knew Foster would soon have a secret weapon in Houston.

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The secret weapon is Arian’s older brother, Abdul, who ran track at Florida A&M and was working as a trainer in Albuquerque. After the 2009 season, he moved to Houston to train Arian. He has watched every snap of every game Arian has ever played. He knows his brother’s game so well that he frequently sends messages to him at halftime with suggestions of what to do. “He’s always dead on,” Arian says.

Their mom, Bernadette Sizemore, tells such a story about the 2007 SEC championship game in which she, as the bearer of Abdul’s advice, lied to a security guard so she could get close enough to the field to talk to Arian. In an example from last season, Arian recalls when Abdul gave him a hand signal from his seat to check his phone for a text. (The message: Take your 5 yards. Stop trying to break a big one.)

And Christina talks about a brief halftime conversation between the two at the Tennessee-Arkansas game in 2007. In his second carry after the half, Arian scored on a 59-yard run.

“He always knows that Abdul is going to watch his back and Abdul is going to keep his best interest at heart,” says Carl Foster, their father. “There’s a comfort level that’s there that you can’t get from another guy that you’re just paying.”

That’s especially important for Arian because he takes nothing at face value. He questions everything.

Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-14/texans-rb-arian-foster-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-nfl#ixzz1S90Wv3rV


Read more: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-07-14/texans-rb-arian-foster-the-most-interesting-man-in-the-nfl#ixzz1S90NBwNY