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Thursday, September 02, 2010
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| | Email this article • Print this article | VanDeSteeg signs new deal with Ravens
A Column
by Lee Ostrom
Willie VanDeSteeg, a sack machine on Glencoe-Silver Lake's 2003 state football champions, and later the Minnesota Gophers' all-time leader with 44.5 TFLs (tackles for loss), has signed a new contract with the NFL Baltimore Ravens.
VanDeSteeg, you may recall, signed with the Ravens as an undrafted (rookie) free agent last May. A 6-4, 256-pound defensive end/outside linebacker, he was a member of Baltimore's practice squad throughout the 2009 season, and he traveled to all but one of the Ravens' games.
Indeed, he studied the film, filled out the tests and did all the physical preparations, too.
"I did everything but play in the games," VanDeSteeg told me during a telephone interview March 5.
He thinks that may change this year; possibly with him, first of all, earning playing time on special teams. His optimism is fueled by the new contract. A player can only be on the practice squad two years, he said, and each club has only so many roster spots available.
It appears that there is something the Ravens like about what they see in Willie VanDeSteeg, who is mindful that "NFL stands for Not For Long."
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- After being home (in Silver Lake and the University of Minnesota weight room) the past few weeks, VanDeSteeg plans to head out March 11 on a 20-hour drive back to work in Baltimore.
- During the 2009 season, VanDeSteeg struck up a friendship with Paul Kruger, the standout defensive end on that unbeaten Utah team which belted Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The two shared a "little condo" in season; then this past year, VanDeSteeg and old GSL pal Chad Hoese accepted Kruger's invitation to join him at his mountain cabin near Salt Lake City for a week of snowmobile adventures.
VanDeSteeg also spent a week in Houston recently, visiting old Gophers teammate Dom Barber, now a member of the NFL Texans.
- VanDeSteeg said he has learned a lot from the Ravens veterans, particularly with the amount of film they watch; far more, he said, than college players are allowed to watch.
"I didn't realize how in depth these guys study," he said.
All in all, VanDeSteeg said he is having a great time trying to learn the Ravens' system.
"I'm figuring it out," he said.
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Read about Ben Slater, Iditarod musher Paul Gebhardt and more in the remainder of the column, printed in The Chronicle's March 10, 2010, edition.
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