“Phenomenal” and “amazing”.
The words of 25-year-old Ramon Harewood, the Barbadian who shocked the world of American football on a recent Monday night when he started on the offensive line of the Baltimore Ravens and helped the team defeat the Cincinnati Bengals in their opening games of the 2012 regular season.
Harewood, a giant of a player at 6ft. 6ins. tall and 340 pounds, started at guard on the Ravens’ offensive line, a surprise to the 70 000 fans in the stands who watched the National Football League game and the millions who viewed it on national and international television.
Before he ran through the tunnel with its smoke, music and introductions, fans had hardly heard about him.
Afterwards, the verdict from the sports writers and some of Harewood’s teammates was straightforward enough: he played exceptionally well.
“We thought highly of Ramon,” said Jim Harbaugh, Ravens’ coach, after the team’s victory. “We just thought he looked like a player. He’s a big guy with long arms who can bend and get leverage on defensive tackles and he’s done a good job with it.”
The Baltimore Sun, Maryland’s best known newspaper with a national reputation, summed up the Bajan’s performance in a positive way: “left guard Ramon Harewood and rookie right tackle Kalechi Osmele never left the field and held up solidly in starting debuts.”
WJZ, the CBS television affiliate in Baltimore, was even more effusive in its praise of the Bajan.
“The Ravens shocked everyone when they decided to start Ramon Harewood,” it said. “Fans haven’t seen much of the third year player due to injuries throughout his career, but he played exceptionally well against Cincinnati.”
Not bad for a professional who never played American football before he entered Morehouse College in Atlanta after leaving Queen’s College and Barbados. Actually, he was spotted in Barbados where he played rugby, volleyball and cricket and a Morehouse College football coach who was in the country for a college fair encouraged him to give up his dream of going to the University of the West Indies to study engineering and switch to the historically Black school.
Morehouse, the alma mater of the Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr, is best-known across the United States for the academic performance of its students.
And how did Harewood, the first Barbadian-born player to compete in the NFL, assess his debut on Monday Night football, America’s most watched sport show on television?
“I felt I could not make a mistake (out there on the field),” he told reporters. “That’s how I felt coming out of the tunnel. Obviously, when your team and your offence are clicking it is always going to be a good thing, especially early in the season.”
Harewood attributed the team’s victory to preparation for the game.
“Preparation was phenomenal,” he declared.
The media headlines – newspaper, television and internet – told much of the phenomenal story.
“From Barbados to Baltimore,” stated the Baltimore Sun.
CBS put it differently: “Ramon Harewood Makes an Unlikely Journey from Barbados to the NFL.”
His presence on the field as a starter is like a fairy tale.
“I didn’t know too much about football,” he once told CNN. “I played volleyball for my country. I play rugby for my country and track and field.”
That explains why he had to be taught everything.
“He had to pretty much learn everything,” recalled Brian Braswell, the offensive line coach at Morehouse. “I mean everything. We had to start with the rules of the game. Then stretching, how to put on pads, fundamentals, things like that. But he’s a smart kid, once you tell him something once, he gets it.”
Rich Freedom, Morehouse’s football coach, agreed. He said that he took one look at the Barbadian and said “this guy can play in the NFL”.
Although he played Division II football, the Ravens were so impressed with him that they drafted him in the sixth round in 2010, Unfortunately, though, his career got off to rocky start when he had to undergo surgery to both knees in his first year in the NFL and an ankle operation last year.
The upshot for the first two years he never played a regular season game and to make the 53-member squad, Harewood showed class and effectiveness.
Through it all, he remained convinced he could play at the highest level of the sport and he credits his upbringing in Barbados for his determination.
“I was raised in my heritage to never say never, just keep fighting, and that’s all I did,” he explained recently. “It’s not in my mentality to (quit). My mom died when I was ten and she would always tell me ‘never let anyone tell you what you can and cannot do’.”
Freeman, his coach at Morehouse, said essentially the same thing.
“He has unspeakable drive. He is such a quiet person that you may not know it, but you will ultimately see the results from it,” Freedom said.
The Baltimore Ravens is a top contender for the NFL championship, the Superbowl.
