Only a man who knows what it is like to be defeated can reach down to the bottom of his soul and come up with the extra ounce of power it takes to win when the match is even.
- Muhammad Ali
Carolina Panthers running back Brandon Wegher is all business. That'd probably be the case for most NFLers readying to take part in the biggest spectacle their sport, maybe the entire sporting world, has to offer, but for Wegher it is an approach born out of necessity. Really, when you're an undrafted free agent rookie who spent time with four collegiate programs and dealt with a bevy of questions regarding your off-the-field focus before landing, ultimately and unexpectedly, with a Super Bowl squad, you don't have much choice but to be no-nonsense.
It's succeed or fade away. Win or kiss that NFL paycheck, those roaring fans, that shaking, shuddering stadium, goodbye.
For Wegher, his business is football. It's blocking, running, receiving. It's special teams. And it's helping the Panthers come out on top in Super Bowl 50, even if his contributions to that winning cause won't come on the field against the Denver Broncos at Levi's Stadium on Feb. 7.
"Man, to be part of a Super Bowl team my first season as a rookie and being undrafted, a guy that many people didn't expect to make it - it's just a blessing," Wegher told Headlines & Global News as he prepped for his flight to California late last week.
"There's no other word to describe it - a blessing. An electric feeling."
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Wegher will watch from the sidelines on Sunday night as his brothers in white, silver, black and blue take the field against Manning and the Broncos. He'll watch as many of the guys he owes much of his success to - "in our running back room it's just a bunch of guys with a lot of talent and a lot of big aspirations to win, just great, great people to be around," he said - do their best to bring home a Lombardi trophy.
But Wegher won't be content to watch for long.
He wants to be the one leading the charge onto the field, wants to be banging with the big bodies in the trenches, dragging defenders and breaking ankles.
Wegher's no-nonsense attitude didn't just develop overnight, wasn't just the product of his inherent nature - not entirely at least. No, Wegher's long and winding football road came as a result of issues, both legal and academic, that ultimately ended his time at Iowa and landed him, first at Oklahoma, then Iowa Western Community College and finally at Morningside.
But it was the NFL. All along, for Wegher, even as he fought for NCAA eligibility, went to work for his dad, broke NAIA records and made quiet promises of better days to his young son, it was the NFL.
And now, it's Super Bowl 50.
Next year? Well, it'll come. And so will the season after that. And when it does, Wegher will be ready.
For now though, it's just beating the Broncos, just business as usual.
