ATLANTA — Kennedy Urlacher remembers sitting in a luxury box inside Soldier Field. RJ Oben remembers visits to LaDanian Tomlinson’s house in San Diego. Jordan Clark remembers “everything.”
They are three of the seven members of Notre Dame’s roster linked by a unique bond: Each player’s father played in the NFL, achieving various degree of success but blazing a path for their sons to follow into Monday night’s College Football Playoff championship game against Ohio State.
Urlacher’s dad, Brian, was a Hall of Fame linebacker for the Chicago Bears. Oben’s dad, Roman, was an offensive tackle for four teams over a dozen seasons and now serves as the league’s vice president of football development. Clark’s father, Ryan, was a Super Bowl-winning safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers who has transitioned into an Emmy Award-winning broadcast career as an analyst for ESPN.
In the shadows of their fathers’ football careers, these seven members of the Fighting Irish have started to write their own biographies while heavily motivated by the sights, sounds and memorabilia that defined their shared upbringings.
“Seeing that at a young age, I definitely wanted to do it,” said Urlacher, a freshman safety.
Senior offensive lineman Rocco Spindler was born after his dad, Marc, ended his nine-year NFL career as a defensive lineman, and “was kind of living through memories,” he said.
“At times, it was tough because I wanted to be, you know, in those memories of it,” Spindler added. “But the history and his memories and what he accomplished, how people respected him when he’d come back to his hometown, that was something I kind of wanted to emulate and be a part of.”
Said Clark, a senior safety, “I’ve always wanted to be like my dad. He’s my hero.”
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To be born into this tradition comes with intense positives and advantages, providing the equivalent of a touchdown lead before kickoff — supplying a genetic edge, most importantly, as well as a GPS-like roadmap for success at football’s highest levels.
Without any prodding or urging for their sons to follow in their footsteps, these dads have taken a largely hands-off approach while serving as the ultimate inside-the-house resource.
Brian Urlacher was the “coach at the house,” his son said, and “one of the best coaches, obviously.” Clark’s dad helped establish “the foundation of everything,” he said.
Spindler and Oben have been able to tap into their fathers’ flipped experience. As an offensive lineman, Spindler has been informed by his dad’s understanding of the defensive side of the ball. Oben, a senior defensive end, has leaned on his father’s knowledge of different techniques as an offensive tackle.
“It’s safe to say that’s where my love for the game got started,” Spindler said.
This exclusive background has also informed these players’ mindsets, giving them a different point of view on the game’s inherent ups and downs and “more of a focus,” said running backs coach Deland McCullough
“They understand the big picture,” he said. “There’s no sense of entitlement. That’s the great thing. These guys know, ‘I’ve got to come in and work.’ Because they were brought up in a situation where the success of my family was based on hard work.
“There is a difference in the guys with that kind of background and that kind of family lineage and just the general guy who’s a really good player, who’s been kind of coddled all their life and never understood the fact you’ve got to work to really get what you want.”
The negative, if one exists, can be found in intense expectations. Imagine being Urlacher, compared from his first day in pads to one of the best players of his era. Or freshman defensive end Bryce Young, son of the great Notre Dame and NFL defensive tackle Bryant Young. Or senior defensive lineman Howard Cross III, whose dad won a Super Bowl with the New York Giants. For this group, forging their own paths in football has come amid sometimes overwhelming comparisons.
“Externally, I think people may tell you, ‘You should be this good, you should be that good,’ because of who your parents are, or whatever,” said Oben. “But internally, I think I’ve tried to maximize myself and get better every day.”
While Clark felt this pressure as he broke into the sport, he remembers his dad hammering home a key message as he evolved into a high-level college prospect.
“He was always so adamant about making sure that I knew that my journey was my journey,” he said. “That I didn’t have to do anything to be worthy of our last name or worthy of his love or his support. Him doing that and being so vocal about that to me kind of allowed me to develop a love for the game and to play it the right way.”
To a point, that Notre Dame has amassed an abnormally large collection of NFL sons is purely coincidental. Another three prospects with NFL bloodlines will join the program as true freshmen next season in Jerome Bettis Jr., son of the Hall of Fame running back; wide receiver Elijah Burress, whose dad, Plaxico, played the same position for 14 seasons; and tight end James Flanigan, whose father and grandfather played in the NFL.
But recruiting is a simple meritocracy: Good players have more opportunities as less-talented ones, regardless of your background. These current and future members of the Fighting Irish were recruited based on their talents, not their connections. Instead, that their fathers have NFL experience is “a plus, like a bonus,” McCullough said.
“The ceiling can be elevated, or is elevated, or potentially is elevated, based on what the background is,” he said. “Wow, this guy can be even that much better.”
Against this backdrop, these seven current players have embraced the attention that comes with their football-famous last names while making one clear distinction: This is my story.
“Yes, because that’s what everyone expects, to be good or to do what he does,” Urlacher said. “But no, because I don’t like putting the pressure on myself. I just do what I do.”