From Football to Full Brawl

[Judge Pen]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2005Feb24.html

[David Jamieson]

JP- you gotta register to read.

Can you just cut and paste the article here?

[Judge Pen]

Westbrook Returns As Cage Fight Star
By Leonard Shapiro
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 25, 2005; Page D03

Michael Westbrook says he never considered himself a football player, even if the Washington Redskins used the fourth overall selection in the 1995 college draft on him. "I just happened to be an athlete who liked playing football," he said in a recent interview.
But almost 10 years later, Westbrook's immediate athletic future will unfold tonight in Cleveland, where he will participate in a mixed martial arts fight against former New York Giants fullback Jarrod Bunch, to be contested in a 25-foot octagon surrounded by a six-foot-high steel fence in a King of the Cage competition.
These cage matches, once described as "human ****fighting" by Arizona Sen. John McCain, have become better regulated since they began increasing in popularity in the early 1990s with tough man competitions. Although the legitimacy of their outcomes continues to be a matter of debate, there are rounds and judges, no head-butting, hair-pulling, groin- or spine-kicking, and the participants wear four-ounce gloves. If a fighter finds himself in a hold that puts him in a position that could result in serious injury, he can "tap out," or give up on his own.
On March 6, the Westbrook-Bunch match and several other bouts on the 14-match Cleveland card will be carried on pay-per-view television. The promoter, Terry Trebil****, said he believes as many as 50,000 people will pay $29.95 to watch the replay. Westbrook, 32, has been guaranteed about $100,000, Trebil**** said, and will receive a cut of the pay-TV proceeds that could bring him between $500,000 and $1 million.
"We usually get about 20,000 [buys] for these promotions," he said, "but because of Westbrook's image we're getting a lot of publicity. He's done a ton of talk shows, and any time he goes on, all anyone wants to talk about is the fight with Stephen Davis."
Redskins fans remember it better than most. It happened during training camp, on Aug. 19, 1997. Westbrook began slugging his teammate while both were on the sideline watching practice. Westbrook said Davis used a derogatory, ****phobic term that triggered an ugly incident caught on tape by a local television station. He was fined $50,000 and suspended for a game.
Though Westbrook said he and Davis reconciled and became friends, Redskins fans were not that forgiving, especially when Westbrook never really became the game-breaking wide receiver the team expected when they drafted him. His seven-season stay in Washington was marred by a variety of injuries, a lack of productivity and long stretches when he feuded with the media.
"If that incident had never happened, I really believe that 95 percent of the bad stuff that happened to me in Washington never would have happened either," Westbrook said. "It all stemmed from that. You wish it could have been different, that maybe I should have handled things better, but that didn't happen, and you learn from it and try to go on."
When Steve Spurrier arrived, he allowed Westbrook to leave via free agency before the 2002 season. Westbrook spent part of that year in Cincinnati, where he said a dispute with a Bengals assistant kept him on the bench and further soured him on the sport. When he was cut late in the season, he said he had no desire to play football again.
"I was done with it," he said. "I was tired of the politics, tired of the media, tired of everything. It was a joke. All I ever wanted to do was to play football, but it never happened."
Westbrook went back to his native Detroit and opened a recording studio. He always had been interested in martial arts and began seriously training in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, entering and winning several major competitions. Westbrook started attending King of the Cage competitions about two years ago and was introduced to Trebil****, a Detroit native who operates his business out of Los Angeles. Westbrook has been preparing for this bout in the Phoenix suburbs, where he owns a home.
"I've been doing a lot of this stuff for free," Westbrook said, "so now they're going to pay me to do it. So why not?"