Tom Nutten

Tom Nütten (pronounced [ˈnʏtən] is a former American football guard who played eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) with the St. Louis Rams. He was raised in Oelde, Germany and played high school football in Magog, Quebec and at Bishop’s College School in Lennoxville, Quebec. He played college football at Champlain Lennoxville – Prep School located on the Bishop’s University campus, also in Lennoxville, and at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo, Michigan.

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Tom Nutten: From Waldo Stadium to Super Bowl champion

Wes Morgan | Kalamazoo Gazette By Wes Morgan

http://www.mlive.com/broncos/index.ssf/2009/10/tom_nutten_from_waldo_stadium.html

Tom Nutten started for three seasons at Western Michigan University before going on to play in two Super Bowls with the St. Louis Rams.

KALAMAZOO — Tom Nutten thought he had reached his football pinnacle when Western Michigan University offered him a scholarship.

Not even close.

The three-year starting lineman for the Broncos (1991-94), who matriculated to Kalamazoo from Germany and Canada, would eventually reach rarefied air that few professional athletes ever experience after his days at Waldo Stadium were done.

“It was never a thought in my head (of one day playing in the National Football League),” said Nutten, who was born in Toledo, Ohio, moved to Germany as an infant, and later migrated to Canada when he was 16 years old. “Just getting to Western was a huge success for me. I was on cloud nine then, and thought I had made it to the top.”

By the end of the decade, the former Broncos offensive lineman would slip on a Super Bowl ring as a member of the St. Louis Rams, just one reason the 38-year-old is being inducted Friday into the WMU Athletic Hall of Fame.

The Buffalo Bills selected Nutten, who now lives in Florida with his wife and two children and does occasional NFL commentary for German radio, in the seventh round (221st overall) in the 1995 NFL Draft.

Draft day was an agonizing process, he recalled.
tom.jpgTom Nutten“I have a lot of fond memories from Kalamazoo,” he said. “But that day … I just remember feeling lost. I remember sitting in my small apartment and I only got ESPN and I didn’t have a cell phone. My dad got ESPN2 (in Quebec), where they showed the whole draft. I didn’t want to be on my land line because I didn’t have call waiting.

“I had to borrow a cell phone from a friend so my dad could always fill me. It was a nightmare, it really was. Until I got a phone call directly from coach (Marv) Levy from Buffalo congratulating me on being drafted.”

Nutten walked into Rich Stadium at the start of camp at a loss for words as guys like Jim Kelly, Thurman Thomas and Bruce Smith passed by him.

“‘I remember thinking, ‘What am I doing here?’ To me it was like a mirage.”

His pro career nearly disappeared just as quickly.

Buffalo released Nutten before the season and he spent the next seven months in Canada before signing with Denver, which let him go four days before camp started in 1997.

“I was pretty close to hanging up the cleats because the pressure wasn’t fun,” said Nutten, who would play a year in the Canadian Football League with Hamilton, then in NFL Europe before St. Louis invited him to camp in 1998.

After playing two full seasons back to back, Nutten made it to the Gateway City battered and exhausted.

“I was stretching in the end zone (during a preseason game),” he said. “My line coach walks up to me and said, ‘Tommy, can you go?’ I said, ‘It depends if you really need me. He said, ‘Listen, we need you for the season.’

“I was like, ‘Hang on a second, they need me for the season?’”

St. Louis finished a miserable 4-12 in 1998 but advanced to Super Bowl XXXIV a year later — a legendary 23-16 win over Tennessee when Titans receiver Kevin Dyson was tackled a yard short of the end zone as time expired.

Quarterback Kurt Warner and tailback Marshall Faulk led St. Louis to the title, with a lot of help from Nutten and the offensive line.

The Rams returned to the title game again in 2002, losing to New England. Nutten retired as a Ram in 2005 after starting 69 games.

“It was magical,” Nutten said. “I worked so hard to tune everything out. Now that I’m done, I’m trying to let people get to know me first, who I am rather than what I’ve done. But it’s pretty special. It’s really special.”