Knuckles Gives Thumbs Up To Game One

By Bruce Wood
www.biggreenalert.com

No complaints.

Oh sure, his knee had swelled up from a couple of direct hits by Hamilton Tiger-Cats helmets, but all in all, rookie Anthony Gargiulo '06 was feeling pretty good after his first game as a starting defensive end with the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League.

“Everything is going well,” he said after recording his first pro sack, making another tackle for a loss and recovering a fumble to set up a touchdown in the Stamps’ season-opening win. “I spent a lot of time training and working hard for this chance, and I'm fortunate it's worked out for me so far.”

Gargiulo hadn’t played in a regular-season football game since the Big Green fell to Princeton on Nov. 19, 2005. He played rugby in the spring of 2006 and then began training in earnest for a chance at pro football in the summer of 2006. “It’s been a long time coming,” he admitted Sunday night. “It’s great to be playing again.”

Not just playing, but playing on a defensive front that he feels has great promise after limiting the Ticats to three field goals in a 37-9 victory.

“Our defensive line did very well,” he said. “We gave up a lot of yards but we bowed up when we had to. We didn’t play our best football but I think we can be very, very good. We are light but very fast and that catches people off guard. You can watch people on film but you just don't know how fast they are until you actually play them.”

Gargiulo’s speed was on public display after Hamilton quarterback Jason Maas had a bad exchange and the ball came free.

“I was straight-up rushing on that play,” Gargiulo explained. “It was a three-step drop and because of that the tackle was set very shallow on me. The ball just popped out and because of the shallow pass set I ran around him and jumped on it. Just the right place at the right time.”

Ditto for his sack.

“I got upfield, made a move and spun back out of it,” Gargiulo said. “The quarterback was trying to scramble to get away from my up-and-under move and he scrambled right back into my arms when I spun out, and I got him down.”

Gargiulo got his first look at the sack Sunday during Sunday’s film review and he felt he graded out pretty well after his first pro game. “Higher than they expected for a rookie defensive end,” he said. “All of the mistakes I made were pretty small, but they are things I have to get fixed.”

With the first game in the books, Gargiulo’s next order of business this week: settling into a new apartment with teammate Gerald Commissiong, a fullback who ironically also played for Buddy Teevens, albeit at Stanford.

“Gerald happens to know a gentleman in the area who does a lot of real estate and likes the Stampeders,” Gargiulo said. “He helped out out with the apartment. It's two blocks from the main drag and has four bedrooms, three baths and 2,400 square feet. It's beautiful. It's out of our league, but we got lucky.”

One game into the season it looks as if the Stampeders did, too.

NOTES Gargiulo’s father, stepmother and grandfather were all at the game...He didn’t spot a Dartmouth presence but did the week before when a group of ‘08’s turned out with a sign. “I didn't even know them,” he said. “It was cool to have them show up at the game and have a little Dartmouth support.”...Some teammates have taken to calling the New Jersey product Tony Soprano, or Tony, something he didn’t often hear at Dartmouth...No one is calling him by his Dartmouth nickname, Knuckles. Not yet at least...Calgary plays at Saskatchewan Sunday.

GARGIULO ON THE, UM, RABBIT THAT DELAYED THE GAME: “These are not normal rabbits. They are like small dogs. They are enormous, and they are fast. It was funny. They'd be trying to chase that rabbit off the field and every time it would run into the end zone where we were trying to score people would go crazy, like it was forshadowing that we were going to score.”

ON BEING LISTED AT 235 POUNDS when he is over 250: “If it makes people underestimate me, that’s OK. It gives me an edge.”

ON CALGARY: “It’s a fantastic sports town. I've been really surprised. The people are unbelievably friendly. It's beautiful and clean. The air is so clean you can taste it.”