Siragusa waxes philosophical on Tebow, retirement, Ravens

LYNN – On the surface, it would appear as if Tony Siragusa has had a fulfilling retirement after his career in the National Football League.Siragusa, now 46, can be seen laughing it up on the sidelines as a FOX in-game reporter. He had a recurring role in “The Sopranos.” And he’s just written a book called, “Goose: The Outrageous Life and Times of a Football Guy.”Yet even though he’s been out of the game 11 years, he’s still conditioned to react like a football player.”Even if I’m on the sidelines, I hear the National Anthem before a game and my spine starts to tingle,” Siragusa said Friday while autographing copies of his book at the Italian-American Club on Harbor Street.”When you play football, especially if you’ve played in the NFL, you’ve been doing it a long time, and that’s all you do,” said Siragusa. “All of a sudden, you’re retired, and it takes a long time to get used to the fact that you have to find other things to do.”And even though Siragusa seems to have found plenty of things to do, “I’m out 11 years and there are still times when I react to things like I’m a football player. It’s like a racehorse. You train that horse to run, so that if he hears a whip or a crack, he’s off.”The subject of retirement, and adjusting, came up out of a discussion about concussions in the NFL (“I’ve had six,” he says) and whether he thought their long-term effects led to the suicides of, among others, Junior Seau.”Junior ? I don’t know,” he said. “There’s really no way of knowing what went into all that. He played a long time, and – like I said – it can sometimes be very difficult to adjust when all of a sudden you’re not playing anymore.”As a former defensive lineman, Siragusa has mixed feelings about the rules that, as he sees it, puts the quarterback in too much of a glass cage.”I don’t like some of the new rules,” he said. “Look, I’m all for safety. But some of these rules go too far. We’ve reached the point now where there’s no one like ‘Hacksaw’ Reynolds playing anymore. And can you imagine if Ronnie Lott played today?”We don’t have guys with nicknames like ‘Hacksaw’ anymore. Now it might as well be ‘Joe Tinkletoes’.”On other matters, Siragusa said he was excited that the Ravens won the Super Bowl last February.”I bleed purple,” he said. “Ray Lewis is a great friend of mine, and he was the only one left on the team that I was on when we won (in 2001).”Finally ? Tim Tebow.”Bill Belichick ? let’s just say I couldn’t play for him. He’s too much of a control guy and that’s not me. I like things a lot looser.”But he’s a genius,” said Siragusa, “and he’s bringing Tebow here, he’s got a reason, and he’s got a plan for him. He’s not gonna tell you, and his press conference must have been a riot.”But he’s a good athlete,” said Siragusa, “and if he’s out there, with the different skills he has, you’re going to have to game plan for him, and take away from what you do with some of the other guys on the field. I think he can help them.”Steve Krause can be reached at [email protected].