The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Springboro’s Ballard ready for more 'Giant' heroics

At Ohio State, Ballard had 34 catches for 377 yards and three touchdowns, but after his sophomore season he mostly was a blocking tight end in the system run by quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

Kiichiro Sato/AP Photo At Ohio State, Ballard had 34 catches for 377 yards and three touchdowns, but after his sophomore season he mostly was a blocking tight end in the system run by quarterback Terrelle Pryor.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Jake Ballard has gone from Springboro Pee Wee football to now playing in the Super Bowl for the New York Giants. This fourth-grade photo of Jake is found in a scrapbook his mother Debby has kept over the years.

Chris Stewart/Dayton Daily News Staff Photogra Jake Ballard has gone from Springboro Pee Wee football to now playing in the Super Bowl for the New York Giants. This fourth-grade photo of Jake is found in a scrapbook his mother Debby has kept over the years.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Jake Ballard has gone from Springboro Pee Wee football to now playing in the Super Bowl for the New York Giants. This fourth-grade photo is found in a scrapbook his mother Debby has kept over the years.

Ron Alvey Jake Ballard has gone from Springboro Pee Wee football to now playing in the Super Bowl for the New York Giants. This fourth-grade photo is found in a scrapbook his mother Debby has kept over the years.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Super Bowl XLVI complete coverage At whiotv.com

High school sports results for May 26
5/26/12
Reds' six-game winning streak broken
5/26/12
Annual Warrior Soccer Classic kicks off today
5/26/12
Dragons' rally falls short against Lansing
5/26/12
WSU baseball ousted from tournament
5/26/12
> More sports headlines

By Tom Archdeacon, Staff Writer Updated 11:10 PM Saturday, February 4, 2012

INDIANAPOLIS — When it comes to Jake Ballard, beauty most definitely is in the eye of the beholder.

Folks in Springboro view their favorite son — the 6-foot-6, 275-pound starting tight end of the New York Giants — a lot differently than do people in Boston.

“They made up special shirts here — they’re blue with red lettering and white trim — and they say ‘Boro’s Own Giant’ on the front and have No. 85 and BALLARD on the back,” said Ben Ballard, Jake’s dad.

“They had them at the high school and the Image Market right off Main Street, and the other day they’d already sold over 1,000 of them.

“It’s kinda neat, and I bet a lot of folks will be wearing them on Super Bowl Sunday.”

Today, Ballard and the Giants meet the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLVI at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis.

Although the Pats are slightly favored, the Giants — thanks in a big way to the late-game heroics of Ballard — did edge New England 24-20 on Nov. 6 in Foxborough.

Ballard had four catches for 67 yards in that game, including two memorable receptions on the winning drive.

First, he made a leaping 28-yard catch on a desperation, third-down pass by Eli Manning. Then, with 15 seconds left, he caught the 1-yard game-winning touchdown.

It was that performance that prompted a humorous, back-and-forth tweaking between Ballard and a Boston TV crew on the Super Bowl field last Tuesday during Media Day.

“We’re from Boston and we like to have our villains,” the guy with the microphone said with feigned indignation. “You realize you very quickly could become Public Enemy No. 1 in our town after what you pulled in Week 9.”

Seeing Ballard start to grin, the guy snapped: “Wipe that smile off your face as you think back on it.”

Unable to completely ditch his delight, Ballard just nodded: “Yeah, a lot of people remind me of that. A lot say stuff on Twitter. They call me a Patriots Killer. But I don’t listen to it too much. I just got lucky a couple of times.”

The Boston guy wasn’t buying the bit about luck: “We don’t need it to happen twice. You’re not going to pull any of that crap on Sunday again are you?”

“I can’t promise that. We’ll just have to see what happens,” Ballard said.

“You can promise it — you can promise it right now,” the guy said.

When Ballard just beamed, the guy gave one final tongue-in-cheek volley: “I hope you take this in the spirit it is intended. I wish you nothing but the worst on Sunday.”

To that Ballard deadpanned: “I would say I appreciate it ... but I really don’t.”

When the TV crew finally tromped off, Ballard said quietly: “It’s cool to be thought of as a threat.”

And today that’s what Ballard will be, said Giants head coach Tom Coughlin: “He’ll have a huge impact on the game.”

New England almost certainly will concentrate on the Giants’ trio of talented wide receivers — Victor Cruz, Hakeem Nicks and Mario Manningham — and that could make Ballard an enticing target for Manning.

“Our tight ends are not going to get double teamed,” said Giants offensive coordinator Kevin Gilbride. “If they can beat a linebacker, in most cases they’ll have chances to catch the ball and make some big plays.”

Ballard did just that this year until he partially tore the posterior cruciate ligament in his right knee against Washington on Dec. 18 and missed the final two regular-season games.

Up to then he had 38 catches for 604 yards and four touchdowns. Ironically, in his entire four-year career at Ohio State he had just 34 receptions for 377 yards and three scores — all of the touchdowns coming by his sophomore year.

“Yeah, back then that was a little frustrating,” he admitted. “There just weren’t enough footballs to go around.”

A talented family

Ballard was blessed with athletic genes from both his parents.

His dad played college football at Xavier before embarking of a 32-year career as a prep football coach throughout southwest Ohio and including head coaching stints at Fenwick and Waynesville, and 10 years as an assistant at Springboro.

Ballard’s mom, Debby — now a surgical nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital — was such a stellar basketball player at Springboro that she’s in the school’s athletic hall of fame. So is her dad, Gil Burson, one of the school’s all-time hoops hotshots.

Jake’s sister Becky — who played basketball at Franklin College — is in the hall of fame, too. So is Jake.

And Josh Ballard, Jake’s twin brother who happens to be four inches and 45 pounds smaller, was a standout linebacker at Morehead State University. More beefcake than just beef, he has done some modeling and now works in the Miami Valley as a medical sales rep.

When Jake went to OSU, he did get several balls thrown to him his first two seasons, but then — with the emergence of scrambling quarterback Terrelle Pryor — saw his role turned almost solely into a blocking tight end.

“Every offseason it would be the same. The coaches would say, ‘We’re going to focus on getting you the ball and getting you involved,’ but then it never happened,” Ballard said. “But like I’ve said before, we won a lot of games when I was there, so I wouldn’t change a thing.”

1 | 2 next page »

Share this article