NFL’s Bruton tackles his toughest job: Teaching

MIAMISBURG — Some of the teaching questions he’s fielded have been a little more difficult to answer — things like explaining the binomial and trinomial theorems in algebra or the French Revolution and the March on Versailles in social studies — but this response came quickly and with utter certainty.

Which is more difficult, corralling somebody like Cleveland’s Josh Cribbs or San Diego’s Darren Sproles on a kick return or tackling a room full of Miamisburg second graders?

“Second graders,” David Bruton said with chuckle. “Definitely a room full of second graders. I’ve played football for numerous years, but this was my first time teaching and with them I was thrown right into the wild fire.”

Then again, the 6-foot-2, 225-pound back-up safety and special teams stalwart of the Denver Broncos didn’t have to worry about getting severely burned. Before they were done with him, the second graders had him dancing The Sprinkler.

They had him doing The Worm, too. And playing kickball at recess. And in the classroom, he was showing them how to estimate differences in math and teaching them about North and South America in social studies.

A former Miamisburg High and Notre Dame football star, Bruton is now in his second NFL season after coming to Denver as a fourth-round draft pick in 2009.

In the classroom though he’s still a rookie.

With the NFL lockout keeping players out of camp, Bruton has returned to Miamisburg to spend some time with his 5-year-old son Jaden and in the process try his hand as a substitute teacher.

He majored in political science and sociology at Notre Dame, but once he got back home late last February — at the prompting of his high school football coach Tim Lewis and some others — he applied for and finally got a one-year substitute teaching certificate from the Ohio Department of Education.

That meant he’s been able to field early morning phone calls seeking him to sub in the classrooms of little kids and high schoolers. His first assignment came May 12 to teach second grade.

Last week and again this week he took over high school classrooms.

The pay for a sub is $90 a day -— about what he’d get as a per diem meal allowance in the NFL — but Bruton is not doing this for the money.

As he worked his way through an omelet and hash browns at Bob Evans on Byers Road Thursday morning, Bruton said his classroom work was about keeping busy during the lockout and giving back a little to his community while also testing the waters on whether he might want to teach when he’s done playing football.

“I hope to play in the league six, seven, eight or more years, but the reality is that only the most fortunate last that long,” he said. “The average NFL career isn’t that long. It’s something like 3.2 years.”

Sitting there just inside the restaurant’s front door — with his braded hair, his bright blue Miamisburg Vikings t-shirt and that fill-the-room smile — he drew the attention of several people. Word has gotten around town that he’s working as a substitute teacher and it’s made him an even more embraceable hometown hero.

Lisa Morrison, the waitress, got his autograph. A man who runs a local fitness center in town invited him to come work out at his place. And then there was the older guy on a cane — a Cleveland Browns fan — who seemed especially pleased when Bruton told him his father was a Browns fan, too.

“Bless his heart,” the guy said. “And good luck to you. ... Do you like the teaching?”

Bruton, who is polite and accommodating with everyone, nodded, “Yeah I’m learning a lot.”

Later, when the guy left, Bruton was asked what he’s learned.

“Well, I learned never go into the classroom on an empty stomach,” he laughed. “I did that with the second graders and that’s the worst decision I ever made. I was sooo hungry. And when I’m hungry I get sleepy or cranky. But I had to put that aside. Those kids are full of energy non stop and you’ve got to be ready for them.”

His teaching look comes with eyeglasses, nice slacks and either a polo or a button-up shirt with a necktie. When he walked into the elementary school the first day, he said none of the kids had a clue who he was.

“But when we lined up outside, one of the triplets of my old defensive backs coach in high school recognized me and it just spread through school,” he said.

Kids wanted his autograph and eventually, he realized he could use that to his advantage: “I told them, ‘If you don’t behave, you wont get one.’”

He really won the kids over when he took part in their dance offs in the middle of the room. “Their (regular) teacher has this thing where they do a song and the kids get up and dance,” he said. “They got me doing all the dances.”

When he filled in at the high school level, he had to do a little more than bust a move. “Those guys know how to get behind a teacher, how to work you,” he said. “You’re the sub. You’re fresh meat.”

The lesson plans were more challenging, too, and he admits last-minute cramming and reviewing the subject matter on his iPad while they were taking quizzes.

And that brings up another thing he said he didn’t so much learn as have reinforced once again:

“I’ve always thought a full-time teacher should to be paid more. They go through a lot every day and they really do some valuable work. They are guiding our youth toward the future.”

And with him that isn’t just some well-worn pronouncement he’s mouthing. It means something because he has a child.

While Bruton’s permanent residence is in Denver, his former girlfriend is raising their son in Miamisburg.

That’s why he decided to come back here rather than stay out in Colorado and join informal workouts with his Bronco teammates. “I don’t get to spend that much time with my son so I wanted to be here with him,” he said.

“I do hope the lockout ends soon. I’ve been off way too long and I’m ready to get back to the work I do. But this trip home has been good for a lot of reasons. I do like teaching and I love being with Jaden.

“It’s been great to pick him up after school and to go to his T-ball games and stuff like that. And we have our own secret handshake we do before school and afterwards when he gets out.”

And it seems as if Jaden is getting something special out of this venture, too.

“The other day he even said he wants to be like me when he grows up,” Bruton said with a nod and a smile. “He wasn’t talking football. He was talking about me being a teacher.”

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