NFL DRAFT: Steelers draft Iowa ILB Mike Humpal
April 27th, 2008 by Neal CoolongThe Steelers selected Iowa ILB Mike Humpal in the sixth round (189 overall) of the NFL draft.
Humpal was a second-team All Big10 selection in 2007, and will likely provide some depth behind former All Big 10 selection Larry Foote (Michigan), but play primarily on special teams.
This is a great selection for me, personally. I used to write for a newspaper in Iowa, and I covered Mike when he was a senior at New Hampton High School. He was a stud wrestler, too, and once, he pinned the Heavyweight of the high school I covered. He pinned a lot of people, but I think he was the only wrestler I ever saw pin a guy by sitting on his face.
No, I’m not making this up. Ass square on the kid’s face.
(EDIT: I’m getting conflicting reports from a New Hampton alumnus, who says it wasn’t Humpal. I admit it was about five years ago, and I was usually half asleep at wrestling meets. This says nothing of the fact it was a bad job and an even worse newspaper, so I could have mixed him with someone else. It definitely happened, though.)
As Humpal sat on the kid’s face, he pinned the kid’s shoulders under his knees, and patted the kid’s stomach like a bongo drum. He couldn’t move his arms to tap out or anything, so as he was getting a noseful of Humpal’s ass, he was humiliated even more by having his ample belly played like an instrument.
While I felt like throwing up, the crowd was throwing things at him, and booed mightily. Humpal was suspended for one match.
Small, small world…
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April 27th, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Loved the little known background information on Humpal. Who can’t use a guy who sits on peoples faces.
http://www.5goldenrings.net
April 28th, 2008 at 3:03 pm
Mike and I are the same age and grew up and competed together. Great athlete, as he was a 2X state wrestling champ , state runner up in 110m high hurdles, and an elite team (best players in state regardless of class) all state football player. And if he wouldn’t have spent his summers at football camps he would have been a hell of a pitcher. Very motivated and humble kid.
Anyway, the story you are referring to about the ass sitting on face was NOT Mike Humpal. He would never do that, Mike is not that type of guy. He is the definition of high character.
That is no slight to the kid who did the tummy drumming. I am good friends with the guy and it was hilarious. But as good of a wrestler as this particular dude was, he was not Mike Humpal. Just wanted to make sure everyone knew that.
As Lt. Col. Matthew Markinson says in “A Few Good Men,” I’m appalled…
I remember it well, and I could swear it was him. It was nothing against Mike either way, I can’t really hold such silliness against a 22-year-old who spent four years in the Big 10 without incident (that I know of).
But, whomever it was, if you happen to see him, tell him I was at Comet Gym that night, and I still tell that story.
April 28th, 2008 at 10:11 pm
[…] Hard Steel’s original post on Mike Humpal said that he was quite the barbarian…I like that story too, even if it’s […]