Here’s what you already know about Tony Mandarich
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(you can skip the rehash and go straight to the babes in bikinis. Not. Kidding. Warning: May not be safe for work.)
Mandarich played his college football in the Big Ten, as an Offensive Lineman with the Michigan State Spartans. Because there was no category for the dominating blocks Tony would get on Defensive Lineman in college, his coaches coined the phrase ‘pancak’ to describe how by the end of a play Mandarich would often end up having knocked down and flattened the opposing rusher. It was not uncommon for the defensive lineman Mandarich was locked up with to be removed from the game film frame, having been pushed 15 or more yards away from the play.
It was this type of college domination that led to him being featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated (The Incredible Bulk), with inside fluff pieces that included things like his diet of something like 2 dozen eggs a day, 2 steaks and other insane amounts of food. Essentially Mandarich was eating a small farm’s output every day. His on field punishment and off-field notoriety saw him as a top prospect for the 1989 NFL draft. At the time you could hardly disagree: Mandarich was named a first-team All-American, an Outland Award finalist and was twice a Big Ten Lineman of the Year, not to mention a Heisman trophy finalist.
Even with the scent of spectacular failure of another high-draft ‘non-skill’ player Brian Bosworth fresh in the noses of football heads everywhere (who was, like Mandarich, rumored to have taken steroids. Well, with Bosworth, it wasn’t really a rumor), Mandarich was chosen second in the 1989 draft, ahead of Deion Sanders and Derrick Thomas, as well as Heisman winner and Hall of Famer Barry Sanders.
Within just a few years, Mandarich again appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated, the SI jinx having taken hold of Tony’s career and dismembered it (Incredible Bust). After only 3 years of a 4 year contract with the Green Bay Packers, the Packers cut Mandarich, citing a failure to live up to expectations.
Mandarich owned it (which it seems all good Canadians do, and is one of several reasons why I like Canadians), telling the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel in a 2003 article: “I wanted to create as much hype as I could for many different reasons: exposure, negotiation leverage, you name it. And it all worked, except the performance wasn’t there when it was time to play football.”
Four years later he found a role to fill with the Indianapolis Colts, where he played for a few years until he retired in 1998.
Where is Tony Mandarich Now?
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He got married in 2004 to a former model named Char. Total MILF.
Through parts of 2004 and 2005 Mandarich worked as an NFL analyst for a Canadian sports network, but lost that job.
He co-owns a golf course and has recently opened photography studios in both Arizona and Toronto. And this my friends is where things get interesting.
It appears Mandarich learned quite a bit in his time before and during his NFL career about manipulating the media to achieve a specific goal. I mean that in a good way (don’t get pissed, Tony). He seems to have applied that knowledge to his newest endeavor, his photography studios in the US and Canada. An article recently appeared in the Post-Crescent, as well as on the sports blog Deadspin and a bunch of other places, all in the last week or so, using a lot of identical copy - Mandarich appears to have been sending out pressers to anyone who’ll read them. There are also links to and from his business sites (and MySpace accounts and blogs and videos), showing he’s updated his media-savvy skillset to include pimping his wares on the web.
And what a life the guy has led. Sure, I wouldn’t be too happy about having to spend a life where every newspaper or magazine article with my name in it would forever include the word “bust” (unless people were carving my likeness into stone or if I had a nice big rack), but the guy got a free college education. I had to deliver effing pizzas to pay my tuition. After college he got paid millions for playing a game. He’s got a MILF for a wife, and it appears that he now is earning a living playing on his own golf course and taking pictures of 20-something nearly naked bikini models. WHILE. HIS. WIFE. TOTES. THE. CAMERA. BAG.
If I spent a week thinking about how I would have preferred my life to come out, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t top play pro football for millions then retire to spend my days playing golf and photographing nearly nude models.
Freakin’ Larry Flint didn’t have it that good.
But in all honesty, Tony, about the photography gig; If you gave me some Playboy-quality models, a polaroid camera and just enough material to cover their nipples and shaved meat wallets, I’m pretty sure I could open a successful photography studio, too.
Because the Mandarich bikini model images are plastered all over the web, I am making the bold presumption that he’d like the additional exposure these photos (with links, of course) would generate. If this is not the case, please have an authorized rep contact me and I’ll remove these pictures and replace them with other lovelies from some other photographer and give them the credit.
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