The University of Utah had eight sacks in its 31-17 win over Alabama in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. The fifth one that night in New Orleans did not make most fan-made highlight reels on YouTube. But it was the most compelling.
For three seconds, No. 56 took on three SEC offensive linemen on his own before making a last-ditch, right-handed arm tackle of the quarterback.
It was both the final official tackle of Greg Newman’s football career, and everything he represented every time he pressed his fingers into the turf.
The Utes went on to cap a historic 13-0 season, helping elevate the program and university to a power conference just 18 months later.
Greg, a former walk-on who was taller and much less hefty than prototypical defensive tackles, was essential to that season’s perfection, coaches and former teammates said. Earlier in the season, he snagged an interception in a win against Wyoming even after his helmet was dislodged. Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said Greg’s success was due to his “sheer hard work and determination.”
Many of Greg’s teammates on defense went on to make tens of millions of dollars in the NFL. A couple won Super Bowls. For most fans, the Sugar Bowl was the last time they heard about Greg — who, like the estimated 98 percent of all college football players who don’t go pro, would have to learn to live a life beyond game days.
Newman playing for Utah in the 2009 Sugar Bowl. (Courtesy of Ty Cobb)
The game that gave him everything he wanted early on would play a significant role in keeping him from fulfilling his other goals: to have a family of his own. To work on Wall Street. To dig his snowboard into the powdery mountains above Park City. To live what he would often describe as a normal life.
Football, where family members said Greg “found his place in the world,” was also the stage on which he suffered irreversible damage.
Greg became one of the several hundred former football players diagnosed with Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a degenerative brain disease caused by repetitive head trauma, for which football players are at a substantially higher risk.
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