Mighty Casey

Mighty Casey

By Bruce Wood

It was an early September morning and Casey Cramer was in his Toyota Corolla, the same one he had when he was setting receiving records at Dartmouth. The same one he parked in the players' lot for two years as a member of the NFL's Carolina Panthers.
Although teammates who drove Escalades and Hummers and Beemers always teased him about the car, Cramer's decision to stick with the Corolla had turned out to be a prudent one; he'd been waived by the Panthers in the final round of preseason cuts the day before.
Because his agent said nothing else was popping, Cramer was in the trusty Toyota on his way to the stadium to sign a contract with the team's practice squad after being let go when the phone suddenly rang.
“It was kind of crazy,” he said. “I was about half a mile from the stadium when I got a call saying, 'This is John from the Tennessee Titans.'
“I was wondering why he was calling me. He said, 'You probably already know, but we claimed you off waivers.' I didn't know.”
With that, Cramer said his goodbyes and thank yous to the coaches at Carolina — “You don't ever want to burn bridges,” he said — loaded up the Toyota and turned it toward Tennessee, where he'd been a member of the practice squad before signing with the Panthers.
“It was great how it went,” he said. “I knew how to get to Nashville. I knew the coaches. I knew some of the players. And I knew all the little things like what the normal practice schedule was like. What the stadium feels like. The locker room. The tempo of things. That's real comforting when you go into a new environment. I knew all the little things so I was able to get right to picking up the offense quickly.”
A fullback in Carolina, Cramer was signed by the Titans as a tight end/fullback/special teams jack-of-all-trades. “The more you can do, the longer you can last,” he said. “(Tennessee) brought me in as a tight end and I was playing third tight end in all the goal line situations. Our first game our fullback got hurt, so I played fullback for two games.”
Cramer caught his first pass as an NFL player against the Dolphins in Week Three of the season. The six-yard gain was good for a first down in the Titans' 13-10 loss.
“It was so exciting when they called that play,” he said. “I got tackled in the dirt in Miami and tore up my elbow and knee, and my elbow still hasn't healed. Every time I get it about closed, we have another game. It's a scar, but it's one I'm proud of. I was glad to be able to contribute; that's my main goal.”
Cramer's biggest contributions have come on special teams and none was bigger than his blocked punt for a safety in the third quarter of the Titans' first win of the season, 25-22, over the Washington Redskins.
For his blocked punt, three tackles and a fumble recovery against the Skins, Cramer was chosen the AFC Special Teams Player of the Week.
Ironically, the blocked punt came on a designed return.
“I was the only guy that was meant to go toward the ball,” Cramer explained. “It was a return for our punt return team and when nobody blocked me I started running toward the punter. All I thought was, 'Don't get a personal foul.' Because in my rookie year I got a personal foul in my second game for hitting the punter. That was my main thing. The next thing was to take the ball off the punter's foot. So I made sure I got low and got my hands on the ball.
“I felt that double thump and starting running after the ball. It was great. I was excited to be contributing. Who knows how this whole thing will go, but I was just happy to be a part of it for one game. It makes me want to do it again.”
Through his first seven games of the season, Cramer had eight tackles, three kick returns, two fumble recoveries and the blocked punt.
Among those who witnessed the punt block in person was former teammate Ryan Delaney '05. Other teammates and friends also have turned out to see him. “I saw Mario Avila '04, who was a defensive tackle for us, at one game,” Cramer said. “A few guys are going to the Eagles game. It's great to see Dartmouth football players I played with and guys who are part of the tradition of Dartmouth and Dartmouth football.”
That tradition is paying dividends for Cramer as he looks ahead to the day when his football career is over.
“Pete Agnes '99, Todd Spanish '99 and Bo Hinton '99, all guys that played, helped get me an internship with Wachovia,” he said. “So for about four months in the offseason I spent time on the training floor at Wachovia rotating through different groups and trying to find out if that's something I want to do. It's unbelievable how many Dartmouth people are out there and how willing they are to help someone else from Dartmouth.
“Like this weekend,” Cramer said a couple of weeks ago, “I'm going to have dinner with Michael Moore '72, the attorney general for Tennessee, and a couple other alums who helped arrange it. It's just great how wide the network of Dartmouth alums is and how willing they are to help each other.”
That's not to say Cramer is in any big hurry to put those

Dartmouth connections to work on a full time basis.
“I want to play football for as long as I can but I know that's not up to me,” he said. “It's up to them. So I'm just going to keep preparing and as long as I'm ready for it when football is all said and done, I'll be comfortable with it. You never know what's going to happen. I'm living a dream and I realize it every day, but I know you can have a few good games and the next thing you know you are on waivers.”
That's why he still drives the Corolla. And why he has invested his money in a house instead of throwing his money away on rent. It's why he sometimes thinks back to a lesson he learned not on the gridiron, but on the silver screen.
“There's a scene in the first Mighty Ducks where one guy says if the puck had been three inches to the right or something, he'd have been a star and the hockey instructor says if it had been three inches to the left he'd have been a fool.
“I guess,” Cramer added with a laugh, after thinking about what he'd just said, “as long as you can relate your life to the Mighty Ducks, you can keep everything in perspective. And you can quote me on that.”

A veteran writer and observer of Dartmouth athletics, Bruce Wood launched a web site last year, www.biggreenalert.com, specializing in Big Green football news coverage.

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