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Gabe Carimi doesn't always blow his own horn
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Gabe Carimi doesn't always blow his own horn
In fact, those who know Bears top draft pick best believe one of his best qualities is humility
By Dan Pompei and Chris Hine, Tribune reporters 9:28 p.m. CDT, April 30, 2011
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Too cocky.
Rubs you the wrong way.
A little defensive.
Good, but not as good as he thinks he is.
A pain in the can.
These are some of the things draft analysts and scouts were saying about Gabe Carimi in the weeks leading up to the NFL draft.
It seems much of the perception stemmed from how boldly Carimi spoke of himself in interviews with NFL teams and the media.
"I'm physically stronger and have more career starts and better knowledge of the game than any other tackle out there," he said at the combine. "That's why I'm the No. 1 tackle out there."
Two months later, he says, "What was I going to say, I don't think I'm the best tackle? I'm going to be the fifth-best tackle?"
The NFL draft told him he was the fifth-best prospect. That is good enough for the Bears, who gladly selected Carimi with their first-round pick at No. 29.
The hope is that he will step into the starting lineup at right tackle and man the position for the next dozen years or so. Carimi might tell you he plans on playing in a string of Pro Bowls and being fitted for a Super Bowl ring on every finger too.
It's true he doesn't lack for confidence, and he will answer your questions honestly. But his actions say a lot more than his words ever could.
His coach at Monona Grove (Wis.) High School, Mike Stassi, remembers a third-round playoff game during Carimi's junior year.
"We were playing him both ways as a D-end and (offensive tackle) and he was sick going into the game, had a bit of the flu," Stassi said. "But he's just getting in a three-point stance … unloading some puke as he didn't want to come out of the game. He just kept playing … he was puking his guts out at the line of scrimmage."
A physical behemoth who measured in as the second-tallest player at the Senior Bowl at 6-foot-7.1 and had the second-longest arms at 35 2/5 inches, Carimi is a lunch pail kind of player.
He is known most for his ability to generate brute force, but Carimi also has decent quickness, coordination and balance. Some of that might be attributable to his years studying karate. Though he hasn't practiced it since 8th grade, he is a second degree black belt.
"He's determined, smart and tough," said Bears offensive line coach Mike Tice, whose son Nate was a teammate of Carimi's at Wisconsin and whose wife, Diane, often tailgated with Carimi's family at Camp Randall Stadium. "He plays hard. He plays with passion."
He reminds Bears Midwest scout Jeff Shiver, who has been with the team for 24 years, of former Bears right tackle Keith Van Horne, a big, tough enforcer for the Super Bowl XX champions.
"He's a team guy," Shiver said. "He'll hold the dummies and he'll carry the pads. And he'll have no problems doing it. It's a legitimate part of his makeup. He has a humble spirit to him."
As dedicated as Carimi is on the field, he also is dedicated in his preparation. Stassi said Carimi's work ethic is a "10" and calls him a "weight room junkie."
The fact Carimi was named a co-captain of the Badgers tells you how coaches and teammates regard him.
His nickname is "The Jewish Hammer," which plays on both his ancestry and his ability to pound opponents. His father, Sanford, is Jewish. His mother, Alayne, is a Jewish convert from Catholicism. Carimi's Italian surname comes from his dad's stepfather.
Carimi's religion is important to him. Before a game against Iowa two years ago, he fasted for 24 hours because of Yom Kippur.
For his bar mitzvah community service project, he spent about five months building a house for Habitat for Humanity. He continued to study his faith after he had met all its requirements.
The Jewish Hammer was perfect for construction because he loves woodworking. In fact, he has built some of his family's furniture, including a bed, an end table, cabinets and a buffet table, which his father says are high-end pieces with bevels, curves and grooves. Building has been a hobby for Carimi since his Lego days.
He was a mechanical engineering major at Wisconsin who posted a 3.0 grade-point average and was All-Academic Big Ten. About what you would figure from someone whose father is an internist and lipidologist.
From 1987 until 1991, Sanford Carimi was stationed at Naval Station Great Lakes, living on the base and serving most of that time heading up the base's department of medicine. In 1988, Gabe was born in Lake Forest.
The family moved to Madison, Wis., and then nearby Cottage Grove as Sanford practiced medicine in Janesville.
That house in Cottage Grove is where Gabe still spends a lot of time. He lived on campus with his sister Hannah, who competed in crew at Wisconsin, and one of his teammates. But when teammates were hanging out and partying on the weekends, Carimi often could be found at the family home.
That is where Gabe and 100 or so of his closest friends watched the draft and learned he would be a Bear. Draped across the garage of that house is a banner that reads, "Congratulations, Gabe Carimi." In the yard is a lit-up cutout of Bucky Badger and a goal post wrapped in decorative lights.
Among those in attendance was Sassi, who often competed against Carimi playing Stratego and partnered with him in croquet.
"Gabe and I are usually the champions," Sassi said. "He's one heck of a croquet player too."
Also at the party were the Schommers, who live down the street. They tell the story of how Carimi once shoveled for them after a snowstorm when they were on vacation and grandma was watching their children.
"Nobody asked him," Jeanne Schommer said. "That's just the kind of guy he is."
Carimi's girlfriend, Kaite Nachreiner, was at the party too. Like a lot of people who know Carimi, she was taken aback at the comments draft experts made about him.
"The whole best tackle thing, I just laugh sometimes because he's never one to talk about himself," Nachreiner said. "He's just not like that. He's just a hard worker. He's a man of few words usually."
The Carimis usually don't put all of their son's awards on display. But they built a shrine of sorts to Gabe for the draft party.
They might want to consider keeping one award on display.
It's the Outland Trophy, and it signifies what Carimi never had to say — that he was the best interior lineman in college football in 2010.
Chris Hine reported from Cottage Grove, Wis.
dpompei@tribune.com
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Extra points: George McCaskey on Carimi: "One of the things I like best about him is that he has a reputation for being nasty, and I kind of like that on the offensive line.'' …
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High Fives / Like - 1 BEAR DOWN!, 0 Dislikes
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Lineman Gabe Carimi’s passion: building, blocks
SEAN JENSEN ON THE NFL DRAFT .hideTime { DISPLAY: none}May 1, 2011 02:22AM
Gabe Carimi could have been in New York, walking on red carpets, eating $50 steaks and glad-handing with other soon-to-be millionaires at the NFL draft in Radio City Music Hall.
But how Carimi spent his Thursday shows his uniqueness.
He started the morning on the second floor of the Engineering Hall at Wisconsin, in a large classroom, presenting his senior project to two professors and five judges. Then he finished his evening at his parents’ home, surrounded by family and friends, when the Bears selected him with the 29th overall pick.
“He clearly has the star status,” said Jeffrey Russell, a professor of civil engineering at Wisconsin. “But he does have this low-profile,
unassuming humbleness.
“He’s not one to be flashy and draw a lot of attention to himself.”
Carimi has no shortage of credentials: co-captain of the Big Ten champion Badgers, recipient of the Outland Trophy (nation’s best interior lineman) and winner of the Marty Glickman Outstanding Jewish Scholastic Athlete of the Year Award.
But in a household in which football was foreign, at least as a participory sport, Carimi could keep any hardware except for being named Academic All-Big Ten.
“I kept those,” said his mother, Alayne.
For all of his athletic achievements, Alayne and Sanford Carimi proudly recount his early fascination with Legos.
“He would build cities,” Alayne said.
And as part of his bar mitzvah project, Gabe worked for months on a Habitat for Humanity home until they discovered the 6-foot 12-year-old didn’t meet the age requirement. They also recalled how Gabe built them a queen-sized bed in high school shop class.
“The photo won’t do it justice,” said Sanford, an internist and a board-certified lipidologist in Janesville, Wis. “You would go to a high-end furniture store and pay top dollar for [it]. It’s gorgeous.”
Different path
The main building for the engineering school is a Hail Mary from Camp Randall Stadium.
Other than the proximity, there wasn’t any other advantage for Carimi playing football and studying how to design and build structures, machines and processes.
First, the needling: His teammates called him the “King of the Engineering Campus” and made fun of his oversized textbooks.
‘‘We’d make fun of him,” Badgers center Peter Konz said. “Me and a defensive tackle saw this huge book in his locker that looked like the Bible, so we said, ‘Thou shalt not melt thy steel.’ ”
Second, the juggling: Carimi convinced fellow engineering students to meet in the evening — after he completed his football obligations — and earned one of the school’s most daunting degrees.
“He was . . . the consummate professional,” Russell said. “In the classroom, he never took any shortcuts.
“At the undergraduate level, engineering is a very demanding curriculum.”
But Carimi doesn’t shy away from challenges.
“He’s one of the most unbelievably competitive people I’ve ever met,” Konz said, recalling the endless debates they had just to see who could make better arguments. “It doesn’t matter what it is. Whatever it takes, however long it takes, he’s going to get the job done.”
Like his capstone project, which he spent a semester working on with classmates. They had to present a renovation of the Wendt Library on campus. Carimi was the environmental engineer. He had to explore ecofriendly green and white roof options, interview people, research costs and suppliers and investigate laws and regulations on completing the project. He also originated a way to retain water on site.
The hardest part for his team?
Relaying all that information in 20 minutes. Carimi said he applied the same mentality to the presentation that he does before a game.
“It’s better than game day,” he said. “What am I going to mess up here?”
Carimi’s group received high marks, and he will receive his diploma in a few weeks.
Hands-on experience
When she discovered something, Carimi’s older sister, Hannah, would pick it up, look at it, then put it down.
“He’d pick it up, shake it and lob it across the room and see what would happen,” Sanford said.
“He was all boy,” Alayne said.
When he was 3, Gabe’s parents learned of his fascination with building things. He’d spend hours playing with Legos, making planes, spaceships and houses.
“He couldn’t get enough,” Sanford said.
During his senior year in high school, Carimi built a bed for his parents. He spent two weeks researching the design, visiting furniture stores and exploring fastening systems.
About a year later, his parents were blown away by the finished product: an arched bed frame with three raised panels that cost $650.
“That was definitely my most proud [project],” Carimi said.
During college, spending 12 hours a day, Carimi built himself a king-sized bed made of cherry in a week.
“I wanted to make a bed that was made right, instead of from IKEA,” said Carimi, who is 6-7 and 314 pounds.
The boy who always liked to build is expected to be a key part of a renovation project at Halas Hall. Led by offensive line coach Mike Tice, the Bears hope Carimi can improve a unit that allowed a league-high 56 sacks last season and ranked 22nd running the ball.
“We’re very pleased to have Gabe and add him to our room,” Tice said. “He’ll bring everything that we’re looking to bring to the offensive line room: toughness, intelligence, size.”
Carimi couldn’t imagine a better fit. Although he grew up in Wisconsin, he was born in Lake Forest.
“I really feel like this was the best fit for me,” he said. “I’m incredibly pumped to be a Bear.”
With his degree completed, Sanford said Gabe can commit himself fully to football.
“He can put his full, undivided attention to being the best at the next level,” Sanford said. “He knows he still has a lot to learn.”
So far, that has never been a problem.
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It's good to know that Gabe Carimi has good moral fiber about him. He is dedicated to worshiping The Lord, though in a different way than I do, and that is an important attribute in a person's life - his or her religion. I have often found that the most stable people are those who have a working, loving relationship with God in their lives, and no doubt, Carimi has that. I doubt that we will ever hear of any incidents involving him in the news.
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Originally Posted by
Dagan81 
It's good to know that Gabe Carimi has good moral fiber about him. He is dedicated to worshiping The Lord, though in a different way than I do, and that is an important attribute in a person's life - his or her religion. I have often found that the most stable people are those who have a working, loving relationship with God in their lives, and no doubt, Carimi has that. I doubt that we will ever hear of any incidents involving him in the news.
yeah, while never know about people, and Unfort seen many in public praise God, but sin behind closed doors- more like the education, the hard worth ethic he has and has shown
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Good articles. I know we got the right guy for our OT. Didn't know he went to Monona Grove HS though. LOL, that's where my ex went to HS and a lot of other friends I had when living in Madison. The town of Cottage Grove was only 15 minutes away from my place.
I'm getting to that age where a lifetime warranty just doesn't mean as much to me anymore as an afternoon nap. 
Honey Badger Don't Care. Honey Badger Don't Give a Shit.
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Originally Posted by
soulman Good articles. I know we got the right guy for our OT. Didn't know he went to Monona Grove HS though. LOL, that's where my ex went to HS and a lot of other friends I had when living in Madison. The town of Cottage Grove was only 15 minutes away from my place.
LOL.. that's alway one of the funniest things about the draft, sometimes finding the '6 degrees of kevin bacon"(lol) to some of these guys.. and then when a player is signed to biggest rival to where he grew up, always adds the "conflict", of friends an family, with soem saying now will be bear fans or some still packer fans..always find that stuff funny, get will be more bear unis in cottage grove and madison next year : )
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Originally Posted by
dabears54 yeah, while never know about people, and Unfort seen many in public praise God, but sin behind closed doors- more like the education, the hard worth ethic he has and has shown
That is everyone DB. We are all sinners. Behind closed doors and in the public.
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Originally Posted by
The Benjamin That is everyone DB. We are all sinners. Behind closed doors and in the public.
true, just saying, never like the 'i praise God'( whatever the religion), so people therefore think he is a "safer pick" or 'will cause less problems" , "be on the right path' because he's religious.the jim baker's, jiimmy swaggart, etc etc teach us that lesson all the time,heck tommie harris father a preacher, tommie is one also.. didn't stop the child out of wedlock and problems here.
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Originally Posted by
dabears54 true, just saying, never like the 'i praise God'( whatever the religion), so people therefore think he is a "safer pick" or 'will cause less problems" , "be on the right path' because he's religious.the jim baker's, jiimmy swaggart, etc etc teach us that lesson all the time,heck tommie harris father a preacher, tommie is one also.. didn't stop the child out of wedlock and problems here.
Exactly. A man's religion does not make him a safer pick, or less likely to toe the line or cross it.
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