![](\"http:\/\/www.danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/09\/toddmcclure.jpg\")
Granted, Todd McClure\u00e2\u20ac™s name is not of the household variety. Not yet, at least.<\/p>\nSeptember 9, 2001 \u2014 Granted, Todd McClure’s name is not of the household variety. Not yet, at least.<\/p>\n
He doesn’t pass the ball, catch the ball, or run it into the end zone. He’s just one of the guys who makes all of that possible.<\/p>\n
In the weekly war that is the National Football League, Todd pays his dues in the trenches. He lives his life on the line.<\/p>\n
They are an anonymous lot, these NFL linemen. They carry lunch pails to work and wear collars colored blue.<\/p>\n
Offensive linemen are the league’s street sweepers. They clear the path for the other guys, the guys you don’t need a game program to identify.<\/p>\n
Todd is the starting center for the Atlanta Falcons. He is the first person to touch the ball on every offensive play. And hopefully not the last.<\/p>\n
You may not know Todd now, but you will by season’s end. Trust me.<\/p>\n
Each week, these columns will be dedicated to some aspect of Todd’s life. We will follow him throughout the season, and provide you with an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the life of a lineman.<\/p>\n
That’s 16 different stories \u2014 not including playoffs. And that’s more media attention than most linemen get in an entire career.<\/p>\n
“Yeah, that’s one thing we don’t have to really deal with,” said Todd, seated in front of his locker Thursday before practice. “Normally the media is over in that section there” \u2014 Todd pointed to the lockers labeled “Chandler,” “Anderson” and “Mathis” \u2014 “and one of the only times the offensive line gets attention is when we’re doing bad. When we’re doing good, you don’t hear about us.”<\/p>\n
Falcons fans heard about the line more than Todd would have liked during the team’s 4-12 season in 2000. The line allowed 61 sacks \u2014 second-most in the NFL \u2014 and Atlanta led the league in lost yardage with 386.<\/p>\n
Virtually the same unit is back this season. Todd says they are fitter \u2014 he himself went from 300 pounds to 286 \u2014 and wiser, with a year of playing together under their tightened belts.<\/p>\n
“We’re ready to get started on the right foot in San Francisco,” Todd said. “Everybody’s excited. We’ve worked really hard this whole offseason. We’re ready for it to pay off.”<\/p>\n
Todd, 24, who lives in Sugar Hill, got his first NFL start last season during Week 9. He took over at center for Calvin Collins, who made the move to left guard. Todd started the next seven games before sitting out the season finale with a strained right calf.<\/p>\n
A native of Baton Rouge, La., Todd is in his third season out of LSU, where he was a consensus All-SEC first team choice as a senior and junior.<\/p>\n
He was drafted by Atlanta in 1999 in the seventh round with the 237th pick. But a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee \u2014 suffered during the second day of summer camp \u2014 ended his rookie season before it began.<\/p>\n
He’s married \u2014 he’s known his wife Heidi since middle school \u2014 and the couple celebrated the birth of their first child back in July. It’s a boy, and he’s named Maverick \u2014 yes, after the Tom Cruise Character in “Top Gun.”<\/p>\n
“It took a while for the name to grow on my wife,” Todd admitted.<\/p>\n
And Todd’s newfound media attention may take a while to grow on his teammates. Ephraim Salaam, the Falcons’ 6-foot-7, 310-pound offensive tackle, was growing impatient. Todd’s interview was cutting into the line’s daily game of UNO.<\/p>\n
Salaam shuffled the cards louder and louder.<\/p>\n
“Can you interview him while he’s playing UNO?” asked Salaam, whose “Millennium UNO Champion” trophy is displayed prominently in his locker. “Is that OK?”<\/p>\n
Salaam nearly tumbled from his stool when he learned of the nature \u2014 and frequency \u2014 of this column.<\/p>\n
“Every week?” Salaam repeated incredulously. “Why? Are you kidding me?”<\/p>\n
Michael Thompson, another offensive tackle, chimed in, “Are you from LSU?”<\/p>\n
“Why?” Salaam and Thompson repeated in unison.<\/p>\n
“Why Todd?” Salaam continued. “He’s not even that exciting.”<\/p>\n
“Why not Todd?” was my reply.<\/p>\n
“Look at him,” Salaam said, pointing to Todd, who was now hiding his face in his hands. “Well, he is handicapped. He is our shortest lineman.”<\/p>\n
Todd, by the way, is 6-foot-1.<\/p>\n
“Help the handicapped. That’s cool,” Salaam went on. “‘On the Line with Todd McClure.’ Wow.”<\/p>\n
So what can readers expect each week? What is the life of a lineman like?<\/p>\n
“It’s pretty boring, actually,” Todd said. “There’s not a whole lot to it. We come in every week, learn our plays, and pretty much by the end of the day we’re just worn out. Then we come back and do the same thing again.”<\/p>\n
And we’re going to get 16 weeks worth of stories out of that?<\/p>\n
“Ooh, that’s tough,” Todd said with a smile. “We’ll just have to wait and see, I guess.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Granted, Todd McClure\u00e2\u20ac™s name is not of the household variety. Not yet, at least.<\/p>\n
He doesn\u00e2\u20ac™t pass the ball, catch the ball, or run it into the end zone. He\u00e2\u20ac™s just one of the guys who makes all of that possible.<\/p>\n
In the weekly war that is the National Football League, Todd pays his dues in the trenches. He lives his life on the line.<\/p>\n
They are an anonymous lot, these NFL linemen. They carry lunch pails to work and wear collars colored blue.<\/p>\n
Offensive linemen are the league\u00e2\u20ac™s street sweepers. They clear the path for the other guys, the guys you don\u00e2\u20ac™t need a game program to identify.<\/p>\n
Todd is the starting center for the Atlanta Falcons. He is the first person to touch the ball on every offensive play. And hopefully not the last.<\/p>\n
You may not know Todd now, but you will by season\u00e2\u20ac™s end. Trust me.<\/p>\n
Each week, these columns will be dedicated to some aspect of Todd\u00e2\u20ac™s life. We will follow him throughout the season, and provide you with an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the life of a lineman.<\/p>\n
That\u00e2\u20ac™s 16 different stories \u00e2\u20ac\u201d not including playoffs. And that\u00e2\u20ac™s more media attention than most linemen get in an entire career.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3\/revisions\/152"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danwashburn.com\/ontheline\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}