Man In Motion: Former Buc Sapp Is A 'Dancing' Star
ADVERTISEMENT
Published: October 13, 2008
Related Links
TAMPA - Warren Sapp moves with the grace of the dancing hippo from Walt Disney's "Fantasia."
The former defensive tackle for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers is the latest football star to impress judges on "Dancing with the Stars." Judge Bruno Tonioli says he moves like a "Lamborghini taking on the freeway."
"Dancing" producer Conrad Green calls Sapp "the biggest surprise of the season."
"On paper, it would appear that a 300-pound man should not be good at dancing. But Warren has got little twinkle toes," he says.
Twinkle toes? After spending 13 years mowing down quarterbacks like a runaway freight train, has Sapp turned into Fred Astaire only eight months after retiring?
Sapp, 35, a fan favorite, says he has never heard of the dances he's doing. He told Jay Leno in a recent "Tonight Show" appearance that "the Harlem Shake" was about his speed.
Green and Sapp's dancing partner, Kym Johnson, say Sapp could follow in the nimble footsteps of previous football "Dancing" standouts.
Green says, "Footballers have got to have good footwork or they get smashed into the ground."
Johnson says, "He's remarkably light on his feet, and for a big guy, he moves really well."
Sandy Charboneau, manager of the Buccaneers cheerleading squad, agrees that Sapp will go far.
"I was here when he played for our team and knew he was a great athlete," she says.
Sapp also told Leno that his football "intimidation tools" aren't helpful.
"My size doesn't even help me," he said.
But maybe it does. Green says football players score well with the public because it's fun to see standouts from the playing field as fish out of water.
Roni Mahler, a former ballerina with the National Ballet of Washington, D.C., sees parallels between football and dancing. A pioneer in teaching ballet techniques to football players, she developed a 12-week dance workout for the Cleveland Browns in the 1980s.
She says dancers and football players need agility, speed, balance, rhythm, the ability to memorize complex patterns and an intense focus.
She points out that the relationship between dance and football dates to the 1970s, when Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Lynn Swann was known as "the Baryshnikov of football" because he studied ballet to improve his jumping ability.
Although it's not likely that people will ever use "Sapp" and "Baryshnikov" in the same breath, the big man who held the Vince Lombardi Trophy after the Bucs' Super Bowl XXXVII victory also might hold the coveted disco ball trophy from "Dancing with the Stars."
Reporter Walt Belcher can be reached at (813) 259-7654.
