Playing after pain: for Nix, it's a snap

The lights at the Alex T. Duffy Fairgrounds aren't the brightest under which Brady Nix has played. The grass isn't the greenest, and the crowds aren't the largest he's seen, either.

But Nix doesn't care about that stuff. As long as there's a punter to catch a snap and a ball carrier to chase down, the Austin, Texas, native, who is also one of the Watertown Red and Black's newest players, is happy.

He's playing football again.

"I'm happy I found this team," he said. "It makes it a lot easier being so far away from home. It's definitely a stress release."

Nix was a long snapper at Oklahoma State University before he joined the U.S. Army in January 2007. He spent two full seasons with the Cowboys prior to suffering a tear of the ACL and MCL in his right knee.

But it wasn't that catastrophic, August 2006 injury that caused Nix's college football career to end prematurely. He made that decision all by himself — as easily as he unleashes a special-teams snap.

"Under the circumstances, it wasn't hard to leave," Nix said. "After my military career is over, I plan to go back."

THE WORD NO ONE WANTS TO HEAR

Nix left Oklahoma State about a month after he got hurt. Football faded into the background when his mother, Debra Nix, was diagnosed with cervical cancer on Sept. 3, 2006.

Brady packed to move back to Austin, and arrived home about four days later. The combination of his own pain and his mother's ensuing battle left Nix unsure of his athletic future.

"If my mom hadn't gotten sick, I probably would have taken the surgery and gone through the whole rehab process," said Nix, who has registered 15 tackles this season for the Red and Black. "It was a no-brainer decision on my part to help take care of my mom."

Brady and Debra tackled their newly inherited health problems simultaneously. A surgeon from Oklahoma State gave Nix a book that outlined certain exercises he could do to strengthen his knee.

So while his mom underwent four months of cancer treatments on one floor of an Austin medical facility, Brady was just a few steps away.

"There was a little exercise room downstairs from the oncology unit where I did all the workouts (the surgeon) prescribed," Nix said. "I progressed as my mom was getting better with her treatments — like we were tag-teaming our situations at the same time."

Nix had kept an eye on the Iraq war since he graduated from high school, and was set serve the country someday.

That day came sooner when he realized Debra would become eligible for medical insurance upon his enlistment. He said the knee felt no pain during the Army's vigorous basic training.

"The military was the only place I could find that would fully cover her," he said.

Much to his surprise, he found the nation's oldest semiprofessional football team when he arrived to the north country.

"He could be cocky and arrogant, but that's not him," head coach George Ashcraft said. "He goes out of his way to help others, and he came here to help the team. It's cool to have someone like that around."

HUT, HUT, HUT

As a long snapper, Nix plays one of the most important, yet unnoticed, positions on the field.

He began learning the skill as early as he could hold a football, and he credits his father, Todd Nix, for his success doing it.

Todd was an adequate teacher, as he spent much of the 1982 NFL preseason as a long snapper for the Denver Broncos. He, too, suffered a knee injury, and it ended his career.

"He started teaching me in about the fourth grade. That's what got me to play for a Division I school, not my linebacker play," Brady Nix said.

Nix's presence allows Watertown punter Brian Williams to stand about 15 yards behind the line of scrimmage, meaning the Red and Black will have to endure a major breakdown before it gives up a blocked punt. Williams has already been able to pin opponents inside their own 15 or 10 yard line several times.

"He's had great coaching, that not everybody gets," defensive coordinator Rich Potter said. "He's passing that on to the other guys.

"And there isn't anybody who hits harder. He's definitely tough."

Nix said he'll never forget the feeling of walking out of the tunnel at the University of Nebraska's Memorial Stadium for his first college game. About 100,000 screaming fans and former Heisman Trophy winners added the excitement.

"Barry Sanders was there, shaking hands with us walking out, and Eric Crouch was walking around. I graduated high school with 12 people," Nix said. "I never thought I'd be anywhere like that. It was a trip the whole time. Every game was something different."

For now his main focus is to help the Red and Black earn its first win of the season tonight against Massena.

He said he'd like to someday complete his bachelor's degree in fire sciences, but he knows the Red and Black uniform may be the final one he ever wears on a football field. Yet he shows no regrets.

"I've met a lot of good people," Nix said after Wednesday's practice. "I would have never experienced the north country, that's for sure. There's a lot more here than meets the eye."