Somewhere at The Star in Frisco, there’s a football with Travis Frederick’s name on it. Maybe his name isn’t literally scrawled across the leather in black Sharpie. Or maybe it is. The ball could be on a shelf or in a locker or at the bottom of a mesh bag. It might be tucked away for safekeeping in a trainer’s desk. Either way, it’s Travis Frederick’s football. And he would like it back.
The 29-year-old center retired from football back in March after a heavily-decorated career with the Cowboys. He played five seasons, took 2018 off as he successfully battled Guillain-Barre Syndrome, and then returned in 2019. He was in the league for seven seasons. He played six. He earned a Pro Bowl nod in five.
And in that entire time, Frederick apparently warmed up with just one football. The same one, week in and week out, year after year. Now it’s the lone souvenir from his playing days he’d like to keep.
The nugget comes buried at the end of a Fort Worth Star-Telegram piece last week on Frederick. Writer Mac Engel details how life has already changed for the 2013 first-round draft pick after walking away from the game this offseason.
Frederick has dropped thirty pounds or so; he says, “That’s the dream: To get skinny.” He’s down two ring sizes and a shirt size already.
And the trademark beard has been shaved off.
Breaking: Travis Frederick has shaved his beard as he has enters retirement. As he expands his Blocking Hunger Foundation, the retired Cowboys center opted to get rid of the beard. “It’s coming back but it’s definitely more cleanred and trimmed up,” he… https://t.co/FiITseie1l
— Todd Archer (@toddarcher) May 22, 2020
During a call with Engel and ESPN’s Todd Archer, Frederick talked about his charity work with The Blocking Hunger Foundation, providing food and meals to children of lower-income families. He spoke of possibly entering the business world, maybe in the tech sector. He shared his plans to move back to Wisconsin.
And he talked about the Cowboys, now moving on without him. Joe Looney and rookie Tyler Biadasz are expected to compete for the starting center job this offseason. While Frederick has left a hole in middle of the offensive line, he’s confident that his former teammates will find success.
“The team is set up extremely well,” Frederick is quoted as saying. “The front office did a great job of getting people in place. On paper, it looks like a really, really solid team. They have a chance to go far. I’m excited to see them and watch them, and hopefully provide some outside guidance. I know whoever takes over at center will be well-cared for.”
Frederick hopes his treasured warm-up ball has been well-cared for, too. According to Engel, Frederick called team owner Jerry Jones in March to inform him of his decision to retire, and then immediately followed that phone call with another. This one was to the club’s equipment managers, asking for his ball. But with the facilities having been closed at the time due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the ball was ostensibly locked away somewhere in the building. Frederick would have to wait for the world to return to normal to be reunited with his keepsake.
That Frederick had a single lucky warm-up ball is perhaps not surprising. On gamedays, the Wisconsin native had his own unique pregame routine with guard Zack Martin. The two 300-pound linemen would famously spend 45 minutes running full-blown receiver route trees and throwing passes to one another as a way to get loose before team warmups.
For Travis Frederick, the man whose grip on the ball started each play for the Cowboys, he’ll now rely on the team’s equipment staff to deliver his ball back to him to symbolically close out the center’s short but stellar career.
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