Speed Rush
Passion grew out of necessity for Ravens linebackers coach Jeff FitzGerald, and it has served him well in both his coaching career and his car racing pursuits.
As a 13-year-old growing up in Burbank, Calif., FitzGerald's father started teaching him how to drive. They would head out to empty parking lots, and the youngster would settle behind the wheel of the family's Volkswagon van. So excited every time he had the opportunity, FitzGerald didn't expect the skill he was learning to be utilized on a constant basis just one year later.
After his parent's divorced when he was 14, the thrill of sitting in the driver's seat was replaced by the sheer necessity of pitching in wherever he could to make his downsized family efficient.
FitzGerald's mother supported herself and her two sons with no outside financial help, working long days to do so. In order for this model to succeed, her oldest son Jeff would now become the family chauffer.
A typical weekday would start with FitzGerald driving his mother to work 20 minutes away from his hometown. He would then drop off his brother at school before going to his own school. After the final school bell rang, FitzGerald would reverse his steps to pick up his brother, run any errands that needed to be done and then head back out to pick up his mother.
FitzGerald gets some first-hand experience in the pits.
FitzGerald didn't want to take his new responsibility for granted. He wanted to push the pedal to the floor and see how fast he could go, just like he did with friends in the neighborhood years earlier.
A big fan and window shopper at a motorcycle shop down the street, he and his buddies managed to get an available mini-bike running every once in a while. Once the little engine started roaring, they were off, pushing every limit they could think of and building an early thirst for speed.
That desire to go faster also led the Cal-State Northridge grad to ask the question, "How fast can you go and still be in control?" It is here that FitzGerald can use his driving experience on the football field when talking to speed rushers like Terrell Suggs and Adalius Thomas. Go fast and go hard, but be in control.
Sometimes the fastest receiver isn't always the best. He may be disregarding his route or reads because he doesn't have his speed harnessed.
FitzGerald, starting in 2000 with the Bondurant driving school in Phoenix, began to learn how many miles per hour he can reach, all while controlling his car around every track he can get on.
"Bondurant is a world renowned racing school and a lot of today's professional drivers have gone there," said FitzGerald.
The Bondurant School only increased FitzGerald's desire to get more experience behind the wheel, and per some advice there, he began to take advanced carting courses. He did this for a year and a half, getting down many technical aspects of race car driving without the huge expense and time commitment of owning a vehicle.
"Being a good driver is all about seat time and practice," explained FitzGerald, who has accumulated over 133 miles of track time.
Another major step came in 2001 when FitzGerald traveled to Orlando to attend the Richard Petty Driving Experience. Again, getting behind the wheel and hitting around 133 mph while driving the one-mile track, only fueled his hunger.
The following year he made his way to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and the 1.5-mile track there, picked up a little more speed, and then hit the California Speedway's two-mile track in 2003.
Since his time at the track in California, he's had the opportunity to pick up more than just driving in his quest to completely understand the sport.
The president of the speedway's racing company just happened to be FitzGerald's instructor that day, and since then more total access has been available to the Ravens' linebackers coach.
FitsGerald is going to test his skills on the track in Martinsville, Va.
"I've been hooked with them for going on two years now," said an excited FitzGerald. "It's been great. I was down in Daytona right before speed week got going. I worked with them. When I say work with them I'm just kind of in the mix. Learning how they do things and why they do them. I'm learning about the cars and I'm getting to do some driving. The people are great and they've been a big help."
One person he hasn't had much of an opportunity to talk to yet, and who really ties NASCAR to the NFL, is Redskins' head coach Joe Gibbs.
FitzGerald sees some parallels between what he is doing now and what Gibbs did prior to retiring from the Redskins, before deciding to return to the NFL sidelines.
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