Iowa defensive lineman a man of many talents

Maybe we've moved past the whole “look at the big football player with the cello” thing. Or, in Christian Ballard's case, the “look at the big football player with the cello, stand-up bass and piano who'll have an art degree from the University of Iowa this spring.”

Granted, it's an odd duality.

You know Ballard because he's a 6-foot-5, 297-pound defensive lineman for the No. 13 Iowa football team. His job on the football field is that of a pure being of destruction. This season, his athleticism has allowed him to bounce between tackle and end, a fact that will get the attention of NFL scouts. For his career, the Lawrence, Kan., native has 10.5 sacks and 19.5 tackles for loss.

But the same fingers that dig into a jersey know what they're doing on a cello and are learning their way around a string bass and piano. They also know how to draw, paint and spin a pottery wheel.

“I don't think when people see me they think I spend most of my day throwing pots or playing the cello,” Ballard said. “It's definitely fun to see peoples' reactions when I tell them or when they find out what I do.”

With Ballard, it's not so much ”look at the big football player with the cello.” It's where the cello and the easel come from.

The walls of the Ballard household are covered in artwork. Some of it is Christian's, but some also is the work of his grandfather, Dovie Ballard, an artist and a musician.

Casey Ballard, Christian's father, believes Dovie is the source of the artist within his son.

“He got everything from my dad,” Casey Ballard said. “He did art early. He showed a passion for it in school, so we just encouraged it. It was always something that kept his attention. Same with music when he picked it up. He was a natural at the music.

“That had to come from my dad, because I would hurt you if you ever heard me play any kind of instrument.”

Ever hear of Hank Ballard or Hank Ballard and the Midnighters? That's Christian Ballard's great uncle. Hank Ballard was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990.

Here's part of his bio, “With the grinding guitars, distorted sound and fervid call-and-response of those and many other recordings made for the King and Federal labels, Ballard helped define the sound of rock and roll. He also ushered forth one of its greatest dance crazes, having written and first recorded “The Twist.” By the early 1960s, he'd charted 22 singles on the R&B charts, including “Work With Me, Annie,” which was the biggest R&B hit of 1954. It sold more than a million copies and spawned more than 20 answer records (including Etta James' “Roll with Me Henry.”

Yeah, Hank Ballard wrote “The Twist.”

Christian Ballard started playing the cello through a school program in the fifth grade. He played it through his junior year, but had to drop it as a senior.

“My senior year in high school, I started getting recruited heavily and I started to miss recitals,” he said. “I didn't want to do that to the orchestra.”

As a senior on track to graduate with a degree in art this spring, Ballard had the time to fit it back into his schedule and is working with an instructor this fall. He's also taking lessons on the bass and piano.

“I have fewer hours this year, so I decided to pick it back up,” he said. “It's a good life skill to have.”

Not “look at the big football player with the cello” at all. For Ballard, this is a natural instinct. It also explains his major. Art is a natural notion to him.

“Art is just an expression of natural life,” Ballard said. “Anybody can do art. It doesn't have to be good or bad. Art isn't good or bad, really. It's how the artist perceives it. Anything could be art. A couple scribbles. A couple colors.

“If you have a deep feeling and that's how you express it, then that's art.”

Ballard, a Christian, is deeply religious, growing up in Atlanta in the Church of Christ. He explores religious themes in his art. In one of his last exhibits - “I wouldn't even call it an exhibit, I just hung some drawings up” - at Iowa, Ballard displayed a drawing of wide receiver Marvin McNutt that had an angel on top and a demon on the bottom with scriptures written within.

He called it one of his best pieces.

“I feel like anything in life, you can pull something religious out of it,” Ballard said. “If something bad happens, you can look back and wonder why it happened. You can look at the things you did, you can say it's karma or maybe you're not paying too much attention to it.”

In the end, music and art are an outlet. You might notice on any given Saturday, college football isn't very collegial. It takes a certain amount of emotion to play the game. That emotion just doesn't disappear when the clock turns zero and the postgame hugs are hugged.

Ballard has a word for the “certain amount of emotion” a player needs to summon. That word is anger.

“The way I try to balance it is when I'm out on the field and playing you get the anger and everything,” he said. “Sometimes, that doesn't necessarily go away when the game is over. My art comes through and helps me with that, helps me calm myself.

“It's actually a good relaxation tool. It helps me ease my mind and make sure I'm not tense. Art is great therapy for a football player. It's something I'm really excited about doing.”

In other words, art and music are a life skill.