FirstCuts: Terrelle Pryor, a Pretty Normal Guy

By Chris Littmann
Sports don’t start and end with a referee’s whistle. FirstCuts, a blog dedicated to sports culture, will cover everything outside the lines, from games to gear.
Sometime soon, we’ll have a Q&A of sorts with Terrelle Pryor in Sporting News. But with all the hype about his visit to Michigan this weekend, now seemed like as good of a time as any to break out the other side of Pryor -- the one that exists when he isn’t busy dominating people in basketball or football.
[img=http://i.tsn.com/i/photos/20080121/85909.jpg]
I caught a glimpse of the meanest football player in the nation hooping it up here in Charlotte. He’s currently rated the No. 1 football prospect and No. 28 hoops prospect by Rivals. The guy really does have that look of someone who is a college upperclassman, if not older. When he was waiting for his game, he rocked the Air Jordan III “Pure” edition. On the court, it was the Nike Men’s Zoom Soldier, most notably worn by LeBron James when he burned Detroit in Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals last season.
After the game, we talked about a little bit of everything.
Away from the action:
“I play PlayStation 3. Watch Godfather, Scarface, He Got Game and ESPN.”
Video games of choice:
“NCAA Football ‘08 and NBA Live ‘08, that’s really it. In NCAA, I just choose whoever. I used LeBron (James on Live) the other day and I dropped 42.”
Man of many shoes:
“I got a bunch of shoes, about 50 pairs. I buy shoes every chance I get to the mall. I just like wearing them; different styles to match different clothes.”
What have we learned? Aside from being sort of superhumanly talented as an athlete, he’s doing what you’d expect from any high school senior. Playing video games and hanging out with his friends in a fresh pair of Jordans.↵