We all know what they do on the field. Their every move is broadcast, analyzed and, depending on Saturday's result, either celebrated, second-guessed or cursed. Only on the following gameday Saturday do we let up, but only to make room for next week's arsenal of scrutiny. And so the cycle continues.
Usually, the only attention paid to the University of Wisconsin football team off the field is negative, but this is true in most, if not all, athletics. The media goes on overdrive when an athlete is involved in an illegal activity or does something out of the ordinary, but fails to report normal activities in athlete's lives, even when the activities are positive.
Whether deserving attention or not, the UW football team has long used its visibility in the community to do good with various organizations and in some cases, with sick fans.
\One thing we do every Friday is get a bunch of guys to go over to the Children's Hospital around 1 p.m. and meet with the kids, hang out and take pictures,"" said senior center Al Johnson. ""For little kids to look up to us, it's just a way to give back and do something more positive in people's lives other than just on Saturdays.""
Other UW teams, such as the women's hockey team, reach a wider range of people in their community programs than the football team. Their volunteer activities include carving pumpkins at the Ronald McDonald House, appearing in schools, promoting a reading program called ""Booking it with Bucky"" and playing hockey with individuals in wheelchairs.
While the sheer volume of activities that women's hockey participates in is impressive, the effect of the football team's efforts may extend wider only because of its athletes greater name recognition in the community.
""The team is in the public eye,"" defensive coordinator Kevin Cosgrove said. ""They're visible and when they get out there and people see them, it's when they are helping a sick kid or a needy person.""
The football team's Madison outreach, however, does extend beyond shaking kids' hands. Starting with the Barry Alvarez regime, a tradition of assisting the Dane County branch of Habitat for Humanity began and continues to take place. As part of the tradition, every year following the spring game, the team helps Habitat for Humanity for a day with anything needed- although, predictably, it usually ends up involving heavy lifting.
Ron Konkol, the Publicity Chair for the Habitat for Humanity of Dane County has helped arrange the event with UW the past six years and is a big fan of the help provided by the Badger football team, even if it is only for a day.
""When they show up, 90 of them show up in one day,"" Konkol said. ""It takes a lot of organizational planning, but they really do have a discipline about them. When you put them on a task, they actually get it done.""
In addition to getting the work done, the football team lends much-needed recognition and legitimacy to an organization that Konkol feels is ignored by a large part of Madison.
""It produces some visibility and that's very important for us,"" he said. ""Believe it or not, some people still don't know in the Madison area that we have a very active Habitat for Humanity affiliate here, so we take advantage of that.""
With the Shoebox and Best Buy ""discounts"" of two years ago, some might accuse UW itself of taking advantage of any publicity that might come from volunteering, but coaches bristle at this notion and point to the team's past for proof of their genuine intentions.
""We've been doing this forever,"" Cosgrove said of volunteering. ""Coach Alvarez started doing this when he first got here [long before the Shoebox.]""
The players also reject the idea that volunteering is a tool to help fade out the bad publicity from the Shoebox scandal.
""We're not perfect. Football players aren't perfect,"" Johnson said, ""but the student population isn't perfect either. The whole community service is a thing where we can use our stature in the community as 'heroes' to help.""
While ""hero"" might be a strong label, no one can argue that the football team is doing its job, both on the field and off of the field.
