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Rubin: As former brick salesman stars for the Lions, the masonry world gets a kick out of it

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Rubin: As former brick salesman stars for the Lions, the masonry world gets a kick out of it

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The gentlemen in Jim Gendron’s office the other day knew everything about block and brick and a lot about football, too. And they are a solid wall of support for the Detroit Lions‘ new placekicker.

At least one of them is not only watching him, but learning from him — and the way Gendron sees it, we can all learn from head coach Dan Campbell.

As the TV commentators remind us most every time he takes the field, rookie kicker Jake Bates was selling bricks in Houston only 19 months ago. Now he has connected on all 15 of his field goal attempts in the NFL, including a game-winner against the Houston Texans two weeks ago that slid inside the left upright by about the thickness of a mason’s trowel.

The networks love him, the fans love him and other kickers love him: “He’s kind of become an idol,” the University of Michigan’s Dominic Zvada told the Free Press.

So I figured I’d check in with some brick salesmen to see how they felt — and OK, unlike Bates, I missed.

Century-old Fendt Builders’ Supply in Farmington Hills makes and sells block, not brick. In simple terms, the key component of block is concrete, while with brick, it’s clay.

But Fendt makes some of its block to look like brick, said Gendron, the company’s masonry sales manager. Bates would have sold wire and mortar, common to construction with both materials.

Close enough. For all the massive things block and brick can create, Gendron said, masonry is a small world, and “all the masons are rooting for the guy.”

That includes the huddle in his office, with its selection of block samples on the floor along one wall and a tube of industrial strength Working Hands cream on the desk.

Regular people with irregular skills

Gendron, 68, of Plymouth, played quarterback at Wayne State. He was good enough to get invited to a cattle-call NFL tryout camp in Atlanta, and smart enough to quickly realize that it wasn’t a dream he cared to chase on a balky knee.

He’s three weeks into training his eventual replacement, former high school wrestler and current U-M football season ticketholder Marshall Geer.

Geer, 34, gave up trowels and mortar six years ago when he realized that a lot of the older guys he worked with could barely stand upright — an unfortunate similarity to football, come to think of it.

When I showed up to talk sports, he was discussing business with Gendron and a customer named Morgan Agazzi whose son, Gio, is a 310-pound offensive lineman at Ferris State. Dispatcher Tony Beaune, 57, of Livonia, popped in a few minutes later; he played defensive line at Wayne State and, he said, spent just enough time with the Philadelphia Eagles to remember the tackle-related nerve injuries known as stingers that sent jolts through his neck and shoulders and down his arms.

Beaune said that Bates, a modest and religious 25-year-old, reminds him of Kurt Warner, who was famously stocking shelves at a grocery store before launching an NFL career that landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

Geer said he, his wife and her cousin were in the basement TV lair he calls his M Den when he first heard a sportscaster mention Bates’ connection to brickwork.

“We didn’t go nuts,” he said, but he has absolutely taken a rooting interest in the former soccer player who spent time with both the United Football League and Acme Brick.

“It kind of brings it home,” he said, that beneath their shoulder pads, “these are just regular people.”

Learning from the Lions

Fendt Builders’ Supply started as Leo Fendt’s sand and gravel operation in 1924, a decade before the Portsmouth, Ohio, Spartans moved to Detroit and became the Lions.

Now the fourth generation is involved with a company that, among other things, supplies the block for most of the Aldi grocery stores in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana.

Gendron came aboard in 2012 and expects to retire within two years.

“I’m training him,” he said, nodding at Geer. “I’m basically making him do my work.”

He was kidding, mostly, and Geer appreciated it. Truth is, Gendron said, “You have to treat people like Dan Campbell coaches a football team.”

Be positive. Be enthusiastic. Be concerned. Be willing to spring out of a crouch and slam a blocking sled, or at least go on a sales call.

Gendron had Geer dial a potential customer this week, knowing he didn’t need anything, just to quickly check in.

“Don’t bother him,” he instructed, but do it again next month, and the month after that.

“Just be there, be there, be there,” he said — the way Jake Bates was, finding every opportunity to show what he could do. Then when a door opens, whether it’s an incumbent kicker tearing his hamstring or a builder landing a job, charge through it.

Take small steps, Gendron said, and don’t take anything for granted. Heaven knows NFL kickers can’t.

No other position in sports is both so exposed and so stocked with potential replacements. A few inopportune misses, and a team is suddenly auditioning candidates from a wide pool of strong legs who shined in college or maybe even had NFL jobs while you were selling bricks.

Not that anyone expects that for Bates, or is rooting for it.

“If you ever get a chance to talk to him,” Gendron said, “ask him to kick one for the masons.”

But if he clanks a few off the uprights, or it’s his hamstring that gives out, “I’ll make room for him,” Gendron said. “I’ll hook him up.”

Reach Neal Rubin at NARubin@freepress.com.

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