When my wife, Lara, returned from the opening night performance of the Nashville Ballet's The Nutcracker, I did not expect her first words to be, "Oh my God, Ben Troupe was just awesome." In terms of ranking the likelihood of her comments, it would appear somewhere above, "Verne Lundquist showed up late with his new girlfriend, Jenna Jameson," and somewhere below, "I think some of the male dancers were straight."
Ben Troupe is a second-year Tennessee Titans tight end whose previous connection to ballet has been limited to his patented move of leaping over defenders when they try to take his legs out from under him. Once in college at Florida he even executed three leaps in one play before skittering out of bounds in time to audition for a Gainesville production of Peter Pan. But this time, there was to be no leaping during Troupe's performance in the Nutcracker. Instead Troupe played the role of Mother Ginger, a large hoop-skirted woman with fake breasts whose dress opens to reveal a swarm of dancing children in the midst of Act II. Amazingly, Troupe filled this role as a stand-in for injured Titans tight end Erron Kinney. Seriously.
The more I thought about this, the more questions I had and conveniently enough, I was able to interview Ben Troupe recently about his performance as Mother Ginger.
When you saw Tennessee Titans tight end Erron Kinney go down with an injury in the game against the Indianapolis Colts, was your first thought, "Oh man, who's going to play Mother Ginger?"
"No, I didn't even know what Mother Ginger was. I didn't even know her from Mother Goose."
|
|
| Tennessee Titans TE Ben Troupe applies make-up prior to the Nutcracker. (Photo/Nashville Ballet) |
"No, he doesn't exaggerate injuries, and he was thinking about a lot of things, but I don't think Mother Ginger was one of them."
I know that Bo Scaife and Gregg Guenther are both rookie tight ends. At any point, did you feel like pulling rank as a second-year player and making one of those guys step in for Kinney?
"No, Erron asked me, and I wasn't trying to delegate responsibility to the next cats. I love Bo and I love Greg, but they don't have what it takes to perform in this role. I wanted to make sure I was a plus and not a minus."
How long did your makeup take before the show?
"Makeup took about five minutes. I had no idea I had to wear makeup. The funny thing was when I had the makeup on, I turned around and saw (Titans assistant head coach) Steve Watterson with a video camera and behind him was Tim McGraw. I've always wanted to meet Tim McGraw but I never thought it would be with dress and a makeup on, but hey, it happens."
When you met Tim McGraw in a dress and makeup did you think he might be swept off his feet by your appearance and be tempted to leave Faith Hill?
"Man, if you couldn't tell I was a man in women's clothes something was wrong with you. ... And you don't leave Faith Hill for almost anybody. No case of mistaken identity here."
