Cal Football: O-Lineman Tarik Glenn Set to Join Indianapolis Colts' Ring of Honor
Tarik Glenn, who won a Super Bowl and was a three-time Pro Bowl selection during his 10 seasons as an offensive lineman for the Indianapolis Colts, received perhaps the biggest honor of his football life with the announcement he will become the franchise’s 18th member of the Colts Ring of Honor.
“It’s super humbling, just to think about all the players I played with, let alone the history of the Colts,” Glenn says in the video at the top of this story. “And being acknowledged amongst the great players they’ve had playing for that organization, for them to recognize me as one of those players is a humongous honor.”
He will be placed into the Indianapolis Colts Ring of Honor during a game next season at Lucas Oil Stadium.
Glenn, 45, who grew up in Oakland and played at Cal from 1993 through ’96, said his mom reacted the way any mother would. “You were always in my Ring of Honor,” she told him.
The more surprising reaction was from friends and fans in Indianapolis, where Glenn continued to live for seven years after retiring in 2007.
"I just really became a part of that community. Indianapolis wasn’t just a place where I worked. When I was there, I lived there. My kids went to school there. There was an element of we called Indianapolis home.” Glenn said.
“So when this was announced and to hear the love from the city of Indianapolis, that’s what was really overwhelming.”
Glenn was a two-year starter for Cal, playing under coaches Keith Gilbertson and Steve Mariucci. The Bears played in bowl games his freshman and senior seasons, and Glenn blocked for quarterback Pat Barnes his final season in 2006.
Chosen by the Colts with the 19th pick of the 2007 NFL draft, Glenn played guard as a rookie when he made the All-Rookie team, then shifted to tackle for the final nine seasons of his career. He played 154 NFL games and started every one of them.
He was a Pro Bowl honoree in 2004, ’05 and ’06 — his final three seasons.
In 1998, Glenn’s second season, the Colts drafted quarterback Peyton Manning, who went on to win five MVP awards while passing for 71,940 yards — nearly 41 miles — and 539 touchdowns.
From the outside, Manning appeared to be all-business during his playing days. Fans rarely saw the huge personality Manning now demonstrates in TV commercials and on various media platforms. Peyton showed his teammates both sides.
“When it comes to football, he was super-serious, prepared, and demanded that same type of commitment from all of his teammates,” Glenn says in the video above. “It doesn’t surprise me that he’s become a media darling . . . just because he’s always had a wit about him and was a jokester in the training room and on the football field.”
I asked Glenn about the responsibility he felt as an offensive lineman to protect Manning and his answer was thoughtful.
“If I was a younger player that came in to having to protect him, the weight of it would have felt different than it did, given the fact that I came in a year before him,” Glenn said. “I kind of felt we were all growing up together.”
Glenn also blocked for two elite running backs, first for Marshall Faulk and then Edgerrin James. Between them, they compiled nine 1,000-yard rushing seasons during Glenn’s 10 years.
“Marshall Faulk was just a dynamic talent,” Glenn says in the video above. “I got there pretty much in his prime and he made me look good. I grew into the player I became. I remember times when . . . he would just be, `Tarik, just run and go hit somebody and I’ll make sure that they’re in front of you.’ “
Of James, who burst onto the scene with more than 1,500 rushing yards as a rookie in 1999, Glenn said, “Edge is probably one of my favorite teammates. Not only was he a great player, just a fun guy to be around. He was just a very special teammate because he always wanted to get better, always encouraging to the O-line, showed us love. It was just a cool thing to watch him become the star that he was.”
Glenn helped the Colts to postseason appearances in seven of his final eight seasons and in his final year Indianapolis made it to the Super Bowl, beating the Chicago Bears 29-17.
Six months later, in the weeks before 2007 training camp was to start, Glenn announced his retirement.
“My wife had our fourth son and . . . I just felt like the chapter was closing at the time,” he explains in the video above. “I’ve come out plenty of times since then and said I’m sure there were moments where I felt like I may have done that prematurely. I may not let the whole experience to take its course because I definitely felt like I still had something left in the tank.
“But at the moment I was just drained from all the preparation, the pressures, the demands of just performing at a high level.”
He said retiring wasn’t on his mind during the Super Bowl. Instead, he recalls being with his teammates the week of the game and watching ESPN run highlights of past Super Bowls.
“I never would have thought we would be spoken about in the same conversation as the Niners of the 80s or the Dallas Cowboys of the ‘90s,” he said. “I remember looking at my teammates and like, `Are we those guys?’ It was just surreal for all of us.”
Glenn finished his bachelors degree at Cal in 1999 — during his NFL career — and earned an MBA from Purdue in 2012 at the age of 35.
He now works at Cal as deputy director for operations and strategic planning for the athletic study center.
Cover photo of Tarik Glenn courtesy of the Indianapolis Colts
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
