For those of you who know our very own Rumble the Bison, you know how much he loves giving back to kids all over the great state of Oklahoma.

However, last night, Rumble was invited to take part in an event in Utah put on by his furry friend, Jazz Bear.

We all know how hard Rumble trains to stay in shape during the offseason to be ready once Thunder games start, but before last night, few knew that, on occasion, he also takes to the gridiron for charity.

In front of over 9,500 people on a cool evening in Lehi, Utah, Rumble and his furry pals matched up against an imposing group of 12-year-old future football stars.

His teammates included fuzzy guys from acros the NBA: Gorilla, Clutch, Boomer, Rocky, Crunch, Bango, Jazz Bear and Bear’s half-pint friend, Lil Bear.

They began the evening with fanfare from around the area, they marveled at skydivers and had a riveting national anthem. Jazz Bear even set a Guiness World Record football toss from atop a crane 350 feet in the air.

Once the pagentry ended, it was time for Rumble to take part in the game and strap on some cleats to those hooves … which is really not possible.

Now, we’ve all seen Rumble’s amazing talents at work. He drums, he flies in from the ceiling at Chesapeake Energy Arena, he stacks bowls on his head, he makes fantastic behind-the-back shots from half court. But we learned last night that Rumble’s skills don’t quite translate to the football field.

At school shows, Rumble always tells the kids to try their hardest and do their best, and try he did. Using his amazing speed and agility, here were some of Rumble’s stats on the day: four missed tackles, one pitch back to Crunch, a couple of really nice blocks and a lot of hijinks. But he tried, as you can see in this video:

Rumble’s missed tackle

While Rumble and his furry friends may be masters of the hardwood and know all the rules of their game, basketball, let’s just say these guys are not exactly experts in the rules of the football field … Many, many penalties …

In the end, the young men from Lehi, Utah took the game 28-23. But we found out that Rumble’s popularity doesn’t end at the Oklahoma State line.  With hundreds of autographs, dozens of pictures taken and too many hugs to count, Rumble was a star in this show, no matter his football prowess.  No yellow flag thrown for that!

In addition to his football play, Rumble did what he does best: dancing, drumming and lighting up the faces and warming the hearts of the crowd on a chilly evening in Utah.

But what is is that would make Rumble travel all the way to Utah for, of all things, a football game?

The kids.

Rumble’s assistance will help the Bear Hugs for Kids charity provide over 250 lower-income kids with Christmas gifts that they otherwise would not be able to have this upcoming holiday season.

Kudos for the effort Rumble, but it doesn’t appear you are ready for big-time football quite yet … Thankfully for Thunder fans, basketball is only a few weeks away !

- Jon Brooks

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 25th, 2012 at 9:50 am and is filed under Community, Rumble. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.