Minnesota Vikings&#8217; draft pick Christian Ponder, the Florida State quarterback and former Colleyville Heritage High School quarterback, speaks to CHHS
Minnesota Vikings' draft pick Christian Ponder, the Florida State quarterback and former Colleyville Heritage High School quarterback, speaks to CHHS players after their football practice at his former high school in Colleyville, Texas on Tuesday, May 10, 2011. Photography by Mei-Chun Jau for St. Paul Pioneer Press.

Editor's note: This story originally appeared on May 29, 2011.

COLLEYVILLE, Texas - Standing proudly under a gray afternoon sky, Christian Ponder faces a sea of high school players eagerly awaiting his sermon.

Texas football is finally his.

Once a shy, underappreciated teenager who was overshadowed under the Friday night lights, he is back home now, speaking to his high school team. He has done this before, but this time is different.

This time, he is speaking as the 2011 first-round draft pick of the Minnesota Vikings.

"I always knew and believed I could go in the first round," Ponder tells Colleyville Heritage's team during a recent post-practice speech. "To be successful, you have to go beyond what you're instructed to do."

The instruction could be harsh.

Both on and off the field.


For almost 20 years, the Ponder family has lived in a modest two-story brick home in Grapevine, Texas, about two miles from the high school. The living room is adorned with pictures of the three boys, and Christian's Florida State helmet sits on the entertainment center.

Christine has kept scrapbooks of her sons - Jon, 24, Christian, 23, and Austin, 15 - but Christian's book is a little thicker because of newspaper clippings from his burgeoning football career.

Flipping through the plastic, sticky album pages, Christine sees pictures of a young boy she felt the need to defend.


A pre-school teacher once told Christine that her 3-year-old son would "get beat up in high school" because he was too shy to speak to other classmates.

Christine wasn't so sure. Perhaps Christian just needed time to develop, just like it took him 13 months to walk while Jon had started walking in nine.

"I knew there were bigger things in store for him," said Christine, a stay-at-home mother. "He would be able to protect himself eventually."

Christine was right. And football would help. As Christian got older, he grew out of his self-described "weird bug phase," when he and other kids around the neighborhood would collect insects. Eventually, he would be known for his strong arm and become the permanent quarterback during street games.

"That's how I grew to love the game," he said. "I learned how competitive I was. I wanted to win those games."

His father tried to help, in his own way. Dealing with that was not going to be so easy.

David Ponder was a Florida State defensive lineman who played one season with the Dallas Cowboys and spent one training camp with the Los Angeles Raiders. He was playing for the Calgary Stampeders of the Canadian Football League when Christine asked him one day about the team's health insurance policy.

Christian was on his way.

With one child already, and with mounting injuries, David gave up his football dream and started a business career at UPromise investments, where he's now vice president. When Christian was 5, his parents moved from Tampa to Grapevine for David's job.

Jon played football, but it wasn't his passion or calling. David understood that. Jon was an all-state trumpet player in high school. But Christian? He had talent and a desire to play his father's game.

Once a middle-school cornerback, Christian was just another kid trying to discover his identity on the field. That identity became clear with each fall weekend as his eyes fixated on such quarterbacks as the Dallas Cowboys' Troy Aikman and Florida State's Chris Weinke, a St. Paul native. Still, Christian entered high school as one of several quarterbacks on the roster. He played for the junior varsity only because the quarterback ahead of him moved to receiver.

When Christian got serious about football, David made one thing clear: I love you, but football is a hard game, and you will be treated accordingly if you really want to play.

Christian understood, and calls his dad "a great guy," but the relationship would be tested more than ever during these four years of high school.

"We're just now becoming friends again," David said.


David knew what Christian needed to make it as a football player. Toughness. Knowledge. Patience but not passiveness. David also knew Christian's laid-back personality could handle his hard-core teaching style.

Most of the time.

If Christian left the house 10 minutes after a planned 8 a.m. throwing session with receivers, David would remind him that those 10 minutes could be the difference between greatness and mediocrity. Christian always had a curfew, and staying away from home overnight wasn't allowed. David insisted on chaperoning a lake-house party after Christian's senior prom.

While other parents cheered from close range, David would take video of each game of Christian's high school career from the top of the bleachers. He then would break down important plays with his son the following day.

Christian was getting better with each video. He became the unquestioned leader of the junior varsity as a sophomore, then the varsity starter the next season. But a Wing T offense didn't exactly showcase Christian's arm during a 4-6 junior season.

Everything changed that spring.

Christian threw 44 touchdown passes in two days during a popular 7-on-7 offseason tournament. His coaches were so impressed, they switched to a spread offense. Offensive coordinator John Furin called Christian "simply awesome" that week.

It was a far better experience for Christian than the previous year, when one stretch of seemingly lackadaisical play in the tournament prompted David to, admittedly, yell so loud at Christian "you could have heard me from the University of Texas."

"He looked at me like, 'Have you lost your mind?' " David said. "But the next day, he was throwing pretty well."

If Ponder were going to blow up at Dad, it would have been during the fourth quarter against Denton Ryan in Christian's senior year. Heritage trailed by 10 points with three minutes left when he sprained his ankle on a potential scoring drive. While he was getting examined on the sidelines, Christian says, his dad made firm eye contact and told him to "get the hell back in the game if it's not broken."

David remembers the incident a little differently - that he told Christian if the ankle isn't broken, he should return to the game because he only had so many high school games left.

Christian remembers being a little shocked and rolling his eyes.

In any event, he returned to the game.

"You have to keep perspective in moments like that," Christian said. "You've got to trust and know he's just trying to make you better."

Christian generally would deal with his father's manner on his own, but occasionally he'd ask Mom why Dad had to yell. Christine would be there to play good cop to David's bad, to encourage instead of push, waiting with a hug in the living room or a reminder that he was doing a great job.

She was, however, a stickler for grades. Christian says there was "hell to pay" when he brought home a C paper and would get pulled out of practice until the grade improved.

"David and I worked together to make sure he had both influences," Christine said.

David says he wasn't trying to live vicariously through his middle son; he wanted to teach all his sons Christian values and discipline. He set high standards for them. He didn't want them to feel a sense of entitlement just because there were BMWs seemingly parking in every other spot at Heritage. As the first in his own family to graduate college, David believes in working hard, being accountable and confronting fears.

Like Christian, younger brother Austin is a quarterback for Heritage. But unlike Christian, it's too early to tell whether the freshman is serious about football. Besides, David said, he isn't as hard on him because Austin isn't as thick-skinned as Christian.

David believed Christian would be successful if he didn't fear the game, if he refused to melt under the pressure of the crowd, the coaches, the demanding huddles. So he applied his own pressure.

Christian, meanwhile, grew in confidence. And courage. He wasn't going to accept anything less than a Division I scholarship, and he impressed David by remaining unfazed by the tough teachings, by completing passes under intense pressure, by using his athleticism to slither past the rush. When the time was right, when Dad was a little too harsh, Christian would tell him, "Trust me" - to believe in the skills they honed together over the years.

David would be more apt to listen the day after a game, once he had cooled off. He even apologized. David had a softer side, and Christian was starting to access it.

"There was no fear in him," David said. "I never thought Christian would quit, even though he could have. And I saw that there was immense talent in him."

Earlier this month in Grapevine, knowing the sweet outcome of Christian's journey to reach the NFL, a father and son could rib each other inside the family kitchen about those challenging days.

"(Success) was all me," Christian jokes.

For the last five years, at least, it definitely was all him. That's when he left the shelter and guidance of Grapevine on an 856-mile journey and found himself in Tallahassee, Fla.

In more ways than one.


After the 7-on-7 performance made waves regionally, Ponder's senior season earned him the No. 14 quarterback rating nationally, according to Rivals.com. Despite his inexperience and a lack of school tradition, considering it had just opened in 1996, Heritage finished 6-4, with Ponder passing for 2,214 yards and rushing for 911 more.

As coach Chris Cunningham sees it, the team would have been much worse than 10-10 under Ponder without the quarterback keeping players accountable.

"Christian helped those teams beyond his ability," Cunningham said. "He doesn't have to holler or scream it. He simply talks when it's necessary and makes sure everyone needs to get in line and gets their workouts in."

Still, Ponder felt under-recruited when compared to other local prep quarterbacks in his class, including Greg McElroy (who went to Alabama and won the national championship) and Matthew Stafford (who went to Georgia and became the NFL's No. 1 2009 draft pick). Ponder received a three-star rating from Rivals.com, the same as McElroy but below Stafford's five-star rating. He said he never cared about the rankings, but he did feel like a "legacy kid" in Florida State's recruiting plans.

He chose Florida State over Georgia Tech because there was no escaping the sentimental value of the place where his parents had fallen in love and Bobby Bowden had won two national titles. "I knew I went to FSU as just another guy in the mix," Ponder said. "But I knew I could play at the highest levels if given the chance."

Outside of football and classes, Ponder's life in Florida often was confined to a four-bedroom, 900-square foot home purchased by his family to curb distractions. Though he had won over then-offensive coordinator and now head coach Jimbo Fisher in his first spring practice, arm strength and reading defenses wouldn't be enough. Becoming Florida State's quarterback would require a vocal presence, and Ponder's introverted nature would be exposed if he relied solely on his play.

The coaching staff paired up kicker Graham Gano, now with the Washington Redskins, to live with Ponder. They were roommates for three years, but Ponder barely spoke to Gano during their first weeks together.

"Are you just conceited or something?" Gano asked him.

Ponder laughed.

"I thought this guy was strange, but he told me he was just shy," Gano said. "I started to understand him as just a young player trying not to cause trouble and play good football. We became great friends after that, and over time I saw him develop into a leader."

After spending too many nights staying home, watching movies, maybe going out a few times during a four-month semester, Ponder "broke out of my shell," as he calls it. His personality was brought out, but because of the phone instead of the football field.

A summer job with the university after his freshman season required Ponder to cold-call boosters and season-ticket holders about renewing memberships. Soon enough, he was having conversations with boosters about their backgrounds or interests. His friends saw him start to open up. Ponder instigated Guitar Hero marathons and organized trips to Wal-Mart to throw around Nerf balls.

"I hated that (telemarketing) job," he said, "but I'm glad I did it."

Academically, adapting to college wasn't an issue. He entered Florida State with 21 college credits, graduated with a degree in finance in 2-1/2 years, completed one master's degree (in business administration) and was working on a second (in sports management) before leaving Tallahassee.

Athletically, Ponder redshirted his first year and became the starter as a redshirt sophomore. As a junior, he passed for 2,717 yards, completed 68.8 percent of his passes through nine games and started earning first-round NFL buzz before missing the final four games because of a separated shoulder. He passed for 2,044 yards and completed 61.5 percent of his throws as a senior but missed two more games because of a swollen bursa sac in his right forearm.

Suddenly, there were concerns about his durability and speculation that he could fall in the draft.

The truth is Ponder could have missed more than two games last season. To prove it, he's got the two-inch scar on his forearm from where a surgeon removed excess buildup. But he played through the pain and tried to be an example for his teammates.

"(Fisher) yelled all the time, so I found my niche as positive reinforcement," Ponder said. "I'd also get on a guy if he wasn't getting the message."

His father would have been proud.


A glossy, blue-faced Rolex on his left wrist has Ponder walking a little awkwardly on his way to address the Heritage program.

A friend loaned him the accessory with the option to buy at about $10,000. He already is holding off buying a new car - to replace the 1999 Mazda Tribute he's leaving in Grapevine for Austin - because "the lockout has me unemployed," so it's easy to understand why he's torn about an expensive new toy.

"That's a lot of money to spend on a watch," Ponder said. "I might shop around a little bit on that one."

The money will come. As the No. 12 pick, he is in line to make more than the five-year, $25.6 million deal ($15 million guaranteed) running back Ryan Mathews earned after being drafted 12th by San Diego in 2010. True, a rookie wage scale could change that, but it won't change his status. And that alone is plenty to attract the attention of these high school kids on this day.

Ponder is here in Colleyville because the coaching staff invited him to speak to the team, to serve as an example that goals can be attained through hard work. He notices the players seem to be listening more intently than any other time he has spoken to them.

They are silent while kneeling on the turf with their helmets beside them as he tells them he didn't care that McElroy was rated higher coming out of high school. Nor, he tells them, did he care that ESPN analyst Trent Dilfer ripped his accuracy under pressure and compared him to Elvis Grbac, who had only limited NFL success. Ponder does say he was ticked off that someone had graded him as a third- or fourth-round pick because of his injuries, but now here he is, proving someone else wrong.

"I know I can play at this level," he tells the players.

Ponder finishes his football story, and the players thank him with a loud clap. He is the first Heritage graduate to become a starting quarterback for a Bowl Championship Series team and the school's only NFL draft selection.

When he is done, Ponder hangs around the football field for a half-hour or so, catching up with an ex-teammate who also had stopped by, teasing Austin that his extra-high hip pads were sticking out.

Christine and David are there, too, having showed up toward the end of Christian's speech, and are able to shuttle the kids back to Grapevine.

Later, standing in the kitchen, Ponder can put being here in perspective.

"It feels good to come back home," he says, "and know that I've had some success."

Follow Jeremy Fowler at Twitter.com/vikingsnow.