Kornacki: What Makes the Brothers Glasgow Tick
10/21/2016 12:00:00 AM | Football
Oct. 21, 2016
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- When Jordan Glasgow opted to follow in the footsteps of his brothers, Graham Glasgow and Ryan Glasgow, and walk on the football team at the University of Michigan, first thought was that the Wolverines were getting another hulking player for the trenches.
Graham, now a rookie offensive lineman with the Detroit Lions, is 6-foot-6 and 308 pounds.
Ryan, who Graham said last week will be joining him in the NFL next season, is a 6-4, 299-pound defensive tackle.
But Jordan is a 6-1, 210-pound sophomore safety and special teams standout.
"I know a lot of people on the team say we don't look like brothers at all," said Jordan, who also has a darker complexion and hair than his brothers and wears his hair longer than either of them. "They've made jokes about me being adopted, and I can believe it. But for some reason, I don't."
Ryan offered his perspective on the size differences: "We took all the food, but it is strange. Jordan was always kind of smaller than us, but he did mature pretty fast and looks like a wild man with his long hair and beard."
Yet, they are similar in the "hard-nosed" way they play football and as standout students. Their parents, Steven and Michele Glasgow, have an orthopedic surgery practice in Sycamore, Illinois, and brought the boys up right.
"They are brothers and very similar," said Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. "They have similar parents (laughter). All three brothers are really smart guys, good guys, good teammates, good football players. They breed them well in the Glasgow family.
"(They are) underrated, obviously. It's very important to them that they're good, and you see an importance with the family that getting the best grades, winning awards, excelling at sports, you see them work at it, and you see them improve. It's a proven formula for many and all three of the Glasgow brothers."
The maize and blue tradition began with Graham, who had intended to walk on at Ohio State until Buckeyes coach Jim Tressel resigned late in his senior year at Marmion Academy, a prep school in Aurora, Illinois.
His father advised him to attend Minnesota or Michigan because of positive connections.
Steven had been the team doctor for Northern Illinois, where then Golden Gophers coach Jerry Kill previously led the Huskies. Marmion assistant coach Kurt Becker, a Wolverines All-America guard in 1981 who also played for the Chicago Bears, contacted Michigan.
Graham, who earned a degree in economics and was a three-time Academic All-Big Ten selection, came to Ann Arbor in 2011, and Ryan followed the next year. They earned scholarships and became dominant players.
Graham Glasgow vs. UNLV in 2015
Ryan, also majoring in economics, shared with Chris Wormley the 2015 Richard Katcher Award as Michigan's top defensive lineman. Graham won last year's Hugh Rader Award as the school's best offensive lineman.
Jordan, enrolled in the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, earned the U-M Athletic Achievement award in 2015 along with Ryan. He didn't see game action last year but has six tackles and a recovered fumble on special teams this season.
"They (Graham and Ryan) are kind of similar," said Wolverines senior offensive guard Kyle Kalis, "but Ryan's a little more edgy on the field, a little more crazy. Graham's really meticulous and calculated.
"Jordan kind of reminds me of a serial killer because he's really quiet and has that side of Graham, but on the field he's like crazy. All of a sudden on a (practice) play, Jordan will hit me in the back, and I'm like, 'What the hell?' But I think he's a really good player, too."
Jordan was asked for his thoughts on Kalis' observation.
"I wouldn't use those words to describe me," said Jordan, "but I guess other people describe you better than you describe yourself. So, I don't know if Kyle's choice words are the best. Maybe you could ask somebody else, and hopefully you'll ask someone else. But I guess we'll have to go with that for now."
Ryan smiled when asked about Kalis' assessment of his younger brother.
"I wouldn't say serial killer," said Ryan, chuckling. "I mean, he comes off as a little quiet at first but he's a crazy person on the field. So, I could see how one could get that impression, but, no, I don't quite see him as a serial killer."
Graham is 24 and Ryan is 23. Jordan is 20 and smaller, and so it was only natural that big brothers did what big brothers do.
"I endured some physical, some mental (abuse)," Jordan said, smiling. "What they would always say, before I came to college, is it made me stronger. Maybe that's an excuse that they made for doing it, but I genuinely believe that it made me stronger, and it not necessarily allowed me, but it aided me in becoming the person that I am now."
Ryan said, "I'm not going to say that we were nurturing and nice to him. Brothers are brothers, but Jordan was a rough and tumble kid. We pick on him and roughhouse him a little bit, but he might be a little histrionic with the details. But, more or less, yeah."
Ryan regrets one instance when Jordan was six.
"I'm particularly sad about this," said Ryan. "We were racing in the backyard and Jordan backis a lot faster than me. So, I tripped him because he was going to beat me, and he fell and broke his hand. That was just the worst thing. He went inside and his hand was completely limp and bent in half."
Then there was the time Ryan went flying and crashing over Jordan's tricycle.
"What I remember about it is a lot of blood and a very angry brother," said Jordan.
Ryan said, however, that the household is "pretty relaxed with a lot of friendly banter," and loved having their grandparents, Carmella and James Glasgow, a retired construction worker, in the house because they offered the perspectives of a different generation.
"It's pretty calm really -- especially when my brothers aren't there," said Jordan. "My grandmother lives with us and she's a little bit excitable. But we're really just a normal family. The brothers fight a bit, and we have some arguments, but otherwise it's pretty calm."
Ryan Glasgow is one of Michigan's leading tacklers
Jordan said his father also played college football and wrestled at the University of Pennsylvania, where he earned his medical degree, and relates well to their lives as student-athletes.
"He just knows how the game is played and how we feel after a game or after a bad game or bad practice," said Jordan. "What he tells us and how he treats us really helps us grow as individuals."
Mom, who specializes in shoulder surgeries while her husband does so with knees, also had a huge impact on the boys.
"She's been a nurturing, caring type," said Ryan. "She's always there for us and is emotional. When she drops me off, she still sheds a tear."
The Glasgows' three sons had each other to lean on in Ann Arbor in 2015, when all of them suited up for the Wolverines. Now Graham got his first start in the NFL in Detroit's last game against the Los Angeles Rams and lives nearby, while Ryan and Jordan get one more year together at Michigan, where the team is 6-0 and ranked No. 3 headed into Saturday's (Oct. 22) home game with Illinois.
"They told me it would be hard," Jordan said, "but that's one of the things that's appealing about coming here -- tough academics, tough athletics and it's difficult to get noticed with all the talent. But that's one of the exciting parts.
"We have a hard-nosed mentality, that whatever we get we're going to have to work for. That's evident and has really been shown through my brothers, and I hope to get on the field more and on scholarship. But all that takes hard work and dedication to the game and school work."
Ryan added: "The best advice I got from Graham was (to) just keep pushing. The chips might not fall your way, you might have a bad day now and then, but keep pushing, keep going. As a walk-on, you get treated pretty similarly, but sometimes you might feel as if you're slighted.
"So, 'Make it so they can't ignore you' is the biggest thing Graham said to me. And I told Jordan that -- just keep performing every day and do your job, and good things will happen."
Jordan is the last of the Glasgow brothers, and their sister, Anna, is still in high school. While they boys remain close to their parents, sister and grandparents, they've found a second family in Ann Arbor.
"Harbaugh and the seniors who are here really create a bond between everyone," said Jordan. "It really shows through how we play and how we treat each other."
