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FROM one of rugby league’s most feared hitmen to Hollywood, Mark Carroll’s story, particularly since his retirement from footy is nothing short of fascinating.
Now a successful business owner, Carroll’s life changed when, as a Rabbitohs player, the big front-rower met lifelong South Sydney fan and current owner Russell Crowe in the dressing sheds in his last year as a player.
Speaking on Fox Sports News 500 program Bill & Boz, Carroll opened up on his new life and how lucky he was to bump into the Oscar winner. He also revealed how he was given his curious nickname, ‘Spud’.
Carroll’s career was winding down when Crowe wandered into the sheds with fellow star actor Tom Cruise.
While Crowe was the genuine Bunnies fan, Carroll was initially more taken with Cruise. In fact he had no idea who Crowe was.
“With regards to Russell, it was one of those things that came up. When I first met him it was 1999 and I had no idea who he was. All I wanted to do was play footy,” Carroll said.
“He walked into the sheds. Tom Cruise walked in and I thought, ‘Tom Cruise, God he’s pretty’. Then Russell turned up and we exchanged numbers and it went from there.
“I played rugby league again to the age of 36. Then I was given an opportunity to look after and do stuff for Russell.”
Ben Ikin, Nathan Ryan and Ben Glover are joined by Dragons recruitment boss Ian Millward to discuss the club’s recruitment plan and why it revolves around Ben Hunt.
You can also subscribe via iTunes or for Android users, listen on the iPP Podcast Player app.
The things he did for Crowe took on many forms but his most fascinating early gig came on the set of hit boxing movie Cindarella Man.
“I did a movie with him, Cinderella Man, the boxing movie. I used to deal with about 150 people a day on set — the likes of Angelo Dundee, Renée Zellweger, (director) Ron Howard for Christ’s sake. I met him. It was unbelievable. (Zellweger) is a beautiful lady,” Carroll said.
“ ... To go to a movie, to see someone work the way (Crowe) does, you can see why he’s so good. To be able to look like a boxer and sound like an American. What he does to his body ... he goes up and down like a yo yo.
“The people I’ve met through Russell ... to meet Angelo Dundee, he’s the most beautiful guy. He can remember a boxer all thee way back to the 1930s but can’t remember cousins names.
“Unfortunately now we’ve lost Angelo, but to meet him, he taught me the art of doing the speedball. That was great.”
’The art of the speedball was a handy skill to have for a major business venture Carroll was to undertake in the form of his very own gym.
Carroll’s background in football and fitness gave him the expertise and helped with the branding but it would never have got off the ground if not for Crowe.
“My dad always made me work so I had a selling job,” Carroll said.
“Then I had seven years with Russell Crowe, which was really exciting. I’ve got to thank Russell every day because his vision for having my gym, ‘Spudds Gym’, is from him.
“ ... I’ve been (at the gym) 12 years. I remember I sat down with Russell and he said, ‘I think you should turn this into your own gym’. I went, ‘Gym?’ He goes, ‘What do you want to call it?’.
“I said, ‘I don’t know, I like the name Braddocks’. He said, ‘No, it’s got to be called Spudds’. And then he started drawing the font for Spud’s and it’s still the font for Spudds Gym now.
“So, Russell, thanks mate.”
While ‘Spudds Gym’ is the lasting legacy of Carroll’s relationship with Crowe, it was when the former Origin star was employed as the actor’s bodyguard that they spent the most time together.
The press’s intrusive relationship with Hollywood has heightened the importance of the bodyguard for high profile actors but Carroll says there wasn’t much of an art to what he did.
“They say bodyguard, but at the end of the day I’m walking out on the street and looking at someone with bad eyes to keep away at 6’4,” Carroll said.
“He’s good enough to look after himself, Russell.
“I enjoyed every day what I was doing. The training aspect, the travel, the people I met. I tell you what, it’s not an easy gig.
“For someone like that, what he does, 16 hour days, learning the routines, especially in that boxing movie. That was phenomenal. He’s not a young man any more.”
It’s one of rugby league’s best nicknames, but the story of how Mark Carroll became ‘Spud’ is not well known.
As with all the best nicknames it started with a simple anecdote and stuck like glue.
“I remember as a kid I dreamed about playing first grade rugby league. I read a magazine that said ‘For energy, eat potatoes’. I used to eat 16 potatoes like that before a game,” Carroll said.
“They’re the worst thing you can ever eat, but in my head I’m thinking if I eat these potatoes I’m going to be really good.
“I had a really good game and (Daily Telegraph chief rugby league writer of the time) Peter Frilingos, who unfortunately has passed away, says ‘Mate, you’ve just done 20 carries and 20 tackles, what’s your secret?’
“I said, ‘It must be the potatoes’. I told him about the potatoes I ate.”
The story blew up.
“Mum rang up and she goes, ‘You’d better come home. There’s all these bags of potatoes on the front porch and The Daily Telegraph want to do a photo’.
“That’s how ‘Spud’ began.
“I walked into Souths and they said, ‘Here comes Spud’. I went like that and they said, ‘You, you boofhead. You’re the one who eats all the potatoes’.”
SHOULDER CHARGE — IT’S PART OF THE GAME
Apart from his nickname, Carroll was best known for his ability to put on big hits and change the momentum of a game.
His duel over many years with Newcastle’s Paul Harragon is still remembered as one of the best front-rower rivalries of all time.
Carroll played at a time when the shoulder charge was not only legal but encouraged.
As far as he’s concerned that never should have changed.
“Don’t get me going about the shoulder charge,” he said.
“My philosophy is this: we’re playing a body contact sport, the hardest game in the world.
“We wear shoulder pads and a mouth guard, but we don’t wear helmets. Two blokes running into each other. ‘You’re going to run at me and you’re not going to move? I’m going to hit you with something’.
“Body to body, you’re trying to put the bloke on the ground.”
Which is why he can’t cop the suspension Cowboys star Jason Taumalolo is facing for a hit on Alex Glenn in Friday night’s classic golden point win over the Broncos.
“That was a magnificent hit in front of the posts (from Taumalolo), it was a game changer,” he said. “Next thing penalty goes against him.
“If you hit someone on the chin, give them five weeks minimum.
“Even if it’s off the shoulder to the chin. But if it’s body to body, I wouldn’t have played any weeks. They were my best hits. Seriously, back then we could get away with that.”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...n/news-story/a1821157bccaf8fbc4dfaf7b0eb2d357
Now a successful business owner, Carroll’s life changed when, as a Rabbitohs player, the big front-rower met lifelong South Sydney fan and current owner Russell Crowe in the dressing sheds in his last year as a player.
Speaking on Fox Sports News 500 program Bill & Boz, Carroll opened up on his new life and how lucky he was to bump into the Oscar winner. He also revealed how he was given his curious nickname, ‘Spud’.
Carroll’s career was winding down when Crowe wandered into the sheds with fellow star actor Tom Cruise.
While Crowe was the genuine Bunnies fan, Carroll was initially more taken with Cruise. In fact he had no idea who Crowe was.
“With regards to Russell, it was one of those things that came up. When I first met him it was 1999 and I had no idea who he was. All I wanted to do was play footy,” Carroll said.
“He walked into the sheds. Tom Cruise walked in and I thought, ‘Tom Cruise, God he’s pretty’. Then Russell turned up and we exchanged numbers and it went from there.
“I played rugby league again to the age of 36. Then I was given an opportunity to look after and do stuff for Russell.”
Ben Ikin, Nathan Ryan and Ben Glover are joined by Dragons recruitment boss Ian Millward to discuss the club’s recruitment plan and why it revolves around Ben Hunt.
You can also subscribe via iTunes or for Android users, listen on the iPP Podcast Player app.
The things he did for Crowe took on many forms but his most fascinating early gig came on the set of hit boxing movie Cindarella Man.
“I did a movie with him, Cinderella Man, the boxing movie. I used to deal with about 150 people a day on set — the likes of Angelo Dundee, Renée Zellweger, (director) Ron Howard for Christ’s sake. I met him. It was unbelievable. (Zellweger) is a beautiful lady,” Carroll said.
“ ... To go to a movie, to see someone work the way (Crowe) does, you can see why he’s so good. To be able to look like a boxer and sound like an American. What he does to his body ... he goes up and down like a yo yo.
“The people I’ve met through Russell ... to meet Angelo Dundee, he’s the most beautiful guy. He can remember a boxer all thee way back to the 1930s but can’t remember cousins names.
“Unfortunately now we’ve lost Angelo, but to meet him, he taught me the art of doing the speedball. That was great.”
’The art of the speedball was a handy skill to have for a major business venture Carroll was to undertake in the form of his very own gym.
Carroll’s background in football and fitness gave him the expertise and helped with the branding but it would never have got off the ground if not for Crowe.
“My dad always made me work so I had a selling job,” Carroll said.
“Then I had seven years with Russell Crowe, which was really exciting. I’ve got to thank Russell every day because his vision for having my gym, ‘Spudds Gym’, is from him.
“ ... I’ve been (at the gym) 12 years. I remember I sat down with Russell and he said, ‘I think you should turn this into your own gym’. I went, ‘Gym?’ He goes, ‘What do you want to call it?’.
“I said, ‘I don’t know, I like the name Braddocks’. He said, ‘No, it’s got to be called Spudds’. And then he started drawing the font for Spud’s and it’s still the font for Spudds Gym now.
“So, Russell, thanks mate.”
While ‘Spudds Gym’ is the lasting legacy of Carroll’s relationship with Crowe, it was when the former Origin star was employed as the actor’s bodyguard that they spent the most time together.
The press’s intrusive relationship with Hollywood has heightened the importance of the bodyguard for high profile actors but Carroll says there wasn’t much of an art to what he did.
“They say bodyguard, but at the end of the day I’m walking out on the street and looking at someone with bad eyes to keep away at 6’4,” Carroll said.
“He’s good enough to look after himself, Russell.
“I enjoyed every day what I was doing. The training aspect, the travel, the people I met. I tell you what, it’s not an easy gig.
“For someone like that, what he does, 16 hour days, learning the routines, especially in that boxing movie. That was phenomenal. He’s not a young man any more.”
It’s one of rugby league’s best nicknames, but the story of how Mark Carroll became ‘Spud’ is not well known.
As with all the best nicknames it started with a simple anecdote and stuck like glue.
“I remember as a kid I dreamed about playing first grade rugby league. I read a magazine that said ‘For energy, eat potatoes’. I used to eat 16 potatoes like that before a game,” Carroll said.
“They’re the worst thing you can ever eat, but in my head I’m thinking if I eat these potatoes I’m going to be really good.
“I had a really good game and (Daily Telegraph chief rugby league writer of the time) Peter Frilingos, who unfortunately has passed away, says ‘Mate, you’ve just done 20 carries and 20 tackles, what’s your secret?’
“I said, ‘It must be the potatoes’. I told him about the potatoes I ate.”
The story blew up.
“Mum rang up and she goes, ‘You’d better come home. There’s all these bags of potatoes on the front porch and The Daily Telegraph want to do a photo’.
“That’s how ‘Spud’ began.
“I walked into Souths and they said, ‘Here comes Spud’. I went like that and they said, ‘You, you boofhead. You’re the one who eats all the potatoes’.”
SHOULDER CHARGE — IT’S PART OF THE GAME
Apart from his nickname, Carroll was best known for his ability to put on big hits and change the momentum of a game.
His duel over many years with Newcastle’s Paul Harragon is still remembered as one of the best front-rower rivalries of all time.
Carroll played at a time when the shoulder charge was not only legal but encouraged.
As far as he’s concerned that never should have changed.
“Don’t get me going about the shoulder charge,” he said.
“My philosophy is this: we’re playing a body contact sport, the hardest game in the world.
“We wear shoulder pads and a mouth guard, but we don’t wear helmets. Two blokes running into each other. ‘You’re going to run at me and you’re not going to move? I’m going to hit you with something’.
“Body to body, you’re trying to put the bloke on the ground.”
Which is why he can’t cop the suspension Cowboys star Jason Taumalolo is facing for a hit on Alex Glenn in Friday night’s classic golden point win over the Broncos.
“That was a magnificent hit in front of the posts (from Taumalolo), it was a game changer,” he said. “Next thing penalty goes against him.
“If you hit someone on the chin, give them five weeks minimum.
“Even if it’s off the shoulder to the chin. But if it’s body to body, I wouldn’t have played any weeks. They were my best hits. Seriously, back then we could get away with that.”
http://www.foxsports.com.au/nrl/nrl...n/news-story/a1821157bccaf8fbc4dfaf7b0eb2d357
