Chris Gizzi overcomes poor eyesight to shine

Tim Graham

Thursday, Dec. 18, 1997 | 12:51 p.m.

Chris Gizzi never will fly off into the wild, blue yonder. He never will break the sound barrier. He never will pilot a bombing mission.

The government won't let him.

Even though the Air Force cadet is one day from graduating, the most action he will see on a fighter jet is administering maintenance on the tarmac.

Gizzi's eyesight is that bad.

But then again, maybe that's why the decorated Air Force linebacker is so quick to lower the boom on opposing ballcarriers. He never lets them get far enough away to roam out of his sight.

Gizzi, the two-time Western Athletic Conference Pacific Division player of the year, will keep his eye on the ball as he leads Air Force's devastating defense into battle with Oregon's explosive offense.

The teams engage in Las Vegas Bowl VI at 3 p.m. Saturday at Sam Boyd Stadium.

"'I'm not able to fly or do anything combatwise because of my eyes," said Gizzi, who tops the Falcons with 179 tackles this year. "The best I can do is support the forces and do my best at that."

Gizzi's eyesight is 20/100. That means an object he sees clearly from 20 feet away could be seen just as clearly at 100 feet by a person with normal vision. A person with 20/200 vision is considered legally blind.

"My contacts are thick," he said with a chuckle.

Nearsightedness is not Gizzi's only shortcoming. He is considered small for a professional linebacking prospect at 5-foot-11, 230 pounds. But he certainly measures up elsewhere.

"Chris Gizzi is one of the best linebackers I've ever seen," Oregon head coach Mike Bellotti said. "He does not get blocked."

Gizzi's tenacity has become legendary and can be completely illustrated with one example. The bridge of his nose was slashed open in training camp and originally required four stitches. But the forehead pad of his helmet continually grated on the wound. Each time he made a big hit, the stitches were ripped out.

"The guy was like a boxer after every game, going to the hospital and getting sewn up," Air Force head coach Fisher DeBerry said.

Gizzi was forced to miss part of the first quarter and the entire second against UNLV on Sept. 13 because he was getting stitched on the sideline. He still managed 15 tackles in a 25-24 victory.

But Gizzi eventually started to heal. The scar is now inches long, traveling from between his eyes to midway down his nose, ending in a large pustule.

"He has had over 100 stitches in his nose this year," DeBerry said. "So he's looking pretty rugged."

But that's the way Gizzi's career has gone since he came to Air Force out of Cleveland's St. Ignatius High, a team USA Today ranked No. 1 in the country during his tenure.

A serious knee injury in 1995 forced Gizzi to leave the Academy for some time. Because he was out for so long, he required a rare ninth semester to graduate. That odd semester is so unusual, in fact, that Gizzi is the only Falcon who will graduate this winter.

And with the team in Las Vegas and winter break commencing at the Academy, Gizzi will graduate and become a 2nd lieutenant Friday in a special ceremony at Caesars Palace.

"It will be a proud time for our football team," DeBerry said.

But to Gizzi, the ceremony merely is a formality. Graduating is secondary to football this weekend.

"I'm looking to play this game," he said. "Graduation is something that I've done the work the past four years. It's just a little celebration thing.

"We'll get the ceremony over with and then Saturday we'll get to celebrate it, the culmination of football and my career at the Academy."

While Gizzi could be drafted by an NFL team, he will not be able to play until he serves his commitment. The standard length is five years. But a special option recently was implemented, where an officer can depart after two years in exchange for six years of reserve service later.

"Right now it's in the back of my mind," Gizzi said of his professional career. "It's going to stay there until next week. Monday, that's when I start working and trying to make a team. But right now it's all Oregon."

He will play in the East-West Shrine Game and the Hula Bowl, the most heavily scouted of the senior all-star exhibitions.

If Gizzi does get drafted by the NFL, he will become only the seventh player in Air Force history to have that happen. The last was Gizzi's predecessor and role model, Steve Russ, by the Denver Broncos in 1995.