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Home > What's New > Brandon Lloyd
Brandon Lloyd
Posted: Friday, January 19, 2007
By Michael S. Marsh
Life isn't all circus catches and touchdown dances when you're a wide receiver in the National Football League. There can be plenty of punishment, too, especially if they call your number on a pass route across the middle, where guys like Brian Urlacher and Shawn Merriman are waiting to dish out hits.
But the biggest punishment is missing the playoffs. Or at least you would think. For Brandon Lloyd of the Washington Redskins, this off-season is a chance to enjoy life away from the game of football. Sure, he was upset his team finished with only five wins and that he's had to watch the playoffs on television like the rest of us, but there's more to Lloyd than just football. He's a family man, an aspiring recording artist and a cigar connoisseur.
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"When the smoke clears after the last game, I separate myself from football," said Lloyd during a visit last week to the Cigar Aficionado offices. "I look forward to spending as much time with my family as I can. I go on vacation. I work on my record and I watch games in peace with a beer and a cigar."
Unfortunately, some people, especially the sports media, see his life away from the football field as a distraction or, worse, a lack of team commitment. "I think some people perceive my personality the wrong way," he says with equal parts honesty and swagger. "I exemplify the lifestyle. I like style and luxury, but I'm also down-to-earth. I just try to be me." Still, it angers Lloyd when his heart and integrity are called into question. "I'm not playing for the fame and notoriety," he says, "and I'm honest about that. When I sign a contract, I do it because I believe in the coaches and the organization. I'm all about the team and how my performance affects the team, and in the locker room people know that. Yes, I get a paycheck, but I don't see football as a job. I have a blast playing football. I love putting my uniform on."
Lloyd is also using this off-season as a time to reflect, refocus and reenergize. After three solid seasons with the San Francisco 49ers, he was traded last March to the Redskins. He was expecting great things to happen in his first season, especially with a roster that included such stars as Clinton Portis, Santana Moss and Antwaan Randle-El. But, as Lloyd and any Redskins fan will tell you, the season was one to forget. Lloyd caught only 22 passes and had no touchdowns. "The year went terrible," he says. "It went terrible for me personally and it went terrible for the team. There were a lot of expectations and I think I got a little bit caught up in that. I put a lot of pressure on myself, but things didn't go the way I wanted them to go. It was tough and frustrating."
One way Lloyd is dealing with his frustrations on the football field is through music. "My music allows me to get stuff off my chest," he says. "All that stuff that gets built up, that pent-up emotion, I can release it." Lloyd has completed a rap album and is looking for a record deal. According to Lloyd, the album is about youth, flash and style, not about guns or selling drugs, which is a common image of rappers he's never been associated with and never wants to be. "Being a role model is part of my job, but it's important to be yourself. If you're trying to be something you're not, people see right through that."
Cigars are also an outlet for Lloyd, and a hobby he's been enjoying since 2001 when he was at the University of Illinois. It started while taking summer classes and working at a car dealership. "There was a guy who was always smoking cigars out front," Lloyd remembers, "and they smelled wonderful. It was just a beautiful smell. So I went up to him and asked him what he was smoking and he told me it was a Padrón 1964 Anniversary. Then he took an extra one out of his cigar case and gave it to me. When I got back to my apartment, I smoked it and I've been smoking them ever since."
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Lloyd does most of his smoking in the cigar room in his home in northern Virginia. It has leather couches, all the home entertainment and video games you could ask for and a state-of-the-art ventilation system. It also has two glass-paneled humidors, one dedicated to Padrón 1964s and the other to Padrón 1926s. "It's my man cave," says Lloyd. "When my wife and I bought the house, I told her she could have the entire house and that I only needed this one room. It's so sweet."
Though it can be tough for Lloyd to smoke as much as he wants during the season, he says that there are days when he'll smoke three cigars: one after breakfast, one after lunch and one late at night. His favorite Cuban cigar brand is Trinidad, he lists C.A.O. and Fuente as two other brands he really enjoys. His favorite, however, remain Padróns. When I gave him a Padrón 80th Anniversary perfecto that was part of the cigar tasting at last year's Las Vegas Big Smoke, his eyes lit up. A big cigar measuring 6 3/4 inches by 54 ring gauge, Lloyd smoked it to the nub. "They are just so smooth and easy. I usually smoke them until I'm burning my lip. In fact, one time I did burn my lip and I went into the locker room the next day and the guys were all over me for kissing something bad."
As for watching the rest of the playoffs, Lloyd says he'll definitely tune in. Any predictions? "I think Peyton Manning has what it takes, but this game between him and Tom Brady is like Ali-Frazier. They are two of the greatest quarterbacks. But I think the Colts have the better defense and that's what it's going to come down to."
And the Bears versus the Saints? "Defense is where it's at," he says, "And the Bears have it. The thing with the Bears is keeping Rex Grossman from trying to do too much. That said, it's a tough call.
"The nice thing is that I've come to grips with the fact that we aren't in the playoffs, so the games are easy to watch. I can watch them as a fan, with a few drinks and some cigars."
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