FAYETTEVILLE — Tony Bua was asked one question before taking the stage at the Northwest Arkansas Touchdown Club on Wednesday: Did he want to stand at the podium, or prefer a wireless microphone?
It was a silly question. Bua has never stood still in his life. He didn't stand for anything during a magnificent four-year career at Arkansas (2000-2003) that was split between outside linebacker and free safety. He's the school's all-time leading tackler with 408.
Bua explained that he didn't stand still for what he thought were horrible calls by the SEC referees in a 10-3 loss to Auburn in 2003. The No. 7 Hogs had two long runs - including a would-be game-tying touchdown in the fourth quarter - erased by holding calls that started a three-game losing streak his senior year.
“I chased the referees into their locker room after the game,” Bua said. “They took away a touchdown by (Matt Jones). They were B.S. Calls. I guess it was bad for ratings if little Arkansas won.
“I guess I'm high on emotions, so the next thing I knew I was in the referees locker room screaming. I guess emotions are what I'm known for. I was screaming, 'You just took it from us! You took it from us!' I was sliding around on my cleats screaming.”
Bua was quickly ushered out. Not surprisingly, Bua did not mention his confrontation with his coaches or teammates. They soon found out. Head coach Houston Nutt brought him to his office early the next week.
“He had a pretty envelope from the SEC,” Bua said. “I thought maybe I'd won something good. It was an official letter of reprimand. It said if I did anything like that again, I'd never play again.”
There were some not-so-nice words from Nutt, too.
“You can't print what he told me,” Bua said. “I knew I shouldn't have done it, but I can't help myself sometimes. I'm an open book. I just do what my emotions tell me to do.”
Bua has little doubt that his actions cost the Hogs the next week in a 33-28 loss to Florida.
“We beat Auburn, but they took it from us,” he said. “Then, the next week against Florida, I made a tackle on the first play and I jumped up. The referee said, 'If you do a thing, you are out of this game.' I got a one-handed interception later. I knew they were going to take it from us, but they didn't.”
Bua said he sprinted all the way across the field with the ball when he realized there was going to be debate on his catch.
“Coach Nutt wanted to know why I was over there,” Bua said. “I told him I had to get to a safe place because I couldn't say anything to the refs. They gave that to me, but they were waiting for me at the end.”
After trailing by 26 points, Arkansas was making a furious rally in the closing seconds, but an interception by Sam Olajubutu was wiped away because of a penalty against Bua for a hit against Florida quarterback Chris Leak. The interception would have given the Razorbacks great field position and a chance to win in the closing seconds, but the Gators won 33-28.
“They said it was helmet-to-helmet,” Bua said. “It wasn't. Then, they said it was a late hit. It wasn't. I just think they were waiting to get me back from the previous week and that was their chance.”
Bua said the play happened because of an ad lib.
“Our defensive call had me in deep middle,” Bua said. “I thought why - it's third-and-3. They get four yards, what good am I in deep middle. I just blitzed. So what if (the coaches) want to do something to me? I'm a senior.
“'Butu got the interception and we were going to win the game. I'm just telling you with every fiber of my body, that was a bad call. I guess it came down to being my fault for not controlling my emotions the previous game.”
Bua's emotions were on display at the TD Club. An awesome player with great pride in being a Razorback, he said just before the talk that he'd pay to run through the “A” before a game one more time.
“I think I'd pay a bunch,” he said. “I think other players would do that, too. I really want to do it one more time.”
Bua can afford to pay, too. His Next Level Roofing company in Lucas, Texas, has flourished over the last six years.
“I went to work for a big company and they messed me around,” he said. “I started my own company. We did 60 (roofs) my first year, 160 the next. We've done over 250 in each of the last four years. We have expanded. We have built our infrastructure and might be in Northwest Arkansas soon.”
Bua was in the end zones amidst TCU boosters for the Arkansas victory last weekend.
“So much fun,” he said. “I annoyed those TCU folks. It was a great game, but I thought we were about to put them away earlier in the game. If we had gotten in for a touchdown when we had them down 20-7, that place was about to empty.
“I do like what I see. Coach (Bret) Bielema has them playing well and we are winning games we couldn't win a few years ago. We have more talent. We can do more things. I'm excited. I love the Razorbacks with everything I've got. I love to see them play.”
Interestingly, one of his neighbors in Texas is his former coach. Bua and Nutt play golf every Tuesday. It was during a recent game that the coach told the ex-player he didn't want him when assistant Clifton Ealy came back from a recruiting trip in New Orleans, where Bua played at the legendary John Curtis Christian High School.
“Coach Nutt said that Coach Ealy jumped up on the table and was screaming that he had to have me,” Bua said. “He said he didn't really want me until then. I wasn't really on anyone's radar.”
Bua said his story is about beating the odds. At 5-11, 180 pounds, there were always plenty of doubters.
“I wasn't big enough, fast enough,” he said. “I was never good enough, and it was about me proving that I was good enough.”
How did he prove it?
“There are no real secrets,” he said. “My mentality, I went out each game trying to knock myself out. If I did, I knew I wouldn't remember it anyway. I told myself, go as hard as I can until I pass out. If I pass out, I wouldn't have to go anymore. It was that simple.
“I'm going to knock myself out or you out. That was my goal.”
Football came to an end because there were no more goals.
“My goal was to make it to the NFL,” Bua said. “I got there and all at once, I had done what I set out. I thought I'd made it. You have to have goals. I didn't have any more.”
Bua made the Miami Dolphins under Dave Wannstedt's watch. But he was bounced out when Nick Saban arrived from LSU.
“Nick Saban came in and the first thing he told me, 'I know you from Arkansas, you are going to make my team,' but when we got to camp I was last on the depth chart and I got cut,” Bua said. “Well, I had bought a new car and a $400,000 house after what Nick told me.”
There was another shot with the Dallas Cowboys, but it ended midway through the season as Bua toiled on the practice squad. There was a feeling that he was trying too hard against the regulars in practice.
“I think I got cut for being All-Valley Ranch,” said Bua, referring to the Cowboys' old practice facility. “They have a guy who cuts you they call the Grim Reaper. He doesn't tell you anything. I decided I wanted to find out why I got cut, how to make it the next time.”
So Bua did about the same thing as after the Auburn loss. He walked past the stop signs into the office of owner Jerry Jones, in the middle of a session with coach Bill Parcells.
“The secretary said I couldn't go in there,” Bua said. “I just kept on walking. I went in and sat down with them. They looked at me like I was crazy.”
There was no explanation. Parcells praised his ability and efforts.
“Parcells told me how great I was,” Bua said. “I said, 'But you cut me!' I knew why. They didn't have any money invested in me.”
Bua is the one investing money now. He continues to add crews and equipment. There is excitement all around him.
“I always heard I wasn't good enough,” he said. “That is my motivation. I did get to hear from my dad about how proud he was of me a few months ago. I was coming down from a roof on a ladder. He left and I find out that 45 minutes later he'd died.”
There were stories about his early days when things were tough for the family.
“I came from a trailer park,” he said. “We were outcasts. But my dad made something out of nothing, became a locksmith.”
There was a move from a country town back to the big city of New Orleans so that Bua might be seen by college recruiters.
“I played tailback and scored a lot of touchdowns,” he said. “But my coach told me I'd probably get recruited by Stephen F. Austin or Sam Houston. Something like that. My dad took me to John Curtis. I beat out a returning starter at free safety my senior year at a football factory school.
“My offers were SMU or Arkansas. I remember driving up here for a visit. We came over the hill and saw the lights of the town. I called my father in the car in front of me. I said, 'Dad, when I leave this place, everyone is going to know my name.' He said, 'Just get off at the exit and stop at the Super 8.'”
There was a great story about missing the team bus before a game at South Carolina. Bua said “brainiac” linebacker Caleb Miller was in charge of getting him to everything on time. But he forgot to set the alarm at Columbia.
“Caleb was my roommate on the road,” Bua said. “I always just let him do everything. All I had to do was eat and watch tape. But he didn't set the alarm that day.”
They hitched a ride to the game with teammate Ken Hamlin's mom. But traffic was jammed up a few miles from the stadium in massive grid lock.
“There is only one way in and it was always dead stop,” he said. “I knew we were going to miss the kickoff. And here comes a state trooper in the grass in the medium. I jumped out and flagged him down.”
Eventually, the trooper gave Bua and Miller a ride, bouncing down the medium.
“I got to thinking, 'Why is he doing this?' Maybe he doesn't like South Carolina," Bua said. “Sure enough, we get to the stadium and I thanked him. I wanted his name and said I'd write a thank you note. He said, 'You don't have to do that, just beat the crap out of the Gamecocks. I hate them.'”
Bua said there have been failures in his life, just not many.
“I failed first grade,” he said. “I had to do it twice. But everything else I've been successful. How? You have to live it, breathe it. You have to do what no one else is willing to do. The downside, sometimes it owns you.”
The first story at the TD Club explains Bua. He said he was telling a recent client about his brief NFL career.
“You don't believe it, Google me,” Bua said. “He looked at me and said, 'How did you play in the NFL?' Well, I got to the NFL the same way I'm going to build your roof - with everything I've got.”