Keeler: Why NFL center Weston Richburg as well as partner Marlee provided CSU Rams $1 thousand really worth of thank-yous

Interesting piece by Sean Keeler from The Denver Post talking about some important happenings this week. Sean Keeler recently posted the article and I decided it was a great post for syndicating on this website.

Pay it forward, they told him. Always. OK, Weston Richburg figured. How does $1 million worth of forward sound?

“I’ve been blessed to do what I’ve done,” Richburg, the former CSU Rams lineman and current San Francisco 49ers center told The Post recently.

“And blessed to be provided with the means that I’ve been provided with. This was a cool way for us both to have a place to give money to and try to make an impact at a place that affected us both in a good way.”

The Richburgs are back in the CSU record books. Only this time, it’s because of their checkbook.

The university announced earlier this month that Weston, who played football with the Rams from 2010-13 and wife, Marlee — who starred as Marlee Reynolds with the CSU volleyball program from 2011-2014 — donated a gift of $1 million to the athletic department via a charitable trust.

According to the university, it’s the first gift to CSU of seven figures or more by a donor, or donors, younger than 30. Weston, a second-round pick in the 2014 NFL Draft who just completed his seventh pro season and third with the Niners, turns 30 on July 9. Marlee Richburg celebrates birthday No. 29 the next day.

“We’re really proud to be CSU Rams,” Marlee said, “and we just want them to be on the map a little bit more.

“You’ve got the pieces, (where people say), ‘Oh, wow, you went to CSU?’ We’re hoping … that it gives (the school) the opportunity to bring in those athletes and bring in those trophies.”

As student-athletes, Weston and Marlee brought plenty to Rams lore. They grew up in the Texas panhandle, roughly 70 minutes apart, as strangers. They met at CSU. Fell in love at CSU. Excelled at CSU.

Weston made 50 starts as a Rams lineman, still a school record, under coaches Steve Fairchild and Jim McElwain. Marlee was named to the Academic All-Mountain West roster over four straight years for longtime CSU volleyball coach Tom Hilbert.

Both notched first team all-league honors as seniors — Weston on the football side in 2013, Marlee a year later with volleyball.

Time flies when you’re with the love of your life. Their son, Cash, is approaching his first birthday. Marlee wrapped up her Masters degree in counseling a few years back. Weston signed a five-year, $47.5-million contract with San Francisco, $28.5 million of it guaranteed, in March 2018.

Spotrac.com estimates Weston’s career NFL earnings at $36.2 million already, and the family’s already set the wheels in motion toward a cattle operation out of their ranch in Texas.

“We both grew up with cattle,” Marlee said. “My dad had cattle — he called them our “college cows,” because the cows were going to pay for our college.”

Now the Richburgs want to help pay back CSU, especially with the Rams, like so many peer Division I programs, hemorrhaging money after the coronavirus pandemic cut off fan attendance and attendance-related revenue streams.

“I think that’s what gave us the push to get this done and do it (now),” Marlee explained. “We know they’re hurting and that the pandemic hurt them, hurt all of the athletic department in general. I think this (was) definitely the kick in the pants, that we wanted to make sure that they can do well through this and recover well through this.”

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Athletic director Joe Parker reached out via phone to offer his thanks, as did university president Joyce McConnell (“Very cool, very humbling,” Weston said of McConnell’s voicemail).

Ditto for football coach Steve Addazio, whom the Richburgs met for the first time during a visit to campus this past March. The Daz even had Weston address the current CSU roster at one of the Rams’ spring practices last month.

Pay it forward, baby. Always.

“I kind of compared him to guys I had (in Fort Collins),” Weston said of Addazio. “You’ve got to recruit guys and you’ve got to let a fire under them, too. I’m excited to see him get a full year, and to see his guys finally playing a full year of football this year.”