What a telephone booth is to Superman, the sideline of a soccer field is to Craig Waibel.
Once he steps inside the chalk, Waibel transforms from mild-mannered husband and charity fundraiser to snarling right back for Houston Dynamo. With teammate and central defender Eddie Robinson, he forms arguably the most intimidating defensive duo in the league.
Both players are due to start Sunday as Dynamo face the New England Revolution in MLS Cup 2006.
"I think the field's my outlet," Waibel said. "Stepping over the line, I think many an athlete has that where they have a different switch.
"When I step over the line on game day, it is a different person."
Off the field, Waibel is outgoing and friendly. He jokes that he's paid the San Jose Earthquakes and Dynamo to give him their U.S. Soccer Foundation Humanitarian of the Year awards to make him seem like a nice guy.
Waibel has won his team's humanitarian award each of the past four years for the charity work he's done in the Bay Area and Houston communities.
"Craig, we like to call him the mayor," said Dynamo goalkeeper Pat Onstad. "He likes to get around and shake hands with everyone, but he's outgoing and very funny."
Off the field, Robinson, a North Carolina native, displays Southern charm and enthusiasm, though he is more introverted than Waibel. While in Chicago for the Sierra Mist MLS All-Star Game, Robinson spoke of his opportunity to play against world superpower Chelsea FC with child-like awe.
For all of their good humor off the field, on it neither Robinson nor Waibel play nice.
"When I step on the field, me and you could be best friends, but I want to win the game, you know?" Robinson said. "I just have a streak in me."
Like wolves hunting for food, motivation for both players is basic: Every game is a fight for survival.
"Game days you have an hour-and-a-half to keep your job, so you have to take that a little more serious, don't you?" Waibel said.
Added Robinson: "I think once you get to this level, you're playing for your livelihood. You want to play well. You want to get a better contract for more money to support your family."
Robinson and Waibel's teammates are well aware of their respective mean streaks and their inspiration. Both players have built careers on putting the fear of God into opposing strikers. Without that, what would they have?
"I think that's why they've been successful in this league," Onstad said. "They're defenders that players don't like going against. You hear their footsteps coming and you start looking over your shoulder. That's what's made them so successful."
After riding the bench his first season and struggling through injuries the next three, Robinson has finally come into his own the past three years. Making physical play an art form, he's foisted himself into any argument about the best defenders in the league.
At the same time, his physical play has earned Robinson a bad reputation.
Seemingly always under the eye of the officials, Robinson racked up 11 cautions and one red card this season. He was suspended for a total of five games during the year, including a two-game stretch in September after elbowing FC Dallas striker Carlos Ruiz in the face.
"Sometimes I do let that competitive side of me get the better of me," Robinson said.
"There were comments made to Dominic from certain people who said they're going to be looking at me harder and closer than everyone else, which is disappointing for me," he added. "I felt like maybe a couple of times this year, I was picked on a little bit, but that's life."
Despite the perception that his physical play is not welcome, Robinson is comfortable with his style.
"I don't really meld well with the image of some of the other teams and players. That's OK by me," he said. "I'm still having fun; I'm still loving what I do, and I'm going to keep doing it the way I'm doing it."
For Robinson, making the switch from average Joe to fearsome defender is mostly natural, something he's had to reel in more than pump up.
For Waibel, though, it's an entirely different story. When he started playing professional soccer, he didn't know how to be a tough guy. As a result, he said, he made a lot of mistakes.
Waibel watched his mistakes on film and heard from veteran teammates what he was doing wrong. One of those teammates was retired San Jose Earthquake Troy Dayak, a notoriously hard-nosed defender who brought a cowboy ethic onto the field.
"I had to really focus on it the first couple of years of my career because it was hard for me to flip that switch to become serious," Waibel said. "It was hard to learn how to be a professional, and I think that's what a lot of young guys go through.
"It took me probably two or three years to learn how to consistently flip that switch and be a more serious soccer player."
Learning from Dayak and others, Waibel discovered that having a more commanding physical presence would help him improve.
"I learned from a lot of older guys getting on me, a lot of mistakes, and a lot of film," he said. "You can lie to yourself all you want - on game day, after the game - but as soon as you see it on tape, it's quite glaring."
While his on-field toughness has grown to become an intrinsic part of him, Waibel has remained jovial and caring off of it.
One of Waibel's pet charities the Muscular Dystrophy Assocation. He first got involved by participating in a charity golf tournament with football announcer John Madden.
Waibel is part of an initiative that sends kids with Muscular Dystrophy to a week-long camp with other kids who have the condition. Waibel has also done some work relating to diabetes; his nephew was diagnosed with it a year ago.
"They get to go and be normal," he said about the MD camps. "That's what most of the kids said. You don't have to be the only kid in a wheelchair that week."
In being named Dynamo's Humanitarian of the Year this year, Waibel was honored for, among other things, volunteering as an assistant coach for the Rice University women's soccer team and for helping to promote The United Way.
Those who know Waibel for his work off the field are often shocked by his nasty behavior between the lines. It's a similar story for Robinson, who twice won the Earthquakes' Geneva McAlavey Community Service Award. People who see him play are stunned at how genial he is.
"I get it every time I go out and sign autographs after the game. People say, 'You're so much nicer than you seem on the field,'" Robinson said. "I hope I'm not disappointing (them), you know? My wife finds herself defending me a lot of times."
Jason Halpin is a contributor to MLSnet.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Soccer or its clubs.
