Stephen Holder

stephen.holder@indystar.com

INDIANAPOLIS – He’s been on the job less than a week, and already the clutter on Chris Ballard’s desk is growing at about the same rate as his never-ending to-do list.

But he’s carved out a little time to talk, which means, per usual, you have his undivided attention. Soon, the conversation turns to surprising topics such as his passion for bringing people together and the importance of work-family balance.

It’s as if this isn’t even a conversation about football. Which is weird, seeing how Ballard is the newly hired general manager of the Indianapolis Colts.

But something quickly becomes evident. See, what is currently on display is merely one side of Ballard. This is the contemplative, heart-on-his-sleeve, people person. He can’t help be who he is, nor does he wish to.

But there’s another side: the relentless, uncompromising competitor. That’s the side that once left him with a broken collarbone after an over-exuberant moment in football practice – a practice in which he was not a player, but a coach. That’s the side that has often prompted him to pound on a draft-room table to defend a prospect in whom he strongly believed. And that’s the side that already is putting in ridiculous hours in a quest to get the Colts back to the postseason.

More on new Colts GM Chris Ballard

5 things to know about new Colts GM Chris Ballard

Doyel: Chris Ballard blew me away but it doesn't mean anything

Who can Chris Ballard target to fix the Colts pass rush?

But Ballard has a way of making his divergent personality traits compatible. His people-first approach isn’t contradicted by his competitiveness. And his caring nature isn’t undermined by his high standards and unyielding expectations.

It’s a delicate balance, and Ballard knows it.

“I won’t ever change though,” he told IndyStar in an exclusive one-on-one interview. “And I’ll probably get burned because of that. I know it. But it’s not going to change my core and what I believe.”

This is the story of how Ballard came to be the complicated individual he is and how his experiences will inform the way he performs the massive job he’s just undertaken.

***

Perhaps no one is more responsible for the competitor in Ballard than his grandfather. David Green cleaned pools for a living in South Texas. But what he was, at his core, was a football coach. Ballard tagged along on those brutally hot summer days as something of an apprentice. Through their hourslong talks about the game, Ballard’s love of football was fostered.

Green played football at the University of Texas and coached high school ball in Beeville, Texas. Years later, when his grandfather was coaching middle-school kids, a young Ballard would sit in the bleachers and tell his mother, longingly, “I want to be one of those guys one day.”

Soon, he would be. He’d grow up to be an option-style high school quarterback and began drawing interest from colleges. Texas A&M-Kingsville wanted him badly, but not to line up under center.

“We wanted him as a (defensive back),” former Kingsville coach Richard Cundiff said. “But I didn’t tell him that. He wanted to play quarterback. But he can’t throw the ball from here to the wall. Not one lick. But I said, ‘Sure you can play quarterback.’ Well, he saw right through that.”

Ballard was not only perceptive, but also — as previously mentioned — intensely competitive. No coach was going to tell him what he could or could not do. So, Ballard accepted an offer to play at Wisconsin. That’s where the change from quarterback was made for him.

“I was at quarterback about three days,” he said. “I actually did it voluntarily after I saw what they had. I said, ‘This ain’t gonna work.’”

Even the most dogged competitors must know when to wave the white flag. But Ballard, now a wide receiver, wouldn’t make it a habit.

Early in Ballard’s tenure at Wisconsin, coach Don Morton was fired, replaced in 1990 by Barry Alvarez. The new coach brought with him a fire-and-brimstone approach that would prompt a parade of players to walk out the door. The new expectations were simply too much for so many.

“We had a lot of attrition,” Alvarez said.

Others quit. Ballard wouldn’t.

“It was hard,” Ballard recalled. “I mean haaaard.”

Soon, the payoff would come. While dealing with the aftereffects of a torn knee ligament, Ballard endeared himself to his new coaches with those unique people skills that have served him so well. Maybe he couldn’t help them on the field, but he’d be darned if he didn’t do something, anything. He and receivers coach Jay Norvell formed a bond, and Ballard did the rest by fitting right in with the coaching staff and becoming a sort of unofficial coach.

And what a staff it was. In addition to the legendary Alvarez, that Wisconsin staff included future NFL coaches Bill Callahan and Brad Childress, future Iowa State coach Dan McCarney and current University of Buffalo coach Lance Leipold.

The truth is, Ballard wasn’t much of a player after his injury. But it wasn’t his play that got him noticed.

“I’ve always liked overachievers,” Alvarez said. “I was always told by one of my mentors, ‘Don’t confuse effort with results.’ Chris grinded. He didn’t have all the ability in the world. But he was so committed.”

Regarding the staff, Ballard said, “They had no reason to go out of their way for me. I was hurt the whole time. But they knew I loved football and they knew I was working. I think they liked having somebody they knew cared and was all in with what they were trying to build. Man, in the great organizations, it’s all about culture. And I learned it at an early age.”

In the end, his time at Wisconsin proved a success because of Ballard’s fierce competitiveness but also because of his ability to relate to others.

Turns out, it was just the beginning of what would became a trend.

***

Kingsville, Texas, is a long way from just about everywhere. But it’s the place where one of the most important chapters of Ballard’s story was written.

He returned to Texas after graduation and quickly found his passion.

“I had no idea when I finished college what I wanted to do,” Ballard said. “I thought about law school. I just didn’t know. But I knew I loved football. So, I got a shot coaching junior high football and I got the bug.”

Through a local high school coach he worked for, he went on to land a graduate assistant position at Kingsville. Within six months he was a permanent member of the staff, assigned to coach the receivers.

They were a talented group, Ballard’s receivers. But remember, this is not a guy willing to compromise. He wanted more. No, he demanded more. Once, during a blocking drill, Ballard decided that simple verbal instructions would not suffice. He felt he could show his players better than he could tell them.

So, Ballard attacked the blocking sled the way he attacked everything in life: with utter abandon.

“I went up to the blocking sled and I hit and I say, ‘That’s how you do it!’” Ballard said. “Then, all of a sudden, this sharp pain just hits me.”

A trainer came over. It was immediately apparent Ballard broken his collarbone. Off to the hospital they went. For a while, anyway.

“Would you know, the guy came back and finished practice,” Cundiff said. “I said to myself, ‘This son of a gun!’ Look, whoever works with Chris better be ready to work, because he don’t know any other way.”

The other side of Ballard’s personality — the normal side, shall we say — was apparent at Kingsville, too. It’s what made him an invaluable recruiter. He established immediate connections with kids, Cundiff said, making the job of the head coach that much easier. His approach also enabled him to have an impact on players only a few years his junior, including future NFL star cornerback Al Harris, whom Ballard coached after moving to defense.

Kingsville is also where Ballard met his wife, the former Kristin Ciborowski, a former all-conference basketball player at Kingsville who was inducted in the school’s hall of fame in 2005. The couple have five children.

“The best thing that ever happened to me was Kristin coming into my life,” Ballard said. “That was God’s plan, for me to meet her. And I knew she was all in because I’m making, what, 20 grand and we’re living in Kingsville, Texas? But she saw more in me than anyone else did. We lived in this tiny freaking apartment that cost us 500 bucks a month. But she was all in. And she’s been all in since.”

Soon, others would start to see what Kristin already had.

***

Cundiff made Ballard the school’s NFL liaison, putting him in frequent contact with scouts who came through the campus. A regular among them: Tampa Bay’s Jerry Angelo. As was often the case with people he encountered, Ballard made quite the impression on Angelo, and the two grew close.

That led to Ballard becoming the Chicago Bears’ Southwest area scout when Angelo was named Chicago’s general manager in 2001. Ballard did the job for 11 seasons, mining talent all over the region and building real credibility with the front office and coaching staff, including coach Lovie Smith. Ballard was largely responsible for the Bears drafting Pro Bowl cornerback Charles Tillman from Louisiana-Lafayette, an accomplishment of which he remains especially proud.

Along the way, just as he’d done at Wisconsin, Ballard was picking up methods and know-how from those around him.

Promotions eventually came. First was the move to director of pro scouting for the Bears. Then, two years later, Ballard became the Kansas City Chiefs’ director of personnel and, ultimately, their director of football operations.

This past week, Colts owner Jim Irsay picked Ballard from a group of six candidates to succeed Ryan Grigson as the team’s GM.

Now is when his experiences will really begin to pay off. But Ballard, being the relentless preparer that he is, wasn’t going to assume anything. He’s long kept a notebook in which he outlined a blueprint he’d implement if he ever became a general manager. During a campus visit to Wisconsin last fall, Ballard stopped by Alvarez’s office to get his feedback.

“I was very impressed,” said Alvarez, now Wisconsin’s athletic director. “There were some things that he just really, really nailed. Maybe I didn’t tell him that at the time, but he really did. It let me know that he had the vision. This guy is not shooting from the hip, trust me.”

Here, again, is another example of Ballard’s twin personalities. It shows the competitor in him, one who would never leave anything to chance, no idea unexplored.

“But it also showed his humility,” Alvarez said. “The guys who know everything in this business get into trouble.”

Ballard readily admits there are things he does not know. But he’s learning, for example, about the number of issues he never envisioned that now find their way to his desk.

His success in Indianapolis will be judged the same way everyone in his business is assessed: Wins and losses. Those are the bottom lines in an industry where only the bottom line matters. The competitor in Ballard knows this and embraces it. But there’s a bigger picture, and it’s one he insists everyone around him also see.

“This thing is hard,” he said. “Let’s enjoy it. Let’s have fun along the way. Let’s let people be people and let their personalities show, all within the team concept. That’s the satisfaction I get, watching guys develop into men. That’s where there’s satisfaction. It’s got to be more than wins and losses, man. It has to be bigger than that.

“At the end of the day, that’s how we’re judged. And that won’t change. But when you do things the right way and you’re good at what you do, we’ll get to the result. Don’t worry about that. Don’t focus on the result. Focus on the present moment of doing things right and doing it together.

“If we do that, we’ll get to where we need to be — I promise.”

And, with that, it was back to work. That to-do list — the defense, the draft, free agency — isn’t getting any shorter.

Follow IndyStar Colts Insider Stephen Holder on Twitter and Facebook.