Sometimes I tell my friends I’m secretly an offensive lineman. I’m actually 6-foot-5 and 350 pounds. I know, I hide it well. Typical responses to this statement range anywhere from milk out to nose-type laughter to utter disbelief that out of all the positions at my imaginary disposal, I would choose center … or maybe linebacker? The verdict it still out.

“G-L-A-M-O-R-O-U-S”

Fergie taught me how to spell glamorous back in 2007. Such creativity in song titles these days. But what makes one position in sports more glamorous or alluring than another? They’re all necessary. You can’t have a soccer team without a goalkeeper, or a baseball team without a right fielder. So why do the quarterbacks and pitchers get all the pretty girls and sweet endorsement deals?

I am reminded strongly of the BCS national championship this past January when the cameras panned on Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron’s girlfriend, former Miss Alabama and Auburn alum Katherine Webb, and announcer Brent Musburger just about had a heart attack. The 73-year-old Musburger concluded his embarrassing speech with the line, “You quarterbacks, you get all the good-looking women.”

Awkward.

“I be on the movie screens, magazines and bougie scenes … ”

Bling, swag, attention, kudos, whatever you want to call it, certain positions get more of it than others.

Let’s face it, even at a school where the football team goes winless for the season, everyone knows who the quarterback is.

Glamour doesn’t only confine itself to one position on a team, but the entire sports scene. In America, we love our football, basketball and baseball. Soccer is big in Europe, and England and India are huge cricket markets. But what about the little guys? Gymnastics, ice skating or swimming. Do we even hear about sports such as these other than every four years at the Olympics? Not really.

Now there are rare cases where you have an athlete so spectacular or so full of personality that he breaks out of this unfortunate dichotomy of the adored and the forgotten. Apolo Ohno — speed skater. Usain Bolt — sprinter. Brian Scalabrine — beloved bench warmer.

Aryn Braun — offensive lineman. Just kidding.

“I’ve got money in the bank, and I’d really like to thank all the fans … ”

While it’s always nice to hear players thank the “O-line,” the “guys behind me” and “all the fans that got us here today” during postgame news conferences or award acceptance speeches, I propose a new way of thinking. The major networks might want to read this. It may seem like it’s impossible to win a baseball game without a pitcher, but unless he throws strikeouts during each at bat, he’s in deep trouble without an outfield to back him up.

Maybe I just like to root for the underdog. It’s like that scene in the movie “The Replacements” when Jumbo, a former sumo wrestler, picks up a fumble and sprints as fast as his 400 pounds will carry him until he reaches the Promised Land, the end zone. John Madden, in his cameo announcer role, says it best when he exclaims, “I love to see a fat guy score.”

It’s fun to see different people get a chance to ham it up in the spotlight. In most cases, the recognition allotted to big-name athletes is well-deserved, and they get that attention because of talent and hard work. But there are others working just as hard that may go unnoticed.

And so I wait for the day when sensationalist journalists decide to cover right fielders, cricket players and pommel horse specialists.

In the meantime, I will continue to stuff my face with Nutella and Twinkies in the hopes of one day becoming the starting center for the Chicago Bears, lord knows we need some help in that department. I’m looking at you Marc Trestman.

Aryn is a junior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @ArynBraun.