As a hard-nosed defensive end in the National Football League, Jason Buck is exhorted by coaches and fans to "destroy" opposing quarterbacks and running backs with jarring tackles, which he does with regularity.
So maybe it's only fitting that in the off-season he spends so much time doing work for the dead - family history work, that is.Every Wednesday morning from January to July, when training camp opens, Buck leaves his Orem, Utah, home by 6:30 a.m. for a trip to the Church Family History Library in Salt Lake City. During the football season, the Buck family - including Jason's wife, Roxi, and two young children - rent an apartment in Cincinnati where he plays for the Bengals.
He comes to the library each Wednesday because that is his day off from training. He is there when the facility opens at 7:30 a.m., and hustles through the doors much like he would barge through opposing linemen on the football field. Only in these instances his goal is not a quarterback, but thousands of family history reference volumes on bookshelves, computer and microfilm.
Once inside, Buck is focused on his work, and goes hard until early afternoon, when he leaves for lunch and the drive home.
"I promised myself that when I made it in the NFL, I would devote more time to this work," explained Buck, who has been making a weekly trek to the library during the first six months of each of the past three years - give or take a few weeks, depending on the Bengals' playoff fortunes.
"Having the benefit of extra time during the off-season, I promised myself that I would devote as much time as I could in the libraryT on my family, providing the research for temple work that needs to be done for them.
"I put in a hard day's work, running from book to book, film to film. Then I go home and during the week sit in my office and try to organize everything, piece it together and plan out my next week's trip. I just love it. It kills me if I have to miss a day. I try hard not to plan speaking engagements or other activities on Wednesdays. My friends want to go golfing on Wednesdays but I just tell them, `Sorry, guys.' "
Buck works out Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at BYU for about four hours each day. He spends most of his training time lifting weights with football friends and coaches he knew as a Cougar in 1985-86, and also does some running. While at BYU, Buck won the Outland Trophy as the nation's best interior lineman as a senior, and was named Western Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Year as a junior. Though he played tackle for BYU, Buck was moved to defensive end when he turned pro.
Unlike some fellow players on the Bengals who take off a month or more from training at the end of each season, Buck skips only a week while he takes his small family from Ohio to their Orem home, then is back at training. At nearly 6-6, 255 pounds, he is tall but light for an NFL defensive end, where the average size for his position is 6-5 and 280. He compensates with strength, quickness and flawless technique.
Buck stands "toe to toe" with his teammates in the weight room - "even the guys who weigh 310," he admitted. He was fourth on the team last year in the bench press, a result of his hard work during the off-season.
And the defensive end applies that same work ethic to raising his family and to his family history research.
"I'm a family man, and it is important to my wife and me to build a strong family unit, devoting any spare time to each other and to the children," he said. "Whether it's a picnic with the kids or jumping on the trampoline, I prefer doing everything with my wife and children. The four of us go grocery shopping together, and I make a couple of nights a week to take Roxi on a date."
That commitment to family is rooted in Buck's upbringing, and it extends to his extended family - including those for whom he does family history work. And his life as a football player complements that dedication to family.
"Football for me is a means to an end. It's to provide a great life for my wife and family. Playing in the NFL has always been a dream of mine since I was a child growing up poor. I've always had the dream to be the best in football, but also I have had the gospel in my life. I was very obsessed with football, but on the other hand, I'm an elder in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. When I'm done with football in five years or whenever, I will be able to go on with life, raise an eternal family unit and continue to build the kingdom. I'm fortunate now that football provides me more time to spend working on family history, and to be able to do the temple work for my ancestors that didn't have it done. I feel an urgency for that."
Buck said he felt an affinity for family history work at an early age.
"From a young age, I always felt the desire to work on family history, and my patriarchal blessing urged me in that direction."
He credits his parents, Sidney and Moeena Remillard Buck, with helping plant that seed of interest in his young heart.
"I was always exposed to family history through the Church and my parents," he pointed out. "My father is an avid family man and loves to tell stories of the Bucks coming from England and Denmark, and about their crossing the plains with handcarts. I grew up with those family history stories, and a lot of pride in the family. The stories of my forefathers awakened an interest at a young age."
This year Buck is concentrating his research efforts on his family's Danish ancestry. "I'm finding that a lot, almost all, of the temple work has been done," he said. "But you still find a child here or there who hasn't had it done. That's why you want to go over the work and make sure something hasn't been missed."
Last year the family history aficionado researched his English ancestors, and the year before that, French.
"It's been good because I have learned how to work each area. Everyone's records are different. The French records from Quebec were great; the English were a little harder to follow; and the Danish records are very good, too. But they are all different, and they all have different ways to research. I want to grow as a family history researcher so I'm able to perform this work better for my family. Anyone who gets involved is blessed with the spirit of Elijah. I just love it. I want to do more."
Buck said the people at the Church Family History Library are wonderful to help out, and have taught him much about the intricacies of conducting research.
"There's always someone to help, to give advice. They are just fantastic."
Buck learned the basic rules of research at a family history class at BYU. "I wanted to learn correctly," he said.
Besides doing research, Buck keeps a journal, has a book of remembrance and has written his personal history. He and his wife also keep a lot of photo albums, scrapbooks and videotapes of family happenings. He hopes to eventually put together family histories on members of his family from other generations.
"There's nothing more rewarding than spending those hours of hard work and then finding a name of a person who you've been looking for. You really come to know the families you are researching.
"My wife laughs at me and says I'm like a teddy bear. I go from this mean person on the football field who is very intense, yet who cried when I came upon this little French girl who was struck by lightning at age 10. She would have been a distant cousin living in the late 1800s. That's an example of how you get to know these people through research. You get a feel for them; they become individuals, rather than a name on a pedigree chart. And you really grow to love them. That is part of the spirit of Elijah. And you feel such an urgency to get the temple work done for them. They are waiting for you."
