http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/column...van&id=2644644
Brian Leonard will never make it in the NFL.
The NFL scouts gush. The Senior Bowl already has issued an invitation. But all it takes is a few minutes around Rutgers' senior fullback to understand that he will be gone before anyone at a minicamp learns his name.
You want to know why? He doesn't have the ego for professional football.
Jim O'Connor/US Presswire
Brian Leonard doesn't have to carry the ball to help the Scarlet Knight.
The Scarlet Knights' coaches took his carries away and he never said a word. He didn't skip practice. He didn't even complain. Leonard responded by saying he enjoys blocking.
He'll never survive in the Chad Johnson League. A player needs self-regard the size of New Jersey to survive on Sundays. Leonard's ego would fit in a coach's whistle. I bet he doesn't even have a mirror in his bedroom.
Leonard says he is glad he didn't come out for the NFL draft last spring because the Scarlet Knights are 8-0.
"This is my dream right here," Leonard said Sunday night after Rutgers beat UConn 24-13. "This is the reason I came back. I told Rutgers I came back for a reason, to help take this team to a good bowl game and win the bowl game. This is the next step to it."
When the season started, Leonard had a Heisman campaign. Rutgers paid to have a promotional video shown in Times Square four times a day. In his first three seasons for the Scarlet Knights, the 6-foot-2, 235-pound Leonard averaged 22 touches, either running the ball or catching it, for 115 yards per game. He scored 40 touchdowns.
This season, Leonard is averaging fewer than 10 touches per game. He has carried the ball 52 times. He has caught 26 passes. He has scored only two touchdowns in eight games. Meanwhile, sophomore
Ray Rice has become the Heisman candidate. Rice is second in Division I-A rushing with 160.6 yards per game.
Against UConn on Sunday night, Leonard blocked everyone from linebacker Donta Moore (6-1, 213) to defensive tackle Ray Blagman (6-3, 327). By my unofficial count, only one player that Leonard blocked got a piece of a tackle.
It's a complete "All About Eve" deal. Leonard took Rice under his wing, teaching him how to practice, how to study video. "Inseparable," running backs coach Robert Jackson called them. Rice is getting his carries. Rice is getting Leonard's pub. No coach sat Leonard down and broke the news to him. He just stopped getting the ball.
And Leonard claims it's the best thing that has ever happened to him.
"It just happened over time," Leonard said. "I came in this season expecting more carries, I guess you could say. Really, it doesn't matter to me. When Ray runs the ball and I make a block for Ray, that feeling of blowing someone up is just as satisfying as getting in the end zone. Really, it is. I really didn't know what to expect. I thought I would get more. That's my role now. It's a different role, and I'm pleased to take it."
Brian, a little piece of advice: If you're not going to whine about how many times you get the rock, don't even bother putting your agent on speed dial.
You can take the boy out of Gouverneur, N.Y., a town of 7,300 so far north that you nearly have to drive south to get to Canada, but you can't take the Gouverneur out of the boy. Leonard played in Class C in high school, the next-to-smallest of six divisions. He set six all-class state records. Some guy at a Class D school named
Mike Hart broke five of them before he went to Michigan.
"I have the all-time scoring record, I guess," Leonard said. "He didn't break that one."
That's another thing about Leonard. He says, "I guess," a lot, delivering a semi-apology for making a statement that any real NFL player would have tattooed on his right bicep. You think T.O. ever says, "I guess" when he talks about his records? No way.
Leonard does what the coaches ask him to do. He goes to class, too. Last week, he was named a Draddy Trophy finalist, which means he will receive an $18,000 postgraduate scholarship from the National Football Foundation.
"I look at him as a throwback," said Jackson, Leonard's position coach. "He's very unselfish. He's a very humble kid. As good a football player as he is, he's a better person. The athletes of today are me, me, me, me, me. 'What are you doing for me?' I find him so refreshing and a joy to coach. He comes to work every day. He has a blue-collar mentality. There are no days when, 'I take off because I'm Brian Leonard.'"
If he's not going to take days off or take plays off, how's he going to get on the cover of Madden 2010?
"Look at the record," Leonard said, referring to Rutgers' eight wins and no losses. "I was scoring three or four touchdowns a game in the past and now I'm not scoring at all, because I'm blocking for Ray. This is so much better."
If Rutgers head coach Greg Schiano isn't careful, Leonard's team-first attitude is going to spread through the locker room.
"It's unbelievable," defensive tackle Eric Foster said. "Brian's such a great guy. He could have gone to the NFL last year. We noticed that. Brian just goes out and does his job. It rubs off on everybody. If any guy should be upset about playing time, it should be Brian. He does it. He's not saying anything. The best player is just doing his job."
Uh-oh. It may be too late. Some believe that Leonard's leadership by example is the reason that Rutgers is 8-0. That unselfish stuff may be great for team success, but no way is Leonard ever going to get a Chunky Soup ad. What is he thinking?
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