No Indianapolis Colts Player Brings Juice on Game Day Like Linebacker Darius Leonard
INDIANAPOLIS — When All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard met new Indianapolis Colts quarterback Philip Rivers in the offseason, both commented on how the other brings so much juice to the job.
But don’t mistake mutual admiration for which Colts player is the loud-and-proud leader when it comes to injecting energy on the field.
Two days before the Colts’ Sunday opener at Jacksonville (1 p.m., EST, CBS-4), Leonard was in midseason form with the “The Maniac” decibels at Friday practice. After catching a football, he yelled at the assistant who threw it, telling him the ball was stuck in his hand. The assistant tried to pull it away, and couldn’t. Leonard yelled more. The assistant still couldn’t pry that ball loose.
When a drill was about to deviate from the routine, Leonard sounded off again. Nope. That won’t stand.
So imagine Leonard’s reaction on a Thursday Zoom video call when he was asked who will have more juice on game day, Rivers or him?
“I can’t even believe that’s a question,” Leonard said, smiling. “You already know the answer to that. That’s disrespectful there, man. You know me. I’m going to come with all the juice. That’s just me, man.”
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Suffice to say the 25-year-old linebacker, who enjoys trash-talking with Rivers in practice, is jacked up for the Jaguars. The South Carolina native loves the idea of heading back to TIAA Field, where the Colts lost the 2019 season finale.
“I’m back down South, it’s the first time going back to Jacksonville, where we haven’t won yet,” Leonard said of the fact the Colts last prevailed there in 2014. “So we definitely got to bring the juice. We’ve to start 1-0. That’s one thing we really talk about, being 1-0.
“Every time we go to Jacksonville, a loss, so it’s definitely in the back of my mind. Defense, we talk about it 24-7, that we’ve got to come in and stop the run, we’ve got to make sure we control all passes, and get some takeaways. You know our goal. Our goal is 40-plus. It starts Sunday, so we’ve got to go out and put everything on display.”
The Colts are 8-point favorites, according to Sports Illustrated Gambling. They’re also looking to win their first season opener since 2013.
Rivers is 38 and entering his 17th season, but his extensive experience doesn’t mean there won’t be some butterflies, especially in leading a new team.
“I’ll have it,” he said in a Wednesday Zoom video call. “I had that nervous energy last night. I think it will be a little bit of that all week long. It’s game week, it’s real. We’re about to kick off in the first game. You didn’t have the preseason games to even play a series with no consequence. It’s here.
“My dad would always tell me, ‘If you don’t have butterflies, something is wrong with you.’ It won’t be the nervousness like – there is a level of I guess comfort that comes with playing for a lot of years. So it will be the good kind of butterflies, the good kind of nervous that you have because you really care. You care about it. You love it. You look forward to it. You want to go out and perform and help at a high level. They’re good. They’re already starting. It will be good. I’m sure they’ll be around all week.”
Should Rivers succeed, expect to see his juice, too. He’s known for his on-field trash-talking, all in good fun without profanity.
Leonard shrugged when asked about how the stadium will be at 25 percent capacity, so it won’t be a loud environment. That doesn’t matter to him. He’s going to make noise, regardless of how sparse the crowd.
“Well, I’m a leader on this defense and I bring energy day in and day out,” he said. “I mean at practice I scream at the top of my lungs. So, just bringing it to the game, that is just something that has to be consistent because guys feed off that. As a defense, when one guy makes a play, it’s like we all make a play. So we have to come together, we have to bring the juice, and we have to make sure that we know that there are going to be times when there are bumps in the road, but you have to make sure you get over it and you have to play the next play. You never know if that next play could be a pick, a forced fumble, or whatever. You have to make sure to keep the energy day in and day out.”
When asked again about Rivers, and informed the veteran quarterback sounds extremely excited about Sunday, “The Maniac” didn't hesitate.
“That’s cool, but you see the resume,” Leonard said, still smiling. “You know I bring the juice. Always.”
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(Phillip B. Wilson has covered the Indianapolis Colts for more than two decades and authored the 2013 book 100 Things Colts Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die. He’s on Twitter @pwilson24, on Facebook at @allcoltswithphilb and @100thingscoltsfans, and his email is phillipbwilson24@yahoo.com.)
