Colts: Darius Leonard talks about why he’s motivated by critics and disrespect
Colts linebacker Darius Leonard opened up to Good Morning Football on Monday.
When Darius Leonard showed the world his customized motivational cleats last week, Colts fans thought to themselves, “Oh my, he’s going to rip through the competition in 2020.” There’s no linebacker you’d rather have on your side right now.
He was a First-Team All-Pro selection his rookie season (2018). He made the Pro Bowl in 2019. He already has 284 combined tackles, 12 sacks, seven interceptions and six forced fumbles in 28 career games. That’s off the charts!
And there are people out there doubting the man in any capacity? Come on.
"“You know, a lot of people can get complacent. I feel like I haven’t done enough and I haven’t done anything yet, and as long as there’s someone that keeps talking trash or saying I can’t do anything, I’m always down to prove them wrong no matter what. I’m always keeping that chip on my shoulder. No matter how good you think you are, somebody’s out there saying that you can’t do anything. I’m always there to say ‘I’m gonna out-work you, I’m gonna show you that I can be the best.”"
A team leader saying this kind of stuff heading into training camp is a dream for a head coach, so Frank Reich has to be thrilled with Leonard’s locker room presence. What an example to set for the incoming rookies, too. Though Leonard is only a couple years older than them, this is the kind of mentality any up-and-coming team needs to have.
As per his reaction to his ranking on the NFL Top 100, he said he was thankful to be on the list, but “as a competitor, to drop from 26 to 50, it definitely hurt. I just know that I gotta do more. I gotta continue to put everything on display on the field so there’s no doubt in any of my colleagues eyes that I’m one of the best out there.”
Darius Leonard’s custom Jordans for camp 👀 pic.twitter.com/HjFtXBbkn5
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 1, 2020
Let’s also not forget these cleats are only for training camp. Leonard feels the need to use all of this as fuel to blow everybody away in his third NFL season. The critics didn’t learn in 2018 or 2019. Perhaps 2020?
Better yet, keep it coming. We want a fired up Darius Leonard until the end of time.
