Kzin
01-28-2006, 12:55 PM
What, a player who isn't woofing about how he's the greatest thing since Mean Joe Green? Refreshing ...
Boulware a reluctant star
By Greg Bishop
Seattle Times staff reporter
Michael Boulware wears a look of genuine concern. He's simultaneously scanning for an escape route and pleading for a stop to the discussion being held at the next locker.
It's the subject of that discussion — none other than Michael Boulware — that makes him entirely uncomfortable, makes him squirm and blush and rush.
"At least let me get out of here," he begs.
With that, Boulware is sprinting toward the showers, hands covering his ears. It's a strange sight — the defensive darling of a year ago running from praise that confirms his second season was more productive than his first. Running from anything that might make it harder for Boulware to be hardest on himself.
"That's Michael Boulware," fellow safety Marquand Manuel says, "the star who doesn't want to be a star."
Last year there was no avoiding stardom. Not with those game-saving interceptions against Minnesota and Tampa Bay, that interception he returned for a touchdown against Miami or that game-changing tackle he made on a kickoff return against New Orleans.
Last year was the year Boulware became a star, saving so many games with late heroics that after awhile they could no longer be explained as fortune falling from the sky into the hands of a rookie who parlayed "right place, right time" into an impact the Seahawks felt right away.
"Thank goodness for Michael Boulware," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren often said.
That Michael Boulware made more headlines. This Michael Boulware makes more tackles, sacks more quarterbacks and bats away more passes. This is Michael Boulware, version 2.0, a steady safety in an injury-depleted secondary, a better player than a year ago.
"It's not that I feel comfortable," Boulware says. "It's that I can think less when I play. Now, I have to work on becoming good."
What? Starting in your second season isn't good? Anchoring the secondary isn't good? Becoming a defensive leader isn't good?
No, sir, as Boulware likes to say. At least not in Boulware's eyes. Every since he started playing sports, coaches have asked him to learn to let things go. But the quest for perfection Boulware learned from demanding parents never allowed him to be anything other than demanding of himself.
Mom demanded perfection always. Her son demands it now.
"Mistakes still really bother me," he says, "especially if I ever make them twice."
So Michael Boulware went into his second season in the NFL, his first season as a starter, with goals that would make a veteran safety blush. He shared four from his list this week — 10 interceptions, 16 "big plays" and appearances in the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.
"Let me clarify that," the perfectionist in Boulware says. "Winning the Super Bowl is a goal."
Boulware won't count his big plays until after the Super Bowl, but the other goals on his list have not been accomplished. He calls all the big plays he has made "gimmes" and says his interceptions were all "blessings."
The next step, he says, is anticipating plays rather than reacting to them. He started watching more film of elite safeties this season — Rod Woodson, Steve Atwater, Ronnie Lott and Ed Reed among them — and they all possess that same instinct. Boulware also talks often to his brother, Peter, who won a Super Bowl with Baltimore and dispensed his younger brother some Super advice this week.
Boulware has made the transition from college linebacker to NFL safety seem seamless enough that it's easy to forget he's only in his second year learning a new position. Easy to forget that four of the five interceptions he made last season came at linebacker instead of safety.
"He has to learn the game at a different speed at safety," Manuel says. "I love how he gets at it. He's young, and he's hungry. He'll be a Pro Bowler before it's all said and done. Probably next year, in fact."
That's the crazy part. That Michael Boulware considers this only a start to his career, the beginning of the beginning and nothing more.
"I hoped that midway through this year, I was going to start breaking out," Boulware says. "I started making some more plays, but I didn't get at it like I wanted to. When you come back to talk to me, you will know when I had my breakout year. It will be obvious.
"When I consider myself a player, you won't even have to ask."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2002767403_hawk28.html
Boulware a reluctant star
By Greg Bishop
Seattle Times staff reporter
Michael Boulware wears a look of genuine concern. He's simultaneously scanning for an escape route and pleading for a stop to the discussion being held at the next locker.
It's the subject of that discussion — none other than Michael Boulware — that makes him entirely uncomfortable, makes him squirm and blush and rush.
"At least let me get out of here," he begs.
With that, Boulware is sprinting toward the showers, hands covering his ears. It's a strange sight — the defensive darling of a year ago running from praise that confirms his second season was more productive than his first. Running from anything that might make it harder for Boulware to be hardest on himself.
"That's Michael Boulware," fellow safety Marquand Manuel says, "the star who doesn't want to be a star."
Last year there was no avoiding stardom. Not with those game-saving interceptions against Minnesota and Tampa Bay, that interception he returned for a touchdown against Miami or that game-changing tackle he made on a kickoff return against New Orleans.
Last year was the year Boulware became a star, saving so many games with late heroics that after awhile they could no longer be explained as fortune falling from the sky into the hands of a rookie who parlayed "right place, right time" into an impact the Seahawks felt right away.
"Thank goodness for Michael Boulware," Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren often said.
That Michael Boulware made more headlines. This Michael Boulware makes more tackles, sacks more quarterbacks and bats away more passes. This is Michael Boulware, version 2.0, a steady safety in an injury-depleted secondary, a better player than a year ago.
"It's not that I feel comfortable," Boulware says. "It's that I can think less when I play. Now, I have to work on becoming good."
What? Starting in your second season isn't good? Anchoring the secondary isn't good? Becoming a defensive leader isn't good?
No, sir, as Boulware likes to say. At least not in Boulware's eyes. Every since he started playing sports, coaches have asked him to learn to let things go. But the quest for perfection Boulware learned from demanding parents never allowed him to be anything other than demanding of himself.
Mom demanded perfection always. Her son demands it now.
"Mistakes still really bother me," he says, "especially if I ever make them twice."
So Michael Boulware went into his second season in the NFL, his first season as a starter, with goals that would make a veteran safety blush. He shared four from his list this week — 10 interceptions, 16 "big plays" and appearances in the Pro Bowl and Super Bowl.
"Let me clarify that," the perfectionist in Boulware says. "Winning the Super Bowl is a goal."
Boulware won't count his big plays until after the Super Bowl, but the other goals on his list have not been accomplished. He calls all the big plays he has made "gimmes" and says his interceptions were all "blessings."
The next step, he says, is anticipating plays rather than reacting to them. He started watching more film of elite safeties this season — Rod Woodson, Steve Atwater, Ronnie Lott and Ed Reed among them — and they all possess that same instinct. Boulware also talks often to his brother, Peter, who won a Super Bowl with Baltimore and dispensed his younger brother some Super advice this week.
Boulware has made the transition from college linebacker to NFL safety seem seamless enough that it's easy to forget he's only in his second year learning a new position. Easy to forget that four of the five interceptions he made last season came at linebacker instead of safety.
"He has to learn the game at a different speed at safety," Manuel says. "I love how he gets at it. He's young, and he's hungry. He'll be a Pro Bowler before it's all said and done. Probably next year, in fact."
That's the crazy part. That Michael Boulware considers this only a start to his career, the beginning of the beginning and nothing more.
"I hoped that midway through this year, I was going to start breaking out," Boulware says. "I started making some more plays, but I didn't get at it like I wanted to. When you come back to talk to me, you will know when I had my breakout year. It will be obvious.
"When I consider myself a player, you won't even have to ask."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sports/2002767403_hawk28.html