J.R. lament: Dude, where's my card?

[Guest HowieP1]

Posted on Thu, Oct. 14, 2004

J.R. lament: Dude, where's my card?

By DANA PENNETT O'NEIL

oneild@phillynews.com

ONE DAY in Tampa, football fan and kid football player J.R. Reed waltzed into a convenience store and, spying a shiny pack of football cards, casually bought them.

That was in 1989.

Now 15 years later, football fan and 22-year-old pro football player J.R. Reed can't tell you how many cards are in his collection. From the valuable - Emmitt Smith and Jerry Rice rookie cards - to the mundane, Reed has them all.

Except one.

"I keep opening up packs hoping to find my card, but I haven't found it," he said. "I don't think I have one yet."

With Reed's numbers, it's hard to believe someone won't be sticking his face on a piece of cardboard soon.

No other Eagles rookie has made the sort of impact that Reed has. He's sixth in the NFC and 12th in the league in kickoff returns, averaging 24.7 yards per return, and thanks largely to his abilities, the Eagles lead the NFL in average drive start, beginning at the 34.3-yard line.

Fox sideline reporter Tony Siragusa said Reed "plays with a fire in his pants," a description Reed agrees with.

"I'm not happy unless I'm in the end zone," he said. "I'm a perfectionist. I'm mad all the time, meaning I always think I can be a step better than I am. I always think I can do more. After a return, I'll be hyped up because I'll have just ran the ball, but later I'll look at the film and think, 'I could have done this or that.' It's never enough."

Quiet and reserved off the field, Reed has a sort of slow burn beneath the surface. It is part chip on the shoulder, part unbelievable confidence. Though he defers to teammate Brian Dawkins, the man he calls the best safety in the league, he believes no one is better than him.

He speaks without an ounce of bravado. And so when he lists his goals for this season - to win rookie of the year honors, to return no fewer than four kickoffs for touchdowns and to help the Eagles win the Super Bowl - it sounds as if he were running down his grocery list rather than the outlandish wish list that it is.

"I know that's a lot, but you've got to aim high," he said. "That way you'll finish above the rest."

That insatiable appetite has helped alleviate the questions that have dogged Reed since he was a youngster. Too small, too slow, too this, too that, Reed has heard it all ever since he was 5 and his older brother tossed him on a field with the big kids and yelled, "Get up," every time he got knocked down.

At Hillsborough High in Tampa, an athletic factory that includes Gary Sheffield and Dwight Gooden among its alumni, Reed couldn't even get on the field as a freshman. So he worked and he ran and he lifted his way into a starter as a sophomore and the team MVP on a squad that went to the state playoff region final his senior year.

Still, while teammates Cedric Edmonds signed on with Syracuse and Preston Jackson with Notre Dame, Reed's choices came down to Ivy League schools or the University of South Florida, an unheralded program that was just moving into the I-A ranks.

"I was surprised people weren't recruiting him," South Florida coach Jim Leavitt said. "He had good speed. He was a very heady-type ballplayer and he loved the game. I kept wondering why anyone wasn't recruiting him. I didn't know where the weakness was."

Leavitt, turned out, got one over on the big guys.

Reed left South Florida as the school recordholder with 18 interceptions, recorded 301 tackles and, after badgering Leavitt to let him return kicks as a senior, led the nation with 31.7 yards per return. In his final collegiate game, Reed turned in the ultimate exclamation point, intercepting three passes and scoring on a 96-yard kick return and a 45-yard fumble return in a 21-16 win over Memphis.

"He just dominated," said Leavitt, who called Reed one of the best players he's coached in a 28-year career. "I've never seen anything like it before."

And yet the questions remained, his 5-11 frame and small school giving cause for skepticism.

"I was concerned," said Reed's agent, Jonathan Kline. "He knew what he was able to do and I knew what he could do but you're never sure if you'll get the chance."

Reed did, on a team that already had a glut of safeties.

But in using their fourth-round selection on Reed, the Eagles weren't thinking about his future impact on the defense. They had other, more immediate needs.

Without Duce Staley to share the running-back load, the Eagles weren't real interested in throwing Brian Westbrook back to the wolves on returns, a decision that's all the more prescient with the injury to Correll Buckhalter.

Likened often to record-setting returner Brian Mitchell, Reed has that special mentality - part kamikaze, part bull runner in Pamplona - to be a great returner. He thinks nothing of looking up in the sky while 21 guys barrel down the field toward him, catching a ball and then running full steam ahead into those 21 guys.

"You have to hit the hole," Reed said simply, "before the hole hits you."

He has by no means been perfect. During the preseason, Reed fielded a kickoff 2 yards deep in the end zone. He paused, seemingly unsure whether to take a knee, and then zipped out of the end zone only to get dropped at the 12-yard line.

"He doesn't make mistakes again," said special-teams coordinator John Harbaugh, who considers Reed a football junkie - a guy who not only likes games, but loves practice, weightlifting, even meetings. "He had that problem in the preseason game and that was it. He didn't do it again. He doesn't do anything dumb. That's not to say he never will. He will, but he's trying very hard to be a good decision-maker and that's all I can ask of him."

That's not, of course, all Reed will ask of himself.

"I'm not playing right now and I'm not happy," he said. "I mean, I understand it. I'm playing behind the best safety in the NFL. But I want to play somewhere. I want more."

Particularly that rookie card.

http://www.centredaily.com/mld/centredaily/sports/football/nfl/philadelphia_eagles/9914065.htm

 

[USFMikeB]

Good story.  I've said it before, and I'll say it again:  JR is a good representation for our team, our program, and our school.

[Greg Auman]

hey. JR actually does have a card, though it's a bit hard to find. he's in Upper Deck's "Foundations" set, and the rookie does show him in a USF uniform. it's serially numbered to just 350, so there aren't a ton of them around, but you can find them on ebay if you look. if i get a hold of one, i'll try to post a scan on the boards here ...

greg