James Laurinaitis Named Rams’ Defensive Captain

Added on Sep 05, 2010 by Jason Kearney in

NFL

We talk about St. Louis Rams’ linebacker James Laurinaitis a lot because we think that its incredibly cool that his dad is ‘Animal’ from the legendary Road Warriors pro wrestling tag team. That shouldn’t obscure the fact that he’s an excellent player who has been a winner at every level of football–including in college as a member of the Ohio State Buckeyes. He put up great numbers last year on a bad St. Louis Rams team, and he’s only going to get better. He’s also become the leader of the defense, and late last week coach Steve Spagnuolo recognized that fact by naming Laurinaitis defensive captain.

Spagnuolo said that he told Laurinaitis to take command in the huddle:

“I told him before the first preseason game that there had to be a moment where he grabbed the huddle and said, ‘This is my show now.’ He has to let the huddle know when it needs to step up and play with a little more juice. He’s starting to do that.”

Laurinaitis says that there were times he wanted to step up this year, but since he’s not a disrespectful punk like so many young players he deferred to the veterans:

“As a rookie, it’s hard. You don’t want to step on toes of guys who are 10 years older.”

The Rams will be much better off now that Laurinaitis has been given his marching orders to lead the defense. He’s got the perfect personality makeup for a defensive leader, which he’s been doing since high school:

“I was that way in high school . I was that way at Ohio State. I’d rather be the person making calls and getting yelled at if I screw up than the one blaming somebody else.”

He shared a leadership philosophy given to him by Buckeyes’ coach Jim Tressel:

“Coach Tressel said to me, ‘The best way to become a leader is to be someone who can be trusted to make plays and be accountable.“

Laurinaitis can definitely make plays. He sometimes doesn’t get the respect he deserves from the NFL media since he’s not a pass rushing specialist that racks up big sacks numbers. All he does is make tackles and generally makes like miserable for the opposing team. In 2009, he started all 16 games and set a Rams’ record for a rookie by making 146 tackles, 98 unassisted, plus two sacks, two interceptions and a forced fumble. He’s a beast on the field, and Coach Spagnuolo can’t say enough about his football smarts, work ethic and dedication:

“He’s got a football mind. He’ll probably be a coach someday. This guy is one of the more passionate guys about the game of football. Even during the offseason, vacation time, he’s texting me about what film he can watch. At the position he’s playing, that can permeate through the defense and the rest of your team.”

Adds Laurinaitis:

“I hold myself to a high standard. You have to. You have to aim for perfection.”

We’ll still talk a lot about how cool it is that his dad is Road Warrior Animal, but Laurinaitis will be making his own name as an NFL All Pro sooner rather than later. Don’t look now, but the long suffering Rams may be on to something with a great young QB in Sam Bradford and a solid leader anchoring the defense.