Carroll Angeles

More than a spin cycle
Mike Chappell, Indy Star
October 14, 2011
(three pages)
So many are a blur in Dwight Freeney's mind. One sack after another after another.
They're like their creator. He can be a vapor trail at the snap of the football, empty air to an offensive tackle
left to deal with the Indianapolis Colts' whirling dervish of a defensive end bearing down on the next
quarterback.
Ask Freeney about the first of his 981/2 career sacks and his eyes widen as he flips through the Rolodex in
his mind.
Wasn't it against the Tennessee Titans and Steve McNair, he wondered? Nope. Houston Texans and David
Carr.
How about the first sack after returning from Lisfranc surgery on his left foot that forced him to miss the
final six games of 2007? Easy. Season opener, '08.
"Another Jacksonville moment," Freeney said confidently. "(David) Garrard was the quarterback. Got him
by the waist and slammed him on his head."
Uh, nope. Yes, the '08 season opener. But it was the Chicago Bears, and Kyle Orton.
Freeney doesn't sack and take names. He and Reggie Wayne are cut from the same cloth. The Colts' fivetime
Pro Bowl receiver has 809 career receptions.
Wayne's first?
"Couldn't tell you," he said.
Freeney just sacks quarterbacks, generically and recurrently. Over the past decade, no player has more
sacks or forced fumbles (43). The latter is a byproduct of Freeney patterning the sack-strip part of his game
after his boyhood hero, New York Giants Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor.
Already the Colts' career sack leader and third in the NFL among active players, Freeney is closing in on an
elite fraternity. He's poised to become just the 26th player in league history with 100, a step he could take
Sunday when the Colts visit the Cincinnati Bengals.
"It means a lot to me because it's someplace where a lot of guys haven't been and it's a pretty number,"
Freeney said. "It's a three-digit (number) and 100 anything is good, almost, other than 100 strikeouts or 100
missed tackles.
"Five hundred home runs for baseball, you've got 20-something guys that are on that list. That is kind of
comparable with the sacks."
More than a "spinner"
Mention Freeney's name and you'll often elicit the same reaction: "Sure, the guy with the unearthly spin
move."