Man-Crush

From time to time, I have been known to develop some man-crushes, but there are 2 dudes that I am swooning over like a teenager right now. One of which has been an on-and-off 3 year relationship, and the other has just kind of snuck up on me recently. The man-crush that just recently surfaced is LaRon Landry, safety for the Washington Redskins. Landry had an up-and-down 1st couple of years in the league. He suffered through the typical period of adjustment that NFL rookies who crack the starting line-up go through, and for much of the last couple of years he played out of position a lot at free safety. That was mostly the cause of the tragic death of Sean Taylor, who was only already the best young safety in the whole league at the time. If Landry and Taylor had been able to play alongside each other for four, five, eight, or however many seasons, they might have been eventually regarded as one of the best safety tandems of all time. Lofty praise, but how many great safety combos can you think of in NFL history? Great cornerback duos maybe, but I don’t ever remember a team having two All-Pro caliber safeties. I’m too lazy to do any actual research, but somebody correct me if way off base here. Anyway, Landry’s 1st few years were memorable for some big plays and huge hits, but mostly for costly missed tackles and blown coverage assignments. This year, Landry has been moved back to his more natural position at strong safety, where he has more freedom to roam the field, blitz the quarterback, and play downhill around the line of scrimmage, and it has really paid dividends up to this point. Through 5 weeks of the NFL season, the Skins defense is ranked last in the league in yards given up per game, but that’s through no fault of Landry, who seems like he is all over the field knocking down quarterbacks, blowing up runners and receivers, and causing turnovers. Tackles are not an official statistic in the NFL, but Landry is the unofficial league leader in that category at this point in the year, and he also has a sack, a forced fumble, and a pick. He looks like a supersized Troy Polamalu…which brings me to the other reason for my man-crush. The dude is friggin’ ripped. Everyone has their own personal workout goals. Mine are not to get so huge that I look like a beached whale. I have said before that I would like to look something like an NFL safety…but trying for Landry’s physique might be asking for too much. The guy is listed as my height (6-0), but he weighs 220 pounds, and he looks like he could be 240, easy.

I mean, come on, man…that is ridiculous. Nevermind that poor excuse for a dishcloth that Landry is using as a shirt here. Show me the workout plan to get guns like that. He’s one of those guys (like Julius Peppers and Andre Johnson) that are so jacked that you can practically see their pecs and delts through their freaking shoulder pads.

And as big as he is, he seems like he’s usually the fastest guy on the field. I’m sure even at whatever weight he’s at that he runs like a 4.4 forty yard dash, and if you got him on a basketball court he can probably throw down pretty easily as well. Landry is apparently a workout legend, as he has gained notoriety for his obsessive weight lifting routines as of late. Landry has confessed that he even sneaks training sessions in on the nights before and after gamedays, when even the most dedicated gym rats are trying to catch some extra shut-eye and nurse injuries…hard not to like a guy like that. If I wasn’t in my anti-jersey phase, Landry would be the one current Redskin whose jersey I would wear.

Speaking of jerseys, a couple of months ago my one brother-in-law, Franky, got someone to hook him up with authentic jerseys for like 20% of what their retail value is. Franky copped himself and everyone else whatever they wanted…some wanted Yankees jerseys. Others wanted a Wade or LeBron jersey (from the Heat of course). What did I want? A Los Angelos Clippers Blake Griffin jersey (hence, my other man-crush). I’ve wrote about Griffin before, but he was one of my favorite players coming out of college ever. In fact, he is probably my favorite college player who isn’t a local kid of all time. For example, I root for all the former Terps – Dixon, Blake, Wilcox, etc. – to have successful NBA careers, but I usually don’t care much about anyone else. Every once in a blue moon somebody from a team that I have no rooting interest in catches my attention, but after watching Griffin play a couple of times at Oklahoma I was immediately hooked. Yea, he has great ball-handling skills and great touch on his shot for a guy his size, but Griffin is no Euro-style big guy or AAU big guy, who really just want to shoot jumpers and play like a guard…no, no, no, Blake Griffin is a true power forward, a rare bread in modern basketball. He’s a solid 6-10 and 260 pounds. He looks as if he could break your fingers if you shook hands with him. He runs the court like a deer, and he explodes off the floor like a young Shawn Kemp. And with all that athletic ability he still has great touch and footwork around the basket. He also possesses other intangibles that make it hard not to like him. He seems like he is 1st class work ethic, has a good head on his shoulders, and doesn’t seem like he has much of an ego. In college, he was obviously the centerpiece of those Oklahoma teams, but he looks like the type of guy who can average 20+ points per game without having a single play called for him just by running the floor and crashing the boards…hard not to like that in a world full of “me 1st” guys.

When he had to miss all of last year with a knee injury, I was legitimately bummed-out. I will always be a college hoops fan 1st anyway, but I don’t remember ever being depressed over anything NBA-related quite like that. I was actually looking forward to seeing this guy play in “The League.” When he was drafted, my thoughts were that even the Clippers couldn’t screw this one up…Griffin was a lock to be a multi-time All-Star…after he got hurt I thought we were going to be robbed of watching Griffin’s career progress the way it should, and instead he was going to be just another entry on the list of many careers gone South because of the most cursed franchise in sports. This year, he looks like he’s back to 100%. I know that no predictions should be based on summer league and preseason games, but by all accounts Griffin is on a mission. In games that don’t even matter, he’s playing like a man possessed. Check out his box score from the other night in a preseason game against Denver: 36 minutes, 7 for 13 from the field, 10 for 12 from the free throw line, 24 points, 14 boards, and 4 blocks. The one question mark on Griffin as he was coming out of college was his defense, but he appears to be a stud on the defensive end as well. My explanation is this: if you look at Griffin’s college teams, he was not only the most important player on those teams by far, but he was also one of their lone big guys. Griffin couldn’t afford to get himself into foul trouble stupidly trying to block shots and jump over people’s backs for rebounds. Without Griffin on the floor, those were some very average Oklahoma teams. People mistakenly wondered about his defensive intensity when really he was just smartly doing what he had to do to make sure he was able to stay on the floor.

Anyway, this year everyone’s eyes will be on the “super friends” in Miami or on the Lakers or the Celtics…but I’m going to keep an eye on Griffin and the Clips. If he stays healthy, he at worst puts up an 18 point per game, 8 rebound per game kind of season…but I could also see him putting up some monster numbers in the neighborhood of 22 and 12. John Wall has superstar written all over him, but I think Griffin (while flying somewhat under the radar because of missing all of last year) has to be the odds-on favorite for rookie of the year. I’m also wondering if Griffin is one of those players that comes along once every 5 years that is just so good that he alone is worth 15 or 20 wins for a team. The Clippers only won 29 games a year ago, but with Griffin and an improved Eric Gordon could they bump that number up close to 50? That might be tough to do in the ultra-deep Western Conference, but take Duncan or Durant or Kobe out of the their respective lineups for an entire season…how many games do those teams win without them? I think (and hope) Griffin is that kind of player.