UFreak
August 3rd, 2006, 09:37 AM
yeah, its Florida Propaganda too, but this guy has done it right. He "played", but you never heard of HIM getting into trouble.
Eagles' Kearse wants to step it up this time
The Freak file (yeah, cool nickname)
Name: Jevon Kearse
Position: Defensive end
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 265 pounds
Age: 29
Hometown: Fort Myers
College: Florida
NFL experience: 8 years
By ASHLEY FOX
The Philadelphia Inquirer
POMPANO BEACH - The lazy days that used to make up Jevon Kearse's offseasons were spent in South Beach, where he hit the clubs and searched for satisfaction. He'd take up residence in a rental near the never-ending procession of plastic and roll out in his trendy store-bought urban outfits with his boys, eight and nine cars thick.
He thought his game was tight.Early in his career, Kearse had all the spoils NFL fame and fortune could provide. The cars. The jewelry. The crew. The ladies. The insulation from fear that he would fail and end up like so many other promising athletes he knew from his hometown of Fort Myers, Fla., guys who returned from the bigs with trophy cases full of couldas and shouldas and if-onlys.
But even with job security and financial freedom, how many times can you run through the same scene? See the same men wearing your shirt? Hear the same lines from vacuous women who are mostly intent on checking out your watch and your wallet?
"It just started getting old," Kearse said recently, relaxing on the boat that is his new baby. "So, I moved away from it. You've got to step it up, sooner or later."
Since the Eagles made him the highest-paid defensive lineman in NFL history two years ago, Kearse has felt an obligation to tighten all the strands that weave together his life. Healthier eating habits support his maniacal offseason workout regimen, which should lend to better explosion off the line of scrimmage and make him a disruptive force this season. Sound financial investments and prudent spending have left money to spend on a custom-made wardrobe, which helps project an upscale persona that Madison Avenue craves from its athletes.
Money begets money, and Kearse has an obscene amount of it. He has focused on family and football, and now that all of that is straight, now that his mother is secure, maybe Kearse can find the girlfriend who will become the wife he wants to adore, the mother of the children he craves.
He is, after all, two months shy of his 30th birthday.
And, oh yes, staring at his eighth NFL season, the veteran of the Eagles' defensive line has realized one other thing: He needs a Super Bowl ring, and soon. He doesn't have much time left.
Growing up in a rough part of Fort Myers with no father and little money, Kearse could never dwell on dreams about a multimillion-dollar house on the beach, or luxury cars, or a 41-foot fishing boat. His needs were too immediate. Food. Shelter. Stability.
Kearse's father, Joseph, a career criminal, was killed while Kearse was in utero. His grandfather was gunned down when Kearse was just a toddler. Two of his brothers found trouble often, so Kearse, the second-oldest of Lessie Mae Green's seven children, essentially became the man of the house. He had responsibilities, and he lived up to them.
Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State and Miami came after Kearse, who was a National Honor Society member as well as a menacing high school player. He chose Florida, where he quickly earned the nickname "The Freak" for his unusual combination of size and speed.
It's not every day a 6-foot-4, 265-pound man has 4.4 speed and soft hands.
Kearse's primary goal was to get a free college education, but by his sophomore season, after he had moved from safety to outside linebacker, the buzz began to grow. NFL scouts had noticed Kearse, and he started to think, "Hey, I might as well make it happen."
As a junior in 1998, Kearse was a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award and opted to enter the NFL draft. Tennessee picked Kearse 16th overall, and one of the first things the new Titan did was buy Lessie Mae the car of her choice: a red Lincoln Navigator. (He loves his Momma!)
In Tennessee, Kearse set the NFL rookie record for sacks with 14.5 in 1999 and later joined Reggie White, Derrick Thomas and Anthony Smith as the only players ever to get double-digit sacks in their first three seasons.
Kearse didn't miss a game those first three years, amassing a staggering 36 sacks. But in 2002, he broke his left foot on the second play of the season - against the Eagles - and missed nearly the rest of the season. He came back with 9.5 sacks in 14 games in 2003 and became the most coveted free agent of the offseason.
On the first day of free agency, the Eagles signed Kearse to an eight-year, $66 million contract that included a $16 million signing bonus and a pair of $2 million roster bonuses. The boy from Fort Myers who refused to dream big got paid.
"This is for 17," Jeff Sanders yells at Kearse, who is pushing into the second hour of a grueling outdoor workout that has left him dripping with sweat, even though it is a relatively forgiving July afternoon in South Florida.
After the Eagles' dismal 2005 season ended unceremoniously with a loss to Washington, Kearse had surgery on his right knee to clean up meniscus fragments exposed in a late-season collision. He spent several weeks rehabilitating in Philadelphia under the watchful eye of the Eagles trainers, then, once cleared to leave, went home to Pompano.
One Tuesday, Kearse pulls his 2007 Cadillac Escalade - so new the air bag warning tag still hangs in front of the passenger seat - up to a dilapidated football field at Florida Atlantic University. One goalpost leans wearily to the left. Another is missing an upright. But the field is clear. No one notices when Kearse and Asante Samuel, a two-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots, begin working out.
After a warm-up, the trainers put Kearse and Samuel through exercises geared toward improving their change of direction and explosion. For one drill, Kearse hops on his right foot over 14 rungs of a ladder spread onto the ground, then, without switching feet, jumps over six orange barriers that are about a foot high. He repeats on his left foot, then does two more sets with each foot.
Next, Kearse sprints around small orange cones, moving forward, backward and side-to-side at top speed. As a small private jet takes off from an adjacent airstrip, Kearse says, "Right there's the motivation for us."
It is easy to forget Kearse is a defensive end. He moves gracefully but with power, quickly but with control. And he has less than 4 percent body fat.
On another drill, Kearse has a bungee cord affixed to his waist and sprints forward while the cord tries to hold him back, then backpedals 10 feet before barreling forward again. For another, Kearse explodes out of a three-point stance and drags Sanders, his trainer, several yards downfield.
"Think they're working harder than me in Philly?" Kearse asks.
Later, en route to the gym to lift weights, Kearse is concerned that people might question his work ethic after two seasons in which he averaged just 7.5 sacks for the Eagles.
"For me to get a big contract and go to a good team, that was incentive for me to make them look like they made the best decision of their team history," Kearse said.
Asked whether he has lived up to his contract, Kearse wasn't kidding himself.
"I'm hard on myself," he said. "I say no, because I know when they got me to come in here, they wanted me to get those same numbers that Hugh Douglas was used to getting at defensive end. ... I haven't gotten the numbers that they expected me to get, and that I expected myself to get."
The 7.5 sacks were easy to accept when the Eagles went to the Super Bowl. But 7.5 in a 6-10 season? Not good enough.
Last month, Eagles coach Andy Reid refused to label this a make-or-break season for Kearse, but it's clear from the team's offseason moves that they need him to be more effective. They signed veteran free agent Darren Howard to start opposite Kearse, so second-year end Trent Cole can play in third down situations, and they drafted Brodrick Bunkley to provide depth for Darwin Walker and Mike Patterson at defensive tackle.
"He's got some guys around him now, so all of a sudden now it's not just Jevon Kearse," Reid said. "He's got people around him that are football players, that are dangerous threats, so he might not see as many double-teams as he's seen in the past couple of years. I think he'll flourish with that."
Kearse does, too. He said he feels more comfortable with defensive coordinator Jim Johnson's defense and better understands how to pass rush in a two-gap alignment, which was unlike what he did in Tennessee. And Kearse will play some linebacker when the Eagles go to a 3-4.
So what does Kearse's trainer mean when he says, "This one's for 17?" or "This one's for 19?"
"We're talking about sacks," Kearse said. That's a big jump from 7.5. "Isn't it? Isn't it? But it can be done. It can be done."
There comes a point in every athlete's career when he realizes time is fleeting. Kearse is at that point.
He has made enough money to have the 2004 Rolls-Royce in the garage, the Escalade in the driveway, a 2007 Mercedes-Benz on the way and a 1967 Cadillac convertible in the shop. He has the $230,000 Sea Ray, which he's named "Act Right," and the house in Pompano valued at $12 million. There are other properties, including the monstrous spread in Moorestown, Pa., that he calls home during the season.
Kearse has started wearing upscale designer clothing to project an older, classier image. A New York designer has stocked his closets with Gucci, Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton.
"He's as marketable as he's ever been," said Peter Miller, Kearse's marketing manager. In the last 12 months, Kearse has been a spokesman for "eight to nine" large corporations, Miller said, and he is about to sign a multiyear deal with a wireless telephone company, has a satellite radio opportunity and remains a spokesman for Reebok, among others.
But Kearse lacks two things: a Super Bowl ring and a wife.
"I was hoping to have a girlfriend by the end of this offseason," said Kearse, who said he hasn't found a woman with common sense who is strong enough to rise above the rumors that swirl around a professional athlete. "One of these days, I'm going to stop depriving the world of a baby Freak."
As for that other ring, Kearse has had two shots already, once with the Titans and once with the Eagles. He needs a victory, to solidify his career, to satisfy his hunger. He has this year and maybe two or three more.
"I actually was talking to Randall Cunningham," Kearse said. "He was telling me how he lost the love for the game, how it wasn't there after so many years. He said the rest of the time, he played on guts. And he's absolutely right. I can see that."
Kearse can see it, but he doesn't feel it. Not yet. He has grown up, is entering another stage of his life and his career, but he is still chasing a dream.
"I didn't pay close attention to it my early years of playing," Kearse said, "but now that I'm the old man of our group, I'm starting to think I've really got to try to get a ring now. Not like I haven't been trying, but now there's more of an emphasis on it. I don't know how many seasons I've got left."
Kearse bought his three-story waterfront house, which is a good 50-minute ride from South Beach, after the 2004 season. Inside the protective gate is a wrought-iron trellis with a fountain, blue and yellow tiles and a garden of bromeliads, peace lilies and ferns.
The back of the house sits on a busy entrance to the Atlantic Ocean, across the water from the landmark Hillsboro Lighthouse. Kearse has two power skis dry-docked just feet from a picturesque horizon pool, but keeps his new baby, a 41-foot Sea Ray he bought in January, at his financial adviser's house a few miles away on a calmer stretch of water.
He wants to be a father, and a good one, in part because he never had one of his own. But if his father had been alive, Kearse isn't sure what kind of man he would be today.
"That chapter in my life was never open," he said, "but I sometimes wonder if my father would have been there, would I have just been a kid all my life? Would I never have grown up, never taken on responsibilities? I don't know."
Kearse is a man who has filled a three-story house, with four bedrooms, a theater, a game room and "the king's quarters," with classic wood furniture and beautiful upholstery. There is a handsome study with a humidor and a da Vinci replica painted on his living room ceiling.
But the home could use a woman's touch. There are no photos in the picture frames. The candles on the dining room table have never been lit.
Long, lean and agile, Kearse was an imposing athlete in high school, playing strong safety and tight end. He had many people in his ear, telling him how he should be a star - in high school, then college, then the pros. Kearse listened, but he didn't believe.
"I didn't have the easiest upbringing," he said. "I mean, going through what I went through, raised the way I was raised, yeah, having the houses and the cars was a dream, but I didn't think that could come true. . . . I knew a bunch of great high school players that went to college and still ended up back in town."
Eagles' Kearse wants to step it up this time
The Freak file (yeah, cool nickname)
Name: Jevon Kearse
Position: Defensive end
Height: 6-foot-4
Weight: 265 pounds
Age: 29
Hometown: Fort Myers
College: Florida
NFL experience: 8 years
By ASHLEY FOX
The Philadelphia Inquirer
POMPANO BEACH - The lazy days that used to make up Jevon Kearse's offseasons were spent in South Beach, where he hit the clubs and searched for satisfaction. He'd take up residence in a rental near the never-ending procession of plastic and roll out in his trendy store-bought urban outfits with his boys, eight and nine cars thick.
He thought his game was tight.Early in his career, Kearse had all the spoils NFL fame and fortune could provide. The cars. The jewelry. The crew. The ladies. The insulation from fear that he would fail and end up like so many other promising athletes he knew from his hometown of Fort Myers, Fla., guys who returned from the bigs with trophy cases full of couldas and shouldas and if-onlys.
But even with job security and financial freedom, how many times can you run through the same scene? See the same men wearing your shirt? Hear the same lines from vacuous women who are mostly intent on checking out your watch and your wallet?
"It just started getting old," Kearse said recently, relaxing on the boat that is his new baby. "So, I moved away from it. You've got to step it up, sooner or later."
Since the Eagles made him the highest-paid defensive lineman in NFL history two years ago, Kearse has felt an obligation to tighten all the strands that weave together his life. Healthier eating habits support his maniacal offseason workout regimen, which should lend to better explosion off the line of scrimmage and make him a disruptive force this season. Sound financial investments and prudent spending have left money to spend on a custom-made wardrobe, which helps project an upscale persona that Madison Avenue craves from its athletes.
Money begets money, and Kearse has an obscene amount of it. He has focused on family and football, and now that all of that is straight, now that his mother is secure, maybe Kearse can find the girlfriend who will become the wife he wants to adore, the mother of the children he craves.
He is, after all, two months shy of his 30th birthday.
And, oh yes, staring at his eighth NFL season, the veteran of the Eagles' defensive line has realized one other thing: He needs a Super Bowl ring, and soon. He doesn't have much time left.
Growing up in a rough part of Fort Myers with no father and little money, Kearse could never dwell on dreams about a multimillion-dollar house on the beach, or luxury cars, or a 41-foot fishing boat. His needs were too immediate. Food. Shelter. Stability.
Kearse's father, Joseph, a career criminal, was killed while Kearse was in utero. His grandfather was gunned down when Kearse was just a toddler. Two of his brothers found trouble often, so Kearse, the second-oldest of Lessie Mae Green's seven children, essentially became the man of the house. He had responsibilities, and he lived up to them.
Notre Dame, Florida, Florida State and Miami came after Kearse, who was a National Honor Society member as well as a menacing high school player. He chose Florida, where he quickly earned the nickname "The Freak" for his unusual combination of size and speed.
It's not every day a 6-foot-4, 265-pound man has 4.4 speed and soft hands.
Kearse's primary goal was to get a free college education, but by his sophomore season, after he had moved from safety to outside linebacker, the buzz began to grow. NFL scouts had noticed Kearse, and he started to think, "Hey, I might as well make it happen."
As a junior in 1998, Kearse was a finalist for the Defensive Player of the Year award and opted to enter the NFL draft. Tennessee picked Kearse 16th overall, and one of the first things the new Titan did was buy Lessie Mae the car of her choice: a red Lincoln Navigator. (He loves his Momma!)
In Tennessee, Kearse set the NFL rookie record for sacks with 14.5 in 1999 and later joined Reggie White, Derrick Thomas and Anthony Smith as the only players ever to get double-digit sacks in their first three seasons.
Kearse didn't miss a game those first three years, amassing a staggering 36 sacks. But in 2002, he broke his left foot on the second play of the season - against the Eagles - and missed nearly the rest of the season. He came back with 9.5 sacks in 14 games in 2003 and became the most coveted free agent of the offseason.
On the first day of free agency, the Eagles signed Kearse to an eight-year, $66 million contract that included a $16 million signing bonus and a pair of $2 million roster bonuses. The boy from Fort Myers who refused to dream big got paid.
"This is for 17," Jeff Sanders yells at Kearse, who is pushing into the second hour of a grueling outdoor workout that has left him dripping with sweat, even though it is a relatively forgiving July afternoon in South Florida.
After the Eagles' dismal 2005 season ended unceremoniously with a loss to Washington, Kearse had surgery on his right knee to clean up meniscus fragments exposed in a late-season collision. He spent several weeks rehabilitating in Philadelphia under the watchful eye of the Eagles trainers, then, once cleared to leave, went home to Pompano.
One Tuesday, Kearse pulls his 2007 Cadillac Escalade - so new the air bag warning tag still hangs in front of the passenger seat - up to a dilapidated football field at Florida Atlantic University. One goalpost leans wearily to the left. Another is missing an upright. But the field is clear. No one notices when Kearse and Asante Samuel, a two-time Super Bowl winner with the New England Patriots, begin working out.
After a warm-up, the trainers put Kearse and Samuel through exercises geared toward improving their change of direction and explosion. For one drill, Kearse hops on his right foot over 14 rungs of a ladder spread onto the ground, then, without switching feet, jumps over six orange barriers that are about a foot high. He repeats on his left foot, then does two more sets with each foot.
Next, Kearse sprints around small orange cones, moving forward, backward and side-to-side at top speed. As a small private jet takes off from an adjacent airstrip, Kearse says, "Right there's the motivation for us."
It is easy to forget Kearse is a defensive end. He moves gracefully but with power, quickly but with control. And he has less than 4 percent body fat.
On another drill, Kearse has a bungee cord affixed to his waist and sprints forward while the cord tries to hold him back, then backpedals 10 feet before barreling forward again. For another, Kearse explodes out of a three-point stance and drags Sanders, his trainer, several yards downfield.
"Think they're working harder than me in Philly?" Kearse asks.
Later, en route to the gym to lift weights, Kearse is concerned that people might question his work ethic after two seasons in which he averaged just 7.5 sacks for the Eagles.
"For me to get a big contract and go to a good team, that was incentive for me to make them look like they made the best decision of their team history," Kearse said.
Asked whether he has lived up to his contract, Kearse wasn't kidding himself.
"I'm hard on myself," he said. "I say no, because I know when they got me to come in here, they wanted me to get those same numbers that Hugh Douglas was used to getting at defensive end. ... I haven't gotten the numbers that they expected me to get, and that I expected myself to get."
The 7.5 sacks were easy to accept when the Eagles went to the Super Bowl. But 7.5 in a 6-10 season? Not good enough.
Last month, Eagles coach Andy Reid refused to label this a make-or-break season for Kearse, but it's clear from the team's offseason moves that they need him to be more effective. They signed veteran free agent Darren Howard to start opposite Kearse, so second-year end Trent Cole can play in third down situations, and they drafted Brodrick Bunkley to provide depth for Darwin Walker and Mike Patterson at defensive tackle.
"He's got some guys around him now, so all of a sudden now it's not just Jevon Kearse," Reid said. "He's got people around him that are football players, that are dangerous threats, so he might not see as many double-teams as he's seen in the past couple of years. I think he'll flourish with that."
Kearse does, too. He said he feels more comfortable with defensive coordinator Jim Johnson's defense and better understands how to pass rush in a two-gap alignment, which was unlike what he did in Tennessee. And Kearse will play some linebacker when the Eagles go to a 3-4.
So what does Kearse's trainer mean when he says, "This one's for 17?" or "This one's for 19?"
"We're talking about sacks," Kearse said. That's a big jump from 7.5. "Isn't it? Isn't it? But it can be done. It can be done."
There comes a point in every athlete's career when he realizes time is fleeting. Kearse is at that point.
He has made enough money to have the 2004 Rolls-Royce in the garage, the Escalade in the driveway, a 2007 Mercedes-Benz on the way and a 1967 Cadillac convertible in the shop. He has the $230,000 Sea Ray, which he's named "Act Right," and the house in Pompano valued at $12 million. There are other properties, including the monstrous spread in Moorestown, Pa., that he calls home during the season.
Kearse has started wearing upscale designer clothing to project an older, classier image. A New York designer has stocked his closets with Gucci, Ferragamo and Louis Vuitton.
"He's as marketable as he's ever been," said Peter Miller, Kearse's marketing manager. In the last 12 months, Kearse has been a spokesman for "eight to nine" large corporations, Miller said, and he is about to sign a multiyear deal with a wireless telephone company, has a satellite radio opportunity and remains a spokesman for Reebok, among others.
But Kearse lacks two things: a Super Bowl ring and a wife.
"I was hoping to have a girlfriend by the end of this offseason," said Kearse, who said he hasn't found a woman with common sense who is strong enough to rise above the rumors that swirl around a professional athlete. "One of these days, I'm going to stop depriving the world of a baby Freak."
As for that other ring, Kearse has had two shots already, once with the Titans and once with the Eagles. He needs a victory, to solidify his career, to satisfy his hunger. He has this year and maybe two or three more.
"I actually was talking to Randall Cunningham," Kearse said. "He was telling me how he lost the love for the game, how it wasn't there after so many years. He said the rest of the time, he played on guts. And he's absolutely right. I can see that."
Kearse can see it, but he doesn't feel it. Not yet. He has grown up, is entering another stage of his life and his career, but he is still chasing a dream.
"I didn't pay close attention to it my early years of playing," Kearse said, "but now that I'm the old man of our group, I'm starting to think I've really got to try to get a ring now. Not like I haven't been trying, but now there's more of an emphasis on it. I don't know how many seasons I've got left."
Kearse bought his three-story waterfront house, which is a good 50-minute ride from South Beach, after the 2004 season. Inside the protective gate is a wrought-iron trellis with a fountain, blue and yellow tiles and a garden of bromeliads, peace lilies and ferns.
The back of the house sits on a busy entrance to the Atlantic Ocean, across the water from the landmark Hillsboro Lighthouse. Kearse has two power skis dry-docked just feet from a picturesque horizon pool, but keeps his new baby, a 41-foot Sea Ray he bought in January, at his financial adviser's house a few miles away on a calmer stretch of water.
He wants to be a father, and a good one, in part because he never had one of his own. But if his father had been alive, Kearse isn't sure what kind of man he would be today.
"That chapter in my life was never open," he said, "but I sometimes wonder if my father would have been there, would I have just been a kid all my life? Would I never have grown up, never taken on responsibilities? I don't know."
Kearse is a man who has filled a three-story house, with four bedrooms, a theater, a game room and "the king's quarters," with classic wood furniture and beautiful upholstery. There is a handsome study with a humidor and a da Vinci replica painted on his living room ceiling.
But the home could use a woman's touch. There are no photos in the picture frames. The candles on the dining room table have never been lit.
Long, lean and agile, Kearse was an imposing athlete in high school, playing strong safety and tight end. He had many people in his ear, telling him how he should be a star - in high school, then college, then the pros. Kearse listened, but he didn't believe.
"I didn't have the easiest upbringing," he said. "I mean, going through what I went through, raised the way I was raised, yeah, having the houses and the cars was a dream, but I didn't think that could come true. . . . I knew a bunch of great high school players that went to college and still ended up back in town."