Indianapolis Colts linebacker Darius Leonard has proven himself to be one of the best at his position entering his third year in the league. While he is self-driven plenty, he is finding no shortage of motivation.
Whether it’s a ranking that places him as the fourth-best linebacker or comments on Twitter, Leonard knows exactly how to fuel the fire that drives his desire to be the best player in the NFL.
“I need 100 percent of [the criticism],” Leonard told reporters Monday. “Some people can get complacent with the things that they have done and for me, I look for – I’m always on Twitter. I look for every bad comment. I look for everybody to just talk trash to me because if someone (is) out there talking trash about me, that means that I’m not good enough. I have to continue to go out and put my best foot forward no matter what – no matter what it is.”
It has been this way since Leonard entered the league. It has been this way since the moment he was drafted by the Colts in the second round of the 2018 draft. When Bleacher Report ran an article dubbing him one of the worst picks of that class.
Leonard even had specially made cleats for training camp giving him motivation every time he looks at them.
Darius Leonard’s custom Jordans for camp 👀 pic.twitter.com/HjFtXBbkn5
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 1, 2020
Whether he will wear them remains to be seen. Leonard sees himself as more of a blue-collar worker than someone who needs to bring attention to himself. He discussed how the cleats came about, which was actually an idea from his agent.
“It was crazy because my agent knows how I take criticism, especially negative criticism, so he actually called my wife and was like, ‘I want to do this for Darius (Leonard). Can you pick out all the things that will make him upset going into the camp?’ Kayla actually put everything together,” Leonard said. “Will I wear them? I don’t know, I might. I’m not really a fancy cleat guy. I’m a plain Jane guy. I don’t know if I’ll wear them. I’ll probably take a picture and put them on my front screen just to keep that motivation, probably like I did with Bleacher Report.”
Leonard has already proven himself to be an elite linebacker in the NFL just two years into his career. His fire to be the absolute best in the league is inspiring and should have the rest of the league worrying about what his ceiling looks like.