Not athletically freakish or extroverted enough to make himself a household name, the Ravens wide receiver — who once came back from a BROKEN FACE in three weeks — is simply the kind of guy who makes football worth watching. Now he's a Super Bowl champion.
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Football fans have become accustomed to a few certain types of elite wide receiver over the past 20 years. The Physical Freak — Randy Moss, Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and so forth — is too big to be that fast and too strong to be that agile. There are occasional Special Teams Slashers who pull double-duty (Percy Harvin, Devin Hester); sub-6-footers like DeSean Jackson and Steve Smith, who subside on equal parts speed and having a giant chip on their shoulder; and of course, the Prima Donnas, Terrell Owens and Chad "Ochocinco."
Anquan Boldin of the Baltimore Ravens is none of these things. He is of average height (6-foot-1). His age, relative to other superstar wideouts, is on the older side (32). He has been a starter in the NFL throughout his 10-year career, but he has never been considered the Main Guy, just a solid No. 2. He has scored more than 10 touchdowns just once in a season. After a productive seven years in Arizona, he was traded to the Baltimore in 2010 for a couple of midlevel draft picks. He doesn't do a lot of outrageous media appearances.
But Sunday night, Boldin had earned a right that none of the aforementioned pass-catchers have earned heretofore: to hold a Super Bowl trophy in victory. Amid a Ravens team filled with personalities ranging from the offensively derpy to the gratingly melodramatic, it was hard not to feel good for Boldin. He's not the kind of star we know much about — who knows what he's like behind closed doors — but he's the kind of guy whose play alone makes him easy to root for. A hard worker and dutiful teammate, but a bad, bad man all the same.
It's been a looooooong and collision-filled road for Boldin. Let's take a look back.
Source: Stephen M. Dowell / via: orlandosentinel.com
Like almost everyone who eventually succeeds in the NFL, Boldin was an astounding football player in high school. Back then, he was a quarterback and was bestowed with Florida's Mr. Football honor in 1998. When he made his way to Florida State, the team converted him to wide receiver so that he'd get playing time. In 23 games for the Seminoles, Boldin scored 21 TDs, parlaying his newfound positional fortitude into job with the Arizona Cardinals, who drafted him in the second round.
Boldin shined as a rookie, accumulating 1,377 receiving yards and nine TDs, making the Pro Bowl. Alas, the team finished 4-12 and scored the third pick in the draft, allowing them to select a larger, more gifted receiver in Larry Fitzgerald. Together, the two instantly became the NFL's most lethal 1-2 receiving duo, though it was clear who was second-in-command. Fitzgerald, with his unmistakeable dreads falling beneath his helmet, was taller, younger, and more muscular.
Boldin's transition — from prep superstar to Florida State B.M.O.C. to rookie phenom to sidekick — did not dilute his balls-out, 110% approach to the game. He didn't make the impossible look effortless, but he was a pro, tough and relentless. And in 2008, a few months before the Cardinals made an improbable (and nearly successful) appearance at Super Bowl XLIII, Boldin was nearly concussed out of football. On the road and down 21 points to the New York Jets, Kurt Warner tried to hit Boldin in stride on a fairly typical slant pattern to center field, just inside the goal line. The game was no longer in question, but Boldin didn't hesitate as he went up for the catch. Eyes on the ball, he didn't see the two Jets defenders coming at his head.