Arizona receiver Boldin is a warrior, not a whiner

Arizona receiver Boldin is a warrior, not a whiner
February 1
St. Louis Post-Dispatch

"Before we get to Anquan Boldin's explanation of why he was caught on TV looking like the quintessential me-first athlete in the Arizona Cardinals' NFC championship game victory, it's important to listen to his answer to another question.

The answer goes a long way toward explaining why he was so enraged at not being on the field while the Cardinals were driving for the game-winning touchdown.

Question: Do you have any plates or screws in your face?

"I have seven plates and 40 screws," he said.

That's not a face, that's Aisle 13 at Home Depot.

If there were any doubts about Boldin's devotion to his team and his teammates, they should have been erased by the fact that not only was he playing with a broken facial bone, he rushed back from the injury to help the Cardinals.

So when that TV camera captured Boldin screaming at offensive coordinator Todd Haley during the game against the Eagles, it both captured the man and missed him completely. Caught his fire and misinterpreted his passion.

In the first four seasons of his six-year NFL career, all in Arizona, the Cardinals went 4-12, 6-10, 5-11 and 5-11, respectively. He was the heart, soul and adrenal gland of the franchise when it hardly had a pulse.

During one of the most important drives in team history, he was relegated to the sideline. One of the three Cardinals with more than 1,000 receiving yards this season and there wasn't a place for him on the field?

"I wanted to be in the game," Boldin said during the week as the buildup to Sunday's Cardinals-Steelers Super Bowl escalated. "I think any competitor would have wanted to be. That's the only thing that I was thinking. That's where I was coming from."

As it usually does in the NFL, the issue of money has been suggested as a possible reason for Boldin's sideline behavior. Before the season, he had been frustrated when the Cardinals said they were out of commas and decimal points after giving fellow receiver Larry Fitzgerald a big contract. But Boldin denied that frustration boiled over in the NFC championship game.

"Not at all," he said. "At the beginning of the season, I said I would put all the contract talks to the back burner, and that's what I did. I came out and played football through the injuries, through all the ups and downs of the season. That wasn't the issue.

"It was truly about wanting to be in the game at that moment. A game of that magnitude, a drive of that magnitude ... I want to be in there."

As Haley says, flare-ups occur all the time on NFL sidelines. But the viewing audience usually doesn't see them, especially at big moments in big games. For the Cardinals to say the incident was blown out of proportion misses the point. These things might happen all the time, but because they usually happen away from the cameras, the players aren't portrayed as selfish."
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