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This is an old article from when Ernie Sims was at Florida State, but it is a good one and explains a lot about how he plays. He plays mean. He has a real edge that I'm excited about finally seeing from someone on the Dallas defense. He hits like a sledgehammer and now, at 27 years old, he has finally added hard work to go with his God given abilities.
With him starting this week for Dallas, I though I'd dig it up and post it for those who might not have read it when he was still in school.
Below is an excerpt:
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Every team has a hitter, a player addicted to the primal act of inflicting pain. Sims is the Nole who could most benefit from 30 days at Betty Ford. "When I'm on the field, I get in some mode-rage, really," he says. "I'm thinking, but I'm thinking in a new sense. I'm in a whole new world. I just do things. When I sit back and think about it, it's like, why did I do that?"
Bowden, entering his 52nd season, says he's never had a more ferocious linebacker, and he's coached both Derrick Brooks and Marvin Jones. Some coaches might not want their star around the poisonous fangs of a tarantula. Not Bowden. "I worry about Ernie biting the spider," he says.
"The whole reason he runs from point A to point B isn't to get the guy down," says FSU executive head coach Kevin Steele, who oversees the linebackers. "It is to have a collision. That's what he thrives on, to have a collision as often as he can, as violent as he can."
Sims' patron saints are Ray Lewis, LaVar Arrington, John Lynch, Rodney Harrison and Brian Dawkins-heavy hitters skilled in the art of causing hematomas. Reciting the hitter's prayer, he says: "Between those two whistles, I'm trying to hurt them, punish them, any way I can."
He doesn't remember the name of then-Georgia Tech sophomore safety Chris Reis. None of the FSU coaches or players does. But they remember Reis' jersey number. And they remember the Sept. 13, 2003, moment now referred to simply as The Hit.
"You have three degrees of hits," explains Bowden, to set the scene. "You have the one where the guy has to go off the field. Then you have 'carry-offs.' Then you have 'refusals to return.' This was a 'refusal to return.' "
In the semidarkness of the defensive coaches' meeting room, Steele aims a red laser pointer at the big screen where No. 34-Sims-is positioned on FSU's kickoff return team. Georgia Tech kicks off … Reis moves forward, tracking the ball … Sims vectors toward him … and then … Reis is airborne, his helmet cartwheeling out of the frame.
"See those two white things spinning in the air?" says Steele. "Ernie knocked the kid's ear pads out."
_____________________________________________
Read the rest:
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3757045
With him starting this week for Dallas, I though I'd dig it up and post it for those who might not have read it when he was still in school.
Below is an excerpt:
_____________________________________________
Every team has a hitter, a player addicted to the primal act of inflicting pain. Sims is the Nole who could most benefit from 30 days at Betty Ford. "When I'm on the field, I get in some mode-rage, really," he says. "I'm thinking, but I'm thinking in a new sense. I'm in a whole new world. I just do things. When I sit back and think about it, it's like, why did I do that?"
Bowden, entering his 52nd season, says he's never had a more ferocious linebacker, and he's coached both Derrick Brooks and Marvin Jones. Some coaches might not want their star around the poisonous fangs of a tarantula. Not Bowden. "I worry about Ernie biting the spider," he says.
"The whole reason he runs from point A to point B isn't to get the guy down," says FSU executive head coach Kevin Steele, who oversees the linebackers. "It is to have a collision. That's what he thrives on, to have a collision as often as he can, as violent as he can."
Sims' patron saints are Ray Lewis, LaVar Arrington, John Lynch, Rodney Harrison and Brian Dawkins-heavy hitters skilled in the art of causing hematomas. Reciting the hitter's prayer, he says: "Between those two whistles, I'm trying to hurt them, punish them, any way I can."
He doesn't remember the name of then-Georgia Tech sophomore safety Chris Reis. None of the FSU coaches or players does. But they remember Reis' jersey number. And they remember the Sept. 13, 2003, moment now referred to simply as The Hit.
"You have three degrees of hits," explains Bowden, to set the scene. "You have the one where the guy has to go off the field. Then you have 'carry-offs.' Then you have 'refusals to return.' This was a 'refusal to return.' "
In the semidarkness of the defensive coaches' meeting room, Steele aims a red laser pointer at the big screen where No. 34-Sims-is positioned on FSU's kickoff return team. Georgia Tech kicks off … Reis moves forward, tracking the ball … Sims vectors toward him … and then … Reis is airborne, his helmet cartwheeling out of the frame.
"See those two white things spinning in the air?" says Steele. "Ernie knocked the kid's ear pads out."
_____________________________________________
Read the rest:
Link: http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?id=3757045
