It is Wednesday of Patriots week and practice has been over for more than an hour, but the words are still ringing in Danieal Manning’s ears.
“Strip the ball, strip the ball.”
“Every day we say `Strip the ball, strip the ball. Scoop and score,’ so if we do it in practice, it will become second nature in a game,” the Bears rookie free safety says.
Manning got his hands on the ball in several critical situations Sunday–forcing two fumbles, recovering one and tipping a pass that was then intercepted by Charles Tillman. “It’s kind of crazy,” he says after a Bears loss that included nine turnovers, five by New England. “We’re used to getting all those turnovers with the win.”
But doesn’t he improve every time he faces a top quarterback like Tom Brady? “Well,” Manning pauses, “you want to get better as a group, but I get a good experience every game. I’m constantly learning.”
Every day.
Monday
Strength, cardio and some extra reps of his favorite biceps curls, Manning works alone at Halas Hall. It’s not that he wouldn’t appreciate a training partner, as most of his Bears teammates have.
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Some weeks he is able to coordinate his schedule with Devin Hester or another first-year player.
“But I guess being a rookie, I’ve got to fend for myself until next year,” he says. “I think guys have taken a liking to me, but everyone has their own schedule.”
Manning stretches, gets a chiropractic treatment and a deep-tissue massage. “That’s the one that hurts,” he says. “The `flush’ (massage) I get on Tuesday is much more relaxing. But once you get into a good rhythm, your body gets used to it, and it keeps you healthier during a long season.”
If there is one player whose example Manning follows, it is Muhsin Muhammad. “I see what he’s doing, how he takes care of himself and how long he has lasted in the league, and I try to do it,” Manning says.
Tuesday
An off-day, but Manning, like many of his teammates, still shows up at Halas Hall.
It’s a good time to sit down and talk with coaches. On this day it’s “Coach Gill”–Gill Byrd, defensive quality-control coach and an NFL corner for 10 years–and defensive backs coach Steven Wilks. “We’ll talk about life, how I’m doing, what I’m doing for Thanksgiving,” Manning says.
Manning is pleased and flattered to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner at the home of Ron and Stephanie Rivera, the Bears defensive coordinator and his wife. “I’ll have to find out what kind of wine to bring and maybe a cake?” he says, hoping for some guidance.
Manning squeezes in another massage, then stops briefly at home before driving to Oak Brook to speak to a group of 50 executives in an appearance arranged by the Bears. “I basically told them about my life, my experience getting drafted, how I was the second-highest draft pick in Abilene-Christian history,” he says.
“I do a good job [speaking], and I like it. I look at it like I’m talking with family. I started speaking in high school to little kids. My granny was a teacher, so she always asked me to come.”
The affable rookie feels so comfortable with the group of businessmen, in fact, that he ends up accepting their invitation to continue their talk at a local tavern until 10 p.m. and doesn’t get home until 11. “To me, it’s more than a money thing,” says Manning, shrugging off the late night. “These guys really want to know a football player. I love talking to them.”
Wednesday
Generosity aside, 6 a.m. is still 6 a.m., and Manning has to sit on the edge of his bed for a long while before talking to his fiance “Tesha” (LaTesha Cumby) and actually “starting to move around” about 7.
He leaves the house at 7:20, arrives at Halas Hall at 7:40 and goes to the special-teams meeting at 8. Though his team duties have decreased since joining the starting lineup at Minnesota on Sept. 24, he says, “I still pay attention, just in case.”
Manning goes straight to the full-team meeting at 8:45, followed by offense at 9, which, as it often does, goes through to walk-through at 11:30. He is still learning how to truly study film, something he admits he “took for granted in college.”
“Some receivers will tip their hands, and you have to keep watching film to pick it up,” Manning says.
Bears defensive coaches repeat their weekly game goals and Manning absorbs them: Shutout. Score on defense. Force three or four turnovers. Force four to six three-and-outs.
After practice, Manning and his teammates watch practice film. He then lifts weights, does the hot tub-cold tub routine and gets home by 4:30, when Tuesday’s late night starts to catch up to him. Wearily, he plays with his sons Jonte, 2, and Jamauri, 5 months, and after dinner tries watching some film of New England before sleep overtakes him.
Thursday
Already a family man at 24, that doesn’t mean Manning does not miss his family in Texas. This is especially the case today, on his first Thanksgiving away from home.
“We usually have 25 or more every Thanksgiving,” he recalls. “I’m family-oriented, and I’m so used to driving home from college see my brother and sisters for Thanksgiving and Christmas and having my family around. I thought we could go home [this year]. I’m still thinking I’m in college. And we have a game on Christmas Eve in Detroit, so I can’t go home then either.”
In the meantime, Thanksgiving at the Riveras’, an intimate group of 10, is a great time, says Manning. “They’re a great family, and the food was really good,” he says. “I was glad Coach asked me to come. That was pretty big for me.”
Back home by 8:30, Manning watches his DVD of “Monk.” Often it’s “Shrek” with the kids, and then Jonte falls asleep in his parents’ bed. “He’ll wake me asking for `milky,’ and then I’ll go get the milky and I’ll be up,” Manning says.
Friday
It may be “Fast Friday”–when offense, defense and special teams run through game plans in 20 minutes–but it’s a day of reflection for Manning.
Every Friday after practice, Manning is one of a dozen or so Bears players who take part in Bible study, headed by team chaplain Harry Swayne. Typically, after a half-hour or so of socializing, a Bible passage or theme will be discussed.
One of Manning’s recent favorites was the “Samson Syndrome,” which in modern parlance refers to men who fear modern women and who have a self-destructive bent toward having a relationship with a woman who betrays him.
“Big-time football players have big egos, and it points out what Samson is going through in his life,” Manning says “When I got home I was thinking maybe I need to change my ways after seeing what happened with Samson.”
Back home from practice, Manning studies film while LaTesha takes the kids out to give him some quiet time to concentrate. Balancing fatherhood and football, says Manning, is a learning process. “I see some guys on the team who get to hang out and do stuff and have all this free time,” he says. “I come home and have to use time-management skills and plan stuff out. But it works for me.”
Saturday
Like every other rookie, Manning takes his turn serving the veterans breakfast on Saturdays, usually McDonald’s. For the most part, however, Manning seems to have outgrown the rookie razzing.
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But that doesn’t mean Manning doesn’t know his place. “We’ll sit down, and the offensive linemen will come in, and I just get up before they say anything,” he laughs. “Any vet will be like, `Hey, rookie, what are you doing on the bench sitting down?’ So I’m like, OK, I’ll just get up before anything starts.”
Sunday
It looked like a rookie mistake–a late hit by Manning following a 26-yard run by Corey Dillon that tacked an extra 10 yards onto the play, giving the Patriots a first-and-10 at the Bears’ 11. Manning doesn’t see it that way.
“No excuses for hard play,” he says. “That’s the way we play–to the whistle–and they made a call and you’ve got to live with it. But I don’t think that was a late hit.”
He is bailed out by Lance Briggs, who forces and recovers a fumble by Laurence Maroney on the next play.
Manning looks like a vet in the third quarter, forcing and recovering a fumble by Patriots receiver Reche Caldwell, the Patriots’ second fumble on the play. “He didn’t see me from the inside, and I ran him down and stripped the ball and recovered it,” he says. “They yelled `get up, get up’ at me, but I thought I was down. I could have had a chance to get up and score.”
On the next New England possession, Manning gets a hand on a Brady pass, allowing Tillman to get the interception, which gives the Bears the ball on their own 47-yard line and sets up a scoring drive to pull them into a 10-10 tie with 14:53 remaining.
But Brady repays the Bears and Manning in the fourth quarter with a 40-yard pass play to Ben Watson. “[Brady] looked the safeties off a lot, so we couldn’t cheat that much like in previous games,” Manning says. “He’ll pump one way and turn around and throw the other way.”
On the Watson play, Manning is in man coverage, Watson on the inside.
“We were both stopped and looking back, and then I thought I heard the crowd roar and he took off,” Manning says. “I lost the ball in the lights. Then got it back about 20 feet from me, and I’m still running with him and I tried to make a play on the ball. I was using my technique, tried to rake his hands, but I guess I raked the wrong hands. Sometimes that happens. He gets paid too.”
But in typical Bears defensive form, Manning makes up for it on New England’s next possession, forcing a fumble by Dillon, which is recovered by Alex Brown.
Is the 17-13 loss any easier to take considering they’re still 9-2?
“Ultimately, you want to win,” he says. “So we’re going to get back home, look at the mistakes we made, correct them and bounce back because we have Minnesota at home.”
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