INDIANAPOLIS — Poor,
poor Blue.
He's the Indianapolis Colts' team mascot, and by
necessity has something of a horse face, because, well,
he represents a horse.
But that's not the reason why Blue's feelings possibly
have been hurt by none other than Pro Bowl wide
receiver Reggie Wayne, who proudly has four little
stuffed animals on the top shelf of his locker stall
for all to see.
They're not cute little colts. They're cute little
kittens, and they go by the name of Sir Purr, who
happens to be the mascot of the … Carolina
Panthers.
"I have some friends from my hometown (of New Orleans)
who gave them to me as a joke," Wayne says with a
chuckle. "They live (in the Charlotte area) now and
were telling me it was Carolina's year this year, and
they sent them to me after the Carolina preseason game
this year."
The Panthers prevailed 23-20. So why not just chuckle
and then throw away the Sir Purrs?
"Because I use them as a reminder to myself that it's
NOT their year, it's going to be OUR year," Wayne says.
"Really, though, they give me a reminder that everybody
in this league is working toward the same goal, and you
can never, ever lose sight of that."
Wayne has quite been adept at not losing sight of goals
since joining the Colts as a rookie out of Miami in
2001. His goal simply was to get better every season.
And for the most part, he has done just that.
Consider the progression of his season-long receiving
yardage through the years. Only once has he not
improved.
There were the 345 yards as a rookie. Then 716 in '02,
then 838 in '03, then 1,210 in '04, then 1,055 in '05,
then 1,310 in '06 and finally an NFL-best 1,510 last
season to go with a career-high 104 catches.
Not only that, but he's just the third player in league
history to have increased his number of receptions in
each of the first seven seasons of his career.
Says Colts coach Tony Dungy: "You see what happens with
guys like Reggie Wayne that get better and better and
better as they learn the system."
To a wide receiver counterpart for the Detroit Lions,
Wayne's work is pretty darned impressive.
"Reggie Wayne, man, he's really come into his own," the
Lions' Roy Williams says. "You've got to admire the way
he got it done after Marvin (Harrison) went out last
season."
Injuries forced Harrison, an eight-time Pro Bowler, to
miss 11 games in '07. Wayne says he knew many observers
had long tabbed his improvement simply a by-product of
getting mostly single coverage as opposed to Harrison's
double dose, and was pleased he was able to show
otherwise last season.
Now that Harrison has returned, Wayne has a goal. He
wants to do for Harrison what Harrison has done for
him.
"I feel like my duty is to get that double coverage off
of him, and whenever he gets doubled, I feel a
responsibility to make the most of it," Wayne says. "If
I do that, maybe he'll get the kind of chances that
I've had for so long."
(usatoday.com)