Reggie Wayne: perennial Pro Bowler and very much a team leader

Veteran WR Reggie Wayne arrived at Indianapolis Colts 2009 Training Camp Sunday riding in the passenger seat of a yellow dump truck. He wore a tool belt on his waist, dirty boots on his feet and talked of how it was time to go to work. Super Bowl Under Construction, his hard hat read, and after he spoke a few minutes to the media, Wayne disappeared, on his way to his ninth NFL training camp.

As he did, it occured to me sometime in the last few years Wayne had become more than a very, very good player, more even than a perennial Pro Bowler.

He's a true team leader.

And outside QB Peyton Manning, there may be no Colts player quite so important.

That's true on the field, and it may be as true off of it.

This isn't the case just because of Wayne's arrival Sunday. He has been coming up with clever, memorably arrival themes the past few years, taking over their implementation from longtime friend and teammate Edgerrin James, who made a habit of high-profile arrivals during a memorable Colts career. Wayne commemorated James' 2006 departure by wearing the latter's Arizona Cardinals jersey as he arrived at that year's Colts training camp and a year later -- months after the Colts won the Super Bowl -- he arrived in camoflauge. His message: that the Colts had to be prepared because that year they would be hunted.

This season's message was just as pertinent, and it struck me listening to Wayne talk about the reason for this year's theme that he had fully developed into not only an elite level receiver, but the sort of leader that great teams must have on and off the field. He spoke of being excited about the season, but more than that, he spoke of needing to work to achieve goals:

I’m real honest about this. I really mean it. I feel like this year we have some work to do. (WR) Marvin (Harrison) is gone. There’ s a new defensive coordinator (Larry Coyer). We have to rank among the highest in the league as far as young guys playing. We have to really get into this and figure it out.

Those are the words of a player who has succeeded and who knows what it takes to succeed again, and also of a player keenly aware of his role as team spokesman.

As for his onfield importance, few players outside Manning are as critical. The defense needs DE Dwight Freeney's pass rush and C Jeff Saturday is critical, but while the Colts won in recent years with Harrison's production on the decline doing so without Wayne would be far more difficult. Harrison made big, game-breaking plays, but Wayne's ability to make crucial plays in the clutch has helped make him a legitimate go-to receiver, one capable of producing big numbers not only when Harrison was in in his prime but also for the past two seasons when Harrison was past it. Harrison long has been the most high-profile receiver around the Colts, but the truth is Wayne has been the Colts' best receiver the past three seasons, and his 2007 season was as impressive as any single season of Harrison's Hall-of-Fame career,

Wayne long has been one of the most respected players in the locker room. Now, with Harrison and P Hunter Smith gone, Wayne has been with the Colts longer than any position player other than QB Peyton Manning and C Jeff Saturday. Still, not every long-time veteran's words carry cache in the locker-room. Wayne's do -- as much as any Colts player.

All of which is what made the dump-truck arrival an intriguing scene. It was a team leader, and a veteran in his prime, setting the tone for a season in an entertaining fashion.

A few minutes before Wayne's arrival, media gathered around first-year Head Coach Jim Caldwell and talked to him about the process of making the Colts his team. I was one of the questioners, and I wrote Monday on Examiner how the Colts were becoming his team.

That's true, but as I saw Wayne arriving in his hard hat and soiled boots Sunday, as I watched Wayne send the right message at the right time time in the right way, I couldn't help think that in a very real way, the Colts are at least partly his team, too.



(examiner.com)