Chicago Bears' Slauson learned from facing Ngata
The mere thought of facing Haloti Ngata elicits a spike in Matt Slauson's blood pressure, pulling the Chicago Bears offensive lineman back to his first start in the NFL.
"He still haunts me," Slauson said. "A lot."
In October, he told the story to a group of disadvantaged teenage boys at Foreman High School on Chicago's North Side. Sitting in a circle of chairs in an upstairs classroom, they wanted to know if an NFL offensive lineman with a tangled beard and tattoos up and down his arms ever got nervous.
He knew right where to begin.
It was the first Monday Night Football game of the 2010 season. New York City's unrelenting rainstorm had drenched the field, delaying the start time for an hour. The nerves were building.
Then there was the reality of the moment: This was the New York Jets' first game in three years without Alan Faneca, the left guard who had won two Super Bowls, played in nine Pro Bowls and was likely headed to the Hall of Fame.
"And they thought I was worthy to replace this guy," Slauson told the boys. "I had serious doubts about what they were thinking."
On running plays, Slauson's first assignment was Baltimore's Ngata. If he got past him, the next task was Ray Lewis, perhaps the one defender players have feared the most over the past two decades.
But Slauson wasn't as worried about Lewis, because how could he get to the linebackers through Ngata? The five-time Pro Bowler stood 6-feet-4 and upward of 350 pounds. He didn't just move around on Baltimore's 3-4 defensive line. To Slauson, he was the D-line.
"He's faster than Ndamukong Suh, he's stronger than Ndamukong Suh and just all-around better," said Slauson, who played with Suh at Nebraska.
His nerves were palpable that day at Foreman High School. Boys oohed and aahed and squirmed in their seats at the names, guys like Lewis and Ngata and Ed Reed and Terrell Suggs, the defenders who dominated their Madden games and TV screens as kids. To have to face them as a rookie was difficult to comprehend.
But this was the chance an offensive lineman waits for, the kind they don't just hand out in Slauson's one-stoplight hometown of Sweet Home, Oregon. Just as he found a way back home to quell his nerves on a football field against those kids who called him fat and made a mockery of his stutter, he was going to have to do it here against 350 pounds.
He got through it by trusting the teammates around him. To his left was D'Brickashaw Ferguson. To his right was Nick Mangold. Down the line was Damien Woody. Those players now combine for 10 Pro Bowls.
When he joined them on combo blocks, of which Ngata demands many, he felt their strength. The first few runs went places, and even though the Jets would lose 10-9, they would run for 116 yards on 21 carries that night. He felt like he could play.
But he never forgot playing Ngata that day, and he won't forget it this week as he prepares to play him again Sunday when the Detroit Lions come to Soldier Field for the season finale. It'll be the first time he has played Ngata as a Bear, and, depending on the status of Hroniss Grasu's knee, it could be the first time he has played Ngata as a center.
Slauson will be nervous again, but like he told the teens who gathered that day to learn how to manage their own fears, that's how he prefers to play. He does it in every game.
"Nerves I think are good," he said. "They let you know you're alive. They let you know you care. When you let your nerves get too big, that's when they can hurt you.
"But I think you have to have nerves to play this game. This game is too big. It's too important. There's too much going on for you not to stress a little bit."
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