How Darius Leonard Knows Exactly When You're Hating On Him
If you want to hop on your phone, tablet, or computer and talk trash about Colts LB Darius Leonard, we can guarantee that the Pro Bowler WILL find your tweet or negative statement about him. The South Carolina native joined Mr. Cat and Mr. Commenter on today’s Pardon My Take to discuss his nickname “Maniac,” behind the scenes of Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement, and how the haters are actually helping him secure more motivation:
Mr. Cat: Do you still have the headline, the Bleacher Report headline on your phone?
Darius Leonard: I do.
Mr. Cat: Can I see it?
Darius Leonard: Yeah, I got you.
Mr. Cat: So, for those who don’t know, this is why I thought you were a chip on your shoulder guy, this is the ultimate chip on your shoulder move. Bleacher Report, after Darius was drafted, had a headline that said, “Darius Leonard: Worst Pick in the Draft.” And he keeps it as a photo in his phone, so that you can pull it up every now and then and be like, “Yeah, remember these idiots?” I’m pretty sure I said it was a fantastic pick at the time.
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Mr. Commenter: Yeah, we do six round mock drafts every year. We actually had you going in the first round to Indy.
Mr. Cat: So, you pull this up every now and then and just look at it?
Darius Leonard: Yeah, I do.
Mr. Commenter: They also had, when Russell Wilson got drafted, they gave that an F. “Wasted a third round pick on Russell Wilson.”
Darius Leonard: I think they need to lose their credibility.
Mr. Cat: So, do you still use that kind of stuff to motivate you even though you’re a Pro Bowler, you’ve already made the Top 100, all that stuff has happened. How do you stay motivated?
Darius Leonard: You know, I love seeing the negative comments. I go to Twitter, type in my name, and see all the negative things that people say. I like them and use that as motivation because some times you can be complacent. If someone is talking trash or saying you can’t do something, I just use that as motivation as well.
Mr. Cat: We gotta start typing Darius Leonard and having you just search us after games. Oh, there it is (Bleacher Report article)! “Darius Leonard to Colts one of Draft’s Worst Picks.” Kevin Hickey, April 30th, 2018. What an idiot! I love it.
Mr. Commenter: Bad take, awful take. So, you name search yourself after every game just to see what people are saying?
Darius Leonard: Yup.
Mr. Commenter: And if it’s too much positive stuff, do you get a little but upset because you’re like, “Hey, there’s no motivational fuel for me here.”
Darius Leonard: No, I mean after each game, especially after a loss, that’s when the fans get to pointing. So, you go there and see what’s been said. I use all that to say, “Well, I need to go do this right here, or I gotta prove this guy wrong.” Like, I had some guy say that I was bad at coverage this year, that I wasn’t a good run stopper. But that’s pretty crazy with over 100 tackles.
Mr. Commenter: Do you name search for the misspellings of your name, too? Because usually, the dumber stuff is written by people who won’t be able to spell your name right.
Darius Leonard: That is a true statement, and I never did that.
Mr. Commenter: One time I said “Le’Veon Bell, more like Le’Veon Smell,” and he found it and he liked it. He searched for an alternate spelling of his own hame. So, he just put in four different combinations of letters, and he just gets all his motivation from Twitter that way.
Darius Leonard: Yeah, that’s pretty dope. Well, I just type my name in and try to see all the bad comments that I can use as fuel.
This is awesome. A big “F YOU” to the Internet warriors who do nothing but type mean things about people. Darius Leonard knows exactly who you are, and he’s going to get better because of it.