Quentin Jammer: Seeking His Just Due

Mamba · Oct 16, 2008

SAN DIEGO ---- Listen to the chatter around Chargers Park, and you will routinely hear talk about how Quentin Jammer has developed into one of the top cornerbacks in the NFL. Let it all sink in, and you would think Jammer is one of the most revered defensive players in the game.

But Jammer hasn't played in a single Pro Bowl and he never has come close to drawing the type of accolades that would label him as an elite player.

Underappreciated and once highly criticized by his own team's fans, Jammer lets praise and criticism roll off his back and remains undeterred in focusing on anything other than going about his business.

Dig deeper, though, and the truth comes out. Jammer badly yearns to make it to the Pro Bowl this year. But not for the reason you think.

"I'd like to be in a Pro Bowl so I can take my family to Hawaii," said Jammer, who is married and has two young sons. "Free trip. You know what I'm saying?"

Some of his teammates think it's a travesty that Jammer doesn't get more recognition.

"He's playing like a Pro Bowler every single week," fellow cornerback Antonio Cromartie said. "He's a consistent corner playing the way he's supposed to play. You never get anything different from Jammer every single week. To me, he's the most consistent corner I've ever seen since I've been playing (football)."

Said inside linebacker Stephen Cooper: "He's playing like the best cornerback in the league right now."

Jammer, a seven-year veteran who will play in his 100th regular-season game this Sunday against Buffalo, knows the balloting is a popularity contest. He's also aware that players who record just one interception per season ---- as he has done in three of the last four years ---- don't end up in Hawaii, no matter how well they play.

And Jammer is fine with that. He doesn't constantly check his stat line or boast about his play. He just quietly goes about his business.

"I'd much rather just be labeled as an All-Pro corner because Pro Bowl is based on your peers and guys like that, but the general public has a lot to do with it, too," Jammer said. "I'm pretty sure a lot of my peers in this league will vote for me, but I think some people in the public still want to see interceptions.

"But guys that play against me know."

What receivers learn is that getting open against the 6-foot, 204-pound Jammer is seldom easy. The latest example was the troubles New England's Randy Moss had when up against Jammer during last Sunday night's nationally televised game.

Moss had just three receptions for 26 yards and was a total nonfactor. Jammer twice made outstanding defensive plays to keep Moss from catching passes and recorded his first interception of the season.

"I feel like I can shut down anybody," Jammer said. "I don't care who sees it as long as I know I shut people down."

Jammer isn't boasting when he says that. He's assertive, prideful and more humble than most fans realize after enduring a rough upbringing as an only child raised by his mother in a small Texas town south of Houston.

"We were kind of struggling, and she never really said anything about it," Jammer said. "She never took credit for how I was raised. She kind of just raised me and went about her business.

"I guess I take a lot of my characteristics from her. I just go about my business."

Jammer speaks about being "blessed to be in a position" to make a lot of money ---- in 2006, he signed a five-year extension through 2012 worth a reported $30 million ---- just for playing a game he loves. His good fortune is certainly better than the childhood situation that he describes as "worse than getting by."

"It was bad," Jammer said. "A lot of guys in the NFL know what I'm talking about when it's you and a single parent and trying to grow up and you're struggling. You don't have a lot of money. My mom struggled to put food on the table and dad was nowhere to be found to help out. Same story you hear throughout the NFL."

Jammer described the relationship with his father this way: "He just wasn't a major influence on my life."

Football was an outlet, and Jammer excelled in the sport at Angleton (Texas) High and went on to an All-American career at the University of Texas. He was chosen fifth overall by the Chargers in the 2002 NFL draft.

Things didn't go smoothly early in Jammer's career, and he was often the victim of boos and catcalls from the hometown fans. And he didn't believe the venom was deserved.

"I think a lot of the criticism was unwarranted just from the simple fact that, to the casual eye, the casual fan watching the game, it looks like that I'm not doing my job," Jammer said. "But in actuality, I'm doing exactly that. If you don't know the ins and outs of different coverages, you wouldn't know what I was doing, so a lot of the criticism was unwarranted. But I still wanted to change that perception in the public's eye that I was not a good player.

"So based on where I was drafted and how high I was drafted, I just wanted to go and prove to the public that I can play football, even though the criticism was unwarranted."

Valid or not, strong safety Clinton Hart said the negative talk fueled Jammer's improvement.

"It silently motivated him," Hart said. "He doesn't talk about it and you don't hear about it but, deep within, he has a fire in him that I think hasn't been there in the past. He wants to prove it to himself."

Though Jammer twice has intercepted four passes in a season (2003 and 2006), he's more interested about getting stops and delivering big hits and taking the opponent's best receiver out of the game.

Opposing NFL coaches regularly compliment his game, and that lists includes Buffalo's Dick Jauron, who had 26 interceptions in nine NFL seasons as a safety and also spent time coaching defensive backs before becoming a head coach.

"Being a secondary coach and remembering him coming out (of Texas), I know how good he is," Jauron said. "He's a guy that likes a challenge and he likes to play against the best in the business. Although every week he plays at a really high level, he seems to take it up a little bit when he gets the big-name receivers against him."

More and more people seem to be sharing Jauron's opinion, which seems long overdue to Chargers safeties Hart and Eric Weddle.

"He's one of the best corners in the league, and a lot of people around the league and the country don't really think that about him," said Weddle. "But he shows it every time he gets out there. I think this year he's proven that he's playing like one of the best corners in the league."
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http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2008/10/16/sports/chargers/za55557b6bebfb995882574e40006fcce.txt

Mamba · Oct 16, 2008

If he can stay consistent, which hasn't been a problem for him, and healthy...there is no reason for him not to get into the Pro Bowl. If he keeps playing like this, teams are going to have to throw at Cromartie more...which is also scary.

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Quentin Jammer: Seeking His Just Due

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