METAIRIE, La. (AP) -Darren Sharper says he’s too old to worry about whether he’s over the hill, and the NFL’s active interception leader isn’t kidding.
The 33-year old safety believes his knowledge of the game has only gotten better during his 12 years in the NFL, and all he can do now is try his best from a physical standpoint and hope he’s still got it. It certainly looked that way when he intercepted two passes last weekend in his debut with the New Orleans Saints, already an improvement over the one pickoff he had last season in Minnesota.
“That shows last year was a fluke to me,” Sharper said. “If it was my fifth year and I had one interception, nobody would be thinking about, ‘Has this guy still got it?’ But it happens in your 12th year and everyone’s like, ‘OK, does he still have it.’ That comes with the game. I’ve gotten too old to worry about that now.”
Sharper now has 56 career regular season interceptions. Last Sunday, he passed Aneas Williams to tie for 15th all-time and needs one more to tie for 10th.
Mary, twice has had as many as nine interceptions in a season, once with the Packers in 2000 and once with the Minnesota Vikings in 2005.
He had four interceptions each in 2006 and 2007 before the drop-off last season, after which he became a free agent.
Shaper said he had few opportunities to create turnovers last season, in part because of the defensive scheme employed by the Vikings and because quarterbacks rarely threw to his area.
“The thing I knew is that if I’m put in a scheme that allows me to utilize my abilities and be aggressive to the football, (interceptions) are going to happen,” Sharper said. “I knew, coming off last year, not getting many opportunities as far as the ball being thrown at me, coming into this defense, I’d be able to get back to what I’ve done in the past, and that’s attacking the football.
“To predict and say the amount of interceptions you’re going to get, it’s too hard to do that, but I knew I would have more than the one I had last year. I could have guaranteed you that.”
Sharper hasn’t shown any signs of slowing. Other than a minor inflammation in his knee that caused him to miss one preseason game, he has been healthy and practicing hard since his arrival.
hrow of Calvin Johnson. On the second, Sharper got a good break on the ball, stepped into Johnson’s route and stole the ball from the Lion’s top receiver.
“I think when it comes to him, age really does have nothing to with it,” Saints linebacker Scott Fujita said. “Is he as fast as he used to be? Maybe not. I don’t know, but he’s so smart he’s in the right position more than most other guys are and that’s why he can make those plays on the ball. You couple that with him have extremely good ball skills and that’s why he’s the leading active player in interceptions. … Him having one last year, that’s obviously an aberration.”
Sharper said he doesn’t aspire to eclipse all-time interception leader Paul Krause, who had 81 with the Washington Redskins and Vikings, but he would like to pass Ronnie Lott’s 63.
Lott was one of his favorites. Sharper met the former San Francisco great and credits him with his current outlook as a pro in the twilight of his career.
“One thing he told me is that a lot of times when guys get to the stage of their career that I’m in, they feel as though things should be given to them,” Sharper said. “He said, ‘Why shouldn’t you go out there and act like a rookie? This is the time you really should because you don’t have that many years left, so you should start to appreciate the fact you still have a chance to play.’
“I was like, ‘You know what? You’re right.’ Because any second it could be gone and everybody that you talk to that’s retired or had their season cut short, their career cut short, says, ‘Once it’s gone, you miss it.”’
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