Tom Collins was window-shopping in Biloxi, Mississippi, back in 2001 with his 7-year-old son Landon, when they stopped to gaze at a display of beautiful Rolex watches.
“Dad, get that one,” Landon Collins said, excitedly. “That one’s nice.”
“Dad can’t afford that,” Tom Collins said with a smile.
Landon turned to face his father, and what he said next, his father couldn’t believe:
“I’m gonna buy you that watch when I make it,” his son said. “When I make it to the NFL, I’m gonna buy you that watch.”
Landon Collins is having an MVP-type season for Big Blue, racking up 74 tackles and team-high four interceptions, including at least one pick in three straight games. Says teammate Damon Harrison: He’s “a bad motha——.”
(Evan Pinkus/AP)
It has always been Landon Collins’ time.
The second-year strong safety is the Giants’ fastest-rising star, with 74 tackles, four interceptions and a touchdown, including at least one pick in three straight games heading into Sunday’s game against the Chicago Bears at MetLife Stadium. He is the first Giants player to win NFC Defensive Player of the Week awards in consecutive games, in Week 7 and 9 wins over the Eagles and Rams.
But Collins’ star turn is nothing new. He’s always been money. In fact, that’s what his dad called him as a kid: “Money.” So about that Rolex watch:
“He asks me about it all the time, if he can buy it for me,” Tom Collins, 48, a station director of the Coastal Bridge Construction Company in Baton Rouge, La., told the Daily News in a phone interview Friday morning. “I tell him I don’t want that watch. Dad doesn’t need it. Dad’s good.”
Tom Collins and son Landon, 6, with his first MVP trophy. Tom’s nickname for Landon at this age was ‘Money.’
(Courtesy of Tom Collins)
Dad coached Landon from 4-to-12 years old, “the most influential coach I’ve ever had,” Landon said this week. And Tom Collins watched proudly on TV on Oct. 23 when his son intercepted Case Keenum at London’s Twickenham Stadium, ran to the right side of the field, and then cut back hard, leaving four Rams in the dust on his way to an incredible, 44-yard pick-6.
“I always told him, ‘When you’re gonna score, you’ve gotta mean to score,’” his father said. “You can’t sidestep or make too many moves. You’ve just gotta go.’ And when he made that one move and cut back, I said, ‘He’s trying to score.’ When he got in, the house went in an uproar.”
Landon Collins, 22, by virtue of his success, has a lot of nicknames now. And he’s just as approachable and easygoing as his father, who ended a work call during Friday’s interview by saying: “That’s Tom Collins, just like the drink, but don’t get drunk off the name.”
Landon Collins listed his many monikers on Friday as he prepared for a three-hour session with personal hairstylist Joanna, who has threaded every color from pink to red to gray to blue into Collins’ hair for this fall’s big weekends. She’ll put some beige into his elaborate hair-do for the Bears game, and he even plans to go red-white-and-blue one time to represent all of the Giants’ colors.
“Money is what people back home call me,” Collins said with his trademark swagger. “Then here, let’s see, there’s ‘21 Savage,’ ‘Hollywood.’ I came in calling myself Hollywood and it seems like that’s stuck.”
Giants defensive tackle Damon Harrison last week even referred to Collins as “a bad motha——.”
“Playing from high school all the way up to this point, I’ve been one of those top guys,” Collins said of handling this season’s success, “and it’s second nature now. It’s nothing that’s surprising me or hitting me off-guard to where I don’t know how to control it you know? And I’m grateful for that.”
Even back as a 4-year-old, Landon Collins seems to possess a natural feel for the game and it translated to high school and a starring role at Alabama.
(John Korduner/AP)
This is the confidence of someone who is used to being the best, which is represented by a long and impressive list of accolades: 2013 BCS National Champion at Alabama, unanimous first-team All-American in his final collegiate junior season of 2014; the No. 1-rated safety in the nation coming out of Dutchtown (La.) High School, and the first player in Louisiana Sports Writers Association history to earn 5A All-State honors on both sides of the ball.
Collins distinguished himself as unique at a much younger age, though.
The first time he played football, at 4 years old on a picnic with his father, he begged to play with 8-to-10 years old. Landon grabbed the ball-carrier around the legs and got dragged downfield and into the end zone, but he wouldn’t let go, and he didn’t like his father’s advice to be careful against bigger kids.
“I wanted to tackle him,” little Landon said.
So Tom Collins started his son the next year playing for Hunter’s Field in New Orleans, “and we tried him at quarterback, but every time he grabbed the ball he just ran with it. So we were like, ‘We’re gonna put you at running back. The next year, everything he touched was just gold at the age of six.”
That’s how Collins explains his skills with the ball in his hands: He used to be a running back. He rushed for 1,218 yards and 21 touchdowns as a senior at Dutchtown. Undrafted rookie free safety Andrew Adams laughs at that explanation, though. It’s not that simple.
“I told (Collins) the other day, ‘Your returns are really good,’” Adams said. ‘He was like, ‘I used to be a running back.’ I said, ‘So, a lot of people used to be a running back, but they still can’t return like that. I think that’s just being an athlete. His physical, athletic ability is super-high. He’s very gifted.”
Collins had many NFL idols as a kid: former Washington running back Clinton Portis, late former Washington safety Sean Taylor − whom he honors by wearing No. 21 − former Colts safety Bob Sanders, and a quarterback you might have heard of.
“I wanted to be smart like Peyton Manning,” Collins said on Thursday in the Giants’ locker room. “And no, I haven’t told (Eli) that yet.”
“That’s alright,” Manning said with a grin on Friday when told of Collins’ admiration for his brother. “I’m a lot younger than Peyton. So, ya know…”
Manning, though, in all seriousness, said Collins’ study of a quarterback despite being a safety was good homework because “the best safeties have that quarterback mentality. They can see things, they have to be ready, know runs or passing route combinations, have to be able to break on the ball.”
Collins, in short, always has dreamed big. Sometimes he had to dream, too, to avoid his reality.
His family was forced to relocate when Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005 when Collins was 11 years old. His father recalls “the house was completely washed away” upon returning to New Orleans to survey the damage post-storm.
“It was hard for him to get through it,’ he recalls. “Because when Katrina hit, the place we were staying at, when we got back it was nothing but a slab left. Half of it was two blocks away and we couldn’t find the other half anywhere.”
Landon then had to hurdle a different and more public kind of trial in 2012, when he chose Alabama over home state LSU on national TV and his mother, April Justin, sitting by his side, shook her said and would not support his decision. “I feel that LSU’s the best place for him to be,” she said. “Go Tigers. No. 1.”
It should be no surprise that Landon Collins (shown with his mom, April Justin, on draft night has found great success with Big Blue.
(Charles Rex Arbogast/AP)
An ESPN story later quoted Justin saying he was thinking of what was best for Collins after football. Collins said Friday it “didn’t bother me,” though in the past he has bristled at the notion of being known for that moment. He said as his mother’s oldest and first-born, she wanted him closer to home, but acknowledged having left Alabama after his junior season what it would mean one day to graduate.
“Absolutely,” Collins said, when asked if he intends to get his degree one day. “I want to do that for her.”
His latest and most unfamiliar challenge occurred last season, when Collins played more than 1,100 snaps according to secondary coach David Merritt Sr., but suddenly he was on one of the worst defenses in football, out of position playing free safety because that’s where the team needed him.
“It was a big challenge for me,” Collins said Thursday. “Not winning, not being that stout defense I always had been a part of, and our defense wasn’t making plays – it was just a surprise to me. We needed a lot more game-changers. We needed people who want it and want to go get it.”
Landon Collins races downfield after an interception against the LA Rams in London.
(Dan Istitene/Getty Images)
Merritt credits Collins’ personal improvement with his ability to keep his weight down around 215 pounds, a result of kicking a well-documented Oreo habit. Collins credits the defense’s all-around improvement with the addition of pricey free agents Janoris Jenkins, Olivier Vernon and Harrison.
“Definitely the money they put into it, that’s a big one,” Collins said. “It’s a big change. Everybody wants to win, they want to be great, they want to be known, and they want to have a fantastic year and definitely want to go get the Super Bowl. You’ve got animals that want to eat, basically.”
If the money is the biggest difference in this year’s Giants defense, though, then Landon “Money” Collins is its fearsome face. One final story, as a reminder of who is directing this Giants D from the back:
Landon Collins of the Giants celebrates a sack against Joe Flacco of the Ravens in October.
(Al Bello/Getty Images)
“At age 7 or 8 he started playing baseball, he had just won the football championship and now he was in the baseball championship game,” Tom Collins recalls. “The bases were loaded, he was up to bat. The first pitch was a ball, the second was a strike. Landon just looked at it. The third pitch was a strike. Landon looked. The coach said, ‘Timeout!’
“He ran out and came back, and I said, ‘What did he say?’” The coach told me: “He said, ‘Don’t worry, Coach. I got this.’ I looked at Landon and said, ‘Money, this is what champions are made of. This is your moment.” Two pitches later, Landon Collins belted a grand slam over the fence.
“That’s when he first started getting his fan base,” Tom Collins said. “And by age 9 or 10, he was just one of those kids that stood above the rest.”
Landon Collins intercepts a pass intended for Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz.
(Michael Perez/AP)
* * *
GIANTS VS. BEARS, METLIFE STADIUM, 1 PM
LINE: GIANTS BY 7; O/U: 45 1/2
TV: Ch. 5 (Kevin Burkhardt and John Lynch)
RADIO: WFAN 101.9 (Bob Papa and Carl Banks); in Spanish on WADO 1280 AM (Nestor Rosario and Francis Adames)
FORECAST: Cloudy, windy and cooler with a passing shower. High 48°, Low 33°; Chance of rain: 55%
GOING FOR 2 – Bold Predictions by Pat Leonard
1. THANKS, JAY!: Giants rookie corner Eli Apple will build on his strong bounce-back performance against the Bengals by returning an interception of Bears quarterback Jay Cutler for a touchdown on Sunday.
2. SALSA TIME: Victor Cruz hasn’t caught a touchdown since Week 1 and still hasn’t salsa’d at MetLife Stadium this season. That drought ends on Sunday, when Cruz scores in his return from a sprained right ankle that sidelined him in Week 10.
GIANTS HOT READ: OL Marshhall Newhouse
The Giants finally jumpstarted their rushing attack in Monday night’s win over the Bengals, but the improvement came under unexpected circumstances. Starting left guard Justin Push was already sidelined because of a knee injury, and his replacement, Brett Jones, suffered a calf injury early in the contest. That forced Marshall Newhouse, who started the season as the Giants’ starting right tackle, to play out of position at left guard. Newhouse said he briefly played guard in 2013 with Packers. Before that, the seventh-year man out of TCU hadn’t played guard since high school. Nonetheless, the offensive line clicked and opened up holes for running back Rashad Jennings, who finished with 87 rushing yards. Offensive coordinator Mike Sullivan said this week that Jennings was playing with an “edge” Monday after a rough start to this season that included a broken thumb.
TRAINING ROOM: OG Brett Jones (calf) and OG Justin Push (knee) are OUT. RB Orleans Darkwa (lower leg) and OG Adam Gettis (calf) are QUESTIONABLE.
BEARS HOT READ: LB Pernell McPhee
Despite his team’s 2-7 record, Bears linebacker Pernell McPhee stirred the pot this week when he told reporters in Chicago that he and his teammates are going to “tear their ass up” at MetLife Stadium. The answer came in response to a question about the Giants’ offensive line. “I don’t care what everybody else did. We gonna sack him,” McPhee said of Giants QB Eli Manning. “He can throw the ball as many times as he wants — we gonna sack him. I’m gonna make sure of that.” While it’s never beneficial for a losing team to provide bulletin-board material, McPhee does have a point. The Bears defense has actually been pretty good this year, especially from a pass-rushing standpoint. Their 24 sacks rank eighth in the league, and the unit is in the top half of the league in total defense. McPhee bolstered the Bears’ front when he returned to game action in Week 7 after spending the first six games of the season on the PUP list. He has a sack in each of the past two games, but is questionable for Sunday because of a knee injury. The Giants offensive line has only allowed 13 sacks this season, third-fewest in the NFL.
TRAINING ROOM: DB Deiondre´ Hall (ankle), OL Bobby Massie (concussion) and DL Mitch Unrein (back) are DOUBTFUL. DB Bryce Callahan (hamstring), DL Eddie Goldman (ankle), LB Pernell McPhee (knee), DB Tracy Porter (knee), WR Eddie Royal (toe), OL Josh Sitton (ankle), WR Marquess Wilson (foot) and LB Willie Young (ankle) are QUESTIONABLE.
With Daniel Popper
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Source: NY Daily News Headlines Sports News
The post Rising Giants star Landon Collins living out his big dreams appeared first on .