CNATI: Cincinnati OH Sports Journalism

Cincinnati Bengals

Jeanty ready to step in

By C. Trent Rosecrans, CNATI.com Posted December 31, 2009 5:09 PM ET

The bone was sticking out of Rashad Jeanty's right ring finger and all he could think about was how white it was.

"You know your bone is white, but I was amazed at how white my bone was," Jeanty said. "The doctor said to turn away, I was looking at it. I wanted to take a picture of it, honestly."

The bone came out in the Bengals' Oct. 4 victory at Cleveland. Fellow linebacker Brandon Johnson was right there watching and he was just amazed at how calm Jeanty was. There, the fourth-year linebacker was, a compound fracture and he didn't show any signs of there being pain.

"He didn't blink. He didn't flinch," Johnson recalls, still amazed. "The bone was sticking out. The doctors didn't want to see it, they put a towel over it."

Jeanty stayed overnight in Cleveland and had surgery on the hand, but he was more upset about missing the end of the game and letting down his teammates. It wasn't that he couldn't return to the game, it's that the doctors wouldn't let him and risk infecting the hand. Jeanty then had to sit out the next game -- at Baltimore -- because the skin hadn't healed shut. He hasn't missed a game since.

"It's hard to let your teammates down. I feel bad, I've got to be down to not play," Jeanty said. "It's how I feel, I have to play for my teammates. To hell with me, it's for my teammates. I take pride in that, I'm sensitive about my teammates."

That's why Jeanty's a self-proclaimed "crybaby."

"I'm sensitive about some things, but with pain I'm not," Jeanty said. "Like family. If my mom doesn't call me for four days, I get sensitive. I don't know about pain, I don't know if it's adrenaline or something, some of the guys in the locker room think I'm crazy. It hurt, but it didn't hurt that much."

On Thursday when asked about a multitude of injuries, Jeanty downplayed them - "it's not that painful."

What wasn't painful?

How about a fracture of the tibia that he described as "like a cracked pencil, not completely broken, but cracked in several places" that resulted in a metal rod in his fibia.

"He probably has the highest pain tolerance of anyone in the world," said fellow linebacker Keith Rivers.

Jeanty was a Golden Knight at Central Florida, but may as well be the Black Knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail professing 'tis only a flesh wound. When asked about the rod, he said without the slightest hint of irony, "it's only 15 inches."

Johnson witnessed Jeanty take a shot in the arch of his foot before the team's preseason game at New England. Jeanty, who played through plantar fasciitis ("that's painful," Jeanty admitted) last season, reinjured his foot during warm-ups. In the training room, team doctor Angelo Colosimo gave him a shot in the arch of his foot. And then he played.

"I had a hamstring and I felt like a little punk because I wasn't playing -- here's a guy getting needles stuck in his feet," Johnson said. "He's tough as nails. If anyone on this team is like Ray Nitschke, the guy who loses a tooth and doesn't care or Ronnie Lott, cuts his finger off, it's Rashad. Dick Butkus, breaks his nose, he keeps playing, doesn't care. That's Rashad. He does things I couldn't play through. The guy is playing with a metal rod in his leg. He doesn't care, he just wants to play."

Last season Jeanty was selected as the team's recipient of the Ed Block Courage Award, which honors players who demonstrate commitment to the values of sportsmanship and courage. And that wasn't just because of his circus tricks. Even more than their respect for his pain threshold is the Bengals' respect for Jeanty as a person and a teammate.

"These men in the locker room, they know who the pros are. Not every team of NFL players are all pros, you know? He's a pro," linebackers coach Jeff FitzGerald said. "He's proven that to his teammates, he has that kind of respect. He doesn't say a whole lot, but he does a great job in everything he does. He's a team guy."

Jeanty's dedication to the team has never been more evident than this season. Despite starting 15 games for the Bengals at Sam linebacker in 2008, he was pushed from starter to backup when the team selected Rey Maualuga in the second round of the draft. Despite playing the same position, Jeanty has served as a mentor to Maualua.

"He started all through camp, preseason and to come the first game against Denver and see that depth chart says 58. He didn't take it as badly as I would have," Maualuga said. "He came up to me and said, 'hey bro, did you talk to Fitz, you're starting and there's no hard feelings between you and me. You can ask me anything and I'll do my best to explain it to you.' All his pride aside, he took the time."

From there, Maualuga said he and Jeanty sit next to each other in meetings and Jeanty has taught him every step along the way.

To Jeanty, that's just what you do. That's how you act. It was no great selfless act; it was being a pro. It's what he was taught when he left college after two seasons to play in Canada to help support his family.

"I first starting playing pro ball at 19 in Canada. We won two championships, but the guys in that locker room were all veterans. Time after time, guys would tell me how to be a pro, take care of your body, what I needed to do," Jeanty said. "I admired those guys so much, I still talk to them to this day. I know that and feed off of that, at the end of the day we won two championships. Those things work. When I see guys I have to help or could give knowledge to, I try to help."

Jeanty leads the team with 13 special teams tackles, playing on every special teams unit this point in the season. But now with Maualuga out for the rest of the season, Jeanty is back as the starter on defense.

"I prepare myself as a starter and helping Rey out, it made me feel like a starter," Jeanty said. "But now I'm prepared, I'm glad I prepared and now it's time to play."

Categories: Cincinnati Bengals, Featured Stories, Features

Tags: Brandon Johnson, Jeff FitzGerald, Rashad Jeanty, Rey Maualuga