INDIANAPOLIS – No one needs to remind Clayton Geathers of the safety that was the spark in the Colts' Super Bowl XLI run a decade ago, and then captured the NFL's Defensive Player of the Year Award the following year.
Yes, Geathers knows himself some Bob Sanders.
"I'm very familiar with Bob Sanders," Geathers says.
With film of Sanders just a couple of swipes away on Geathers' iPad, the young safety describes the style of play that he tries to emulate from Sanders.*
Physical. Eraser. Sideline-to-Sideline.*
"I'm a fan of his game," the second-year safety says.
When Geathers was coming up in the game of football, the safeties he looked up to were Sanders and the late Sean Taylor.
"The way they played the game is un-parallel," the Colts' sound-tackling safety says.
"Just go out and play fast. If somebody is there, hit them. That's what they did. They made plays all over the field and they inspired their teammates."
In Geathers, the Colts have a 6-2, 220-pound player who allows the defense to use him much closer to the line of scrimmage than your average safety.
Any comparison in styles of play between Geathers and Sanders is an "honor" for the 2015 fourth-round pick.
Before Geathers truly embarks on a career that will have him roaming the back part of the defense in Indy for the foreseeable future, he's doing something for fellow safety Mike Adams.
"I call Clayton my muscle," Adams, a 13-year vet, says. "He's going to go down in the box and he's going to tear some things up.
"That's my muscle right there. That's my enforcer."
