WESTMINSTER — Brendon Ayanbadejo regularly crouches into an athletic stance before accelerating downfield to cover kickoffs, bolting past blockers as he gains ground on his intended target.
With speed that rivals NFL running backs and a physique that looks like it’s carved out of stone, the Baltimore Ravens’ swift reserve inside linebacker strikes an imposing figure as he disrupts blocking schemes.
Ultimately, Ayanbadejo winds up being too fast and too strong for opponents to halt his charge. The usual result is his helmet and shoulder pads crashing into a kick returner as he slams him to the ground.
"I get to express myself on special teams," said Ayanbadejo, who led the Ravens last season with a career-high 30 special-teams tackles and one fumble recovery. "I get to do what I love, and that’s run down the field as fast as I can and, at the end of the play, I get to hit somebody. That’s how I express myself, and a lot of people say art is a form of expression."
Instead of a paint brush and a canvas, though, Ayanbadejo’s primary instruments are his sculpted biceps, his uncommon speed for a 6-foot-1, 228-pounder and the intelligence to diagnose the intentions of his opponents.
As a special-teams ace, Ayanbadejo has few rivals that can match his skills.
Three times he has been voted to the Pro Bowl, and twice he has been named an alternate.
"I think he’s one of the premier special-teams players, really, to ever play in the game, and that’s a good building block," said Ravens coach John Harbaugh, who’s considered one of the top special-teams gurus in the NFL. "We’ve got to build a young group of guys around him. For us to be a successful football team this year, we have to be really, really good on special teams. We were average at best last year, so those young guys have got to step up and play."
Signed to a four-year, $4.9 million contract during free agency last year after being named to the Pro Bowl twice during his tenure with the Chicago Bears, Ayanbadejo inspires the defense by setting a tone with his athletic, physical nature in kick coverage.
"Brendon’s definitely the best in the league at what he does," cornerback Fabian Washington said. "When he runs down on the first kickoff and busts somebody’s head, the defense is definitely fired-up and ready to play ball."
For Ayanbadejo, there’s much more to his job than the stereotype of a wild man running down the field with his hair figuratively on fire, crashing into people with reckless abandon.
There’s a lot of strategy involved. And because of his reputation as an ace, Ayanbadejo is often a target for blockers looking to make a name for themselves by picking him off.
"You’ve got to play fast, but you also have to be a cerebral player," Ayanbadejo said. "You have to be smart. You have to constantly be thinking. It’s no different than figuring out whether they’re running a sweep or a toss or a dive. It takes a lot of energy, mental and physical. If you take one false step, they’re gone and you’re in trouble."
As the oft-repeated truism goes in football, speed kills.
Ayanbadejo estimates that he runs the 40-yard dash no slower than 4.6 seconds, but is confident he could still run in the 4.5 range on a good day.
For what Ayanbadejo does, brute force isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, he has to match wits and quickness with diminutive returners that are among the fastest players in the game.
"I’ve always been a speed guy," Ayanbadejo said. "If I don’t have my speed, I really don’t bring anything to the league. I always try to work on my speed and maintain my agility and quickness so I can play fast.
"If I hit the wedge pretty hard, I still have to maintain my lane and my leverage. If there’s a space between the ball-carrier and the wedge, I can try to go around the wedge to make the play."
Entering this season, Ayanbadejo has recorded 154 career special-teams tackles with four forced fumbles and three fumble recoveries for an average of 25.6 tackles per year.
On defense, he has registered 46 tackles with one interception and a sack.
Ayanbadejo will celebrate his 35th birthday in September, but is only entering his seventh NFL season.
The younger brother of former Ravens fullback Obafemi Ayanbadejo, Ayanbadejo began his professional football career in 2000 after playing at UCLA, getting his start in the Canadian Football League for a few years with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Toronto Argonauts and the British Columbia Lions.
Despite his age, Ayanbadejo hasn’t displayed any signs of slowing down to his devotion to physical fitness.
"Physically, he’s ripped," said safety Haruki Nakamura, who was mentored by Ayanbadejo as a rookie last season under the Ravens’ leadership program. "He’s one of those guys that tells you that you’ve got to take care of your body. He’s in his 30s, and he looks like he’s about 18. He’s in that good of shape."
Ayanbadejo maintains a vigorous workout regimen. He varies his routine to trick his muscles into not getting too accustomed to a set of exercises.
Plus, it keeps him from getting bored.
"I try to keep it from getting static and being dull," Ayanbadejo said. "I try to always change it up."
This offseason, Ayanbadejo incorporated riding a bicycle and swimming.
He doesn’t try to bulk up anymore by lifting extremely heavy weights like he did in college when he would routinely squat over 500 pounds and bench press 400 pounds.
Now, he rarely touches a weight over 300 pounds.
"I’m where I need to be," he said. "I’ve got my foundation as far as the power lifts. My strength is where it needs to be.
“Now, it’s a matter of keeping what I had and being a smarter, more efficient worker. You want to do more than work hard, you want to work smart and you have to love what you do."
Aaron Wilson covers the Baltimore Ravens for the Carroll County Times and the Annapolis Capital.
