'Bobblehead' Quinn aims to keep the sacks coming/PD

‘Bobblehead’ Quinn aims to keep the sacks coming
By Jim Thomas

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/football/professional/bobblehead-quinn-aims-to-keep-the-sacks-coming/article_14a481d1-e6bd-5556-b603-7ecbd658648e.html

By a mere one-half sack, Robert Quinn missed becoming the inaugural winner of the Deacon Jones Award, which goes to the NFL’s sack champion. But he did make his first Pro Bowl in 2013, was named first-team All Pro and was the league’s defensive player of the year as voted on by the Pro Football Writers of America.

But in this day and age of professional sports, you haven’t truly arrived until you get your own bobblehead doll. Well, that day is coming for Quinn, whose 19 sacks last year were the most for a Rams player since the quarterback sack became an official NFL statistic in 1982.

As part of its promotional schedule for home games at the Edward Jones Dome, the Rams announced at the start of camp that the Oct. 19 contest against Seattle will be Robert Quinn Bobblehead Day for the first 15,000 fans in attendance.

“To have a bobblehead, now that’s a humbling experience,” Quinn said in all sincerity. “The good man upstairs put me in the right position to even have the opportunity. To have the team here even put myself in position to have a bobblehead is a great honor.

“I’m gonna put it on my mantel once I get one, and sit back and smile.”

Quinn may have been serious, but several of his defensive teammates couldn’t avoid applying the needle. They all can’t wait to get their hands on one.

“He’s gonna sign it for me and it’ll go in the man cave for sure,” defensive end Williams Hayes said. “After I’m done with football, if Rob goes to the Hall of Fame, I’m just gonna put it on eBay and sell it. It’ll take care of my retirement; I won’t even have to go into my savings.”

Next up, linebacker James Laurinaitis: “It’ll stay in my locker. I won’t go as far as Cortland Finnegan. When my bobblehead came out (last year), he actually glued it to the top of his truck.”

Like a hood ornament.

And in closing, defensive end Chris Long: “Robert Quinn has like a size 9 hat, you know. So I’d like to see that bobblehead ’cause he’s like a human bobblehead.”

The added bonus with the Quinn bobblehead is that it shows him doing his popular sack dance — the Bernie — in which he goes into convulsions (see the movie: “Weekend at Bernie’s”).

“If I tried to get in that pose, I’d tear my back out,” Long said.

“I can’t do the Bernie,” Laurinaitis said. “A lot of things would tear on my action figure if I tried to do the Bernie.”

James Laurinaitis “action figure” day is the home finale against the New York Giants. For the uninitiated, compared to a bobblehead an action figure basically is a likeness of a player minus the grotesquely oversized head.

The fact that Quinn’s bobblehead shows him doing his sack dance puts some pressure on Quinn to keep the sacks coming in this, his fourth NFL season.

“Hopefully, I can get plenty of them this year,” Quinn said.

But 19 sacks is rarified air in the NFL; it’s not far from the official single-season record of 22½ set by Hall of Famer Michael Strahan in 2001.

Has Quinn, still only 24, hit his ceiling? Or does he still have room to grow as an NFL player?

“There is no ceiling,” Quinn stated flatly. “To have another season like that, or even to better it, that’s gonna be a little tough. That’s what makes this sport so fun, to try to better your last performance.”

Pro football is very much a here and now business. And Quinn very much takes a here and now approach to his craft.

“If you look too far into the future, you realize you’ve got a long way to go before you get to where you want to be,” Quinn said.

So Quinn isn’t worried about 19 or more sacks this season. For now, it’s all about the grind of training camp and getting ready for the regular-season opener against Minnesota.

Nor is he concerned with his contract situation. After his breakout 2013 campaign, Quinn is widely considered one of the league’s elite pass rushers.

Had he been an unrestricted free agent at the end of 2013, he would’ve commanded $10 million plus per season. As it is, he will earn about $8.6 million over the next two years combined.

Quinn’s base salary this season, the last year of his original contract, pays him $1.66 million. That’s like getting a Porsche at Yugo prices. And in a feature of the new collective bargaining agreement, the Rams exercised an option in late April for a fifth year (2015) at $6.96 million — a figure determined by league formula. Still a bargain.

But Quinn isn’t fretting about an extension.

“There’s nothing I can do about it, so I don’t let it bother me,” he said. “I’m just going day-by-day. Whatever happens, happens. That’s just my personality.

“If they want to do something, that’s on them. Like I said, it’s out of my control right now. I’ve got two more years left on this contract. I’m just going to come out here and try to be the best player I can be. Help this team win the best way possible that I can.”

Of course, if Quinn has a couple of more seasons even approaching his 2013 output — seasons with lots of Bernie dances — he can all but name his price.

“The plays that he made last year at critical times in ballgames were very, very impressive if you go back through the end of the games, the end of halves, the two-minute things,” coach Jeff Fisher said. “He feels like he can get better. We’re doing everything we can to help him get better.”