The Drill: Q&A with Jim Leonhard

Posted: Sept. 29, 2007

The former Wisconsin safety was the only undrafted free agent to make the Buffalo Bills roster in 2005. He played primarily on special teams until Week 1 of this season, when Ko Simpson went down with an injury, propelling Leonhard into the starting lineup. In that Week 1 game, Leonhard had a team-high 13 tackles as well as an interception. After three games, Leonhard is tied for second on the team in tackles and owns both of Buffalo's interceptions. He spoke with JSOnline sports producer Dave Heller:

Q. What does it feel like to be the starter?

A. I feel like I've been waiting around . . . and now in my third year finally getting a chance to get on the field and show these guys what I can do.

Q. Did you think it would ever happen being an undrafted guy?

A. I hoped it would happen. I had taken all the steps necessary, or at least that I felt necessary, to put myself in a position to get on the field both on special teams and defensively. You don't want it really to happen because of injury, but lots of times in this sport that's the way it happens.

Q. The injury to Kevin Everett obviously had to be tough to see, but perhaps especially so to you being that it happened on special teams. As an NFL player, do you realize that something like this could happen to you, yet you have to put it out of your mind?

A. You really do have to put it out of your mind. It has been tough just hearing things about him constantly, but we are professionals and this is what we chose to do. It's not like we're forced to play this game. This sport is the most popular sport in America for a reason, it is those big hits and big collisions. You have to make sure you go out there and prepare yourself the right way and train your body the right way, so you can avoid a lot of those bad situations.

Q. Do you still follow Wisconsin?

A. Every time I can see them I'll try to watch. I look on the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and all that pretty regularly to see the beat of the team and how things are going.

Q. Are you surprised at the early success of Bret Bielema?

A. He was the defensive coordinator my senior year, and I don't think it's a surprise to any of the guys who played under him that he would be a great head coach one day. You could tell that's what he wanted to be. He had that passion that you love as players.

“We have to do better than we’re doing, obviously, to be competitive,” said safety Jim Leonhard. “We have to eliminate the mental busts we have. We’re playing far from perfect right now. As long as we’re making people earn things, we’re OK with that. But we can’t give up big chunks of yardage.”

Leonard has 20 stops along with both of Buffalo's interceptions

"You've got to fight through it every play," said safety Jim Leonhard of the hot weather Wednesday. "Heat like this is something you're not going to be used to it. It's a constant fight every play. It's hard to stay focused when you're that tired."

"That safety made a great play on it, coming all the way across the field. We always harp to the receivers, it's our ball or nobody's. To Santonio's credit, I don't think he saw that safety coming or he would have broken it up. He kind of came on top of it and made a great play, otherwise Santonio would have broken it up."
Thanks to Elizabeth for sending this one our way!

Interceptions

So, I know it is only week 2, but this still looks good...

Turkey Hill Game Ball

Thank you for voting! Check out the interview here.

Sports Rage After Hours: Click Here to Download Jim's interview with Gabe. This isn’t a PG interview though.

Who is Jim Leonhard?

Jim Leonhard has been around the ball in his time on the field posting two interceptions.

At Pittsburgh

This is the gang that made it out to Pittsburgh to see Jim's 2nd interception in person! Crazy Uncle Paul, Steve, and Ross drove out after driving to Madison to see the Badgers on Saturday only to drive back to northern Wisco for Colin's football game Monday afternoon. I drove Saturday to stay with the Krenzelok's and Ann joined us at the game. The rest of the Krenzelok's were busy moving Elizabeth into the dorms at Ohio State. Matt came with his fam from Clarion, PA. It was so good to see everyone!

9/18 Articles

Name that player
Jim Leonhard posted his second career interception in as many games this season. With picks in Buffalo's first two games Leonhard is the first Bill with interceptions in consecutive games since who?

The safeties had a fine day as Jim Leonhard collected his second pick of the year. Leonhard also recorded five tackles.

Game 2 Pics from buffalobills.com

Vote for Jim!

Jim is up for another game ball! Vote now!

Pick #2

9/10 -9/17 links

Jim Leonhard was one of the overshadowed stories of the Bills' season opener.
“Not having all our guys on defense was a challenge, but I thought we played hard,” said Leonhard, who had seven tackles and his second interception in as many games. “We have to get off the field on third downs because eventually a good offense will score if you don’t stop drives.”
http://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=343781 – fantasy football talk – kinda interesting
http://www.bratsandbeer.com/posts/2007/09/556
democratandchronicle.com
newsok.com
tribune-chronicle
canadianpress
diehardsteel.com
apexchange.com – great photo!
sports.aol.com
buffalonews.com
news.footballguys.com
democratandchronicle
wkow.madison.com
http://althekiller24.blogspot.com/2007/09/week-1-thoughts.html
http://www.buffalonews.com/sports/story/162436.html
http://news.steelers.com/article/81447/
http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/19526.html
http://www.buffalobills.com/news/news.jsp?news_id=5244
http://www.billsinsider.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=12231
http://defendersfootball.blogspot.com/2007/09/bills-report-week-1.html
http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/19489.html
http://www.niagara-gazette.com/Buffalo%20Bills/gnnbuffalorbills_story_254233048.html - Nice article
http://www.realfootball365.com/nfl/articles/2007/09/bills_lose_two_starting_dbs_fo.html
http://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=341347 http://www.buffalorumblings.com/story/2007/9/10/92628/6296

Keeping up with Jim

So I don't send emails to those of you who don't want the emails, and so you can get the info, this is a temporary fix! Here are the articles Shawn, Jim's publicist sends me and other pics we may find! If you have any good links, just post yourself, or let me know. Thanks! And Thank you for all the support!