Few dare emulate Asante Samuel's ball-hawking style

Asante Samuel set Central Florida's record for pass breakups, so it's hardly surprising that the defensive back's coach there still uses the Eagles cornerback as a teaching tool.

But not in the way you might think.

"I tell my kids, 'I don't want you to play like Asante,' " said Sean Beckton, who has been on the Orlando university's staff since Samuel, a high school quarterback, arrived there in 1999.

"I tell them, 'I want you to stay square. I want you to keep the play in front of you. Don't gamble. Asante can get away with technique flaws. You can't. He's a unique player.' "

Philadelphia's designated pick magnet remains, in his second season as an Eagle, a ball-hawking, route-jumping, go-for-broke anomaly. In the world of NFL cornerbacks, where technique and discipline rule, Samuel is the antihero, a long-haired maverick who backpedals to his own drummer.

And though he misses some tackles and occasionally gets burned on double-moves, Samuel, as his fat contract indicates, has managed to stay way ahead on the position's risk-reward curve, collecting an astonishing 35 interceptions in seven NFL seasons.

"Instincts," said Samuel, who turned 29 this week, "are a huge part of my game. You have to process information, but you also have to have a feeling for when and where the ball is going to go."

He hones those instincts, teammates said, with experience and intense film study. The outgrowth is an aggressive, on-the-edge style that has made him rich, famous, and controversial.

"You're not going to see many imitators," said Eric Allen, the former all-pro Eagles corner and now an ESPN analyst. "Asante's is a style you have to graduate to because any coach's first instinct is going to be to correct it. You've got to have the results in order to earn the coach's blessing. And Asante certainly has the results."

Samuel plays with a controlled recklessness. He focuses on the quarterback more than the wideout. He anticipates the snap. At 5-10, 185, he relies on athleticism more than strength. He prefers the shuffle over the backpedal, permitting him to burst forward more quickly. He chatters and trash-talks, and, as even a casual fan can recognize, loves to break early on the ball.

It's a recipe for interceptions, and that's exactly why the Eagles, last in the league in takeaways during the '07 season, brought him here, signing the former Patriot to a six-year, $57 million free-agent deal.

He had four interceptions in 2008 and, growing more comfortable in the Eagles' system, nine so far this season, which will continue tomorrow night with an NFC wild-card matchup in Dallas.

Among his colleagues in the Philadelphia secondary, Samuel is perceived with awe, the practitioner of an art they can admire but never hope to duplicate.

They're impressed by the quarterback-like millions his gambling play has earned him, but not enough to try to emulate it.

"I don't feel real comfortable doing it that way," said Eagles corner Joselio Hanson. "But, hey, he's got all that money. He can do it whatever way he wants. He's the only guy that plays that way. He has his own style. His unique style. But he's a great corner, man. He's going to probably be in the Hall of Fame one day."

Rookie safety Macho Harris called Samuel one of the team's most intelligent players.

"He's just a guy with great instincts," Harris said. "He's got the ability to change the game at any time. I don't know how he does what he does. But he's smart enough to do it."

While Allen agreed that Samuel was unique among contemporary corners, he mentioned ex-Cowboy Everson Walls as the player most like the Eagles defender.

"Everson played what we call a crab technique," Allen said. "He was always open toward the quarterback, shuffled his feet, got a great jump on the ball. It wasn't just the traditional 'press' and 'press-and-bail' stuff that most everyone else played.

"And while Asante isn't a 4.3 40 guy, he makes up for that with a great understanding of the game and an underrated athleticism. He's got a nice vertical jump, a good burst, nice hands. And he plays with a chip on his shoulder."

Samuel wasn't always a secondary gunslinger. He arrived at UCF wanting to be a quarterback. Then-head coach Mike Kruczak thought about converting him to wideout, but there was a surplus at that position. So he became a corner.

"We had seen him play a little there in a postseason all-star game, so we knew he could make the switch," said Beckton, who coached the receivers when Samuel was at UCF.

"He didn't play the way he does now at first. But pretty soon he started jumping on routes, breaking up passes. It wasn't something we taught him. But he was such a battler, such a great competitor, that it came natural to him. I know my guys hated to go against him in practice, and I'm certain the receivers we played against felt the same way."

New England made him its fourth-round pick in 2003, and by the time he got to Philadelphia his reputation was so large that Hanson studied him closely, hoping to discern a secret or two.

"I noticed that he really doesn't backpedal as much," said Hanson. "He just kind of shuffles along out there. It makes it a little easier for him to break. That was one thing in his game that I liked and tried to do myself.

"But the other stuff, it's all knowledge of the game and studying receivers and quarterbacks. The more you know what the other guy might do, the more success you're going to have, the more rhythm you develop. Yeah, he jumps a lot of routes. But most of the routes he jumps, he doesn't make a wrong guess."

After watching Samuel closely for several seasons, Allen said there was only one thing he'd like him to change.

"And you can tell him this for me: Stop swiping at the ball. He had a chance to get the ball last week on that one big play to [Cowboys tight end Jason] Witten. Instead, he swiped at it and missed.

"But everything else he does is gold."

If you don't agree, just look at his contract.