The Sun-Times has a nice profile this morning of six-time Pro Bowl center Olin Kreutz, who had a rough year in 2009, but is looking to rebound:
‘’It wasn’t good enough,‘’ Kreutz said of his 2009 season. ’’Even the years I made the Pro Bowl, if we didn’t win, it wasn’t good enough. What I’m trying to do every year is play winning football. That’s all I worry about.
‘’I don’t think it was a great year. But hopefully this year will be better. Will I be as good as I was when I was 25 or 26? Probably not — I mean, not probably. I won’t be. That’s reality. But I can still play at a high level, which is winning football.’’
A rejuvenated Kreutz in 2010 is hardly a pipe dream. While NFL players generally age quickly, Pro Bowl centers buck the trend more than most. Of the seven centers named to the Pro Bowl last season, five of them were 31 or older, including the Titans’ 38-year-old Kevin Mawae, the Colts’ Jeff Saturday (34) and the Giants’ Shaun O’Hara (32). As Kreutz notes, it helps to be on a winning team. His last Pro Bowl was after the 2006 season, when the Bears went 13-3 and played in the Super Bowl.