Thursday, January 15, 2015
By Joe Scalzo
At this time last year, center Corey Linsley was two weeks removed from Ohio State’s 40-35 loss to Clemson in the Orange Bowl.
The Boardman High graduate had been selected for the NFLPA Collegiate Bowl but skipped it to rest his body, then spent the next few months getting ready for the NFL draft, where he was selected in the fifth round.
Then the real work began.
After JC Tretter suffered a knee injury, Linsley stepped into the Packers’ starting lineup on the final game of the preseason and never left, starting all 16 regular-season games as well as last week’s playoff win over the Dallas Cowboys.
“Yeah, it’s been a heck of a grind, no doubt,” he said, speaking by phone this week. “The college season wasn’t this long. I’ve played four preseason games, so that’s 21 games now and it’s a struggle. But Green Bay does an unbelievable job of making sure your body feels right after the game.
“I feel pretty damn good considering all that’s gone down and that’s a testament to Green Bay.”
Linsley’s first season could not have gone much better. He was named to the all-rookie team by both the Pro Football Writers Association and Pro Football Focus, beating out a half-dozen other rookie centers who played the majority of their team’s games. By mid-November, Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was openly campaigning for Linsley to get Pro Bowl consideration on his radio show, saying, “He’s played that good. He doesn’t have the name recognition yet. A lot of times you get voted in a year after you deserve to and maybe a year longer than you deserve to, but Corey’s been really solid at center for us. He’s been a rock in there.”
Linsley, meanwhile, said it’s been an “honor” to play with Rodgers.
“Everyone here is so talented, but he’s on another level,” Linsley said. “He’ll go down as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, so it’s an honor to play with him.”
Linsley, who started the final 25 games of his OSU career, will play at Seattle in Sunday’s NFC championship game, a rematch of the NFL season opener on Sept. 4 that the Seahawks won 36-16.
“Seattle was a heck of a defense, but my head was kind of spinning in that game,” Linsley said. “I wasn’t sure what was going on a lot of the time, so I’m excited to see the progress that I’ve made and obviously the progress we’ve gone through as a team.
“This whole season has been kind of a whirlwind. The situation speaks for itself. It’s just been crazy, the talent level here and the execution and the amount of preparation the guys put into it. I’m honored to be around guys like this and really fortunate to be in such a place.”
Similar surroundings
Green Bay is the NFL’s smallest city and Linsley said it reminds him of his hometown.
“It’s actually not too much different than living in Youngstown,” he said. “They’ve got a little downtown, not huge but sufficient. The surrounding suburbs are just like Boardman, Canfield, Hubbard. It’s really home away from home.”
Linsley has played in 11 different NFL stadiums, including Chicago’s Soldier Field and the New Orleans Superdome, but he said nothing comes close to Lambeau Field.
“Honestly, nothing really compares to the tradition and everything that Lambeau Field has,” he said. “How many championships, how many Hall of Famers, how many great players have walked through here? There’s nothing like it. I’m fortunate to play here.”
Ohio State pride
Linsley watched Monday’s national championship game with his roommate, tight end Justin Perillo (who played at Maine), and backup quarterback Scott Tolzien (Wisconsin). He called the Buckeyes’ story “unbelievable.”
“To come out on top after they went through so much, I don’t know if I’ve ever heard anything as amazing as that,” he said.
Was he surprised by the rise of third-string QB Cardale Jones?
“No, the kid’s talent level was through the roof,” he said. “I don’t know what the issue was, why he didn’t show much on the field until now, but there’s no doubt in my mind he was capable of doing that. That kid was unbelievably talented.”