‘Bad Boy’ No Longer All Talk

The extent to which Chad Eaton has matured, and is eager to erase his former bombastic, bad-boy persona, can be measured by what he plans to do with the extra money he’ll earn by playing for New England in Sunday’s Super Bowl.

Get some of his tattoos removed.

First to go is the one that reads “Bad Boy.” Because it no longer applies.

And those multiple ear piercings? Empty and healing over.

In a way, Chad Eaton, a player for whom no quote was too outrageous, no topic taboo, no microphone left unexploited, has found another way to shock.

By not being shocking.

The big-talking, big-hitting Whallop from Puyallup may not yet be ready for admission to the Young Republicans club, but he’s certainly no longer the bad boy he was at Washington State University.

And the change is not simply skin deep.

“I’ve really mellowed out,” Eaton said. “I’m so laid back, it’s like day and night. I’m still high-strung, but it’s in control.”

In the old days, Eaton’s shotgun verbiage missed few. At WSU, he leveled salvos at opponents, offensive teammates and coaches.

And while he was voted the best defensive player in the Pacific-10 Conference as a senior, the feeling was that the expiration of his eligibility would cause few in Pullman to drip salty tears.

“I talked too much in college,” he admits. “But I look back now and think ‘What was I doing?’ I wanted everybody to play hard and play better, but I ended up having to apologize a lot.”

The act may have been something of a shield, a tattooed shell put up for protection.

“My mind frame in college was that I was really out of touch with a lot of things, and that whole persona was the way I coped with it.”

Eaton calls it all a stage of growth.

But the painful growth didn’t truly kick in until the next spring, when he was wounded by being ignored until the seventh round of the draft.

”(Cougars teammate Don) Sasa was drafted before I was, and that was a bit of a blow to me,” Eaton said. “I guess I started figuring out that all the talking I was doing wasn’t making me any better of a football player.”

The assaults on his ego intensified when he ran into Arizona Cardinals coach Buddy Ryan - whose verbal darts could outgun even Eaton. Ryan not only cut Eaton, but labeled him Mr. Velcro, because he was chronically unable to shed blockers.

“It motivated me; I could have just bagged it then, but I went to the Jets and I was cut by them two weeks later,” Eaton said. “I was thinking, man, what am I doing. Then I went to Cleveland and stayed on the practice squad until we went to Baltimore and I got released again.”

Eaton kept telling himself he belonged in the league. The league kept contradicting him.

But he left enough of an impression on Cleveland coach Bill Belichick - now defensive coordinator for the Patriots - to land a spot on the New England practice squad.

“I was activated in the 13th week,” Eaton said. “A lot of people have asked me if I’m excited to play in the Super Bowl, but hey, I’m just excited to get another game to play.”

Over the past six games, Eaton has worked his way up to 20 to 25 plays a game.

And finally, he says, he feels some sense of validation. “It gives me some peace; I can go home and not feel like a failure.”

The humbling trek to NFL respectability, in retrospect, was valuable, Eaton said.

“If I had been drafted in rounds one through three or four, I think I probably would have been out of the league and messed up somehow,” he said. “Having had to really work my way up makes me appreciate it all that much more.”

Marriage, seven months ago, also served to speed Eaton’s maturity. “I’m more relaxed about a lot of things. It leaves me able to focus on playing football.”

As satisfying as this improbable trip to the Super Bowl has been for Eaton, it is not completely fulfilling.

His mother, Nancy, locked in a battle against liver cancer, cannot attend the game.

“She’s sad that she can’t come down,” Eaton said. “When I got activated, I dedicated this season to her. She can’t be here, but I know she’s watching. She’s in my heart, and I know she’s proud of me.”