Holt carrying no baggage to Pro Bowl
December 29th, 2007 | by Kevin Morris |
By
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
Unlike last year, when he was facing offseason knee surgery, wide receiver
Torry Holt is planning on attending, and playing in, the Pro Bowl. Holt
probably will be the Rams’ lone representative in the NFL’s all-star game,
which is scheduled for Feb. 10 in Honolulu.
“I feel a lot better at this point this year than what I did last year,” Holt
said. “I definitely want to go over and show my appreciation by being there and
playing.”
Holt, who has earned a Pro Bowl trip after seven of his nine seasons, isn’t
planning to lug any extra baggage with him, though. To that end, he sought
Friday to jettison any aftereffects lingering from his Dec. 20 sideline blowup
with coach Scott Linehan, which was caught live by NFL Network cameras and
replayed many times by various local and national outlets.
“It was just a situation where I was venting some frustration,” said Holt,
addressing the subject publicly for the first time. “It may not have been the
appropriate place to do it, but it is what it is. We talked about it at the end
of the game. He spoke his piece and I spoke mine, and that was it. … As far as
I’m concerned, that’s put to bed.”
Linehan, too, has dismissed the incident as an aggravated competitor simply
losing his cool. But … Torry Holt doesn’t lose his cool.
“No, I don’t,” he said. “I don’t like getting to that point, where I’m (a
jerk). I can be (a jerk) with some of the best of them. But I hate getting to
that point, and I hate that I let the frustration build up to that point. …
“Never do I ever lose my composure like that. I try to remain calm, I try to
remain like a bottle of wine — smooth and good. But that time, I guess that old
whiskey came out of me.”
Holt erupted in the final minutes of a 41-24 loss to the visiting Pittsburgh
Steelers that dropped the Rams to 3-12. A defeat Sunday at Arizona would result
in the team’s worst single-season record since moving here in 1995.
“It’s not good, especially coming off of a season last year where we were 8-8,
we finished on a good note, so you come back into the offseason with much
promise — bring in guys, add guys, gives you that much more promise,” Holt
said. “Then to start out the way we did (0-8) and to see things just become a
domino effect to where we are now, it’s disheartening … especially if you’re a
winner.
“If you’re a competitor and you like to win and you’ve had a taste of success,
it can be draining.”
Holt obviously has done enough individually to add another Pro Bowl to his
burgeoning résumé. Although his knee has bothered him all year (he doesn’t need
more surgery, however), he enters the season finale with 86 catches for 1,096
yards — both top-15 marks leaguewide.
Those numbers are gratifying, he said, but they don’t outweigh the team’s
seasonlong woes. And that, Holt explained, is why he acted out so
uncharacteristically as the loss total was about to reach a dozen.
“For me, it’s just been a whole season of frustration,” he said. “I just
couldn’t take any more, and I said and did what I did. … Again, it may not have
been the proper stage, but it is what is, and you move on.”
