Linebacker Shaquille Leonard said his fallout with the Colts – specifically then-defensive coordinator Gus Bradley – cut too deep mentally for The Maniac to be able to return to a football field when Eagles head coach Nick Sirianni asked him to play for what would be a Super Bowl-winning team two years ago.
And with that, a young career that once seemed destined for the Hall of Fame ended at just six seasons.
“I couldn’t go anywhere else and give my heart, and then they (might) treat you like that. Mentally, I can’t take that all over again,” said Leonard, a former second-round pick and four-time All-Pro selection during a lengthy interview with former Indianapolis teammate Eric Ebron in the ‘On My Soul’ podcast this week. “I still can run. I still can play. I’m knowledgeable of the game and can put myself in position (to succeed), but I can’t take that mental hurt again.
“When you give everything to somebody or an organization, and they say I was a bad teammate, that I wasn’t watching film or doing treatment to make myself better … that broke my heart, bro, and it broke my heart to the point where I said, ‘I don’t want to play in the NFL anymore.’ This is how ruthless it is.”
The South Carolina State talent that general manager Chris Ballard took 36th-overall in 2018 – a pick that was panned at the time – was immediately successful. Leonard was named Defensive Rookie of the Year in 2018 along with AP First-Team All-Pro, and the Colts made a push to the Divisional Round of the playoffs after a 1-5 start. With 538 tackles over his first four years in the league to go with 30 tackles for a loss, 15 sacks, 17 forced fumbles, 11 interceptions – one for a touchdown – and seven fumble recoveries, Leonard became one of the game’s true imposing defensive forces with sideline-to-sideline capabilities and a ballhawk mentality.
For his standout rookie deal performance, Leonard earned a five-year, $98 million deal from the Colts front office, but a pinched nerve suffered in the offseason immediately following his payday began to spark the unraveling of the star linebacker’s Colts tenure. As Leonard described on the podcast, team trainers initially believed Leonard was dealing with ankle issues while unable to drive much power through his left leg during offseason workouts. A second opinion from independent doctors pushed Leonard to get an MRI, which eventually uncovered the pinched nerve in his back and an ensuing procedure relieve the pressure.
Still Leonard managed only three spot appearances through the team’s first nine games in 2022, and it was leading into a road trip to Las Vegas that Leonard began to feel a lack of strength returning after an offseason solely focused on rehabbing his back. Alerted to the issue, team doctors told him they’d speak about his injury the next day, but Leonard, admittedly impatient to try and get answers, called his own doctors and was urged to seek another MRI.
“I get back to the office, and they’re mad at me,” Leonard said, referring to the team and in-house medical staff. “After the Raiders game, (they) fly me to California to have another surgery, and they put me on a commercial flight with all the fans. It was terrible.”
Leonard says he was later accused of not being diligent with his physical therapy. “I completely lost it in the training room,” he said. “I felt I wasn’t getting what I needed at that moment.”
That largely missed season came in Year 1 under then-Colts defensive coordinator Gus Bradley. Still dealing with lingering power deficiency from his injury, Leonard returned to the fold that offseason trying to make up for lost time. From the outset, Leonard was moved away from the playmaking-heavy MIKE linebacker position and soon told he wouldn’t be on the field for third-down plays due to his lack of speed and power.
“And then it got to a point where I was splitting reps on first and second down,” said Leonard, who suggested Bradley start teammate E.J. Speed full-time if Leonard’s play wasn’t cutting it in order to help the team. Bradley insisted, the linebacker said, that Leonard was still a key cog in his defense.
Two instances began to show Leonard otherwise. In one recollection, his second-to-last game as a Colt, the sixth-year veteran still saw limited snap counts even while Speed and newly-minted starting linebacker Zaire Franklin were out due to injuries. In another instance three weeks prior at Jacksonville, Leonard recalled coming off the field after a blown play by one of the team’s corners and Leonard still trying to coach up the player and boost his confidence.
Allegedly, leading in that manner, rather than laying into his teammate with some tough love, wasn’t the type of leadership Bradley wanted to see. The two had a heated conversation shortly after.
“They started treating me crazy in the facility, the way they were talking to me,” Leonard said.
Still, leading into the team’s Week 10 trip overseas to play the Patriots, Leonard remembers being leaned on for his experience playing against New England and exposed a play trigger that helped lead to a game-saving tipped pass and interception.
“We’ve got a bye week, and we’re living. Next thing you know, I’ve been trying to talk to Gus for two or three months, trying to figure out how I can get on the field. He walks up to me after we take a team picture and looks at me with this evil-(expletive) look and says, ‘Come on into my office, and we can finally have this meeting you’ve been asking for,’” Leonard said.
“I get in there, and he says, ‘Have you ever thought about playing for another team?’ I said, ‘No,’ and then he said, ‘Well, I think we’re about to let you go.’ Let me go? I said, ‘Okay, what did I do wrong?’ and he said, ‘I think we’re going to go in a different direction. We need different leaders.’”
Leonard was taken aback.
“I held everyone accountable, including myself. I treat people the right way. What do you mean by that?” Leonard recalled. He said he then went to visit Ballard for some additional clarity. “(Chris said), ‘Yeah man, they said you were a cancer in the locker room. They said you don’t watch film,’ and I said, ‘I don’t watch film? None of this (expletive) is true.’”
Leonard details he was told he would be lowered to the practice squad if he wished to remain on the Colts’ roster the rest of the season. Rumblings spread throughout the building, Leonard said, of his poor character traits that pushed him to seek an opportunity elsewhere, his bond to the team damaged beyond repair.
“I loved Indy. I wanted to spend my whole career there,” Leonard said. “I told Chris, ‘If I leave this locker room, it’ll go downhill,’ and what did it do?”
The Colts finished 4-3 following Leonard being waived, and Indianapolis again missed the playoffs.
“We were playing bad defensively, and not just because of me, but somebody had to take the blame, so if the (defensive coordinator) ain’t taking the blame, the next person gotta go, so I understand the business part, where it’s gotta be you or me,” Leonard said. “But just be real about it. Don’t tarnish my name and my reputation and what I’ve done for this organization, to say I’m a bad person, a bad teammate, a bad leader.
“And I just walked away (from the NFL) because I didn’t feel like I could give my all to somebody and then get stabbed in the back like I did with Gus Bradley.”
Joel A. Erickson and Nathan Brown cover the Colts all season. Get more coverage on IndyStarTV and with the Colts Insider newsletter.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Former Colts LB Shaquille Leonard feels ‘stabbed in the back’ by former coach
Reporting by Scott Horner and Nathan Brown, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
