Big Red
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- Mar 16, 2019
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“He’s football smart,” Baker said. “You can tell he’s been there, done that.”
Swearinger’s passion and emotion can leave a mark. Washington cut him because of some pointed public comments he made about coaching decisions. But he brings an intensity the Cardinals think can help as they try to overhaul from a 3-13 season.
“You’ve got to be passionate about this job no matter what the record was last year,” Swearinger said. “The passion is what drives you, the love for the game is what drives you to want to be the best and want to win. I think me being on the 2015 team and how we almost won here, I can give some of that experience to the guys.”
One day last week, Swearinger wore to work his 2015 NFC West championship hat – just as a reminder and heads-up to the rest of the locker room what can be accomplished.
“Outside of being a guy who sets the tone for us, he’s also the quarterback of the back end,” defensive coordinator Vance Joseph said on the Coach’s Chronicle podcast. “He’s a very intelligent football player. It gets overlooked sometimes because of his emotional outbursts but as far as his football IQ, it’s very high.”
Swearinger definitely was thinking hard about what number he was wearing – and what he might wear.
Baker reached a Pro Bowl wearing No. 36. He was the 36th overall pick in the 2017 draft. There were reasons to stick with his initial numeral.
“I asked him about it,” said Swearinger, who was the Cardinal wearing 36 prior to Baker. “He was being stingy at first.”
Baker still has the number 32 in his Twitter handle. It was his jersey number from all the way back in his pee wee days, through middle school, high school and college.
“I thought it’d be a good time for me to get back to my usual number,” Baker said, acknowledging that Swearinger “definitely leaned on me a little bit.”
Swearinger indeed gave his pitch, telling Baker he needed to return to his “old self” and go back to the number he’d had his whole life. That, in turn, opened the door for the Swearinger of yesteryear, jersey-wise.
“We worked out a little deal,” Swearinger said with a smile, “and made that happen.”
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