The Players That Made Me: Steve Atwater's favorite players from a life in football

[Miles]

As an analyst: Emmanuel Sanders


“I don’t think you ever watch more football than when you played. … We watched at least two-and-a-half or three hours [of film each day], though.. … As a radio guy, we’ve got to talk about it — not necessarily ‘under the hood’ like a scout would, but scouts, they’ve got to know every player, all the tendencies of the team. We don’t have to go that deep into it. …


“At first, I used to watch it more from just a safety’s perspective. I would look at, ‘All right, what kind of keys [do you have]? [Is] the offensive line giving you any keys? What are the receivers doing? Are they coming off the line of scrimmage hard or are they jogging off the line of scrimmage?’ Because a lot of times when receivers aren’t getting the ball, they’ll jog off the line of scrimmage and if they’re doing that, a safety can make a play off of that. I don’t know if they’re still doing that today, but back in my day I used to read that and take that as a key. …


“But I follow the ball, too. I can enjoy games as well. I’ve kind of gotten out of that. I don’t do that as much anymore. …


“I love watching [Emmanuel Sanders] play. Really, him and Todd Davis are two guys [I like watching]. Von Miller — everybody loves watching Von. But kind of underneath the hood, seeing how Emmanuel practices, his work ethic in between offensive and defensive drills. When the offense is getting a break, he’s catching passes the whole time. And then to see that pay off on the field with his productivity, that’s been real fun for me to watch.


“And Todd Davis for me, as well, I love his motor. He’s full go, full speed and he’s a great leader, too, from what I’ve seen. I’ve seen him play and interact with his teammates. But those two guys are the most inspiring so far. And Chris Harris, too, at the corner position. You see he’s not a big guy — and not a small guy either, but he’s not the biggest guy. He has no fear, he’ll tackle anybody. I saw him line up on Antonio Brown and man, he was up for the challenge.”