Your favorite pro athletes have a favorite pro athlete — that person who can transport even a hardened competitor back to the feeling of being a fan.
Linebacker Patrick Queen had one of those moments Sunday morning as he prepared to face the Cleveland Browns. A friend texted him shortly before the game when he was still in the locker room to let him know LeBron James had mentioned his name while giving NFL predictions on his Instagram Live broadcast.
Queen just about lost his mind, he acknowledged.
“I’m like, ‘No way.’ I was like, ‘You’re just f—ing with me right now,’” he said. “But he screen-recorded it and sent it to me, just [James] saying my name. Yeah, he was talking football, but when he says like two people’s name from that one team, you’re like, ‘OK, this is freaking crazy.’ Out of all the people in the world, it had to be him.”
The mention was a relatively innocuous one. The 38-year-old Lakers star said, “Baltimore is always going to be a tough defense — anytime you’re staring down Roquan Smith and Patrick Queen and the rest of those guys defensively.”
But the fact that James shouted him out meant the world to Queen. He wore James’ No. 23 as a middle schooler and bought a pair of James’ signature Nike shoes every year. James’ 21-year NBA career nearly spans all of 24-year-old Queen’s life, but he’s followed him through Cleveland, Miami and now to Los Angeles: “Definitely a huge, huge LeBron fan.”
Queen also had the distinction of helping disappoint James on Sunday. An Akron native, James picked his hometown Browns to win. Queen was a huge part of the victory in holding Cleveland to three points, including three tackles for a loss. All that after recovering from the initial surge of excitement when he learned James was shouting him out: “When he said my name before the game, I’m just like running around the locker room like, ‘Bro, this is crazy!’ Then I’m like, ‘Oh, I gotta get ready for the game.’”
It has dawned on Queen that he could probably engineer a meeting with James if he wants. Teammate Odell Beckham Jr. is a friend of James, and the football-obsessed NBA star has shouted out Lamar Jackson and Ohio State product J.K. Dobbins plenty of times on social media. But Queen is going to let fate dictate if he’ll ever get to meet one of his sports heroes.
“I feel like at the end of the day, if it’s meant to happen, we’ll meet,” he said. “He’ll get in touch or something, or I’ll get in touch. But I ain’t gonna go out of my way to seem like a fanboy or anything. It would actually be dope one day to get to talk to him, though.”
Flowers crossing fingers for first TD
The NFL’s No. 1 red-zone offense is humming at the moment, with 12 touchdowns in 15 trips. So far, the Ravens’ wide receivers, however, have seen only one of those touchdowns.
That includes a goose egg for Zay Flowers, the promising rookie who has a team-best 24 receptions and 244 yards but hasn’t hit paydirt yet. The 23-year-old admitted it has been on his mind.
“I’ve been thinking about that every week,” he said. “I’ve been thinking about that since the first game we played. But it’s gonna come when it comes. It’s a long season. So I’m not really that stressed about it.”
Only Nelson Agholor has scored a touchdown from among the wide receivers. Tight end Mark Andrews has caught the other three touchdown passes. The Ravens’ ground game has been the most effective weapon to score, led by Jackson’s four rushing touchdowns.
Though he’s been one of Jackson’s favorite targets, Flowers hasn’t seen defenders try to double him or otherwise pay him special attention in the end zone. At the moment, the Ravens simply have too many threats for defenses to contain.
“You gotta worry about Mark, you gotta worry about the running backs, you gotta worry about Lamar, so I think they just play everybody honestly,” Flowers said. “We ain’t got that much touchdowns in the receiving room this year. So we’re just being patient, letting our time come. The run game is working, so we’re just running with the run game.”
Flowers got high praise this week from Mike Tomlin. As the father of Dino Tomlin, one of Flowers’ Boston College teammates, the Steelers coach has gotten a good eyeful of the receiver, whom he called “fearless.
“He will not be intimidated,” Tomlin added. “He is combative and competitive in all circumstances. Quite honestly, I’ve never seen him flinch.”
Flowers has gotten to know Tomlin quite well, at BC games, at the NFL combine and other friendly arenas. Sunday will be the first time seeing Tomlin as a foe. But he still tipped his hat at the kind words.
“He just has a respect for players that play hard and have a respect and a passion for the game,” Flowers said of Tomlin. “So I respect him for saying what he said, and I appreciate that — especially coming from him.”
