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Childress tries to fill void
Bam Childress already has beaten the odds just by being with the New England Patriots for a second year. Now, he is looking to do it again, this time in a bigger and better way.
Last year, it was satisfying for the former Ohio State wide receiver to make New England's practice team as an undrafted free agent, to stay with the Pats all season and then to get his first taste of NFL action against the Dolphins.
Childress was activated for the regular-season finale against Miami and caught a team-high three passes for 32 yards. He played defense, too, and had five tackles.
For a guy who started only seven of the 49 games he played in his college career and who had only 33 receptions as a Buckeye, it was an impressive performance.
Now, move ahead to this year. With New England's wide receiver situation very much up in the air, Childress is hoping for more. He is listed second on the depth chart, behind Troy Brown, at the inside receiver's spot. He is a legitimate candidate to earn a roster spot.
"There's an opportunity. I just have to go out and make the best of it," Childress said. "I have to go out there and show what I can do, prove what I can do."
The 5-foot-10, 185-pounder resembles Brown, as well as the absent Deion Branch, in both style and body type. Those two are his role models.
"Troy is so down to earth. He talks to anybody and about anything you want to ask him," Childress said. "Deion is the same way. Football-wise, it's more than just watching them. I ask them, OK, why did they do that?' That helped me a lot, more than anything people would think. That's my job, similar to what they're doing. If you study what they're doing, you have no choice but to get better."
Childress has spoken to Branch, even as Branch's holdout goes on, although the discussion is not about why Branch is not in camp.
"That's none of my business. If I talk to him, I don't talk about stuff like that," Childress said. "It's more like just, How you doing?' I keep my nose out of that."
The good news for Childress, as he vies with newcomers like John Stone, Chad Jackson, Rich Musinski, Matt Shelton, Keron Henry, Erik Davis and Kelvin Kight for work, is that he had a full year to watch and learn from Brown and Branch. His first year was much like his first year at Ohio State -- like a red-shirt season.
"That's how I looked at it. It was more like a red-shirt year," he said. "I've watched them for a whole year. That's nothing but a benefit for me."
"I look at myself like there's nothing I do perfect, to where I can say, All right, I don't have to work on that any more,'" Childress said. "I work on everything, my speed, my quickness, my hands, just watching film and studying film. I talk to Tom (Brady) a lot, study people, study how teams play. It's consistently trying to get better at everything, not one specific thing."
Getting a taste of the real thing against Miami last year let him know what he has to do.
"It helped a lot," he said. "I got to see how fast the game really is. It was everything I thought it was going to be. I played hard and had fun."
As with all the wideouts, Childress knows when he does right or wrong. One of the highlights of the Patriots' daily practices is to see wide receivers coach Brian Daboll working with his guys. Daboll is as vocal and active as any Pats coach.
"I respect him for that. He takes his job serious," Childress said. "That's what he loves to do, to push us and make us better. Even if he's yelling or he's on me hard I'm not going to be mad about it, but at the same time he cares. If I'm messing up and he's not saying anything, that's when you wonder, does he really care? He cares about everybody. He wants everybody to be the best he can be. Sometimes he pushes you. Sometimes he pushes you a little too much, but at the end I'm going to be ready. I'm going to be prepared."
Childress knows that once everything settles in, once Branch returns, the odds remain against him in his bid to take the field regularly for the Pats. That did not stop him last year, though, and it's not stopping him now, either.
"Once you get that first taste of it, you say, I've got to get some more,'" he said. "There's always an opportunity. I've just got to make the most of it. I've got to go out there and make the plays. ... If I go out there and show them what I've got, then I've got a shot."
The Associated Press and McClatchy Newspapers contributed to this report.
