Big plays, low profile

Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, August 15, 2006

CHENEY – He’s been called a big-time playmaker, a jack-of-all-trades and a small-school success story.

On Tuesday, Jordan Babineaux was fitted with an even more flattering description.

“He’s probably the most underrated player in the NFL,” Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander said of the little-known defensive back from Southern Arkansas University.

Little by little, the “underrated” part might be changing.

Babineaux made two of the biggest plays of the entire 2005 season, has a flashy nickname, and even has a Web site named in his honor: www.bigplaybabs.com.

Big Play Babs, Seattle’s combo cornerback/safety, is slowly starting to become a known commodity in NFL circles.

“He went to a small college, but he’s making his name known,” linebacker D.D. Lewis said. ” (Seahawks scouts) found him, brought him in, and he’s making his name.”

Not that the rest of the league has caught on very quickly. In the week leading up to a game against San Francisco last December, then-49ers wide receiver Brandon Lloyd referred to a Seattle defensive back named “Bordeaux.”

Other NFL experts know Babineaux as the younger brother of Jonathan Babineaux, an Atlanta Falcons defensive tackle who was selected in the second round of the 2005 draft.

“It’s a good and bad thing,” Jordan Babineaux said of the popularity that is slowly creeping beyond the state of Washington. “The good side is you’re still humble and you still want to go out there and make things happen. The bad side (of fame) is that you can kind of slack off and slip. I don’t want to be the victim of that.”

Babineaux stepped into the forefront, and earned his nickname, by making two of the most important plays of the Seahawks’ 2005 season.

As a “gunner” on punt coverage, he forced a key fumble in the final minutes of a 37-31 win over St. Louis on Oct. 9. As a reserve cornerback, he helped set up the game-winning field goal with an interception of a pass thrown by Dallas Cowboys quarterback Drew Bledsoe.

Shortly thereafter, Big Play Babs was born.

“People like him are what take you to the Super Bowl,” Alexander said Tuesday. “You’ll never hear, ‘This guy is Marcus Trufant,’ or, ‘This guy is Matt Hasselbeck.’ You’ll never hear that about Babineaux. It’s just like, ‘Oh, there’s that Babineaux again making plays.’ And that’s what gets you to the Super Bowl.”

Babineaux likes the nickname, as well as the reputation he’s developed.

“I want to be one of those guys,” he said. “I want to be the playmaker on defense. For them to call me Big Play Babs, that’s something I have to live up to.”

The fame hasn’t gone to Babineaux’s head. Until it was mentioned to him Tuesday afternoon, he had never even heard of www.bigplaybabs.com.

Like Babineaux himself, the Web site is not flashy. It’s only a single page, with Babineaux’s photo and game-by-game statistics of the 2005 season. The statistics aren’t even updated past Week 15.

But it’s the kind of grass-roots beginning that could lead to bigger things.

Babineaux has already become a locker-room favorite because of his knack for making highlight plays.

But offseason shoulder surgery cost him the first two weeks of training camp, and now Babineaux is trying to find his role again. He hopes to factor into the competition for a starting job at left cornerback, where Kelly Herndon and Kelly Jennings are battling. He could also see some time at safety, where he would show the kind of versatility that helps small-college players stay on an NFL roster.

“The biggest part I missed during my recovery time was getting the looks and the reps in practice during the offseason,” he said. “But I think my off-the-field preparation and my studying helped me to be able to make the transition (to safety) if I need to.”

An undrafted player who spent most of his 2004 rookie season on the practice squad, Babineaux has emerged as the kind of against-all-odds story that inspires training camp long-shots.

Once considered a nobody from a nowhere school, Big Play Babs is becoming the kind of guy rookies aspire to be.

“I think I’m a living test,” Babineaux said. “A lot of guys coming out of high school who might go to a small (college) can look at me as someone who has accomplished that. Maybe that can give them the confidence to go out and do the same things that I did.

“It can happen.”