No. 56 knows where he's at

Spending a 'day off' with Bradie James makes his commitment to improvement, and discrediting Jon Kitna's slight, clear

By JENNIFER FLOYD ENGEL
Star-Telegram staff writer

Play, pause, rewind.

"There," Cowboys linebacker Bradie James says. "Do you see it?"

I have to admit I don't. We have been watching Lions-Giants game film on the big screen in his house for almost an hour, a fraction of the film work James does in a week in an endless search for tendencies and clues, anything to give him an advantage on Sundays.

And he has noticed a pattern in the deployment of No. 49, Lions tight end Sean McHugh, that he believes will help him make blink-of-the-eye decisions today against Detroit.

"Right here, when they get in this formation, a slot formation, with both receivers on one side, they try to trick you and line up in different ways," James says. "When he comes like this, I know he's the unit guy, so I know it's a run because this guy is coming back in.

"And I'm looking at the depth of the running back also. So no matter what they do, how they shift, I know 49 is going to end up being on the line of scrimmage, so that calms me down. They are not really confusing me."

All I have noticed is what plays the defense is making, a common rookie mistake, James says. Of course, watching Giants middle linebacker Antonio Pierce is intoxicating.

"You realize that is what I do?" James asks.

On every single play, he is responsible for getting his guys into the right position, relaying the call, adjusting when necessary, oftentimes making the call himself. A whir of motion, running up, looking back, clapping, talking, barking out calls, adjusting, adjusting to the adjustments.

His job looks exhausting, and that is before the ball is snapped.

"I am the quarterback of the front seven," he explains. "It's tough. It's a gift. It's all impulse. So you got to be what people call a 'student of the game.'"

Cowboys defensive coordinator Brian Stewart insists James does this exceptionally well, better than most, in part because of how religiously he devours film. This due diligence gives him a leg up, an edge pursued by those not drafted into the league as "can't-miss" players.

This is why Lions quarterback Jon Kitna saying "We really felt like No. 56, sometimes, I don't know that he knew where he was at" eats at James even now.

And for James, Kitna saying that he was joking actually made the remarks worse.

The idea of respect is sacrosanct in James' NFL. Players may have an off game, even an embarrassing game -- and not everybody is a superstar -- yet the idea of any of them lacking competence is inconceivable. And that Kitna basically accused James of this is beyond offensive to him.

But he's not angry so much as hurt.

"I've had my ups and downs," he says, refusing to be one of those athletes who is oblivious to their flaws. He understands that last season was not his best.

"Me, personally, there is no need to talk about scheme and what happened last year," James says. "But after the Philly game [on Christmas Day], I felt like ...a bit hopeless. We were out there, and it is up to the players to make plays, but there were certain situations where I felt like [opponents] knew what we were running and [the coaches] would not make the adjustments."

How do you know it was more the scheme than James? That is easy, according to Cowboys coaches. Look at his production this season, now that he is no longer being asked to align the secondary and take on 300-pound-plus guards such as the Eagles' Shawn Andrews while providing gap control and covering receivers in dime packages.

The Cowboys are playing to James' strengths. And he has rewarded them by having a Pro Bowl-caliber season with 58 solo tackles -- and almost double that with assists -- and excellent play-calling and leadership.

"I don't know who makes Pro Bowls and who doesn't," Cowboys coach Wade Phillips said. "I didn't know he'd be the kind of player he is. He is a very good player and, for us, he is a Pro Bowl player. He makes plays, and it's the intangibles he has that makes us a better defense."

If James was indeed lost, he has been found.

At the facility

Spending a day in James' life during Lions week sounded like a good idea right until T.O. scheduled his birthday party for Monday.

James went and had a good time ...OK, a really good time. In fact, every time a teammate walks by him on this Tuesday morning, they give him this look when asking, "How was your night?"

And while we never really settle on a time of arrival, he has to be tired. He lifts weights anyway. He needs to lift because the Cowboys have not played since Nov. 29.

This is how he finds himself in the weight room with Remi Ayodele, Bobby Carpenter and Terry Glenn, who, by the way, looks pretty good working that stair-stepper. James, under the tutelage of Joe Juraszek, goes through a series of squats, ab work and weights.

Talk soon turns to Carpenter's Ohio State Buckeyes and James' LSU Tigers backing into the national championship game.

"Are you going to the game?" Carpenter asks.

"Yeah," James says. "If we get a bye."

"Let's keep working on that," Carpenter says.

It should be noted that Tuesday is the players' "day off" in the NFL, with "day off" being one of the biggest misnomers in all of sports. There is no day off, only lighter days, and on those days all the stuff that gets ignored during the week has to be handled. James stops by to see Stew, as all of the players call the defensive coordinator, before tackling his personal stuff.

Stew had mentioned something about wanting to talk to James, but what he really wants is a scoop from the party, like whether Jamie Foxx was really there.

Stew is in his office watching film of the Lions' 44-7 win over the Broncos on Nov. 4 and has his red pointer and a smile when James walks in. "I see a few opportunities for you," he says. Stew calls every defensive play, yet gives his players tremendous latitude. James has his trust to "okie doke," a freedom not afforded to him last season.

He blitzes.

He goes sideline to sideline.

He plugs gaps.

He calls plays.

"It's not freelancing if you know where it is going," Stew says. "That is what is good about James. He can make plays within the structure of the defense."

And what about this idea that Phillips, not Stew, runs this defense?

"Do people really say that?" James asks. "That's a misconception."

James says Stew already has come a long way since this season began with signaling in plays and explaining the intricacies of the Phillips 3-4. He has helped James become better.

Stew has already watched film of last season's Cowboys-Lions game, and the obvious question is whether he saw the "lost" James of which Kitna spoke.

"It's funny. Me and Wade were looking at it, and I was trying to find one play where he was lost and we couldn't," he says.

What they did decide to do recently was take James off the field in dime packages, replaced by Kevin Burnett. This has led to significantly fewer plays for James, especially with the Cowboys having leads and teams routinely trying to pass their way back into games.

Does he miss it?

"I could have more tackles, a lot more tackles," he says. "But it is what is best for the team."

Personal time

After a quick lunch of Potbelly sandwiches, James drives by the house he is building.

It is actually a frame. Builders are hard at work on this Tuesday and yet James gives a tour. It is one story, with a huge basement. The floor plan was his idea, and the builder loved it so much he now offers it. James didn't want one of those houses where the upstairs seemed too high.

He is this involved in everything he does, from his recently launched Foundation56, which is dedicated to raising breast cancer awareness, to his rental properties to managing his wealth. He took a business class at Northwestern's Kellogg School of Management through the NFL and shadowed a real estate agent from Flower Mound this off-season.

"You do not really have a lot of time for this in season," he says. "Now, in the off-season, I'll paint my walls, refinish my cabinets, I cannot find enough things to do."

He decides to go to his current house, where he did all of the off-season work, and rest before an appearance at a bank in Allen.

The nickel tour shows his living room with a decorated tree and an office with a picture of him pointing to the sky at the Peach Bowl. His dad had died just a couple of days before the game. James quickly makes his way to the media room upstairs, where he pops in one of the two DVDs he brought back from Valley Ranch.

He loses himself in play after Lions play after Lions play.

"See, right here, this is 11 personnel. This might be third down. This is when I come off the field sometimes," he says. "I have to see the formation. So I go back."

He presses rewind. Then he pauses the action.

"I see what the formation is because then that gives me an idea of what they can run," he says. "They can only run certain things out of certain formations, so it is not wide open. Like this, this is a pass."

Almost on cue, Kitna flings the ball incomplete.

"This is how I see the game," James says. "I don't see it from the wide view. I see it just like this, and I see these other people moving around, but this is what I see, right here."

It is getting late. James has to hustle to an appearance at Capital One Bank, where the line snakes around the building. He signs everything for fans, dutifully for two hours, and tells everybody that "yes, he hopes the Cowboys are going all the way."

He stops for dinner on the way home, where, of course, more people recognize him. It is an "off day" but James has an early bedtime planned. He has to be back at Valley Ranch bright and early for meetings and, yes, film to prepare for the Lions and Kitna.

Yes, Kitna.

"Not everybody can be a star," James says. "What you want is to be respected as a player."

It is funny. During the day, when watching film and talking about last season, James was talking about how former coach Bill Parcells had told the team before the Seattle game, "Hey, don't be the one to send us home."

It stuck with James because he felt responsible for Jerramy Stevens' touchdown to give Seattle a 21-20 lead with 4:24 to go. There was supposed to be safety help, but it was his guy. James admits to beating himself up pretty good, then out of nowhere he says, "The one thing I always wanted to ask Bill is if he thought I could be a Pro Bowler. Did he think I had what it takes?"

Talking to Parcells on Wednesday, it is obvious he did.

"Now, I loved that kid," Parcells said. "He was a professional. You could always depend on him. I'm proud of him and the season he is having."

And who's word are you going to take, Parcells'? Or Kitna's?