INDIANAPOLIS -- It started out as a pause on the phone. A few more words, then another pause. Then her voice cracked.
“Oh man, I’m losing it,” said Lynette Waters, the mother of Indianapolis Colts All-Pro linebacker Darius Leonard. “I’m getting emotional, tearing up. It just means a lot to me.”
Waters' tears weren't about disappointment or anger. Quite the opposite.
Waters was thinking about that moment last February, when she went into full-sprint mode, the way her son does when he’s pursuing a ball carrier. On that winter day, Waters took off after the white Mercedes-Benz with the red bow on it that Leonard purchased for her after completing a rookie season when he led the NFL in tackles.