EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Not long after he first became Darren Sproles' teammate, more than five years ago now, Malcolm Jenkins understood the elemental secret of how a 5-foot-6, 190-pound waterbug could make himself, inch for inch, the NFL's most fearsome athlete.
Sproles joined the New Orleans Saints in 2011, and Jenkins, their starting strong safety then, noticed something unusual about him during the team's first walk-through practice that season. While all the other Saints players jogged around the field to simulate the action of a game, Sproles returned every punt at full speed. Every cut, every spin, every burst into what would be the open field - Sproles gave maximum effort.