TEMPE, Ariz. —
Johnstown’s LaRod Stephens-Howling has defied the odds throughout his football career, overcoming his size deficiency with speed, smarts and skill.
Listed somewhat optimistically at 5-foot-7 and 185 pounds, the 2009 seventh-round draft pick out of Pittsburgh has emerged as one of the most dangerous kickoff returners in the NFL.
He took one back 96 yards for a touchdown Sunday in Minnesota, the second time he has returned a kickoff for a score this season. That tied a franchise record set three times by Hall of Famer Ollie Matson of the then-Chicago Cardinals, most recently 52 years ago.
The soft-spoken running back suddenly finds his locker surrounded by reporters and television cameras.
“I’m a shy guy,” Stephens-Howling said after Wednesday’s practice, “... but I’d much rather be successful with attention on me than standing here all alone.”
He also had a kickoff return for a touchdown as a rookie last year. The three scores make him
No. 2 on the Cardinals’ all-time list behind the six by Matson, who, by the way, was traded to the Los Angeles Rams for nine players in 1959.
The diminutive speedster doesn’t just return kicks. Stephens-Howling is the gunner on the punt team and a part of the kickoff team. Coach Ken Whisenhunt, who has compared Stephens-Howling to Darren Sproles, is trying to get him the ball more in the offense, too. Stephens-Howling scampered 30 yards for a touchdown against Tampa Bay two games ago.
“He was probably, last year, one of our best special teams players,” Whisenhunt said, “... This year, obviously, he’s getting a lot more notice because of the success he’s had returning the football and it’s well deserved. He’s a very valuable player for us.”
Stephens-Howling is the runaway leader in NFL kickoff return yardage with 1,060, largely because his 38 attempts are eight more than anyone else in the league, thanks to Arizona’s penchant for giving up scores.
He is sixth in yards per return at 27.5. Seattle’s Leon Washington, who will be in Arizona on Sunday, leads the league at 31.4.
But Stephens-Howling has turned it on in recent weeks. In the last four games, he’s returned 18 kickoffs 589 yards, an average of 32.7 per attempt. Among those returns are ones of 96, 71, 60 and 48 yards.
“He’s lightning fast and makes things happen and they (the Cardinals) know it,” Seattle coach Pete Carroll said.
Stephens-Howling was a longshot to even make the team when Arizona made him the 240th player taken in the draft. He wasn’t even a starter in college, playing behind LeSean McCoy, drafted in the second round by the Philadelphia Eagles.
He slipped in the draft because of his size.
But his quickness and intelligence got the attention of the Cardinals, and he worked his way onto the season-opening roster.
As a rookie, Stephens-Howling caught a touchdown pass from Kurt Warner at Jacksonville. Later that season, at Tennessee, he returned a kickoff 99 yards for a score and downed punts on the 5-, 2- and 1-yard lines.
“I’ve always had to prove to people,” he said. “It motivates me to work harder. I wouldn’t take it any other way.”
On the day he was drafted, Stephens-Howling received his degree from Pittsburgh in administration of justice. He cried when reporters interviewed him in a conference call. That’s how much being drafted meant, no matter that it was the seventh round.
He said he “had no clue” whether he could make it in the NFL.
“But at the same time I said I was going to give it everything I had and make the most of it,” Stephens-Howling said, “and it’s paying off.”
The running back quickly credits his kickoff return success to the blocking of his teammates and the planning of his coaches. The humility traces to his days as a star athlete and student at Greater Johnstown High School.
Besides being a standout in track, baseball and wrestling, as well as football, he was a member of the National Honor Society, Who’s Who Among American Students and the Minority Scholars Club.
“I’ve always told people he’s the greatest human being I’ve ever met,” his high school athletic director, Tony Penna, told the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat when the local hero was drafted. “He’s deserving of everything that he’s gotten.”
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Johnstown native LaRod Stephens-Howling carries the ball last year against the Steelers. File Photo
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