Kreutz earned his place in the sun
By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist
For two years, Pro Bowl selection day meant verbal open season on Olin Kreutz in the Chicago Bears' locker room.
No sooner would the Bears center from 'Aina Haina be named a Pro Bowl alternate pick then his teammates would line up to take their tongue-in-cheek shots. As soon as the Pro Bowl rosters were announced, the St. Louis School graduate became a bull's-eye for friendly barbs.
" 'They just picked you because you already live there and they don't want to pay to send somebody else if anybody gets hurt,' " Kreutz said the good-natured taunting often went.
" 'Alternate for life,' " went the chorus, according to the fourth-year pro.
Until yesterday, that is.
With his selection to the NFC squad — starters will be announced Jan. 12 — Kreutz's place is assured in the Feb. 9 game at Aloha Stadium. And so, at the age of 24, is his status as already one of the premier centers in the game.
"I'm still shocked," Kreutz said after being informed of his selection following the Bears' practice session.
He shouldn't be. Nobody who has followed the fast-rising career of the 6-foot-2, 285-pounder is. Kreutz, who left the University of Washington after his junior year for the 1998 NFL draft, has been knocking loudly on the door for a while.
By contrast, Chicago teammate James "Big Cat" Williams, in his 11th season as an offensive tackle, will also make his first Pro Bowl appearance.
In 1999, his second season with the Bears and first as a starter, Kreutz was named a Pro Bowl alternate. Last season, despite missing eight games due to knee and shoulder injuries, he was again an alternate.
This year, starting all 15 games and making the protection calls on an offensive line that has allowed an NFL-low 16 sacks underlined his importance to the resurgent Bears (12-3). Helping make a 1,000-yard rusher of rookie Anthony Thomas earned Kreutz the all-expenses-paid trip home in voting by players, coaches and fans.
Suddenly, the same players who had ragged on Kreutz are now asking him to be their tour guide for Pro Bowl week. "I told them I might have a few drinks with them, but they're on their own," Kreutz said.
He will be savoring the realization of a dream that once seemed so far fetched as to almost be absurd. "I remember going to the Pro Bowl when I was younger and Mark Tuinei and Jesse Sapolu came home to play," Kreutz said. "As a teenager, you think what that would be like, but you never imagine it really happening to you.
"Even when I came into the league I was just concerned about making the team (as a third-round pick). I never thought about making the Pro Bowl."
Now, he can.
