The Little Big Hitter Of Indy

Though playing among giants, Sanders says he dreams of smashing his 206 pounds into ballcarriers, separating the football from them, sending their arms and their cleats flying. In only 25 NFL starts he has developed a leaguewide reputation for hard contact. "He packs a pretty big hit in a small package," says Fred Taylor, the Jaguars running back. Steelers receiver Hines Ward says a week of game-planning against the Colts' defense is a week of circling Sanders's name on a grease board. "He's so small and elusive, but so explosive," Ward says. "He's good at filling the hole, he's a great tackler, he's great with his eyes, he can catch almost anything like a receiver."

Since returning to the lineup for the playoffs last season, Sanders has solidified the run defense and helped change the reputation of a team once viewed as soft. He says he thrives on trying to intimidate opponents, and he searches for clues on the field and while watching film to see how his hits are registering. Sanders has seen offensive players run tall and hard in the opening moments of a game, only to shorten their strides and shift their eyes after a few choice hits.

"You laugh about it," Sanders says. "The first play, guys are running their routes crisp, they're reaching out and catching the ball, and then you go ahead and put one on him." Sanders punches his left palm for emphasis. "Then you start seeing alligator arms," he says. "They're reaching out and ducking and not concentrating. They're not running downhill, they're going from side to side."

Says Dallas Clark, the Colts' tight end who was Sanders's teammate at Iowa, "He's always on high gear. People are like, 'Man, I wish you would take it easy and maybe stay healthy longer,' but he doesn't know how to play like that, right, wrong or indifferent. When he gets on the field and puts on that helmet, he only knows one speed. Facing him would be miserable."

MIKE MISCHLER still remembers the Cathedral Prep player who got in hot water for doing backflips at a senior retreat while nursing a broken left foot. Sanders insisted to Mischler and the rest of his coaches that they were one-legged backflips, and that he could land on his right foot. "We went outside to the practice field, Bob put his crutches down, and he stuck it like Mary Lou Retton," Mischler says. The coach became a believer. Sanders told him he would start as a freshman at Iowa, become an All-America, get selected within the first two rounds of the NFL draft, win a Super Bowl and make All-Pro. Mischler said, "Yeah, Bob," every time. "If he told me he could win the Power Ball, I'd just say, 'Give me the numbers,'" Mischler says.

Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz isn't sure he's ever seen another player with Sanders's energy. He looks back on Sanders's career as a series of what he calls "Bob moments"—a crushing hit on kickoff coverage against Michigan State, the timely forced fumble against Minnesota. Sanders practiced so hard that one of Ferentz's offensive coaches asked if he could hold him out of a drill so he wouldn't hurt anyone. Ferentz said not to worry about it. "That same day," Ferentz says, "he knocked [running back] Fred Russell's shoulder out. That was when we had to hold him out of certain drills. Bob just doesn't know how to down-tempo. That's how he's built. It's part of the package."

If not for his lack of size and the foot injury in his senior season, Sanders might not have fallen to the second round of the 2004 draft, where Indy took him at No. 44. The Colts' doctors pronounced him fit before the draft, and Dungy needed a force in his secondary. But Dungy, too, has started holding Sanders out of contact drills on Thursdays, to keep him fresh. "We had to learn that," Dungy says. "He is a small body that does play hard. All we can do is try to be smart in training camp and the week in practice."

Sanders's teammates appreciate the difference he makes when he's in the huddle, rather than on the sideline. "When he's out there, he's one of the guys who can finish plays," says linebacker Gary Brackett. "A lot of guys can be in position to make plays, but then they miss a tackle or they could have made an interception but they just don't finish it. He's one of those guys who finishes a lot of those plays and turns them into positive plays for us. He creates that momentum. It makes you want to get on his level."

And Sanders intends to stay at that level. He's not about to tone things down. "If I take it easy and change my game, I'm not being me," he says. "There is no way I'm going to stop being me. My style of play is what got me to college. My style of playing is what got me to the league. I'm not going to change that now because people say, 'Oh, he gets hurt too much.' Sure, I have to be smart. If there's a pile coming, I don't need to hit the pile. But if I have a chance to make a hit, that's what I'm going to do. That's what the Colts drafted me for. I've just got to keep doing what I'm doing."

BOB ISN'T EVEN his real name, though it comes up so often on the stats sheet and in television play-by-play: Another tackle by Bob Sanders.