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It’s been a long time since Abdul Hodge looked like that.
“I haven’t felt this good since probably my junior year in college,” the Packers third-year linebacker said. “I feel like a new man.”
Rewind, then, to 2004, when Hodge and the 17th-ranked Hawkeyes faced the ninth-ranked Badgers in the regular-season finale.
With a share of the Big Ten Conference title on the line, Hodge had 11 tackles and helped hold Wisconsin to just 186 total yards in the Hawkeyes’ 30-7 rout of the Badgers, sending Wisconsin to its second of three losses to end the year.
But by the time the Badgers and Hawkeyes faced each other in Wisconsin’s conference finale during Hodge’s senior season (another Iowa victory), tendinitis in both knees had set in, and when the Packers picked Hodge in the third round of the 2006 NFL draft, the condition was worsening.
Hodge battled through to play eight games as a rookie — including one start, when middle linebacker Nick Barnett was out with a broken hand at Seattle — but he hardly resembled the player he was in his Hawkeye heyday.
Hodge then played in three of the Packers’ four preseason games last year before the pain in his knees became unbearable.
He underwent surgery Sept. 18 in New York on both knees to eradicate the tendinitis. While he was withheld from the organized team activity practices and minicamp work while he recovered, he has been full-go since camp opened July 28.
“The last two years weren’t fun. I came in here with high expectations for myself, and not being able to live up to the way I normally play was hard,” Hodge said. “My rookie year, I was on a lot of anti-inflammatories. That’s how I was able to make it through the day. That’s why I was so inconsistent. Some days I’d come out and look great, some days I’d look ineffective. That’s why.
“Now, I have no limitations. I can do what I love to do. I can run to the ball and change direction, I’ve got my explosiveness back. Right now, I’m just enjoying it.”
So are the Packers, who saw Hodge all over the field recording a team-high six tackles in their 20-17 preseason-opening loss to Cincinnati on Monday night at Lambeau Field. Working with the second unit behind Barnett with Desmond Bishop sitting out because of Achilles’ tendon soreness, Hodge made play after attention-grabbing play:
He batted down a pass on a blitz; met running back Chris Perry in the hole for a 1-yard loss on a run; upended Perry on a third-down screen pass to force a punt two plays later; stopped James Johnson short of a first down inside the red zone to force a field goal in the fourth quarter; and in his most telling play, chased down Johnson along the sideline on a run around left end.
“A year ago, I wouldn’t have been able to do that. I would’ve been a step or two too slow,” Hodge said.
While general manager Ted Thompson noted that Hodge “looked like he had a spring in his step,” normally reserved defensive coordinator Bob Sanders, who usually answers any questions about fill-in-the-blank’s play individually with a standard “I have to watch the film” response, said Hodge “flashed and made some plays. I can remember two or three just off the top of my head. I thought he played well.”
Thompson said pre-draft medical exams didn’t reveal the extent of Hodge’s tendinitis, and while Thompson admitted the team “certainly didn’t think it’d cause the problems it caused him,” Thompson decided it was worth the risk, and it could pay off now.
The challenge for Hodge will be beating out Bishop, who impressed as a rookie sixth-round pick last year while Hodge was on injured reserve and had been working ahead of Hodge in practice.
“That’s going to be a hell of a competition,” linebackers coach Winston Moss said.
Asked if the team could keep three players who play middle linebacker but not outside, Moss said: “I couldn’t answer that right now. When that time comes, we’ll have to make a decision. Right now, though, we’re letting those guys settle in at mike linebacker and seeing how well they can play.”
That’s precisely Hodge’s focus.
“Even if (Bishop) did play, I told myself, ‘Whenever they put you in, just go in and fly around, fly to the ball and play like you know how to play.’ Once I heard he wasn’t playing, I felt like it was going to be a big opportunity for me to go out there and play well,” Hodge said.
“Some people might say, ‘He may not even make the team.’ But as long as I’m healthy, trust me, I know I can play football. Some people may look at the numbers game and say, ‘It’s him or Bishop.’ I don’t worry about that, man.
“Honestly, you haven’t seen the best of me yet. You’ll see the real me now.”
