Jihad Ward a big hit for Giants' defense

You can call Jihad Ward a lot of things.

Brash. Loud. Bombastic.

“He’s definitely super-vocal,” rookie Kayvon Thibodeaux said.

You can say he is brimming with confidence. Maybe even overflowing with it to the point of it spilling out and making a mess.

“Sometimes we do laugh because he is a little obnoxious,” defensive lineman Leonard Williams said before reconsidering his words with a laugh. “A lot obnoxious.”

You also can call him a key to last week’s win over the Titans and a big reason why the Giants were able to contain running back Derrick Henry.

“Jihad Ward was defensive player of the game and, I mean, that was unanimous,” defensive coordinator Wink Martindale said of the linebacker and his six tackles.

You can even call him “Haddy,” which is what most of the Giants do, using a nickname he has had for a while.

But there is one thing he will not allow anyone to call him no matter how clearly the title fits, how much his traits on the field and in the locker room scream out for such a designation. There is one word that makes him recoil and bristle and shake his head with stewing wrath.

Do not, under any circumstances, call him a leader.

He hates that.

“I don’t see myself as a leader,” Ward said. “I want to play my part. There’s a difference. If everybody thinks I’m a leader, then that’s what’s up, but I’m just playing my part.

“A lot of people fall off by not playing their part,” he added about the perils of seeing oneself in such a position. “I’m going to do my job, do what I am supposed to do, come to work ready to go. The roles I play and the stuff I do out here, I don’t know if it’s attracting attention of people, but at the end of the day, I am just playing my part. I’m being myself.”

That’s what he’s always been, whether he was the new kid on the team who had never played football at Edward W. Bok Technical High School in Philadelphia or the hardened veteran of one season of junior college ball at Globe Tech in Manhattan showing newcomers how to scrounge for (and sometimes circumvent) bus fares and food bills.

It’s what he was at the University of Illinois and, after entering the NFL as a second-round pick of the Raiders and bouncing around a bit, in his most successful seasons with the Ravens and the disjointedness of playing last season for the Jaguars.

At every stop he has stood out for his attributes as a player and as a person.

Now he has brought that to the Giants.

“He’s a physical, tough guy that is the character of what you’re looking for as a defensive player,” said Martindale, who coached Ward in Baltimore. “Wherever I’m at, I hope I have Jihad Ward with me.”

As much as he despises being called a leader, Ward certainly seems to have a flair for it.

Before each practice and while special teams are going through their paces, he spends time with two of his young followers, Thibodeaux and Azeez Ojulari.

Both are nursing injuries that have kept them off the field at the start of this season and allowed Ward to play a bigger part in the defense than likely was imagined at the start of training camp. But while the two young players technically are ahead of Ward on the depth chart, Ward has them topped when it comes to experiences. He tries to convey that to them during those few minutes each day when it is just those three — and sometimes a coach or two nearby — waiting for their drills to start.

“Man, we just talk about life,” Ward said. “We go through the playbook and talk about football, but when we have extra time, we talk about life . . . We’re all young and we’re all going through the same stuff, whether it’s money or family or stuff like that. You have to come to work and let all your problems go. You don’t want to have hard times at home and then come to work and have hard times. You’ll blow up. Communication is key.”

Ward took a special interest in Thibodeaux.

“I was hard on Kayvon when he first came in here,” he said. “I told him, ‘Yo, this ain’t that rookie stuff you got going on. You got any problems, holler at me or holler at the staff, we’ve all been there.’ I’m trying to make him the most comfortable person in the world. Just live your life.”

“For me, the greatest thing he does is he doesn’t just talk about it,” Thibodeaux said. “He’s a guy who’s going to run 80 yards down the field even when the play is over and get a shot on goal. He’s a guy who just always puts the work in, and you have a standard to look up to. So there is no excuse.”

Ward tried to impart those philosophies on the young Jacksonville team he signed with last season. It didn’t stick.

“It was very strict over there,” he said. “I hope that organization changed because there were a lot of men over there who are so quick to try to find a solution and stuff that they tried to control things they can’t control. When you try to force and control things, you break them. I could have been one of those players there to try to help the players out, but it was just bad ball down there.”

Now he is with the Giants, where he seems to be appreciated for everything he brings.

“The best part about him is that he is true to himself,” said Williams, one of the team’s captains. “You know he’s going to have that energy. If I’m having a slow morning or something like that and we stretch right next to each other, I know he’s going to be talking in my ear and getting me going. I think he’s definitely a guy that at this point people know him and he brings a lot of fire and juice to the team.”

Just don’t call him the L-word.

“If everybody looks at me as a leader, well, I guess I thank God for that,” he said with a sigh of resignation.

But that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

By Tom Rock

tom.rock@newsday.com@TomRock_Newsday

Tom Rock began covering sports for Newsday in 1996 and became its NFL columnist in 2022. He previously was Newsday's Giants beat writer beginning in 2008.