Brian34Cook

Horror flick
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
November 19, 2007

GREEN BAY, Wis. – Nick Barnett exhaled deeply, and for a few seconds the anger appeared to vanish. By all rights Barnett, the NFL's best inside linebacker in 2007, should have been smiling Sunday evening. He had just helped the Green Bay Packers improve to 9-1 with a 31-17 victory over the Carolina Panthers at Lambeau Field, keeping the league's unlikeliest Super Bowl contender tied with the Dallas Cowboys atop the NFC 10 days before their Thursday night showdown at Texas Stadium.

Now he was finishing his dinner at an Olive Garden a few miles down Oneida Street and preparing for a well-deserved power nap and celebratory night on the town.

First, however, Barnett would do what he always does after games: Sit alone in the miniature movie theater at his home alongside the Fox River in DePere and beat himself up more brutally than he does opposing ballcarriers. Cursing at the screen, slamming the remote on his knee, rewinding his DVR over and over again to watch particularly troubling plays, Barnett is a *****ly perfectionist who never met a replay he didn't hate.

"I'm very critical of myself, to the point where by the time I'm done watching, I'm convinced I played the worst game of the season," Barnett explained as he finished the last of his shrimp. "It's a constant pursuit of excellence, which is a gift and a curse. Honestly, I'm just so critical. I'm never in a good mood, man."

This is especially true on days like Sunday, when Barnett's most notable play was the 15-yard personal foul penalty he drew for driving 44-year-old Carolina quarterback Vinny Testaverde well out of bounds late in the first half, and his team-high total of eight tackles (and one assist) was compiled in relatively uneventful fashion. But Barnett, a rangy, ferocious fifth-year player who on Sunday hit the 100-tackle plateau for the fifth consecutive season – he led the Packers in that unofficial stat each of his first three years before finishing second to teammate A.J. Hawk in '06 and is back atop the charts in '07 – ritualistically tears himself down after games, no matter how dominant his performance.

"He's the best linebacker in the game right now," cornerback Charles Woodson says of Barnett. "He goes 100 miles an hour 100 percent of the time. He's a fun guy to watch on film."

Horror flick - NFL - Yahoo! Sports