Larsen turns heads with his big hits

ENGLEWOOD • Spencer Larsen appears to be a model citizen.

In the short break between the morning walk-through and practice, the Denver Broncos rookie fullback/linebacker will often sit at his locker quietly and read the Book of Mormon. Larsen is married with two children. He is polite, accommodating and usually has a smile on his face.

He might be the nicest guy on the team. The nice guy takes on a different demeanor on Sunday, of all days. On the football field, Larsen is proving to be as vicious as any Broncos player.

Two weeks ago against New Orleans, Larsen made a hit that Broncos coach Mike Shanahan said was the hardest he had seen in the NFL. Larsen hit a Saints blocker on the first kickoff, and Shanahan said it looked like Larsen decapitated the Saints player.

Then on Sunday, Larsen sprinted downfield and crushed Chiefs kickoff returner Dantrell Savage. Larsen knocked him flat on his back and Savage’s helmet flew off at impact. The crowd at Arrowhead Stadium and the television broadcast team cried out involuntarily. CBS play-by-play announcer Greg Gumbel said Larsen hit Savage like a freight train.

Larsen didn’t seem too nice when he jumped up and down a few times after being mobbed by his teammates, as Savage found his helmet.

“He wouldn’t feel bad if he hit me that way,” Larsen said. “Everyone hears about the game face. On game day, you have to be a different person than you are off the field.”

He has drawn the attention of Shanahan, who took the unusual step of having Larsen work at linebacker and fullback to enhance his value.

“He is a very physical linebacker and that is why we have him playing not only linebacker but fullback,” Shanahan said.

Laying an awe-worthy hit in the NFL isn’t easy to do once, but Larsen has done it two weeks in a row.

On the hit against the Saints, Larsen said he didn’t know what or who he hit, but knew he had a massive collision and heard the crowd react. Against the Chiefs, he lined up Savage perfectly.

“It’s like when you hit a baseball real pure, on the sweet spot,” Larsen said. “You don’t feel anything. But the coolest sensation is hearing the crowd reaction. You hear the ‘Ooooohs,’ and that’s the most fun about it.”

Like most special-teams players in the NFL, Larsen didn’t play on many special teams in college. He was a standout linebacker at Arizona and ranks 15th on the school’s all-time list for tackles. His final two years, he was on the punt team and that was it. He said he hadn’t played on kickoff or kickoff return teams since his Pop Warner days.

“Here, it’s all I do,” Larsen said. “I’m able to play each play one play at a time, full speed, without fatigue issues. I just go down there and try to make something happen.”

Larsen has been learning the tricks of covering kicks from assistant special teams coach Keith Burns, a longtime Broncos special teams captain.

Although Larsen wants to eventually make a mark on offense or defense — he has been mainly working at fullback but he could go back to linebacker at some point — he knows being a great special teams player can help him have a long career.

“It’s my way to get out there and make my mark on each game,” Larsen said.