By Dave Kinnamon, Staff Writer

Recently sports fans have been given fresh reasons to take a few moments and give another rowdy round of toasts to Oklahoma native son Curtis Lofton, a rookie linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons professional football club.

Lofton recently completed his junior season for the Oklahoma Sooners football team and anchored a ferocious, denying defense. Most sports fans will forever retain the tear-’em-up playing style Lofton put on showcase during the Sooners’ nationally-televised game against the then-unbeaten Missouri Tigers last November. The Tigers were barely able to muster a meow against Lofton and the Sooners that Saturday night. Ha, here’s a good pun. Play after play, Curtis Lofton chased Chase Daniel down like a tiger chasing down a squeaky, little mouse. And Daniel finished the 2007-2008 NCAA football season a Heisman Trophy finalist. Lofton’s consummate defensive football prowess was not a minor thing, given the competition he was up against.

Lofton, who played high school ball at Kingfisher, is all heart and all work ethic (read: hard work). When I saw Lofton at an FCA supper banquet this past spring at Cherokee Strip Conference Center, he was average in height. I met him eye to eye, and I stand 5 feet, 9 inches, first thing in the morning after I’ve slept all night, in bat-like manner, hanging by my ankles on a closet rod.

Lofton has become so successful as a player because of his hard work in the weight room, on the conditioning track, in football study and in practice on the gridiron. And in games, of course.

Lofton was drafted in the second round of the 2008 NFL amateur draft, the 37th overall selection. After summer camp, Lofton now is officially a starting middle and outside linebacker for the Atlanta Falcons.

ESPN Magazine named Lofton as one of five NFL rookies most likely to make a major impact on their teams this season. Of the five rookies, ESPN Magazine rated Lofton as the No. 1 rookie most likely to have a significant impact this season.

As is typical for Lofton, he keeps the attention all in the perspective of hard work and discipline.

“It’s an honor, but you can’t read much into anything,’’ Lofton said. “I just have to play my game and do the best that I can.’’

Enid takes extra pride in Lofton, as does his hometown, Kingfisher, because Lofton lived in Enid until he was school age. His dad, Curtis L. Lofton, resides in Enid with his wife and Curtis’ younger brothers and sisters.  The whole family attended the FCA spring banquet with Curtis.

“The No. 1 thing about me is winning,’’ Lofton recently told Bruce Campbell, Enid News & Eagle sports writer.

If a person, say a newspaper writer, were to grab a handy-dandy dictionary and look up the word “winner,” they’d read three words next to the entry:

 Curtis - T. - Lofton.



 Kinnamon is a staff writer for the Enid News & Eagle. Contact him at dave.kinnamon@sbcglobal.net.