Linebacker Christian Kirksey reflects on upcoming career milestone
Houston Texans linebacker Christian Kirksey has had quite the career in the NFL since entering the league in 2014 as a third-round pick from the University of Iowa. He found early success as a member of the Cleveland Browns until 2019 when the team parted ways with him and played for one season with the Green Bay Packers before finding his way to Houston last year.
Now in his ninth year of professional football, Kirksey is closing in on marking his 700th career tackle, a mark that is indicative of his knack for being at the right place at the right time over the course of his playing career. He reflected on the upcoming accomplishment in comments to reporters on Tuesday, when asked about what achieving such a concrete marker of success meant to him.
“To be honest, playing linebacker in this league, yeah, you look at the tackles and say it’s a good milestone, but I’m worried about winning,” Kirksey explained. “What good is it if you’re making tackles and you’re not winning? For me, where I can really excel in my game is the big plays, the takeaways, the game-changing plays. That’s what I’m concerned about. It is a milestone, and you never want to overlook anything, any type of success you have. I give it up to god, and thankful to play a long time to get to that milestone. I’m more worried about winning games and seeing where I could be the best fit to help my team.”
While his somewhat flippant response belies the fact that the milestone will reflect highly on his achievement at the professional level, one can certainly appreciate that his mind is on winning football games and not career milestones. He will need just two tackles against the Washington Commanders on Sunday to cross the 700-tackle mark, and for his benefit, fans should hope that the Texans manage to pull out their second win of the season in the matchup so that Kirksey’s outstanding accomplishment isn’t made bittersweet by the team’s underachievement.
