ExtremeRavens Posted September 2 Posted September 2 It was the day after last season’s AFC championship game and the mind of Ravens safety Kyle Hamilton was already on his top offseason priority as he cleaned out his locker in the grim quiet of the team’s facility in Owings Mills. Perhaps he was thinking about how to slow down Travis Kelce after the Kansas City Chiefs tight end racked up 11 catches for 116 yards and a touchdown against Hamilton that helped set the tone for a long January afternoon for the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium. Or maybe he was contemplating the All-Pro and Pro Bowl season he just had and how he’d need to be even better for a defense in 2024 that would have significant turnover on the roster and amid the coaching staff. Not quite. “Golf,” he said. Indeed. “My brother doesn’t have the patience for it, but I love it,” Hamilton told The Baltimore Sun in a recent interview. “If I’m not playing football, I’m trying to get on a golf course somewhere.” Born in 2001, Hamilton and his older brother, Tyler, were introduced to the game by their father, Derrek, a 1988 New Jersey Nets draft pick, who played professionally in Europe for 15 years and took up golf during the peak of the Tiger Woods era in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The youngest Hamilton’s obsession with golf, which he started playing around 5 years old, has only blossomed since. At home in suburban Atlanta this summer, he played three to four times a week, usually at venerable Peachtree Golf Club, which was co-designed by legendary amateur Bobby Jones. And amid the mundanity of training camp, Hamilton worked in rounds at every opportunity, including one recent occasion at Baltimore Country Club, where he nearly made his first hole-in-one, hitting a gap wedge from 140 yards to within a foot of the cup. On the surface, football and golf could not seem more disparate endeavors. But Hamilton’s curious mind sees the many correlations between the two, including the endless and necessary attention to detail, as well as the plotting and angles and mental acuity, all of which have also helped him in just two seasons become perhaps the best player at his position and one of the best overall in the NFL. “Short memory, especially at DB, you’re gonna get beat sometimes,” he continues. “You’re gonna hit bad shots in golf. The best ones forget about it quickly. “It may not be as physically taxing as football, but mentally that’s one of the toughest sports. You’re out there alone against [over a hundred] dudes in the field and it’s about who gets hot doing it over four days consistently. Sleeping on a lead on a Saturday night in a major, it doesn’t get more intense than that.” Patrolling the Ravens’ secondary as a position-less player who will again be counted on to do it all this season is up there, too. Despite the loss, Ravens safety was all over the field during January’s AFC championship game loss to the Chiefs. (Kenneth K. Lam/Staff) Examples of Hamilton’s exploits abounded last season, in particular during that 17-10 loss to the Chiefs in the conference title game. After Kansas City raced out to a 17-7 halftime lead, Baltimore’s defense stiffened, holding the Chiefs to 98 total yards and quarterback Patrick Mahomes to just 4.8 yards per pass attempt while sacking him twice, something no other team managed last postseason. Though he gave up a touchdown on the game’s first drive, Hamilton was often at the nexus of the Ravens’ success defensively. On one play, there he was blowing up Chiefs running back Isiah Pacheco in the backfield. On another, he fights off a blocker to drag Kelce down with one arm. Thenhe races backward to break up a deep pass intended for speedy receiver Rashee Rice. He later mangles a tunnel screen to Rice. Finally, he blitzes Mahomes from the backside to force a hurried incompletion. “Kyle is a unicorn,” Ravens passing game coordinator Chris Hewitt said. “He’s a one of one.” Which is why first-year defensive coordinator Zach Orr gives the 23-year-old a certain degree of autonomy within the defense and calls him “the ultimate chess piece.” “My goal for him is to one day win [the] defensive MVP — here — of the league,” Orr said. “The thing about him being the ultimate chess piece, depending on what the offense does, he can play anywhere. He can play safety, deep safety, box safety; he can play corner, he can play nickel, he can play backer, he can even play outside linebacker, too, and you guys know he can rush the passer. “The thing that you appreciate about Kyle Hamilton is, is he works at it. He’s a smart player, so he can handle all the different volume that you get him. I think he’s eager, going into his third year, to do more, so we’ll see.” That much has manifested itself, not just in games, but in practice. Early in training camp, quarterback Lamar Jackson lofted a long pass for Mark Andrews with Hamilton in close coverage. Both men went up for the ball with Andrews snatching it. But before he could secure it, Hamilton knocked it free with his leg as the two were crashing to the turf and then hauled it himself for the lone interception of the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player that afternoon. Other days, Hamilton will spend time running routes as a wide receiver because, in his words, if he can move like a receiver then he should be able to guard one. That kind of study extends to golf as well. Some of Hamilton’s favorite pros include Min Woo Lee, Scottie Scheffler, Rickie Fowler, Cam Smith and Brooks Koepka. All have vastly differing skills and styles of play, but the beauty — in golf and in football — he says are in the details. Golf is also an escape for him, he says, allowing him to clear his head and refocus his mind. “There’s so much little stuff in golf that I feel is the same in football,” Hamilton told The Sun, adding that he often also studies the nuances of safeties, cornerbacks, linebackers and even defensive ends around the league. “It’s not one size fits all.” “He’s like a generational-type player,” Ravens passing game coordinator Chris Hewitt said of safety Kyle Hamilton, pictured. “You don’t see many guys who are 6-foot-4, who can run and change direction the way he does.” He says the difference between his first year in the NFL and his second was akin to showing up at a course he hadn’t played compared with one he had and knows where all the trouble is, acknowledging that sometimes he “hit it out of bounds” as a rookie. As one example, Hamilton said he had to learn patience in zone defense. “College and high school, you could just go make a play,” he told The Sun. “In the NFL, they’re doing stuff on purpose, putting something in front of a young rookie safety’s face to go drive it, then do something behind you going deep. “It’s like everyone wants to go to the range and hit driver, but you gotta go work on your short game and putting. To equate that to how I watch film intently, am I watching to see what personnel they’re in to see what guys do, or am I watching to get a good idea of formations and what they’re trying to run and what I can eliminate by just looking at a formation?” That was the case during last season’s key Christmas night victory over the San Francisco 49ers, when Hamilton read their first-and-10 play from Baltimore’s 15-yard-line on their opening drive so well that he quickly moved off tight end George Kittle to streaking receiver Deebo Samuel to easily cut off the route and intercept a would-be touchdown pass in the end zone. It was one of four interceptions on the year for Hamilton, who also had 13 passes defended, three sacks, four quarterback hits, a forced fumble and 81 tackles, including 10 for loss. When Hamilton was on the field last season, the Ravens’ defense was one of the best in the NFL in yards allowed per play, expected points added allowed per play and success rate. When he wasn’t, they were below average. “There are not many guys who [can] come along like that,” Hewitt said. “He’s like a generational-type player. You don’t see many guys who are 6-foot-4, who can run and change direction the way he does. He still plays with violence; he’s not a finesse player. He’s got it all.” Once a star high school basketball player before he decided to focus solely on football and with a golf handicap currently around 6, it’s hard to argue otherwise. Hamilton still has a few goals, though, with the Super Bowl at the top of the list. When it comes to golf, attending the Masters, making a hole-in-one and playing Pebble Beach — which he’ll do on a buddies trip next March — top the list. “It’s not something I’m not necessarily that good at,” he demures. “A bunch of my friends are better than me.” The same at least can’t be said about his football. View the full article Quote
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