Joe Sykes: Achieving Greatness

July 31,2015
By ADRIAN BEECHER
At 6-foot-4 and 275 pounds, two-time Arena Football Defensive Lineman of the Year, Joe Sykes, is not a force to be taken lightly. When quarterbacks look across the line of scrimmage in this League and see Sykes, they know a freight train is coming.
With two games still left in the regular season for Sykes in his first year with the Jacksonville Sharks, he has already accumulated a single-season League record 17 sacks, breaking his own previous personal best of 16, recorded as a member of the San Jose Sabercats in 2012. In fact, out of the top five single-season sack performances in Arena Football League history, Sykes has three of them.
“I’m having a blast, the team is great, the coaches are awesome and the fans are amazing,” says Sykes of his time with the Sharks so far. “It’s everything that I expected.”
The amazing thing is that this is only Sykes fifth year in the League and he now has 52 sacks in his career, tied for the third-most in AFL history. There is only one other active player in the top five – Las Vegas Outlaws defensive end Mike Lewis, who ranks second with 54.5 career sacks, including eight this season.
Both Sykes and Lewis have been able to reach their marks at a remarkable pace. The other three players in the top 5 include Sam Hernandez, Jermaine Smith and James Baron. They all played more than 10 years in the AFL and are respected as legends in this League.
To put things into perspective, James Baron had tallied 26.5 sacks in his first five seasons in the AFL. Sam Hernandez didn’t acquire his 50th sack until his tenth year in the League. Jermaine Smith’s largest sack total in a single-season was 7.5 – a mark he reached only once. It took each of them longer to get to the numbers that Sykes and Lewis have currently.  Sykes, however, is racking up sacks faster than anyone has ever before in this League.
“I’ve told Joe, that if he was in the game during the Ironman days, he would have been the most sought after player in the League,” Sharks head coach Les Moss said. “He would have most likely been the highest-paid player in the League as well.”
Now, none of this is to the discredit of legends of this League from the past. To be mentioned in the same breath as Hernandez, Baron and Smith so early in a career is an amazing thing. Hernandez is a Hall of Famer, James Baron is a finalist for the Hall this year, and Jermaine Smith – who only called it a career two seasons ago – is soon to follow.
People talking about the possibility of the Arena Football Hall of Fame after just five years is an honor in itself for Sykes. These are all notions that go to those that end up going down in history as the greatest of all time.
“He’s always been a dominant pass rusher and I think with his blend of power and speed, he would have fit right in,” said Arena Football Hall of Fame quarterback Sherdrick Bonner. “With the right coach in the two-way game, he would have been just as effective because he’s a tremendous athlete. I would definitely put him in the top five of all-time.”
At the rate that Sykes is currently racking up sacks, with 16 sacks in 2012, 14.5 in 2013 and now 17 here in 2015, he is on-pace not just to break the all-time sack record, but to obliterate it. If Sykes plays another five seasons, as his predecessors did, at the pace he’s going, he will have accumulated more than 100 career sacks. Numbers like those are just unheard of in the AFL.
“I have high expectations for my own self, but I usually just go out and play and let my play do the talking for me,” said the soft-spoken Sykes. “All the talk and stuff is great, but I’m just trying to win. Whatever I can do to help the team win, that’s what I do.”
His words have certainly correlated to the football field.  In his first season with the Jacksonville Sharks, he has become the leader of the defense. With 17 sacks and 21 solo tackles for loss, he is well on his way to a third Defensive Lineman of the Year Award and possibly a second Riddell Defensive Player of the Year honor. A case could certainly be made for League MVP consideration as well, as his 21 tackles for loss are nearly double that of the next man on the list in that category.
And don’t expect Sykes to be slowing down any time soon in fact. He feels that he’s right in his prime.
“I feel great. I want to walk out on my own time,” Sykes said. “I feel like I can play and contribute a lot more years. I’m not slowing down any time soon. I feel like I’m in my prime right now.”
With the Sharks in a heated playoff race, it’s surely only going to add to Sykes’ motivation and hunger to get to the quarterback. An ArenaBowl title is now his main goal, and with the Sharks getting hot at the right time, they are well within reach of that reality. 
“I’m happy and blessed right now. I just want to try to get a ring while I’m still playing good,” Sykes said. “That’s my only thing right now, a ring. I want to win a championship.”
Now only time will tell how far up the ladder the kid from Grenada, Mississippi will go. To go from playing ball outside with his older brother, to now being in the discussion as the greatest of all-time at his position in the Arena Football League – he’s living out his dream and taking full advantage of the opportunity.
Currently, talk about who the greatest Lineman in Arena Football League history is a toss-up with differing opinions and justifiable reasons for each candidate. However, when Joe Sykes finally decides to clock out on the game he loves, there might not be much of an argument for any other player. We’ll just have to wait and see.