Eagles' Kiko Alonso’s past is no fairy tale

IT WAS Nick Aliotti, then the Oregon defensive coordinator, who gave Kiko Alonso the nickname "Goldilocks." This had nothing to do with Alonso's blondish-brown curls.

"That's a pretty funny story," Alonso acknowledged yesterday, before agreeing that, in fact, it is a funny story only by virtue of having receded very far in the rearview mirror of the linebacker who might turn out to be the Eagles' most significant defensive acquisition of 2015, cornerback Byron Maxwell notwithstanding.

"Goldilocks" came out of the May 2011 night that imperiled Alonso's football career at Oregon, and maybe his football career anywhere.

One of the positives from Oregon's Spring Game on May 1, 2011, was the play of Alonso, a junior who had been suspended for the 2010 season following a DUI incident - a suspension that might have been less harsh had Alonso not gotten arrested less than 24 hours after Ducks coach Chip Kelly held a team meeting, then a news conference, to declare that a string off off-field troubles associated with his program had to stop, or else.

Alonso's 2010 season became the "or else."

So, a year and change later, Alonso had worked his way back for the Spring Game. That night he attended a party, and ended up being charged with burglary, criminal mischief and criminal trespass.

Police responded to a phone call from a woman, who reported a man was pounding on her door, refusing to leave. Ultimately, she fled her home as he broke in. When police arrived, they searched the house and found Alonso asleep in a bed.

Like Goldilocks.

"I was drinking tequila, and the biggest problem was that I drank way too fast," Alonso told Yahoo Sports in 2013. "I went outside to pee, and when I tried to go back in, I couldn't figure out why the door was locked."

It was because he had the wrong house.

This time the suspension was indefinite. A lot of people thought Alonso had played his last down at Oregon; given the backdrop of all the arrests the year before, Kelly could hardly afford to be viewed as lenient toward a two-time offender.

"It couldn't have happened at a worse time, with everything that was going on with the program at that time," Eagles and former Oregon running back Kenjon Barner said yesterday. "You're kids. You're young. We all did things. It wasn't just Kiko . . . But you've got to learn from your mistakes. Kiko was able to do that. Kiko was able to bounce back."

Kelly yesterday said, "There was never any consideration of dismissing him or anything," but that wasn't how it seemed at the time, to Alonso and to others.

When Alonso entered his guilty plea to reduced charges four days later and was sentenced to two years probation and 200 hours community service, he had to apologize, in court, to the victim. Under the terms of his probation, he was forbidden from drinking. That became the start of his turnaround.

"I think he learned a valuable lesson from his whole experience there, and I'm really proud of him," Kelly said. "I'm really proud of what he has become, not only as a football player, but really as a person and a man. He is an awesome guy to be around. He has come a long way, but I think that's part of the journey that we all go through."

"From the time that I met Kiko, up to this point, Kiko's done a complete 180, who he is and who he was back then," Barner said. "I've seen him grow from a teenager into a man. I've seen him grow into responsibility, grow into accountability . . . I'm sure his parents are really proud of him."

Undoubtedly, they are, but at the time, Carlos Alonso, vice president of a tech firm, and his wife, Monica, a retired Spanish teacher, were not at all pleased. They had attended the Spring Game, come back to the apartment Kiko shared with teammates Josh Kaddu and Dion Jordan, gone to sleep, and awakened in the morning, puzzled by Kiko's absence, not long before getting a call from the Lane County Jail.

"I was an immature kid," Alonso said this week. He said he decided right then that, "Enough's enough. I've got to figure it out."

"I don't really think about it [a lot now], but sometimes I look back and think, 'I've come so far.' It feels good to look back and know how much smarter I am."

Aliotti, now retired, remembers feeling that Alonso was on the verge of blowing such amazing potential. He'd considered it a coup, plucking the lightly recruited linebacker from Los Gatos, Calif., out of Cal's backyard. At 6-3, 238, long and lean, Alonso was exactly what Kelly and Aliotti wanted in an inside 'backer. But he had to stay out of trouble.

"I kept wanting to remind him of what he would be giving up if he screwed it up again," Aliotti said. "I think he got that."

If Alonso ever did start to forget, he had the nickname to remind him.

Aliotti was helped by position coach Don Pellum, and by another Ducks' linebacker from the same part of California, Michael Clay, a guy Alonso had known since high school, who helped Alonso navigate a set of strict behavioral guidelines Kelly had laid down. Aliotti recalls Clay also being a good on-field influence for Alonso.

"Michael Clay took a lot of pressure off Kiko," Aliotti said. "Kind of calmed him down. Michael was kind of a conductor while Kiko was kind of the guy who made it happen."

Kiko met Kelly's criteria, returned to the team a game into the 2011 season, and ultimately became the defensive MVP of the Rose Bowl, in which the Ducks defeated Wisconsin.

A year later, Aliotti knew Alonso wouldn't need Clay beside him to make it big as a pro.

"He always had this unbelievable motor. The quiet assassin," Aliotti said. "I used to say, 'Kiko, see ball, go get ball.' When he saw the ball, now, he was going."

Clay, undrafted, was cut by the Dolphins while Alonso, a second-round pick of the Bills, was starting his journey toward 2013 NFL defensive rookie of the year honors. Clay made it to Philadelphia before Alonso did, joining Kelly's staff, where Alonso's close friend is now the Eagles' assistant special teams coach. Clay declined an interview request for this story.

In another coincidence, Alonso's brother Carlos, Jr., 27, is a Phillies minor leaguer, currently rehabbing a devastating knee injury suffered back in May when he was playing for Double A Reading. Potentially, Kiko could be working in the same sports complex as his older brother and his best friend from college.

Alonso, 25, missed the 2014 season with a torn ACL. He was full- speed by this year's training camp, but was slowed in the preseason by a concussion, and saw just one series of live action, in the finale against the Jets. But Eagles inside linebackers coach Rick Minter said fans ought to see the beginning of something special when Alonso takes the field for Monday night's opener in Atlanta.

"He's high-energy. I think you'll see him run around. He's got good speed, good quickness, good recognition. I think you'll see a fast-moving linebacker," Minter said. "I think you'll see an aware, smart guy that's been in a system like ours for a long time, even though he hasn't been here a long time."

Minter said he was surprised to hear last March that he'd be coaching Alonso, following the LeSean McCoy trade with Buffalo. He had worked out Alonso before the draft, knew Kelly and the Eagles wanted him, but they took Lane Johnson and Zach Ertz with their first two picks, and by the time their turn came around in the third round, Alonso was gone, 46th overall.

So, one evening nearly two years later, Minter was driving up the Schuylkill from NovaCare, headed home, when he learned of the trade from his car radio.

"I was very happy to hear that news," he said.

He also was happy about something he hadn't done. A few days earlier, Minter had gone through his phone, purging numbers. He figures he works out about 40 linebackers a year, collects contact information for each. That day, scrolling through, getting rid of the ones he figured he'd have no use for, he paused when he came to Alonso's name. "Well, we don't have him," Minter said he thought.

"Something inside of me said, 'Leave his name in there,' " Minter said. "Three or four days later, all of a sudden we have this guy, and I need to call him to welcome him to the Eagles organization, and by golly, I can pull him up right there."

Sometimes, even after you think maybe things just aren't going to work out, they do.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian