Last summer, Patrick Willis was feeling quite excellent about his young NFL career. Two seasons. Two trips to the Pro Bowl. Universal acclaim as the game’s best young linebacker. Much respect from his 49ers teammates.

Willis wanted to celebrate a bit. So he did what most athletes do in this day and age: He visited a tattoo parlor and got himself some new ink that was boastful and narcissistic.
That’s why the large words across Willis’ upper chest now read: “HUMBLE BUT HUNGRY.”
OK, not so boastful. And not so narcissistic.
“It just kind of represents who I am,” Willis said the other day. “I’ve been blessed to come into the league and so far have two all-right seasons. Sometimes, guys come in right away and get a little bit of recognition or publicity, and they don’t know how to handle it the right way. But for me ... I just want to keep modest and keep my head straight.”
Man. This guy is no fun. No fun at all. Doesn’t he realize this is no way to draw attention to himself?
Willis, nevertheless, will be hard to miss Sunday when the 49ers play the Vikings. There will be star power aplenty on the field at the Metrodome. The Vikings will have brute-force rusher Adrian Peterson and iconic thrower Brett Favre. The 49ers will have roadrunner Frank Gore.
But the most important man in the building will still be deferential Patrick Willis.
He will also be the best football player on the field. Or so it says here. Last Sunday against Seattle, Gore made the highlights with his two dazzling touchdown runs. But the game’s biggest play was Willis’ tackle of Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck near the goal line in the second quarter. The hard (and legal) hit cracked Hasselbeck’s ribs and put him out of the game. Seattle never had a chance after that.
There is a reason, though, that many casual NFL fans around the country are still unaware of how good Willis truly is.
Some of it has to do with the 49ers’ lack of overall success the past two seasons. Some of it has to do with Willis’ fierce unwillingness to create a gimmick that draws attention to his talent — such as Ray Lewis’ pregame introduction dance, or Troy Polamalu’s hair, or Chad Johnson’s name change to Chad Ochocinco.
Heck, Willis doesn’t even have a catchy nickname to brand himself. The 49ers’ defensive linemen have taken to calling him “The Waterboy,” after the Adam Sandler character in the film who makes every tackle in every game with crushing vigor. But that hardly seems to be a cool enough moniker. (The suggestion here would be “King of Pop,” because no one in the NFL hits harder than Willis. However, that nickname has apparently been copyrighted elsewhere.)
Willis’ profile would be boosted most, of course, by more 49ers victories over top-tier teams, week after week. Sunday provides another opportunity.
If the 49ers are going to win, Willis will either be making most of the big tackles or will occupy two or three opposing players so that his fellow linebackers can do the sacking or stopping. But in hype shorthand, Sunday is about Willis vs. Peterson, the league’s leading rusher through two weeks.
Objection, Mr. Willis.
“I don’t ever think about a game being like that,” Willis said, “because this defense is not about Patrick Willis. It’s about all 11 of us guys. As soon as I try to get outside of the rim and just think about me trying to make a play or do more than what I’m supposed to do, that’s when bad things can happen. I just play within the scheme. When plays present themselves, then I try to go make them.”
That’s precisely the idea. The 49ers’ defense is designed to discombobulate things as much as possible at the line of scrimmage rather than always fill specific gaps. Theoretically, that gives Willis the chance to do his Waterboy pounce and Waterboy crush. He doesn’t think too much about technique.
“The biggest thing about tackling,” Willis said, “is to just grab cloth. You pull on whatever, wrap your head around it, do what you can to bring him down. You don’t go in there and say: ’I’m going to form tackle, I’m going to form tackle.’ You just go and try to get him down. Sunday, it’s going to take good team defense because not too many people can just bring down Adrian Peterson one-on-one.”
It’s all rather amusing when you think about it — because as a teenager, Willis’ destiny was pointed toward being a great college running back. As a high school player in Tennessee, he scored 56 touchdowns and gained more than 3,000 yards. But at the University of Mississippi, he quickly decided which side of the ball he preferred.
“It was my freshman year, my first snap on team defense in practice,” Willis said. “I’ll never forget going to tackle our guy, and one of our safeties flew by me so fast, and it was like a train wreck when he hit the guy. I thought to myself, ’You know what? I think I just want to hit. I don’t want to carry that ball.”’
He’s still hitting. Minnesota next.
“This is a big test for us,” Willis said. “At the end of the day, it’s not about being 2-0, it’s about being able to handle being 2-0.”
Actually, he knows exactly how he’ll handle it. Humbly. With hunger. Next tattoo, please.