Handshakes are the moment.
Kendrick Bourne has handshakes for all the other guys in the wide receivers room, a different one for each teammate, an unspoken bond that Bourne said the players can "default to" whatever the situation or circumstance.
They are a non-verbal method of the very verbal Bourne, a man who often is heard before he is seen, the guy who is ready to light up the locker room whether it is ready or not.
"You all see, he's crazy. Legit," said quarterback Jacoby Brissett, who also played with Bourne in New England. "I don't think there's another word for him."
Bourne isn't looking for descriptions. He is who he has always been, a smile unable to be wiped from his face, looking to add energy to whatever roster he's on.
"I want guys, when they see me, they're like, 'No that's just KB,'" Bourne said.
To get here, Bourne needed more than enthusiasm and teeth. He can play, having piled up 329 catches in his nine NFL seasons. The Cardinals have sought an upper-level No. 3 wideout for a few years; Bourne slots in behind the Michael Wilson-Marvin Harrison Jr. duo as just that guy.
That's a big reason why he's a Cardinal. Not because he has a previous relationship with head coach Mike LaFleur, who was his receivers coach during his first few seasons in the league with the 49ers. Because he can play. And, yeah, because he can bring the energy.
"There are no highs and lows," LaFleur said. "He lives in the high all the time. That's his standard."
Within the receivers room, it's about the individual connections. That's why Bourne has separate handshakes, because every relationship is different. He's going to talk to Wilson differently than Harrison and differently from guys like Tre Wallace or Reggie Virgil, rookies who trained with him at one point in the offseason.
More importantly, he wants it to be as meaningful for them as it is for him.
"It's not fake," Bourne said. "It's genuinely who I am."
His aura reaches beyond the receivers room. Bourne is the type of player a team needs. Brissett said as much, as did LaFleur.
"He comes to work every day with a smile on his face, in a good mood," Brissett said. "Sometimes you want him to shut up and stop joking, because we're getting our ass kicked in practice, but he keeps it light. You need that around."
Is it ever too much? "No," Harrison said. "We need it. We need him to be him every day."
"That's the best thing about him," Harrison added. "He's going to be him every day, whether he catches zero passes or five passes in practice, he's going to bring energy consistently."
Bourne is where he needs to be. After four years with the 49ers, four more with the Patriots and another in San Francisco, he loved the idea of being there for LaFleur as LaFleur begins his head coaching career – helping the coach the way LaFleur helped Bourne when Bourne first got into the NFL.
Bourne said he loves being part of the process in building a team up, even if someone wants to call it a "rebuild."
"Mike (LaFleur) was with me when I was younger and this was the role I played," Bourne said. "I tried to go to New England and get a bigger role. That was never my role, never who I was supposed to be. And now I'm back in that first role. It's always who I was supposed to be, and that's why I'm aligned.
"I am so happy in that role, because that's where I am my best. I understand that fully now, compared to Year 4."
That means key catches during a game, and handshakes on the sidelines. At least for most guys. Brissett admitted he doesn't have one with Bourne, who can't convince everyone.
"No I don't," Brissett said. "Because it's going to evolve into some type of dancing, and I'm not dancing."
