Eagles Cornerback Sheldon Brown

On if he and Asante Samuel are the best pair of cornerbacks in the NFL:
“I would hope that every corner tandem would say that they’re the best pair. Obviously, I am going to be biased, but I do say I think we are a very good corner tandem. But, I don’t think you can say the best pair of corners in the league are together until that final Super Bowl ring is won.”

On who will cover Larry Fitzgerald and who will cover Anquan Boldin:
“That’s all up to the Arizona Cardinals. We play left and right. It’s been that way since I’ve been here. Whatever side of the field those guys go to, normally that’s where we play and that’s who we cover. So that will be dependent upon what they choose to do on offense.”

On if it excites him to play wide receivers of the caliber of Arizona’s:
“Without a doubt. Two of the best guys in the business. It’s one of those memories that you’ll have the rest of your life. It’s one of those games that you’ll always be able to talk about. It’s what you work on for in the offseason and what you challenge yourself to accomplish and face and now you have an opportunity to do it.”

On how a team minimizes Larry Fitzgerald:
“He’s going to catch the football, both he and Boldin. The important thing is once he catches the football, get him on the ground immediately and not allow him to get a lot of YAC yardage, which is the yards after the catch. That’s what’s important. Receivers are going to catch balls. It’s just important that you make the tackle immediately.”

On if this has been his best season:
“If we win the Bowl, it will be my best season. I always base my seasons on the total team effort. I never have been an individual guy like that.”

On how hard this season has been on his good friend Lito Sheppard and for him early in the season:
“It’s probably been harder on me than him. I think the world of him. I never thought he would show this much class and consideration for his teammates because I know what kind of talent he is on the football field. I’m constantly reminding him, anything he needs in life, you know I’m there for you. He’s been a joy in a season I know has been very frustrating for him – and frustrating for myself. You know this is a guy I played my whole career with. I care a lot about the kid, I really do. It’s an unfortunate situation and my heart goes out to him.”

On if he thought he would be the third cornerback when the Eagles signed Asante Samuel:
“Yeah, I thought I would and I thought I would be the guy to sacrifice more for the team and take that third cornerback role and ride with it for a year and just let things play out the way they would play out. It didn’t work that way and it’s worked the way we have and we’re having success. Sometimes you just can’t control things. You just have to go with the flow and allow things to work themselves out. But, it’s been a great season, a great group of guys sacrificed a lot for one another and I wouldn’t change it any other way.”

On if this has been the best Eagles defense he has been on:
“Very close, very close. When I was a rookie, I saw some guys do it very well, with Hugh Douglas and those guys rushing. N.D. Kalu, who was a guy that never got a lot of hype, Corey Simon in the middle was always a great force, and then you had Troy (Vincent) and Bobby (Taylor) on the outside with ‘Dawk’ (Brian Dawkins) in the secondary. You had a third corner in Al Harris. There have been some great defenses here and this one is pretty close.”

On who the funniest guy on the team is:
“I don’t know if he knows he’s funny, but Trent Cole without a doubt is probably the funniest guy without trying to be funny. Just some of the things he says and does, you can’t help but crack up. He’s not trying to do it, he’s dead series, but to me he’s hilarious.”

On if he has to do different things to cover Anquan Boldin, Steve Breaston or Larry Fitzgerald:
“Receivers tend to be built from the same mold, especially when they play behind one another. So what I’m saying is, you know Breaston probably came into the league and he followed Fitzgerald and those guys and figured out how they release off press and bump and run and do some of those things. Larry’s deal is, he has the best hands in the National Football League so any ball that’s in his area, he’s going to catch the football. So from that standpoint, you just hope you get enough pressure so he doesn’t get to run down the field and the quarterback has time to throw the ball up to him. As far as Anquan, he’s a running back playing wide receiver. He can catch the short pass, break a lot of tackles and kill you with the YAC yardage, which is the yards after the catch. Breaston is just a down-the-field guy that can make plays. He can catch the short pass and get the first down and do the dirty work. It’s just three guys that can present three different problems according to their game plan. It all depends on how they want to use those guys on that day and we don’t know that until gameday. “

On if he compares Larry Fitzgerald to anyone else in the league:
“No, I don’t think it’s fair to really compare him to anybody else. He’s a guy that really worked on his abilities, his talents and he should be in a league of his own. You should be comparing guys to him. He’s just a guy who is very humble, which I love that about him. He’s not a showman. He’s not a distraction. He goes out, he takes his hard hat and lunch pail and he works and that’s what I respect about him more than anything else.”

On what his friend and Dolphins cornerback André Goodman is saying about this game:
“Ah man, of course he rooting for me – college teammate, best man in wedding, so of course he’s rooting for me to get a ring. I’m happy for him because he got stuck in Detroit all those years without the playoffs. Then finally, he goes to Miami and they finally get in the playoffs. I was hoping he could advance further, but he’s family for life and obviously he’s going to be behind me 100 percent.”

On what kind of training he does in the offseason to be able to have not missed a game since sixth grade:
“I think for the most part it’s just staying active in the offseason, whether it’s playing basketball or riding four-wheelers or playing on the water toys, just doing stuff that keeps your body on one of those, I guess battering and bruising situations. You know I am not a guy that really becomes a couch potato, sitting around the house and doing that stuff. So I think that’s probably why. I remain active throughout the course of the whole year and not just during the season.”

On what he would be doing if he was not playing in the NFL:
“I would hope Lou Holtz would have gave me a graduate assistant job. I was banking on that. He’s retired now, but maybe I could have got onto a coaching staff somewhere and stayed involved in the sport.”

On how he prepares for a player like Kurt Warner:
“Man, Kurt is one of those guys that is going to be mentally tough. You are not going to break his will. We understand that. He’s one of those veterans that plays with that chip on their shoulder to prove everyone wrong and say, ‘I told you so.’ He’s cut from that cloth. He’s played in like two or three different leagues so he’s faced that adversity, been there and done that. It’s just a battle where you are going to have to beat a complete football team. I think some people sometimes overlook the adversity that some guys go through and think that you can break their will. He’s just one of those guys, you’re not going to break his will. He’s going to fight for 60 minutes.”

On Kurt Warner looking to multiple receivers:
“He throws the ball to whoever is open on that particular play. I don’t think they call particular plays for particular guys. They call a play and it is his job to figure out who is going to be open.”

On how Kurt Warner and Donovan McNabb differ:
“Right now, I think, to be honest with, they’re basically in the same mold of things. You know, Donovan faced that adversity mid-season, where everybody was trying to write him off. I think he’s in the mindset where he is going to say, ‘I told you so.’ I think he’s kind of that guy where you are not going to break his will either. He’s out to prove a point. He’s out to prove that he’s still one of the best in the business, which we’ve always felt that way, and he’s done a pretty good job of it right now.”

On how good Donovan McNabb has been the last six or seven games:
“Great point. The best defense is offense and those guys deserve a lot of credit for keeping us fresh, keeping us on the sidelines, winning the time of possession in a lot of these games and it all starts with the quarterback. He’s not turning the ball over. He’s making excellent plays, especially on third downs and in critical situations when we need him the most, he’s stepping up and making the plays. That’s what we ask of him, that’s what we expect of him and he’s doing a tremendous job of that.”