PRESS CONFERENCE SAINTS - S ROMAN HARPER - Ingles

Super Bowl XLIV – Tuesday, February 2, 2010

QUOTES FROM NEW ORLEANS SAINTS PRESS CONFERENCE

S ROMAN HARPER

(on the city of New Orleans) “It’s been good just coming from where we have been when I first got drafted there and I drove in from Alabama, it feels great. It seems like the place was very, very destroyed. Signs and stuff were down. Now seeing New Orleans, where it is now, we’ve come a long way in four years. We have really rebuilt a lot, but a lot is not back from what I was told. It has come a long way. The city is behind us so it has been great.”

(on fan support in New Orleans) “The city has always been behind us and we have always brought a little bit of juice and brought a little feedback to the community and do as much as we can. It’s always good, now when the city of New Orleans is getting more respect and a little bit more eyes on it and (people) see how it really, really had to rebuild and how it’s coming along. Now that everybody else is starting to pay little attention, the more success we have it seems the more eyes have come on the city. It’s good for that but everybody else is giving it a little bit of respect.”

(on Peyton Manning’s ability) “I just think that his accuracy, the thing with his timing and the way he understands everything and communicates and runs that offense. It is the things he does. It seems that everything revolves around him. He does such a good job with all the pressure and all the calls that he makes and getting his team in the position to make plays with his pinpoint accuracy on throwing the ball and doing the little things he has to do to be a great quarterback in this league. He does it all with the hand signals. Just everything he does is just amazing to watch on the field.”

(on containing Manning) “I don’t really know if you can contain him. You really can’t stop the guy. He is going to make plays and we understand that. Hopefully we can limit him, try to confuse him a little bit and try to rattle him to throw off his timing. Hopefully we can affect (him) with coverage and maybe we can affect him by hitting him and knocking him down and little things like that.”

(on making mistakes against the Colts’ offense) “We understand that mistakes are going to be made throughout the ball game. We are not trying to out-execute them and their offense. I know their offense is going to execute extremely well. They all are going to be on the same page and they are going to go out and make plays, too. The biggest thing that is going to help us out is that our offense is also very talented and our offense is going to make plays.”

(on the mentality of the Saints’ defense) “We have always understood that it is not about yards given up or anything like that, it’s all about points scored and limiting (mistakes) when in the red zone and always trying to force turnovers. That’s what we always talk about, ‘Why can’t we get a turnover every possession or why can’t we get the ball out?’ We have got to do something and try to make something happen. It’s not always that our offense scores, maybe we can score. So we are always trying to affect the ball, trying to tackle the ball and trying to over populate the ball with guys trying to tackle and get the ball out. We are always trying to talk about it, and the more you talk about it, it becomes more of an issue and you want to make it happen.”

(on being in one of the best Saints’ draft classes) “I have only seen four draft classes come through and I definitely think we’re probably one of the better ones that has come. No one really thought we were going to turn out as well as we have but it has been a great, great group of guys. You know you have got (Marques) Colston in the seventh round; you had Jahri (Evans) in the fourth and me in second and of course Reggie (Bush) in the first. We all came to help our team and we all started since we got here and it’s all been well. I guess it is one of the best draft classes since I’ve been here.”

(on being friends with his draft class) “We all kind of jelled because we were all in our little separate rookie locker room. At the same time, we all focused on trying to learn the playbook, go out there and make plays and do what we do. Lo and behold you see Colst (Marques Colston) snagging balls across the middle so he probably stands out more. Jahri (Evans) starting immediately when he gets there and Reggie (Bush) is Reggie so there’s not much to be said. Reggie is going to make his plays. Then I get thrown into the fire really early and I make my first start against the Colts, I think, in the preseason. It all started soon and happened so fast for us. We were just young guys playing and we didn’t think about that we were just doing what we normally do and just trying to make plays.”

(on the training camp rookie locker room) “In training camp, you have your rookie locker room and then you’ve got your veterans locker room. Once you get out of the rookie locker room when the season starts, you’re officially a part of the team.”

(on fans from Jackson, Miss. attending training camp) “Yeah we were at Millsap College in Jackson, Mississippi, and it’s hot as hell. Nobody’s happy. Everybody is cranky every day. We are going to try to make this thing go and everyone had a really good year that year.”

(on what media day means) “I just sat down so I am trying to soak it up too. I will probably get the most questions asked to me today than I have in a long time. I am going to have a good time though.”

(on when being in the Super Bowl sunk in) “I think it’s starting to hit now. Now that we are here, all the events, the different things that we got to come to and all the different things we got to do. It is starting to hit me now. I am just ready to get back into practice and get back into a little routine and then be ready to hit it on Sunday and be ready to go.”

(on playing in New Orleans) “It’s been good. I wouldn’t want to be in any other place. New Orleans is a great city. It is so much fun, the culture, the people. Everybody is very friendly and everybody loves their Saints. That’s all they want to do. They want their Saints to win more than anything. They have been believing in the Saints for a long time, way before I had been there. This is honestly the first time they have had all their dreams come true. We have got to go out there and win it for them. We have got a big time challenge ahead of us. The Colts are a great team and they have won a lot of games. We are going to try to knock them off one time.”

(on matching wits with Peyton Manning) “I don’t know how you match wits with the guy. The guy is all over the place. He knows actually what is going on. Anybody that is on the take, that moves or does anything he checking it. He is trying to see what you are doing and he does a great job of that. You can see on the film all the things that he does. He gets the team lined up in the right position and puts them in the right plays and does everything to make sure they have the best success. They have been putting up large numbers and big yards all year long and we ‘vejust got to try to limit them this Sunday.”