Super Bowl XLVI – Monday, January 30, 2012(on whether it was strange being at the Colts complex) “I really didn’t pay it much attention once we got going. It was at first pulling up and knowing that we’re practicing at one of our rivals, and we were using their facility to handle our business. Once practice got going, we really didn’t pay it any attention. It’s a nice place, though.”
(on playing different positions and a high volume of snaps at this stage of his career) “You know what? Each year, I just want to keep getting better. I think conditioning is everything, being able to go. The more stress you can put on yourself in the off-season and training camp, I think it allows you to play at a high level once you get later in the season. That’s one I did a real good job of, putting that stress on myself this off-season.”
(on whether his interception off of QB Philip Rivers vs. San Diego ranked as a personal highlight for him) “It’s a lineman’s dream to get the ball in his hands, that’s the first dream. The second dream is to score. I didn’t get it (the touchdown) on the interception, I got it on a fumble recovery. But a touchdown is a touchdown and an interception is an interception, so I’m pretty happy with those plays, and hopefully I have many more to come.”
(on where his desire comes from to not come off the field) “All of my life I’ve been competitive. I always want to be in the middle of everything. If it’s going wrong, it’s going wrong, but if it’s going right, it’s going right and I want to be in the middle. All of my life I’ve thought that I’m a leader, and I think leaders have to take control at some point and show the will to do whatever it takes to turn things around, whether it’s bad or positive. At a young age, I always had that fight, but it’s a good fight.”
(on the chipper nature of head coach Bill Belichick since his arrival in Indianapolis) “You know what? We work hard all year to be in the situation that we’re in to play in this game. All year he’s been like that. It’s been kind of a relaxing year for all of us, just not knowing how much pressure he could put on us physically. Everything he’s asked us to do, we’ve responded. It’s been a fun season just seeing guys come to work each day. I think he appreciates that, and I appreciate that as a teammate. Trust me, at times Bill can be difficult to deal with. But I think he sees a difference in this team. I think he knows that he has a pretty tough football team, a smart football team and a team that’s never going to let him down. We have one more game to go. Hopefully we won’t let him down.”
(on the biggest takeaway from the regular season meeting between the Patriots and Giants) “It won’t play any factor this time around. They’re definitely a better football team, and they’re playing their best football. It seems like they peak at the right time. Eli (Manning) is playing lights-out football. They’ve got the running game going. They have multiple guys who can catch the ball. The offensive line had a few injuries, but it really didn’t slow them down. They’re peaking at the right time.”
(on whether the New York tabloids make him laugh trying to create bulletin board material out of Tom Brady’s comments at the Patriots send-off pep rally) “Yeah, it does. Listen, this is the last game of the season. I’m pretty sure that the Giants want to win and we want to win, point blank. You have two good football teams who don’t want to walk away with an ‘L’. Both sides are going to have to play really good football and not give up anything cheap. Trust me, we’re not the only ones that feel that we want to win this ballgame. They’re sitting over there saying the same thing. This is the last game, and the biggest game of your career. This is what you play for.”
(on whether the Patriots last Super Bowl experience seems like yesterday or five years ago) “It’s always a great feeling to get back to this level at this point in your career and this point in your season. It says a lot about both teams. A lot of people had a lot of negative things to say about both of these teams earlier in the year, and now all of sudden, you have these teams playing on Super Bowl Sunday. Football is a tough game. You can’t lock anyone in at the beginning of the season, and you can’t knock anyone out at the end of the season. It’s just like the Giants said, they went into playoff mode with two games left in the regular season and they have been playing good football ever since. You can never count football teams out.”
(on fielding punts in practice as a rookie to potentially earn a night off for the team) “Bill did that a couple times. I think it took him until year four to figure out that I wasn’t going to drop any. By that time (year four), he had me catching the ball, but I had three other balls in my hands already, so there were four balls I had to handle to give my teammates a night off. So, I never dropped one. By my fifth year, he was picking someone else because he knew I wasn’t dropping any. You have to have fun playing this game. The guys in this locker room think they’re the best at whatever. I think I can throw the ball better than Tom (Brady) and Tom thinks he can beat me in the 40 (yard dash). We have a lot of fun. Bill did give me a chance to throw the ball in practice, and I looked pretty good if I recall.”
(on all the positions he played in high school) “In high school I probably played every position on the field. There’s probably two positions that I would not play again, running back and center. Those are probably the two toughest positions on the field. Center, I went out there on the first play, a dude hit my right in the head and knocked me down. I said that was it, I can’t hike the ball and try to block somebody. Running back, I got back there and ran the ball. Falling backwards some dude probably 5’4” and 120 pounds hit me so hard I dropped the ball and everything. I said I’ll never run the ball again. You’ll never have to worry about me asking to be a running back.”
(on the levity among the Patriots when he first joined the team) “They had a lot of pranks back then. Richard (Seymour), Willie McGinest and those guys were a fun bunch. When you build a football team and you talk about character and you talk about leadership, those guys always come to my mind. They played the game the way that it needed to be played. When it was time for business, it was time for business. When it was time for fun, it was time for fun. I think everybody rallied from that. I learned a lot from those guys. Some was good, some was bad. I’ve tried to forget the bad.”
(on whether revenge is on his mind after the Giants handed New England their only loss in 2007) “It won’t be. Every time you get to this level, it’s a special level. You have to enjoy it. This is something that is going to stick with you for the rest of your life. 2007 was 2007, now we’re in 2012. Both teams are different. I don’t think we’re looking for revenge. We’ve got two football teams who are trying to play the best they can so they can win.”
(on going against the Patriots offensive line in practice) “They’re a tough, tough, tough bunch. They are very physically and mentally tough. That’s one thing I’ve seen and one thing I love about our offensive line. I think the head leader over there is my main man Logan (Mankins). All of those guys have gotten better this year. Those guys are very, very, very tough. I love it. They’re feisty. They don’t take crap from anyone. I love a team like that.”
(on the Giants offensive line) “They should feel like they’re the team to beat. They’re playing some good, good football. They’re probably playing the best football that’s out there. And their defensive line can play, too. You can’t say anything negative about what they have going on. They can talk the talk and walk the walk.”
(on how much the persona of the Patriots offensive line has to do with (Assistant Head Coach/Offensive Line) Dante Scarnecchia) “Dante, he’s a small guy, but I tell you what, he’s a tough son of a gun. I love him like he’s my coach. Every offensive line coach that I’ve known at every level, they love their offensive linemen and their offensive linemen love them. He’s the only one who can yell at them, I’ll tell you that. It will always be like that.”
(on whether he felt like the Patriots controlled Baltimore’s offensive line in the AFC Championship Game) “At times, yeah. It wouldn’t have been possible if the coaches hadn’t put me in that situation. Those plays don’t mean anything now. We have a whole different challenge ahead of us this week.”
(on the reasons for the sustained success of the Patriots over the past decade) “They try to get good people here from coaches to guys who work in the front office to guys who put on this uniform. I think everybody has to have one goal in mind, and that’s to be together. When you get an organization together that is seeking one goal, you can be pretty successful. That’s what Mr. Kraft, Bill (Belichick) and all of these guys try to put together, bringing guys in here from different teams, seeing something that they like about them.”
(on his favorite attribute of Bill Belichick as a head coach) “Smart. Sometimes coaches see things in this team that they don’t see in themselves. One thing about Bill is how smart he is and the knowledge he has of the game. It goes beyond Xs and Os with this guy. I just like to learn from a guy like that. One day, who knows, maybe I’ll be coaching Pop Warner and I’ll try to use some of his tricks. I can look back and say that I got it from one of the best coaches to ever coach this game, Bill Belichick.”
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