NEW YORK GIANTS MEDIA SESSION - LINEBACKER MARK HERZLICH - Ingles

Super Bowl XLVI – Wednesday, February 1, 2012

(on a conversation he had with his father when he was diagnosed with cancer) “I looked at my dad and said, ‘Dad, we are going to beat this and I’m going to play again.’ He looked at me and he believed me. He was probably the only one that believed me at the time, but we did it together.”

(on his role of ‘playing for the enemy’ because he went to Boston College and grew up a Philadelphia Eagles fan) “It’s kind of interesting because I have had so many different split loyalties from fans and people telling me all the time that, ‘I hate the Giants, but I hope you do well.’ It’s cool because it extends farther than just a football base. In terms of me, I have a loyalty with the Giants. I love Boston and I love Philadelphia because they became my second homes. On Sunday and when we prepare for the football game, it’s all about the Giants.”

(on his current medical schedule after beating cancer) “I go every four months right now. I will be at my three year mark since my diagnosis in May, then it will start going to every six months. After five years it will go to every year. I will get check-ups the rest of my life just to make sure nothing has come back.”

(on if he ever thinks about the possibility of his cancer coming back) “When I’m driving to the doctor’s office because I have to go and get MRI’s and CT scans. I get the tests done and then we sit in the doctor’s office to wait for the results. I don’t think anything is coming back, but when you are waiting there for the results you never know what could happen. It gets a little stressful.”

(on fighting injuries this season) “Yeah, this has definitely gotten me down a little bit. If you are a competitor, if you are a fighter, if you are a football player you want to play in every game and you want to play every snap. I think that fire hasn’t left my bones just because of what I have been through. I still want to be out there making plays all the time. When I was injured and had to watch the guys out there and couldn’t play, I was so happy for them and happy that we were winning and so happy about our success, but I wanted to be more of a part of it.”

(on how he would differentiate the football pain versus a recurrence in cancer pain) “I remember what the pain felt like from the cancer and it was a very distinct, sharp, random pain. I haven’t had that feeling since and I hope I don’t again. If that type of pain comes about I think I will be more cautious and more ready to get it checked out than I would have before. The pain you get during football is muscle fatigue and soreness. You can tell when you break a bone or get a muscle pull and it was kind of a deeper kind of pain the way the cancer felt.”