Interview Transcripts: December 23rd
Dec 23, 2008, 5:24PM
BALTIMORE RAVENS JAGUARS TUESDAY TRANSCRIPT
Head Coach John Harbaugh
On how the team overcame the training camp disasters of injuries and the uncertain quarterback situation: “Well, probably the way we dealt with those things would be the fact that we didn’t assess it the way you just did. You don’t look at it as being a disaster. There are no disasters; there are only opportunities. Things are going to happen to football teams, to people in life, whatever the case is. You just go about your business, take care of what’s important now, and do as well as you can that day to improve our football team.”
On if the resourcefulness they displayed was a glimpse of what was to come, in terms of mental and physical toughness: “I don’t know. I think it’s an interesting observation. We haven’t taken the time to go back and look at it and say, ‘OK, whatever success the guys have achieved, it’s because of this thing or that thing.’ We haven’t drawn those connections yet. Our guys are resilient. They’re tough. I think maybe drawing their attention to the fact that whatever situation comes up, that’s how we make ourselves better. It’s not in spite of something; it’s because of something. This is what’s going to enable us… Whether it’s a loss or whether it’s a bad practice or whether it’s an injury or whatever, because of that, we have an opportunity to become whatever we can be in the next 24 hours.”
On where the resourcefulness comes from, whether it is the team or the individuals, that makes it a positive rather than a negative when things start breaking down: “You’re asking me to get into big, philosophical-type things here, and I guess the only answer I can think of right now is all of the above. You’ve got Derrick Mason sitting over there in a cart. Where does his resourcefulness come from? Where does his toughness come from? It’s something he’s probably, throughout the course of his life, that’s part of who he is and who he’s become. I would say that’s probably true for each of our coaches, each of our players, everybody in the organization – Steve Bisciotti, Ozzie Newsome, Dick Cass. It runs through the whole building, hopefully, and then in that case, it comes from the organization. So we draw on each other, and everybody draws from their own resourcefulness.”
On what his experience is in terms of how he approaches a game where the other team does not have a playoff stake in the outcome and whose main motivation is to stop you from going to the playoffs: “Well, we have to understand what their motivation is, and their motivation is just what you talked about. They have nothing to lose. They have everything to gain. They’re a prideful team. I think we understand the personality of their football team. They are a rough, tough football team, and they’ve proven that they can win in tough elements – the playoff game last year, the games they’ve won this year. When you watch them on tape, you understand that they’re very capable of beating anybody in the NFL. We just can’t allow it to happen, and that’s our responsibility. Really, what we need to take care of is today, take care of Tuesday’s practice, and we’ll worry about Sunday when Sunday comes.”
On if there is any doubt the team will come back focused after having Christmas Day off: “Well, we’ll be interested because it’s our job to be interested. I’m certain they’ll come back. We had the extra day. It’s something that the team wanted to do, they agreed to do, and we’re going to get our full complement of practices in this week. I’m not so sure, like we talked about yesterday, that that day off in there isn’t going to help us, as far as getting some work in and getting a chance to get some bumps and bruises taken care of, and then come back and practice Friday. But you’re right. Friday’s practice will be interesting to see how we handle it.”
On whether he shows the young guys some of the veteran players as examples of the difference between being hurt and being injured: “Right, there’s the playing through the pain part of it, where you can’t injure it any worse. That’s something that the young guys have learned. But we’ve been very fortunate, for whatever reason. It probably goes back to our player personnel department – led by Ozzie, Eric DeCosta, all of our scouts – just determining what type of guys these guys were because we have not had any issues with any of our rookies shying away from playing through those types of situations. They’ve done a tremendous job of that, so it’s a credit to the scouting department.”
On if there would be any organized effort to keep players from watching the New England game before they take the field: “Well, there are no TVs in the locker room, so I’m sure they’ll sneak into the equipment room or whatever and take a look. And you know what? That’s OK. Everybody gets ready in their own way. We’re playing that football game to win it. It doesn’t matter what happens. New England is going to win a football game. We know that. Everybody knows that. So we’re going [out there] to win our football game. That’s what we need to take care of, and we don’t need anybody else to get us in the playoffs. That’s our job to take care of that.”
On whether the Patriots are the lock of the week: “The lock of the week. Book it.”
On what is unique about the way OLB Terrell Suggs tries to be a leader: “Terrell Suggs’ leadership qualities, I think he’s a tremendously talented guy. It starts with his ability to play the game. Sense of humor is a big part of it. You can’t help but laugh. You know, he’s back there making comments about things that happen on the field. It’s always football related. It’s usually taking a jab at somebody. You really… I try not to laugh. Sometimes, I’m really trying to stifle it, but it’s impossible. It’s energizing.”
On how shocked or amazed he is that Mason keeps coming back: “I’m just impressed. The shoulder thing, just to clear it up, the shoulder has been dislocated one time. It hasn’t been dislocated since, but – he can explain it better than I can – there are certain things that happen to the muscles around the shoulder because they’re compensating to protect the shoulder, and that stuff is really painful. So he understands that he’s not hurting the shoulder worse, I don’t think per se, but there’s always the risk of the thing popping out again. So he’s overcoming the fact that he is putting himself at risk a little bit because that’s the kind of guy he is and that’s the kind of competitor he is. So I just admire him for it.”
On if it was by design or just fortunate that they would have two healthy running backs even if one went down to injury as RB Ray Rice has the past two weeks: “Right, that’s a good point. The fact that we have the running back by committee, the three-headed monster, probably the blessing is that through the course of a season in this league, running backs are going to get banged up. And to have a running back that steps in there who’s got the kind of experience, even this year has played a lot, you don’t feel like you miss a beat. And then we felt like we had to bring in Jalen Parmele because of the injuries and the shortage with Ray, and then Le’Ron [McClain] and Willis [McGahee] have had their issues, so that gave us the third back for the game last week. That was a plus for us, too. But he’s younger and he doesn’t have the experience, a little more of an unknown, but we think he’s going to be a good player.”
On the offensive line being a question mark in the preseason and how they’ve patched together a good performance, particularly Saturday night: “Well, the point you’re making is so good because even during the game we were patching it, so to speak. I think it’s a credit, obviously, to those guys. We talk about that every week. From the first day of the mini-camps in the offseason, John [Matsko] and Andy [Moeller] had those guys out here doing all the work – walk-throughs, meeting work, technique work, moving them from different positions. We didn’t really have the offensive line set, position-wise, until June, as far as knowing how we were going to handle it in training camp, and then bringing Willie [Anderson] in and Willie getting hurt and going out and those guys stepping up, and then Willie coming back in and being able to adjust. It’s just a credit to John Matsko. That’s where it starts. It starts with John Matsko. He’s got to be the best offensive line coach in the league. We kind of felt that going into the season, but to see what he’s done with this group of guys sure confirms it, in my mind.”
On if it is easier to develop the line when you commit to being a physical run team: “It is their first order of business to be physical. But the thing that Coach Matsko emphasizes and Cam [Cameron] emphasizes is it’s not just the running game you want to be physical. You want to be physical in pass protection, and you’ve got to be able to pass protect in the NFL. You can’t just line up and run it 60 times and win in this league. You’ve got to be able to protect. You’ve got to understand protection schemes, adjustments and how people are pressuring you. The intellectual part of it, John has done a great job, and our O-linemen have picked that up very well, especially for a young group that hasn’t played together. I think we’re way ahead of the curve with that. But being physical, that’s our No. 1 priority, and those guys have done a great job in that.”
On what it meant to see WR Derrick Mason in the huddle, knowing that he was hurt: “It obviously means a lot. To see a guy play like that who’s been playing with it ever since Houston, and – the shoulder at least, he’s probably had all kinds of other things wrong with him the rest of the season – but he’s been playing hurt all year. And for him to come out and play like he has is incredible.”
On if Mason motivates the team: “I think we all see what he’s doing, and we understand how great it is, and what he means to this team. We just go out there, and we obviously all want to play well anyway, and Derrick goes out there and continues to do his job just like anybody else. He doesn’t ask anything extra. He doesn’t try to show it. He doesn’t try to let anybody know. He just comes out and does his job, and that’s all he wants to do, is go out and do his job. He doesn’t care if anybody recognizes it or not.”
On if he was surprised Mason kept coming back into the game: “I knew he’d be back. I was glad to see him back out there. I’m not going to question it. As long as I see him out there, I’m getting ready to throw him the ball.”
On his feeling involved with being one game away from the postseason in his rookie year: “It’s been a lot of fun, this season has. We put ourselves in the position to be in the playoffs, and we’ve got to go out there and win the game. This is my first season. I guess I’m getting spoiled, but that’s the way we want it to be. We want to win and we’ve got a good team. We’ve felt like we had a good team all year, and we’ve gone out and proved that for the most part. It’s been a lot of fun.”
On what it meant when a guy like LB Ray Lewis gave him support at the beginning of the season: “Ray has been a great player in this league for a long time now, so anytime he comes up and gives you confidence to go out and play, and he lets you know that he has confidence in you, it means a lot. Ray is like that. He does it all the time with a bunch of guys. It meant a lot to me at the time, and he’s helped me out a lot throughout this year.”
On if he would prefer to make it to the playoffs through a New England loss or to win it on the field: “It doesn’t matter. We’re going to go out and do our best to win this game no matter what. No matter how we get in there, believe me, we’re going to be a playoff team and we’re going to be happy that we’re in the playoffs. But, we’re going to go out and win this game regardless.”
On if Jaguars players can get motivation from being in a situation where they could knock Baltimore out of the playoffs: “Yeah, probably for about the first quarter, but as long as we come out and play like we want to and let them know that we’re here to play, hopefully we can do that and let them know that they have no business coming to Baltimore and trying to ruin our chances. It’s all up to us, going out there and playing the way we want to and the way we have all year and the way we’re capable of. As long as we do that, we’ll be all right.”
On what he can take from getting a big win in a hostile environment in Dallas: “It just gave us a chance to play for this week, and as long as we win we’re in the playoffs. It was a big game, it was a very exciting atmosphere, and we went in there and proved that we could win. We all knew that anyway. We’re just happy we came out on the victorious side and gave ourselves a chance to play for this week.”
On if he’s realized that he could be the last quarterback to win at Texas Stadium: “Yeah, I thought about it for a quick second after the game. It’s definitely pretty cool, having all the guys that had played for the Dallas Cowboys, and the Baltimore Ravens and myself were the last team to win there. It’s… I’ve definitely thought about it, but not really that long. I’m sure later down the road I’ll think about it a little bit more.”
On his favorite Christmas memory: “I have no idea. I don’t know. Christmases have always been a good time. I think it’s everybody’s favorite holiday for the most part. But, it’s just about being a little kid and believing in Santa, which is… I shouldn’t be saying that right now, so I’m not going to say anymore. Christmas in my house was a lot of fun. I have a lot of brothers, and my sister, and we all gathered around and had a big, fun day. I guess I’ll get to go back there Wednesday night and enjoy Christmas with everybody, so that should be a lot of fun.”
On if he ever looks at Falcons QB Matt Ryan’s numbers to compare stats: “Yeah, he’s been doing a great job down there. He’s had a great year, and the Atlanta Falcons have had a great year, so it’s pretty crazy to see two rookie quarterbacks having the types of seasons that our teams are having. I think that’s the most important thing. He’s gotten his team into the playoffs, they’ve gotten themselves into the playoffs as a team, and we’re trying to do the same. We’ve got one more game to do that. It’s been an exciting season. It just proves that as long as you go out there and you believe in yourself, and your team believes in everybody, then you can go out and win games.”
On if he believes he will be linked with Ryan forever, because they came out the same year: “I don’t really pay attention. I’m sure you guys will compare us for the rest of our careers. We’re obviously in the same draft class and started from Day One. But I’m not going to pay too much attention to that. We’ll see how it works out.”
On how he feels: “Sore, as expected. But we’ll see how it goes this week. It’s a lot better than it was yesterday. I can honestly say that. So if the trend continues, then I’ll be back where I was last week, and hopefully I won’t put myself in the position again where I aggravate the muscles around the shoulder.”
On if he feels like he’s proven he can play with one arm, if necessary: “I don’t want to, but I think I’ve proven that I can go out there and try to do the best that I can and try to help the team out in any way possible, with one hand or with both.”
On when the injury occurred initially: “The shoulder injury, you’ve got to date back to Houston. I don’t know when that was, but obviously that’s when it occurred. That’s when everything started, but I think it was about two weeks ago where the muscle really started to spasm up and I really started to notice it was more so the muscle than the shoulder. I think the shoulder is as stable as it can be right now. I think what’s happening now is my muscle’s just trying to compensate for the shoulder not being as strong as it was. Now, that’s causing a problem where my muscle spasms real bad, and it hurts actually worse than what the shoulder does. But it’s football, so you deal with it.”
On whether he has been 100 percent at all this year: “I was 100 percent once before. But even with this injury, I didn’t expect to be 100 percent at this point in the season. I don’t think anyone in that locker room is 100 percent. The coaches are not 100 percent. Mentally, they hurt. So no one on this team is 100 percent, and you expect that. What you try to do is you try to nurse injuries as much as you can and try to do as much as you can so you don’t re-injure something or you don’t make an injury worse than what it is. So I didn’t expect to be 100 percent, but I didn’t expect to be in this situation, either.”
On if he knew he was going to come back into the game against Dallas after the first time his shoulder gave him problems: “Yeah, because I knew that the shoulder didn’t pop out. There was no structural damage done to the shoulder, so I felt once the muscle calmed down I would be able to come back in. I told my coach just a couple of plays, and I’ll be back.”
On whether that was the most pain he’s been in: “Oh man, I think, yeah. In the last four or five years, I can say yeah, it’s the most pain I’ve been in. But you’ve got to have a high tolerance for pain in this game. Your threshold has to be very, very deep in order to go out there and play. If it’s not, then you’re not going to be able to play this game at a maximum level. So, you know, it hurts, but you try to block it out, and you try to go out there and play.”
On if he would be resting this week if the team had already clinched and how much that would help him: “I don’t think I’ve ever been a guy that rests, honestly. If I can play, then I’m going to play. If I can’t play, then I can’t play. I don’t think I’ve ever been in a situation where, because of an injury or because we’ve clinched a playoff berth, that I’ve sat out a game. Whenever I’ve been put in a position like that, I’ve always went out there and played. Probably not as long, but went out there and played just to keep the rhythm with the offense. I don’t think this would be any different. We haven’t clinched a playoff berth. We need to win this game to clinch a playoff berth. Whatever happens before we play, that’s an unknown. But I still plan on going out there and keep in the rhythm of the offense.”
On what the chances are of having surgery in the offseason or if he would need surgery: “I don’t know. Like I said, I’m not a doctor, but the shoulder situation hasn’t gotten any worse. It hasn’t gotten worse at all. I thank God for that, that it hasn’t gotten any worse, because I fell on it a couple of times. So I guess we’ll just reevaluate it. I’m not going to have surgery just for the sake of having surgery. If it’s going to heal on its own, it’s going to heal on its own. I think I’ve been truly blessed to have some injuries that, with a little rest, they heal themselves. So we’ll reevaluate it. If I don’t need it, I won’t get it. So we’ll see what happens.”
On how he has altered his preparation since the injury: “Just trying to make sure I mentally stay focused. It’s been a few weeks where I haven’t practiced as much as I wanted to. I think that’s the hard part, trying to stay mentally focused, just trying to make sure I’m out here seeing what’s going on with the offense, making sure I don’t lose that rhythm with Joe [Flacco]. I think that’s the biggest part. But then, when I’ve been able to practice, I just try to put it to the side, try to put my injuries to the side and go out there and do what I can. But it’s a constant battle. It’s going to be a constant battle until we finish up in February, so I’ll deal with it afterward.”
On the difference between being injured and being hurt at this point in the season: “I guess I really don’t know the difference. To me it’s just injury, you get injured. Being hurt… To me, they’re both the same. It’s your ability to play through what you’re going through, having the resilience to be able to persevere through whatever you’re going through. The way I look at it is things could be a lot worse. If I can go and play, if I can go and run, if I can lift my hands up a little, I’m going to go out there, and I’m going to play.”
On what provides his motivation to have that resilience, if it’s the team or his own attitude or something else: “I enjoy the game. I think that’s what motivates me. I really enjoy the sheer competitiveness of this game. For some strange reason, I don’t know, I just think you play better when your back is against the wall or you’re dealing with some things, whether it be physically, mentally, or whatever. I think you just concentrate a little bit more and play a little bit better. I’ve always been this way – college, high school, getting hurt playing street ball and my brother telling me, ‘You still better play.’ It was never a situation where I could rest. Then, honestly, I like to go out there because I have kids. One day, if my son decides to play sports, whatever it may be, I can reminisce and look back and tell him, ‘Your old dad played through some tough ones.’ And he’ll probably look back and say, ‘Yeah, you did.’ That’d be motivation right now to whatever he’s going through, whether it be continuing to play sports or going through an injury, to look back and say, ‘My father did it. I can do it.’”
On what it feels like to go from a team that no one expected to win against Cincinnati in Week 1 to being the overwhelming favorite to beat Jacksonville and go to the playoffs: “There’s probably a lot of people that still don’t think we’re going to beat Jacksonville and still don’t think we should’ve beaten Cincinnati. You know what? Honestly, we really didn’t pay attention to it. We understood what type of football team we had and what type of football team we have, the mentality we have as a football team as a whole. Last season was a season in which we understood why we went the direction we went in – a lot of injuries, a lot of things that weren’t going our way inside the game, whatever it may be. But we still were a good football team, and we believed that we were a good football team. We felt that this year, if we can stay away from the injury bug, if we can get the offense going the way we knew it was capable of going, then we would be a very good team. We didn’t surprise ourselves. I think we surprised everybody else. But we knew going into the season that everything was aligning right for us – we had a great coaching staff that was coming in, some very good players that were coming in, some good rookies. We knew if we just hung in there and stayed focused and stayed hungry, we’d be all right.”
On having Christmas off: “To have Christmas off? It’s great. I get to be at home with my kids and my family. I heard somebody say it was a reward. It’s not a reward. Coach decided this a long time ago, that we were going to have Christmas off, whether win, lose or draw. So it’s not a reward, but it gives us an opportunity to be home with our family. And it gives the coaches, as well, the opportunity to be home with their family.”
On not referring to QB Joe Flacco as Shane Falco (the quarterback from “The Replacements”) anymore: “No more Shane. He performed like a professional last week, and everybody was proud of him. Way to go Joe. Even I’m wacko for Flacco right now.”
On if he would wear a Baltimore Orioles hat if somebody got him one for Christmas: “I would wear it. Please don’t… Forgive me for my Yankees hat. It’s just that gray goes with blue. Don’t think [anything] of it. You have to remember, us guys, we just wear it more for fashion. It’s not really that ‘that’s our team’ or anything like that.”
On typically going into games as the underdog, but being favored this week: “We’re the favorite? The first time in 16 weeks, huh? It feels exactly the same. We know we have to take care of business. We know they’re men on a mission. This is actually their first game for next year. And they’re anxious to put this season behind them and they want to get started for next year right away. Sure, they’re disappointed that their season didn’t particularly go how they wanted it. I mean, we had the same feeling last year. Our last game of the season last year was pretty much, ‘This is the start of our new season.’ We know they’re going to come here and they’re going to play to win. They have more power on their hands than any other team did in the first 15 weeks, so this one is definitely a big one.”
On if he’s amazed at where the team is now compared to this time last year: “No, because we’ve always had playoff-caliber teams here. We’ve always had the talent. We’ve always had the right people. For one reason or another it just didn’t happen for us, but this year we didn’t have any excuses. I mean, whatever hand was dealt, we were going to play it. We did that this year, and so far it got us 10 wins. We need to go out there… We need to defend our home one more time. It’s going to be the last one this year, so let’s go out and let’s go defend our home stadium.”
On if Jacksonville’s potential mindset of wanting to knock the Ravens out of the playoffs is dangerous: “Definitely, definitely. Like I said, they have more power than any team we’ve faced in the past, and it’s a big game for them – the start of their season next year. They want to get off on the right foot. They don’t want to end their season with a loss. We don’t want to be knocked out of the playoffs, so it’s a really big game.”
On if this is the new biggest game of his career: “No, it was still last week. This week is business. It’s back to regular football. There are no politics in this game. Last week, they were dealing with all of that hype. Emmitt Smith was down there, Leon Lett was down there. There were a lot of greats down there. I was just like, ‘Man! I don’t know how I’d be able to play.’ We went down there, and we had… It was a great game, and a great team win, but this one is back to business and we don’t want to have that sick taste in our mouth come Monday morning.”
On if health has been the difference in the team’s sustainability this year: “I don’t know. We have something like 22 guys on IR [Injured Reserve] now, so I wouldn’t say that staying healthy is part of it. I just think our approach and our attitude this year, and that breath of fresh air when we brought Coach [Harbaugh] in. So, when that happened, everything took care of itself.”
On the announcement that he was voted the media’s “Good Guy of the Year”: “I won? That’s what I’m talking about! I get the ‘Bounty’ paper towels. What’s this for? This is my trophy. What do I say? So many people to thank. This is nice, this is really nice. I want to thank Chad [Steele] for getting me out there, and following me when I’m in the hot tub with no drawers on, and then the sweat box, ‘Sizzle, I need you Sizzle, I need you.’ This is priceless. I want to thank all of y’all who voted for me, and for all of y’all who didn’t, I’m going to get you. But thank you. This is priceless. I’ve been working for this for six years. I saw the names on the wall over there, and I finally got it. I appreciate y’all. I’m going to cry. Y’all let me know if y’all need an interview.”
JACKSONVILLE JAGUARS CONFERENCE CALL
Head Coach Jack Del Rio
On not living up to expectations this season that the Jaguars might be a Super Bowl contender after last year’s success: “It’s been a tough year. We’ve got one more opportunity left, and I expect us to compete with the kind of energy that we brought the last few times out. The guys have been hungry for a win. We got one in Green Bay, we were close against Indy [and] didn’t quite get it, and we want to finish strong. So, we’re looking forward to getting up to Baltimore and having a good showing.”
On what it would mean to him personally to come to Baltimore and get a win against his former team: “[I have] a lot of friends in the area up there. Obviously, it’s always good to win, period. But it’s definitely good to win against friends. I’m looking forward to the competition.”
On what he thinks about the Ravens and what they have accomplished this season with their rookie head coach and rookie quarterback: “I’m really happy for the organization. [They have] some good people there, starting with [Steve] Bisciotti and his family and Ozzie [Newsome]. There’s a group of people that have been there that are very good. I enjoyed my time up there, so I’m happy to see [the Ravens’ success]. I know Harbaugh, and I think he’s doing a great job with them up there. When you look at the tape you see a physical team that’s running the ball well, that’s got a quarterback that can make some plays, and then their defense is awesome. I think my good buddy, Rex Ryan, is really doing a heck of a job. I’m sure he’ll have his own head job before long.”
On if he feels his players are motivated by being in the spoiler’s role: “I think we’ve embraced that the last couple of weeks. Right now I think they’re just excited to get one more opportunity to play. We work so hard, players and coaches in this league, getting ready for these opportunities to play these games, and I think we’re excited to get one last opportunity for 2008.”
On whether he will use the Jaguars being made13-point underdogs as motivation with his players this week: “If you think that’ll help me, we’ll see what we can do.”
On if the team’s injuries and off-the-field troubles have made the team feel like they’ve been snake-bitten this year: “No, I don’t really look at it like that. I think, certainly, we’ve had our share of adversity, but I think you deal with whatever it is that life brings you and you move forward.”
On the status of RB Maurice Jones-Drew and if he expects him to play on Sunday: “We remain hopeful. He’s not going to practice today. He’s a great young man; he’s working hard to get back.”
On what he feels LB Ray Lewis has meant to the Ravens’ franchise: “He’s all about excellence. He’s passionate in everything he does – a tremendous, tremendous competitor. He’s earned excellence over a decade. I think he’s a sure thing Hall of Famer, arguably the greatest linebacker to play the game, and I know those are things that are goals of his. I have a great deal of admiration and respect for Ray.”
On the speculation that Jaguars ownership should make a coaching change after this season’s poor showing: “I don’t pay a lot of attention to that type of talk. I think guys like John Fox were hearing that kind of talk, and now he’s the toast of the town. John Fox and Tom Coughlin listened to that kind of stuff last year, and now they’re the top two seeds in the NFC and one of them has a Super Bowl ring on. It’s the nature of this business that people try and get ahead of stories and speculate, but I don’t get too caught up in that.”
On the circumstances surrounding the resignation of James “Shack” Harris: “I can’t speak directly to that. I’m not aware of that. I’m not aware of what his reasons are. I think you have to talk with him.”
On how Harris’ resignation will affect the Jaguars’ organization: “I think that will be determined by the owner and the decisions that he makes.”
On how inspiring it was to see Richard Collier on the field at the game last Thursday: “I thought it was really special to see Big Rich. He came back and saw us Wednesday night prior to the game and then again Thursday night for the game. To see the big smile on his face, to see him back in our locker room, to be able to hug him and be able to tell him that we love him, it was great. The fans were awesome. The reception they gave Big Rich, a huge ovation, he was very touched by it. He’s a special young man, and to be able to handle the adversity in life that he’s had to deal with and the unfortunate set of circumstances and for him to have the positive spirit that he has is truly amazing.”
On QB David Garrard’s comments in his conference call today that the blame for Jacksonville’s disappointing season rests with the players not the coaches because they haven’t executed properly: “What do you want, a comment on that? David is like all people that are asked questions – you’re doing the best you can to answer questions. Players and coaches, we all understand that we’re responsible for winning football games, and we haven’t won enough this year.”
On how former Raven T Tony Pashos is doing in Jacksonville: “All right. Tony’s been a nice addition to our football team. He’s a big powerful right tackle and he’s played well the two years that he’s been here, and we like having Tony.”
QB David Garrard
On how the season has been for him and his team who have fallen short of expectations as a contender this year: “Yeah, it’s been a tough season for us. It’s definitely been a disappointment. Everybody had higher expectations, of course, but that happens. That’s how the league goes some times, and we’ve just got to be able to try to finish up strong here and then rebound in the offseason and try to get things right.”
On if there is anything he can put his finger on as to why the team has not done as well compared to last year: “Not really. We did have a number of injuries this year. We had a number of injuries early, and that definitely slowed us quite a bit. But we’ve got to be able to battle through that. We’ve got to be able to have guys step up and fill those guys’ places. It has just really been a number of things. We haven’t had a whole lot go our way this year, but those are all just excuses; we just didn’t play up to our ability.”
On the reaction in the locker room after RB Fred Taylor’s radio interview where he said that this was the worst team he’d ever played on: “Well, there really wasn’t much of a reaction to that. Fred was just speaking his mind and speaking what he felt in his heart. It is tough because we have a great collection of guys here, and for us to not be able to put enough wins together this year to get us into the postseason, you really could feel where he was coming from. It doesn’t make you feel any better that he did say that statement, but I think we all kind of understand what he’s talking about. We need to do a better job of playing more together as a team, and hopefully, that can get us in the right frame of mind and then make us get back on track to where we should be.”
On if the team feels like it has been snake-bitten with all of their injuries and off-the-field troubles this year: “Yeah, honestly. It really just feels like we didn’t have much go our way this year. It’s just been tough. You can say snake-bitten or just bad luck or whatever it is. Maybe that’s just the cards we were dealt. So, it is what it is, but we should have been better at overcoming all the obstacles and we just weren’t.”
On the rumors that coach Jack Del Rio may be on the coaching hot seat and does it surprise him or bother him to hear that: “Yes, it does, because I really believe that Jack has done all that he could do this year, and I really don’t think that’s a good place for him to be. I think that the players have to go out on the field and execute the game plan. [We have] the same coaches that we had last year, so not much has changed in that respect. It’s a shame when you have one bad [season] and one tough year that people have got to start getting fired over it. It can’t just be the circumstances that happened during the season. So, I think people just really need to take a hard look at that. I can’t really say very much. I don’t have any control over that kind of stuff. All I can do is just do my job. But I really think he should not be on the hot seat. I think you’ve got to give people a chance. Even though there were a lot of expectations this year, enough things can happen where the season can’t go right sometimes.”
On whether he would be angry or frustrated if Jaguars ownership decided to make a coaching change: “I’m going to leave that up to the ownership. That’s not my decision. It’s not my place to comment on that. I like Jack as a head coach, and I definitely want him to be here.”
On if he feels the team’s injuries to wide receivers and the offensive line have impacted his play this year: ”I’m going to have to say yeah. It’s tough when everybody around you is just kind of interchanging and you don’t have an O-line for the first half of the season that has played every game. You’ve got guys in and out, swapping sides, just trying to see what the best mixture is for your O-line, it’s going to be tough on your quarterback. And then when you have some of your receivers down for most of the season and slowly getting back into it, and then you lose them all again towards the end, it’s definitely going to be hard on the quarterback. All I can do is try to put the ball in the best places and try to keep my team out of bad positions and just do my job. It probably had a little to do with it, but I can’t blame anything on that.”
On how inspiring it was to see Richard Collier on the field at last Thursday’s game: “Very inspiring, because he could not be here right now. He told us that he almost died twice in the hospital. So, to see him out there, to see a smile on his face, it definitely made everybody feel that much better and gave us a lot of hope – a lot of hope for this team but just a lot of hope for our lives because in a second it can all be gone. And that’s why you can’t get yourself bent out of shape because you’re having a tough football season. You’ve got to really think about life and how short it is. It kind of puts things in perspective.”
On his battle with Crohn’s disease: “It definitely was a tough battle early on. Four years ago when I was diagnosed with it, I lost about 40 pounds and the doctors had to go in and do surgery and took a foot of my intestines out. Then I got on medicine after that, and thankfully, the Lord has kept me signs and symptoms free. The medicine has done a great job and helped with that, too. So I’ve been able to pretty much go out and continue to live my life healthy and with no concerns right now. I’m very thankful for that and thankful that I’m able to continue to play this game. I know a lot of kids and a lot of adults out there are not able to live their lives as freely, so hopefully I can just give them a little bit of inspiration so they can continue to fight and continue to know that there’s going to be a brighter day.”
On what he would like to do to raise public awareness through the organization In the Zone with Crohn’s: “I really think I’ve been blessed with this disease to bring more awareness to it, to be a voice for it, because not a lot of people like to talk about running to the restroom and vomiting and having just really bad stomach pains. So, I just want to do all that I can because there are a lot of kids affected by it. For me, I want to make sure that I can be just a little bit of hope for them and allow them to continue to fight a little bit more. Hopefully, we can raise enough money through this program. [Crohn’s disease] doesn’t get talked about a lot, and with that you don’t get a lot of fundraising for it. So the more that I can do to put Crohn’s on the map that everybody knows about it, then the more funding we’ll get. And hopefully, it will be enough funding for a cure for this disease so that there are not kids being born with the disease, and if they are, then we have a cure for it. So hopefully, we can do that. That’s my ultimate goal. I want to be able to do all that I can so that we can find a cure for this disease.”
On if the 13-point advantage given to the Ravens in Sunday’s game is disrespectful to his team: “I’ve never really even looked at points spread before in my entire life as a player, so I’m not thinking about it now. I just know if we go out and do our job and keep this thing close and pull it out in the end, then it doesn’t matter what the points spread is. Point spreads are point spreads; those are things thought up by people in Vegas. I’m not really worried about the people gambling in Vegas.”
On whether the Jaguars are embracing the role of possible spoiler for this Sunday’s game: “Yeah, that, but also just finishing our season on a strong note, going into the offseason feeling good about ourselves and knowing that we can turn things around after this offseason. That’s more of a bigger factor to me is finishing this thing right. It hasn’t been the season we wanted it to be, but at least we can go out winners in our last game and hopefully knock somebody out from going to the playoffs.”
