Projo Pats Blog

On advice he’s given out to younger players about the Super Bowl
A lot of guys have come up to me and ask questions or a lot of players who have already been there and sort of know the protocol of how we handle things and, “What’s Monday like? What’s Tuesday like? Wednesday?” so I think we can give them a little bit of advice in terms of how it was when I was there before.

On what the best piece of advice is
I would just say to enjoy it, really. I think the first couple of days, you do have some time to enjoy it. We’ll arrive Sunday and guys are already planning to go out a little bit, have dinner together and enjoy each other’s company Monday, Tuesday - Media Day, that’s just a lot of fun - and realize that it is a game and a lot of stress can be built up for these games, but you still go down there to have a great time and realize you have a job to do still.

On how happy he was not to have to play against Wes Welker this year
We got him and we said, “How did that happen?” To get a player like that, to just give someone up like that. I don’t think he’s had a statistical year like he’s had this year, or even close to it in his past season, but I think we always considered him a threat and a guy that we had to focus on first and foremost when it came to the Miami Dolphins’ passing offense.

On what makes Welker so difficult to defend
Combined with his speed and his quickness and his good hands, I think the one word you could use is he’s savvy. He knows where to find the open hole against a zone coverage or a man coverage, you can just say that, but there are all these little tricks that players use and if you watch him closely, he has a lot of those in his bag.

On completing an undefeated regular season
I think we were able to soak in that moment before the last game of the regular season because we realized we were on the cusp of history and an undefeated regular season, but now that we’re in the postseason it’s really about advancing. We haven’t been thinking about 17-0, 18-0, or anything like that. It’s about beating the Jaguars to move on to the AFC Championship and then beating the Chargers and possibly moving on to the Super Bowl. I’d rather look at this game as if we prepare well and we beat the New York Giants, hopefully we’ll become World Champions. That’s what we have to look at. It’s a game that we have to win to achieve our goal, not some record, number, or something like that.

On what it’s like going back to Arizona where he played in college
Yeah, this one’s a little bit more special for me than all the others in terms of where I’m going. I have fond memories of the state of Arizona where I played college football at the University, about an hour and a half south of where we’ll be. Coming back from the stroke that I had in 2005, there are a lot of things that I can sort of smile at and realize that I’m back in the Super Bowl and it feels really good to be here.

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