| How are you and your teammates dealing with the
Super Bowl hype? "We have guys who are smart enough, who handled all the
things in the season very well. And the guys have been focused. It’s helped just
seeing how the older guys handle themselves, that’s going to show the young guys how
to handle themselves."
Do you have to be more focused now than you were last week back in New Jersey?
"We’ve been loose in practice, the way we were last week. And we’re
going to continue to do that. I think that if we tighten up now, it would be wrong to do
that. We just have to continue to do what we’ve been doing, and that’s enjoying
playing together. So the looseness you saw last week was the same looseness we’ve
been having the past seven or eight weeks. And that’s been the biggest difference in
our performance."
What was the trip down here from New Jersey like?
"We’re all excited to come. We were about to land and Jessie Armstead kicks
the back of my seat. I turn around, and he says, ‘Can you believe we’re going to
the Super Bowl?’ I think it’s finally starting to hit some of the guys that
we’re here. This is the biggest game of our lives and this might be the one
opportunity we might get, so we have to take advantage of it. It’s pretty amazing. If
you had told me this eight weeks ago, I would have slapped you. Now I want to kiss you.
It’s a great thing."
What do you think of all the Ravens billboards around town?
"That’s perfectly fine. That doesn’t hurt my feelings at all.
Everyone’s not brought up right. Not everyone’s brought up a Giants’ fan.
So you can’t be mad at those people."
What can you say about the Ravens’ defense?
"Those guys deserve it (credit). They played phenomenal this season. They had an
unbelievable season, unlike any other season in NFL history. I don’t think we’re
mad at them for the attention that they’re getting. It’s well-deserved, and they
have a great defense."
What are your thoughts on Ravens RB Jamal Lewis?
"He’s a tough runner. He’s the whole package. He adds a big dimension to
their offense. So it will be very tough for us to stop him. He’s another one of those
big, powerful backs — a young guy with fresh legs, so he’s very tough to
stop."
In years past, the Giants haven’t had the best chemistry. There was a sort
of an offense vs. defense mentality. What is the Giants’ chemistry now?
"I think the coaches did a great job with chemistry. We brought in some veterans
on offense who understood what it takes to win and who have been in some great situations
before, and just the attitudes they brought with them, of relaxation — these guys
aren’t worried about contracts. These guys are only worried about playing, because
that’s what they want to do. They enjoy playing, and when the younger guys see that,
the younger guys are more relaxed about everything. The older guys on offense and defense
are going out and trying to rebuild what we lost as far as injuries and some of the
troubles we have had in the past."
At what point in the season did this club really become a team?
"Washington. We went to Arizona and beat Arizona, but the Washington game the next
week we beat them 9-7, and that game we came together because had anybody blamed anybody
or expected somebody else to do something outside of doing it themselves, we were going to
lose the game. And if they made the field goal at the end of the game it probably would
have set us back 2-3 years. I don’t know if any of us ever would have recovered from
that. And I think that was the catalyst for us — that was the point where we said
that as long as we play together, we’ve got a chance and we’ve done that ever
since."
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