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Tony Siragusa
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Tell us about the rally in downtown Baltimore and the minor bus accident on
your way to the airport.
"It was unbelievable. All those people downtown, that was exciting. Then, all of a
sudden, one bus hit the horse while we were leaving, and then there was a car crash. It
just stays exciting in Baltimore. I was in the second bus; the first one kind of
sideswiped the (police) horse, and the horse had a little tire mark on his butt. And then
we were up on the highway and we didn’t know what happened. We didn’t know until
we got on the plane."
What do you think about all of the rules that the Giants players have, while
you guys are a bit more unrestricted, as far as rules set by your coach?
"I heard about the Giants having curfew every night, and that’s how
they’ve been conducting things all year. We have a lot of older guys on our team, and
Brian (Billick) sort of lets us go, but the older guys and experienced guys sort of police
it and don’t let other guys take it to the extreme. He’s treated us like adults
since we’ve been here, and we didn’t expect him to treat us any different this
week. We take care of business, we don’t embarrass him and we don’t embarrass
our city. He trusts us being here. We talked to some of the younger guys who might roam a
little bit and told them we were down here for one reason — to bring home the
Lombardi Trophy."
Describe the feeling of playing in the Super Bowl as a member of the Ravens
against the Giants, the team you grew up rooting for in New Jersey.
"It just adds to the drama for me and for Giants fans who know I’m in there.
Growing up as a Giants fan, I always saw Giants flags, but the whole town (Pinebrook) went
out and bought Ravens flags, and the whole town is painted with Ravens flags right
now."
Talk about your quarterback, Trent Dilfer.
"Trent is ready to go, and he wants to talk to all of you Tampa people who told
him he couldn’t do it. I told him if he didn’t get on you good enough, I’d
give you all a piece of my mind, with him being a born-again Christian and me being sort
of the complete opposite. But I won’t start now; I’ll let Trent give it to you
first."
How would you compare LB Ray Lewis to Giants Hall of Fame LB Lawrence Taylor?
"L.T. was more of a guy on the outside who was a freelancer who rushed the passer.
L.T. would take control of one-half of the field. You knew where he was. Ray, being in the
middle, is a lot more dangerous because he can go either way and you have to come to him.
You can’t run away from him because there’s nowhere to run."
Talk about defensive coordinator Marvin Lewis.
"Marvin did a great job of confusing me when I first got to Baltimore. It took me
about a year to understand the guy. Now I think he’s a genius. He puts us in the best
situation with the best calls out there to perform to the best of our abilities.
There’s a lot of talk about him being a head coach, and I think he’d be a great
head coach. He’s a motivator, and he learned two different styles from Ted
Marchibroda and Brian Billick."
How did Brian Billick prepare you guys for the Super Bowl?
"Brian, as soon as we found out we were going to the playoffs, he gave us a
schedule and said, ‘OK, here’s the schedule for every playoff game, and
here’s what we’re doing Super Bowl week.’ Everything was planned five weeks
ago. Nothing was sprung on us. We knew about the media days. We expected it. I think
that’s going to help us."
How is Brian Billick as a head coach?
"I kind of got a scare when we first met Brian Billick. He has this laptop and all
these computers and stats, and I’ve been in the league for 10 years, and I don’t
know what the heck this guy’s talking about. And then all of a sudden it started
making sense. Why practice goal-line (defense) 40 times if you’re only going to see
it two or three times a game? It started to make a lot of sense. Brian is not going to
physically kill us. We know what we have to do to get ready for a game. He breaks things
down and makes them simple for us. The biggest asset Brian has is that he treats everyone
like an adult and as individuals, too. He’s going to give me a little more leeway
than he gives somebody else because you never know what I’m going to say. Or Shannon
Sharpe. Brian sort of sweats sometimes when we have the microphone. That’s our
personalities. And he lets our personalities come out. And on Sunday, all of our
personalities mesh and we go out like one machine. And it’s been working."
What do you think of Giants RB Tiki Barber?
"Tiki is a guy who can run the ball and also catch. He hides behind his offensive
line really good, and he’s really a slasher up front. You don’t want to let him
get started. We want to control him early in the game and let him know that it’s
going to be a war for every yard he gets. That’s a big part of our game."
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