| St. Louis QB Kurt Warner spoke with the media upon his
arrival in New Orleans at the Rams’ press conference. Here’s a look at his
responses: Q: How are you feeling?
A: I feel good. Not too sore. The offensive line did a great job (against the Eagles in
the NFC championship game). I didn’t take too many hits.
Q: What’s it like to go through the Super Bowl media experience for a second
time?
A: I think the big thing is we just have to relax and try to enjoy it. I think
sometimes you can get caught up and say, "Gosh, why do we have to do this? Why do we
have to do that?" And I think whether this is your first time or your third time you
just have to enjoy it and say, "Hey, this is part of it. You’ve got to do it, so
just relax and do it." If you do that, it makes it a better week. You’re not
tense. You don’t feel the pressure and those types of things. I don’t know
whether the first time or the second time has a lot to do with that, but once you realize
you can just sit back and take it as it comes. I think that makes it better.
Q: What did you take away from the first game against the Patriots (a 24-17 Rams
victory in Week 10) and what will you apply from that for this game?
A: I think it’s hard because they did something totally different to us than what
they had done all year long. I expect to see something different than what we saw in that
game in this game. But obviously getting a victory, going into their place and doing the
things we did and having some success against them, yeah, I think you take that away from
it. But they are a good football team. They’re playing great right now. I expect a
great football game. You take a little bit from it, just because of the fact that we got a
victory and we were able to do some things against them, but I think the big thing for us
is we’re going to have to be able to adjust. We had to adjust in that game to some
different things that they did and I think that’s what we’re going to have to do
this time — be ready for anything and be able to adjust on the run and make plays
along the way.
Q: Are you afraid of overlooking the Patriots?
A: I guess there’s a little chance of overlooking the situation and getting too
confident, but I think when you get to this point I don’t think there’s much
chance of that. I think it’s time to prepare. You’ve got one week. I think the
hard thing was getting through the whole season and getting to this point by being a
favorite — being a team that everybody expects to be there and taking
everybody’s best shot. I think there’s a lot of pressure to get to this point.
Now at this point, everybody wants to be here. It’s one more game. You don’t
have to worry about anything other than going out and playing. We understand what a fine
line it is from being here and going home in the first round last year and getting back. I
don’t think too many guys are going to overlook that.
Q: Are you worried about all the attention you and your teammates are receiving this
week?
A: It’s tough. Sometimes it makes you stay in your hotel room a little bit more,
and obviously with everything else going on here, everywhere you go there’s going to
be a lot of people, not just surrounding the Super Bowl, but everything else going on. You
kind of feel your way out early on and decide if you want to go out, and if you do go out
make sure you have some guys with you. You don’t constantly have to sign autographs.
You’re able to go out and relax a little bit, do what you want to do and maybe sign a
few autographs, but it can definitely become an autograph session and you’re out
spending the whole day and night signing autographs for people.
Q: Does it feel nice to have the majority of your recent injuries and illnesses
behind you?
A: I’ve had a strange three weeks with a lot of things going on and a lot of
setbacks physically, but I’ve been fortunate that I’ve pulled through all of
them and I didn’t get banged up too much in the (NFC championship) game, although the
ribs will probably be sore for a couple more days. I think I’ll almost be back to 100
percent by Sunday, so it really shouldn’t be a concern. It’s nice to know that
you don’t have to fight through things all week long to prepare. You can just keep
moving forward.
Q: How does this current Rams team compare with the Super Bowl squad of two years
ago?
A: I think it’s very similar to that year. We might be a more complete team now. I
think the offense has matured and knows each other better. We’re playing better
together. The defense, I think, is at a point now where it can win games for us. In
’99, we caught so many people by surprise. Somebody told me one time that we had
basically a 17-0 advantage through that whole season on teams, so when you get up 17-0 our
defense can kind of just tee off and do what they do. This year, we haven’t had that
luxury, but our defense has played so well that it has kept us in games and even won games
for us, so I think that’s what separates it from the ’99 year — that
we’re really a complete team and both teams (offense and defense) have been counted
on to win football games at different times and both teams have stepped up and done that.
Q: Are you concerned about the Rams being so heavily favored?
A: I don’t even think about that. We don’t care. We want to win by one point.
We don’t care if we win by 20, if we win by 30, or if we win by one. Everybody says,
"Oh, they’re the big favorites." Whatever. All we have to do is win by one
point. We don’t have to worry about what the oddsmakers say or how much we’re
supposed to win by. We just want to go out and win. We don’t put a lot of weight in
that. We understand that we’ve got to beat the team that we’re playing against.
We can’t have to beat the odds or beat a point spread. We just have to beat the other
team. |
