(on Broncos QB Peyton Manning calling him the future face of the NFL)
“Anything that the sheriff has to say, you can probably ink it in gold. It’s just a tremendous honor to be even mentioned and affiliated with the face of the league, but yet I think I have bigger fish to fry on Sunday, and then we’ll worry about the rest of the eight to 10 years after that.”
(on if Newton likes to call his number in the huddle a little more than other players)
“Well yeah, sometimes he comes in the huddle and he calls the play and then he’ll hit me in the stomach, ‘Here we go Tubby, lets get it.’ At the same time man, it’s fun. We’re not selfish over that. Whether I score the touchdown, Cam or Jonathan (Stewart) or he throws a slant to Kelvin (Benjamin) or a slant to Jerricho (Cotchery) or over-the-top or what not. It doesn’t matter, as long as we got in the box we don’t care who is in, we’re celebrating.”
(on what the meaning is behind wearing number 19)
“The meaning behind number 19 is first round, ninth pick.”
(on why people weren’t as convinced of Carolina’s winning as other teams in the past who have won as many games)
“It’s a good question. I think that’s been kind of the question on the narrative the entire season. The more we won, the more people wanted to tell us why we couldn’t continue to win. I think a lot of it is we’re not maybe conventional with what everyone sees now in the NFL theses days. The top teams throwing for a million yards. Throwing the ball 40 times a game. That’s not going to be us. We’ve got a quarterback that’s going to run it as good as anyone in the league. We’re going to hand the ball of 20-plus times per game. I think people just aren’t used to seeing an offense go that way. They’re not used to seeing an offense that’s all about the group. We’re not worried about focusing and premiering one particular player. We don’t go into each game trying to get x-amount of targets per individual. We’ve got guys coming in motion. We’ve got guys going all over the place in our run game. I just don’t know if people have wrapped their head around it yet.”
(on foreshadowing with the full page ad and the letter)
“That particular season I took that ad out, you know a lot of people said we wouldn’t win more than three games and I didn’t believe that. And I don’t have a problem with people having that opinion. But the problem I had was I felt a lot of our teammates were buying into that. So a lot of football teams every year, every training camp, they get together, they talk about listen, we’re gonna win the Super Bowl. This is the year we’re gonna win the Super Bowl. Now how many teams really believe that? That’s the difference. So that was a team then, and I still believe now, I felt was very capable making a run at it. So I put something out there for my teammates just to make sure that they believed in it and had my back. So this season I think is not a fluke. It’s been in the works for quite some time now and couldn’t be more excited.”
(on if it surprises him that his story was picked to be broadcast)
“I would tell people that everybody has a story, mine just got told. Everybody probably has a worse story than I had. Mine just got told. I’m fine with that.”
(on if this advice is something he is imparting to rookies)
“They don’t know any better (laughter). Those guys, especially like Star (Lotulelei), those guys are going to come in are just going to be used to winning division championships, but I think it makes you better and it makes you humble, especially when you go through a season only winning two games and having a season like will humble you and it will make you focus on the goal even more. You don’t ever want to go through a season like that.”
(on having played 12 years in the NFL before having the opportunity to play in the Super Bowl)
“I knew one day I would get here. I didn’t think it was going to take 12 years though. It’s been a great experience so far. Can’t wait to get to Sunday.”
(on why a fan of another team should root for the Panthers)
“They shouldn’t. We’ve been underdogs all year. We take that as motivation and we strive for it and continue to stack that win column. A guy that is not a Carolina fan — you’re missing out. We’re bringing a lot of enthusiasm to the sport, a lot of energy to the TV as well. On and off the field this is what you get. Guys show their true character and really who we are.”
(on chasing Carolina quarterback Cam Newton in practice)
“I don’t chase him. I don’t try to chase him, I can’t catch him. I know I can’t catch him. I leave that to the fast guys — I’ll leave it to Luke (Kuechly).”
(on his will to return from injury)
“I think a lot of it had to do with my upbringing, the way my mother and my grandmother raised me. And then, a real big part of it came from going to the University of Georgia and playing for Coach Mark Richt. When you look at our motto when we were at Georgia, it was all about finishing the drill, and if you start something, you finish it; and that’s kind of the way I raise my kids. I teach them the same ways and the same values that I learned, and if you start a sport, if you start any kind of extracurricular activity, you finish it. And that’s kind of the way I live my life.”
(on what he saw from Panthers LB Thomas Davis at practice today following his arm injury)
“He was definitely Thomas out there. I was joking with him today that he looked fast. He said his legs are fresh, and that’s the best thing about it — that he’s going to be fresh out there at the game. It looked like he was moving around fine. I don’t know if he really hit anyone with that arm, but he looked good, looked like he was flying around out there and looked confident in everything."
(on if there was a particular football player he pictured himself being)
“Sean Taylor. That was my idol. Sean Taylor. He was physical. Physical. I like being physical. I don’t see anything wrong with it. He would come down and hit you. He didn’t care how big you were. He was still going to come down and lay that hat on you regardless.”
(on training camp fight between Cam Newton setting the tone for the season)
“I don’t know. Both guys don’t want to lose. Both guys want to go out on top. Both guys are aggressive in their approach and they want to be great. And when you have that, those two guys go at each other like that, one throws a touchdown, the other one comes back and intercepts the ball, it’s hard at practice. They both have a super high level of competition to the point where they get a little heated. Sparks start to fly and once those sparks start to fly and release our greatness that came from and we got closer. I know I’m a lot closer to my quarterback then I ever was on this team. I think that was probably the case and I think it was bound to happen and it happened in such a great way.”
(on continuing to play after partially tearing his ACL in November)
“I knew there was a chance of me tearing it, but again, you never know when you’re going to make it to the Super Bowl. At that point in time, we had a great shot and did I know it could possibly tear? Yeah, but I’m all in. I’m in for my teammates. If it was going to tear, hey, so be it, but if it could help us get to this point right now, I’d do it 10 times out of 10 times.”
(on what specifically happened to his eye when he suffered the injury)
“So, I had LASIK (Surgery) seven years ago. It’s kind of like, they laser a contact over it so I could see. The contact just came off when Luke (Kuechly) hit me, so I couldn’t really see. My vision was blurry out of my right eye, so they didn’t want me to go back because I could mess it up worse and then I’d have to have surgery. So, I laid back down flat ... It sounds awful. Everybody makes this disgusting face like whenever I’m trying to explain it. It’s not that bad, it’s just kind of what happened I guess. The doctor said those injuries only usually happen when somebody pokes you in the eye or you get an elbow. But usually when you have a visor you’re pretty good, but I guess Luke (Kuechly) was just coming a little too hard.”
(on the skills needed for a player to be included in ‘Thieves Avenue’)
“Takeaways, takeaways, takeaways. You have to have a great personality. I think the great part about our group is, we’re a brotherhood. We’re a family, we love each other and jokes will be flown each and every direction. You’ve got to be able to have thick skin, but obviously, it’s all about working. Everybody’s pushing each other and that’s what makes this group so special is we want to get better every day."
(on the philosophical changes he made when he took over)
“The way we looked at players, the way we scouted, just understanding that the average college player just isn’t fundamentally sound. You have to look at it differently. For example, you take a linebacker, so the scout watches him and he says, ‘Well he doesn’t know how to use his hands.’ So he knocks his grade down a little bit. Well did anyone ever teach him? We don’t know. The other part of it is too, to a certain degree, the college players the 20-hour rule, which hurts them. It hurts our ability to spend time the player. You’ve got to look at it a little bit differently. I’ll give you a quick for instance. We go to the Combine last year and we’re looking at the DBs and they do a back-pedal-and-turn drill for time. I’m up in the box for the second group and I ask one of our defensive coaches how many guys are there? He said 53. I said how many of them can back pedal and turn? He said 12. I said so are we going to take the other 41 and throw them away? How many of the other guys have the athletic ability to back pedal and turn? So you have to look at those a little differently. The League is different. You have 32 teams.”
(on Carolina’s biggest strength and weakness)
“I think the strongest part really is that we’ve created a family atmosphere. There’s a group of guys who have come together and played for one another. I think the thing that’s really helped is they’ve taken ownership of this football team. I think we’ve grown equally in all phases as far as offense, defense and special teams. As far as weakness with us, it’s really just about learning and knowing. We just don’t know. We have a lot of young guys that are still growing and so there may be some things that are new to us.”
(on what his previous Super Bowl experiences have taught him going into this game)
"I don’t know. I said, ‘Listen, I’ve been to four of them and lost all four of them. I think I’m going to put it on you guys. You might have a better chance of figuring this out yourselves than anything that I’ve done. I tried to get you here, now it’s up to you from here on in."
(on why NFL teams are leaning on offensive coaches more than defensive coaches)
“I think that’s always been the case a little bit, generally speaking. I think last year was different. I would say I think things move in cycles sometimes. A year ago with Dan Quinn and Todd [Bowles], a couple of defensive guys, and those guys, what’s good for us defensive coaches is those guys have gone on to have success. So, hopefully next year we’ll get some love on the defensive side.”
(on memories of the early Super Bowls his father coached in)
“It’s funny, the first one against Dallas when I was six, I remember sitting in the upper deck and it was so cold. It was in New Orleans. I can remember getting a hot dog, and it was ice cold. The next year, the year they won it, I can remember that I was in the stands, and the biggest thing I remember from that year was that my mom had just bought me a red transistor radio. I thought that was awesome because I could listen to the game while I was watching it. Then, without trying to bore you guys, the next year they were playing the Vikings and they had a lead at halftime, and I remember they had these flags for each team, and the one for Miami said, ‘Dolphins No. 1; Vikings eat your heart out.’ I said, ‘Mom let me get it. I want to get it.’ She said, ‘No, it’s only halftime. We have a long way to go.’ I talked her into getting it, and sure enough, the opening kickoff of the second half, the Vikings return it for a touchdown. There was a penalty on the play though. Those are the little things you remember as a kid.”