Interviews

A breakout season after six years in the NFL?
 
That’s exactly what happened with Jason Babin of the Tennessee Titans in 2010. From the high of being drafted in the 1st round to the low of being traded and released years later, Babin credits much of his recent success to former Titans Coach Jim Washburn who let Babin play his game and it led to a monster season.
 
Not only does Babin excel at football, but he also owns a ranch down in Texas where he spends time doing all sorts of outdoor stuff and, interestingly enough, he spends time training out in the wilderness. I got to talk with Jason about the journey to the Year 7 breakout, whether he’d consider joining Coach Washburn in Philly, and about his unique offseason training regime. Read the rest of this entry »

How frustrating must it be to start a season on a monster pace with sights set on the playoffs and a 1,000 yard season only to have it cut short with a torn ACL.
 
That’s what Owen Daniels and the Texans dealt with in the 2009 season. Owen bounced back in 2010 and started Week 1, but suffered a few setbacks in training camp and ultimately missed time mid-season with a hamstring injury. Fortunately, Owen returned to wreak havoc the last four weeks of the season, finishing with the 2nd best numbers among TEs. Lucky for the Texans, Owen re-signed this offseason making their offense one of the more dangerous in the league.
 
I spent some time talking to Owen about how he’s feeling physically, what makes him so successful as a pass catching TE, why he re-signed before the lockout, and his Catch-a-Dream Foundation and it’s upcoming Owen’s Locker program. Read the rest of this entry »

After being selected as the sixth overall pick in the 1995 NFL draft, Kevin Carter dominated offensive tackles for 14 seasons in the NFL. He amassed over 100 sacks and ranks 19th on the all-time NFL sack leader board. It all started taking down Brett Favre in 1995 and he catapulted from there. Kevin took that passion and now applies it to the Kevin Carter Foundation, School of the Legends, and his family.

Being that Kevin was a member of the NFL Player’s Association Executive Committee for a number of years dating towards the end of his career, I spent some time talking with Kevin about the NFL lockout, his thoughts on where the talks are headed, School of the Legends, and reminisced about his 14-year football career and why he left the game.

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Nnamdi Asomugha gets most of the credit in the Oakland Raiders secondary and rightfully so as one of the best corners in the game. However, in 2010 Stanford Routt put together a pretty solid season in his own right yielding a 42% wide receiver catch percentage.
 
With the productive season, back in February before the lockout the Raiders rewarded Stanford with a contract extension that included $20 million in guaranteed money. With Asomugha a free agent and the recent contract extension, Stanford may end up top corner on the depth chart come the start of the 2011 season. 
 
How does he feel about that? Well, I spent some time with him talking about that, his 2010 career season, and the mentality of a Raider corner. Read the rest of this entry »

Prior to his 2010 season with the Broncos – his 8th in the NFL – Brandon Lloyd’s best year topped off at 733 receiving yards with the 49ers. That was back in 2005. Since then, he’s been passed around to a number of teams, been released, and had some issues with the coaching staff in Washington. Many, if not most, had written him off. His career was done, right?
 
Wrong.
 
The Broncos traded Brandon Marshall to the Dolphins before the 2010 NFL draft and Demaryius Thomas was both selected and injured soon after. That left Lloyd with the opportunity to start at wide receiver for the entire season, which hadn’t happened since his ’03 through ’05 years in San Francisco. Read the rest of this entry »

Offensive linemen don’t get enough credit for their contribution on a weekly basis. Just ask the Packers’ right guard, Josh Sitton. We wholeheartedly agree with the man who we ranked as the #2 guard in the NFL in 2010.

Tell me, how often are the big guys getting a game ball? Do I really need to answer that? Forget O-linemen as a whole not getting their fair share of the spotlight, Sitton individually doesn’t get enough credit even after his phenomenal 2010. How did he not make the Pro Bowl? It’s a head scratcher, but it adds some motivation to get back on the field and crack some heads on the road to another title.

His entire football career, from college recruit to NFL prospect to Super Bowl winner, Sitton has been an unknown. That changed some this year when he was awarded the NFL Alumni Association Offensive Lineman of the Year Award.

We spent some time talking to Josh about his 2010 season, as well as his transition from right tackle to guard through college and into the NFL. Read the rest of this entry »

Ball hawk. Dominant. Mature beyond his years.

Devin McCourty proved to be all these things in just his rookie season with the New England Patriots. Soon after the 2010 NFL drabft, many suggested that selecting McCourty with the 27th overall pick was unnecessary for the Patriots with Leigh Bodden cemented as the #1 cornerback, the positive play of Darius Butler, and depth on the roster to fill the nickel and dime spots. Others called it a reach.

With the Patriots’ roster depth, many expected McCourty’s 2010 contribution to be on special teams. However, Bodden went down with a torn rotator cuff injury early in the season and was put on injured reserve. McCourty stepped right into the #1 corner spot and dominated a position that rookies traditionally struggle with.

Devin recently spent some time talking with us about his rookie season, how Tom Brady and Randy Moss helped with his development, as well as winning PFF’s Rookie of the Year award. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, Santonio Holmes has been swept up in storm of negative press. It seems like he can’t escape what happened in Pittsburgh, the reasons for the 2010 “trade” to the Jets, and new focus on where he’s headed as a free agent in 2011. 
 
Instead, my discussion with Santonio focused on what he’s doing to give back to the community and, ofcourse, football.  There’s a lot on his website detailing what he’s doing to be involved in the community.  It’s time to find a little more about Santonio as person and refocus on football.
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If you’re looking for some straight up talk, you’re in for a treat.  Lawrence Jackson (LoJack) got a raw deal in his first few seasons in the NFL with the Seattle Seahawks and he’s not afraid to talk about it and the misperceptions the media conveys. 
 
From nasty foot injuries that limited him physically, to coaching issues in Seattle, LoJack pushed through adversity to produce career bests in 2010 with the Detroit Lions. The former first round pick talked with us about the initial mental impact of the 2010 trade to the Detroit Lions, our “Secret Superstar” article, and his hate for Tony Romo.

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One of the great stories of the 2010 season was the play of the Titans’ rookie cornerback Alterraun Verner.
 
After being drafted out of UCLA in the fourth round of the 2010 NFL draft, Alterraun was the talk of the Titans’ camp and went on to start in 13 games and be named a finalist for NFL Rookie of the Year.
 
Not only does Alterraun excel on the field, he’s currently wrapping up classes at UCLA to obtain a BA in Math-Applied Science. That’s some resume, huh? Starting NFL cornerback and Math-Applied Science degree. Are you wondering which he prefers? Well, he once compared solving a math problem to sacking the quarterback. Read the rest of this entry »