Chiefs' Reid, Mahomes, Mathieu discuss Black Lives Matter

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Kansas City Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid, Quarterback Patrick Mahomes, and Safety Tyrann Mathieu discussed the Black Lives Matter movement today. Following are their comments.

Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid

OPENING STATEMENT: “It’s my pleasure to get with you guys as we wind down here and get ourselves ready for the summer break, however long that might be. We know we won’t have players in the building here, so we’ll finish up just like we normally would. Again, appreciate you guys’ patience this whole offseason. It’s been a unique experience in a lot of ways with the coronavirus. Our hearts go out to those people that have had to endure. The frontline people have just been absolutely awesome. Of anybody, the people that have lost their lives, that  has been tragic for those families. And then, with the racial issues going on now, it breaks my heart. I’m an old head. I’ve been around long enough. I’ve seen a few generations, met a couple different generations that have come through, including my own, and I’m so happy, I’m so fired up about our younger generation. They are taking it and they’re attacking this thing the right way. I just think we have this great country and these kids know how great this country is. They absolutely know how great it is, and all they want to do is make it better. I think that’s a beautiful thing, especially, like I said, I’m not getting any younger, so I’ve got grandkids, and I’m so blessed that these guys and ladies are doing this and standing up for what they believe. I was lucky enough to grow up around diverse cultures and religions, everything, in Los Angeles. I was in sports at the same time, so my respect for people is that, for people. We’re sitting here with this push on Black Lives Matter, and absolutely they matter. I think it’s a beautiful thing. I’m in complete support with them. I believe in communication. I believe in what my parents taught me about at times like this, you have large ears. You sit, you listen, and you learn, and you become better. That’s where I’m at. I appreciate Patrick (Mahomes) and Tyrann (Mathieu) for what they did and standing up, making a statement that allows all of us to be in a better place where love is first and we can surround all of ourselves with great people. And most of all, respect the people we come in contact with. This world is a great thing. I go way back to, I’m glad the heavenly father has given me a chance to be here, first of all. And there’s a reason why our players in the National Football League get so excited to come to work every day. The head coach, the coaches get so excited, myself – I’ll speak for myself. I don’t want to speak for others here. I get fired up every day because I get to work with my guys. I get to see how smart and how much they thrive on life and competition and just the greatness that they bring to my spirit every day.  I mean it. I always wish that everybody could feel that. That’s what really our guys want. They want to take this and allow others to feel it. We’ve got to be open minded and open hearted to do this. I respect how Clark Hunt has taken this and jumped in with the players and just said, ‘Hey, listen, I’m in support. I’m all ears. I want to learn. I want to listen, and I want to help.’ And Mark Donovan has just been tremendous with the guys, as Brett Veach has been. Tyrann and Patrick have kind of headed up with the players in putting together some thoughts on what they can do to make things better in Kansas City here, and they’re working through that now, which I again, I appreciate it and completely support it. Again, my heart goes out to three people that have passed away, but this isn’t something new. I saw it as a young person, and it’s going on today. Technology has exploited it here, so we can all see it. You better believe it. It’s real, and it needs to end. Our hands, us old folks, this younger generation, they’re studs. They believe in themselves. They believe in each other, and they believe in equality. Let’s jump in. Let’s jump in full-fledged. Let’s jump in, learn and listen. And let’s make this place even greater than it is right now. We have a chance to do that. With that, I’d like to tell you that the offseason has been interesting for those reasons there, but it’s also been a great learning experience for our coaches and players. Not only have we learned all this technology, but we’ve also learned how to incorporate it into teaching. So, even though we don’t have the players on the field, we’re able to spend a couple hours with them and teach. We haven’t slowed down a lick. We’ve introduced new things to the guys, and we’ve gone back through and reviewed our scheme evals that the coaches spent a lot of time this offseason going through and being critical and trying to better ourselves. We’ve got plenty of room to improve, and we’re all willing to do that. That’s where we’re at. We have another week left here. Next week we’ll finish. This week here we’re actually going back through like you guys know we do, going back through our opponents, AFC West opponents and our first game, which we know now. We’re going to get ourselves ready for camp. We don’t know exactly what that’s going to represent, going to camp. We don’t know where we’re going to be or how we’re going to do it and all that. But, we’ll keep our ears open and we’ll be ready to roll. Whatever situation that’s presented to us, we’re going to dominate that and work our tails off to be great. That’s where we’re at. With that, time’s yours.”

Q: You are finishing up this week?

REID: “Next week will be our last week. This week is opponents, and next week is where we would have normally had our mandatory minicamp. We’ll finish up next week.”

Q: You said that you and Mark Donovan and Clark Hunt are all in support of the players. Can you talk about how you are supporting the players in that respect?

REID: “They’re heading towards a program of voter registration and working through teaching and educating with voter registration, and that’s, again, we’re working through that as we speak here. We’ll have a statement for you once we get it all taken care of.”

Q: A lot of players are saying that they will kneel for the National Anthem. Have you had conversations with Patrick or Tyrann regarding what the players’ plan is, what your plan is? Has the league spoken to you or has Clark spoken to you regarding that?

REID: “No, I haven’t even gone there. This isn’t about kneeling. It’s about progress. We all get hung up on this other deal. That’s not what this is about. If we could just focus in on appreciating life, appreciating people. Not judging by the outer skin. You asked this question, I appreciate you asking. I used to do this thing with Blow Pops when I talked to kids and tried to educate. This is from when I was young and up through today. I take four Blow Pops, pick three kids and say we’re going to have a bubble gum blowing contest. Within one of those Blow Pops, I take the wrapper off and put a $100 bill under the wrapper. Not one time in the 50 to 100 times I’ve given this talk has anyone picked the wrapper that was messed up, that looks like it’s been messed with because people judge by what’s on the outside, what they see instead of getting in and enjoying what’s inside. In this example, would be that bubble gum. So, let’s get away from judging. This goes for everybody. We’re talking about racial issues. Let’s get in and see what’s inside people, and when you do, you’re going to see beauty. There are some beautiful, beautiful people out there that we’re putting walls up against and we don’t have an opportunity to be here on Earth very long. I’m taking advantage of every person I’m going to meet. I’m going to take advantage of that person and try to look at them for the good. If they prove opposite, then I’ll go that way with it. But, I’m going to give people an opportunity. I’ve tried to do that throughout my life, and again, that’s from my parents and my upbringing of where I grew up. This whole thing, it needs to end. I’m sorry for going off there, but I was just trying to fill you in on a little something there.”

Q: Do you anticipate having conversations with the players regarding kneeling?

REID: “That’s not where I’ve been or where I’m going. No. That’s not where I’m at right now, and I don’t want people to focus on that. This is bigger than that. This is more important than that, and right now, I know people are going to start counting heads and focusing on this and that, and that’s terrible. That’s not what this is about. Don’t worry about that. Worry about getting better. Go out and do that. Introduce yourself to somebody and make a friend. See how good people are. Let’s get back to some of the basics.”

Q: How proud are you of Patrick and Tyrann for being leaders?

REID: “I love it. I see it every day. That’s why I get fired up to coach. It’s been that way since I’ve been a coach. I’m telling you, this generation. I’ve been coaching for a couple generations now. That’s why I get fired up. Every week you ask me, I see you sitting with Patrick and talking, and I tell you every week that I listen to Patrick and what Patrick says. I listen to Eric Bieniemy, Mike Kafka. I listen. How important is that? I think it’s a beautiful thing. Dig in and try it. Let’s try it in everybody. I grew up in the city, so I know there are gangs for every race. Let’s pump the brakes and try to see the good in each other. It will work out better. It will work out better for everybody. We’re all humans. That’s the beauty of this thing. We’re blessed to be here.”

Q: Can you talk about what the conversation was when Clark saw the video?

REID: “Clark was unbelievable. He was so proud of those guys. He called them and talked to them. That’s how Clark does it. However people see it, he’s unbelievable with the guys that way. He’s all in, and our guys know it. That’s why you don’t hear a lot of chatter and that. These guys, they know they have an open ear to talk to. Whether it’s Clark, Mark, Brett, myself, it’s an open ear. We’re there to listen, and we’re all in it together. That’s what we’re doing. We’re a team. That’s what team is. That’s the beauty of this thing.”

Q: Do you and the organization plan to get behind Patrick and Tyrann and the voter registration piece?

REID: “Absolutely. We’re all in. Those guys are heading it up. I’m proud of them for that. Clark Hunt is right there with them. I’m proud of that too. He’s all in and we’re all in. That’s what we need to do. I’m doing way too much talking here, but talking needs to stop and we need to dig in and let’s go. Let’s go, do something.”

Q: What happened this time around that is different than four years ago when Colin Kaepernick took a knee? What do you think when you see the peaceful protest videos around the city?

REID: “You’re talking about this video right there, what’s the beauty in that? The beauty is that it’s all a bunch of people coming together. I’m right down by the Plaza. I see it. The beautiful thing is it’s not one race, it’s all races supporting Black Lives Matter. That gives me chills just talking about it. That’s our younger generation. That’s what’s going to set up this country for my grandkids. I’m fired up for that. The Colin Kaepernick (part, I’m not going to get into all that. I don’t have all the answers. I don’t have all the answers for this. I just know that picture that you just showed me and asked me about, that fires me up. That fires me up.”

Q: What experiences or mentors are you leaning on with how to communicate with the guys and maintain that togetherness that you mentioned?

REID: “I grew up in Los Angeles, in the 60s and 70s. My high school was a melting pot. I had a Japanese head football coach. I had a Hispanic defensive coordinator. It goes on. This is what I had. I had black teammates, Asian teammates, Hispanic teammates, Middle Eastern teammates. And you mess with one of them, I’m going to get after you. You know what I’m saying? We came together. That’s the team. That’s how I feel. I’m all in. I was raised that way. I don’t see those other things. I see humans. I’m not looking at the wrapper. I’m going to look at what’s inside, and I’m going to get in there and I’m going to find out. Are you a good person, are you willing to work, do you care about other people? What’s inside. What makes you tick. And if I can help it tick a little better, I’ll try to do it. And if you can help, take your strengths and help me tick a little better, let’s roll. I mean, let’s go. I’ll go all day and I’ll be your biggest supporter. Somebody messes with you, I’m coming after you. That’s how I go, and that’s because of the upbringing I had and how I was raised and where I was raised.”

Q: What was your reaction to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s statement? How do you think the league can get through this?

REID: “I think Roger, he was a stud right there. That’s a hard thing to do. To say, ‘I was wrong.’ How many of us have a hard time saying that? And time can do that to you, right. We’ve all been in that position where things change. It’s changing right now. How great is that. Every generation has changed in some way to get us to this point, and now we get to put it down and end it. Like I said, I’m big on this. It makes the NFL better. It’s going to make our country better. We live in a great place. We’re so lucky to be here. My guys tell me that every day. They know that. Now they get to make it better. If you take that and you take what we do as a team and what we talk about all the time is ‘how can we get better than what we were before?’ Now, you might have to take a step back to be greater, to take a step forward. That’s what these guys believe in and you’re seeing it now. You’re seeing everything that we see every day and why we get so fired up to talk to you guys and dealing with you all. I have to get over that prejudice with you guys (laughing). That’s how we feel. We see this and it’s so exciting. Like I said, it keeps old heads like me, young. I appreciate it.”

Q: Do you have a theory about why guys are reacting to this differently this time around?

REID: “Now that I’m dealing with all this technology, I think it goes back to technology helps us learn here. We know the evils of it. There’s good and there’s bad in everything, right? But there is good in this. People saw this firsthand. That’s why the picture that we just saw, everybody is in. Everybody is talking the same talk here. It’s time to change. Like I said, I’m proud of this generation for doing that. I think it’s a neat deal. I think it’s what people see. They’ve heard it over and over, but now they’ve seen it. I think it’s a positive thing.”

Q: How much do you agree with shortening the preseason?

REID: “I’ll do anything that we have to do. I want to make sure people are safe. I think we all do, right? I want to make sure that there are no repercussions. We’re in a time of change with that, with the COVID-19. We’re learning new stuff every day and the doctors in science are doing a phenomenal job with this. Let’s see how it goes. I think the league is probably feeling the same way. They haven’t given us anything on the start date or not, other than what was the start date before, so rookies are in the 22nd or you can bring them in a bit earlier I guess. But you mentioned this, we have this new CBA, so I’ve gone through with training camp and put together – along with Eric Bieniemy, Spags (Steve Spagnuolo) and (Dave) Toub – a regular training camp with flexibility if we have to go a different direction, we can do it. But we’re ready to roll. By the time we leave, we’ll have a complete set, and if they give us new rules, then we can change as we go. But right now, we’re full-fledge on and I’m sure there will be different things and hurdles we have to cross, but we’ll be ready.”

Q: How do you go about balancing football and getting ready for the season and being cautious to make sure your players are safe from COVID-19?

REID: “Social distancing, all those things are important until we know more. We know that right now that works, so let’s focus on that. Until we know something else, we’ll do something else. But, this is new, so let science help us along with this thing and hopefully time takes care of it, which it normally does with these things. I’ve been through a couple of these types of things. I had the opportunity to coach in San Francisco when the AIDS epidemic was going on, so I felt that firsthand. I get the urgency there. Let’s just roll with it and see. We all know there’s going to be some kind of chance potentially going on, and we’ll adjust.”

QB Patrick Mahomes

Q: With your platform and your position not only as the face of the Chiefs franchise, but also one of the faces of the NFL right now, how have you worked through the scope of what’s happening right now, ways people can help, while also figuring out how you want to help and how you want to help push forward for change?

MAHOMES: “I think the biggest thing that I’ve done is just lean on people that I respect, people that I believe have done it the right way. I’ve been lucky enough to grow up with a lot of great role models around me and just trying to find and listen to them as they talk to me. And other people around the league who I feel have done it the right way and listen to the advice they give me. And then make the best-informed decision as far as what I do and the next step I take to move forward. Like you said, I’ve been given this platform and I want to make sure I do whatever I can to make the world a better place in whichever way that is.”

Q: There are a lot of players and voices that are involved in this player movement right now. But in the NFL, none of them have accomplished what you have in the short time of your career. Are you aware of the weight that your presence lends to the cause?

MAHOMES: “Yeah, I’m definitely aware. I’m aware of everything, aware of my surrounding, aware that coming off of a Super Bowl championship and being the quarterback of a Super Bowl winning team, but I’ve always believed in people. And I’ve always believed that when people do things together and do things for the right reasons and have a good heart when they do it, that things get done and change happens. That’s how I’ve grown up – like I said in my statement – I’ve grown up in a locker room, so I’ve seen how people have come together and strive for a certain goal and to go do things. I believe that if people have the right intentions and the right heart and can come together, they can really affect the world and make it a better place.”

Q: What is your message to the young people that look up to you as an MVP and a champion? Especially for those kids that might experience racial inequality, what would you say to them about what they can do to make the world a better place?

MAHOMES: “I would say to do the same thing I’ve done my entire life and that is to talk to the people that have taught them their values and have taught them the right way to do things, and listen to them because they’ve had those experiences. I’m 24 years old so I’m maturing and learning things as I go, but I’ve learned a lot from people like my dad, LaTroy Hawkins and Coach Reid, and learned that there are ways to handle things in order to get your point across and respect people and do the right thing. But you have to learn and have your own experiences to do that. Just take in as much information as you can, making the best-informed decision you can make and try to do whatever you can to make the world a better place in every action you take.”

Q: When you decided to post your statement on social media, as well as participate in the Black Lives Matter video with other players, were you concerned at all about what the reaction might be from fans, ownership, potential sponsors? And have you seen any feedback, either positive or negative to your comments?

MAHOMES: “I feel like with every decision that you make, there’s going to be positives and negatives and that’s the world that we live in today. I believe in both my statement and the video that I made, that that stuff needed to be said. We needed to come together as a group, as players, and show that we believe that black lives matter and that we believe this needs to be informed, and we need to be the role models to go out there and take that step. Obviously, it was great to find the support that we’ve gotten from the Chiefs, from Coach Reid, from Clark Hunt, Mark Donovan. I’ve talked to Roger Goodell and he has shown his support to us. It’s something where I’m always going to be informed in my decision and understand that there’s going to be good and there’s going to be bad. But if I believe something, and I truly believe it, I’m going to – like Coach Reid says – let my personality show and I’m going to stand behind my words and I’m going to take whatever consequences that come with it. And hopefully they’re positive. But I’m going to be the best person I can be first, whatever that is.”

Q: What did you make of the 48 hours that Drew Brees had in terms of his original statement, his change of heart, and what that says about him?

MAHOMES: “Yeah, I’ve known Drew for a pretty long time just being from Texas, and I know that he’s a good person and he has a good heart. Obviously, his statement missed the point and missed what was going on in the world today and took away attention from the movement that was going on and the peaceful protesting that was going on. But I think you see with his actions afterwards, and I believe with his actions moving forward, you will see the true person that he is, how much he cares about his community, and how much he cares about the people that he’s around. Time will tell, but I know that every interaction that I’ve had with him, he’s always showed me the upmost respect and I believe that his actions will show that as we continue to move forward.”

Q: Andy Reid said that you and Tyrann Mathieu are working on a voter registration program. Do you have any details that you could share right now? And why was that something you guys chose to focus on right now as part of this movement?

MAHOMES: “Yeah, I think it came from talking and listening to teammates and people throughout our organization. Obviously with voting coming up for local offices and everything like that, we wanted to make sure that was in the front of our minds. We’ve talked about several things, nothing that is completely in stone, but voter registration was one big one that we really want to move forward with. We’ve had initial talks with Clark and we’ve talked with Mark Donovan and we’ve set up a meeting for next week with our committee, with a lot of the players that are kind of leaders on our team, and we’re going to try to find the best way to give money or support or whatever it is to get as many people registered to vote so they can go and try to affect change in every way they feel possible.”

Q: You mentioned your parents in your social media post and have spoken about them today. Was there a conversation that you remember from when you were a kid where maybe you realized that things weren’t quite right or the same for everybody? And what advice have you gotten from them, or can you get from them, as you move forward?

MAHOMES: “I always reference back to it in a lot of different situations and I’ve talked about it today, but I never had a talk that some people have had with their dads or their parents about being black and the inequalities that you could possibly have. I was blessed to be in a smaller hometown where everybody kind of knew who I was, and I was never put in a situation where I felt like I was not getting the same privileges as someone else. But as I’ve grown older, I’ve learned about it through having a black side of my family, and I’ve seen how they feel about it and I’ve talked to people that are on that side of the family. And I’ve also talked to people on my mom’s side of the family and I feel like I have a great perspective of how people feel and how the black community feels, how they don’t feel they get the same rights or value in some situations. My job I feel, having my platform, is to do whatever I can to just bring those feelings to light and let the rest of the world understand how people feel so that we can be a better community and a better world together.”

Q: What was your thought process between the time when you first saw the George Floyd murder video and when you decided to speak up? And also, what decision went into your decision to participate in the Black Lives Matter video?

MAHOMES: “The first part of your question, I can’t watch the entire George Floyd video through and through. I’ve watched in parts, but it hurts me too much to my soul to see him and feel like I can’t help, I can’t do anything to help the horrible situation that happened where George Floyd got murdered. To me, it just affected me knowing that I have people in my family who have been in and out of jail that could have been put in that situation. That’s where it took me – that could have been one of my family members, that could have been someone that I cared about, and how much hurt his family must be feeling – I can’t even understand honestly. I wanted to sit back and listen. I didn’t want to act off of anger, I didn’t want to act off of hurt. I wanted listen and make the best-informed decision that I think I could to help the world, help the community with my platform. So, I felt like that was where I first came up with my statement of trying to unite and show love to everybody. Then when I got the video, (New Orleans Saints Wide Receiver) Michael Thomas actually sent me the video and the script and I loved the idea and I wanted to get every piece of information I could on it. I called everybody that I really trust and talked to them about it and decided that I really felt like I needed to be in this video and I needed to show my support to unite with the players and show that we care. That’s kind of how we came to make that video. Obviously, the NFL came back and made a video to kind of support what we said, and we think that’s the first step, but we want to make sure that it leads to action and it leads to different things that we can go out in the community and do to make the world a better place.”

Q: There were other recent killings of black people. What was it about this particular murder that made you speak up now?

MAHOMES: “I think it was just a culmination of seeing all this happening and wanting it to stop, wanting us to find a better way of preventing these instances from happening. It’s not that one of them was more significant than the other, it was just all of it happening and then me feeling like enough is enough, we’ve got to do something about this. I’m blessed to have this platform, why not use it? As I’ve gotten older, and I know I’m still young, I’ve learned a lot and I think that was one of the things – I know I have this platform, I know everyone’s not going to agree with it, but I’m going to do my best to make the world a better place and this is the right moment to do it.”

S Tyrann Mathieu

Q: When Michael Thomas contacted you about being part of the video, what was your first reaction and now that you are a leader and a face of the National Football League what kind of responsibility is that for you?

MATHIEU: “When he first reached out to me I thought it was a great idea. He actually needed a couple more guys, he was just trying to see who had the most influence and who would be willing to put their name out there. It was kind of good to see a bunch of guys with great influence throughout the NFL be a part of that. I think our social responsibility, I think it goes far beyond the football field. I think we have a true impact in our communities. I think we are able to influence masses of people. For us it’s about owning that and doing it the right way and being conscious that the only way we’re ever going to be able to get any kind of change is if both sides are willing to change. That’s the biggest thing is to fall forward together.”

Q: I saw what you did for New Orleans with paying the rent for some families down there. Did this encourage you to do even more than what you were doing? You do so much for the community but was this a call to action to do even more to try to step up and make others step up as well?

MATHIEU: “I always preach to my guys, to my teammates, former teammates how important it is for those guys to use their platform. Some of those guys come from big cities, some of those guys come from small cities and I think if all of us reached back, we were all kind of important in our communities at one point in time. It’s important for us to never forget that and even with that said, us being where we are today it’s important for us to go back into our communities and educate them and continue to push those guys forward. I think this right here, everything that’s going on, a lot of guys are going to step up. It’s going to be much more than guys pitching football camps back home. I see a lot more guys really getting involved in their communities and really trying to push it forward.”

Q: Were you aware when you agreed to be a part of the player video what kind of impact that video would have?

MATHIEU: “I didn’t. Us as football players we don’t really think like that. We tend to do things whether they have a good or bad effect. I don’t think the intention of the video was to be heroes. I think ultimately, we saw ourselves as the guys to say something. I know for a lot of us it’s been going on for a while, this problem. Most of us would consider this the second time around. The first time around a lot of us didn’t speak up. A lot of us weren’t vocal, for many reasons. I just think right now, collectively, everybody just wants to see everything pushed forward the right way. I think it’s important.”

Q: What do you have to see both in the NFL and the world in one year, two years or three years from now to say that we really accomplished something?

MATHIEU: “I think obviously you would want to stop seeing people killed on video, whether it’s on video or not. You would like to see more people step up, no matter what side of the fence they’re on. I think most importantly, like I continue to mention, it’s all about us coming together collectively. We all come from different parts of the world, we all come from different spaces in our lives and I think the most important thing to understand is that in order to move forward we’re going to have to love each other, we’re going to have to listen to each other, we’re going to have to begin to understand each other. I just look at the world as such a big place, such a beautiful place and if we’re able to come this far with so many issues, imagine how far we can go if everybody collectively worked together. I think one of the things we’re going to do, myself and the Chiefs included, which I talked to Clark (Hunt) about this. But if we’re able to really impact voter registration, if we’re able to really give those people a voice and really allow those people to go into their communities and really elect their leaders, I think that’s going to be very, very important going forward. I think if you want to change anything, you’re going to have to educate people on what it is that they have to do to change things. A lot of times it’s a lot more than just protesting. You have to really find a call to action, and I think voter registration, that can impact a lot of people. I think that can really see good change.”

Q: You talk about voter registration. Why was that a thing as group that you landed on? I know there’s a lot of different things out there, what was it about that one in particular that just resonated with you guys as a group?

MATHIEU: “I think we can sit here all day and talk about a lot of different things and most of those topics are very sensitive, they’re very tough conversations and I think voter registration isn’t one of those conversations. I think it impacts everybody. I think everybody can be a part of that. Like I mentioned, if guys like myself and more guys like me can make voting “cool” if we can make that a trendy thing, we’re really changing the future. We’re really setting these kids up for a great future. We’re really allowing these kids access to more opportunities. Offering these kids more education and more resources and I think the way to do that is to put people in office that are going to do that. Probably the most important thing is to vote, but a lot of folks don’t think that’s cool. Maybe we can make that a “cool” thing again.”

Q: How comfortable are you with the NFL’s protocols to bring players back? Also, how do you approach the break between next week and the start of camp knowing that Coronavirus is still a threat out there?

MATHIEU: “For me, my rule number one every day I wake up is to protect my family. Definitely wouldn’t want to be bringing anything back home to my family, but along the other lines I miss football. It’s been too long. I’m excited about it. I was actually telling someone the other day, I don’t think I ever checked out. I’m still in football mode and that’s a good thing for me. It doesn’t matter when we start, I’m gonna be really to roll. I’m excited about it. A lot of my teammates are excited about it even though this offseason has been a little bit different than most. I think we’ve actually gotten a little bit better. I think we got a little smarter, so hopefully most guys have been using this time to make sure their body is right, make sure their mind is right, because we have been through a lot these last couple of months and to go to football season, it’s going to take great leadership. It’s going to take great accountability for everybody, all 32 teams. There’s going to be a lot on a lot of people’s minds, and I think us as a team, we have to be able to use that as our advantage. We have to be able to lock in and really be there for each other. I’m looking forward to it.”