My family stayed there and just prepared as best they could to wait out the storm, ... Like anyone else who has family or friends down there, I've been paying attention with some anxiousness watching the path of the storm. The eye was tracking to pass right over my house in Hattiesburg. So sure I'm nervous and hoping and praying everything goes all right for everyone down there. |
My legs give out on me. |
My mom, two brothers, their families, my grandmother, my aunt and my uncle are all in a like a 25-square foot house with no power and a tree on top of it, |
My older brother, Scott, was swimming around the house trying to get the kids. My younger brother, Jeff, has three little kids. They were trying to get them up in the attic. My grandmother, who is almost 90, they were trying to get her up in the attic or on top of a washing machine or a counter or whatever. Fortunately, they all survived. But now, as bad as that was, the worst is yet to come. |
New England is a good team, definitely. They've got good players and a good scheme. We made our share of mistakes, though. That's something we can't afford to do. |
New England's a good team. Definitely. They've got good players and a good scheme. We did make some plays but you can't get into a third-and-35 situation [as Green Bay did at one point]. Throwing the ball to the other team isn't going to get it done, either. |
Next thing they know, water is on top of them, ... My older brother, Scott, and our friend, Clark, were swimming in the house trying to get the kids. My brother, Jeff, has three kids. He was trying to get them up in the attic. |
No one can go in, ... No one can come out. There's no cell phones working. There's no land phones working. Half the county is under water, from what I understand. . . . In my gut, I feel like they're okay. But with each minute that passes, I begin to wonder. . . . This is one of those situations where I would love to do whatever I could to help . . . but I don't even know where to start. It's tough to focus on anything right now because I'm very concerned. |
No one has given me any guidelines to how you handle a 3-11 season. I think as a quarterback, just like a head coach, you can only do so much, but you feel like you should be able to do more than everyone else. And it's bad enough as it is right now. |
No one is going to hand us anything, especially now, |
No. I promise you I won't be one of those guys who says that and then retires and shows up for someone else. And they say, 'I knew it.' I think the reason why is, I don't have the energy to learn a new offense. I mean, I've been so fortunate to be in this offense for so long, it's enabled me to relax, and it's hard for me to explain what that means, but the pressures I face are trying to get everyone else on board. |
No. You know, I feel terrible about what happened because it doesn't help our team any. |
Now, the dust has settled, and you go, 'Where do we go from here? Where do we start?' |
Oakland gave me a standing ovation — they don't do that for the home players, ... It made me feel great. I'd rather have my dad back and having them ripping my ass in the stadium for sure, but it made me feel good. |
Obviously, at that point, it was too late. |