Sam Eguavoen August 21, 2021 (Postgame)
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(When was the last time you had four sacks?) – “Last time I had four sacks? My dream last night. (laughter)”
(What was this week like for you, going from COVID to four sacks in an important preseason game?) – “It’s always stressful when you can’t practice with your team, especially in training camp and things like that. You know, everybody is trying to make a team. Two days in the football world feels like a month. When I came back, everybody was like, man, where you been, you lost weight, things like that. It’s just tough not being able to practice, especially when we had joint practice with Atlanta. But just being able to come back and still understand the plays and everything, I was just happy about that.”
(Did you feel fresh?) – “Yeah, I felt fresh at the beginning of the game, but then as the game goes on, you’re hitting offensive linemen and things like that, your body is going to get sore eventually.”
(If you had to put your journey in the NFL into words to somebody who didn’t know what your career has been like, what would you say it was?) – “Just have a strong faith. Just always believing in yourself. Even if you don’t make it, at least your faith got stronger, you know, like just always believe. It’s never good to doubt yourself or bet against yourself, but that’s just my main thing. I just kept faith, kept hope alive, and now I’m here and still got that same mindset going through camp, going through preseason and for my career.”
(You’ve sort of carved out a niche for yourself as an inside pass rusher. What was that journey like? I remember last year you were working as a pass rusher and now you’re back as the inside linebacker, I think. What’s that like?) – “It’s really just learning, taking coaching points from the d-line coach, outside linebacker coach, pass rush coach, things like that. I’m never sitting in meetings and just locked in on inside linebacker. When my coach is talking, that’s all I hear. I’m still hearing what the d-line coach is saying, and that’s what a lot of great players do. They know what everybody is doing. You’re taking coaching points from each position so if you ever end up in that situation, you know at least a little bit. Especially Coach (Flores) always talks about you want to be a doctorate in your position but have your master’s in here, have your GED here. You don’t ever want to just be dumb at any position on the football field.”
(How many text messages did you have?) – “I haven’t even opened it yet, honestly. It was crazy. (laughter)”
(Does it get any better than a sack for a safety?) – “Probably if you get a strip sack, touchdown. Probably, yeah. (laughter)”
(You were dancing, you were really engaged after your sack. Just each one. How did that feel just having outplayed yourself?) – “Just being out there with your team, man, it’s just crazy knowing you made a play and everybody – all 11 on the field, even the sideline, everybody is excited for you. That’s great. Even when Munson caught his pick, the whole sideline erupted. Heck, I forget that I made the play because people are punching me and things like that. I’m like, ‘Dang, I don’t want to make no more plays because this kind of hurts. (laughter).’ But it’s a team game, man. It’s 11; it’s a tough sport. Anytime you can make a play, man, just celebrate, rejoice, but then get right back to the next play.”
(I saw after you came off the field for the sack safety, it was LB Jerome Baker, it was DT Christian Wilkins, it was DT Raekwon Davis, it was CB Nik Needham, CB Xavien Howard came over congratulated you, I’m sure plenty more after that. Three years here mostly with those guys, what did that moment mean to you?) – “It meant everything. You just seen the look in their eyes and they’re just so excited for you. You’re like, ‘Man, I love this, like let’s keep going, let’s keep doing it. Man, you make a play – everybody just believes, and you never know, every snap it could be one of us. You never know. When it’s your time, just execute, and we’re all going to ball out in the end zone.”
(You mentioned it a little earlier, but everybody’s fighting – a lot of people are fighting for a roster spot at this point. I’m sure you feel like one of those guys. What does this mean for you I guess in that fight?) – “It’s still a fight. It don’t matter what you do today. It’s always – the rent is due every day. It’s never just – you can’t get lackadaisical because, oh, I got four sacks this week or I got a pick that week. There’s always somebody ready to take your spot just like when I was in Canada; I’m waiting for somebody to slip up in the NFL. I’m going to rejoice tonight, but tomorrow I know I’m still going to get chewed out in film for plays that I messed up on, and you just go back into practice the next weekend and you’ve got to do it all over again. I never get complacent with anything I do.”
(Was there something as the game went on you caught onto that you realized that they can’t stop – they can’t block…) – “I mean, we talk on the sideline. Adam Butler, he’s a veteran defensive lineman. He’s really smart when it comes to pass rush and things like that, and he’s taught me a lot this summer, training camp. We just talk about it, and we go to the sideline, make adjustments, go back out there, and if it works, it works. If it doesn’t, we go back to the drawing board. I mean, it wasn’t nothing magical that we were doing. It was just hard work and executing.”
(Excluding dreams, when was the last time you had four sacks in a game?) – “Are you still on that question? (laughter) I’ve never had four sacks in a game.”
(Sam, in addition to wanting to be a professional athlete, making enough money for yourself, what else is a part – what else or who else is a part of your drive?) – “I’d say my little brother, really. You know, he has epilepsy. I don’t know if you all know that, but he has epilepsy so he has random seizures all the time and little things that we take for granted in life like driving to the grocery store or going out to eat with your friends and things like that, he doesn’t have that lifestyle. He’s always in the house until somebody takes him somewhere. So it’s just like, when I’m here, I’m so locked in on football, sometimes I end up forgetting about him, but I know who I’m doing it for, and then once I get back home in the offseason, I’m just like, man, he’s been doing the same thing every single day, so I try to do the most I can with him in the offseason and hopefully I make enough money, have a long enough career where I can take care of him and stuff for as long as I can.”
(What’s his name?) – “Owen.”
(How about in Madden? Have you ever had four sacks in a Madden game?) – “I have. (laughter) Hopefully my stats increase on Madden.”
