Cameron Wake – January 6, 2017
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Friday, January 6, 2017
Defensive End Cameron Wake
(What’s your excitement level heading into your first playoff game?) – “100 percent.”
(Have a lot of guys been coming up to you? There’s been a lot of talk in the locker room this week about this being your first playoff game. Have you heard a lot from your teammates?) – “No more than normal I don’t think. I think it is common knowledge now at this point. But to me, the ‘You’re welcome’ – if that’s the way to say it – came weeks and weeks ago. It comes Friday night when guys are getting sleep. It comes on that last drive when guys are selling out. All of that stuff with guys congratulating me – I say the same thing to them – I say thank you for doing everything possible to get us to where we are right now.”
(There’s a ‘Do it for Cam’ sort of mentality in the locker room from a lot of these young players who realize it’s not their birthright to get to the playoffs. Is that humbling?) – “It’s humbling; but do it for yourself. But if that’s the motivation, I’ll take it. Again, it’s hard to get in this position. It’s hard to win in this league; and any guy who’s a part of it, my hat is off to them. Do it for whatever your reason is, just do it.”
(Do you guys notice … You’re a guy who likes a chip on his shoulder. But do you notice all of the disrespect that the team has gotten this year? I mean people don’t even give you a one percent chance to make it out of the AFC East.) – “I don’t pay attention to it. I don’t know. Week-in and week-out, I’m sure there are people who wouldn’t believe that we are where we are. If we’ve gotten to this point and along the way nobody believed in us, why would I start caring now when I didn’t last week, the week before, the week before that, the week before that, along the way ‘You’re going to lose. The Dolphins are going to lose.’ I don’t care. I care about the guys who are going to put on the helmets, who are going to go out there and fight and put us in the point. I guess they’ve been wrong, so I’m not going to start listening now.”
(Defensive Coordinator Vance Joseph had an interesting comment this week that you might have heard about. He said that ‘Cam is an underdog in his mind.’ What do you think about that concept?) – “I think that probably has some merit to that.”
(Why are you an underdog in your own mind?) – “Well, it’s just starting from the beginning. I wasn’t the sought after guy, I wasn’t the front page story. I wasn’t drafted. I was kind of in the back door – kick the door down – way to get in to where I am. There was no silver spoon. There was nothing handed to me. Even to this day, I had to fight and work for everything that I have. I take that motivation with me every time I step on the field. Where I got to is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, as the saying goes. But it continues to fuel me. There’s no end. There’s no complacency. There’s no satisfaction. Everything that I’ve gotten, I want more and more and more. I’d like to think that this helped me be successful.”
(What has this season been like for you? The Dolphins are in the playoffs, your fifth Pro Bowl birth, candidate for Comeback Player of the Year, coming off an Achilles at 34 and a couple of days.) – “It’s been fun. It’s been fun. It’s been everything that I’ve expected it to be. From the moment the injury happened, I knew that the opportunity was there to be standing where I am in front of you right now. Again, that goes kind of back to what you were saying about people: I guarantee you that not only team-wide Dolphins, but Cameron Wake – there are people who wrote me off back then. The same people who don’t know the Dolphins are the same people who don’t know me. And here we are, and here I am.”
(We talked about this in September but the Dolphins’ plan that they had about trying to conserve your energy, keeping you healthy late in the season by not starting you initially, and obviously that changed with the Pittsburgh game. You spoke of that time in September of understanding the reasoning behind it. That said, is it satisfying to have shown over the last three months that you are still a high-level starter, not just a high-level pass rusher in the NFL but still a high-level starter?) – “I would hope that, that was never a question. Again, like I said, the plans were the plans and who knows if that going forward continues to be the plan. That sounds like a great plan. ‘Up by 30, go in to pass rush, everybody win, yay.’ But again, this is football. It doesn’t always work out that way, and we had to make some adjustments. If I’m still having to prove that I can be a starter, then that’s a whole other conversation. Again, as I spoke before, we’ve sat down many times, the coaches, trainers and figured out a plan that works best for the team and myself included, and here we are. I’ve enjoyed the road. Of course I’d rather not be so (many) high blood pressure-type of games that we’ve been in; but again this is the NFL, and that’s sometimes what it’s going to be.”
(Considering all of the adversity that you have been through, what does it mean to you to be named Defensive Player of the Year for the team?) – “I didn’t know that was the case.”
(The Don Shula Leadership Award.) – “I was about to say, I didn’t know.”
(It was your third time winning.) – “Well, it’s hard to put into words because again, we spoke about people on the outside. When something like that comes from inside, those are the people who really do know. There’s no BS’ing another player; you can’t snow the snowman – all those phrases. Another player knows when you’re faking it. Another player knows when you’re really giving all you have. Another player knows the real deal. So when those are the people who are making those decisions, voting – whether it be Pro Bowl or leadership awards or any kind of accolade – to me those are the most important. Those are the most honored and the most cherished because of the sincerity, because of the authenticity of it. Popularity votes and people on the outside, that’s one thing. But coming from the guys who are in the huddle with you, who go through all of the trials and tribulations of football with you, it takes that to another level so I really do appreciate that.”
