Minkah Fitzpatrick – April 26, 2018
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Thursday, April 26, 2018
Safety Minkah Fitzpatrick
(What has this experience been like for you in terms of being in the draft process and being selected by the Miami Dolphins?) – “It’s been a fun experience. It’s something that not a lot of people get to do, so I try to enjoy it as much as I can. I know Miami is a great team, a great program, a great state and a great city. It’s going to be an awesome opportunity down there. I’m going to go down there and work my hardest and just try and win championships down there.”
(When you adjusted your headset, I noticed that there are a couple of rings on your hands. Show us those and do you expect maybe…) – “I’ve got to fill the rest of them. I got to fill the rest of them. (laughter)”
(Yes, that’s what I was getting at. They give out rings for winning a Super Bowl.) – “Yes, sir. Yes, they do. Like I said, I’m trying to fill the rest of those fingers up.”
(Tell us about the suit. You look like you got dressed with South Beach in mind.) – “(laughter) I just tried to do something that wasn’t too bright, wasn’t too flashy; but also stood out a little bit. So I decided to go with this off-white color with black on black, and that’s really it.”
(Did you have an idea that Miami was interested, that this was a place you could end up and what is your reaction about being taken by the Dolphins?) – “I knew a lot of teams were interested and I had no clue honestly where I was going to be going. With every single team, I had as open (of a) mind, that I could or could not go, to that team. Like I said earlier, it’s a great program. I’m just happy to be selected by the Dolphins.”
(You played a lot of positions during your career at Alabama. Where do you feel is the best fit for you as a football player?) – “I just say wherever the team needs me. That’s what I did at Alabama. Week to week I was playing a different positon based off what the offense did and where I was needed at week to week. If the coaches at Miami think I can play multiple positions, then I’m going to play multiple positions and do whatever they need me to do.”
(Can you talk about how playing at Alabama prepares you for the NFL?) – “Honestly, Coach (Nick) Saban. He has coached underneath some great coaches like Bill Belichick, and he has been in football for over 40-plus years. He knows what the NFL is like. He knows how to get his players right on and off the field, whether it be discipline or … The scheme that we run is very complex and very similar to NFL schemes. It’s a combination of a bunch of whole different things and that’s it really.”
(What do you think helped you contribute at a high level as a freshman at Alabama and do you think it’ll translate into the NFL?) – “Yes, sir. I think it was my mental maturity. I kind of had to grow quick just because of some things I’ve been through at a young age and it kind of helped me realize what I was chasing after. I had a goal in mind and I wasn’t going to fall short of that goal. That was my mindset going in, and it is the same thing in the NFL. My dream wasn’t to just make it to the NFL, it’s to be a great player in the NFL. It’s just the beginning. Like I said, I’m going to take that same mindset I had at Alabama and apply it to the Miami Dolphins organization.”
(How would you describe that approach and that mentality and mindset that you try to take to practice as well as game day?) – “You’re only going to be as good as you are in practice. People can say to you, ‘I don’t go that hard in practice, but I play hard in the game.’ That’s not true, because if you do that, you’re hurting your team, you’re hurting yourself and at the end of the day, you aren’t going to win games and you aren’t going to play the way that you want to, or at least you’re not going to play as well as you want to. Every single day, just flying to the ball, racing each other to the ball, is going to get everybody better. Everybody is going to want to run as fast as you and beat you to the ball so when you do that and compete with each other every day in practice, it translates over to the game.”
(You mentioned playing a lot of positions, different positions in college. What allowed you to be able to contribute at multiple positions? What about your personality or your work ethic allowed you to do that?) – “I would say a couple of different things. One is my athleticism. I’m an athlete, so you can put me in multiple different spots and I could adjust to different techniques and stuff like that. After that, it’s my football IQ. Coach Saban taught me a lot at Alabama, a whole bunch of other coaches, (Assistant Head Coach and Defensive Backs) Coach (Mel) Tucker, (Defensive Backs) Coach (Derrick) Ansley, Coach ‘Shoe’ (Director of Player Development and Associate Director of Player Personnel Glenn Schumann). All of them taught me a whole lot while I was there – (Assistant Director of Player Personnel) Coach Aazaar (Abdul-Rahim). They all just taught me a whole lot. It kind of allowed me to move around, be a chess piece as you would say, or a Swiss army knife as you would say. That’s really it, those two things right there.”
(What was your interaction with the Dolphins like prior to getting the phone call tonight?) – “I only talked to them about two or three times. I didn’t have any visits with them. I didn’t do any workouts with them. I talked to them at the Combine and I talked to the DBs coach (Tony Oden) one or two times over the phone.”
(You referred earlier to some of the adversity you’ve been through. I know you had the situation with your family home after Hurricane Irene. How were you able to get through that and did it affect your preparation for football very much?) – “It was a tough time in my family’s life, but the only way we got through it was by sticking together as a unit, doing everything together, making decisions together and making sure everybody was alright. And then of course, at the foundation of all of that, was our faith. Our faith in Christ kept us all rooted in the right things, kept our minds and our hearts in the right place. So that was how we did that. It did affect my ability to play sometimes. At one time I told my family I was going to quit and just work and not go to (the) school I was going to because t was a private school, so my family had to pay. So, it did affect my mindset a little bit; but after a while it kind of reverted my mindset onto something else and it made me work harder rather than just giving up.”
(What, if anything, do you know about the Dolphins safeties – S Reshad Jones and S T.J. McDonald?) – “I don’t know too much, but I know just watching some of their games throughout the season that they’re both real good safeties. They do what they’re supposed to do and they get the job done.”
(Do you know anybody on this roster aside from perhaps RB Kenyan Drake?) – “’Mo’ (Maurice) Smith. He was at Alabama and then transferred to Georgia. He’s a DB as well.”
(What do you think is the key to creating turnovers?) – “The key to creating turnovers is simply just doing your job and being in the right place. If you’re a DB and you try to get picks, you’re going to be out of position and you’re going to be looking at the wrong things; but simply when you’re just doing your job and being in the right place, they just come.”
(You had six interceptions in 2016 and one last year. Were you concerned that might somehow affect how teams would look at you in anyway?) – “No, sir. I wouldn’t say that. I think it was because I was moving around so much. It allowed teams to kind of not target me as much. I think I was targeted about 20 less times in 2016 than I was in 2017, so there was really nothing I could do about it. I just tried to do my job as much as I could and I think teams realized that.”
(So you would like to be targeted, correct?) – “Yes. I think any DB wants people to throw at them; but at the same time, it’s a compliment and an honor if teams don’t throw at you.”
(What was your favorite team and player growing up?) – “NFL team?”
(Yes.) – “My favorite NFL team was Philly. I was a Philadelphia fan. One of my favorite players was either … I love Brian Dawkins and I love Donovan McNabb and Brian Westbrook. All three of those guys were guys that I watched all growing up. They’re awesome players and awesome men on and off the field. I just love watching them play.”
(I’m curious, what kind of name is Minkah? Where did that come from?) – “I’m named after my father. His name is Minkah. He’s also named after his father; but my grandfather’s name is Justice. He already had named one of his sons Justice. He wanted to name another one after him but not with the same name, so he chose Minkah. It means justice and equality in either … I think its Arabic or Swahili – some form of that. So I’m named after my grandfather, but not exactly the same exact name.”
(You know that Nick Saban was the head coach of the Dolphins for a little while. Any chance that you talked to him about what it’s like down here?) – “I didn’t get a chance to talk to him. We just had a quick handshake and I gave him a hug after I got the phone call, and that was really it. I’m sure I’ll talk to him a little bit once I get done with all of the media.”
(The Dolphins have sort of needed someone who can help cover tight ends for a minute. Do you think you can do that pretty good?) – “Yes. I did that a lot in college, whether it was at the money position or the safety position. I would come down in the box and cover those bigger tight ends, and even when they moved outside I would go out there and cover them just because I’m a physical guy. I’m physical with those guys and I know they can’t run by me, so Coach (Nick) Saban trusts me to do that job.”
(What was it like playing for Coach Nick Saban?) – “It was awesome – an awesome experience. I became so much better of a player in the past three years just by sitting underneath him, watching everything that he does and move the way that he moves. I really appreciate everything that he’s done and how hard he was on me because it made me into a great man. It also made me into a great player.”
(He obviously thought very highly of you and it is one of the reasons you’re probably here, because Head Coach Adam Gase is a disciple of Nick Saban. Is it kind of rewarding that the hard work you put in college is now kind of manifesting now in the pros?) – “Yes, sir. It’s awesome just being able to see my family here enjoying this moment with me and just being able to call myself a professional athlete.”
(You mentioned how hard Coach Nick Saban was on you. Can you point to one particular time that he was hard on you that maybe helped you get to where you are today?) – “I remember one of the first weeks I got there, he was just on me; like on me bad, on me hard. At first, I wasn’t frustrated because I was used to getting yelled at but he was, even when I was making good plays, he was just finding something to tweak and finding something to fix. It was kind of getting under my skin a little bit because I’m like ‘I’m making good plays, why is he still yelling at me?’ He would see me getting frustrated one day and he just told me why he was that way and why he was hard on me specifically, and some of my other teammates. He just told me it was because he realized how great I could be and he’s not going to let me get away with slacking or not doing the right thing, whether it’s the smallest of little things. He wasn’t going to let me get away with it.”
(What similarities do you see between Nick Saban and Adam Gase?) – “Both of them are really great coaches. Both of them are very thorough in their approach to the game. They’re both great coaches. They both have good ‘reps’ (reputations) behind them. I’m happy I played for Coach Saban and I’m excited to play for Coach Gase.”
