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Patrick Laird – December 4, 2019 Download PDF version

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

RB Patrick Laird

(How has your life changed over the past couple of weeks now that opportunities have arisen?) – “I think the main thing that has changed has been more playing time on Sundays on the offensive side of the ball. I’m still on all four phases on special teams, and then my routine during the week has been pretty much the same. I just have to do a better job after the game of just taking care of my body, but it hasn’t changed that much.”

(When did you know that you were good at catching the ball out of the backfield and when did that skill kind of develop for you?) – “I appreciate you saying I’m good at it. (laughter) Actually my second year at Cal, I moved to receiver for a year and then they moved me back to running back. Probably in that year, just developing my hands, developing my route-running. I still have a lot of work to do on that. I can get a lot better and run better routes, catch more balls. So in my mind, I think I’ve done some things well and the coaches trust me, but there’s a lot of things I could do better in the passing game.”

(From your perspective, how important has it been that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick has been there with you along the way here?) – “He’s a great teammate. I have a lot of great teammates. A lot of the older guys, I was blown away when I showed up how nice and supportive everyone else is. Yeah, ‘Fitz’ is one of those guys that is extremely helpful to the young guys. He’s just a great leader on the offensive side of the ball. It’s obviously great to have guys like that on the team.”

(Can you give me an example of like during the game, something that QB Ryan Fitzpatrick might do that your typical run-of-the-mill quarterback might not be able to do that either loosens you guys up or turns it into a game like we saw the other day?) – “I don’t have many other NFL quarterbacks to compare them to because him and Josh (Rosen) do a great job of communicating to us running backs; but on the play where I ran out into the flat and I was able to break a tackle, ‘Fitz’ had told me ‘Expect the ball.’ It’s kind of nice when he’s able to step up to the line and he sees things pretty quickly. He’s had a lot of in-game reps obviously playing 15 years or whatever it is, so there are little moments like that where he can anticipate what they’re going to do and then give you some words before the play starts.”

(Some stories you know are going to take a life of their own when you hear them. The whole “Intern” nickname was one of them.) – “(laughter) Yeah, I’ve already heard those stories incorrectly repeated.”

(What’s the correct version of that story?) – “So the story is I walked into the cafeteria that we have. I sit down with one of the operations guys and with him are some operations interns that were here during training camp. So I’m just talking and asking these guys questions. They’re all still in college and they’re undergrads, so I’m asking them what they like to do, what brought them here, how their time is going here, and then one of them goes: ‘So what do you do here?’”

(What did you say?) – “So I told him ‘Oh, I’m on the team.’ And he was really apologetic. I didn’t take it – I wasn’t offended in any way. I thought it was funny, so I told that story to the team when I got called up one time, because they have the rookies come up during training camp just to entertain the team. So I told that story and people thought it was funny. Then the offensive coaches have been calling me that just for fun. They know I don’t take offense to it, so I think it’s funny. Then ‘Fitz’ (Ryan Fitzpatrick) mentioned that to the color commentator or the TV guys at some point. So they got a hold of it.”

(A bad game of telephone, huh?) – “Yeah.”

(If you were an intern in another field, what would it be?) – “My last internship I did, I did an investment banking internship at a great boutique investment firm in San Francisco called Greentech Capital. I really enjoyed my time there. I still keep in contact with one of the partners there, or the managing partner. He actually might go to the game this Sunday, so I guess I would say that. But I’m going to play football as long as I can. (laughter)”

(So do they call you ‘Intern’ just to call you over? Patrick or ‘Intern?’) – “Both.”

(Is that one of those things where you don’t get to pick your nickname, you just have to live with it now? Or how does that work?) – “Well the defensive side of the ball, I think they have a better nickname for me. They call me – the defensive guys – ‘White Lightning.’ Walt Aikens started that one. (laughter)”

(Do you like that one?) – “It’s fine. It’s cool. (laughter)”

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