Monday, October 5: Brian Orakpo Knows How To Handle The Media, Opposing Quarterback
Posted by Matt Terl on October 5, 2009 – 9:20 am
Brian Orakpo rang up his second sack of the season yesterday, also his second in the last two games. (UPDATE, courtesy of the nice folks in the media relations department: the last Redskins rookie with a sack in consecutive games was Andre Collins, who did it three straight times in 1990.)
It wasn’t a meaningless, garbage-time sack, either; Orakpo got to Bucs rookie quarterback Josh Johnson on a crucial third down at the end of the first half, with Tampa Bay just in the Redskins red zone.
“I made an inside move, you know,” Orakpo said. “Just speed speed speed, countered with my left arm, made an inside move and the quarterback was right there on my left.”
When I asked Orakpo about his sack last week, the first of his NFL career, he was bluntly indifferent. The team had lost, and his sack wasn’t making him feel any better. And when I spoke to his fiancee at the breast cancer event last Tuesday, she mentioned in passing that he had reacted the same way away from the microphones.
But surely after a win it would be different, right?
Not exactly.
Here’s Orakpo’s response to a reporter’s question about how he felt “individually,” about his performance.
“This is great. The wins in the NFL, you can’t take ‘em for granted, man. We’re 2-2 through the first four games, and we’ve just gotta move forward. We’ve got Carolina, and we’re very excited to keep this thing going.”
The more careful readers among you will notice that this is not, in fact, a self-analysis of Orakpo’s performance, but rather a kind of generic comment about the state of the team.
Then I asked specifically how the sack had felt, if it was any more pleasant for him than the first one, given that the team won.
“It’s good,” he said. “Like I said, these wins are hard to come by. And then you get a sack on top of it, a premier stat in the league, able to keep building. But it’s not about me, man. It’s about developing a great team effort.”
Midway through the sentence, he realizes that he’s actually answering my question, so he deploys the “it’s not about me” to return to team talk.
And some of that was quite interesting, sure. For example, on ways that he might be used: “We’ve got a lot of different schemes going out of that package with Albert [Haynesworth] at end and me at tackle,” he said. “We showed it a couple of times [Sunday] but we didn’t really do anything with it.”
Or, talking about sharing the field with Panthers star defensive end Julius Peppers this week: “When I was watching the NFL, when I wasn’t here yet, those are guys that I looked up to. They bring so much to their team with the way they get after the quarterbacks and put pressure.”
It was only when he was finished getting dressed, when he had secured his stuff in his rolling suitcase and put on his sunglasses (yes, inside the locker room) that he let himself admit it, just for a second. He smiled, said, “The sack felt good, though, I ain’t gonna lie,” and walked out of the locker room.
Tags: Brian Orakpo, BrianOrakpo, Media, redskins v. bucs, RedskinsV.Bucs
Posted in General | No Comments »
