Sir Purr
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- Mar 16, 2019
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Below is the transcript from Ron Rivera's press conference with the media on Friday morning at the Harrow School.
How has the team acclimated so far?
We had a good morning of meetings. Today everyone was on time. They seemed to be kind of chipper so pretty excited about that. Hopefully they will continue to acclimate to the time zone.
What's been the biggest difference so far?
Probably the biggest difference right now is the weather. The turf is a little bit wet right now. I walked on it a little bit. I think the guys are pretty set for it. One of the things that we have talked about all week is trying to make this as normal a Friday as possible. We’ll go through all of our regular Friday routine. This is situational football all day for us. We’ll practice it as normal as we can, and once we finish up, we will head back to the hotel.
How about it raining again on a Friday?
That’s kind of it. Last year, it was 12 out of 17 or something like that. But we’ll make do. The guys are focused in on what the task at hand is and we’ll continue our preparation as we get ready for Sunday’s game. We wanted to keep today as similar to our regular routine as possible, obviously with the exception of being here in the UK.
How is Eric Reid doing?
Eric should get some snaps in today. With the wet turf, we’ll have to be careful with a few guys. Just making sure the footing is good. But yeah, Eric should be out there.
Is Christian doing OK? How is his back?
Christian’s fine. If we would have practiced yesterday, he would have participated. He’s expected to participate today. He’s gotten his treatments and stuff like he’s supposed to. He just seems ready to roll. We’re pretty excited about getting everybody on the football field today.
Did the back injury happen on the flip into the end zone?
I think it was. He didn’t complain about it until afterwards. We wouldn’t have known until he told us. He got treatment and our trainers have been real diligent with him. If we would have had practice yesterday, he would have participated.
Does Reggie Bonnafon continue to get opportunities like he did last week?
I know in Norv’s eyes that he’s pretty excited about things that Reggie has done. I told you guys this the other day: Reggie works very hard at his craft, because he takes the extra time to develop those things and he’s starting to show it. He’s one of those guys where the more football he plays, the more improvement he’ll make. It was good to see him get the opportunity last Sunday and good to take advantage of it. To have Norv speak of him just shows you he has confidence, so don’t be surprised if he gets some more opportunities.
Does playing over here act as a disadvantage?
We’ve talked about it. I’ve tried to get them to understand that both teams have to come over here. So there’s no reason not to feel like you have a great experience in front of you. I told them to focus and I use a friend of mine’s saying: “Be where your feet are.” So wherever you are, focus in on wherever you are 100 percent. When you’re on the practice fields, when you’re in the meeting room, when you’re on the game field, be where you are. When you’re not, be with your family, your friends and around town, enjoy that. It’s a great experience and for some of these guys, it might be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. It’s been terrific, it really has. I got an opportunity to go out about town last night and just be with other folks. What a great experience. The people here in the UK, the people here in London have been very warm.
Who have been the most recognizable players to local people here?
Christian has been very recognizable. Once people find out that he’s the guy that flipped, they flip about him. It’s been kind of cool to see the response for that. Luke has been very recognizable. Obviously Efe. I think that they recognize some of our guys just by their size. When three or four of them are just walking down the street and you see the folks look at them like ‘Oh, they must be American footballers.’ It’s kind of nice and I think our guys appreciate it. There’s a whole group of them that just seem to be enjoying themselves so far.
Have special teams been able to be outside on the field?
They are actually out there right now working on their snaps and their holds and their kicks. It’s a good little time for those guys to get used to the turf. The stadium has a hole in the middle of it. So the weather will potentially affect parts of the field. We wanted to get them out so they came in early with us.
Were there opportunities to come to London before and did David Tepper make a big difference in coming now?
There may have been opportunities before. It was a decision made not to, I guess. Mr. Tepper most certainly was open to it. I think now with the push that the league seems to be making for some global recognition for this sport to not just play in the United States but to play in the UK and the potential for it to grow is there. The popularity of the Super Bowl shows that there is a desire for this to become a global game which I think would be really cool. It’s a tremendous game. It’s been a really cool experience. Back in the day, I had the fortune of playing in Berlin, Gutenberg, Sweden and got the opportunity to coach in Ireland. It’s kind of neat to get the opportunity to go overseas and get exposed to different countries and different cultures and kind of see the impact that football is making. This was way back when I played so that was 25 years ago.