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Leonard Williams: "We Have To Climb The Mountain All Over Again" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So what's up. Good are you? It's pretty good. My
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: wife takes care of it. For the most part. I
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: kind of just enjoy the fruits of it. Literally, is
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: there any fruit there that you're growing? Tomatoes? Yeah, tomato fruit?
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: Did you watch us? What's that? I haven't been able
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: to see it yet, but people have sent me clips
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: and talked about it, some friends and family and stuff
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: like that, like sent me some small clips of it.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: Just didn't get a chance to watch it yesterday, and
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: of course want to watch it with my family.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: There was some talking there about how maybe you had
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: thought about retiring back when you were in New York
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: and now maybe you're talking about extending your career and
• 0:45
  Speaker 2: past this year. What do you account that to?
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: I just count that to your environment, your surroundings, the
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: people you're around every day plays a huge part in
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: your individual success, team success, and uh, just a for
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: the game as well. I mean there was a time
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: in my career, you know, when I was playing in
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: the East Coast and we were just going year after
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: year with losing seasons and you know, dealing with new
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: coaching staff and new culture you know, every two or
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: three years. And I was also dealing with some injury
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: at the time, and you know, I was only like
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: year eight, and like clearly still had a left in
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the tank, a lot left in the tank. But I
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: was already like, you know, is this what football like?
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Is this it for my career? You know? But obviously
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: I kept pushing, I kept fighting, and eventually ended up
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: here and turned it all around.
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: How quickly could you tell that in Seattle? Because obviously
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: you came here the last year he was here, and
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: then Mike takes over, So there's kind of new, you know,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: a new situation already for.
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, honestly, I think it just right away. Honestly, even
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: though we have a new coaching staff now than when
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: I got traded here, I think it just lit a
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: fire underneath me. Kind of just restored my energy, love
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: for the game. Just being in a new environment in
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  Speaker 1: general kind of just changed changed my perspective. You know.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: Obviously when Mike got hired, it even heightened because of
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: his principles and things that he's brought to the team.
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: His first year was my first year in the contract
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: here as well, and I think we were able to
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: kind of build a defense together and be a big
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: part of it. His first year here. What were you
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: going with? See what Mike McDonald, what did he have
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: to prove the veterans or show and what point did
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: you buy in and say, oh, this guy knows what
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: he's doing. I think right away the defense was brought
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: into who he was because of just his genius for
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: the game as a defensive coach, the way he played
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: called the way he gave us freedom to be who
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: we were as individuals. You know, me and Jay Reid
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: are you know, both three techniques, but we're obviously different builds,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: so we're obviously going to do things in different ways.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: And he allowed you know, that's a small example, but
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: he allowed that throughout the whole defense of everyone to
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: play into their individual attributes. And then I think over
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: time he won over the other guys that were a
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: part of the Pete Carroll era just with his his
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: humility perspective. I think as the head guy, he represented it.
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: He represented what we want to be around here when
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: he went up in front of the team room and
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: you know, had vulnerability and showed everything that he wanted
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: to work on and everything that he had to get
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: better at as a person and as a coach, and
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: they kind of give freedom to the rest of the
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: team to do the same. And I think that kind
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: of what is what brought our team close together is
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: him self deprecating saying he's awkward and he's a nerd
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and he's uncomfortable. Is that the kind of thing you
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: talked about, Yeah, exactly. I think. You know, he went
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: up in front of the team and pretty much pointed
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: out all these things that he had room for improvement,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: and I think by doing that it made everyone kind
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: of like let our guards down. You know, if the
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: head guy is kind of pointing out all these things
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: that he can get better, it makes us feel like
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: not as judge or anything like that. When someone's pointing
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: out something that you can get better, we're we're pretty
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: much showing that we were attacking a problem and not
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: a person. And it kind of get freedom throughout the
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: whole building to go player to player, player to coach,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: coach a player and just help each other get better
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and and figure out that, you know, winning was the
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: ultimate goal and put all the egos in pride to
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  Speaker 1: side with that.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: How have you seen him kind of grow or evolve
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: in the two and a half years he's been here.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: To me, he's just becoming more and more of himself.
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: You know, you see him come in his first year
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: and you could tell he wanted to like get everyone's
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: respect and kind of earn guys respect and trust. And
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: then you know, now he's just seems more confident and
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  Speaker 1: just leaning more and more into who he is and
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: and his principles.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: Him get a little spotlight with hard knocks and people
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: discovering him.
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: Yeah, to me, I like it. You know, he's a
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: great coach, he has a great personality. I think he
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: deserves to be recognized, and I think this is you know,
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: putting him in a spotlight and and nothing has to change.
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: You know, he's just being himself, which is what everyone
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: else is in the building is doing.
• 4:52
  Speaker 2: In the episode last night, they showed him like really
• 4:54
  Speaker 2: getting on Derek Hall and getting.
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: Too close to the quarterbacks. He's pretty stern, but.
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: Then afterwards he's.
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: Got his armor around them. Loves it.
• 5:01
  Speaker 2: Like, what do you appreciate about that?
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: I mean, what I appreciate about that is that is
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: the type of energy that spreads throughout the team, and
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: you've seen it from the top down. I mean he's
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: the head coach who's you know, he's getting on someone
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: and there's a heated altercation in that moment, but at
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: the same time, it's like all love and that clearly
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: happens out here. Sometimes it gets tested. There's a lot
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: of testos run. We're competing all day in the sun,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: and you know, sometimes there's a fight or a bad
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: rep here and there, and like guys are getting into it.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: But then once we're in here, it's all love. And
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: you know, I think that's the type of culture that
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: we're creating. We compete, sometimes it gets a little hostile,
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: but just like family, that happens with family, and you know,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: we all love each other at the end of the day.
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: Mike's talked a lot, talked about, you know, not running
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: it back, but running it forward. And this is a
• 5:46
  Speaker 2: new team of things. Is it that easy though, to
• 5:48
  Speaker 2: not think about, Yeah, we're the defending super Bowl champions and.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: We gotta you know, it's surprisingly being easier than I imagine.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And I think it's just goes to show this type
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: of team. No one on this team is satisfied. No
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: one on this team is happy with what happened last year.
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: We all understand that this is a whole new season,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: a whole new team. Even though we have a lot
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: of our staff and you roster back, we have to
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: climb them ountain all over again. And you already see
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: guys taking their game to the next level. Nobody's trying
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: to be the same player that they were last year
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: or the same coach that they were last year. It's
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a whole new team.
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: So you guys have talked about how special you feel
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: like this locker room is and the culture you guys
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: have worked hard to build. If the team brings in
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: somebody who maybe has had some field issues, what's your
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: role in making sure that the locker room stays intact.
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: I mean, I think it's my role, in the team's
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: role to just be ourselves. Like I've been saying, we
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: have such a culture and way about ourselves here that
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: if you know, if you don't fall in line with
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: the way our team is, you're just gonna get steamrolled
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: and not fit in. To be honest, I think guys
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: instantly come into this building and they see that we
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: stand out in different ways in terms of like the
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: way we practice, the way we communicate, the way we
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: show respect and want to get better, and if you're
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: not following all our principles and guidelines. It's like you're
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: gonna stand out really easily, and and uh, you either
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: just gonna fall in line or not end.
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: Up here between you and Jaren and Law and now
• 7:20
  Speaker 2: Dante Faler, you got four guys with more than decade
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: experience up front. Chenna's right knocking on that door.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: If you just what's that you pretty.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Bits have that many guys, we've seen as much football
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: as you guys have.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Just know what you do about the game. I mean,
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  Speaker 1: it's great because a lot of times, you know, we
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: could work smart versus hard out here in practice, we
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: can communicate with each other, we can run games with
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  Speaker 1: each other. We've also have had a year of experience
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: with each other last year, so now we understand each
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: other's game a little better. So like, you know, they
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: know I'm gonna get into the gap, They're gonna they're
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: gonna wrap off me a little bit more like you know,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: vice versa. And I think it also helps the young guys.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: We give a lot of you know, our wisdom to
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  Speaker 1: the younger guys. We give a lot of our time
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: to the young guys to teach them and train them
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: and and give them all of our knowledge.
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: If you guys had a sledgehammer competition in the whole
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: defensive room, who wins.
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: I would say it would be probably between Murph and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: and Riley. Those are some pretty stout guys. Thank you,
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: thank you. Listen