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Uchenna Nwosu: "I Feel Ready To Go" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: This is nice man a year in Nomineia pretty pretty
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: big award.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: What what does that mean?
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: He I mean, it means a lot to be able
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: to be recognized for everything that I'm doing. You know,
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: it's it's great, but you know, it still a lot
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: of work to be done and just wanna keep it going.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: But definitely thankful, uh, grateful and just keep it going.
• 0:25
  Speaker 3: What inspired your work in the community.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's something that's always just been a
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: part of me, something my parents taught me growing up.
• 0:34
  Speaker 4: And I feel like there's this kind of guy I am.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I've always been a guy to help others, uh, since
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: I was young, you know, even if it's like I
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: have three sisters, so just helping them, helping my parents
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: around the house growing up, that's just what they taught me.
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: So it's always been a part of me, and that's
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: just the kind of guy who I am.
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: Which initiative are you proud of? St of?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: Or what was that?
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: Which initiative do you are you proudest of? Or?
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: Like the most I'll probably say the stuff I've done
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: in my uh high school over the years is kind
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: of gotten a little worse since I went there over
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: ten years ago, maybe yeah, ten years ago. So you know,
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: just probably be able to get back to those student
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: athletes over there, you know, give them something I didn't
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: have when I went there, giving them the resources for
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: them to be the.
• 1:15
  Speaker 4: Best they can be, and yeah, what use that for?
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: So the So what I was able to do was
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: build an athletic center there, so they can have like
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: a full time trainer on staff. They have like a
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: room they can go in to get treatment, cold tubs,
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: ice machines, you know, stuff that we do here like
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: you know professional teams do or you know more other
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: schools have that.
• 1:41
  Speaker 4: You know my high school didn't.
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: So just stuff to help those athletes be great and
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: give them the best chance to be successful.
• 1:47
  Speaker 3: Are you able to go back to the games or
• 1:49
  Speaker 3: whatever and kind.
• 1:49
  Speaker 4: Of see them play games?
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  Speaker 1: Is tough, but you know I follow you know online,
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: and you know, just try to keep do my best
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: to keep up with them.
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: They're doing good. They's one there, oh division.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Titles, So I'm proud of them, and but I try
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: to go back as much as I can.
• 2:04
  Speaker 4: I went back for a graduation. I was a keynote
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: speaker actually, which is pretty dope.
• 2:08
  Speaker 2: So does an off field more like this maybe mean
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: even more and you're the it's been a tough year
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: for you obviously.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Yeah, the injuries and everything.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: You'd Yeah, can you maybe even appreciate something like this
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: a little.
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: More because of that?
• 2:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: Absolutely, It's giving me more time to think about things
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: that I wanna do more even though you know, of
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: course my mind is still on football, always will be.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: But you know, when you have that extra time, you
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: can think about the things you wanna do for the community.
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: And that's just what I've been trying to use to
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: distract myself a little bit and not think so much
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: of the injuries and you know, be down on myself.
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: Just use this time to give back to the community
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: and you know, make myself feel better.
• 2:43
  Speaker 4: You know. So what was the theme of your uh
• 2:46
  Speaker 4: graduation speech? For got going over the theme?
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: Uh, just basically just encouraging the kids just to follow
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: their dreams, never give up, you know, the the talk,
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: the regular talk.
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: Always try to just.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, build 'em up and just you know, keep them
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: positive and know that there's you know, there's ways to
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: always do what you wanna accomplish. Even if it's not
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: you know, road A, there's still road B. You can
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: take to get there.
• 3:09
  Speaker 4: So then you also doing stuff here in the US,
• 3:12
  Speaker 4: but you also are connected with your African roots.
• 3:14
  Speaker 2: Can we talk about their due la duality of your helping.
• 3:19
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it's I feel like it's really important to give back,
• 3:21
  Speaker 4: you know, from where.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: You're from, knowing where my parents came from, going back
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: there and seeing how they grew up, it's difficult, you know,
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: it's tough. There was one specific thing where the village
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: was without lights for like pretty much the whole year.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: So I was able to, you know, help out, give
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: back and you know, cut the street lights back on,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: stay and see at night, so which is huge cause
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: once it gets like five o'clock is dark and no
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: one can see.
• 3:46
  Speaker 4: So you know, just.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Helping just bring back a light into the village and
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: you know, just helping out that way anyway I can.
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  Speaker 4: Is That's what I'm here for.
• 3:53
  Speaker 3: How many times have you been back there?
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: I've been back to Africa twise. I went to Ghana
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: for the n and for Africa thing. I think that
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: was about three years ago. I can't really remember it.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: But then I went with my dad to Nigeria to
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: see his village in my mom's village.
• 4:05
  Speaker 4: Uh. Last year. So that was a good time.
• 4:08
  Speaker 3: How long a trip was that? What was that? How
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: how long were you over there?
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: I was only over there for a week because I
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: had to, you know, come back and start training and
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: do a bunch of other stuffs too here, So.
• 4:17
  Speaker 4: It was it was a good trip.
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: Was it one of your parents' village that you put
• 4:20
  Speaker 3: the lights back on?
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: Yeah, it was my dad's village. Yeah.
• 4:23
  Speaker 2: I would be the guy that asked about football off that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: Okay, that's why you know last year.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: You you you uh got didn't have injury and the
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: defense really struggled against I run. This year it had
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: an injury, a couple of injuries, and you've been able
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: to watch the defense really find itself. Talk about what
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: you've seen from the defense.
• 4:40
  Speaker 4: On the sidelines.
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I see a lot of guys just playing hungry.
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of guys just going out there
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: and just just trying to prove that they are there.
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: The narrative that they have on the Seahawks is not true.
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: And shout out to coach Mike Man. He does a
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: great job with inspiring everybody, you know, really uplifting guys,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: get go as fired up. You know, he just does
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: a great job and just leading us and l guys
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: are taking the initiative. We have a lot of good
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: leaders on the team as well, and guys are being
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: taking the initiative to do it themselves. And it's kind
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: of like a competition out there. I see a guy
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: is like, oh, okay, he's making plays. I'm tryna make
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: plays too. So it's kind of building everybody up, you know,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: and everybody's kind of trusting each other and believing in
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: the scheme and everybody's playing playing together.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: What are you hoping to add when you get back.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: On the field, Just add my play making skills. That's
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: one thing I've been doing my whole career is making plays.
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: So that's one thing I'm looking forward to do when
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: I get back here that there is just making plays.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: What's this your been like for your two pretty significant injuries.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, man, it's been tough. You know, I'm pretty much
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: my whole career. I I've dealt with little injuries there,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: but nothing that's kept me out for this long, starting
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: from last year with the with the uh with the
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: peck injury. So you know, I'm just tryna just you know,
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: just refigure out myself, you know.
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: What I need to do better.
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: I feel like it's really things that's kind of been
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: out of my control, especially with the knee injury that
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: I had, and then one one thing leads to another,
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: you know, so who no, So just kind of just
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: revent refiguring myself out and just you know, just trusting
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: my process and knowing that, you know, I know my
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: career is gonna be great. I'm'a still be the same
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: player I am, and just continue to trust myself.
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: What did you think of that player in the preseason year?
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: I thought it was dirty? Uh, straight up, I ain't
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: like it. Uh it's preseason. Weren't gonna be there like
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: two drives, you know, but it's football. You know, I
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: get it as football at the end of the day.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: But it was definitely a dirty play.
• 6:25
  Speaker 3: What what happened your most recent injury?
• 6:26
  Speaker 2: What what happened on that one?
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I was dealing with a thigh injury, so that
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: what happened was I actually I tore my quad in
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: uh my left my left quads. So that's what I
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: was dealing with, you know, talking to doctors, you know,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: no surgery was needed.
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: I rehab then I feel ready to go.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: We asked, do you do about that hit on Trevor Lawrence?
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: Did you see that like a chance?
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: And d you kind of you kind of sympathized with
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: both sides, you know.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: The obviously you wanna protect the quarterback.
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: Do you understand it's how that you guys are making
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: split second decision.
• 6:57
  Speaker 4: Yeah, you know.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Sometimes quarterbacks and takes lives and all that stuff.
• 7:00
  Speaker 4: MM.
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: I'm just curious how what your approach.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: To that is, what you think given kind of.
• 7:04
  Speaker 4: Conversations you kind of about that. Yeah, it's difficult, you know,
• 7:07
  Speaker 4: being a defensive player in this league.
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: Now, you know, we got all these different rules and
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: how to land and how to hit and when to
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: not hit.
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: And how to tackle. Like, it's really difficult, you know.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: And I'm sure that player had no intentions of, you know,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: hurting Trevor, but I think, you know, from a defensive player,
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I think quarterbacks got a slide a little earlier. You know,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: you can't wait til the last second to test the guy,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: cause he's gonna give his heart go as hardest. You know,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: he's gonna keep playing. If you wait to get to
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: that last second, you never know what might happen. Not
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: saying it was right, but he's the guy's just playing hardest,
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: and unfortunately Trevor got injured, you know, seriously, and we
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: don't wish that any on anybody.
• 7:41
  Speaker 4: So it's a.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Play that you got hurt on in the preseason. Is
• 7:44
  Speaker 3: your perspective changed on that at all in terms of
• 7:46
  Speaker 3: whether it was dirty or not.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: No, My perspective doesn't change it at all on that
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: that was a dirty play. I feel like the I
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: feel like the way he was going, you're not allowed
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: to block back to going towards your own end zone,
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: and I feel like I was past him and the
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: way he dove was coming back towards his own end zone,
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: and I feel like it was dirty and it wasn't.
• 8:03
  Speaker 2: It wasn't the fact that just the fact that it
• 8:05
  Speaker 2: was a preseason game, Like if that happened in a
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: regular season game, would you felt the same way?
• 8:08
  Speaker 4: But I would have felt the same way.
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: I know, you'll know you're allowed to cut, but you
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: c th the way you cut, you can't go do
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: it going back towards your own end zone. And that's
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: what he did to me. So that's what made it dirty.
• 8:18
  Speaker 3: It Every injury situation is different, but a lot of
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: times if the guys.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: On IR and the teams on the road, you might
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: be back home rehabing or spend the next time faila.
• 8:25
  Speaker 3: Why was it important to.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: You to be with the team?
• 8:26
  Speaker 3: You know, we see you on the sideline, interact with
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: the guys like cud. Why'd you wanna be there play?
• 8:30
  Speaker 4: I just know that's just who I am.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't wanna I know, last year when
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I had my peck injury, you know, that was kind
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: of the first time I really got injured really in
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: my career.
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: So I had took some time off.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: You know, coaches told me to you know, stay home,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: be with your family, and then come back and join
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: the team. So this year I didn't want to abandon
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: the team, you know, I wanted to be around those guys,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: keep leading being a leader that I am, keep you know,
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: being a coach pretty much out there on the sideline,
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: helping guys figure out how to beat certain blocks or
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: how to play certain things that they're getting. So I
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: was able to offer, you know, that part of my
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: you know game, even though it's not on the field,
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: it was more mental and I felt like that was
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: really important to those guys, and you know, being their
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: kind of quote unquot cheerleaders on the sideline. I guess
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: to help them keep their confidence up and stuff.
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: Last time you played UH, two different linebackers, different starting
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: safety m Grabs Harris wasn't here.
• 9:18
  Speaker 3: A lot of change on the defensive side. Talking about
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: some of the new faces.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: UH in Atlanta, Yeah, we got a bunch of new guys.
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: We're not a bunch of new guys. A couple new
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: guys out there. You know, EJ's doing a great job
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: for us stepping up. Tight is doing a good job
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: for us stepping out, UH stepping up. But you know,
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: sometimes that's the NFL. You know, things don't work out
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: the way you hope. And you know, shout out to UH,
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: Jerome and t do you know they came in, did
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: a great job for us when they were here, But
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: you know, sometimes things just don't fit. And instead of
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: just having them here, you know, sitting on the bench,
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: you know they able to go and prolong their careers
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and you know, continue to play and show their skills
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: on teams that they do fit with. So you know,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: it's a win on both sides.
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: At the end of the day. And you know, I'm.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Happy to to make friendships and relationships with those guys.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: But you know, it's it's a manture of the business.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: You know, you gotta move on. You gotta produce, you
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: gotta you know, you gotta gotta keep going.
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Do you feel like you can play like full normal
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: work load?
• 10:11
  Speaker 4: Uh on Sunday and you.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: Get to be like, understand, that's what I'm preparing for.
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: You know, Ah, that's a coach's decision at the end
• 10:15
  Speaker 1: of the day. That's out of my control. But I'm preparing, like,
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: you know, to be able to play. You never know
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: how the game goes. You know, it's football. You can
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: be on a twelve play drive. You know, you never know.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So I'm just trying to get my body as ready
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: to go and play as many play as I I
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: need to need to be sure.
• 10:29
  Speaker 3: You've obviously no money for a long while. What do
• 10:31
  Speaker 3: you make the way he's been playing for you?
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, I I I hate to say I've seen it,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: but I've seen it already. You know, I knew he
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: was capable of doing this. He was a was he
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: top six, top five pick, you know, for a reason.
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: So I've always seen his skill in them, and it's
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: just good to see it, you know, especially for us,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you know, especially when we're like struggling a little bit
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: going through what we were going through. To see him
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: come out and have these back to back games like this,
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: you know, it's just firing up the defense even more
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: and it's keeping his confidence going cause he's a big
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: part of that D line, you know, so we're only
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: as good as the D line Texas and getting pressure
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: on the quarterback and you know, and stopping the run
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: and all those things. So you know, one's one's it's
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: good to have Leonard playing like this. We're gonna need
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: it down the stretch.
• 11:12
  Speaker 3: This is their first chance.
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: Since you've been here to win a division title.
• 11:15
  Speaker 3: S s we're going to reach.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: How much is that something that you and your team
• 11:19
  Speaker 2: are things about and and really going after.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: Yeah, But to be honest, nobody's really thinking about it.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: You know, we talk about it cause it's real, but
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: we were just thinking about trying to win every game,
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: you know, game by game. Uh, we know this. This
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: The rest of the schedule is pretty much you know,
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: do or die from here. You know, we got all
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: these division games r not necessarily division, but in the
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: division NFC games left, and you know, it all comes
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: down to trying to win each and every one, starting
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: with the one this weekend, so another you know, divisional
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: playoff game on the road, So we gotta bring our
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: best game and you know, take a game by game.
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: Besides the situation with the lights, was there anything upon
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: visiting your dad's village that they really stuck with.
• 11:56
  Speaker 3: You on that trip?
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just just seeing how you know, everyone functioned in life.
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: You know, people you know, tend to take for granted
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: what they have here in the States, you know, but
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: they make the most of every opportunity that they have
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: out there. They're very resourceful, very smart, very creative, and
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: how they do things, how they go about their daily life,
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: and you know, it's a grind. You know, you have
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: to continue to work hard out there. Some nights you
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: won't eat, you know. So that's one thing that stuck
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: with me is just taking not taking anything for granted
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: that I have here in the States, and how blessed
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: my life is and how I was able to grow up.
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: What was your reaction when you find out about what
• 12:30
  Speaker 3: about being.
• 12:31
  Speaker 4: The Man of the Year, It was great. You know,
• 12:34
  Speaker 4: this is my second time being nominated.
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: You know, especially with all the you know, options that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: they have here. They got Tyler doing great things in
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: the community, Gino doing great things in the community. A
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: lot of guys doing great things. So for me to
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: be chosen, it's a blessing and I'm honored
• 12:52
  Speaker 4: And all right,