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AJ Finley: "It's Definitely A Full Circle Moment" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: M how are we doing.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: I think for you this time last year, if you
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: get injured in this practice, to come out here and
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: be healthy and come away with the pig.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: Just how special today? I mean it was.
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: It really didn't hit me into it, Like I got
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: through the sideline and all the boys were congratulating me.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: It's definitely a full circle moment.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Just sticking to the process and taking the day to
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: day and honestly, it's been it's been a hell of
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: a ride. But I got a lot of good people
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: in my circle, my wife, my family. Honestly being here,
• 0:29
  Speaker 2: I stayed here with the team last year and that
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: it honestly helped me a lot. So, uh yeah, it's
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: been a great It's a great, great experience. What did
• 0:35
  Speaker 2: you like about yourself through the process of free having
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: back from the injury. I'll say, like, I honestly put
• 0:41
  Speaker 2: my if I feel like if I put my mind
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: to anything, man, I feel like I can go do it.
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: Uh So, I honestly like.
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: Just trusting myself coming in putting the work in. Like
• 0:50
  Speaker 2: obviously it's a long process and it's it's it's tough
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: on the brain. But if you if you put your
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: mind to it. I feel like you do it, and
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: I feel like I did that really well. After you intercept,
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: you feel like most people who were celebrating with you understood.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: The connection came.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that last year there was a lot of people
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: that were saying they didn't want to say anything to
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  Speaker 2: me before practice because everybody obviously knew. And uh, a
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: lot of people that came up to me and they're like, man,
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: the year later, you come back and you get a pick,
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: that's that's so special, like there's nothing but God. And
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: honestly it is, so I really appreciate it. Uh, thank
• 1:19
  Speaker 2: God for being in this situation.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: W What was that like last year? Like having an
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: injury coming down in the practice I play with duram rain,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: like just the immediate aftermaths of it, like you probably
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: know immediately.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: What's happening, kpah, and then to now have the year earlier, Uh,
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: when it happened, I was. I mean, I went through
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: every emotion you can imagine, honestly, like you, I feel
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: like you put in so much work and then it's
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: just taken away from me like that. And I feel
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: like what I did very well is I dealt with
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: it so fast to where like the next week when
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: I came back in for treatment, I was.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Like, I was already over it. So I was.
• 1:52
  Speaker 2: I was ready to put my best foot forwar it
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: every day. So getting over it pretty fast was the
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: best thing I did.
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: How did you get over the beak? What did you get?
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: How did you? Honestly?
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Like I I was, I'm a very so what I
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: had a trend coach in uh college?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Tell me so what now? What? Like? So, no matter
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: what happens to you.
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: Like you gotta you gotta fight back and you gotta adjust.
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: So I feel like that's what I did. Will some love?
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: You said you stayed here to rehab? Yeah? What was that?
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: I mean some some guys go home, some guys do
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: it here. What's the what was the decision like that?
• 2:25
  Speaker 2: I mean they asked me to stay, so I was
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: obviously gonna stay. So yeah, they they asked me to stay,
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: and I just stayed up.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Here and did my rehab. What well, some guys coming
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: off an injury, maybe how hard time to lag with the.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: New team from the CRS to wanna resign you or
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: early in the offseason?
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: What that means you to get recned? I mean it
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: was special.
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: Uh, obviously, like a lot of guys, especially in my position, like,
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: you don't come back a lot from acls like that.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: So honestly, it it meant a lot knowing that I
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: put in the work and they saw the work that
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: I put in.
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  Speaker 1: So I feel like that's what helped me get back
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: in this situations.
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  Speaker 2: Your fellow safetych Nick covers from the injury, have you
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: given him.
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  Speaker 1: Any advice throughout your c.
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I just tell him to keep working, like honestly, like
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: I it's it's you can take it step by step
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: and if you just keep going, like you're gonna come
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: back better than you were. So I feel like that's
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: what I've been telling him.
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: Jack Howard, can you just talk about his communications style
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: and then how he's just yeah.
• 3:18
  Speaker 2: Uh, he he's been. I had him in LA So
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: he was a linebackers coach when I was in LA.
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  Speaker 2: So I've known him for about four years now, and uh,
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: he's a stickler about communication. Uh That's that's what I
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: feel like. That's what our room does at a really
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: high level. Like everybody in our room can communicate at
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  Speaker 2: a really high level. And that's that's what he preaches
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: to us. And if you can't communicate you're not gonna
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: be on the field. So I feel like that's what
• 3:37
  Speaker 2: he's a stickler about.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: And where do you feel like? Where do you feel
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: like you are? Like, uh like serial world game.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Right now a year from this getting back in them,
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  Speaker 2: I'm one hundred percent health. I'm obviously still knocking some
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: dust off with a little a few things like I'm
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: not I'm nowhere near where I want to be, but
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: uh my, my body's.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: One hundred percent.
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: I'm just trying to get the mental part back back down.
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: If you're the safety, it seems like there's a lot
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: of uh competition in safety.
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: Where do you feel like you fit in?
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: And kind of I'm just I'm just here to do
• 4:04
  Speaker 2: whatever I need to do to get on the field,
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  Speaker 2: whatever that means, whether it's a mentor to anybody, whether
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: I'm on the field on special teams, playing like, I
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: don't care.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: What it is. I just want to be in the building.
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: When you weren't rehappy last year and you were talking
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: ball with your teammates, when you weren't rehabby and you
• 4:19
  Speaker 2: were talking bold with your teammates last year, who just
• 4:21
  Speaker 2: spent the most time.
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: Talking Ah, that's tough.
• 4:24
  Speaker 2: I mean, I'm I'm the type of guy, like I'm
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: cool with everybody on the team, Uh pretty much everybody
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: in the DV room that was our dB room master
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: was so tight, like it was you can go up
• 4:33
  Speaker 2: and talk to anybody, like from anybody to the top
• 4:36
  Speaker 2: guy like spooned to anybody you want.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: To talk about. But I feel like I feel.
• 4:40
  Speaker 2: Like me and Tod like because me and to kind
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: of have similar stories like both on drafted free agents,
• 4:45
  Speaker 2: like when I first got here from.
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: LA, like we kind of hit it off.
• 4:48
  Speaker 2: So just honestly, honestly seeing thy last year was it
• 4:51
  Speaker 2: was really impressive, like him going in and competing at
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a high level. I love to see that verata and
• 4:56
  Speaker 2: uh yeah, I'll probably say Tie, you want to kind
• 4:58
  Speaker 2: of like kind of shouting you out after or what
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: would that mean to have your head coach kind of
• 5:02
  Speaker 2: single you out of It's so cool like to see
• 5:04
  Speaker 2: to see that he has seen the work that I
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: put in honestly means a lot, especially coming from where
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: I am, coming from where I came from last year,
• 5:12
  Speaker 2: like it's it's been a long, pro long process and
• 5:15
  Speaker 2: just seeing that that work has come to light, it's
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: it's amazing thinking my.
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: Drafted what did you? Uh? What do you even see?
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: Hi from n Tory Foster through camp?
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: That guy is electric uh he he It feels like
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: he makes it play almost every day.
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: But he he's definitely putting a lot of good stuff
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: on tape. Did you did you? Were you able to
• 5:32
  Speaker 2: still feel like you were a part of this pull
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: throughout last year.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Sitting from from the background and kind of having to
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: do your thing?
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: That's what That's what I tried to do the most, like,
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  Speaker 2: cause I feel like if I tried to do the
• 5:42
  Speaker 2: process on my own, it would have probably been a
• 5:43
  Speaker 2: hard process. So that's why I stayed in the building.
• 5:45
  Speaker 2: I even went out to practice sometimes like it was.
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  Speaker 2: I probably tried to make it at least two practice
• 5:50
  Speaker 2: a week so I would still feel like I'm a
• 5:51
  Speaker 2: part of the team. So I didn't feel like I
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: was in the background in the dark, like doing this
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  Speaker 2: all by myself.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: So I I feel like that was probably the biggest part.
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: And you sent the mental aspect of something and I
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: think you're still trying to get over Is it trusting.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Your body in this try?
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: No, it's not trusting my body. It's a it's honestly
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: trusting my eyes. Like I I'm I'm like all over the body,
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: like I feel good about my body. But it's just
• 6:10
  Speaker 2: like seeing certain things and reading, reacting and stuff.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: I feel like I still got a list of tab bit.
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: I'm almost there, but I still got a tab it
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: to do. What did you see on the interceptional? Uh?
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: So we were in quarters.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: Uh Jackson was running the over and I cleared the
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: post and then came down the over and I just
• 6:25
  Speaker 2: honestly didn't know if Sam I was gonna throw the ball.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: I was shocked through through it.
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: He's usual, he usually don't make those mistakes.
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  Speaker 2: But uh yeah, I came down in the over and
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: intercepted it.
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: Anything else has Thanks, Thanks you guys,