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AJ Barner: "I'm Here To Win Championships" - Seahawks Draft Conference Call · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hey, Aj, congratulations. What did it mean to get that
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: call from the Seahawks.
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  Speaker 2: It means everything.
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  Speaker 1: I'm here to win championships. I love football and I
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  Speaker 1: just want to help the team however I can. And
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  Speaker 1: it's just an honor to go to a city like Seattle.
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  Speaker 1: How much how much familiarity do you already have with
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  Speaker 1: this staff? How many conversations did they have with you?
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  Speaker 2: I mean definitely a little bit.
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  Speaker 1: You know, I had an opportunity to meet with the
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  Speaker 1: tight ends coach no coach Jay Harbaugh from Michigan coach
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  Speaker 1: Mike McDowell. I've heard, you know, a bunch of you know,
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  Speaker 1: tremendous stuff about him, and you know, I love that.
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  Speaker 1: I know that they play a physical brand of football
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  Speaker 1: and h Yeah, how would you describe your game coming
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  Speaker 1: into the league and coming from Michigan and starting with
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  Speaker 1: Indiana as well.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a football player.
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  Speaker 1: If you ask me to go out there and catch
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  Speaker 1: ten passes a game, I'll go do that. If you
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  Speaker 1: ask me to go man up the sea gap and
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  Speaker 1: you know, be physical, I'll go do that. If you
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  Speaker 1: ask me to plan every special team, I'll go do that.
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  Speaker 1: I love chopping up the helmet I love playing physical
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  Speaker 1: football and this has been my dream since I've been
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  Speaker 1: a kid.
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  Speaker 2: So it's what I love to do.
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  Speaker 1: How many special teams did you play on.
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  Speaker 2: I've played on all of them.
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  Speaker 1: How did how did it end up working out transfering
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  Speaker 1: from Indiana to Michigan. Yeah, you know, it was a
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  Speaker 1: really tough decision. I'm a very loyal guy. You know,
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  Speaker 1: I love my teammates, and at the end of the day,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I was a college athlete. Year eligibility is
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  Speaker 1: only so long, and uh, you know, Michigan had an
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  Speaker 1: opportunity for me to go there and get pee for
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  Speaker 1: a national championship, and like I said, you know, I
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  Speaker 1: want to win championships and that that made it the perfect.
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  Speaker 2: Fit for me.
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  Speaker 1: Did you have you stayed close with Michael Pennox through
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  Speaker 1: through the years or for sure? Mike's my guy, super
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  Speaker 1: stoked about his success and I know he'll do great
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  Speaker 1: things in Atlanta.
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  Speaker 2: Did you think the Seahawks would be in play as
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  Speaker 2: like a team that could drive you? For sure?
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  Speaker 1: I mean I thought that'd be a good fit there.
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  Speaker 1: You know, you just don't know what the whole process
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  Speaker 1: and for me, like I was just kind of in
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  Speaker 1: the mindset where I didn't want to, you know, have
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  Speaker 1: any sort of bias for anyone. I was just like
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  Speaker 1: everyone kept asking me, you know where you think you're
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  Speaker 1: gonna go this and that, and it was just like,
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  Speaker 1: you know, I'm not sharing whoever does draft me. I'm
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  Speaker 1: just gonna be stoked to go there and they're gonna
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  Speaker 1: get my everything.
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  Speaker 2: What pride do you take in your blocking? Great pride.
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  Speaker 2: I take pride.
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  Speaker 1: And you know, everything I do on the football field
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  Speaker 1: and everything I do do in the football field, I
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  Speaker 1: do one hundred.
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  Speaker 2: And ten percent.
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  Speaker 1: So that's one thing. Another questioned me, I'm gonna give
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  Speaker 1: them one hundred percent effort on every play.
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  Speaker 2: They If they mentioned more of a blocking role for
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  Speaker 2: you initially out here, you haven't got that yet. You
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  Speaker 2: haven't got into that.
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  Speaker 1: But you know my role is going to be to
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  Speaker 1: play tight end, and that's catching passes and blocking too,
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  Speaker 1: and also on special teams. So whatever I can do
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  Speaker 1: to help the team win, I'm home a for it.
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  Speaker 1: How much did get into play for Jim Harbaugh? Prepare
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  Speaker 1: you for this moment?
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  Speaker 2: Making that jump from Indiana to Michigan A lot.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, Michigan requires a lot of other tight ends.
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  Speaker 1: They run an NFL style and it's a place that
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  Speaker 1: challenged me every single day. You know, we're gonna have
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  Speaker 1: hopefully eighteen guys drafted today, and you know, going up
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  Speaker 1: against him every day in practice, you know, it just
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  Speaker 1: makes you such a better player.
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  Speaker 2: Mike mcgonal'd was gone by the time you got to
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  Speaker 2: Michigan And what what did you hear about him when
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  Speaker 2: your time there?
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  Speaker 1: I know he's a wizard, he dials it up on defense.
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  Speaker 1: You know, he's a smart coach, young coach, a lot
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  Speaker 1: of energy, and you know, I'm stoked to play for
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  Speaker 1: him and I'm gonna do everything I can to help
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  Speaker 1: him win. Were you one of the guys on the
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  Speaker 1: stage yesterday when they honored Visigaan at the NFL Draft
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  Speaker 1: or No, that was all of our guys that are
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  Speaker 1: still currently on the team.
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  Speaker 2: AJ, what's your best Jim Harbo story? Uh? I gotta
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  Speaker 2: keep with PG.
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  Speaker 1: But when I first got there, Coach Harbo was like, uh,
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  Speaker 1: you know, on a scale from one to five, how
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  Speaker 1: freaky would you say you are? And I was like, Eh,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know, probably two to or three. And he
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  Speaker 1: was like basically wanted me to say I'm a five
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  Speaker 1: out of five freak eachause I'm a freak on the
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  Speaker 1: football field, freak athlete and uh and I like to,
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  Speaker 1: you know, play hard. How did you how did you
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  Speaker 1: end up signing with Indiana at a high school. Did you
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  Speaker 1: have a lot of offers or how did that work out? No?
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  Speaker 1: I didn't have too many offers. You know, Indiana, you
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  Speaker 1: know they I had built reallylationship with the staff. They
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  Speaker 1: had recruited me from the start, and I just felt
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  Speaker 1: comfortable going there.
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  Speaker 2: And yeah,