Patrick Smyth, Executive Director of Media Relations ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5536) Rebecca Villanueva, Media Services Manager ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5598) Erich Schubert, Media Relations Coordinator ([email protected] / 303‐264‐5503)
DENVER BRONCOS ROOKIE MINI‐CAMP QUOTES (5/12/12)
OFFENSIVE LINEMAN PHILIP BLAKE
On where he has lined up during rookie minicamp “Center.”
On if that’s where he’ll play when veterans arrive “Honestly I have no idea. I’m just taking it day‐by‐day. Wherever the coaches want me to be, that’s where I’ll play.”
On how many linemen are here this weekend “There are only five of us, and I’m at center.”
On his journey to the NFL from high school “It’s a long story. I played one year of high school—my senior year of high school. Then I went to Champlain [Regional College] up in Quebec, Canada, where I played two years and got recruited by Art Briles and his staff at Baylor. Then I couldn’t get in through Clearing House, so they told me to go to a school without football and come in as a transfer student. So I took a semester there and then went to Baylor. [Briles] was like, ‘Do you want to come?’ I was like, ‘Yes.’ So about a week later [Briles] was like, ‘Conference USA and the Big 12 have different eligibility rules. So you need more hours. So instead of sitting out another year of football, how about you go to junior college?’ So I went to Tyler Junior College in Tyler, Texas. I thought I only had seven hours to do, but they said, ‘You need to graduate junior college before you transfer.’ So I had to do 60 hours, finish a year‐and‐a‐half there and then I transferred to Baylor.”
On how old he was his first year at Baylor “I was a sophomore at Baylor and I was 23, I believe.”
On how old he is now “I’m 26 now. The funny thing is I wasn’t even the oldest on the team.”
On whether he had to tell that story at the NFL Scouting Combine “Yes, multiple times. But it’s my story, so I don’t get tired of it.”
On playing one year of high school football “Yeah, I only played one year and then Champlain for two years.”
On football in Canada “Not as big when I first came to Texas. It was a culture shock. Not like Toronto at all. Toronto is mostly hockey and basketball. Football wasn’t the biggest thing. But it’s something I like doing.”
On whether he played hockey “I played street hockey, a little ice hockey, but the bigger I got the slower I got on the ice.”
©2012 Denver Broncos Football Club. All rights reserved. The individual quotes cited in this document may be used for the purpose of news reporting and other fair uses as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Duplication or posting of this quote sheet, in its entirety, or any other use of this material which is not a fair use as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Denver Broncos Football Club. On whether he’s a hockey fan “A real big hockey fan. When I came to Texas, they don’t show much hockey.”
On having played with Robert Griffin III at Baylor and now Peyton Manning in Denver “I try to stay humble through it. A lot of my friends or ex‐teammates always tell me, ‘You played with RGIII and now you’re possibly going to play with Manning,’ but I don’t think about it too much. Just try to do my job here.”
On whether having only five linemen at the camp is a benefit “Oh yeah, [Offensive Line Coach Dave Magazu] is always on to us. He always expects greatness from us. So there are only five of us here and he can kind of teach us individually if he needs to.”
On what he wanted to do before the NFL became a possibility “I wanted to go into coaching. Football is a passion. I’ve been through a lot of coaches and all of them helped me out. If I can give back, that would be really special. The road I took was kind of a long one, so if I could teach the younger guys from Canada, tell them the right road to take, help them out like that would be great.”
On how quickly football became a passion “My mom went to Buffalo one year when I was probably 14 or 15 years old. She bought me the Madden video game. I played it all day long. Then one of my friends in high school said, ‘Hey, do you want to come play football?’ That’s when it all started.”
On being mild‐mannered off the field but physical on it “I guess you can say I change. It’s business when you get on the field. Everyone’s watching. You’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
On what he has learned from C J.D. Walton, who played at Baylor “J.D., when he left Baylor, he came back one day and just told me pointers for playing the center position. My first year at Baylor I played tackle. When I moved to center, he gave me a few pointers here and there. He’s a good guy.”
On whether he would have been drafted higher if he was younger “I don’t really worry about that. You only need one team to like you, the Denver Broncos liked me, and that’s all I’m worried about.”
©2012 Denver Broncos Football Club. All rights reserved. The individual quotes cited in this document may be used for the purpose of news reporting and other fair uses as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act. Duplication or posting of this quote sheet, in its entirety, or any other use of this material which is not a fair use as defined by Section 107 of the Copyright Act is strictly prohibited without the prior written consent of the Denver Broncos Football Club.