E-mail a friendDwight Freeney
airdate April 10, 2007
Dwight Freeney plays defensive end for the NFL Superbowl XLI Champion Indianapolis Colts. Drafted by the team out of Syracuse University, he was a four-sport letterman, including three letters in football, four in basketball and baseball and one in soccer. Freeney also gives back. He established the Dwight Freeney Full-Contact Football Camp with proceeds benefiting various charities. He's also involved in a team program that takes underprivileged children on shopping sprees for sports equipment.
Dwight Freeney
Tavis: Dwight Freeney's one of the best defensive players in the NFL, helping his team, the Indianapolis Colts, to win in this year's Super Bowl - go Colts. Among his many philanthropic ventures off the field, he runs a football program for underprivileged kids called the Dwight Freeney Football Camp. This rather unique camp is located just outside of Indianapolis at Anderson University in Anderson, Indiana. Dwight, congratulations and nice to have you here.
Dwight Freeney: Thank you. Thank you for having me.
Tavis: What makes this camp so different? Every player wants to have a camp.
Freeney: Yeah, I think the main thing with my camp is that it's full contact. A lot of camps try to get away from that, and this is a violent game that we play. You have to learn the right way early, in this age of eight through 16. So you get them early and get them having some fun, but it's more about just going out there, playing the game how you're supposed to be playing it, and we're kind of teaching some lessons in between all the hitting sessions. So either life lessons on what you should do, what you should not, and have them ask us questions.
Tavis: You started to hit on this just a moment ago. What's the value of a camp that, in fact, is full contact?
Freeney: Well, for the most part a lot of kids don't understand how physical the game is. And they get thrown into that mix - who knows, in high school they either hurt themselves or something happens. So you kind of try to teach them, you say, "Okay, this is what the game's about. It's about being physical." Regardless of any position that you play, there's gonna be some physical play in it. And we kind of learn from that, and then we go on.
Tavis: I was trying to think, and it threw me for just a second because I was trying to think, the minute you said it, when the last time was that I had an NFL star on my radio or TV program who used the word V-I-O-L-E-N-T. (Laughter) Nobody says the sport is violent. They will say physical - you came around a minute ago to saying physical.
Nobody who plays the game wants to call the game violent because they think to do so plays into the hands of the critics, and you used that word anyway. Did you mean to say violent?
Freeney: Well, it is. When you play the game, you're not out there trying to hurt anybody, but your actions, your motions, and what you do, and then you see the results of people getting injured, life-ending injuries, that's based on how violent the game is. It's physical, it's violent.
Tavis: What makes you, then - set your modesty aside for just a second - why are you so good at this position? The comparisons to Reggie and to Bruce, these comparisons are pretty heady stuff.
Freeney: I think for the most part it's about heart, and not stopping (unintelligible). It's just going out there and having the mentality that it doesn't matter, that man that's across from me is not going to stop me from getting to my goal. So whether it be getting to the quarterback or whether it be getting to the running back, it's a mentality thing and it's a heart thing. You have to literally take me down before I stop.
Tavis: What message do you attempt to - I wanna go back to the camp, given what you've just said now, 'cause you've got your own answer about what makes you good, and it's heart, as you said a moment ago. What message do you most want to get across to kids when you do these camps, beyond how to play the game?
Freeney: Well, the thing is for me it's always been play every play like it's your last play. 'Cause you don't know when it's gonna end. Like I said, it's a violent game. Things happen. So you have to play that play like it's your last, man, and go out there and give it your all. That's the only time you're gonna get something out of it, and so I kind of really try to preach to those kids. Go out there and play this game, whether it be practice or workout or what have you. Go out there and play and work as hard as you can.
Tavis: Okay, so now just between the two of us, since the kids ain't watching right now (laughter) - this is late-night television - how difficult is it in the NFL at the position that you play, which is one of the most physical on the field, to play every play like it's your last? I just can't imagine giving it your all on every single play. You play a tough spot.
Freeney: It's tough. But I think it's something that's built. It's a foundation that you've been doing for a while. You can't just turn on a switch and all of a sudden, it just happens. You turn on that film and you see us - especially us, the Indianapolis Colts, we're flying around and we're playing every play like it's our last, man. We're going out at 100 percent. That's the only way you can play the game, 'cause you don't know when that play's gonna come back to you. You don't know if this is your opportunity to make a big play. So you've got to.
Tavis: So you know because you mentioned this me when you walked on the set, I am from Indiana. Matter of fact, on this program, as my staff knows, wore my Colts tie on Monday night, the day after you guys won on Sunday.
Freeney: That's what you're supposed to do.
Tavis: What made the difference this year?
Freeney: You know what? I think everything just came together at the right time. I won't say this is our best team. We've had great teams; I think it was a 13-0 season.
Tavis: That's why I asked that, 'cause this is not necessarily the best team the Colts have put on the field.
Freeney: It's just - you know what? Pittsburgh Steelers last year, it kind of brought a whole new light into how to win it. Because they weren't - they were limping into the playoffs, but they caught fire at the right time. The first playoff game, and obviously versus us, they beat us, and they went on to win it. They didn't have the best record, and it had nothing to do with that. They just caught fire at the right time.
Tavis: There was so much commentary, and on my radio program I had the chance to talk to Lovey Smith a couple days before the game. How did you process the whole - all the hype? It was good on a certain level, but all the hype around Dungy and Lovey, the two Black coaches. How did you process the media hype around that, number one, and what did it mean to you as a player to not just play in a game with two Black coaches, but you were on the winning side here and Dungy makes history with you on the field?
Freeney: Well for the most part, you try to stay focused. But if you have to go out - and that's a big thing for us, seeing two Black coaches and being in that moment. You know one of them is gonna win. We gonna have one.
Tavis: (Laughs) Somebody's gonna win that, and somebody's (unintelligible).
Freeney: (Unintelligible) So, at the end of the day, man, you know, hopefully we get to a point where we don't have to talk about those things, and - but it's the truth. We don't have that many Black coaches in the NFL, especially in upper management. And don't even talk about college. College is 120, whatever, colleges, 117 - whatever it is - and what, one or two, maybe? And that's ridiculous. So this is a big one.
Tavis: That's the hype question. How did you personally process begin on a team - you didn't just win. Every year, a team wins that they're obviously going into the history books. There's an asterisk by this year because of who coached the team. How did you process being a brother on the team with this head coach?
Freeney: It was an unbelievable feeling. Now, like you said, I'm in the books, but I'm in the books for a whole 'nother reason, too. And playing for a man like Tony, man, he's just an unbelievable guy. Not just an unbelievable coach; unbelievable man. He does a great - how he coaches and what he does on the field, and how he carries everybody is just unbelievable.
Tavis: Let me ask you a question that may be a bit personal. If it is, you can slap - well, don't slap me, 'cause. (Laughter) I was gonna say you can slap me, but no, please (laughs).
Freeney: All right, be careful (laughs).
Tavis: Please - yeah, exactly (laughs). Please don't slap me. How did you - speaking of Dungy, I can't imagine what it must have been like in the locker room when you all heard the news that his son had transitioned. How did you - obviously, you speak to him regularly - but what do you say to your coach when -
Freeney: Oh, man, it's so hard. I think everybody just went to him and said listen, we're behind you, like a family. You hurt, we hurt. So if you need us, we're here and we'll be there for you, and we understand your pain; we feel it. So you just have to be there for him. I think that was the biggest thing for that whole situation, is just being there for him. Give him something else to think about; getting back into working and doing some things so he doesn't have to focus on that.
Tavis: Let me close with this: Mr. Goodell, the new NFL commissioner, everybody knows of late he's been taking some meetings over the last few months with some players who - shall we say, a little out of control in the NFL. I'm not gonna call any names. They know who they are, and the commissioner's office knows who they are. But there's some players who were giving the NFL a bad name over the last year or so.
You stand out as one of the good guys, if we can put it that way. One of the guys who make the NFL look good. What's your sense of the image that the NFL these days is trying to wrestle against?
Freeney: Well, I know - for one, I think we have a good track - as far as the collective. There's a lot of people who, you know, put together this NFL - 53 people on a team, and you got 32 teams, all right? So you got one or two or three guys out there; of course you're gonna have it. It's just like regular society, you're gonna have some problems here and there. So yeah, we have some guys out there who decided to - they're not bad guys, they just made bad choices in the time to make that choice.
So I think the NFL is really trying to clean up the image, and trying to separate itself from the other sports to where I guess from the steroids and the problems off the field, trying to set itself apart from all that.
Tavis: So I said last question; I lied. So last time I actually saw you in person - I saw you at the game, of course - last time I saw you in person was at Churchill Downs. Was that your first?
Freeney: That's my first.
Tavis: That was your first -
Freeney: That was my first.
Tavis: So you and I were both virgins last year. What'd you make of the Kentucky Derby last year? Did you like it?
Freeney: I liked it. I like to have - I'm just betting on a horse and had no idea what was going on. Just picked one to see what happened. Actually, I picked the right one.
Tavis: You did.
Freeney: Now, I picked a lot of other horses, too. (Laughter) That wasn't the only horse I picked.
Tavis: I'm like, how did you do that (laughs)? I lost a little cash that day.
Freeney: The first horse I picked, a lot of people don't understand that the Derby's just not one race. I didn't understand - it was, like, 10 races. So the first race, I actually picked the winning horse. That was the one horse, so that kind of hooked me from there, and then I lost, like, the next five or six, seven, and then I won - I ain't saying I won, but I happened to pick the last horse in the end.
Tavis: I will never forget this as long as I live. So you're there - everybody's there; you're there and of course Jordan's there, and you and I were both hanging out and talking to Jordon. So I'm looking at Jordan and I'm, like, "Hey, Jordan" - if anybody knows how to gamble, Jordon does - so I'm like, I'm gonna take my cue from Jordan. So I'm talking to Mike in between races, what should I do here, what should I do here. And I looked over in the corner at one point, and Michael is talking to a 13-year-old kid.
Freeney: Thirteen-year-old.
Tavis: Remember that little White boy?
Freeney: Yeah, that's how he won.
Tavis: A 13-year-old White boy -
Freeney: That's how he won.
Tavis: Yeah, that Michael is taking direction from (laughs).
Freeney: Hey, he know all the - hey, I don't know.
Tavis: I think his dad worked at the stables, and so this kid knew these horses.
Freeney: He got it on the inside.
Tavis: So Jordan was taking his cue from a 13-year-old White kid, and he went home with more money in his pocket.
Freeney: I wanna know how he knew about this kid. (Laughter) The kid had mud on his shoes, just out of the stable.
Tavis: Yeah, he knows what he's doing, and so do you on the field and off. Nice to see you. Glad to have you here.
Freeney: Thank you, appreciate (unintelligible).
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