Osi Umenyiora, 09.01.09

Q:  Do you regret it?

Umenyiora: Absolutely, it was a very, very bad moral decision on my part and an even worse financial decision on my part. Everything is cool now. I talked to who I needed to talk to, I apologized to who I needed to apologize to, and it was just so stupid and trivial for me to do that. Sometimes when you get emotional things happen like that, but everything is okay, though.

Q: How important was it to get it wrapped up quickly and not let it linger?

Umenyiora: it was very important because the issue was so trivial. It was nothing that should have escalated to that point, and I was the one who made it go that route. I was happy everything got resolved. I came back in, I talked to everybody and got everything straightened out.

Q: Would it be fair to say that it was just a disagreement between you and Bill (Sheridan)

Umenyiora: Would it be fair to say that? I wouldn’t think so because it was not even that extreme. You can call it a disagreement. It was very minuscule and when I think about it, I can’t believe I acted that way. It was so uncharacteristic of me, but I just did it and I’m sorry for it. I apologized and hopefully we can move on from there.

Q: Did he criticize you?

Umenyiora: I can’t really go into detail about what happened, but it wasn’t anything for me to react that way.

Q: Did you surprise yourself?

Umenyiora: When I came back and actually thought about what was going to happen and the repercussions for doing something like that, that’s when I was surprised. That’s definitely not in my character to behave that way. I don’t behave that way and I don’t plan on behaving that way again.

Q: How long did it take for you to come back? How long did it take for you to say, "Hey, I better get back there"?

Umenyiora: I was actually here during the practice, but I just wasn’t outside. So it didn’t take that long?

Q: So you weren’t out of the building that long?

Umenyiora: Um, I was out for a little while but not long at all.

Q: Did you just take a drive?

Umenyiora: No, I did more than take a drive, but if I would have known it would have been all this, I would have done something real bad. (Laughs) I’m happy the way things have been resolved and the way practice went today, so everything is cool.

Q: Everybody is different. How is Bill’s (Sheridan) approach different than Spags’ (Steve Spagnuolo) approach? Tone of voice, techniques, schemes?

Umenyiora: It’s all the same. Everybody coaches different. Spags was real high strung and Bill isn’t really like that at all. Their approach is the same thing but different, if that makes sense.