Mathias Kiwanuka Press Conference, 01.27.12

Q: How many tickets do you need?

Kiwanuka: I’ll make do with whatever I get. Obviously I would love to have everyone to support me but at 800 dollars a clip, that’s just not feasible.

Q: About going back home to Indianapolis…

Kiwanuka: It’s hard to find all the right words to describe it. It’s a culmination of a lot of people’s careers. When you get a chance to get to the Super Bowl, you have to enjoy it, you have to take it in because these opportunities don’t come around very often. We have been fortunate enough to have a couple in there in a short period of time, but getting to one is big enough but now getting to one in your hometown, I don’t know how many times that is going to happen.

Q: About going back home to Indianapolis…

Kiwanuka: I try to get it out of my mind a little. I try to take every game as they come. From the time it was announced, I said that would be awesome if I could get there, so I’ve been looking at it for a long time.

Q: When you were growing up there did you go to any Colts game?

Kiwanuka: My first Colts game, I had a buddy named Tim Bolman who was playing against the Colts not too long ago. I didn’t have a chance to get to a lot of Colts games but I was definitely a big fan. Especially when Peyton (Manning) got there and they went on that big run. Growing up there, there wasn’t a lot to cheer about but when Peyton came, he turned everything around.

Q: You have a ring from 2007; do you feel like it’s yours?

Kiwanuka: The way I compare it, I played on some good high school football teams too and won two state championships. One as a sophomore and one as a junior. The one during my sophomore year, I was on the field, and I contributed but I wasn’t a starter. For my junior year I was starting on both sides of the ball and my friends were all involved. I feel like this one will be more like that.

Q: Do you think the transition to LB has gone as smoothly as you hoped?

Kiwanuka: I think the difference from this time and the first time was this was what I was asked to do before I signed my contract to come back here. They said we have these guys, this is the role we see you in and I accepted it. There was no wavering in my mind about what I was going to do. I think that made it a lot easier.