Keith Bulluck, the newest New York Giant, had a conference call with reporters Monday afternoon. I wasn't on the call, but some of the reporters who were have already filed their accounts.
Here are a few of my favorite Bulluck quotes from the presser.
Via Pat Traina.
"I feel great, but I also still have some work to do," Bulluck said about his surgically repaired left knee during a conference call with the New York media. "I've seen several doctors over the past few months and they've pulled, twisted, and done everything they could to try to find something wrong with it. All these people that seem to be worried about my knee are reporters. My team, my team doctors, my coaches are not concerned with it - if they were, I wouldn't be having this conversation."
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"There are two other guys there, so I'm coming here to compete. One thing I've always loved about this league sis every year you have to come prove yourself. When I started my rehab in January, I knew it was going to be a greater challenge and to be honest, I didn't have to accept the challenge.
"I had 10 great years in Tennessee and just completed a six-year deal and saw every cent of it, so me and my family could have very easily ridden off into the sunset. But I still have that burning desire to come in and play and prove myself and show I am one of the best linebackers in the league."
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"I'm not a rah-rah guy, but if you look at my career and the things I've done on the field and accomplished in the game, that should tell you some things. I'm a natural leader," he said. "I don't need to have a ‘C' on my chest to be a leader. Just because you're a captain doesn't mean you're a leader. I'm here to win football games and bring some people along with me. I'll get in where I fit in."
From Mike Garafolo.
"If you just play on one side, you know, and you're the dominant defensive player on your team, they're usually trying to do things to scheme you up," Bulluck said, adding: "The only difference to me [in the middle] I see is more opportunity to make plays. So in the middle, you can run at me, but you can't run away from me."
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"I take on guards, I take on centers," said Bulluck, who will be the latest Giants linebacker to wear Harry Carson's No. 53. "A lot of times when I was in Tennessee, I would get blocked by a guard and a center. My work was always cut out for me; I don't think it'll be any different here. I haven't really even thought twice about it. It wasn't a matter of me getting the confidence to play the middle. Confidence has never been an issue with me when it comes to this game.
"It's going to be fun, and I plan on making a lot of plays from that spot. Antonio (Pierce) made a lot of plays from that spot. And if that's the spot I'm playing, I expect nothing less from myself."
From Vinny DiTrani.
"Anyone who gets the opportunity to come and play for the New York Giants, it's a big deal," he said. "But me being from the area and growing up 30 minutes away from the Meadowlands, it's even more special."
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"I'm here to win football games, I'm here to bring some people along with me. Maybe my mentality my attitude will rub off. I'm sure these guys' attitudes and mentality will rub off on me. I'm a New York Giant, I kind of got to get acclimated to them. I'll just get in where I fit in. I'm not coming here to change the culture of anything. I'm sure the guys who are leaders here already will show me the way."
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I don't know about you guys, but I am loving Bulluck already. After the 2009 debacle the Giants need to get some swagger back on the defensive side of the ball -- and if he is healthy enough Bulluck seems like a great fit to help them do just that.