Sports Radio Interviews

Sage Rosenfels: ‘Just Got to Make the Most of Whatever Opportunities You Have’

In our preparation for the upcoming football season, we’re bringing in some new writers.  This post is courtesy of Tim Gunter of 790 the Zone in Atlanta.

How would you like to get traded to a team where you would have likely started and then you get snake bit by an old man? Does Wally Pipp ring a bell? That’s the unfortunate story of Sage Rosenfels. After spending years as a backup and only starting twelve career games, the Vikings traded for him in hopes of him coming in to compete with Tarvaris Jackson for the starting job. Enter Brett Favre. After turning down the Vikings job initially, Brett decided to come back after the dog days of training camp and sign with the team. Brett threw 22 INT’s last season for the New York Jets, maybe this season he can beat George Blanda’s record 1962 season of 42 INT’s? For the love of God Brett, hang up your cleats and pass the torch on to the younger, more athletic players.

I do have to commend Sage Rosenfels for taking the high road cause I would have went midieval on them. Sage Rosenfels joined  KGOW in Houston to talk about his ankle injury, Brett Favre coming in and how that changes his approach, playing on the other side of the field in Houston and how good of a running back Adrian Peterson really is.

How is your ankle feeling?

“Oh its doing fine. Its basically back to about 100% healthy now. Its was uh pretty sore after that game but as the week progressed it went down more and more and it wasn’t quite right and ready for that game so its probably good that I sat out especially in preseason. Its fine now but…”

How tough of an adjustment has it been now that Brett Favre is there?

“Well hey that was sort of a tough blow last week but nothing I can do about it other than the fact that I can just keep going to work and keep working and be ready for when the team needs me and obviously it wasn’t what I was hoping for and uh I was sort of hoping to come in and compete for a starting job and that was sort of the plan but uh you know things changed. One thing you know Coach Mike Shula coached me for a couple of years in Miami so that’s one thing that you can expect in the NFL and that’s change and be ready for change. And obviously that was something that came out of the blue a little bit… I was traded and didn’t think it was going to happen. It happened and I’m moving on. I am us trying to get ready. My ankle is now healthy and ready for the upcoming season.”

Have you changed your preparation approach this year as a backup now that you are backing up Brett Favre?

“That preparation approach never changes. I will say that I will practice a little but different. Just today we had a practice and obviously Brett is taking all the ones a little over a week ago I was taking a lot of the ones. At least half of them and doing drills and the two-minute drills and those type of things… I was trying to run the scout team a little so yeah from that perspective its hard to go out there and be running the offense cause you’ve had less work on it but that’s where I am a little familiar with cause obviously I came off the bench a lot in Houston and got just a couple of reps per week in running the offense but ran a lot of scout team. You just got to make the most of whatever opportunities you have and whatever work you have and try to take an opponent’s uh an opponent’s offense and try to make the best you can.”

How good is Adrian Peterson?

“Well I tell you what with the ball in his hands he’s phenomenal. He’s really not that big I know it sounds crazy but uh I played with Ricky Williams who ran at 235-240 and I think Adrian is 215-220. He runs big, he runs guys over he refuses to go down. You know he is sort of a quite player to see and obviously as the season goes on I am hoping to see a lot of two and three drives where he goes 60 and takes it to the house. That would be the quarterback’s dream.”

Listen to Sage Rosenfels on KGOW in Houston with Hoffman and Nuno

Tags: Brett Favre, Houston Texans, Minnesota Vikings, NFC South, Sage Rosenfels