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The San Francisco 49ers are off to their first Super Bowl in nearly two decades. Their last championship came four days after Patrick Willis’ 10th birthday, and now Willis is leading one of the league’s fiercest defenses into the season’s final game against the Baltimore Ravens. Willis will be a popular man the next two weeks, but don’t suck up to him for tickets if you haven’t been around lately. Patrick Willis joined The Wheelhouse on 95.7 The Game in San Francisco to discuss his first Super Bowl appearance, the 49ers’ resolve as a team, and how he’ll handle an onslaught of ticket requests over the next two weeks.
On how it feels to be going to his first Super Bowl:
“It’s surreal. … I don’t know, it really hasn’t hit me yet. … It was one of those games like, ‘We won, what’s next?’ And then when you think about what’s next, then it really hits you: ‘Damn, we’re gonna play in the Super Bowl. This is real.’”
On this team learning from a big comeback against Philadelphia last season that they’re never out of games, which is something they used when behind 17-0 in Atlanta Sunday:
“We were down 20-something points at halftime, and we came back to win that game. Just from that point on we always knew we’re a team to fight. We’re a team that plays 60 minutes. … You might jump out on us. You might hit us with your best shot. You might even faze us a little bit. But we’re gonna come back and we’re going to fight, and we’re going to play for 60 minutes.”
On his dad handling ticket requests and how that’ll make things easier on him leading up to the Super Bowl:
“All year long my dad has [handled] all that — away games, home games. So I’m gonna let him do what he does best, and that’s take care of all that. I’m fortunate to have a guy like that in my corner and handle all that for me.”
On being stubborn regarding who he’ll give tickets out to:
“Think about it. If they’re really that big of a fan, they would buy tickets and come watch you play out here in San Francisco. But [we] come that close and they all of a sudden want to ask me for tickets and all that stuff? No, man. You’re not that big a fan. I can understand if all season long you’ve been spending your own money to come out here to San Francisco or to come to away games and watch me play on your own money. Then yeah, that’s something I would consider. That’s my homie, that’s a friend, that’s a fan. I’d do that for my family and I’d do that for my friends.”
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