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**Q: Talk about the routine before Super Bowl week?
TB:** I think I said before that the biggest issue is dealing with all the other stuff that you have to deal with – the tickets, the hotels, the logistics of getting your friends and family down there and make sure that everyone is going to enjoy it. Obviously, it is the most important game we have played all year and it is against the best team that we have played all year. In that sense it is a different type of game. We have learned to play in those pressure situations. It has been pressure for the last couple of weeks realizing that if you do lose, you are out.
**Q: Do you see any of you in Jake Delhomme as a quarterback?
TB:** I have seen him play quite a bit. There is a stat that he has brought his team back eight times this year in the last drive. Any time that you get to this type of game you are there for a reason. Obviously, the quarterback play has been pretty steady for them. He, I'm sure, has done a great job. He has had a tough road to get to where he is. It seems like he has taken advantage of all those opportunities. I'm not too familiar with his style of play. Why would he want to be a guy that is slow and has an average arm? I want would want to be Michael Vick. That is an aspiration.
**Q: Have you ever met Jake?
TB:** I have never met Jake. I never have. Hopefully we will get a chance to meet down there.
**Q: Are people always trying to categorize you the way you just described yourself? When I talk to coaches they say you just have the ability to make plays. How do you define yourself?
TB:** I play the role of quarterback. I think it takes on many different roles in many different offenses. I think in our offense it is my job to get the team in the right play and to find the open receiver. I think those are two things that I take a lot of pride in. Some guys do it running around, some guys do it by squeezing the ball in tight spots. I just try to find the most open guy and give him the easy ball to catch. I try to get our team in the best play possible. It is probably just a combination of things.
**Q: So you are not exactly filling up the highlight reel?
TB:** I don't think that I have ever filled up a highlight reel. I just try to throw completions, move the sticks and score when you get down close. You kind of play to how your team is. I think that we have been ahead so often in these games in the second half it just feels like we are trying to run out the clock. We have to try to do a better job of producing a little more in the second half.
**Q: Did the President say anything to you?
TB:** I got a chance to say hi to him, but it was brief. He is a busy man.
**Q: Did he say anything about you and the Patriots in the Super Bowl?
TB:** Yeah. He is a football fan and he is a sports fan. He wished us well. He said he hoped he see us back there in a couple of months.
**Q: What do you see from Carolina on tape?
TB:** In terms of Carolina, this is a tough challenge. They are probably the best defensive line that we have faced all year. They have very fast linebackers who make a lot of plays. They have a couple of guys in the secondary who come up with a bunch of picks. Mike Minter is a great player. Deon Grant played very steady all year. Ricky manning seems like he is picking off a ball every week. They can really make some plays. They have great coaches. We have played against Coach [John] Fox before up here when he was with the Giants. They are very well coached. They are going to be ready to go.
**Q: Two years ago you spent a significant amount of time answering questions you and Drew [Bledsoe] and the quarterback scenario. Is it more enjoyable this time around not having to deal with that?
TB:** Maybe in a sense it will be more enjoyable. I'm not necessarily so sure it is because of that reason. Maybe just because I think that first year I took it for granted. I really did. After that third or fourth week of the year, I was going non-stop. I couldn't keep up with the pace. It was almost like late in the year, I said I just wanted to get this season over with. I want to re-group a little bit. This year it has been quite a bit different. I'm really enjoying it. I'm enjoying the preparation, the practices, playing with the guys. We have a great group of guys. Anyone who deals with us on a daily basis realizes that it is a great locker room full of guys who are very committed to winning. We prepare hard and I think that shows up when we go out and play. Having a 14-game win streak is pretty fun to ride too.
**Q: I know how pumped you were during the regular season, what is it going to be like to walk out on the field at Reliant Stadium?
TB:** Those are the hopes. I think that we were all hoping that we would get another shot down there. There was so much that had gone from that point until now. You need a lot of great fortune. You need a lot of luck. You need a lot of luck with injuries and stuff like that. I'm happy to head down there a second time. It was a great place to play. It is a great stadium. I'm sure that it will be rocking. We still have some time to prepare before we head down there. One we get down there it is going to be so chaotic.
**Q: They are a very physical defense and you guys like to throw the quick passes. What is the best strategy?
TB:** I can bring you into one of our game plan meetings. The strategy for us is kind of the same as it is every week. This is a physical group and when you play a physical group you have to match it. We have to go out there and control that line of scrimmage which will allow us to run the ball, which we have done a good job of the last couple of weeks. Then we have to continue to be able to protect and get open in that man coverage. Those corners can really play and they have caused those Philly receivers a bunch of problems. It seems like once those Philly guys finally got off that press they couldn't hold onto the ball. It is going to be a tough challenge in all three phases whether it is special teams, whether it is offensively, defensively. They put a lot of pressure on you. They put a lot of pressure on defensively with those front four and then they hope those guys in the secondary can get their hands on the receivers and hold them long enough for that pass rush to get there.
**Q: What is keeping you guys from going out there offensively and having a breakout game for 60 minutes?
TB:** Like I said, we have been ahead in a lot of these games and our style is as such that when we get up we want to try to pound the ball a little bit. We just haven't quite executed as well as we would have liked in that fourth quarter. The first three quarters last game were real good minus the fact that we didn't score as much as we would have liked in the red zone. It is always something. We are going to work hard at it and hopefully try to make it better this week.
**Q: You have been to the Super Bowl twice in three years. What does that say about the organizational umbrella?
TB:** It really trickles down. Robert Kraft … playing in that stadium a couple of years ago and the facilities we had, it was a miracle that we got to the Super Bowl then. Now we come into this great facility with great practice fields, the meeting rooms are great, the cafeteria, and the locker room. That allows us to prepare better and worry less about the things that we shouldn't be worrying about like warm water. We can come in and great proper treatment so we can be ready to play. That allows the coach to spend more time with us in the meeting rooms. The meeting rooms are so much better. Right from Mr. Kraft to Coach Belichick down to Charlie [Weis] and RAC [Romeo Crennel], it comes down to the players. We don't mind being here. I said this before, you come in here after practice and watch what we are doing. We are hanging out in the locker room with our pads on playing backgammon and dominoes. Guys are hanging out in the treatment room and screwing around on the computers. It has become a place not only for work, but all your buddies are here too. Not that we are hanging out at the football facility, but there is more of that now then there was.
**Q: As a player, you watch some of the player signings and there ability to go out and get guys to come here like Rosevelt Colvin.
TB:** To attract players like that, that are such high-quality players. I don't know where this team would be without Rodney Harrison. He is probably playing as the best defensive player in the league and he probably is. His contributions this year, Rosevelt with him being hurt early, but he is still around, going out and getting Tyrone Poole. Tyrone is an awesome player. He has been playing at a Pro Bowl level this year. There is a lot of depth to this team. I don't think that we have any bones about going out and finding guys that can help us win. It is constant improvement and it is a constant struggle to make tough decisions. Coach Belichick and the rest of the organization – Scott Pioli. Who is one of the top personnel guys in the league – they seem to make the right one's more often than not.
**Q: When you were 5-11 in your first year, did you look at the team and think it was going to be a tough road to go from there to becoming a constant winning franchise?
TB:** That first year was very tough because when you come in and have a new coach there is all this excitement about what the team is going to be all about. From that first day, Coach Belichick came up with a plan and you can't get all the players to buy in right away. Sure, that takes time. Now, the players do buy in. The new guys come in and see how we are working, the type of effort, the way we practice and they buy in. It continues to set the tone for winning. You are not necessarily going to go out and win 14 games every year, but at least you will have a shot at it. You still have to go out and execute. It takes a lot of work and there is no shortcut to getting there.
**Q: What do you think of Warren Sapp's comments regarding your offensive line?
TB:** I didn't hear what he said. Fill me in.
**Q: He said there was nothing to your offensive line and he dissed Russ Hochstein.
TB:** He will get a good view from wherever he is sitting. For him to talk like that … he hasn't played us since we won the Super Bowl. They had a great year last year. He is a great player, but he likes to talk a little bit too.
**Q: We are doing a story on a local kid named Tom Brady who plays high school basketball and wears the number 12. Any advice for him over the next week-and-a-half?
TB:** He has been living as Tom Brady his whole life. I think there is going to be a few more Tom Brady's out there. I don't have any advice. You stymied me.
**Q: In three years you have gone from being Drew Bledsoe's backup to the guy that was invited to The White House for the state of the union address. Can you describe how your life has changed over the last three years?
TB:** A lot of things have changed obviously with the way that I am going about living. The important thing for me has been to continue to do things that I find the most fulfilling in my life. When I get invited like I did the other night to the White House, you just go. You can't turn down the first lady. I have had some great experiences. A lot of those reasons are because of the success that we have had on the field. A lot of that success is because of the guys that I'm playing with. Hopefully the stories that I bring back for those guys can give them a little bit of a taste of what it is all about. It has been a great couple of years. When that success on the football field goes away, so will all of those really neat things I get to do. That is why football will always be number one.
**Q: Is it a little mind-blowing?
TB:** It is a ton mind-boggling. When I was 12 years old, I could hardly throw a football. To realize that 13 or 14 years ago growing up I wanted to play baseball and I wanted to go to a great college. Every step of the way you continue to aspire to do different things. It has always been a dream to play professional football and it is even more of a dream to play on a team that is going to the Super Bowl. I don't take that for granted one bit