Matt Cassel talked with the voice of the Kansas City Chiefs Mitch Holthus yesterday.
Holthus recalls where he was the first time he heard about the trade for Cassel (doing a Texas A&M game) and how he felt about his first meeting with him ("he seemed to get it").
Below is their exchange, video of which can be found at the Mothership. The last answer is a good one.
Where did you find these leadership traits?
"It's just something you learn over time. I've had a lot of great people to learn from like Tom Brady, Vinnie Testaverde, Doug Flutie and these guys that have been in the NFL for a long time. They've been amazing professionals.
"You just kind of take their lead and try to emulate what they've done on and off the field and from there I've started to grow into my own leadership role."
What are the traits that hit takes to be an NFL starting quarterback?
"I think everything starts with leading by example. You can't come in and be a vocal leader right away and say 'Hey, this is what we're going to do or this is what I'm going to do.' You have to show by example.
"It starts with that and then from there, as you earn the trust of your teammates you show them that you're going to work just as hard as they are that you can start becoming more vocal and then you can get on some poeple when you need to or they can get on you."
You ran down the field earlier in camp after throwing a long touchdown to Mark Bradley and celebrated. Was that something planned to get the guys fired up?
"It's hard to score points in the NFL. Anytime you can make big plays and do that we have to get excited about that. I always tell guys whenever we're doing goal line drills and stuff like that, if we score throw a celebration.
"Football's challenging and the NFL is challenging. Anytime we put up points, or have a big play, we gotta have some fun out there. That's what it's about."
Lauren (Matt's wife) won a National Championship with the USC volleyball team. She probably comes from a similar background. Is this something you guys talk about as a family?
"She's really the real athlete in the family. She was the captain of the volleyball team. It's amazing because, unfortunately in her sport you can't really go professional, she kind of lives vicariously through me.
"But she's great to have as a support factor because she can offer interesting perspective being in that position before."
Are you up for a two-on-two volleyball match up, you and Lauren vs. Mike Vrabel and his wife?
"I'll dominate Vrabel. He's slow in the sand."