Kansas City Chiefs LB Tamba Hali made a rare media appearance on Wednesday and talked about a variety of things like being fourth in sacks in the franchise record books, getting held all the time and his pregame routine with Master Joe Kim.
He was also asked about Romeo Crennel and his chances of coming back.
"Yeah, I think anybody on this team would agree with me," Hali said when asked if the players want Romeo back. "If we can keep Romeo as our head coach here, it'd be great. We love what he does, his game plan. As you can see what happened on Sunday, he was able to control the clock, along with our quarterback. That's something we haven't been able to do here in a long time is control the clock. That will win you games."
If it wasn't clear that he likes Romeo, then read on.
"He's very motivating," Hali said. "He treats us like men. He does expect a lot from us but he knows what it takes to work in this business, how your body feels and that we're people, too. We love Romeo. If that's the question you're asking, we love Romeo. I don't know how to put it but he's one of those coaches that's been a coach in this league. He has five Super Bowls. That type of resume you want someone around that can help us get to the top."
So, yeah, they want Romeo.
The full video of Tamba's presser is at KCChiefs.com and I pulled out some of the quotes after the jump.
On how he feels right now: "My body is hurting right now. I can't say much about it. It's part of our job. But it's exciting to do it again this week coming up."
On being fourth in franchise history in sacks: "I don't try to think about it too much. You're speaking of some highly...some guys that I looked up at. These are players that put in a lot of years and a lot of work. Just for you mentioning my name around their names...it's great but at the end of the day I can't really concentrate on that. I'm still young in the game and trying to become a better player each and every day. It's a unique thing to know I'm up there with those guys, a little bit."
On getting beat up each week (and held): "Yeah it gets frustrating but like you said ti's the nature of the position. Those guys are going to hold, they're going to pull you to the ground. One thign we have to do as rushers is consistent in what we're doing, persistent and relentless in trying to get to that quarterback. But it's frustrating."
On whether he says anything to the refs about holding: "You want to be nice to those guys. They're human beings. But sometimes I will say something, like, 'Look out a little bit. These guys are starting to mug us out here.' But it's part of the game. They can call holding on every play if they chose."
On Justin Houston's play recently: "I really can't comment on my teammates. It's already been told to me I shouldn't talk about our teammates. So I can't really elaborate on anything about Justin. But I know he is a heck of a player. He comes out there and lays it on the line every week."
On the fact they can still make the playoffs: "We can't talk playoffs right now. We have to continue to focus on one game and that's beating the Oakland Raiders."
On his pregame warmup routine with Master Joe Kim: "When Todd first got here, I was used to coming from Penn State where we're used to going out as a unit warming up out there with coach Johnson at Penn State. Out here, it's a new thing here where guys come out and do whatever they want, have team stretching, come back out and play a game. I got hurt in my first couple years here not doing those type of things I was used to. It came about with Todd saying, you gotta get out there, you gotta stretch and do what you do. Create yourself a little routine every week. I started doing that. Been working with Joe for three years now, and he and I, we go out there, and it's like how any sprinters do it. They'll go out there and run sprints until they're tired a couple hours before the game. You have one sprint and you have to do well. It's almost like the same idea, I need to get tired, catch my second wind and be real loose so when the game starts, if those guys are tight, it gives me a little edge. "