Matt Cassel Q&A

NORTON – Quarterback Matt Cassel, who enters his fourth NFL season, answered some questions before teeing off at the fifth-annual Spaulding Rehabilitation golf tournament Monday at the TPC-Norton.

At this point, for you, are you still in the offseason program?
“We’re wrapping up the offseason program. We’ll be done with it this week. We’re still working out, still going hard, and have a little bit of testing going on. We’re just trying to finish it off in a good way, and then come back and be ready to go July 21.”

Do you have any plans for your time off?
“My wife and I are going to take a trip to Ireland and check out some of our heritage. Then I’ll just come home, relax a bit, and get ready to go.”

You’re wearing a Tiger Woods hat…
“I love Tiger. I was watching the whole [U.S. Open] tournament and it was nice to see him come back. I was cheering for Rocco [Mediate] for a while but you always see greatness rise. He’s amazing.”

From a football perspective, do you approach this year differently knowing that it’s the final year of your contract – you perform well in preseason and you could be traded?
“You try to approach every year the same. For me, I try not to worry about whether it’s a contract year, or my fourth year. The one thing I will say is that you start to learn things as you move on, and being my fourth year, I feel very comfortable in the system. I look forward to working with Tom [Brady] again and learning as much as I can and being ready to go. It’s just one of those things where you go out and compete, and you get going, just like you [media folks] do, competing against each other for the best stories. I have to go out and compete with the other guys and try to put my best efforts out there each and every day to come out and show the coaches and everybody else that I’m ready to go.”

Is it ever frustrating having the question of ‘Can he step in and play’ linger? Until a backup quarterback assumes the starting duties for the first time, there is always a question as to whether he can fill the role.
“It’s not a frustration to me. It’s one of those things that happens in sports that when your opportunity comes, you just have to be ready. It happens a lot. I don’t know how many people would know Tom Brady if [Drew] Bledsoe had stayed healthy that year. It’s the same thing. It’s about seizing the opportunity, taking advantage of it, and putting yourself in the right mindset. You never know when it may happen. It could happen in game one, or it could not happen until next year or two years down the road.”

There are probably a lot of other quarterbacks who would give up a lot to be in your position. …
“I feel fortunate and blessed to be in the position. Being a backup isn’t that bad a deal. To be able to learn from a guy who is going to go down in history as one of the top quarterbacks to ever play the game, it’s not like I’m playing behind someone who hasn’t proven themselves. You’re competing every day against a guy who is the best in the game and I like the fact I get to do that, because it makes me better.”