Usually I'm nowhere near the playoffs. My last game of the year is usually at the end of the regular season in April.
Not only do you have 16 regular-season games, you also have four preseason games. Then if you make the playoffs, you can have four more games before you get to the Super Bowl. So you can already have 24 games without the 18-game season. And 24 games takes a real toll on somebody's body.
I am poised and confident in what I do, so I think whether it's shot clock winding down in the playoffs or regular season game, I'm going to have the same mentality.
During the regular season, you don't have the sort of time you do in the playoffs to prepare for people, so you've got to go to your strengths.
Whatever happened in the regular season seems to not matter in the playoffs.
Whatever you do during the regular season doesn't matter once you get to the playoffs.
Pro football is a game; not a war. It's for win or lose, not life or death... but say that in the summer, for winter brings the playoffs, and a season is at stake.
I get excited for the regular season also, but it's just added excitement when the playoffs start.
I always get up for every game, but this game is especially big. It's a do-or-die thing. This could be (decide) whoever wins the regular-season championship.
You don't go into a season saying you're going to play this many more years, you take it one season at a time, one game at a time, one practice at a time.
Every time when the season starts you have a goal, right? To reach the playoffs. You reach the playoffs, and then the next step is to win the Cup.
The season is a beast within itself. It's not the quickest race; it's a marathon. In the playoffs - if you're fortunate enough to make the playoffs - that's more like a dash. You have to concentrate on one opponent. When they're done, you have to concentrate on another one.
If it's a card game, or it's a preseason game, or it's a regular season game, I just go out there to try to win. For me, that's all I know how to do it and I'll never change that.
Well, of course you question it, especially when you get to this point. I always look at it would I rather not make the playoffs or lose in The Finals? I don't know. I don't know. I've missed the playoffs twice. I lost in The Finals four times. I'm almost starting to be like I'd rather not even make the playoffs than to lose in The Finals. It would hurt a lot easier if I just didn't make the playoffs and I didn't have a shot at it.
It's all about the playoffs for me. I don't care about the regular season.
I used to run the band hockey pool - regular season and playoffs. I would write weekly reports, which were meant to demoralize and diffuse enjoyment for others.