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**BeastJacobs** · 04-12-2008, 08:10 PM

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EAST RUTHERFORD - Giants cornerback Sam Madison took a break from the team’s opening week of the offseason conditioning program to talk to Giants.com about a number of issues:

CB Sam Madison sat down with Giants.com for an exclusive interview.

Q: How long did it take you to come off of the Super Bowl high?

Madison: “Well, I am still on it and I think that is a good thing because we have a lot of guys like me, who are back (here) for the first time. Just looking around the locker room there are a lot of guys in here and everybody is very focused, everybody is very humble, everybody is excited about the things we have done last year, but they are hungry for more. Just seeing all the younger guys and a lot of the older guys in here working out and competing and trying to get better already is a very good sign.”

Q: What was your favorite football moment during last season?

Madison: “David Tyree, most definitely. David Tyree catching that ball (on the game-winning drive in the Super Bowl), that pretty much solidified our whole season, because before that play there were a lot of guys with their heads hung low with a lot of disappointment and then once he caught that ball there were a lot of bright eyed guys on the sideline. By him going up and doing the things that he has done every day in training camp and in practice by catching the ball and then securing it, David Tyree’s catch is the most amazing catch I have seen in my 11 years.”

Q: What is the coolest thing that you got to do because the team won the Super Bowl?

Madison: “The coolest thing that I was able to do? I guess receive the key to New York City. That was very exciting. Going to the parade and seeing over (a million) fans out there. Without those fans we wouldn’t really have many people behind us because everybody was really pulling for the Patriots in that Super Bowl. But New York fans are everywhere and I love them to death.”

Q: You have been on teams with better regular season records. What was it about this Giants team that separated it from teams other teams that you played for and made it so successful on the road?

Madison: “I think the one thing that really made a difference is that guys took it upon themselves to go out and execute and practice and get all their business together. They took it upon themselves to do it. You didn’t really have to have Michael (Strahan) or Amani (Toomer) or whoever pointing fingers or having to get on guys to come out and perform well. It just hit us one day. Just looking back during the whole season there wasn’t really a lot of bickering. There wasn’t a lot of complaining about practice or the way Coach (Tom) Coughlin was doing things or the way Coach Spags (defensive coordinator Steve Spagnuolo) had implemented the defense or vice-versa with the offense. Guys were on one page and out of all the years that I have played the young guys really grabbed the coattail of a lot of the veteran guys and just followed and it led us to one of the biggest victories in football history.”

Q: What did the veterans do during the season to help the younger players in the secondary?

Madison: “I think the one thing that really helped us was having a lot of injuries early to certain guys. You never want anybody to get hurt, but you need some young guys to be able to step in there when the fire is burning very hot. Gibril Wilson went down for probably three to four weeks and Michael Johnson come in and played a little bit. Then James Butler was going down, so we were rotating guys who were getting a lot of reps. When you have a very good football team usually your starters just play, play, play, play and the young guys never really get a lot of action and then later on in the season it hurts you because one of those guys goes down and then all of a sudden it is like, ‘Oh, I have to go play.’ We were able to do it early on in the season. Michael Johnson played very well with me when we played Miami in London. He got a lot of good experience. And by having those guys get that experience early it paid off for us later on in the year, because we were able to use them in different positions to help us win the Super Bowl. Michael didn’t even play a lot of safety; he played a lot of dime and a lot of nickel. We were able to match up with different people and personnel that the Patriots were able to throw at us.”

Q: How good can Aaron Ross get and what does he have to do to get there?

Madison: “I think he is pretty much on the right track. Aaron came in with a very clear head, he came in willing and wanting to learn, and he already had that instinct in him coming from the University of Texas and knowing what it takes to become a Pro Bowler or leader in this league. He kind of sat back and absorbed everything that we were throwing at him. At the beginning we were throwing a lot at him, because he wasn’t really starting at corner, he was playing a lot of nickel in the slot. He was able to calm down, he had a little setback and had an injury there, but once he had that injury it kind of mellowed him out a little bit more and once he came back he was a different football player and a very aggressive player. I think this offseason is going to help him now that he has been here with us for a whole year, and it is definitely going to help him become a better and a more aggressive football player.”

Q: Talk about Corey Webster; is his confidence level at an all-time high?

Madison: "His confidence level is definitely at an all-time high. Last year when we came in I was playing right corner and Corey was (starting) at left corner. But Corey still had something in the back of his head, because he had some injuries at the end of (2006). He still was kind of focusing on those injuries, he wasn’t very happy with the way that he came off of those injuries, and he still wasn’t 100 percent. When he was taken out of the rotation he stayed focused, he stayed working, I talked to him constantly, and he just continued to get better. Toward the end of the season I think he finally was able to get healthy. I don’t care what injury you have, it is always going to take you at least a year and a half to really become very comfortable and go out there and play the way that you can play. Finally, he was able to settle down, find his comfort level, and know that he can go out there and play well. In that New England game (the regular season finale) he stepped in and he played very well and he knew that he had to go in and play a starting role in Tampa Bay (in the first playoff game). He just took off, he is an unbelievable player and is very smart, an instinctive player that loves to make plays. He is going to be a very good one as well. I think we have a very good cornerstone at corners here, just as long as they can stay healthy and continue to do the things that Spags implements as a defense to make this football team continue to go.”

Q: Did your success as a secondary in holding down the high-powered offenses you faced in the playoffs convince you that you can play with anybody?

Madison: “I am not the biggest guy, I am not the fastest guy, but when you rely on your instincts and you rely on your technique and you rely on your other 10 players on the football field … anything can happen, as long as everybody is on the same page, everybody is doing the same thing. Coach Spags put a very good package together for each one of those specific games, for Brett Favre, for Tony Romo, for T.O. (Terrell Owens) - you could go down the list. As long as you go out and you execute the way that you are supposed to execute, everything will be positive. I just try to show them from day one that I am not the biggest person in the world, but let’s depend on our technique, let’s make the adjustments, let’s make the calls, let’s get over here and see what is going on, and then let’s go out and play. That is what we did. We didn’t really try to isolate one person. We were very confident going into those games because nobody was really giving us the opportunity or even a chance to win, nobody but us. I think that is why we were able to succeed.”

Q: What did Coach Spagnuolo do to make the defense better?

Madison: “I think the one thing is that we trust him and he trusts us. He lets us go out and we play and we play very well together. He asks us what we think, how we feel, he gives us some input, and when a guy gives you input you kind of feel the love from him and you want to go out and do extra, you want to do more. Coach Coughlin, I don’t know what happened, but he did a 360 and he gave us a little more leeway, he gave us a little more support in whatever we were doing. You look at Plaxico (Burress), Plaxico was a guy that worked extremely well and extremely hard to get back from having surgery on his ankle. He missed a lot of practices but coach said, ‘Okay, let me sit back, Plaxico is a veteran, he understands the system, take your rest, come out and play football.’ We didn’t really have any problems and everybody understood where coach was coming from and just went out and had a great time and performed very well.”

Q: How much time did you take off after the Super Bowl?

Madison: “You always want to take off a little time to get the bumps and the bruises and the aches and the pains to go down, but it happened fast. This is the first time in my career going this long and making it to the Super Bowl, so you don’t really know what to expect. But for the most part everybody came out of the season very healthy. Just looking at the guys the way that they are in the training room everybody took enough time, probably a month, a month-and-a-half, to get themselves back together and now they are back in there. We didn’t really have an opportunity to really get out of shape.”

Q: Did you go on vacation?

Madison: “I went on a couple of trips. I went to Lake Tahoe. No skiing, but it was gorgeous. I just stayed a week out there, enjoyed the snow and the view of the lake, but other than that, I’m right back into it.”

http://www.giants.com/news/eisen/sto...story_id=27034