Super Bowl XLVIII: Doug Baldwin media session transcript, 1/26/14

(on playing with a chip on his shoulder) "Yes, it's a chip. I usually call it a boulder, not so much a chip it's a little bit bigger than that. More so it's everything that I've been through throughout my entire life. All the negatives, the positives, anything that's attributed to my ability to be here today kind of adds to that boulder and any doubt in my abilities that comes from the outside or within, it just gives me more strength to prove myself right and look to my abilities as accomplishments and not so much as a setback because of my height and my speed or whatever it may be. It's just more so me trying to gain that mental edge and motivation for myself."

(on Head Coach Pete Carroll's philosophy) "When I first came in, I completely just threw myself into the philosophy, believing everything that Pete says, and it's got us to this point. The compete mantra, the thought that practice is everything, and that it doesn't matter where you are or what the scoreboard is in the first quarter, second quarter, you finish games in the second half. It's part of his philosophy and we didn't really completely get at the point when I first came in, but we're at the pinnacle of everything that we tried to accomplish of our goals. You sit back and you look at it and you realize that those goals, those methods that he tried to put on us was something that actually got us to this point which was always competing."

(on always having to compete against each other) "Like I said (Carroll) always talked about competing and he said he was going to bring guys in to compete against us and make this team the best that he could. He said it was nothing personal to the guys, it's just that he was trying to push this roster to make it the best that he could and the deepest that he could."

(on why he went undrafted) "I didn't have a lot of good film coming out of college, also my height didn't help me at all. I ran a decent forty, but nobody would call it blazing speed. I think all those things attributed to it and to be honest with you I don't really care right now."

(on if he believed he would make it to the NFL) "Yeah, I told my high school coach in part of my sophomore year in high school, I said that if a team allows me to go to college for football, there's nothing that's going to stop me from making to the NFL. I went through some difficult times in college, especially my junior year, not knowing whether I was going to continue with football, and then my senior year once the draft ended and my name wasn't called. There was a while there for a second that I questioned whether or not my career would continue with football, but my agent told me that I would have a good shot to try and get into somebody's camp and I told myself that if that was an opportunity, I was going to do anything and everything in my power to make the team and be an impact player in the NFL."

(on the team not being satisfied with just making the Super Bowl) "At the beginning of the season, obviously one of our goals was to win the NFC West and then the ultimate goal was not to get to the Super Bowl, like you said, it was to win the Super Bowl. It would be one thing to experience and enjoy this experience being at the Super Bowl, but it would be an awful experience if we walked away not winning. That's our goal: to come out here with a victory and enjoy the moment doing that."

(on talking to WR Ricardo Lockette about playing in the Super Bowl) "My best friend on the team Ricardo Lockette, I think he's one of the few players that's been to back-to-back Super Bowls in the league. I've just been picking his brain about the experience and what happens when we get here and all the stuff that goes on and he gave me some good insight. He was a little bit more excited about it than I was."

(on facing Denver Broncos CB Champ Bailey) "I'm extremely excited about that matchup just because he's one of those guys I've been watching my entire career. I've always looked up to him. I just loved the way he plays the game of football. He's such a cerebral football player, he's very athletic, and none of his movements are wasted, he does everything with a purpose. It's going to be an extremely exciting opportunity for me to go up against one of the best to ever play the game at his position."

(on his message to the troops who will be watching the game overseas) "We appreciate everything those guys do. My family is a military family, so to speak, and we appreciate everything that my grandfather did for our country and the sacrifice that he laid out there for his family in order for our family to do what we do now. It's a very heartfelt moment."

(on not having any Super Bowl experience) "I thought about this a lot but I look at those guys on the other side of the field and Champ Bailey -one of the guys I looked up to my entire career- he's played in the league for 15 seasons and he's never been to a Super Bowl and I can't say that lack of experience in a Super Bowl is going to do anything that detriment him. I'm sure that he's going to be well prepared and excited for this game as much as we are, and, regardless if he has that experience in the Super Bowl, I think he's going to be damned prepared for this game."

(on what it meant to see all the fans come out and support the team) "It didn't really hit me until we pulled out of the V-Mac and we saw all of those fans lined up along the sides of the bus. When we got near the gas station near the airport just thousands and thousands upon fans being out there to support us. It's a surreal feeling and then it makes you realize how important this moment, this experience is not only to the players but to the fans, the city of Seattle, our families, the coaches, everybody that's taken part in this organization, how important it is to them, it really hit me then."

(on what makes QB Russell Wilson perfect to play in this game) "The ability for him to stay level throughout anything is going to help him for this situation, because, like you said, it's so hyped about the Super Bowl, the surroundings, the distractions, he's so level on everything that he does that I don't think those distractions will have any implications on him so that way when we get to game time he's going to be the same Russell Wilson that he's been the entire season."

(on how he became better during the season) "It's just the mental side of it, just being able to get more reps with Russell understanding him more, the offense as a whole, being able to spend more time with receivers and building a chemistry and rapport with them. All that stuff combines to give us an ability to on the football field that you can't really explain in words. It's not really a feeling or it's more of a feeling than it is an explanation of Xs and Os. When you have that chemistry when you can look at the receiver and he knows what you're talking about without even having to say anything, that's been important for us this season."

(on how Wilson is off the field with his teammates) "He's quiet, he's to himself a lot. He's one of those guys that he likes so much to be dialed into the game plan and into the film that it's kind of hard to pull him away from it at times because he's so focused and so involved. He does open up, he's just like everybody, he's a big teddy bear. He likes to joke around and have fun; but he's so serious about his craft."

(on how Sherman's prior wide receiver experience helps him play defensive back) "Like you said, they were athletes, so I think that's a huge thing for them because not only were they focused on defense and offense, but to have that entire realm to use as a background. You look at a guy like Richard Sherman, he played receiver at Stanford with me, he has the ball skills, and he knows what receivers are thinking about when they line up. When he's at defensive back he can use all of that knowledge he gained as a receiver to his advantage on the football field. I think for all those guys that were athletes they use that to their advantage and that only makes them be more successful on the football field."

(on Sherman's transition to defensive back in college) "To be honest, when he first switched over he was awful, he was terrible. He couldn't backpedal, he couldn't track the ball, and he didn't really try to quick jam, because he would get lost at the line of scrimmage. We had wonderful coaches at Stanford, they kind of honed in his skills, made him focus more on the details and then when he got here he kind of blossomed into amazing defensive back that he is now. He never in his mind had doubt that he would be one of the greatest, he's always said that he was going to be one of the greatest whether he was going to be a receiver or a defensive back. I had no doubt in him as well because I know how hard he works."