“More Than Just a Blocker”
An Interview with Ovie Mughelli
by Paul
Eide
Senior Writer
10/22/08
The life of
a fullback is largely an unheralded one. But After spending four years
in Baltimore,
Mughelli
signed a 6 year, $18 million dollar contract with the Falcons prior to
last season
that made him the highest paid fullback in NFL history. Primarily a
special
teams contributor early in his career, Mughelli has evolved into one of
the
premier blocking fullbacks in the league as evidenced by the Falcons
ranking
second in the NFL in rushing (163 per game) after seven games. Mughelli
is
currently leading the Falcons in yards per carry, but just don’t ask
him how
many carries he’s had.
How did you end up
joining the
Falcons?
“I
became a
free agent after my 4th year in Baltimore
and had offers from Tampa, NY, Atlanta, Denver, Green Bay
and Atlanta
was just the overall pick. When I got there I didn’t think it would be
as much
of a drama filled season as it was.”
What was your
relationship like with
Michael Vick and that situation?
“I
wasn’t
sure about what happened. I had only known Mike for a couple months in
mini
camp, OTA’s and before I knew it all the stuff was in the media and all
of the
sudden he wasn’t around anymore. There was nothing I could do to make
it better
or worse for myself so I just focused on my job.”
Was former coach Bobby
Petrino just
a weakling?
“You
said
it best yourself. He wasn’t somebody who guys were able to follow, or
who guys
trusted, his character, his intensity, his passion for the game was
never
there, you just couldn’t tell that he loved any of it. You had to bash
him over
the head to get any kind of emotion out of him.”
Was the size of Brian
Billick’s
reputed ego a part of him getting fired from Baltimore last year?
“No
I don’t
think so. I think you as a player have to have a healthy ego in any
position,
and as a coach in charge of all these ego filled players, you have to
have
somewhat of an ego to survive or you’re not going to last. That’s one
thing
coach Petrino didn’t have. He didn’t even have confidence in himself so
you
can’t expect the players to have confidence him either.”
Talk about the Falcons
success so
far this season compared to last. What has the transition been like,
from worst
to first?
“I
think we
should get rights to a major motion picture because this is straight
out of a
book or Any Given Sunday or Remember the
Titans; You couldn’t have
written this any better, especially the last game kicking a game
winning field
goal with one second left, everyone celebrating on the field, hugging
each
other. I’m on the top of the world right now, personally. All because
of Coach
Smith and Tom Dimitroff (GM) for putting a great team together.”
Describe the Bears
sideline after
losing on Elam’s last second field goal
“They
had
their whole life sucked out of them; The Bears were astonished! We
didn’t want
to be poor sportsmen or anything like that but it was so spontaneous
everyone
was so happy we were on the field jumping around. Even our head coach
was like
a little kid on Christmas. After we calmed down I spoke to Urlacher and
Ogunleye afterwards to say ‘good game’ and everything but you could
just see it
in their eyes; they shook my hand but they just couldn’t believe what
happened.”
So you don’t get the ball
too often
but it’s hard to scoff at your 9 yards per carry average
Yeah,
that’s pretty impressive, right? That’s right on par with the league
leaders! I
joke with our offensive coaches about that all the time; you guys need
to get
me the ball more often, see what happens?”
Click here to listen to Paul Eide and Michael
Cooper’s complete interview.
