By Eric Edholm
April 14, 2007

Brady Quinn has ridden the roller coaster of a breakout junior season through an up-and-down senior season that saw him win national awards and also be called out for his lack of great performances in the biggest games, despite his team allowing more than 40 points each game in losses to Michigan, USC and LSU, in Quinn’s final game, in the Sugar Bowl.

He now prepares for the draft, having campaigned to be the No. 1 pick, or if not, playing for the Browns, the team he grew up watching, wouldn’t be bad, either. Many feel that if he’s not taken in the top three picks, he could face a Matt Leinart-esque slide to the bottom of, or possibly even out of, the top 10.

Quinn has been promoting his Draft Day coverage for Sprint, for whom he’ll interact with fans on the big day, and he took a few minutes to talk with PFW about a variety of subjects, including preparing for the draft amid talk he’s slipping, throwing passes to supermodels, his dancing exploits and cheating — see below — with Bo Jackson and the Raiders on Tecmo Bowl.

PFW: How was that burrito? (Minutes before calling, a P.R. representative called PFW to say that Quinn was just finishing his lunch — a burrito.)

B.Q.: Oh, dude! I can’t explain to you how much I needed that Chipotle burrito.

PFW: I almost went there today for lunch, but I got busy.

B.Q.: Shame on you for not going.

PFW: Well, if you got six inches of snow like we did, you might think otherwise!

B.Q.: Now, if you knew me and how much I ate Chipotle, you would take that back. (laughs).

PFW: I am going to guess you are a chicken-and-hot-salsa kind of man.

B.Q.: Oh yeah. I get chicken, hot salsa, lettuce, tomato and rice. Sometimes double chicken. Love it.

PFW: So I mentioned to my girlfriend that I was interviewing you today, and she said that I was welcome to invite you to dinner next time you are in Chicago. I think she has a little crush on you.

B.Q.: (Laughs) Uh, yeah about that …

PFW: Hey now!

B.Q.: I am actually throwing out the first pitch of the Cubs game on Sunday. So I will probably be in town Saturday night, see what’s going on. I tried to do the same thing last year, but it was one of the few games that were rained out last season. So it’s going to be me and a couple of my linemen there. Should be fun.

PFW: Last time I saw you in person was at the Super Bowl. I was coming out of the media center, and you were with quite the entourage, I am guessing 13 people. You already have a posse?

B.Q.: We were rolling pretty deep (laughs). That particular moment I was with Xbox for an event. The P.R. department, the communications department, I think was Alan Taylor — now just called Taylor — so they were actually with us that day. That was probably their posse. They roll pretty deep.

PFW: I also came back to my hotel and saw you throwing crossing patterns to really hot chicks in bathing suits diving into a pool. Who set up that gig?

B.Q.: That was for the ‘Best Damn Sports Show (Period).’ That was awesome.

PFW: Not a bad gig!

B.Q.: Yeah, but I’ve got a girlfriend, have for a while. That one kind of came back to bite me.

PFW: Did you talk to the other QBs — John Elway, Donovan McNabb — about anything?

B.Q.: You know, I did. I got to talk to those guys about the whole process a little bit. They said to just enjoy it. It’s going to come, and people are saying stuff now, but it’s their job. They have to say something. Really the whole thing they said — once you get through it all, the whole thing is about just playing football.

PFW: Is there a potential upside to not being the No. 1 pick?

B.Q.: Besides the fact that the team did better the previous year, I don’t know. If I am not the No. 1 pick, I’ll just be happy and satisfied that I am somewhere with a team that wants me. That answers finally who your coaches are going to be and who your teammates are going to be.

PFW: Talk a little about your workout schedule in Arizona before the Combine and your two pro days. You went at it six days a week out there, right?

B.Q.: I was thinking about possibly going back out there this summer if I have the chance to, but I really want to be (with whatever team drafts him). Monday through Saturday, I would pretty much go all day. I think it started at 9 (a.m.), and we pretty much went to about 5:30 (p.m.). I was at a great place where you have got everything there. You start out and go work on your speed, your strength, your running form. Any sort of bumps and bruises, they rehab. They have deep-tissue massage. All that kind of stuff. They have the cold tubs. A little cafeteria — they kind of model your diet. You can take advantage of that and be there all day. I figured, might as well get my money’s worth out there.

PFW: Important question — did they have Chipotle there?

B.Q.: Arizona, they actually don’t have Chipotle in that area! But it was great either way (laughs).

PFW: What’s the best music to get you through that last set of weightlifting? Are you an iPod guy?

B.Q.: It depends. It’s a mix. It’s usually some of the newer stuff. Right now, I’ve got some of (Justin) Timberlake’s new songs, his new CD. I am digging some of those beats. Interesting mixes and matches.

PFW: How was your sister’s wedding? Sources tell me you were quite the dancer that night. Truth or fiction: Did the shirt ever come off at any point?

B.Q.: (Laughs) No, they are lies. All lies, I tell you! That’s tomfoolery. So I am not sure what’s going on there.

PFW: What was the best Tom Brady story you heard from Charlie Weis?

B.Q.: It’s tough, what (Coach Weis) was going through with the health problems, the complications he had going through his surgery. Tom was the one who really pushed him through. Tom was the one who brought him the game tape to the hospital. He made sure that he pushed him and got him back as soon as possible. He helped them through that whole thing, so I remember that story very well.

PFW: What does Weis’ offense best prepare you for in pro football? What does he do that puts you just a step ahead of 99 percent of the quarterbacks out there?

B.Q.: Just the volume. That and also the responsibility that offense puts on a quarterback. Especially the quarterback — everything kind of comes from the quarterback there, which a lot of different offenses don’t have that. When you come to the line of scrimmage and you have the responsibility of setting up the protections, setting up the blocking schemes, you’re checking out of the protection or out of the call to a completely different call — you have to make some decisions pretty quickly. That’s something that I learned very quick with Coach Weis. That’s something that I thought was so valuable with him. On top of that, with each game plan, we had so much volume going in.

PFW: OK, you’re turning pro in about two weeks — time to take a shot at your old coach. Most annoying saying Weis has in practice? Does he use those corny Bill Belichick-isms? What got under your skin the most?

B.Q.: Nothing that really got to me too much. He definitely has his sayings, though. One of his quotes, he always has his backhanded compliments … and I laugh almost every time I say it. He said this to me a couple of times. [Quinn doing his best Weis impression] ‘You know, for a smart kid, you can be pretty dumb sometimes!’ He’d say stuff like that all the time, so you just chuckle at that.

PFW: Is this fun for you, the whole dog-and-pony show, this pre-draft process? I have talked to ‘football guys,’ coaches’ sons and the like — they all put on a good face, but this is rough for them, too, in a way.

B.Q.: I’ve learned at my time at Notre Dame that there’s so much media attention, you have to learn to enjoy it. If you don’t enjoy it, then you’re not built for this business, and there’s no way you can make it. It’s going to catch up to you one way or another, especially if you have any success. So I’ve honestly learned just to come back to it — to enjoy it, go with the flow — for these particular things. And just make sure that you take care of your business first. A lot of times, like this morning, you have to wake up at 5:45 in the morning before things start around 7:30, 7:45. [Quinn was promoting Sprint’s Draft Day coverage that day with a round of media sessions.] Those are the sacrifices you make for doing this, but it’s a good position to be in.

PFW: Does it feel to you like you are auditioning not only for NFL teams but also for fans and media? There has been a lot of talk about your stock falling and all that since the Sugar Bowl, which was the last time you played a game.

B.Q.: It’s fine because I love when people say your stock is falling when I haven’t played a game. For me, I was like, ‘Come on, there’s no way that’s possible.’ If people saw me now on a day-to-day basis, they’d know that I was not dwelling on it all the time. They’d know that. That’s really just not the case and not how I viewed things. Regardless of what people say, I just continue to do the same thing, the things that I have been doing: getting up, working out, throwing, keeping myself in good shape, eating right. That sort of thing. It really hasn’t affected me or bothered me that much because I have kept my ear out of it.

PFW: OK, quick hitters here ...

‘Sopranos’ or ‘Entourage’?

B.Q.: ‘Entourage,’ definitely

PFW: ‘24’ or ‘Lost’?

B.Q.: Ooh. I am a huge Jack Bauer fan, but ‘Lost’ gets the edge over ‘24.’

PFW: Breakfast or dinner?

B.Q.: I’ll have to say breakfast.

PFW: Treadmill or stairclimber?

B.Q.: Stairclimber is not me at all.

PFW: Best team to play with in Tecmo Bowl?

B.Q.: (Laughs) I used to play back in the day with the Raiders because they had Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen, Tim Brown … I think (Jeff) Hostetler was the quarterback on that.

PFW: Bo Jackson was unbeatable in that game. That’s like cheating.

PFW: Best throwback jersey a QB could wear? Do you own one?

B.Q.: I do. I have a Johnny Unitas jersey! That’s my guy. He’s my favorite. Actually, I got that soon after I won the award this year, and really when you win the award, you kind of — we went back to Baltimore for that, and this was the first time I had it there — learn about the history of the award, and also about him. You meet his fans and family and the past players he worked with, and you really — of all the awards I have won, that meant a ton. It really did, just because of what he represents as a person and a player.

PFW: I am still trying to figure out how you were the Maxwell Award winner and yet finished a distant third in the Heisman. Still don’t understand that.

B.Q.: That’s life!

PFW: You are going to be at the draft in New York?

B.Q.: Two weeks, I’ll be back here.

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