1-on-1 with Denver Broncos wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders
Things we already know about Super Bowl Champion Wide Receiver Emmanuel Sanders:
1) He plays for the Denver Broncos.
2) He caught at least six touchdown passes in each of his past three seasons.
3) He topped 1,100 receiving yards in the past two of those seasons.
What you may not know about Sanders is that he is obsessed with the Skylanders video game franchise for children, he thinks Darrelle Revis is the toughest cornerback he's ever faced, and he's sure there is a better dancer on the Broncos than him.
The highlights of my interview with Sanders, paraphrased for readability:
ROB PEREZ: What was the best part about winning the Super Bowl? The ring? The cash bonus? The fame?
EMMANUEL SANDERS: I had this dream since I was like 15 years old. I always used to see guys like Hines Ward go and grab their kids during these moments, and I had a son a year before winning the Super Bowl, and being able to go and grab him after we won, to live that moment, sharing the dream with him, that was definitely real.
RP: Peyton Manning is gone; how do you transition from him to Mark Sanchez or whoever is named starter before the season starts?
ES: Peyton was the ultimate leader in my eyes. The best quarterback to ever play the game. We just have to get past "The Peyton Manning Era"; that's it. ... Our receiving core, man, we got so much talent. No matter who the quarterback is, we just got to keep them guessing. This is the second year of Coach Kubiak's system, and simply put: I think we can be better.
RP: Did you and Manning have any funky pregame rituals or traditions you can share with us?
ES: Our relationship was strictly business. The business is winning.
RP: Finish this sentence for me, the best show on television right now is ...
ES: "Power" or "The Night Of".
RP: Who are toughest cornerbacks you've faced in the NFL?
ES: Darrelle Revis, Chris Harris, Aqib Talib. It doesn't matter if I break the huddle [in practice] to the left or right, I know I'm going up against the best in the NFL.
RP: Who's the best dancer on the team?
ES: Von Miller.
RP: If Emmanuel Sanders weren't playing football, what would he be doing for work?
ES: He'd be the President of the United States.
RP: If you could kick it with any athlete right now, dead or alive, who'd you want to hang out with?
ES: Muhammad Ali.
RP: What's the best piece of advice you could give to any college, high school, or pee wee football player out there who dreams of going pro one day?
ES: I base everything off two things: hard work and dedication. I keep everything simple. "Hard work" reminds me every day I got to wake up and work hard; but when I say "dedication," it means I can't have, OK I have one good day of hard work, the next three or four days I sit on my butt because I'm feeling good about myself. That's not really dedicating myself to my craft. Dedication is working hard every single day, regardless if they're good or not. In order to be the best you have to work at it, and more importantly you have to be consistent over long periods of time. I try and create good habits within myself.
RP: How important are Madden ratings to NFL players?
ES: Very important. It's something we look at. They got me rated at 89, I should have been in the 90s. Demaryius [Thomas] should have been in the 90s. Fresh off the Super Bowl and 1,000 yards, we should have been in the 90s. I check my Madden rating every week.
RP: You and I are both 29 years old. How weird is it to see Crash Banditcoot in 2016 video games [Skylanders Imaginators] made for children?
ES: It's crazy, man, I loved playing that game as a kid. Unlike the version you and I played on PlayStation 1, this time you can create your own version of him. Jumping up and down with the dude in the older version was cool, but now you can dive, give him weapons and stuff â I don't know what it is, but I know my son going to be playing this the first chance he gets.
RP: How do young kids, like ... YOUNG kids find this game so attractive? Help me wrap my head around the craze. There are so many different things and plots to experiment with it feels like "Game of Thrones" for kids. The most fun part about fantasy football for a lot of people is drafting a team. Has Skylanders figured out a way to translate this to kids?
ES: 100 percent agree with you. I feel like a big kid playing this damn game. The portal is an absolute game-changer. It gives you the opportunity to mess around with so many toys and build your own character, and then send them off directly into it -- I'm an adult, and I think this stuff is so cool.
RP: What would you compare it to -- Warcraft?
ES: The original Crash Banditcoot. I was crazy about that game as a kid. If you weren't playing that in the 90s, man, did you miss out. Now, with Skylanders, it's back, and you can play with any of the characters, customize 'em like my guy Bazooker, and do all sorts of different stuff. You can take your toy and play with it any of the levels, even co-op. As much as I loved the old version â that's something you couldn't do back then and is new. It takes me back to the days when I'd stay up until 6 a.m. playing during the summers off.
