NY Giants’ Stephen Baker: an interview on life, football, and video games

GMenHQ: Now obviously you played receiver in the NFL and college, but how come you have 1 interception in your college career?

"Well I remember that play very well actually. They did a fake punt. And in theory I should have knocked it down but being a receiver I wasn’t even thinking I just went up there and got it and of course the coach gave me an earful after that. But yeah it was 4th and long and they did a fake punt and tried to throw it long. You know I’m gonna have to look that play up because maybe they set me up, because if you throw it up there and I intercept it we’re gonna get the ball right there instead of like 40 yards up. Bonehead play by me, but my only career interception which was pretty cool."

GMenHQ: What was your favorite position to play throughout your career?

"Wow man, you know I got to say when I was in college I was 3rd in the nation in punt returns and we had so much fun with that and I am actually proud to say that I have my first ever punt return on video. (Showing me a photo) You can see the kid in the middle, number 7, Julius Pitts, he was the returner. We were playing Mark College. He went back there. Now we had a system where you caught the ball you’d go up the field 3 steps and then you would give ground and lose like 15-20 yards, it looks crazy, but meanwhile the wall is coming to you and everyone bought into that. And coach (Jim) Sweeney had a model, “don’t leave that man on an island by himself.” So Julius Pitts was the starting punt returner because he had been there and I had transferred there from junior college. I was 2nd behind him and I had never returned a punt before. He gets the ball, does the same technique and as he comes around he end, he twists his ankle and they called a clip on the play. So the next thing I know coach yells “Baker get in there!” and let me tell you man I was nervous. This is my first time playing in front of 30,000 people. I just remember I caught it, took a step forward, I gave ground, about 15-20 yards, and all of a sudden I saw these people falling like dominoes. So I cut back, and while I cut back the ball slipped out of my hands so I had to regain it. While all of this is going on the crowd is going crazy and the rest is history. After that I had at least 3 called back because of a clipping penalty. I have to say though that that was the most fun because whenever we’d do punt returns the whole stadium of 30,000 people called the red wave would hold up sirens because someone was gonna be going to the hospital on the crack back. I remember coach Sweeney used to say “Set em up like bowling pins.” And I have to say that was fun along with averaging 28 yards per catch and running reverses. But punt returns used to bring people to their feet man."

GMenHQ: What were your emotions when the NY Giants drafted you in the 3rd round

"Well as I mentioned earlier I was a Dallas Cowboy fan, so when I got the news- don’t get me wrong now I was ecstatic to be a New York Giant- however, as a kid, like I told you in my dorm room I had a poster of Tony Dorsett on my wall from the day I got drafted. So when (Bill) Parcels called, I was a 3rd round pick, he called me before it was announced on ESPN and asked how it felt to be a New York Giant, and what am I gonna say? No? “Oh coach I’m holding out for the Cowboys.” You know him, he would’ve been like, “Okay” and hang up the phone. So I said “Sir, I’d be honored to be a New York Giant.” and he said, “I got one question for you, you have to hate the Redskins.” and I was like “Okay, I can’t stand the Redskins.” and then he said, “I’ll see you soon.” And that was it. I’ll tell you I was so relieved to get drafted because when that moment  happens you kind of reflect on what it takes to get there, like all the people who said you couldn’t do it. I remember I had a teacher who told me I couldn’t do it. Mr. Hughsby. He went around the whole class room in junior high school and asked everyone what they wanted to be when they grew up some said, “fireman, doctor, architect.” he came to me and I said I wanted to play in the NFL. When I tell this story this is exactly how I tell it. Imagine a bald headed man, with a little grey mustache, and spectacles on. Going, (in a Steve Urkel esque voice) “Are you kidding me, there are only 28 teams in the league, and they carry 4-5 receivers, and you think you’re going to be one of those guys?” He said it just like that. So you can imagine my excitement when I scored a touchdown in the Super Bowl. When they asked me If I had anything to say, I said, “yeah this goes out to- we used to call him Mr. Hughsball- Mr. Hughsby, who said I couldn’t do it.” and they had no idea what I was talking about. But it was a great moment to be drafted and beat all of those odds, dislocated shoulder with a screw in it, 5’8 150 pounds. All I wanted was an opportunity."

GMenHQ: Do you have any interesting or funny Bill Parcels stories?

"Well, he was a no nonsense guy as you can imagine. He always said, “If you have a problem, my door is always open. You don’t like something you can come ask me and I’m gonna tell you.” That’s what I always respected about him. I remember my rookie year, you have to know he couldn’t, “pick the groceries” as he put it. So he didn’t pick me, George Young gave him the players. And he didn’t really like little guys, and that’s what he told me when I got there. He was on the treadmill and I walked by him and he was like, “You know what, I don’t like little guys who are from California that wear earrings in their ear, and eat Tofu.” And I just looked at him and shook my head and kept walking. So later on at practice I’m catching punts and I drop a couple. So he looks over to me and he yells in front of everyone, “Baker! Window or aisle?” I’m like, “Excuse me?” He says, “Window or aisle, because if you keep dropping the [expletive] punts you’re gonna be on the first plane out of here.” And I was like geez I’m in this guys doghouse man. Another instance, still with a punt return, we were playing the Cleveland Browns. I caught a punt, and remember I told you I’m used to giving ground and then coming back and the wall would be there. Unfortunately when guys were stuck on punt return teams they had a chip on their shoulder because they didn’t really wanna be there. So they don’t block like they did in college. And I got smashed like a dude crushing an aluminum can. When I got up I had a hairline fracture in my finger, my ankle was severely swollen, and I was seeing stars. So I came off the field limping and he looked at our trainer, Ronnie Barnes, and the trainer checked me out. So, silly me didn’t want to go to treatment the next day or the following day. And if you don’t go to treatment for an injury you better be ready to practice on Monday. So I didn’t wanna stick my foot in a bucket of ice. I don’t know if you’ve ever done that but it is so painful for the first 2 and a half minutes. I said, “I’m not doing that, I’ll be alright.” And as fate would have it, on Monday I wasn’t able to go. My foot was swollen like a Grapefruit. And then Parcels embarrassed me in front of the whole super bowl defending team in the auditorium. “I guess our punk-[expletive] 3rd round pick must have a lot of money because I’m about to fine his [expletive] $3,000 for missing two treatments.” Dude, I was in the doghouse for sure because remember, George Young picked us. (Parcels) didn’t like little 5’8 guys. So anyways, Tuesday came around and I just said, “You know what, I’m just gonna gut it out.” So I heavily taped my leg up, and it was one of those injuries where I could run fine, but when I walked it hurt. And I guess I showed him a little something like that. And I was a fast healer so I was back by the end of the week. But I was in his doghouse from the beginning. Not a good place to be as a rookie. Especially on the defending Super bowl champions."

GMenHQ: What were your emotions when you caught the touchdown in the Super bowl?

"Well, I always tell this story like this. We didn’t throw a lot of passes when we played, it was primarily a running game and I’m so proud to say that Mark Ingram caught 37 passes I believe, I caught 34, but we won a Super bowl. And that’s always my question to kids: would you rather have 110 catches and 10 touchdowns, or 34 catches, 4 touchdowns, and win the Super bowl? So we did the ladder and we were a team that whenever they would call our numbers we would be ready. In fact, going into that game we knew we weren’t gonna get a lot of passes because the night before the offensive coordinator, Ron Erhardt said, “At the end of the game I want the longest time of possession in NFL history.” Could you imagine how that would fly today with these “diva” receivers? But you know we were a team so we didn’t care. So when they called my number down there- This play I had scored on once in the middle of the season against the Cardinals, and also in the playoffs against the Bears.- It’s a backside X post corner. So we get down there, and actually the play before (Jeff)  Hostetler underthrew me by 2 yards. I was hitting the seam on the right side. I ran a seam route and it should have been a touchdown and I thought I wasn’t gonna get another opportunity. But Erhardt upstairs believed in me, called the play again. Let me back up quick: when I got up there I said I was gonna run the best post corner route I’ve ever run in my life, right here, right now. I’ve run it a thousand times but this one has to be perfect because I don’t know when I’m gonna be here again. So I go out there and line up, I see the two linebackers about to blitz. So I know its single coverage and I know he has to protect the inside, and we were taught to attack the inside, then do your route. So I got him inside, went 3 steps to the post, put my hands out, Hostetler pumped it, and then I broke out of it. Now the key for that to work is the ball needs to be out in the air before I turn around. If I see it leave his hand it’s not going to work. And let me tell you he threw the perfect pass. The line held up enough. And I said there’s no way I’m gonna drop this, and I just went to it like a magnet. Now I didn’t do everything perfectly like having my eyes on the ball but I just did what I’ve been doing my whole life. Parcels always used to say, “Just catch the [expletive] ball, don’t worry about trying to be perfect.” And that’s what I did, I cradled it like a baby stamped both my feet on the ground, and that was it. I said, “Wow I just scored a touchdown in the Super bowl, now all we got to do is win.”"

GMenHQ: Do you have any Bill Belichick stories?

"I will say this about Bill Belichick. He was very observant of talent. Odessa Turner was a 4th round pick, we had the same agent. We came up together, we’re still very close to this day. We challenged each other for the position and we’re still friends to this day. But Belichick saw something in both of us when we both got drafted. The week before the final cuts- Parcels always had us on edge because we never knew if we were gonna make it. So I remember Belichick coming up to Odessa and I and asking us, “Did you guys get your apartments yet?” And I was like, “No sir, we wanna wait until we officially make the team.” and he gave me a little sly grin like, “Come on guys.” and we still didn’t believe him because Parcels was the head coach and he makes the final decision. Then Belichick asks, “Did you guys get your suits yet?” We were ironically going to play the Patriots. And we were like “No sir, we don’t have transportation.” He gave us the keys to his car. So we took his car to go to the mall and Odessa is from Monroe, Louisiana and I’m from LA, via Texas. So we were a little country and we went to a place called JeansWest and we saw these mannequins and the way they were dressed with the vests and pants. But Odessa got a gray suit and I got a black one with an orange shirt. So when we got back to the car I was like, “Dude, you got the keys?” He said, “You drove man where’d you put them?” And it turned out we locked the coaches keys in the car. Now Odessa is my boy and I love him to death but he has a speech impediment, so I had to make the call. So I called Belichick and told him we locked the keys in his car. All he said was, “Man are you guys [expletive] kidding me, that’s my wife’s [expletive] car. Get it back here!”  and he hung up. So we had to call a tow truck and have them get in there and get the keys. We both thought we were getting cut after that. But he would always come up to me and ask me which one of his defensive backs gave me the most problems. He always wanted me to match up against his best DB’s because he knew that the little guys always gave the big defensive backs the most problems because we could get off the line and go. He also would chime in on the punt returns too. He’d have us catch the punt and then have someone run in and hit us with a bag right after we caught it to help us get used to getting hit hard and help us hold onto the ball. He was definitely a coach ahead of his time."