Interview with Nate Burleson

Interviewer:  Gene Ramsay

Date: 06/04/2004

Format:  Phone

Nate Burleson is a Solid #3…For Now

Nate Burleson is entering his second year in the National Football League as a member of the Minnesota Vikings potent wide receiver crew and offense.  That fact can only be met with fear and trepidation as the Minnesota Vikings’ #1 ranked offense of 2003 comes back onto the field in 2004 with very little having changed personnel-wise.  Reports out of Minnesota are that Nate could very well be the solid #3 receiver on the field this year.  He has looked excellent in the early camps.  His routes are better and he has caught virtually everything sent his way.

When I caught up with Nate, he had just finished a developmental camp session.  He took a few moments before a meeting to enter the “Blitz Zone”…

GR:  Hello Nate.  Thanks for your time today.  I want to start out by telling you a story about you.  My wife and I had a chance to come to the Vikings/Chiefs game last year.  If you remember, it was pretty cold that day.  Well, we were both standing outside the area where you guys come and go.  When the game was over, we went back to that place by the exit door where you guys leave from and we were getting a ball signed.  There were many people standing out there freezing to get some autograph or shake a hand.  Some guys just couldn’t move by all of us fast enough.  Now, they may have been cold or whatever but some of you guys really stayed out there to sign stuff for the people standing out there.  You were one of those guys.  You looked pretty cold, but you did not seem to mind signing things and talking to everybody out there.  That made a big impression on me and on my wife.

NB:  Hey.  I figured if those people were willing to stand out there and wanted my autograph or whatever that I could do that.

GR:  It made a good impression.  My wife is a teacher and she said that she wished she had a class full of students like you.  She was so impressed that she told me that she wanted a Nate Burleson jersey to wear to the next game.  You really made an impression.

NB:  Wow!  Well you tell your wife that I would be honored for her to wear my jersey.  Also tell her that if she ever wants me to come talk to her class or something that I will be happy to do it.

GR:  I will pass that along.  I don’t think the commute to Alabama would be the best idea for you to offer, but I appreciate your willingness and I am sure she will appreciate it too.

NB:  Oh yea.  Alabama is kind of far.

GR:  Hey, you never know.  I just wanted to relay that story to encourage you to keep on being the kind of person that you are and that people pay attention to stuff like that. 

NB:  Thanks for that.  It’s all good to know and hear.

GR:  I know you have a meeting in a few minutes so I’ll keep it brief.  You are now a sophomore in the NFL, how does that feel?

NB:  It feels great.  I feel like I did OK last year but I’m more confident now.  I feel like I can contribute on a different level and even be a leader for some of the younger guys coming in.

GR:  OK, since I have you only for a few minutes, let me hit this one hard…in a foot race of one hundred yards of all the wide outs on the team, who wins?

NB:  Man, that would be close…very close.  It would either be Campbell or Moss first.  Those guys can move it.  Campbell is so quick and Moss is so tall and fast.  It would be a close first and second, but close by in third would be Nate Burleson.

GR:  So you’ll say you are fast, just not faster than those guys, huh?

NB:  Yes, I’m fast but those guys are faster.

GR:  What is your best memory so far?

NB:  That would have to be my first touchdown.  It also did not come easily either.  I remember catching the ball and getting hit.  I just muscled toward the endzone and I did not even know if I has scored until I heard the response from the crowd.

GR:  Do you recall who hit you?

NB:  Yea.  We were playing the Forty-Niners and it was Tony Parrish.

GR:  Oh.  So you out-muscled a solid guy?

NB:  Yea.  Like I said, I got hit and did not even know if I had scored.  I just knew I had to try and push my way in.

GR:  So what was your favorite team growing up?

NB:  I was not really into just one team.  I got more players than a team.  I remember the Falcons and the “Dirty Bird” dance.  How they got everyone all excited and that kind of thing.

GR:  I guess you don’t like them so much now though, after the 1998 season situation.

NB:  No.  I don’t like them too much now.  That memory still lingers around here.

GR:  I can only imagine.  Do you know the Vikings fight song?

NB:  No.

GR:  OK Nate, now I am going to give you and assignment.  First, I think you just said “no” because you knew I was going to ask you to sing it.

NB:  Well, we don’t want that.  There will be no singing.

GR:  OK, fine.  Your assignment though is to make sure you learn it get those young guys on it.  I think all rookies should know it when they come in and I am leaving it in your hands.  I’m sure someone in the office or somewhere online you can find it and learn it and then pass it along.

NB:  I’ll have to do that.  Definitely.

GR:  What video games do you play?

NB:  Madden football and 3^rd person shooter games.

GR:  So, do you think Madden did you right?

NB:  Yea, they did me alright.  Hopefully my numbers will be better this year and I’ll be even better.

GR:  That’s for sure man.  Every time I try to put you in it’s fifty-fifty as whether or not you are going to come up with it.

NB:  Yea, I know.  Like I said, maybe I’ll be better this year.

GR:  Do you have any pets?

NB:  No.  No pets.  I am married and I have a son…Nathaniel II.

GR:  Excellent.

NB:  Hey.  I have my boss pulling on me to go to my meeting.  I gotta go.

GR:  Cool.  Hey…thanks for your time today and for squeezing me in.  Good luck this year and I’ll look for the new and improved Nate Burleson on my PS2 and on the field.  Stay healthy and well and have a great year.  Just remember that we’re all watching.

NB:  OK.  Thanks.