Kenneth Walker III (00:00):
What's up, brother?
Speaker 2 (00:00):
Congratulations, Kenneth, on winning Super Bowl MVP. Talk about your offensive line giving you those [inaudible 00:01:33].
Kenneth Walker III (01:37):
Yeah, it was very detailed. We worked at it all week, last week, this week, and we worked on our run game and we knew that was going to make an impact on this game. I gave all the credit to those guys.
Speaker 3 (01:46):
Kenneth, what does it feel like to win MVP, was it something you imagined [inaudible 00:01:57]?
Kenneth Walker III (01:59):
No, if I would tell myself as a kid right now, I wouldn't have guessed that I would be the one winning MVP. So it's a surreal moment and it doesn't happen without the guys in the locker room.
Speaker 4 (02:09):
[inaudible 00:02:15].
Kenneth Walker III (02:26):
Yeah, definitely. When a doctor told me I couldn't play no more, I just thought football was over. That's what I was doing all my life. So it was a shocking moment, but my dad worked with me throughout that whole process and he was in the hospital with me as well and my mom. So just going through that, it just made me grateful for each and every day to be able to go out there and strap up and play this game and just still be alive for real.
Speaker 5 (02:51):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:02:58].
Kenneth Walker III (03:00):
Yeah. You never want to see your brother get hurt, but I know I was going to have to pick up the slack and I just wanted to make a positive impact on my team in whatever way possible.
Speaker 6 (03:15):
Kenneth, Klint Kubiak, it sounds like he's going to be leaving you guys for the Raiders. How important was he to the Super Bowl?
Kenneth Walker III (03:22):
Yeah, he was very important. He always wanted to get better. He put the ball in play [inaudible 00:03:29]. He made a great impact on our offense and he brought us all the way here and we won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 5 (03:33):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:03:40]?
Kenneth Walker III (03:43):
Yeah, he means a lot. When he first got here, he put up NFC Championship and that showed the team that he wanted to win. We didn't get it that year, but this year we knew what we had as a team and we stuck together and he brought in guys that wanted to win and had the same mentality as him.
Speaker 8 (04:02):
Kenneth, what impact did the fans have on the game today?
Kenneth Walker III (04:05):
A great impact. 12s always got impact on the games. They travel, they support us when we at home. So it's a blessing to have them and shout out to the 12s.
Speaker 9 (04:14):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:04:21]?
Kenneth Walker III (04:21):
How do you know about that?
Speaker 9 (04:22):
I do my homework.
Kenneth Walker III (04:24):
That's crazy. Yeah. People back from Memphis, that's the only people that really know the nickname Thundershoes. So I got that nickname from ... I think my mom bought me some light up cleats as a kid and I would go to practice and every time I ran, the cleats would light up. So my coach, I believe it was Coach Jesse, he ended up naming me Thundershoes and then it just stuck. So yeah.
Speaker 10 (04:46):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:04:53]?
Kenneth Walker III (05:07):
Yeah, it feels great. I didn't really know about the international fan base that we had, but we just, I'll say for the whole team, I know we appreciate the support for sure.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:05:26].
Kenneth Walker III (05:30):
Yeah. Defense has been a problem all season. We knew what they're capable of and they knew what they was capable of. So they held us in the game. When we was struggling to get a touchdown, the defense picked up the slack and special teams as well. So yeah.
Speaker 2 (05:47):
Kenneth, talk about the underestimated, nobody expected you guys to make it to the Super Bowl.
Kenneth Walker III (05:54):
We just ignored the noise really. As a team, we know the only thing that matters is what's talked about in the organization. So all the outside noise we really ignore. We stuck together throughout the season and we won a Super Bowl for that.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
[inaudible 00:06:10].
Kenneth Walker III (06:15):
It helps a lot. I feel like as a running back, you got to have that rhythm. You got to get touches. Like I said, the O line made my job a lot easier, so that helped a lot.
Speaker 11 (06:26):
At what point were you [inaudible 00:06:29]? At what point were you [inaudible 00:06:33]?
Kenneth Walker III (06:33):
I think later on in the first quarter or early in the second quarter is when I started to feel it. We start to break big runs. At first, Mike always talk about it's a softening process and then the bigger runs start to come and that's when I really started to feel it.
Speaker 12 (06:47):
Speaking of big runs, you had one at the end that you didn't get. Can you walk us through that, how it ended up for you?
Kenneth Walker III (06:56):
Yeah. The old line had the whole wild open. I just really had to beat the safety and whoever was on my left. Score, look back, it's a flag and that's probably the worst feeling ever, but we won the game, so I'm not going to complain.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
Kenneth, who do you got here family-wise?
Kenneth Walker III (07:10):
I got my mom, my dad, and my little brother.
Speaker 6 (07:15):
How much does that mean to have [inaudible 00:07:16]?
Kenneth Walker III (07:15):
It means a lot, especially my little brother and my dad. My dad, he comes out to Seattle all the time and watch games, but he never goes to the game because he don't like crowds. So this is his first NFL game and we won a Super Bowl, so it means a lot to me and I know he proud of me for real.
Speaker 6 (07:31):
Did you have to you convince him or [inaudible 00:07:33]?
Kenneth Walker III (07:33):
I wasn't the one that convinced him, actually. My agent convinced him to come out here. So I didn't think he would come. They ended up mic'ing him up and everything. So he got out of his comfort zone.
Speaker 6 (07:42):
How personally satisfying is this night for you?
Kenneth Walker III (07:45):
It means a lot. It means a lot to me, and I know it means a lot to my teammates because we went through a lot of adversity throughout the season, to be able to make it this far is a blessing.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
[inaudible 00:08:01]?
Kenneth Walker III (08:05):
Honestly, I feel like I'm just a team player. I'm not really focused on my personal gains. I just want to make the best impact on my team in the best way possible.
Speaker 8 (08:13):
Kenneth, back to the crowd, [inaudible 00:08:19]?
Kenneth Walker III (08:19):
Nah, it always feel like a home game when the 12 show up.
Speaker 6 (08:22):
Ken, how much was Zach on your mind the last couple of games?
Kenneth Walker III (08:25):
A lot, bro, because I know how hard he work. I see him every day, day in and day out. He working hard, doing recovery, eating right, sleeping. So he just goes about everything the right way. For somebody like that to get hurt, it sucks. I wrote his number on my wrist. I was going to show it when I scored, but I didn't get the touchdown. Yeah. He supported me through everything.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Kenneth, [inaudible 00:08:53]?
Kenneth Walker III (08:58):
Yeah, it means a lot to me. I feel like ... Well, I hope it shows the people that doubt running backs that running backs are important all around the league. Not just here, running backs make a great impact. Back in the day, people used to love running backs. So I just hope we get that same energy back sometime soon.
Speaker 13 (09:16):
What about kickers?
Kenneth Walker III (09:22):
Kickers are very important. You saw Jay My tonight. He kept us in the game. He kept us in the league for probably like, I don't know, two, three quarters. We didn't score a touchdown. So shout out to Jay Myers. Shout out to Mike Dixon.
Speaker 14 (09:36):
Anything else? Thank you, [inaudible 00:10:06]. Appreciate it.
Kenneth Walker III (10:06):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Congratulations.
Mike MacDonald (10:06):
Thank you. Appreciate you guys waiting. I apologize.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Congratulations, Coach Macdonald.
Mike MacDonald (10:10):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
I'd like to ask you, you took an unconventional pass [inaudible 00:10:17] head coach. Why is it important to [inaudible 00:10:22]?
Mike MacDonald (10:24):
We're in the business of winning football games. To win football games, you got to be a great team. Great teams have people from all over the place that come together. That's why football is so special. I mean, you look at that locker room, what people have gone through to get to this point in their career on this particular team, it's a beautiful thing, man. It's really, really powerful, really awesome.
Speaker 10 (10:48):
[inaudible 00:10:53].
Mike MacDonald (10:53):
Incredible. Incredible. Spoon had a phenomenal game, affected the quarterback, made the play on the ball. We haven't blissed him that much this year. He hasn't made that many plays on the quarterback. Not for a lack of wanting to on his end, but called his number today, made it happen. So he's a tremendous player.
Speaker 13 (11:12):
[inaudible 00:11:19].
Mike MacDonald (11:20):
Yeah, we would not be having this press conference right now if Leslie wasn't a Seahawk. He was the first person I called when we got the job. Hopefully I made it very clear to him that we needed him. He's just a great complement to my skillset, to my personality. He's such a great connector with the players, such a great communicator. He calls our bluff when we're full of crap on defense when we do stupid stuff and game planning, which happens probably too much, more than we want, but he's been tremendous.
Speaker 6 (11:57):
Mike, Klint Kubiak confirmed that he's taking the Raiders head coaching job. How big is that loss and how important was he to the Super Bowl?
Mike MacDonald (12:05):
We love Klint. He's done a great job, but I haven't thought about it yet. So think about that later.
Speaker 8 (12:10):
Coach, in the post-game presentation, you did mention your faith in God. Talk a little bit about how much you think your faith has helped this team win.
Mike MacDonald (12:20):
Oh, man. I think one of the great things about our team is that we grow together and that's something that's part of my life that it's been a journey. My faith hasn't always been strong. You have doubts, you have kind of a roller coaster ride. Over the last few years, it's been really strengthened. You see what our players do and what Jonathan Rainey does every day, brings people together. It's a journey that we're in together and it's empowering and it's inspiring to pursue that part of your life that's so important.
Speaker 13 (13:04):
[inaudible 00:13:09].
Mike MacDonald (13:12):
Yeah.
Speaker 13 (13:13):
To see him at this game [inaudible 00:13:16].
Mike MacDonald (13:17):
Yeah, incredibly happy for him. He's played great football for us all year. Just plays the right way, man. Just plays so violently, relentlessly. Even like the sack was [inaudible 00:13:29] and then got the ball out, which was something we needed to do to win the game.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Coach, talk about Sam Darnold overcoming obstacles [inaudible 00:13:40] Super Bowl champ.
Mike MacDonald (13:43):
I was spending more time with Sam on all these interviews. It's like, Sam doesn't care about the obstacle. Everyone's made a narrative of this guy of ... They have tried to put a story and a label on who he is as a person, who he is as a quarterback. He does not care. Okay? He just is the same guy every day since he shows up.
(14:06)
He's so steadfast. He's a great teammate. His teammates love him. All he's done since he's walked in the door has just been a tremendous player on our football team and a tremendous leader who is the same guy every day. That's who he is. That's how we need to talk about him moving forward.
Speaker 15 (14:24):
Mike, can you [inaudible 00:14:31]?
Mike MacDonald (14:32):
Honestly, no. When you talk about stacking and stacking wins, which is one of our core philosophies, you have to believe and have faith in the power of doing that over the course of time. So you could really take any element of our team and you can go back to that philosophy. Our run game's a great example. Everybody was talking about our run game at the beginning of the season, but we just stuck to it, kept attacking the details.
(14:59)
Takeaways is something, how you affect the ... It's always something. There's always some part of your team that you're trying to attack and improve on, but if you stick with the process and the process is right, then the results will get to where you want. I think what you saw today is just the end point of a team that has been dedicated to become this team since we walked in the door in April. It started with our off season program. It started, then it went to training camp and how they handled the off season. We just did it week by week.
Speaker 8 (15:28):
Mike, you mentioned the run game. How did Ken set the tone for [inaudible 00:15:34]?
Mike MacDonald (15:34):
Yeah, I'm really happy for Ken. Played a tremendous game. Our offensive line played really well, our tight end. Everyone really dedicated themselves to the run game today, which is something we had to get going to really control the game. I think this is one of the best [inaudible 00:15:52] of Ken up to this point. Ken's another example. Of him and Charbs did such a great job throughout the season playing off one another. Charbs goes down, which I mean, he deserves a massive shout-out, Zach Charbonnet, of what he's done for our football team.
(16:09)
Ken just keep attacking, keep stacking all those things. I mean, this is a system that it takes a lot of reps to feel how to run the zone plays. You just keep stacking those plays and then you start to play more decisively and then those runs starts to pop.
Speaker 7 (16:25):
[inaudible 00:16:28]?
Mike MacDonald (16:29):
Sorry, can you repeat that?
Speaker 7 (16:30):
[inaudible 00:16:34].
Mike MacDonald (16:34):
I don't know if there's a right or wrong way, but we're going to have a lot of fun tonight.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Was this the successful [inaudible 00:16:43] looking for tonight?
Mike MacDonald (16:44):
Yeah, we won the game.
Speaker 5 (16:45):
[inaudible 00:16:50].
Mike MacDonald (16:54):
I love answering this question because Jody's been phenomenal since the day that I interviewed for the job. I think vividly of our conversation we had in Baltimore, and I just loved hearing her vision for the team and what she wanted to create for our city and our community and our football team and our franchise. That was really inspiring because I felt it was aligned with what we wanted to create too, how we wanted to build our program.
(17:23)
Man, when you're aligned on that vision, it's a fun ride. Sometimes it's not that fun. Especially last year, as we're kind of going through the fog of some things, she's had such a great perspective on everything, kept us together, always backed John and I on some of the tough decisions we had to make. It lets you make those decisions when you know she's in your corner, so I'm really happy for her.
Speaker 11 (17:54):
[inaudible 00:17:51] what kind of coordination does that take for you to do that, [inaudible 00:18:00]?
Mike MacDonald (17:59):
Well, I'm glad you asked that because it really is about our staff filling in all those areas that lets you do both jobs. So I think we've gotten to a point on defense where it's like, look, I'm saying the words on Sundays, but we know we're going to call, we know why we're going to call it. They've helped build it. They've handled all the details throughout the week that led me to do head coaching stuff.
(18:24)
Leslie Fraser deserves a massive shout-out on that front. AD is a tremendous defensive coordinator. I mean, you just go right down the list on our staff of what they contribute to the game plan and how we call games throughout the game. It's not just like me on the headset, just deciding what we're doing from play to play. There's a lot of feedback. There's a lot of recalibration as games go in order to make adjustments. It just takes a lot off my plate and I think that's what shows with the product on the field.
Speaker 7 (18:54):
Why do you think it took so long, if there's so much detail that goes into this?
Mike MacDonald (19:00):
Oh, like historically?
Speaker 7 (19:01):
Yeah.
Mike MacDonald (19:02):
I don't know. This is my experience. It's taken us two years to get to this point. Yeah, you got it.
Speaker 15 (19:08):
[inaudible 00:19:15].
Mike MacDonald (19:18):
We have a lot of respect for the Patriots, but the answer to that is no. I mean, when we said we want to keep it about us, you got to back that up with your actions, and I think that's what we've done. We respected our opponent. They're a heck of an opponent, but we're really happy for our guys and the 12s and our community. Can't wait to bring the trophy back home. That's what we're thinking about. That's what we've talked about, the whole process too.
Speaker 11 (19:46):
Mike, to that point right now, there's a big party happening in Seattle [inaudible 00:20:08]. How are excited to get back to Seattle with the trophy [inaudible 00:20:08]?
Mike MacDonald (20:08):
Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. Sounds like a lot of fun. I was just telling Dave, it's like throughout the NFC championship, you're not thinking about the Super Bowl, you're just doing everything you possibly can to win that game, to help your team win. We felt the same way the last two weeks for the Super Bowl. Haven't really thought about what the celebration's going to be like, but now that we're there, it's going to be pretty awesome.
(20:28)
Look, this is why you coach. This is why you want to do it at this level because you have the opportunity to bring the 12s, the people, our community together, our players, let them feel what it feels like, the reward of being on this team and be champions, that's what fires you up. That's just what gets you so excited and that's what makes you so proud of our team. For us to be able to do it for our community and our team doesn't get any better than this.
Speaker 8 (20:59):
Hey, Mike, you talked about the fans. What did it feel like on the field, did it feel like a home game?
Mike MacDonald (21:03):
Oh, it was incredible. Yeah. Well, with all due respect, it's not Lumen Field, okay, with our 12s, but we had, I don't know what the ratio was, but it was an impressive show by the 12s. I mean, that provided a lot of energy. They had to be on silent cadence the whole game where a lot of times we weren't on silent on offense. So operationally that puts you behind the eight-ball, which is what some of the advantage you have playing at home. So 12s deserve a ton of credit tonight because they brought it.
Speaker 7 (21:34):
[inaudible 00:21:40].
Mike MacDonald (21:44):
Well, John deserves a lot of credit to that process. That's unchartered waters that you have to navigate. To the outside eye, it probably seemed like it happened fast, but he did a great job of guiding us through all those decisions. Jody was right there supporting what we needed to do. We're on record with it. Clint had a relationship with him. There's a lot of people in our building that new Sam that could vouch for who he was as a person. The tape backed it up.
(22:08)
I think people made too big of a deal of him of the last two games in the season, which I thought was dumb, like watched the whole season. The guy played great all year and came into Lumen and beat us. They won like 14 games. So Clint knew he could do the stuff that we wanted to do in our offense and then it was rock and roll.
Speaker 11 (22:31):
Mike, you touched on earlier [inaudible 00:22:36].
Mike MacDonald (22:55):
Well, that's who we were all season and where does the credit go? It goes to everybody. Everybody decided that they wanted to create this type of team and they decided they were going to do the things necessary to make it come to life. That takes a lot of trust. It takes a lot of buy-in. It takes a lot of faith. It shows you the people just responsible for bringing these guys in the building, I mean, like the like-minded of how they want to operate.
(23:30)
I mean, how about Jax, like the guy is an absolute stud. He's [inaudible 00:23:33] player of the year. I don't know what his stats were today, but he affected the game. I know that. To have that type of mentality he's had all games. There's been some games this year that he hasn't had a trillion yards and a bunch of touchdowns, but for what he does for our football team affects the game in a big way. I'm glad that he won the reward because that's what shows for it, and he's just incredible teammate as well.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
What impressed you most about Cooper Kupp?
Mike MacDonald (24:02):
Cooper is an absolute force multiplier, an absolute stud of a person, stud of a teammate. This should cement him in the Hall of Fame in my opinion. I mean, Super Bowl MVP, two time champion, all time great teammate. Man. I think the other thing with Coop is the way he's helped our program and how we build what we do from day to day is not talked about enough. He's got a great perspective. I'd be an idiot not to listen to him. Sometimes we don't do what he wants, but definitely listen to him.
Speaker 14 (24:42):
Last question.
Speaker 10 (24:44):
What point of the season did you think that [inaudible 00:24:48]?
Mike MacDonald (24:55):
Yeah, it's funny, you don't have expectations. You want to hit your daily goals. We knew at the beginning of the season, we needed to become a championship team for us to compete for a championship. So what were you going to do on a daily basis to make that come to life? That's what we tried to do.
(25:12)
As the season started to declare itself and we kept stacking wins, you just want to go goal by goal. So try to do absolutely what we can to get to the playoffs. Let's try to win our division. Let's try to create as many home games as possible and let's go from there. So I think having that mindset allows you to get to a point like this so you don't kind of ... You got to keep first things first and keep it in perspective, but guys have been awesome. Yeah, it's a special group.
Speaker 14 (25:43):
All right. Thank you, everyone.
Mike MacDonald (25:44):
All right. Thank you.
Speaker 14 (25:44):
Thank you for your patience.