Transcript: LB Jon Beason

Linebacker Jon Beason

September 18, 2015

I didn’t practice as much as I would have liked to, but it’s all a part of a plan. So I’m just trying to listen, and listen to my body, but also listen to the doctors.

Q: How much do you take into consideration the Thursday game against Washington?

A: Me personally, you decide to throw another football game into a week, it shows they don’t really care about the players. That’s just how I feel. It is what it is. We’re still playing 16 games, whether we play two in a week or not. I know how I feel on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. To think you have to play a game on Thursday, it’s tough. Fortunately, hopefully the other team played the 1 o’ clock slot and didn’t play a Monday night game or Sunday night game. But you do think about that game, obviously a divisional game. We need to catch up right away in the division. You don’t want to look too far ahead, but we need to start and try to beat Atlanta, a good football team.

Q: I mean for your health.

A: Yeah, it’d be a tough turnaround for anybody, but if you’re coming off an injury, for sure. You play Sunday, you’re going to feel it on Thursday, we all will.

Q: Because you said yesterday you didn’t do as much as you would have liked, is there any comparison to how you feel the day after this week versus the day after last week?

A: (Last week) it was full pads, big preparation day for us. We were doing a lot of banging. Yesterday we didn’t have pads on, so that’s what I mean by the workload. I would have loved to have been in pads and get that thump and that feel pushing against another man. Unfortunately, that was the dress of the day.

Q: How hard was it for you to watch Sunday’s game and not be out there with the guys?

A: Extremely tough. You’ve been dreaming about that game since the schedule came out. It’s the Dallas Cowboys, it’s Jerry’s World, it’s a divisional game. It’s a great opponent, they won the division last year. Extremely tough not to be there and not to be with my teammates. But I was extremely proud of the way they played for the most part. They played tough, and that’s always important. If you play tough, play hard, you’ll have a shot.

Q: Going back to the Thursday game, does that work into your decision or anybody’s decision this week to either play or not to play and save you for Thursday?

A: I don’t know if it works into the decision, but I think the workload on Sunday. I want to be available, I want to play as much as I can. The good thing about it is we feel great about Uani, we feel great about our corps. Guys can step in and play well, and if there’s some situational stuff where I can be used sparingly, that’d be great. A lot of times just because you feel good coming back from injury doesn’t mean you’re ready to play football. Conditioning, just being sharp, missing reps at practice—all that stuff plays a part in how well you play. So I’m smart enough to know that you practice the way you play. So you practice hard, it should show up on Sunday. If you didn’t practice, shame on you. You want to go out and do the best you can.

Q: If you’re out there on Sunday, do you see yourself playing sparingly?

A: I would assume so. God forbid we have to play 80 snaps, I’m not ready for that.

Q: They obviously missed your experience at the end of that game, everybody commented on it. Do you impose a little pressure on yourself?

A: You go back and you watch the tape. I’m at home watching, trying to decide which call that was. As a commentator, sometimes you don’t know what the call is or who was supposed to be where. They just kind of assume or do the best they can, and it’s a tough job to decide who was supposed to be where and what not. There was more going on than what they said. I never want to receive a compliment at the expense of my teammate. So I thought Uani played outstanding. I thought the call, or I should say the remark, was negative. I didn’t like that at all. It is a tough job to do.

Q: Did it seem like they were attacking him at all?

A: I wouldn’t necessarily say attacking, but I just feel like sometimes you give somebody a compliment, it might not be a compliment for another person. That’s just my opinion.

Q: You were critical of the Thursday games. Is that something the union should take a stand on?

A: It’s about money. The game is growing, fans want to see football, and I get it. I just know from a player’s standpoint, it’s extremely tough to play on a Thursday night game. Your body is just beat up, especially when you play a late Sunday game or Monday game. It’s an advantage for the next team. It’s just extremely hard to play on Thursday’s.

Q: How damaging do you think it is to the health of a player to have to do that?

A: I don’t know about damaging because we’re all in it together. But just the preparation part, the week is short. Some teams practice, some teams walkthrough, it’s a different philosophy for different teams. But I think it becomes very difficult to play on Thursday night. The good thing is a lot of times it’s a level playing field.

Q: Does it leave players physically more vulnerable to injury?

A: I don’t know.

Q: Is there an answer to it? Like maybe coming off a bye week. If you come off a bye week, then you have plenty of days before Thursday.

A: Yeah, strategically I think that’s a great way to do it. Get a chance to rest up.