Patriots players share memories of Marquise Hill
Several New England Patriots players addressed the media on Thursday, May 31st and offered their memories of Marquise Hill.
KEVIN FAULK, RB
MAY 31, 2007
KF: Anytime you have a death within your family it's real tough, but at the same time life goes on. You have to go about your daily routine and at the same time have in the back of your mind the memory and the thought of that person.
Q: How did you hear the news?
KF: Through a phone call.
Q: [On his initial reaction]
KF: My first reaction was to turn on the TV and make sure it was real and the report was right, next was to make more phone calls and make sure the information you get on TV is correct.
Q: Where were you when you heard the news?
KF: I was here [in Foxborough] during it.
Q: [On Marquise Hill's personality/character]
KF: He was a fun loving guy. For anything you needed, he probably was the person you would call because he knew a lot of people out here. From getting your car painted to getting different things you needed outside of football, that's just the type of person he was.
Q: [On Hill's involvement with Hurricane Katrina]
KF: It was really important to him, his whole town, the majority was hit. He was affected by it too. His house was destroyed in Katrina, and he was just getting everything re-done. He was ready to go home and see his home.
Q: [On what Hill meant to the team]
KF: Jarvis [Green] and [Richard] Seymour said it best, when he sees a guy that's down, he's the one that's going to pick you up, to get that smile out of you.
Q: Was it down at LSU that you guys got close?
KF: I wasn't down there that much when he was at LSU. Once he got here, he was part of the family. He was part of the LSU family at a distance, but now he was up here and that's when we became real close.
Q: [On how the team is dealing with the tragedy]
KF: You talk about it, go through the memories of the person that passed, you talk about some of the good times you had and some of the laughs you had together.
Q: [On the organization flying the entire team to the memorial service]
KF: It's really important. You can't say enough about the [Patriots] organization. One of the guys and I had a conversation yesterday and he said, ‘that speaks volumes for the team and organization for getting the plane down there for the whole team, not just the owner, the head coach and a couple of captains, but for the whole team to be involved and to show the support for [Marquise] and his family.
Q: [On practicing through the tragedy]
KF: At the same time, you have a job to do, and speaking for him, he wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Do your job, that's the type of person he was. He was probably the first one here every morning in the weight room doing what he had to do to get better, and he wouldn't have wanted it any other way.
Q: Will you most remember him for the happiness he was able to bring to the team?
KF: That was him, with a smile on his face. You would rarely see him upset or with a frown, he always had a smile and was ready to lift you up.
RICHARD SEYMOUR, DL
MAY 31, 2007
Q: [On his thoughts on the loss of Marquise Hill]
RS: You know it's always tough when you lose a teammate. I think when I first heard the news, it was a feeling of numbness. I mean you're here last week on the OTAs, then everyone goes home on the weekend and one of your teammates doesn't comes back, it's always a time when you're lost for words, how did this happen? I don't know. Like I said, when I found out from one of my teammates it was a feeling of numbness, not knowing what to think or is he okay? Or did he make it? When you finally find out the news that he passed away, it's just very shocking and obviously, our thoughts go to his family and the members that he left behind. I think personally, as another defensive lineman, I think there's just more emphasis added to the guy who kind of, when he came in I was kind of a mentor so to speak, he was one of my guys so it's always sad. I'm not even sure of the right words to even use to express the way that a lot of guys feel.
Q: How can you move forward/ reflecting?
RS: Well, actually I talked to a few of my teammates and I think from that point you go back and you look at in life we always go through a lot of things, how insignificant they are, maybe have a word or two with my wife or the kids. Ultimately, it's opportunities and times like this when you look back and reflect and say hey I'll take that all day. Spending that time with my family, now for me having four kids, I'm just really trying to spend all the time that I can with them. Like I said, we never know when our last moment is. Personally, I've been through a tragic situation as well. It's always tough, but over time I think time heals wounds, but it is never easy, at all.
Q: How was Marquise Hill as a teammate?
RS: He was always a guy full of energy, an energetic guy. He was always coming in early, come in with the coaching staff. He'd just work out early be sitting at the breakfast table while guys were starting to roll in. Just an early morning guy, full of energy and always full of laughter and I think from a defensive line perspective, he was the guy that always kept the mood light, so to speak, and flowing. It's tough. Like I said, as a teammate our hearts and thought definitely go to his parents and his son or whatever he left behind.
Q: How/ What are you going to do to honor him?
RS: We thought about a lot of different things and we're still kind of debating on what will we do, but it's still open and I think the coaching staff and players will all kind of come together collectively and make some decisions, but definitely we will do something in his honor.
Q: Was the team in contact with each other? How did you process the past few days?
RS: Yeah, no question. I think over the course of the weekend, all of us called and talked to at least several guys and called and talked to the guys up here or the guys that played with him down in Louisiana or who was down there. I was online looking at the New Orleans news and just trying to gather more information and it's always tough when you can sit back and really not know what's going on and losing one of your teammates. Like I said, life is precious we never know when our last moment is so we just try to seize all of the opportunities and live everyday like it's your last.
Q: Are you glad you are going down as a team? How do you feel about it?
RS: Of course, that's the best thing, go down as a team, pay our respects. In his respect.. Try to do it as a team, me personally I wouldn't have it any other way.
Q: What do you think of him saving the woman he was with?
RS: Yeah, I think that says a lot of the type of person that he is, that doesn't surprise me. Obviously you never want to lose your life and the efforts that he did allegedly that took place that says a lot about the type of person that he is.
Q: Are there guys from all over going down?
RS: I think we have guys from all across the spectrum. Guys that played with him at LSU. Me playing with him coming up on our fourth year I believe and some rookies that came in and just saw him and didn't really know him. We had a wide rage of guys from each end of the spectrum, so I think you try to come together and do what's best for the team to try to compensate everyone. Like I said, we had a few guys go down and spend time with the family and head down on that end. These things are really tough, the words that we use can never really give justice, so we take it day by day and continue to lean on each other for support. Some days I may be down another guy will pick me up and vice versa. So I always think it's good when you have family and friends. You can look back on a situation like this and say football is not who I am, it's just a part of what I do. I'm sure he'd give all of this up to have life.
Q: When did you last see him/ hear the news?
RS: Was it last Friday when we left? Then I got the news early Sunday morning. I was coming from Deion [Branch's] wedding when I heard the news.
Q: What was the toughest part about coming back?
RS: I think it was tough coming back in and just walking past his locker because I'm always used to seeing him there, I think it kind of hit me a little bit more when I walked passed his locker and they have flowers out by his locker and paying respects that way. Just in that regard, it's always tough. Guys were looking at each other and really not saying much and not knowing what's next. Hopefully this weekend, when we head down, it will be a good healing process for this team, we definitely have to move forward and it's just going to take some time.
Q: I know Randall [Gay] and Jarvis [Green] are down there. Have to you talked to him?
RS: I haven't talked with Randall or Jarvis. I'm sure I'll talk to them before we head down. From this point, we are just trying to be here for one another.
TY WARREN, DL
MAY 31, 2007
TW: We played the same position and when we were out there doing drills and he's running the scout team I'm right across from him, playing defensive end and he's playing offensive tackle. In the offseason we're out here running and competing against each other, playing the same position. It was friendly competition. You always try to get a younger guy to pull his weight, and someone did that to me when I was searching for how to play this game on this level.
Q: [On Marquise's personality]
TW: No matter what he had going on off the field or here, or whatever was on his mind, he had to be one of the funniest guys in the locker room. He always cracked jokes and made people laugh. It wasn't just the defensive line, he'd go right up and down the lockers in the locker room from the offensive line to the punters and crack jokes with them.
Q: [On Marquise's football outlook]
TW: I think that showed his true character, even though he didn't play as much as he wanted to, he still came in and worked hard every day, as [Bill] Belichick said in the previous quote, he always made people laugh despite what might have been going on and that's what made him special. Most guys in that situation would've been grumpy or an outcast, not really being on track with the team. He knew every guy and always made people laugh.
Q: [On working without Marquise ]
TW: When you hear the bad news, you find yourself just trying to put yourself in their place, trying to wonder what might have been going on, why he was going through what he went through, or just searching for an answer. You go by his locker, and out at practice when it was defense against defense we usually did stuff together. In the team meeting room he sits right behind me, and in the defensive line room, he sits right in front of me. There's definitely a void there walking by and not seeing him where he usually is.
Q: [On if going through the tragedy with teammates helps the healing process]
TW: No question, it was very therapeutic, being out there with your teammates and going through something together always helps the situation just like anything else, whether it's here on the job or at home with your immediate family, it always helps to be around somebody or have someone in your corner when you're going through something like this.
Q: [Summing up the situation]
TW: It puts it in perspective, from a standpoint that you never know what will happen in the next minute, the next second, or for that matter, the next day. It's hard to cope sometimes, trying to predict things, but on the same note you just have to keep it all in perspective and lean on something, whether it's your religion, your immediate family or whatever your beliefs are. Marquise being that stature, 6'6” and 300 lbs., the average person might have thought a guy like that would have swam his way out of that situation, but it goes to show you that you just never know.
Q: [On how he heard the news]
TW: I got numerous calls from people on the team and people back home that received the news before I did. Being down south and by New Orleans, they received it a lot faster than I did,
Q: [On how he took in the news]
TW: I heard everything you can hear about what was going on. I heard good news about people going through the same thing [Marquise] went through and getting found alive two days later. There was a lot of suspense in the hours leading up to him being found.
Q: [On Marquise's work ethic]
TW: The sky is the limit for people like that who continue to work hard, and that's what makes this game so competitive, to keep working like I do and everybody else to keep working like they do in order to be productive on this level and to provide for their families. The sky was the limit for Marquise, and the sky's the limit for anybody that works like he did and approaches things like he did with the personality that he had when tough times came
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