Antonio Cromartie took a timeout from preparing for the season opener vs. the Buccaneers to do some Q&A with Steve Serby.
Q: If you had a fantasy draft, who would you pick first?
A: Myself (chuckle).
Q: You honestly believe you’re the best cornerback in football?
A: Yeah.
Q: What is about your game that you think makes you the best?
A: I can go out there anytime I want to and go shut down any receiver I feel like it. That’s how I feel. I don’t need help, I don’t need none of that. I can cover every receiver one-on-one. But for me, it was always trying to do it on a consistent basis, and that’s the thing I struggled with. It’s never that I had mental errors, it was just me being consistent. And that came from practice. And me being here three years with Darrelle [Revis], that’s one thing I take from him, just the way he practiced. He always took it as a game mentality in practice, and that’s the way it’s supposed to be, and that’s the way it needs to be.
Q: Is any part of you motivated to show Jets fans or show New York that you are as good as Darrelle was, that he will not be missed on this defense.
A: No. I think I showed that last year. What I hate right now is the media of New York or whatever is trying to compare Dee Milliner to Darrelle Revis. Can’t do that. Dee Milliner is Dee Milliner, [not] Darrelle Revis, at the end of the day. I don’t feel I have to prove anything. I don’t want to be a guy that can go in one week and have a tremendous week, and then the next following week, I’m the [sorriest] corner on the field. I want to be the best corner on every single down, on every single play, and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on for the past three or four years.
Q: Do you want people leaving the stadium today saying, “That 31 is the best corner I saw today!?”
A: (Laugh) You always want to have that feeling. But for me, at the end of the day, if we got a “W” in that column, I don’t care. They can call Darrelle the best defensive back ever in the NFL, or this generation — if we’re winning, all that stuff goes out of the window.
Q: What’s your mentality on the football field?
A: I’m a jackass (laugh). I talk a lot of trash on the field. I take everything personal when it’s on the football field. Even on the practice field. I have that F.U. attitude.
Q: Best single piece of trash you’ve spoken that got the desired effect?
A: I think I told somebody, this is when I was in San Diego, I just told the receiver [Kansas City’s Dwayne Bowe], “You might as well go sit down on the bench ’cause they’re not gonna throw the ball to you.”
Q: Early in the game?
A: Early in the game.
Q: And that got in his head?
A: Oh, got him pissed off.
Q: Did they throw the ball to him?
A: No (laugh).
Q: Best trash talker on offense?
A: Chad Johnson.
Q: Best NFL interception?
A: Picking off Peyton Manning one-handed [Nov. 7, 2007].
Q: You picked him off three times that day.
A: That was the most nervous day of my life (laugh). It was my second year in the NFL, my first career start, Week 10, and I remember the first pass they threw I got a pass interference call, I was like, “Oh this is gonna be a long night.” And then, next thing you know, three plays later, I got my first interception.
Q: Did he say anything to you after the game?
A: He said something to me in the third quarter. He said, “I just sent you to the Pro Bowl.”
Q: You had 10 interceptions that season and afterward said you would be trying for 15.
A: I think Dick “Night Train” Lane has 14. It’s a lofty goal, but it’s a goal that’s there.
Q: Who are some of the quarterback you haven’t intercepted that you’d like to?
A: Eli Manning, Big Ben [Roethlisberger], Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees.
Q: What are your thoughts on the concussion settlement?
A: To me, it’s crazy. A quarterback that never played a down in the NFL, passed away this past summer or something like that, I forgot his name. Never played a down in the NFL, but had the same disease as everybody else. Like, you want to say that the NFL wasn’t monitoring concussions? OK, but you can’t sit here and blame the NFL for concussions or the brain disease, because the brain disease happened before you came into the NFL. If you’re playing Pop Warner football, if you’re playing high school football, college football, if you had a concussion during that time, you already have been part of, basically, a car accident, so you’re gonna have some kind of brain … whatever disease or whatever they’re calling it, in you, before you get here.
Q: A lot of former players needed the financial help.
A: I’m happy that the former players won, but to say that after this, that players are not getting what they need from the NFL when it comes to concussions, and other players try to file suit — to me that’s lying. If you want to go back to former players that played ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, maybe even some in ’90s, OK, that’s fine. But guys in this generation now, you know what you’re getting yourself into. The NFL is doing all the science they can. … The settlement’s already done. There’s no reason for guys to be trying to file suit against the NFL if they already know what causes it, because honestly, I think it’s caused before we even get here.
Q: How many concussions have you had?
A: I haven’t had none, and I’m blessed to say that, and I’m fortunate.
Q: What did you think of the hit on Dustin Keller?
A: Bull[spit], to be honest. You can put the rules, you can add all that stuff in there, but at the end of the day, the rules never tell you to hit in the legs. You can use your shoulder, you can use everything else —you coulda hit him high. He [Houston’s D.J. Swearinger] woulda never got fined. I’ve hit plenty of guys high and didn’t get the fine. The rules made me hit him that way — that’s a [stinking] lie. You can end somebody’s career that way.
Q: Describe your beautiful wife Terrica.
A: She’s my everything, to be honest with you. She’s caring, loving, good mother, beyond a great wife. For me, in my younger years of me being in the NFL, I’m kinda glad I ran into her, just from a standpoint of her always being honest and upfront with me, her not taking no [nonsense]. And she’s gonna shoot it to me straight, that’s what I love about her. She always wants me to make sure that I’m at my best.
Q: Do you wish you met her years earlier, or are you glad that you didn’t meet her years earlier?
A: I’m kinda glad I didn’t, because just the way I was.
Q: Describe the way you were compared to the way you are now.
A: I’ve always been a homebody person, but I didn’t have a care in the world when I was younger. And now it’s like when you have that someone that’s your other half that makes you feel special every single day, you want to care for that person’s feelings, you want to make sure you make that person, happy, proud, whatever. And that’s how I feel when I’m with my wife. She’s more than I can ask for.
Q: Is she a good cook?
A: Yes. I’m a good cook, too. I’m actually going to take some culinary school next year.
Q: What do you make best?
A: Well for my kids, they love spaghetti.
Q: It’s not hard to make spaghetti.
A: See, everybody says it’s not hard, but I make mine basically from scratch, really. Like I do the tomatoes and all that stuff, put it in the oven, bake it, that kinda way. Add sugar, get a little more flavor. But my wife loves it when I cook steak, mashed potatoes, spinach.
Q: One of the reasons you left for the NFL was your mom had breast cancer?
A: Once we were able to pay for it and everything else, she just had lymph nodes in her breast, which was not cancerous, which was a blessing.
Q: What drives you?
A: I want to be the best. I’m very hard on myself, just from a standpoint of if I don’t do something right, if I’m not paying attention to detail. I’m always hard on myself.
Q: How much tape study do you per night?
A: Maybe 2 1/2, almost 3 hours of tape.
Q: Have you been doing that your entire career?
A: Ever since I tore my ACL in college (Florida State).
Q: Describe Calvin Johnson.
A: The best receiver of our generation. A receiver that’s big, physical … can catch any ball, and can run any route.
Q: Andre Johnson.
A: Physical. Tenacious. A guy that you always have to keep your eye on no matter what. He’s a guy that can sneak behind you and get behind you, then he can run. He’s a guy that can run after the ball, too.
Q: Larry Fitzgerald. The ball skills that he has reminds me a lot of the Cris Carter’s … him just going up catching the ball … like a Randy Moss also.
Q: Dez Bryant.
A: He’s an explosive player, can return punts, can return kicks, can turn a screen into a 70- to an 80-yard touchdown, can catch a slant and turn that into touchdowns. Dez can do a lot. He’s gonna give a lot of DBs a lot of trouble.
Q: Julio Jones.
A: Another big, fast, physical-type receiver that’s giving the NFC South DBs hell (chuckle).
Q: Demaryious Thomas.
A: Another physical-type receiver that tries to be physical with ’em. Another receiver that can take it to the distance off a screen play, off a slant play.
Q: Your old teammate Vincent Jackson.
A: A big, physical-type of receiver. Loves his double moves. Once you get him in one-on-one coverage, I think that’s where he excels.
Q: How much fun was your 109-yard return of a missed field goal?
A: I have a record that would never be broken, only can be tied! For one it’s an honor, because I have stuff at the Hall of Fame. I was laughing while I was running, because I had an offensive lineman trying to chase me.
Q: Rex Ryan.
A: That’s my homie. He only wants what’s best for his players.
Q: You guys may be fighting for his job.
A: Hey, we’re all gonna fight for it. He’ll fight for us, we gotta fight for him.
Q: Playing in New York.
A: The fans are great. They’re gonna tell you how it is, and they don’t care if you like it or not. That’s me, I’m straightforward. I don’t shoot the bullcrap, I’ll tell you how it is, if you like me, if you dislike me, I really don’t care.
Q: Did it bother you when the Jets wanted Nnamdi Asomugha?
A: No, ’cause at the end of the day, there’s still 31 other teams, so that didn’t bother me at all. I’m not a person to have a grudge against nothing, ’cause at the end of the day, it’s a business, and I understood that from the day that I walked in the door. There’s decisions that are gonna be made that I have no control of.
Q: How long do you want to play?
A: Until they push me out.
Q: You want to stay here and make it impossible for them not to sign you?
A: Yeah.
Q: You used to have a temper.
A: I used to.
Q: Where did it go?
A: (Laugh) He had to leave, man. Won’t get me nowhere.
Q: I read that you had two fights a month as a freshman at Florida State.
A: I don’t know about two fights a month. … I mean, maybe like once every month (laugh).
Q: Why were you so angry?
A: I have no idea. I had a temper though.
Q: Athletes in other sports you admire?
A: Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Carmelo [Anthony], Kobe [Bryant].
Q: Superstitions?
A: Am I superstitious? Yeah, I think I am (laugh). The day before the game, I eat the same exact meal every single week.
Q: Saturday night meal?
A: Hot wings and fries guy.
Q: Breakfast?
A: If the game’s at 1 o’clock, then I’m more chicken breast with ranch on top, and spaghetti.
Q: You’ll eat that at what time?
A: About 8:45.
Q: Your financial guy Jonathan Schwartz.
A: He’s a guy that’s always on top of what I’m spending, how much I’m spending.
Q: Why did you spend the way you spent?
A: I was 22 years old, a guy out of the projects, didn’t have no money, now I have money. And it happens to the best of us. The first financial adviser I had never said no. So if I called and asked for $80,000, I got it. I never had a plan once I got into the NFL, and I never really paid attention to it, I was more focused on football than anything. I think that’s where some guys may mess up. That’s your money, so you need to pay attention to it. It’s not nobody else’s responsibility to pay attention to it. You need to know what’s coming in, what’s coming out, what’s been paid.
Q: You moved 11 times growing up.
A: After a while, you just got used to it. I went to three or four different elementary schools, three Middle Schools, and two or three high schools.
Q: You’ve had a crazy life, haven’t you?
A: It was fun, to be honest with you. I wouldn’t change nothing at all about my life. We had a single parent, but she did everything she could for us to have fun. On Fridays, she always made sure that we went out to the movies together as a family. Never felt like we were in the projects or nothing like that, ’cause she made sure it was always safe … not just her, but our neighbors and everybody else. Was it rough? Naw. There’s people that have had a rougher life than me. I had fun growing up.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Martin Luther King; Obama; LeBron James.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Independence Day.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel Washington.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Spaghetti.
Q: Favorite restaurant?
A: Cheesecake Factory.