Giants punter Steve Weatherford kicked back for a Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Would you agree that you march to the beat of a different drummer?
A: Oh sure. … I mean, I’m a different guy. A lot of people like it, and a lot of people don’t, but I’m me. And one thing I like about being a Giant is I don’t have to act like somebody else. Tom [Coughlin] likes his team to be very uniform, but he lets me be me. He doesn’t bottle me up. I’m an energetic guy, and he really likes that. Because energy and positivity, it’s an infectious thing. Negativity’s the same way. So if you have a guy that’s ho-hum and oh-man-the-glass-is-half-empty type of guy, he’s gonna bring other people down. So I think Coach Coughlin likes my energy, likes my positivity, but there’s times where he’s like, “Hey, tone it down a little bit. You’re being a little too boisterous.”
Q: How would you explain how you’re different?
A: I don’t think before I say things, but you know when I say something it’s genuine, and it’s what I’m feeling and what I think is the truth. Sometimes I can come across as brash, or sometimes maybe … I don’t want to say rude but … that’s how it is. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it to make you feel better. And sometimes I need to take a step back, slow down and think about what I say before I say it. But at the same time, if I say it, that’s the way I think it is.
Q: You might be viewed as a square peg in a round hole.
A: Kickers and punters are usually viewed as not football players and not really part of the team. But I feel like I’m accepted more as a football player than most all kickers and punters just for the simple fact that I’m a big weight-room guy. I love to lift. For the most part, I’m just as athletic as most everybody on the team. I can run and jump and lift. If I did Combine numbers, they would be very comparable to guys on the team … and I think guys have a certain respect for that. And I don’t act like most kickers and punters. They’re kind of usually quiet and withdrawn, due to the fact they don’t feel like they fit in. But I feel like I fit in. Maybe I don’t, maybe I just feel like I do (smile).
Q: Why do you work out so hard?
A: I want to get the most out of myself. I don’t think it’s important for me to have a six-pack or 20-inch arms, but I think that if I don’t work as hard as I can, then I’ll have regrets. There’s not a lot of things in life that scare me — the safety of my kids, my wife and regrets.
Q: You agree that you would have made a good Navy SEAL?
A: I make split-second decisions, and I think that’s good for a Navy SEAL. Sometimes they’re wrong, but nine times out of 10 they’re right, and I think that benefits me as an athlete because I don’t paralyze myself. You know they have this saying “paralysis by analysis”? I don’t analyze, man, I just act (laugh).
Q: Why did you go nuts after the 49ers win?
A: It was my fourth time in the championship game, and to finally make it [to the Super Bowl]. … I’ve seen that clip 1,000 times, but I still can’t remember it, because I was *** so excited, like I mentally blacked out and I can’t remember it. I remember running out there for the field goal and putting my finger down, and then as soon as I kinda gave the set call to get the snap, I blacked out and I don’t really remember anything until about the 50-yard line when I was running. That was the best feeling I ever had in my life. And I’ve had three kids, but I’m not gonna lie to you, that was better, you know?
Q: Better than sex?
A: Yeah. That was the ultimate feeling.
Q: What was going on with Tubgate, when you posted video of Prince Amukamara being dunked in cold tub by Jason Pierre-Paul?
A: It happens in every locker room in the NFL, whether people want to know that or not. But the mistake I made was putting it out there for people to see. When I was a rookie, I had to stand on top of a lunch table in my jock strap and sing the “Dukes of Hazzard” theme song. There were women in the cafeteria, too.
Q: Describe being cut postgame by Sean Payton with the Saints in 2008.
A: We got done showering, I got onto the bus, and then he had an assistant come and grab me off the bus, and then he cut me in the locker room, and the general manager gave me a napkin that had my flight itinerary. Then I had to find my own ride from the stadium back to the hotel because all the flights were booked to go back to New Orleans that night, so I had to stay in a hotel. And I ended up getting a ride from one of the groundskeepers from the stadium back to the hotel. I have that napkin still. And I always told me wife, when I got cut, I kept that napkin and I said, “When I make something out of myself, I’m gonna get this thing framed.”
Q: Describe he heart scare in Cincinnati in the 2009 playoffs when you were with the Jets.
A: Mark Sanchez came up to me at halftime, and I’m obviously visibly upset, crying, thinking this might be the last football game I’ll ever get to play, because this [irregular heartbeat]. I don’t know if it’s fixable, or if any other team is gonna want to take a risk on a guy that maybe he’ll be ready to play and maybe he won’t. He came up and said, “Hey, we got this. We’ll win this game [and] you’ll be back next week.” It was comforting to have the leader of your team come in there and say something like that.
Q: Do you think you and [Jets special teams coach] Mike Westhoff clashed personality-wise?
A: Oh, there’s no doubt. There can be only one Alpha dog, you know what I mean (smile)? … As far as respect as a coach, he’s incredible. He’s the best. … He was a tough guy to satisfy, put it that way.
Q: What was it like when Rex Ryan cried at that team meeting?
A: The players really respect him for that, because players cry, too. To see your head coach cry is different, but it makes you kind of associate with him more, like, “He’s one of the guys. This hurts him too.”
Q: Is there a difference between Jets fans and Giants fans?
A: I think the Giants fan expects excellence, and they don’t really give you a whole lot of room for error. They might give you one or two drives to stink it up, but if you don’t get it going pretty quick (chuckle) they’re quick to boo ya. I think the New York Jets fans will maybe give three series to screw it up (chuckle) before they start booing ya.
Q: Giants fans are less patient?
A: Yes. … I think they’re used to winning, you know?
Q: What did you think of Vikings punter Chris Kluwe’s defense of same sex marriage?
A: I don’t think he was right or wrong for doing it. That’s definitely using your platform to speak on what you feel is important. That’s something that I try to be a little bit more PC about. You don’t really want to offend anybody either way. … I don’t think it’s wrong that he did that, but for me, I try my best to kinda toe the line a little.
Q: That’s surprising.
A: Yeah. Like I said, I **** try to toe the line (smile). It doesn’t always work.
Q: How did you propose to your wife, Laura?
A: I met my wife when I was 18 years old at the University of Illinois. … In the offseason, she would always come and she would kinda simulate the snap, kinda like Larry Izzo does for me now, kinda throw me the ball as if it was a snap. … And she did this for years, and then after my senior year right before I went to training camp with the Saints, she had kinda been hinting that she wanted to get married. We’d been together for five years. And so I went and bought a ring, and she played right into my hand. We would play this game at the end of every punt session — “I’ll punt five balls, if I hit five out of five good, I get to pick the restaurant we go to and the movie tonight,” or something like that. Or, “You run my back for 10 minutes. If I lose, I’ll rub your back for 10 minutes, or we go to your restaurant,” whatever. And I said, “Well what do you want to do if I don’t go five-for-five?” and she said, “I just want to get married.” And so, I hit four good ones in a row, and then the last one I shanked it on purpose. I had the ring in my sock and I pulled it out and asked her to marry me (smile).
Q: Where was this?
A: At the University of Illinois on the 50-yard line.
Q: Your oldest child Ace will be 5 in November.
A: He’s like me. He’s very compulsive, very energetic, very loving. He’s a tactile kid, he likes to be cuddled and loved and coddled. But sometimes he makes rash decisions, he makes (snaps fingers) snap decisions that maybe sometimes aren’t the right ones, but he’s very remorseful when he does that. His brain is wired like mine, so I’ll do things, I’m like, “I shouldn’t have done that,” but my wife knows how my brain works, so she doesn’t really get mad at me when I make mistakes like that ’cause she knows like it’s not my fault.
Q: Give me an example.
A: I go to the mall, and I see a pair of shoes that I really don’t need or I don’t even have room for in my closet, I’ll just buy ’em. And then she’ll go return ’em for me (chuckle).
Q: Your daughter Carney will be 3 in November, and Aurora Lea was born last week. How would you say fatherhood changed you?
A: Oh man. … By nature, I’m a selfish person. I think of myself before others. So I’ve learned to be a lot more selfless. My grandfather was like me. The first thing we think of is, “What do I need, what do I need?” and my wife’s the opposite. She thinks about everybody else before she thinks of herself. I mean, she could have gone the entire day without eating, but she’ll fix our food and make sure that we have food, and then she’ll sit down and eat after we’re done pretty much. The relationship works out pretty good because I’m in it for myself and she takes care of me (smile). Having kids makes me behave a little bit more like her because I have to cut the kids’ food up and make sure they have ketchup and water and utensils, and then I get to eat. So I kinda remind myself of my wife sometimes, just to a lesser extent.
Q: Describe your pal John Carney.
A: He was my kicker when I was a rookie. He’s been a mentor for me on the football field, but he’s also taught me how to be a father, how to be a husband, how to be a friend.
Q: Punters you’ve admired over the years?
A: Jeff Feagles, for sure. I was always strong and I could always kick it far and high, but there was something special about him, that he had a skill that nobody else in the NFL had, when people thought of directional punting, they were like, “Oh my God. Jeff Feagles!” His last name became almost like a verb, you know? It’s just very flattering to hear people compare me to him.
Q: Your parents purposely bought soccer shoes for you that were too big?
A: I didn’t grow up poor, poor, but we didn’t have a lot of money. I always had everything I needed. I always had shoes on my feet, but my parents would buy ’em too big for me so I could wear ’em for a long time. So I stuck Kleenexes in the end of ’em so they would fit me, and then when my feet would grow, I’d take these tissues out (chuckle).
Q: What was it like growing up with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)?
A: School was tough. I would like to think that I’m pretty smart, I’m pretty sharp, pretty witty, but I would have trouble sitting still and focusing. I had a couple of teachers that really helped me and they would let me, even if it was just walk and go get a drink of water, or go to the bathroom once an hour, just so I could get up. That was incredible for me.
Q: If you were NFL commissioner, I would …?
A: I don’t feel like he’s taken a lot of input from us, but I think he’s doing a good job. The NFL’s never been a better sport than what it is right now.
Q: If you were president, you would …?
A: I would just try to push peace harder.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: Probably Bo Jackson.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Jesus, Ghandi, Mick Jagger.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Goodfellas.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Sylvester Stallone.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Angelina Jolie.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Metallica’s James Hetfield.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My wife’s lasagna. She puts a little brown sugar in there so it’s kinda sweet.
Q: Favorite NYC things?
A: It’s not New York City, but I love the Hoboken Pier. I just like to be out on the water. It’s pretty serene.
Q: What is Kicks for Kids?
A: I’ll raise money, and I’ll take kids shoe shopping before school starts. Shoes were always important to me when you go back to school to have nice shoes. … I don’t do it for 500 kids. I do it for 25 to 40 kids at a time, and that gives me five minutes with each kid to help ’em pick out a pair of shoes, get ’em a pair of socks … give ’em some encouragement.
Q: Describe what it’s like being a New York Giant.
A: It’s definitely the way that I think professional athletes should be. We should be role models and we should be active in the community and we should be held to a higher standard than regular people. It’s a very classy, prestigious franchise, and they love their players to follow suit.
Q: Don’t most teams do that?
A: Yeah, but not like this team. This team is a lot more philanthropic, and they encourage their players a lot more to do more. When you’re in the NFL, these franchises **** require you to do things, and this franchise ***** asks you to do things,
Q: Is this team capable of a repeat?
A: Yeah. As long as we have Tom Coughlin as the head coach and Eli [Manning] as the quarterback, the sky’s the limit for this franchise. And it trickles down. [Genral manager] Jerry Reese does a great job of filling our locker room with the **** right people. Not the **** best people, but the **** right people.
Q: What’s it like punting in front of a full house at Met Life Stadium in front of Giants fans?
A: It’s every little boy’s dream to do what I’m getting to do. And I kinda joked with Jerry Reese after I signed that five-year extension that, “I appreciate it, now I have a home. I appreciate the confidence you guys put in me. But the joke’s on you ’cause I’d do it for free (laugh).”
steve.serby@nypost.com