Post columnist Steve Serby tracked down 49ers linebacker NaVorro Bowman for a Q&A before today’s showdown with the Giants.
Q: Are the 49ers seeking payback today against the Giants?
A: I don’t think it’s payback as far as the stakes go. We all remember it. We don’t want to let it happen again.
Q: How long did it take you to get over that NFC Championship game loss?
A: It took a while.
Q: Describe teammate Patrick Willis.
A: I think he’s the best linebacker in the NFL. He’s a great friend on and off the field. Great leader. He refuses to be unprepared. He refuses to be lacking anything when it comes to Sunday. He makes sure he hits every bullet on his checklist week in and week out.
Q: Give a scouting report on yourself.
A: I’m learning from one of the best. The reason I play the game the way I do is just knowing where I came from and what’s there and I don’t want to go back. One day you will leave this game, and you just want to make sure you’re giving it your all so you’re not gonna regret anything.
Q; If you switched jersey numbers with Willis, would opposing teams be able to tell you apart?
A: (Laugh) If a flashy play happened and you didn’t see the number, you wouldn’t know who it was. That’s how similar me and Pat look on film. It feels good to be mentioned in the same sentence as him, or close.
Q: What’s your on-field mentality?
A: Really to just change the game. Be a game-changer. Be a playmaker. You get to the ball every single play, you’re gonna be talked about. And just beat your guy. To be a great linebacker, you have to get off blocks. You can’t make plays by being blocked. … Once you get me going, I don’t like teams getting first downs on us.
Q: Describe 49ers coach Jim Harbaugh.
A: Just a guy who really wants to win.
Q: What’s the worst thing you saw growing up in District Heights, Md.?
A: There was a carnival that used to come and sit in the middle of all the neighborhoods, and all the neighborhoods used to go to the same carnival. We had parties we used to go to, and you would get probably 50 people from each neighborhood in a small party area. People used to lose their lives at these parties, guys and girls. Then the carnival, when that came out, you used to see guys you may see in the party and huge fights used to break out at the carnival. People just really were ignorant back then.
Q: Gang-related?
A: Yeah. I lost a lot of friends. None of my friends to this day is pretty much a success story. There’s some still out there, but they’re working from the bottom trying to make it. My other friends are either locked up or dead. I was in it every single day, waking up looking behind my back. I remember I used to be in college, I used to call my best friend, every time I talked to him: “You know, this person got shot, such and such is back in jail.” I was kinda glad I was in college. At the same time, I didn’t want to lose contact with the people I grew up with.
Q: You didn’t get beat up?
A: No, I was one of the lucky ones. I was able to get out of the parties at the right time and stay out of the way of the gunfire. Every time I walked out my door, my mother would say, “Be careful. If anything happens crazy, make sure you get out of there and get home.”
Q: Do you talk to kids now to tell them there is a way out?
A: All the time.
Q: What influence has LaVar Arrington had on you?
A: At Penn State, he was The Guy. Him giving me insight on the game and how to get through life … just realizing who your friends are and who aren’t. The ups and downs you go through when you get to this level. It may get bumpy. You know the type of work you put in when it all started, you know how much work it takes to stay there.
Q: Describe the devastation you felt at Penn State when your father passed away.
A; My brother just kept calling me. I was like, “Why is he calling me?” He was like, “You need to come home.” I couldn’t believe it. … If it was a home game, I knew I’d see him that Saturday. For him to pass away was just a shock to me, knowing how much my mother depended on him and the money he was bringing to the household, wondering who was gonna take care of it now. I think I was 12 credits away from getting my degree, and people started talking about me having a chance to go to the NFL. I just felt everything was on me.
Q: How was that a turning point for you
?
A: Just to really not make dumb decisions [like smoking marijuana] anymore. Realizing the opportunity I have going to Penn State and having a chance to go to the NFL.
Q: Less than eight months later, your high school coach, Nick Lynch, died in an automobile accident.
A: He was really my second father. People really didn’t have too much. Where I’m from, they hustle. Coach Lynch, no matter whose child you were, he cared for you as if you were one of his own. As long as he had us in his eyesight, he was a father figure to a lot of us. He was the one who believed in me. He put the ball in my hands on the offensive side of the ball and allowed me to run the ball. He allowed me to play varsity as a freshman.
Q: How has fatherhood (three children, including twins) changed you?
A: I just devote my time to my kids. Just understanding how early my father passed away and what he missed out on with me being in the league and me experiencing my older brother not being able to take care of his children. My kids have really humbled me even more, and every day I get excited to go home and see their faces and see them having fun without any struggles.
Q: Boyhood idol?
A: Ray Lewis.
Q: What did you like about him?
A: How much enthusiasm he played with and how much his teammates fed off him. I liked the way he carried himself.
Q: Three dinner guests?
A: Michael Jackson, Barack Obama, Kobe Bryant.
Q: Why Kobe?
A: Basketball was my first love. He came into the league and really didn’t care who was at the top at the time.
Q: Did you have offers?
A: I had a lot of looks — North Carolina, North Carolina State, Wake Forest, Virginia Tech. Kevin Durant played on my middle school basketball team.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Remember the Titans,” “Love and Baskeball,” the Bourne movies.
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Denzel Washington.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Jennifer Lopez.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: Thanksgiving.
steve.serby@nypost.com