Post columnist Steve Serby chased down Giants breakout back Andre Brown for a little Q&A.
Q: .Give me a hard-nosed running back, in between the tackles. … Oooh I got a perfect one — Earl Campbell.
Q: You’re not as big as Earl Campbell though.
A: I’m 234 [pounds]!
Q: Describe your mentality on the field.
A: Run with reckless abandon … just get every yard necessary that I need.
Q: You say you run angry. Why?
A: ’Cause I got so much built up (chuckle). Not in a bad way, but going through what I went through to get to where I’m at right now, I still feel like I still have something to prove to everybody. I just feel that way because to go through that whole process of getting drafted and then being cut, I just feel like I want to continue to shock the world and prove myself to everybody. I still run angry, hungry. And that’s it — angry and hungry right now.
Q: Why do you think you can make a big impact?
A: Why settle for being average, right (chuckle)? If you’re gonna do something, do it to the max.
Q: What is about you that gives you confidence that you can make a big impact?
A: For what I’ve been through. I’ve already seen the low. Now it’s like … I have it now and I don’t want let it go.
Q: What was the low of the low?
A: Being cut eight times.
Q: You have been waived eight times and bounced around the league — from the Giants, Broncos, Colts, Panthers, Redskins then Giants again. Off all the timers you were cut, did any of them sting in particular?
A: When I was cut [during] the season, I had a team picking me up. I said, “OK, somebody still believes in me.” And then when I got cut by the Redskins, and it was like, “Dang, I thought I was gonna finally get a shot.” And then my son was born … and then the Giants called.
Q: How soon after your son was born did the Giants call?
A: The day after.
Q: This was after the eighth cut?
A: Seventh cut. I got cut again by the Giants last year.
Q: Paint that scene for me.
A: Go into Coach [Tom] Coughlin’s office. “Andre, you had an awesome camp, but we still want to see that …” I don’t know, he just wanted to see … that “it”factor. And I was like, “All right, what do I have to do?” He’s like, “Just keep working hard.” Then I go over to [general manager] Jerry Reese and Kevin [Abrams, assistant GM], and they’re like, “You had the best camp that we’ve seen you have. Just keep working at it. But we’re gonna bring you back on practice squad.” So I called my cousin. “How should I look at this?” He was like, “You know what? They brought you back for a reason. You go out there and you work as hard as you can to show them.” … Every day in practice, I had a chip on my shoulder, like I should be on this team. I never got called up, but I started to see the bigger picture. It also taught me how to be a professional, and that ended up being very beneficial for me.
Q: Why didn’t you ever give up?
A: I’m no quitter, man. I just know throughout my life I had setbacks, and something good always came out of it. So I just know not to give up on anything that I do, ’cause once you give up, that means you’re quitting. I’m not a quitter.
Q: After being drafted by the Gaints in the fourth round in 2009, you wrecked your Achilles tendon in your rookie training camp. What was that like?
A: It was lonely, everybody out there playing. It was very humbling.
Q: What drives you?
A: To relentlessly chase perfection and go out there, have a perfect game. … Just to be the best, man, that’s all I can say. I just want to be the best at everything I do.
Q: Strawberry blast gushers before every game?
A: When I was 9, Pop Warner football, I had some gushers and I had a big game. That’s when I was playing like D-end and fullback, and I had like three sacks, and scored on a belly play. … I had like four touchdowns that game. And I was like, “I’m eating gushers before every game.”
Q: You were singing “I get a ring … you get one too” on the field immediately after the Super Bowl.
A: I felt like a part of that, man because I grinded for that whole year … having that moment that could never be taken away. It just was an awesome feeling.
Q: How was the parade?
A: The parade was awesome. I was shocked when Justin [Tuck] called me up to sing the song. He was like, “Andre, come up here for a second.”
Q: At City Hall?
A: I was like, “Aw man, come on … don’t make me get up and do this right now. It’s cool when I’m just around y’all, but in front of the world (smile)?”
Q: Describe the White House visit.
A: Shake [President] Obama’s hand, and going in each room and experiencing that was just an awesome feeling.
Q: So how would you describe what it’s like being a New York Giant?
A: It’s nothing like it in the world. Biggest market. … It’s just a concrete jungle where dreams are made of (chuckle). It’s an awesome organization. … They drafted me, and they brought me back, and believed in me again so … I can’t let ’em down.
Q: How do you feel about the real refs coming back?
A: The replacement refs is all I know. Think about it — other than the preseason. During the regular season, I feel, hey, they’ve been good for me (laugh)!
Q: Describe your mom.
A: Single mom. She was a correctional officer dealing with inmates, real strict. She worked a lot so me and my [two] brothers had to grow up quick. … She was strong. Strong, independent woman.
Q: An example of having to grow up quick.
A: Had to be home, make sure I did my homework before I did anything. She worked overtime, we had to make sure that we had something to eat. My older brother, once he got older and left, I had to make sure that me and my little brother ate. You had to be more accountable.
Q: Did you ever know your father?
A: Yeah I know him, but he wasn’t there. In and out of jail. Did drugs, and stuff like that. … Sensitive subject, don’t like talking about it. … He just wasn’t there.
Q: Would you have liked him to come to your games?
A: It would have been cool to have him come out to the games and be there. But as long as she was there, I didn’t care. Taught me one thing — not to have a child and not be there for him, ’cause I don’t want to be like him, you know? I want to be there for my son.
Q: Talk about you friend Jordan Brown.
A: We grew up together, basically. He got shot in some drive-by over something really stupid. He wasn’t supposed to be the intended target. Everybody loved Jordan, man. He was down-to-earth and everybody loved him.
Q: This happened in Baltimore?
A: We were in camp at N.C. State. … I was going into my junior year, and Coach [Tom O’Brien] let me miss a couple of days and go to his funeral and be with his family. He came to all my games, even when I started ballin’ in Greenville, he caught a couple of those games.
Q: He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time?
A: Wrong place, wrong time. Good guy, man. He was not that type of guy that started trouble. He always talked this way (mimics high-pitched voice): “Man we don’t need to do that, man. C’mon, let’s go.”
Q: You miss him even today?
A: Yeah, I wish he was here. I wish he was here to witness all this. I know what he’d be saying (high-pitched voice): “This can’t be real. This can’t be real.”
Q: Your son Sebastian is 14 months old. How did fatherhood change you?
A: Again I use the word accountable. ’Cause if I’m not out here making a living, he’s not gonna be able to eat. So I’m just like I have to put everything else aside and just focus on this and go out here and make sure that he doesn’t have to worry about a thing.
Q: Did it have an effect on you growing up?
A: Yeah, a little bit.
Q: Describe Hargrave Military Academy.
A: Discipline.
Q: Did you need that at that time?
A: Yeah, because I felt like … you couldn’t tell me doo-doo don’t stink, you couldn’t tell me that coming out of high school. I was The Man coming out of Greenville.
Q: You had a huge game for N.C. State against Florida State.
A: Like in high school, I had FSU-bound on my cleats.
Q: Why?
A: ’Cause I wanted to go to FSU.
Q: Did they want you?
A: Yeah. I got a scholarship offer there, but I didn’t go because I was procrastinating, and the other kid committed before me.
Q: Describe your cousin Wesley.
A: He wanted me to play football. He knew I had a talent, and he always wanted me to pursue it. Even when I was 8, he used to make me go outside in Baltimore and do pull-ups on a clothesline and pushups.
Q: Why did you go to live with him in Greenville in 10th grade?
A: Better football in the south.
Q: And your mom encouraged you to go down there?
A: She fought it for a minute, but Wesley was like, this is the best option for me to do, and it ended up being beneficial.
Q: You moved from Baltimore to Greenville that year?
A: I became a country boy down there, learned how to fish, mudding.
Q: Mudding?
A: Mudding is when you get in a truck — F-150 — some nights after a nice day of raining, go out to a big field, and you just go out there and do doughnuts and slide all around. Almost tipped a couple of times, but it was in good fun (chuckle).
Q: Four dinner guests?
A: God, Barry Sanders, Will Ferrell, Bo Jackson.
Q: Why Barry Sanders?
A: Most elusive running back ever. Bo Jackson because I wanted to be like him when I was little.
Q: You were a good baseball player?
A: Yeah.
Q: What position?
A: Left field, center, right field — Greenville Rose, four-time state champions. I was about to play baseball for N.C. State, and then it was just too much, so I said no.
Q: Did the pros look at you?
A: The Expos when they were over there. They were talking to my people, but my mom said go to college.
Q: You were a Cal Ripken fan?
A: Went to a couple Cal Ripken baseball camps.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “Coming to America.”
Q: Favorite actors?
A: Denzel Washington, Tom Cruise.
Q: Favorite actress?
A: Megan Fox.
Q: Favorite singer/entertainer?
A: Jay-Z.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My mom’s macaroni and cheese.
Q: Do you have the ball from your first NFL touchdown?
A: They’re gonna paint it.
Q: What’s it going to be like tonight for you against the Eagles?
A: Another opportunity to show the world who I am, and take advantage of it.
steve.serby@nypost.com