QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION WITH THE TOP QUARTERBACKS IN THE NFL
PETER KING: If you're a general manager scouting passers, what is the one trait that today's NFL quarterback has to have?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Toughness. I don't think toughness is when a quarterback says, "I'm going to run somebody over." Toughness is playing the worst game of your life but not backing down. You don't want to sit on the sideline. You want to stay in there and win. You know, down 21 points and the defense is getting through in every single way, and you throw three interceptions. Staying in that game, keeping your head up, trying to drive your team down the field when everything's going wrong—that's the kind of toughness I want in my quarterback.
PETER KING: Is there ever a feeling of fear inside you?
CARSON PALMER: Fear of failure always drives me. I don't want to let my guys down. After we lose and I see my linemen, it's like I let them down. That's the feeling a quarterback has to have.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: Even if I do ever feel anything like that, and I'm not saying I ever feel scared or nervous, but I'll never show it. We can't. Not at our position. Everyone's looking at us.
PETER KING: Let me put it this way—think back to big moments or big games. How does your stomach feel?
AARON RODGERS: When I was a point guard, I wanted the ball in the last two minutes. When I was a pitcher, I wanted the ball in the last inning. That's why in the big moments in games, I'm not tight. Those moments are why you play.
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: I want the ball. Our defense does some amazing things, but I want to have the ball, and that's the way I've always been playing sports.
PETER KING: Like on the last drive of the Super Bowl?
BEN ROETHLISBERGER: On that drive I ran out and thought, This is going to be really hard. Because we had kind of struggled late in that game. Not saying I definitely couldn't do it. I just knew it would be tough. When I got in the huddle, I told the guys, "I don't have any speech. Just think of all the extra work we put in, all the extra film study we did together. It'll all be for nothing if we don't do this." Then we get a holding call on the first play, and it's going bad. But here's the thing about playing quarterback in this league: Even if you don't feel confident, you have to show you feel it, so when your teammates are looking at you, they believe it.
MATT RYAN: You don't want to let the guys down. As for nerves, I always find myself more nervous before the game, before the kickoff, before the first snap. Then when you're in it and you take a couple of hits, you get into the flow of the game. Honestly, when the game's on the line, I feel calmer than on the first series because I'm into the game. I'm not thinking about how big the moment is.
