Fred Warner Reflects on Super Bowl LIV Memories | Press Pass

So young, you were a rookie. Uh, when you guys were in the Super Bowl. How how did that experience shape what's happened since? And yeah, and especially as a leader of what you can pass on to to the younger guys.

Now, Yeah, I mean I I look back at that moment and I can truly say that I really was in the moment, and I you know, I took it really, really seriously, even though I was young. But you know, when you're when you're young and naive, you think you're like when you go so early in your career, it's like, man, this is this is just what it's like. You go to the Super Bowl every year you have a chance to compete, and uh it's not. That's not what the

You know, you got it.

You really got to sell out for three hours and uh give it your best.

Some standard here it has been so high, and that in mind, I was the question, how would you assess.

Performance in the first two playoffs? Yeah, not good enough not good enough at all. And you mentioned it.

The standard has been what it has been for as long as I've been here, you know, and we've we've relied heavily on winning games on defense, holding teams to minimal points, suffocating teams, make you know, dictating how the game's gonna go based off of how we go and and that hasn't been the case last two games. And then that's for you know, a bunch of different reasons. But you know, we have an opportunity to write that.

I think that's exactly where our mindsets at issue. With the run defense in particular.

I think even a like five point st starts for carrying the playoffs, which is so unlikely as.

Yeah, I mean, it's it's a it's a collection of the things I think on any given play when we're not executing the right way, it's just either one guy out of a gap, it's you know, not giving great effort as a whole, as a group like we.

Have been in the past.

You know, when you're playing violent, you're playing fast, you're playing with great effort. That cleans a lot of that stuff up. So it's from an execution standpoint.

From a.

Standard damp, a standard standpoint, like we just got to make sure we get back to that in this game.

You've played in this game now before, what did you the one experience that you had in this game, you know, teach you about maybe your approach the second time around.

You got to play full sixty minutes, you know, to say, you know, we're We're up by ten points late in the game, and I'm thinking, you know, hey, like we we're about to win us a super Bowl, And that thing switched pretty quick, you know, and that scarred me for life, like because now to this day, it doesn't matter what if it's a preseason, regular season playoff game. You know, I never start getting excited until that clockade zero,

The fact that it's the same team, same coach, same quarterback, even the same color uniforms are gonna wear that day. What emotions does that bring and how do you channel them?

Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that's gonna get built up all week, you know, the rematch and uh and that sort of thing. I think at the end of the day, there is two completely different teams because there's a lot of different faces on each side of the ball. You know, we I think we just gotta treat this as as it is. You know, this is a different offense than what it was back then, uh when we played them. It does have a lot of similar players there, obviously in crucial positions.

But we just got to.

Make sure we we we prepare the right way and were ready to go on Sunday.

Felt like you you said after Super you felt like you you could get back there. You know, this is just kind the mindset because like, oh, it's easy to get back year as you did so young your career. What was the most difficult part of getting back there over these last few years, whether it was COVID year or you know, coming up short of the NFC Championship. What has struck you the most about that client back?

Yeah, I mean every year it's kind of different, I think. You know, you think back to twenty one, we barely scraped into the playoffs on that last you know, game of the season and far our way to the to the NFC Championship game and lost to a really good Rams team who went and went on to win the Super Bowl. And then last year we lose our quarterback in the NFC Championship game, don't really have a chance at it. And then this year being down in both games uh in the playoffs to then come back and

So every year is different.

You got to find a way to win and and get over that humph. You know, it comes down to one or two plays in the game in the playoffs and and even into the Super Bowl.

We us have a very good defense with the good minebackers. They knew that they had to stop Travis Kelce uh in that last game and they and they don't what what makes that uh so special for the Chiefs, that quarterback tight end relationship.

That they went.

Yeah, I think they obviously have as great a bond as any you know, one or two punts in the NFL, like from a quarterback in skilled player position maybe in history.

You know.

I think the fact that they know he Pat knows exactly where Kelsey's gonna be on every give and play, Kelsey having the confidence and the trust and and Pat that he can run his routes a certain way where it's not necessarily gonna be by the playbook.

He's just gonna try and find open space.

And they can, uh you know, they can just kind of have a feel out there on the field. You can go into a game saying, you know, we're just gonna double them, and that's gonna open up other things. So you want to try to stay true as well as contest that. But yeah, I mean they're obviously one of the best to do it. In the locker room at halftime Sunday, you look at a stat sheet where you're like, we gave up are eighty yards at the first time.

No, I didn't, uh, I didn't want to look at the status.

See, I'm sure that would have that would have really compounded on top of the feelings that were already there. But I mean I knew it wasn't It wasn't a good half at all. And yeah, we had we had to switching things.

Up that you faced the last two games.

How much does that help giving so much more consistent effort going forward?

Uh, having gone through the adversity as a team or on defense?

Yeah, on defense?

You know, I think, like I said before, like this is an opportunity in my eyes, to to correct the wrongs.

That we've that we've had.

I mean, you talk about even though we played the way we did and still found a way to win with the offense that we got right now, says everything about our team and about our chances of winning this game that's coming up. Because if we do sure up the things that we need to do, if we do come out and we play the defense that I know that we're capable of doing, I know we have a great chance of winning the game.

Play with a ton of passion and you can see it on the film. If you're watching that film and you see somebody going half speed or loafing, are you the kind of guy that gets in a guy's face and says, hey, that's unacceptable, that's not our standard.

You know.

I think it's a the thing that is more meaningful than just trying to get on get on specific guys.

I think as being the guy that.

Shows, you know, consistency and is the truest example of exactly what we're looking for. You know, I can look at game, I can look at plays in that this past game where I wasn't fully given my hundred percent effort, you know, and it's like, who am I to sit there and talk down on somebody else when I wasn't all the way there?

You know what I'm saying.

So I'm always trying to look at myself first in the mirror and make sure that I'm the example today when we're out there to practice.

How how do you look in practice right now?

Like, how do I look in what example might give into my guys for what we're trying to look like on Sunday. It's not just gonna happen just because we talk about it's got It's gotta be something that you do day in and day out, and we have that opportunity today's.

Locker situation as you need, Yes, it is.

Initiated.

Well who's this guy say about him? But his status on the team.

That, Yeah, it's funny that.

I mean, it really doesn't get talked about much.

We just kind of walked by and we're like, ah, this is just kind of you know, Trent's little mall that he has right here. You know, it's, you know, just kind of his own little area. I mean, he's he's already got a gold jacket to his name, so I'm pretty sure he can do whatever he wants in that locker room. And guys are not gonna say much about it.

When you talk about learning from the last Super Bowl, how important it is to play sixty minutes. How helpful is it to have someone like sars for it on the defense that has.

Been through that and want a Super Bowl?

Yeah, I mean, uh, it's just helpful to have a Super Bowl champ on our side. You know, a guy who is a a Pro bowler and an All Pro and has been outstanding for us this entire year. You know, I'm really proud of Mooney the way that he's competed and played this year. And obviously he's been there, he's done that, and having that veteran presence in the secondary is gonna help him on that side of the ball, or I'm just in that area of our defense and we're gonna need him big time comes Sunday.

You haven't meet him yet defending.

Yeah, I think that's something that we got to continue to try to search for and find out through the tape leading up to Sunday. And you know, I think he's obviously one of the greatest to ever do it, and he's gonna have his plays in the game. We got to make sure we limit him to making it this least amount of those as possible during the game.

Here?

You know, it's not about just giving a call and making us play it. It's like, no, we're fully into this thing together. You know, we're gonna we're gonna ride it out all the way to the end, and we have an opportunity to, uh to finish this thing the right way. Halftime adjustments or how do you explain that? Yeah, I mean, that's that's consistent as long as I've been here.

You know.

I feel like even last year, even though we had a number one defense, like there were times and games where like the first half just wasn't working for us, and we made like one or two changes and in terms of just what we're what we were calling, you know, simple adjustments, and then we're you know, we start snuffing people out and it's like, dang, like the Miko is a genius.

He made all these changes.

And it's like, well, we made a couple of changes, but it was just like a matter of just getting the flow of the game and executing and just making a couple of adjustments. And I feel like that's been the same case here. We It's not like we did

Twenty nineteen for NFC Championship and and where.

Is it and what are your.

Thoughts on it? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know.

I don't know where that ring is. But uh, I remember we got one. I was like, oh, this is cute.

Yeah, you got a Super Bowl second year, Like this is where it goes because Trent.

Is like, let's go to Super Bowl out of Trent today.

Do you have any sense of like just you know his journey, like having talked to him since Sunday, or you just know how much this means Fani?

Yeah, I mean I think we can all kind of kind of sense how much it means to him. And you can you can sense it in the way that he speaks to the team. He always talks to the team right before we head out for the game, and you know, and just the emotion that he plays with the way that he plays and the emotion he showed after the game, even after winning the NFC Championship, knowing that he has an opportunity to go to the Super Bowl.

Thanks guys,