Nickell Robey-Coleman is probably the most marked man in the state of Louisiana after he bulldozed over New Orleans Saints WR Tommyleee Lewis some yards before a Drew Brees pass even made it to him.
Not a single flag was thrown and it lead to the Rams hitting a game-tying and then game-winning field goal to advance to the Super Bowl.
As the Los Angeles Rams cornerback gets set to play in the biggest game of his life, he sat down with Bleacher Report to talk about numerous things that included the death threats he received from Saints fans after the NFC Championship game.
Amid the beautiful chaos, the 27-year-old slot cornerback decided mid-flight to turn on his Wi-Fi, and…hello.
Notifications tripped over themselves by the dozens. Facebook. Instagram. Twitter. All of his accounts were blowing up with messages on a continuous loop and, no, they were not all congratulatory. There was a Saints fan promising to burn his house down. Another vowing to “f–k you up” at the airport. Another telling him he better leave the city ASAP or he “might not see tomorrow.” There were countless death threats from what he presumed to be fake names.
How did NRC respond?
“Wolves,” he says, “don’t concern themselves with the opinions of sheep.”
“We outplayed them. We out-schemed them. And we out-coached them. … The Saints need to hold themselves accountable. They did not play championship football. Their numbers were low. Michael Thomas had 36 yards receiving. They had 50 yards rushing. They didn’t capitalize on the turnovers we made early. We capitalized on the breaks we got at the end.”
Not about anyone still bemoaning the hit itself. “I put his ass on a Waffle House frying pan! It was football! If you don’t know the sport, well, then, news flash: We hit people. It’s the NFL. And sometimes, we’d rather take a flag and hit somebody than somebody catch and score on us.”
He also had some thoughts about the Patriots:
The Rams will be the Italian mobsters at the bar, the Patriots will be the visiting biker gang, and Robey-Coleman will play the role of “Sonny,” Chazz Palminteri’s character. The neighborhood kingpin.
“We kick ’em out of the bar, beat ’em up—and the one thing he said, he looked down at a guy and said, ‘I did this to you.’ That’s how I want to feel: I did this to you. I did this to you.”
“I’ve got Buffalo blood running through my veins, so you know I hate these guys,” Robey-Coleman says. “I naturally hate them. I never liked New England.”
t’s the little things, he explains. The “arrogance.” The fact that Bill Belichick is going to go for it on 4th-and-3 when he’s leading 17-0 in the fourth quarter. The Patriots love “antagonizing” teams, Robey-Coleman says.
“S–t like that. Little s–t to look down upon a team,” he adds. “Little assh–e stuff like that. That’s what makes you not like New England.”
The 27-year-old spent his first 4 years in the league as a member of the Buffalo Bills, and since the team has noted limited success against them, he clearly wants this win more than anyone else on the squad.
