Heatherthepackgirl
Cheesehead
By TOM SILVERSTEIN
[email protected]
Posted: Nov. 1, 2007
Green Bay - Green Bay Packers safety Atari Bigby insists that the big lights of "Monday Night Football" did not cause him to lose his mind.
He called both of his post-whistle penalties - he was flagged four times in all during the 19-13 victory over Denver - "bad decisions" but he said his intentions weren't nearly as misguided as they seemed.
The dumbest of the two penalties was a 5-yard delay of game for kicking the ball after a mid-fourth quarter incompletion. Most people assumed Bigby was angry over something or was trying to show up the Broncos.
He said it was merely a reaction from once being a soccer player. Apparently, he's known for doing the same thing in practice.
"You know I was a soccer player first before I was a football player?" said Bigby, who grew up in South Florida and lettered in soccer in high school. "That was not frustration. That was more of a natural thing. It was just a reaction. Ask any of my teammates. You can ask any player. It was not that I was trying to create attention to myself.
"If the ball is on the ground I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to think, 'Don't kick it.'"
Replays showed Bigby running up on the bouncing ball and chipping it in the air as if he were trying to clear a soccer ball. Coach Mike McCarthy was not amused and pulled him from the game for the next play, which luckily for Bigby, resulted in a completion short of a first down.
As for the other penalty, a late hit out of bounds on receiver Brandon Stokley, Bigby said he was trying to slow down but should have done a better job avoiding Stokley.
"I tried to pull off it," Bigby said. "If you really watch it closely, he put a little Hollywood into it. I'm not a dirty player so I'm not going to try to cheap shot a guy. I was going fast and I made a mistake."
McCarthy said Bigby understood he put his team in a bad spot.
"There's a lot of positive things he did in that game, and he needs to continue to do that," McCarthy said. "But the poor decisions, whether it's Atari or anybody on our football team, we need to eliminate that. "
[email protected]
Posted: Nov. 1, 2007
Green Bay - Green Bay Packers safety Atari Bigby insists that the big lights of "Monday Night Football" did not cause him to lose his mind.
He called both of his post-whistle penalties - he was flagged four times in all during the 19-13 victory over Denver - "bad decisions" but he said his intentions weren't nearly as misguided as they seemed.
The dumbest of the two penalties was a 5-yard delay of game for kicking the ball after a mid-fourth quarter incompletion. Most people assumed Bigby was angry over something or was trying to show up the Broncos.
He said it was merely a reaction from once being a soccer player. Apparently, he's known for doing the same thing in practice.
"You know I was a soccer player first before I was a football player?" said Bigby, who grew up in South Florida and lettered in soccer in high school. "That was not frustration. That was more of a natural thing. It was just a reaction. Ask any of my teammates. You can ask any player. It was not that I was trying to create attention to myself.
"If the ball is on the ground I'm going to have to make a conscious effort to think, 'Don't kick it.'"
Replays showed Bigby running up on the bouncing ball and chipping it in the air as if he were trying to clear a soccer ball. Coach Mike McCarthy was not amused and pulled him from the game for the next play, which luckily for Bigby, resulted in a completion short of a first down.
As for the other penalty, a late hit out of bounds on receiver Brandon Stokley, Bigby said he was trying to slow down but should have done a better job avoiding Stokley.
"I tried to pull off it," Bigby said. "If you really watch it closely, he put a little Hollywood into it. I'm not a dirty player so I'm not going to try to cheap shot a guy. I was going fast and I made a mistake."
McCarthy said Bigby understood he put his team in a bad spot.
"There's a lot of positive things he did in that game, and he needs to continue to do that," McCarthy said. "But the poor decisions, whether it's Atari or anybody on our football team, we need to eliminate that. "
