Colts' Freeney talks Super Bowl, rules for tackling QBs

                    

	Constant double-teams aside, Dwight Freeney still had 5.5 sacks for Indy in '06. AP

Dwight Freeney is at home enjoying his last day in Indianapolis before he boards a charter flight to Miami to play in the game he has dreamt about for two decades. He can still vividly recall Phil Simms' near flawless performance in Super Bowl XXI as a six-year old and has already started to imagine what it will be like when he walks through the tunnel at Dolphin Stadium this Sunday to play in Super Bowl XLI. "This is moment that I've been waiting for since I knew what football was," Freeney said.

On the eve of his trip down to Florida on Monday night I caught up with Freeney to talk to him about finally beating the Patriots in the postseason, not making it to the Pro Bowl and how he really feels about Peyton Manning's opportunity to finally win the big one.

SI.com: Before we get to the Super Bowl, I wanted to ask you about that AFC Championship game against the Patriots. I've never seen you happier after a game. What was going through your mind when you knew you had finally beaten New England?

Freeney: It was an unbelievable feeling. You play this game to get the big game and try to win it. Throughout my career, and I've been going at it for five years, it's been tough. You've got to have some type of reason for going out there and putting your body on the line and at the end of the season, if you're body is beat up and you have nothing to show for it, its like, 'Dang!' Well, finally I got something to show for it hopefully and we have an opportunity now to have something major to show for it in a Super Bowl win. Beating the Patriots and that whole game, them being the champions that they are, not willing to die, not willing to just lay over and let us take them, it was just an amazing game and a very emotional win.

SI.com: Was it important for you guys to beat the Patriots to finally get to the Super Bowl? Did it make it sweeter to knock off the team that prevented you from making it for so many years?

Freeney: I guess it was little bit sweeter to beat them, but we had no choice. We had to play whoever was next, but definitely, yeah it was sweeter to beat them because of the past history and what went down to the playoff game in 2003, the playoff game in 2004. It's one of those things where you feel the pressure. You have the media putting that pressure on you and putting that monkey and all kinds of stuff on your back and just creating all this pressure whenever you play them. At the end of the day, man, we just went out there and played our game and left it all out there.

SI.com: It kind of looked like it was going to be same old, same old there at the half when the Patriots went in with a 21-6 lead. What were guys saying at the half?

Freeney: Basically you have to understand that this is a team game and you're going to have your ups and downs. Every unit is going to have their ups and downs. It's all about just coming together and having confidence in one another and going out there and playing the way we know how to play; with energy and everybody being accountable and everybody flying to the ball. That's basically what we did. We understood that our backs were to the wall. I mean our backs were to the wall! We knew we had to fight our way out.

SI.com: You guys had to fight your way out of a hole around the middle of the season when you lost four of six games. What was that stretch like? Did you guys ever lose confidence in yourselves or what you guys were doing on the field?

Freeney: You never lose confidence. It would be one thing if we sat here and said, 'OK, well, listen guys, we don't know what's going on and we don't know why or how to stop it.' No. The issue was people were in position to make the plays and they weren't making them. That's a big difference. It's like you have a leak in your basement and you know exactly where it's coming from and you go and fix the leak. That's different than having a leak and not knowing where it's coming from. Then you're in trouble. So at the end of the day we came together as a defense and slowly but surely tried to get things back together and we all knew we had four games to get this thing right. We have three games to get this thing right. Two games, one game, and know we're in the playoffs and this thing better be fixed.

SI.com: What has this season been like for you personally? Your statistics are down across the board but you've said you've never played better.

Freeney: I've had an outstanding year and I almost feel like I kind of got slapped in the face this year by not being elected to the Pro Bowl. I guess they're saying there are three guys who played better than me this year at my position. I don't agree with that. I'm sure you could go around the league and ask guys. Any head coach and defensive coordinator will tell you when it comes down to scheming, they would have to account for me and make sure they have at least couple guys on me. Now because of that I get more double-teams and triple-teams than you would normally see.

Also, because of the fact that we have gotten 400 fewer pass attempts on us than any other team in the National Football League, let's base it on percentages then. Let's not go by the end number, let's base it on the opportunities to get there. If we put a stat up and said how many pressures and quarterback hits a player had this season, there would be nobody close to me. I probably have 10-15 more pressures and quarterback hits than the next closest guy. That would be like if I had 40 sacks and the next guy had 25 or something like that. But the thing is, they all worry about the end number, which is all statistics and sacks and my numbers were down from previously in my career. But like I said there is a lot more that goes into this game and stats do lie.