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"FacebookPinterest\n\n Exactly how much money does it take to lure an NFL great to Buffalo? Apparently, nine figures. This offseason, Mario Williams, the former number-one overall draft pick for the Houston Texans, signed the richest contract ever given to a defensive player\u2014six years, $100 million\u2014to join the Buffalo Bills. Williams talked with GQ about his big new deal, as well as the league's evolving relationship toward fearsome pash rushers.\n\n\u00B7\u00B7\u00B7\n\nGQ: You signed a big free agent deal with the Bills this off-season.\n\n Mario Williams: There's a lot of excitement about the Buffalo Bills defensive line this year. We're a group of young guys and we're all really excited. You know, we sought one another out this offseason. Once we get out there, once we're doing our thing on Sundays, we'll see what we can do. We'll compete and try to make each other better.\n\nGQ: What's going on through a pass rusher's head in the three seconds between the quarterback taking the snap and you sacking the quarterback?\n\n Mario Williams:  No matter how fast or how slow you get to the quarterback, it all goes to slow motion when you get there. Everything just stops. You don't see anything but the quarterback. You don't hear anything but the quarterback's breath. It's almost like you're a shark. Your eyes get real big and everything's just quiet. You don't hear the fans or anything. It's just one second, but it feels like forever. Everything just comes to a halt. And then when you get him and bring him down, everything opens up again.\n\nGQ: What's the sensation like of beating an offensive tackle?\n\n Mario Williams:  It's hard to get one-on-ones and when you do see a one-on-one, you're sometimes so shocked and that it throws you off. The biggest thing is realizing that you're not going to get the quarterback on every pass rush. Setting things up for later. And it's not just the offensive tackle, it's the quarterback too. The quarterback controls so much of it as far as his drop, his range, his mobility. So, all game, you're setting things up with the tackle and the quarterback. Is the quarterback mobile? Is he going to take off? Does he hold the ball for a long time? After you've set those things up, you just have to seize the opportunity when it arises.\n\nGQ: When it comes to fines and hard hits, do you feel as though defensive players get a bad rap and offensive players tend to get the benefit of the doubt?\n\n Mario Williams:  Definitely. Especially with the quarterbacks. Quarterbacks are untouchable nowadays. If you hit a quarterback too hard or if you fall on him with too much weight\u2014which is a judgment thing from a professional standpoint\u2014you're going to get flagged. You're going to get fined. I mean, I'm 300 pounds. If I fall on anybody, it's going to hurt. It's so subjective. And yet, I can be rushing against a 340-pound tackle and get blindsided by a guard while I'm engaged with the tackle, and nothing will ever be said about that. I can be rushing the edge, and they can run the toss play, and I could be lit up by a wide receiver coming from the opposite direction. Nothing. Then there's the truly accidental contact. Say, I'm rushing the quarterback. And he sees somebody else coming at him, and he ducks into me. And because he ducks into me, there's helmet to helmet contact. Flags, fines, everything. Now, how can I stop when my trajectory is set for a certain location, and he suddenly ducks down into it? It's just\u2026 I don't know. It's one thing to protect the players, but we're being judged by that one ref. And even if it's appealed by the NFL Players Association and overturned later that week, that one penalty is fifteen yards that can decide a game. You're not getting those fifteen yards back.\n\nGQ: Have you ever felt as though you're being targeted by offensive players?\n\n Mario Williams:  You've got to be careful of guys trying to chop-block you. You know, running backs, the receivers. You've got to just hope that your knees are fine and you can avoid those chop blocks. If you're engaged with somebody, and then someone else comes from behind you and cuts into the back of your legs and does it purposely, you've got to be prepared for it. It happens. You know what you're getting yourself into when you step on the field. But I look at it as \"Eye for an Eye.\" I don't do anything dirty or cheap to anybody, but if you come out there and disrespect me, don't think I'm not going to get even. I don't go around knocking guys heads off while they're just standing there. But if you do something to me or one of my teammates, somebody has to take care of it. Stuff like that happens over the course of a game. Eye for an eye. And the refs can't see it all.\n\nGQ: What's the one thing that pisses you off the most? What sets you off?\n\n Mario Williams:  Fans get me going. The worst thing to do is talk junk to me before I'm about to go against your quarterback. Whenever I get trash talked by fans at an away game, that's the best motivation. Because I know if I get the opportunity to get to the quarterback, it's going to be even worse now. If there's a fan telling me I'm garbage and my team sucks, you're talking directly to me. And I'm going to take it out directly on your quarterback.\n\nGQ: You were taken first overall in the 2006 NFL Draft. Looking back at all the media coverage from that draft, it seems as though several people felt that Reggie Bush should have gone number one to Houston instead of you. Did that serve as motivation?\n\n Mario Williams:  It did to a certain point. But I enjoy people's ignorance. I feel like the people saying that were people who knew nothing about football. How could you assume anything until something's done? That's like saying, \"I can go and build a house because I've seen something built before.\" You don't know that. You don't know anything.\n\nGQ: Have you ever heard anything like the stuff we heard in former New Orleans Saints defensive coordinator Gregg Williams's pregame speech before the Saints-49ers game?\n\n Mario Williams:  If you go to a Pee Wee game right now, fathers are in the stands talking. Or coaches are saying, \"Knock his head off!\" As men, we're so competitive, we say those kind of things to each other. And we say that to our kids. Now, no, we don't really want our kids' knocking another kid's head literally off, but you do want him to hit him really hard. Now, listen, everybody in the NFL\u2014we make good money. I don't care if you're a first round pick or the last guy on the roster, you make money. You're well off. At the end of the day, to wage money on someone's head like that\u2014I don't know. I've never heard of anything as specific as that. But, I want to say\u2014I've clearly heard \"I've got blah blah on it\". Everybody's gunning for the star player of the other team, regardless. You want to rattle him. You want to hit him. You want to shake him up a little bit. You want to let the other person know that you're there. So, if the running back is trying to block you, you've got to bump him to make sure he knows not to do it again. But to have real money on it? We're already getting paid a lot of money to play football, so I don't know.\n\nGQ: Do you have an example of trying to rattle a star player with a big hit?\n\n Mario Williams:  Definitely. You have to. I've played against Peyton Manning my whole career. Your only hope is trying to disrupt his timing. Like I said, you're not trying to intentionally hurt him, but you're trying to get to him. You have to. Look at the Super Bowl and what the Giants did to Tom Brady. The pass rush was obviously the difference in the game. Brady was running around, multiple times, and even if he wasn't sacked, he was out of his comfort zone.\n\nGQ: Do you think there will be defensive players looking to get to Peyton Manning's neck now that he missed a whole season with a neck injury?\n\n Mario Williams:  I'm sure Peyton knows guys will be coming for him, because he's Peyton Manning. When I think of Peyton, I think of his neck being so long, anyway. [Laughs] Anytime you talk about a neck injury, though, that's real serious. I wish him the best. And I hope nothing drastic happens. With it being a neck, you don't even have to be hit hard to hurt it. With the nerves, you could just fall on it weird. I hope everything works out and he's healthy.\n\nGQ: Could being the guy who knocks Peyton Manning out serve as motivation for a younger guy trying to make a name for himself?\n\n Mario Williams:  I hope no player thinks like that. I don't care if it's a stud or a young guy just entering the league, you don't want to be known for that. Go make a name for yourself by winning a Super Bowl or something.\n\nGQ: Is there a quarterback you lose sleep over?\n\n Mario Williams:  No. I've never lost sleep over anyone. My biggest thing is, just prepare for the quarterback. Just know his game. Know that he does this well, and we have to do this. You've just got to let him know you're there. I don't care who you are as a quarterback, if you get him three times\u2014especially early in the game\u2014he's going to be thinking about it. No matter how good he is.\n\nGQ: What kind of thrill does it give you when you know you're in the quarterback's head?\n\n Mario Williams:  There will be quarterbacks who'll come up to you after a play and say something like, \"Hey, take it easy,\" or \"Slow it down.\" And right there, you know you've got him. Then he's checking for you at the line of scrimmage before the snap. He looks over for you. It lets you know you're doing what you should be doing. You're disrupting him. You're in his mind. Then, he gets all antsy. And he has some bad throws and possible turnovers. You're doing your job.\n\nGQ: ESPN has a segment called \"Jacked Up\", where the hardest hits each week are showcases. How do you feel about the NFL telling you guys to calm it down, but then a broadcast partner is celebrating the biggest hits?\n\n Mario Williams:  It's a Catch-22, man. You've got a segment celebrating guys knocking other guys out on ESPN. Like, c'mon. You got guys in the league who want to be highlighted in \"Jacked Up\". And then at the same time, the NFL is fining people for the incidents. Not all of those \"Jacked Up\" hits are illegal. But it's kind of odd, right?\n\nGQ: The Bills haven't made the playoffs since 1999. Be honest\u2014is there any reason for optimism in Buffalo this year?\n\n Mario Williams:  I saw what these guys were doing last year, and saw their record early on\u2014and I remember saying, \"Whoa, what's going on over there up in Buffalo?\" It's like I was looking into the future or something. Obviously, they were doing something right. They were unable to keep it going over the course of the entire season, unable to be consistent. But I'm stoked to be here, man."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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