Alone in the Pack
DAN GREENE: When the schedule came out, did the opening game at San Francisco jump out to you?
RANDALL COBB: Yeah, definitely. You end your season there, you get to start your next season there. Of course you’re gonna think about it. You’re gonna think about all the things that happened last year. I don’t know how other guys may feel about it, but I know it left a sour taste in my mouth. I went into the offseason kind of thinking about that—about them going to the Super Bowl and having a chance to win it. But it’s a new year, it’s a new team, and they have a new team.
GREENE: In a recent Under Armour commercial, you talk about growing up in Alcoa, Tenn. How did that help shape you, and how are you received there now?
COBB: The area that I come from, it’s a real blue-collar town. There’s not people with a lot of money there. The average income is low to medium. Coming from somewhere like that, seeing the work that my family and people around me put in to just have a little bit, to actually have a chance to do something special and play professional football from a town like that is unbelievable. To be able to have the opportunity to give back to that community, it really has a special meaning to me. It’s kind of weird because everybody there calls me a hero. I don’t consider myself a hero. I just play football. I’ve been doing the same thing since I was playing in the backyard, playing in the streets when I was a kid there. So I don’t really consider myself a hero. I’m just trying to do whatever I can to help the kids there so that they have the opportunity to get out.
GREENE: The public is just starting to get to really know you. What’s something people might be surprised to learn about you?
COBB: That I’m really kind of anti-social. I’m as socially un-social as you can be. It’s kind of a weird thing to say, but I keep to myself for the most part. I try to just do my own thing sometimes. I’m a loner. You may see me with my friends and stuff every now and then, but if I’m not with the team or in the locker room atmosphere, I’m usually by myself.
