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Post Draft interview with Jeeeeroy Lenkins brought to you by Stephen A Smith.
Speaking with Jeeeeroy Lenkins, about the DSFL draft, getting picked 74th overall by the Minnesota Grey Ducks. He also talks about his fellow turtles and a potential rivalry between them and another quartet as well as a controversial opinion about another team.
Reporter – Hi Jeeeeroy, thank you for joining us today. First of all, before we proceed I would like to congratulate you on being drafted last night. I have to ask you has it sunk in yet that you are a Grey Duck?
Lenkins – Hi Stephen, it has not quite sunk in yet. I am still on cloud 9 to be honest, I feel fantastic and it just shows that through hard work and dedication your dreams can come true!
Reporter – You’ve earned it Jeeeeroy well done. My next question for you is how do you feel about being drafted at pick 74?
Lenkins – To be honest Stephen, it’s just an honour to be drafted there was some great talent in this year’s class, I believe in a few year’s time we will look back at this class being the strongest in DSFL history.
Reporter – That’s a very bold claim, I guess we will see whether or not it will come to fruition. Multiple teams clearly did not rate you by passing on you multiple times. Will we see you entering is this season with a chip on your shoulder?
Lenkins - The hardwork well and truly starts now, this is only the beginning! In regards to being picked at 74 it’s frustrating as I am at worst a top 30 player. I think the 7 other teams have slept on me and they will regret their decision for years to come, at the end of the day their loss is Minnesota’s gain. I look forward to locking down the other team’s top receivers and picking passes from their weak quarterbacks. I want to go down in history as one of the steals in DSFL draft history. The fact 7 teams past on me multiple times just fuels my hunger to improve and I cannot wait to prove them wrong.
Reporter – It sound like you are motivated by your draft position and that can only benefit Minnesota. It is later than some expected and you were the last of the 4 turtles to be drafted. How do you feel to be the last “turtle” drafted?
Lenkins – To be the last turtle drafted does not bother me. I am delighted to be drafted alongside my brothers and they will dominate for each of their teams. We are a fantastic set of players that will only improve teams.
Reporter - Are you bothered that you all got drafted to different teams?
Lenkins – It is not ideal obviously I would have preferred if we all got drafted to the same team but that is life and we keep on going.
Reporter – Obviously as we have previously mentioned you have been drafted by the Grey Ducks, did you have any preference on which team drafted you?
Lenkins – It is the old cliché Stephen and I know more or less every player says this when they are drafted but I really had my heart set on the Grey Ducks.
Reporter - Why were the Grey Ducks the team for you, what separated them from the rest?
Lenkins – I just felt the most love from them to be honest Stephen. Their scout CC made me feel really welcome from the first time we spoke and from there, Grey Ducks were the team for me. I feel this is the best place for me to develop as a player.
Reporter – You have told us who you wanted to be drafted to, is there a team that you did not want to be drafted to?
Lenkins – I know this may appear controversial but I really did not want to be drafted by the London Royals.
Reporter - Why were you so against the Royals?
Lenkins – It is a bit stupid Stephen but it is because their team name is the Royals. I despise the Royal family (except Prince Harry) and do not want to be associated with them in anyway shape or form. Probably the worst name team out of all the teams in the league Stephen.
Reporter - You are aware that the Royal family have no connection to the London Royals?
Lenkins – I am aware that there is no immediate connection but it is just how I feel. Believe it or not I tried to negotiate a clause in my contract that I cannot be traded to the London Royals.
Reporter – What a bizarre thing to admit to publicly, I hope it does not come back to haunt you at a later date. There is plenty of folk that do not know too much about you, so I would like to ask you some questions on your background.
You did not start playing (American) Football until much later in your life, your first love was soccer or as it is known in the UK football. How were you introduced to the game?
Lenkins – I was not aware football even existed until I was about 14/15. It was a friend from school who introduced me to the game. We played madden 06 on his play station and I think he beat me 54-0 in our first game. Let me tell you it was not love at first sight but the game grew on me over time and now I am obsessed with the game.
Reporter - You were known as quite the soccer player growing up but you changed your focus to football at 17, what was your reasoning behind this?
Lenkins – My friend who introduced me to the game was pestering me to join his team for years and I eventually crumbled and have not looked back since. I had two picks and a fumble recovery in my first game!
Reporter – That is pretty impressive, I believe you had only been playing for a couple of months before being offered the chance to visit Bowling Green State University. You put up pretty impressive numbers in your time there how did you find it?
Lenkins – It was amazing I really enjoyed my time there, the coaches were fantastic and helped me improve my game so much. They really taught me how to read the game and play to my strengths/
Reporter – Many people do not know this about you but you actually suffer from trigeminal neuralgia and half done for over 10 years. Would you mind explaining what it is and do you believe it will have any impact on your game?
Lenkins – Yeah not a problem, I feel it is good to get exposure for the condition because so few folk are aware of what it is. It’s a chronic nerve condition that is essentially like cramp in your face, when it flares up there is not much you can really do for it and if it happens I will not be able to play. I have had ten operations on it in my life but thankfully I have had no flare ups in the last 5 years, long may it continue!
Reporter – Thank you for shedding some light on it, it is great to highlight a condition that effects so many! You have come into this draft with 3 other players and you are referring to yourselves as the The Turtlemen (TMNT) Can I ask who is who?
Lenkins – Let’s start with Tony Yeboah he is Leonardo because he is a leader on and off the field. The Coyotes got there defensive captain for years to come with this man, the guy is a ball-hawk an absolute stud!
Reporter – Yeah I have seen his game and have to say I agree with the comparison. So who is the brain of the group?
Lenkins – That one is easy it is the man whose name is a compound sentence, a bloody compound sentence! Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon is definitely the brains, the man can read any offence and and is an absolute brawler. The man is a creative genius If you haven’t already you should check out his sig shop, some of the stuff he has done is impressive as hell!
Reporter – I have to agree with you on that, I have checked out some of his work and it is just incredible! I think I can guess Raphael is Buster “Boulder” Bawls but can you just confirm it?
Lenkins – Yeah you are spot on with that one Stephen, the boy is a man mountain! It is funny that I say that because his gym partner is Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson better known as “The Mountain” from Game of Thrones. Some of the stuff they do in the gym is scary I would not want to get on the wrong side of either of them! Hafþór is probably going to kill me if he sees this but Buster actually snapped Hafþór’s arm during an arm wrestle when he was in college it was terrifying!
Reporter – I have to ask you, why does Buster get referred to as the “boulder”?
Lenkins – Have you seen the size of the man? It also does not help that he has a weird obsession with rocks. He has a collection of rocks from all over the world. They are scattered all over our sewer. I think he is a wee bit mentally unstable to be honest. Sometimes when he is out I hide some of his rocks, he loses his mind. Luckily he is not as quick as me otherwise we would probably not be having this conversation.
Reporter – So I guess that leaves you as Mikey and from what you have just said I can see why you are Mikey. From what you just said you are either incredibly stupid or you have a death wish, and for the life of me I cannot decide if it is both or just stupid.
Lenkins –Yeah I am Mikey purely because I am a bit of a clown I am always looking for ways to wind up my brothers and everyone else I come across. Sadly Raylan Crowder is not as good at taking it as he is at dishing out. I am sure you seen AskedMaddens article where he referred to me as a “crayon eater”? I cannot really defend myself on that one he is spot on, but who does not love a good crayon right?
Reporter –Come on now, you do not actually eat crayons do you? Yes I did see that article is that where things started to turn sour for you guys?
Lenkins – yeah I guess you could highlight that as the turning point in our relationship, but I don’t have time for someone that cannot take a bit of a joke in my life, you need to have fun and live a little, you know!? We now refer to him as that rat.
Reporter – Before I dive into the horsemen I have to query about you and the rest of the turtles hobbies, obviously you have briefly touched on boulders but I am sure me and everyone else is curious what the rest of you get up to and of course your favourite pizza toppings.
Lenkins – Well where shall I begin… I guess you could actually say we are all like the turtles we quote ourselves after. I love skateboarding and have turned part of the sewer into a skate park, it’s great I’ve had Tony Hawk and many other big skaters down there. He is a hero of mine and it was his pro skater game on play station that made me fall in love with it. It’s through skateboarding that I learnt not to give up and that there are going to be a few bumps along the road.
Big Tony is all about the yoga and tai-chi, treats his body as a temple you know what I mean? Can take himself a bit too serious but helps keep us focussed on what is important. Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon, man he’s a character. He is right into his gaming streams on twitch religiously and is constantly studying film. You can tell he studies film like it is going out of fashion, he’s like our Tony Romo. We will just be sat watching the game and he’ll be calling out every play before it happens. I’ve already covered Boulder earlier in out chat, best way to describe him is a big frustrated meat head. He loves his martial arts and goes through at least one punch bag every second week it’s mad.
Reporter – Thanks for the indepth analysis on you guys it is great to find out more about you. I have to ask now, what is your guys favourite pizza?
Lenkins – Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon favourite pizza includes chicken, mushroom, green pepper, and tomatoes. Tony Yeboah’s favourite pizza includes onions, black olives, green pepper, and mushrooms. Big Buster Bawls favourite pizza includes pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, and beef. Finally saving the best for last, yours truly Jeeeeroy Lenkins favourite pizza has to have pepperoni, ham, pineapple, and jalapeño, lovely bit of zest from the pineapple and spice from the jalapeño, you cannot beat it Stephen!
Reporter – I’m not going to lie to you Jeeeroy your pizza sounds awful, I would not even feed that to a dog. Seeing as you mentioned it earlier I feel this is a suitable time for me to ask you about the other group of 4 from Scotland who refer to themselves as the “Four Horsemen”. What your thoughts are on them?
Lenkins – Haha the inevitable question has only gone and popped up, you guys are so predictable it’s like you all have the same book, “interviewing for dummies”. Where do I even begin? They are exceptional players there is no doubt about that. You have to laugh at them though, you have a group of grown ass men here comparing themselves to a faction from a show that has not been relevant for 15+ years. I cannot wait for me and my ducks to open up a can of whoop ass on them.
Reporter – It appears as if there is some bad blood between you guys, I have to ask you what quartet to you think will perform better across the season and your respective careers?
Lenkins – Do you honestly need to ask that? It is a no brainer we will out-perform them in every meaning of the word from our first games to our last. I guarantee you the turtles will pick up more rings in our career than the horsemen and that’s the bottom line because Jeeeeroy said so!
Reporter - Right Jeeeeroy I really appreciate your time and I have one final question for you. Do you have any bold predictions on how you will perform this season?
Lenkins – I will finish the season with double digit turnovers for my team, whether that is in interceptions or fumbles.
Reporter - Thanks for your time Jeeeeroy, I hope you have a great season and we will catch up soon.
Lenkins – Not a problem Stephen.
Post Draft interview with Jeeeeroy Lenkins brought to you by Stephen A Smith.
Speaking with Jeeeeroy Lenkins, about the DSFL draft, getting picked 74th overall by the Minnesota Grey Ducks. He also talks about his fellow turtles and a potential rivalry between them and another quartet as well as a controversial opinion about another team.
Reporter – Hi Jeeeeroy, thank you for joining us today. First of all, before we proceed I would like to congratulate you on being drafted last night. I have to ask you has it sunk in yet that you are a Grey Duck?
Lenkins – Hi Stephen, it has not quite sunk in yet. I am still on cloud 9 to be honest, I feel fantastic and it just shows that through hard work and dedication your dreams can come true!
Reporter – You’ve earned it Jeeeeroy well done. My next question for you is how do you feel about being drafted at pick 74?
Lenkins – To be honest Stephen, it’s just an honour to be drafted there was some great talent in this year’s class, I believe in a few year’s time we will look back at this class being the strongest in DSFL history.
Reporter – That’s a very bold claim, I guess we will see whether or not it will come to fruition. Multiple teams clearly did not rate you by passing on you multiple times. Will we see you entering is this season with a chip on your shoulder?
Lenkins - The hardwork well and truly starts now, this is only the beginning! In regards to being picked at 74 it’s frustrating as I am at worst a top 30 player. I think the 7 other teams have slept on me and they will regret their decision for years to come, at the end of the day their loss is Minnesota’s gain. I look forward to locking down the other team’s top receivers and picking passes from their weak quarterbacks. I want to go down in history as one of the steals in DSFL draft history. The fact 7 teams past on me multiple times just fuels my hunger to improve and I cannot wait to prove them wrong.
Reporter – It sound like you are motivated by your draft position and that can only benefit Minnesota. It is later than some expected and you were the last of the 4 turtles to be drafted. How do you feel to be the last “turtle” drafted?
Lenkins – To be the last turtle drafted does not bother me. I am delighted to be drafted alongside my brothers and they will dominate for each of their teams. We are a fantastic set of players that will only improve teams.
Reporter - Are you bothered that you all got drafted to different teams?
Lenkins – It is not ideal obviously I would have preferred if we all got drafted to the same team but that is life and we keep on going.
Reporter – Obviously as we have previously mentioned you have been drafted by the Grey Ducks, did you have any preference on which team drafted you?
Lenkins – It is the old cliché Stephen and I know more or less every player says this when they are drafted but I really had my heart set on the Grey Ducks.
Reporter - Why were the Grey Ducks the team for you, what separated them from the rest?
Lenkins – I just felt the most love from them to be honest Stephen. Their scout CC made me feel really welcome from the first time we spoke and from there, Grey Ducks were the team for me. I feel this is the best place for me to develop as a player.
Reporter – You have told us who you wanted to be drafted to, is there a team that you did not want to be drafted to?
Lenkins – I know this may appear controversial but I really did not want to be drafted by the London Royals.
Reporter - Why were you so against the Royals?
Lenkins – It is a bit stupid Stephen but it is because their team name is the Royals. I despise the Royal family (except Prince Harry) and do not want to be associated with them in anyway shape or form. Probably the worst name team out of all the teams in the league Stephen.
Reporter - You are aware that the Royal family have no connection to the London Royals?
Lenkins – I am aware that there is no immediate connection but it is just how I feel. Believe it or not I tried to negotiate a clause in my contract that I cannot be traded to the London Royals.
Reporter – What a bizarre thing to admit to publicly, I hope it does not come back to haunt you at a later date. There is plenty of folk that do not know too much about you, so I would like to ask you some questions on your background.
You did not start playing (American) Football until much later in your life, your first love was soccer or as it is known in the UK football. How were you introduced to the game?
Lenkins – I was not aware football even existed until I was about 14/15. It was a friend from school who introduced me to the game. We played madden 06 on his play station and I think he beat me 54-0 in our first game. Let me tell you it was not love at first sight but the game grew on me over time and now I am obsessed with the game.
Reporter - You were known as quite the soccer player growing up but you changed your focus to football at 17, what was your reasoning behind this?
Lenkins – My friend who introduced me to the game was pestering me to join his team for years and I eventually crumbled and have not looked back since. I had two picks and a fumble recovery in my first game!
Reporter – That is pretty impressive, I believe you had only been playing for a couple of months before being offered the chance to visit Bowling Green State University. You put up pretty impressive numbers in your time there how did you find it?
Lenkins – It was amazing I really enjoyed my time there, the coaches were fantastic and helped me improve my game so much. They really taught me how to read the game and play to my strengths/
Reporter – Many people do not know this about you but you actually suffer from trigeminal neuralgia and half done for over 10 years. Would you mind explaining what it is and do you believe it will have any impact on your game?
Lenkins – Yeah not a problem, I feel it is good to get exposure for the condition because so few folk are aware of what it is. It’s a chronic nerve condition that is essentially like cramp in your face, when it flares up there is not much you can really do for it and if it happens I will not be able to play. I have had ten operations on it in my life but thankfully I have had no flare ups in the last 5 years, long may it continue!
Reporter – Thank you for shedding some light on it, it is great to highlight a condition that effects so many! You have come into this draft with 3 other players and you are referring to yourselves as the The Turtlemen (TMNT) Can I ask who is who?
Lenkins – Let’s start with Tony Yeboah he is Leonardo because he is a leader on and off the field. The Coyotes got there defensive captain for years to come with this man, the guy is a ball-hawk an absolute stud!
Reporter – Yeah I have seen his game and have to say I agree with the comparison. So who is the brain of the group?
Lenkins – That one is easy it is the man whose name is a compound sentence, a bloody compound sentence! Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon is definitely the brains, the man can read any offence and and is an absolute brawler. The man is a creative genius If you haven’t already you should check out his sig shop, some of the stuff he has done is impressive as hell!
Reporter – I have to agree with you on that, I have checked out some of his work and it is just incredible! I think I can guess Raphael is Buster “Boulder” Bawls but can you just confirm it?
Lenkins – Yeah you are spot on with that one Stephen, the boy is a man mountain! It is funny that I say that because his gym partner is Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson better known as “The Mountain” from Game of Thrones. Some of the stuff they do in the gym is scary I would not want to get on the wrong side of either of them! Hafþór is probably going to kill me if he sees this but Buster actually snapped Hafþór’s arm during an arm wrestle when he was in college it was terrifying!
Reporter – I have to ask you, why does Buster get referred to as the “boulder”?
Lenkins – Have you seen the size of the man? It also does not help that he has a weird obsession with rocks. He has a collection of rocks from all over the world. They are scattered all over our sewer. I think he is a wee bit mentally unstable to be honest. Sometimes when he is out I hide some of his rocks, he loses his mind. Luckily he is not as quick as me otherwise we would probably not be having this conversation.
Reporter – So I guess that leaves you as Mikey and from what you have just said I can see why you are Mikey. From what you just said you are either incredibly stupid or you have a death wish, and for the life of me I cannot decide if it is both or just stupid.
Lenkins –Yeah I am Mikey purely because I am a bit of a clown I am always looking for ways to wind up my brothers and everyone else I come across. Sadly Raylan Crowder is not as good at taking it as he is at dishing out. I am sure you seen AskedMaddens article where he referred to me as a “crayon eater”? I cannot really defend myself on that one he is spot on, but who does not love a good crayon right?
Reporter –Come on now, you do not actually eat crayons do you? Yes I did see that article is that where things started to turn sour for you guys?
Lenkins – yeah I guess you could highlight that as the turning point in our relationship, but I don’t have time for someone that cannot take a bit of a joke in my life, you need to have fun and live a little, you know!? We now refer to him as that rat.
Reporter – Before I dive into the horsemen I have to query about you and the rest of the turtles hobbies, obviously you have briefly touched on boulders but I am sure me and everyone else is curious what the rest of you get up to and of course your favourite pizza toppings.
Lenkins – Well where shall I begin… I guess you could actually say we are all like the turtles we quote ourselves after. I love skateboarding and have turned part of the sewer into a skate park, it’s great I’ve had Tony Hawk and many other big skaters down there. He is a hero of mine and it was his pro skater game on play station that made me fall in love with it. It’s through skateboarding that I learnt not to give up and that there are going to be a few bumps along the road.
Big Tony is all about the yoga and tai-chi, treats his body as a temple you know what I mean? Can take himself a bit too serious but helps keep us focussed on what is important. Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon, man he’s a character. He is right into his gaming streams on twitch religiously and is constantly studying film. You can tell he studies film like it is going out of fashion, he’s like our Tony Romo. We will just be sat watching the game and he’ll be calling out every play before it happens. I’ve already covered Boulder earlier in out chat, best way to describe him is a big frustrated meat head. He loves his martial arts and goes through at least one punch bag every second week it’s mad.
Reporter – Thanks for the indepth analysis on you guys it is great to find out more about you. I have to ask now, what is your guys favourite pizza?
Lenkins – Xmus Flaxon Jaxon-Waxon favourite pizza includes chicken, mushroom, green pepper, and tomatoes. Tony Yeboah’s favourite pizza includes onions, black olives, green pepper, and mushrooms. Big Buster Bawls favourite pizza includes pepperoni, Italian sausage, bacon, and beef. Finally saving the best for last, yours truly Jeeeeroy Lenkins favourite pizza has to have pepperoni, ham, pineapple, and jalapeño, lovely bit of zest from the pineapple and spice from the jalapeño, you cannot beat it Stephen!
Reporter – I’m not going to lie to you Jeeeroy your pizza sounds awful, I would not even feed that to a dog. Seeing as you mentioned it earlier I feel this is a suitable time for me to ask you about the other group of 4 from Scotland who refer to themselves as the “Four Horsemen”. What your thoughts are on them?
Lenkins – Haha the inevitable question has only gone and popped up, you guys are so predictable it’s like you all have the same book, “interviewing for dummies”. Where do I even begin? They are exceptional players there is no doubt about that. You have to laugh at them though, you have a group of grown ass men here comparing themselves to a faction from a show that has not been relevant for 15+ years. I cannot wait for me and my ducks to open up a can of whoop ass on them.
Reporter – It appears as if there is some bad blood between you guys, I have to ask you what quartet to you think will perform better across the season and your respective careers?
Lenkins – Do you honestly need to ask that? It is a no brainer we will out-perform them in every meaning of the word from our first games to our last. I guarantee you the turtles will pick up more rings in our career than the horsemen and that’s the bottom line because Jeeeeroy said so!
Reporter - Right Jeeeeroy I really appreciate your time and I have one final question for you. Do you have any bold predictions on how you will perform this season?
Lenkins – I will finish the season with double digit turnovers for my team, whether that is in interceptions or fumbles.
Reporter - Thanks for your time Jeeeeroy, I hope you have a great season and we will catch up soon.
Lenkins – Not a problem Stephen.
