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Arizona Cardinals wide receiver (and hopefully not former wide receiver) Steve Breaston set the NFL world ablaze with his YouTube sensation video poem "A league deferred." With all the attention, he was invited as a guest on the ESPN morning show First Take, where his interview was aired Monday morning. As expected, he discussed his poem and the NFL lockout. He was also the obligatory questions about the quarterback situation here and also, since the media loves this possible story, about the possibility of Donovan McNabb playing for the Arizona Cardinals.
What made you write the poem, "A league deferred"?
Just with the situation going on. It got kind of frustrating and I just had to get some emotions out. You know, listening to my family and friends and it's a sport that we all love. When you take the business out of it, everyone's a fan of the sport; everyone wants football.
What do you hope people are going to get out of the poem?
It's bigger than what's going on in the court. You see a lot of the media worried about what's going on in the court, and the decisions in the court. I understand that it's a business, but the fans -- they enjoy the game. You got kids who look up to guys in the game. No matter who you are, you enjoy the NFL and, even as players, we enjoy it too. We enjoy being on that field. At one point, we were going up and this is what we wanted to do. It's for everybody. The fans, they enjoy the game, they enjoy this product and it's kind of hurting it right now with the situation we're going through.
We don't come across a lot of NFL players that are poets. What type of feedback are you getting from your teammates or other NFL colleagues about the poem?
I get a lot of positive feedback. It is something different, but that's just me. I enjoy writing poetry. I've been doing it since seventh grade, you know, spoken word and things like that. I actually did a little spoken word a few weeks ago in New York. It's something I enjoy doing. It helps me express my feelings. It's a stress reliever.
On the QB situation in 2010 and where it stands now:
I mean, it's difficult to say. When you look at what happened last year, with Matt (Leinart) not being there at the beginning of the season, it put a lot of people, all the other quarterbacks- that's their first year in the system. So, it was difficult with that and then you have injuries like with myself and other receivers on the team. It just put a lot of pressue on the quarterbacks, being that it was their first year. Right now, I think now (that) they got a year under their belt, if the season starts up, I think we'll do well at that position.
On Donovan McNabb perhaps being the 2011 starting quarterback for the Cardinals:
He's a winner. He goes out that and plays hard. He;s a veteran. He can throw the ball well. If he does end up out here, he's welcome. He's proven time in and time out that he's a really good QB.
Here is the ESPN link to the video of the interview.