About the weight he lost before the Senior Bowl, Colt said:
“I told a lot of people I was really not joking around when I got sick down there before the Senior Bowl. I was able to get some of my weight back right away and then I probably put on a solid 15 pounds in the last month. I’m at where I’m comfortable now but I know I can gain some more weight and get bigger.” (NFL)
Asked how he gained the weight, Colt said:
“They put you on a strong supplement and they put you on a specific diet. They send like three meals to your house and three snacks. And they give you supplements, my agent and trainer. Basically just a lot of food. If I knock out my supplements and my meals I can do whatever I want, so I made a couple runs to In ‘N Out. Basically ate as much as I could and I was able to work out every day and was just in a very specific environment and I was able to gain a lot of weight.” (NFL)
Asked how much weight he gained, Colt said:
“I got sick right before the Senior Bowl so I weighed in down there at 185 and today I was 207 so that’s 22 pounds. I got the stomach flu right before I got down there in Mobile, so I lost about five or six pounds just from not eating for four or five days.” (NFL)
About the criticism he has been getting, Colt said:
“All the criticism I’ve gotten in the last couple weeks or whatever, especially since the bowl game, it’s actually put me at ease. My whole life it seems like everyone said I wasn’t going to be able to do it. When I went to Mater Dei High School out of Irvine, Calif. they said I’d be too small, I didn’t start as a freshman, but by my senior year I started and we went to the CIF semis. Tried to get into a college, couldn’t find one, went to a prep school, walked on at Colorado, bounced back to a JC, walked on at Hawaii. I could never get a break. Everyone kept saying ‘Too small, not good enough’ and I had a great career at Hawaii. To hear the criticism now it almost gets me at ease like I’m going to have a great success in the next league. I’m just excited to get to a team and prove I can do it.” (NFL)
Asked if he’s worried about running slow due to his extra weight, Colt said:
“I kind of had this hip problem at the Senior Bowl and that’s something that helped me keep the weight on. I was rehabbing my hip and was only to get so much training and running. I’m not going to be running here at the combine. I will be running everything at the pro day a month from now, on April 1. That’s one thing that helped me keep the weight on, that I wasn’t training to run for the combine.” (NFL)
About the teams that ask him about the incident in Colorado, Colt said:
“Everything that transpired after that, bouncing back to Saddleback and being an honor student, on honor roll. I was on probation for three years, was sentenced for four and got off a year early for good behavior. It’s one thing to be a college kid to go on and have success, but for me to have success at Hawaii and to have those strict restrictions on probation and never mess up once and to get through that painlessly goes to show I’m ready to handle – it’s a good learning ground for what the NFL is like, and being an NFL quarterback, the responsibilities, and I think the last three years really proved I’m ready to handle the responsibilities of an NFL quarterback. That thing, that situation, is coming back as a positive right now for me.”
Asked what the Colorado incident taught him, Colt said:
“It basically taught me life is not fair. I’m the one who is at fault for putting myself in that situation, but there were a lot of things that transpired after I got in trouble that wasn’t right, that wasn’t fair. I had to go through a lot of tough times and it made me a lot tougher internally. It made me realize life is not fair, you have to make life what it is. I was able to go on and have some success and experience some great things because of the mental way I changed. I think it’s really helped me for the lifestyle you’re about to enter, going into the NFL.” (NFL)
Asked what wasn’t fair, if he was referring to Colorado letting him go, Colt said:
“No, no, not that. I was asked to leave the school and everything, but the way the media handled me. When I first got in trouble, when I first got found guilty, I lost scholarships because the media misreported everything that happened down there. I wasn’t given a very fair opportunity by the media. Then some other things I went through, the way the trial process went through. I passed polygraph tests, I had people testify, for everything I got found guilty of there was also strong evidence to find me not guilty of it, but I was still found guilty of things. Just the way things went and the whole way the process was, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t easy. But that’s life.” (NFL)
About maintaining his innocence, Colt said:
“I was accused of some crimes a jury found me not guilty of. For instance, the trespass and burglary charges that stuck – Trespass for entering a room unlawfully, yet three people testified they witnessed me invited into the room. Burglary charge for not leaving the room when asked to leave, yet I passed a polygraph test that I was never asked to leave the room. At the same time it’s not like what I did that night was innocent. I was drunk and I put myself in a bad situation. I’ve learned from that and I take
full responsibility from that.” (NFL)
Asked what he can gain out of the combine, Colt said:
“I think I can throw really well. I think that’s something I’m really excited to do on Sunday, to get out there and prove I have a good arm. I’ve really been working a lot from underneath the center and doing a lot from dropback, and doing what I didn’t do that much in college. I think if I can go out and throw really well, some of these negatives are going to bounce back as positives. Senior Bowl week I was elected as a captain and got to start, and I was around guys who had been playing in an underneath system their whole college career, and I jumped right into it and was having a great week of practice. If I can go out and have success on Sunday and throw the ball really well, then I think it’s going to show a lot of positives that ‘Look, already he’s showing he can progress through this type of offense and any system, really.’ ” (NFL)
Asked if he wants to go to a passing team, Colt said:
“I love throwing the ball. I’d love to go to a team that wants to throw the football. Really, I’m just excited for an opportunity to go anywhere, and looking for a coaching staff that’s really looking to me, to invest time in me and sees me as a guy that could be their potential starter sometime down the road. I’m not so much focused on the offense, just the opportunity and who thinks I can be their guy.” (NFL)
Asked about a team like New England, Colt said:
“It’s an opportunity. I want to go somewhere where I can be a quarterback and start soon and get going. I’m not getting any younger. At the same time, if I had the opportunity to go do that, I could obviously learn from a guy like Tom Brady and in a lot of ways that made me a lot better quarterback and I’d just have to wait for my opportunity to come. I’ve learned these past couple years that it’s all in God’s hands and you have to learn and take what you’re given. If that’s what I’m given I’m going to make the best of it. Hopefully my opportunity will come and I can prove myself at the next level.” (NFL)
Asked about his hip injury, Colt said:
“It was actually at the Senior Bowl. It wasn’t a big thing, but I had this strain in my hip and it caused my groin to kind of get sore. Basically being down there, they didn’t have treatment really for me so I pushed through it and the next week I was down during the quarterback challenge and Super Bowl events, so I went about two weeks without treatment and came back and had about two and a half weeks to get here, so I went through the rehab and got it going and it’s almost 100 percent. I did all the physicals today and the doctors said it looked great, looks fine but I don’t have the training really that most guys have had to run well at the combine. So I’m going to reserve my right to run at my pro day and make sure I’m 100 percent for the throwing.” (NFL)
Asked where his pro day is, Colt said:
“It’s actually at the Home Depot Center the day before SC. A lot of guys will show up for USC’s pro day so we kind of piggy back them and jump into their facilities.” (NFL)
Asked about the criticism of him being a system QB, Colt said:
“Obviously there’s going to be those criticisms. As I get involved in the interview process people get a better understanding. I think those types of criticisms come from the media and other people, but when I do the interview process coaches have a lot of respect for Coach Jones and the offense he ran and what we did there. They just want to make sure I can take what I learned there and transition it into a new offense, that I’m not one minded in the way I play the football game, which I’m not.” (NFL)
Asked who he is like in the NFL, Colt said:
“I’ve always thought I was pretty original, the way I played but I’ve always looked at a lot of guys and wanted to mimic their strengths. I love the way Tom Brady leads, watching Peyton Manning the last couple years I think it’s unbelievable how smart he is, the knowledge of the game he has but growing up as a kid the one guy I tried to mimic the most was Brett Favre, just the have fun go out there and play football type of mentality. I love that and that’s the way I play the game.” (NFL)
Asked if his arm strength was reduced because of his groin injury, Colt said:
“I know that a lot of people did question my arm strength, and it’s funny to me because I thought I had five great practices, I just didn’t have a great game. One thing I had to get used to is in shotgun I could just catch the ball, jump up around and step into every throw. Now there’s a rhythm to everything and
there’s a timing. You have to sit on your back foot. You have to do things a bit different and I wasn’t that comfortable with it yet. So that’s what I’ve been doing as much of these last four weeks. Hopefully when I get out there Sunday I can prove I really have gotten a lot better since the Senior Bowl. Hopefully I’ll show them my arm is just fine, strength wise.” (NFL)
Asked about questions about the Colorado incident, Colt said:
“People have been hitting me with that at the Senior Bowl. One thing I had before CU was I was known as a really good guy and having great character. The testimonials of people coming in, girls I had known for a long time came in and said ‘He’s a great guy.’ I think that after that Colorado situation and the success I had and the way things went down, the way Hawaii responded to me, I think my character stands for itself in my actions. That situation was what it was. I can’t change anything. I can only hope to change the way people look at me. My actions speak for themselves. Hopefully if I get an opportunity to play in the NFL, I’ll have just as much success character wise off the field that I had at Hawaii.” (NFL)
Asked if he wanted to forum to talk about the incident, Colt said:
“I’ve got no problem talking about it. This stuff seems a lot easier, because when I was coming out of Colorado and Saddleback I was really having to defend myself. Now it seems like people are more open minded to hear the story and maybe hear a little more about everything. The coaches and everybody has sat me down, I’ve gone through this many times, and it hasn’t been an issue, it hasn’t been a problem. I’ve gotten good responses from everyone.” (NFL)
Asked what he’ll do on draft day, Colt said:
“My sister lives in Colorado, I was thinking about maybe going up there and hanging out in Colorado. She lives in Snowmass, beautiful place. Maybe do some fishing and hang out and relax and wait for the phone call to come in, hopefully.” (NFL)
Asked what kind of fishing he’ll do, Colt said:
“Fly fishing. Trout.” (NFL)
Asked what would have happened if he had his full career in Colorado and if he would have been just as successful, Colt said:
“Maybe not. You can’t predict that. I think life is two things, what you’re given and what you do with it. I really think I’ve learned a lot from my lessons in Colorado and I’ve been able to do a lot and go out and accomplish a lot, but who knows. I really don’t know. It’s all speculation. I’m just glad I ended up where I did and I’m here today.” (NFL)
Asked why he is so open about the Colorado incident, Colt said:
“I’ve got nothing to hide. From day one I was never given a fair opportunity to defend myself and even though I have only myself to blame for putting myself in that situation there’s a lot of that’s still unsaid and a lot of misinterpretations of what happened out there and I’d like to clear everything and let everyone get a fair opportunity of looking at me and the type of person I am.” (NFL)
