GCD960 said:
can you copy and paste the saban parts? that page isnt comin up on my phone
here you go buddy -
Silver: Last year you finally got another shot to start, and you did some good things -- the winning streak at the end, helping turn Chris Chambers into a Pro Bowl receiver. But Nick Saban decided to trade for Daunte Culpepper, who you'd backed up in Minnesota, as his starter. Were you bummed out by that decision?
Frerotte: It was pretty hard to deal with at first. When a coach is telling you, "You're too old; we're gonna bring in somebody else," that's tough to take. But it wasn't like I'd been there for a long time, so in the end it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. Plus my friend and coordinator [Linehan] had just left to become the head coach in St. Louis, and I was able to go with him, so I can't complain.
Silver: Saban wanted you to stick around and be Daunte's backup. Did you consider doing that?
Frerotte: Uh, no. I had already done that once. And my pride was hurt. We were 9-7 with me as the starter; I thought we had a good thing going.
Silver: What did you think of Saban as a head coach?
Frerotte: Sometimes you really didn't understand where he was coming from. He was always kind of doing all the talking, about everything, but he wasn't always listening. I think he wanted to get involved in the offense, but if you don't really know the offense -- and it was Scott's offense -- that's not necessarily a good idea.
Silver: You'd been with Scott in Minnesota, and that was a big reason you signed with Miami. Tell me about your relationship with him.
Frerotte: Well, he sticks up for his players. I found out later that coach Saban wanted to bench me for that last game of the season, because I had a bunch of incentives on the line, and it could have saved the organization money. But Scott told him, "He's the guy who's gotten us this far. There's no way we can bench him now."
Silver: When you found out that you'd almost been benched, were you shocked?
Frerotte: Not really. I knew it was a possibility because it happened to me in Denver in the last game of the 2000 season. Mike Shanahan took me out late in the game against the 49ers and played Jarious Jackson, and I missed a $500,000 playing time (percentage) incentive by one play.
Silver: Please tell me that didn't actually happen.
Frerotte: It did. It sucked. Five-hundred-thousand dollars is a big deal. We appealed it to the league, because he had taken me out for no reason. But when I asked Mike to get involved [with the appeal], he said it was out of his hands. And I lost. So I never got the money.
