Ladies and Gentlemen I know you cannot get enough of our exlcusive interviews with Berlin Fire Salamanders cornerback Jeeeeroy Lenkins. Due to high demand and following on from the recently released and much loved interview Jeeeeroy Lenkins we are releasing part 2 of his interview with Stephen A Smith, today. We will be discussing the former Minnesota Grey Ducks final few moments with the franchise and reviewing his debut season with the Berlin Fire Salamanders, as well as Jeeeeroy Lenkins activity out with the International Simulation Football League and sporting heroes. We will pick this off from Stephen A Smith’s last question to Jeeeeroy Lenkins and play the rest of the tape.
Stephen A Smith – I can tell you’re fired up here! Talk me through what emotions you were feeling when you caught that first interception and ran the ball back 82 yards for your first career touchdown? It was a memorable moment and it must have felt pretty special! Bearing in mind if you lost this game it was probably the end of your playoff aspirations and would ultimately have been marked down as one of the biggest disappointment in Grey Duck history.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I tell you what Stephen there are not many better feelings than that to be honest. Even if you take away the magnitude of the occasion and the way the events unfolded, it is still a great feeling. We fully deserved the win and I am just happy I played my part in doing it as I was not always at the races earlier in the season. This game will definitely go down as my fondest moment in the DSFL.
Stephen A Smith – Yeah it was definitely a big game for you dawg and 100% one of the most impressive cornerback displays I have seen in the DSFL in recent memory. Now you played the London Royals for the fourth time in your career in the penultimate game of the season with a playoff spot on the line between the Minnesota Grey Ducks, the Portland Pythons and the Kansas City Coyotes. How big an impact did the loss to the London Royals have on the morale within the team?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Thanks Stephen, the loss did not have the biggest impact on us to be honest. We were aware that the Kansas City Coyotes had only been held to one score against the Tijuana Luchadores and we held the head to head over the Portland Pythons. Everything was still well within our control and we knew if we beat the Coyotes at home we would make the playoffs. We beat them at home the season before with in my opinion and this is no disrespect to my former team-mates that were called up to the ISFL, but we were a much poorer team that season and still managed to get the dub. There was not a single Grey Duck on that roster that did not think we were going to beat the Coyotes.
Stephen A Smith – I have to say I love the confidence you and the rest of your team had heading into that game. Was there ever a chance that you guys suffered from over confidence? How would you have reacted had you not managed to get the win against Kansas City?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I guess looking from the outside you would maybe worry about over confidence but within the organisation and the locker room we just knew that was never going to happen. Sometimes you just have a feeling this is our moment and we will not let this slip through our grasps. I will be honest with you Stephen there was never a moment that whole week I thought to myself “what happens if we lose here?”, it never crossed our minds. We were a force last season and ultimately we let ourselves down.
Stephen A Smith – That brings me perfectly to my next point. You beat Kansas City nabbing yourself another interception, 2 passes defended and a sole tackle. Not one of your most dominant displays by any stretch of the imagination but still pretty solid nonetheless. Your man Damian Blackfyre put in another fine display, possibly his best performance in a Grey Ducks jersey. He tallied up 10 tackles, an interception and blocked a punt on special teams. It truly was a mesmerising performance and highlighted to everyone just what a player he is and an asset he was to the Grey Ducks defence. After this game you famously christened him Damian “Napalm” Blackfyre, what was it like playing with him and where did you come up with that nickname?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Ha ha ha, my man Napalm hates the nickname! The nickname came about because he was trying to make a twitter handle and wanted a dope nickname, similar to Megatron (Calvin Johnson – Wide Receiver formerly of the Detroit Lions) or Mapletron (Chase Claypool – Wide Receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers). After he put in a lights out performance like that, it made perfect sense for me to call him Napalm. My man got an interception, deflected a pass, stacked up ten tackles and the mother f*cker made a play on special teams! He was everywhere covering all areas of the field much like a napalm bomb would Stephen!
Stephen A Smith – Ha ha I love it! Napalm if you are watching this (I know you are), come on the show and we can go over some alternative nicknames for yourself and talk about our Steelers.
Commercial Break – Are you tired of your kidding eating all their crayons? Are they not eating their 5 a day? Look no further as Crayola have developed new vegetables crayons that come in different flavours and sizes. We promise to turn your fat little satan spawn in to the next Jeeeeroy Lenkins, get them in your nearest supermarket, convenience store or chemist. This ad was brought to you by Crayola, proud sponsors of Berlin Fire Salamanders Cornerback Jeeeeroy Lenkins. “I use to be like you kids, then I started eating crayons and now I am a professional athlete”.
Stephen A Smith – Thanks for joining us folks, before we proceed any further I need to highlight those adverts man, I love them. Is there a reason you’re dressed as a teenage mutant ninja turtle?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah I joined the draft with four other Scotsmen and we were referred to as the 4 Turtles, I think it is something to do with my eyes. But you have Tony Yeboah (Leonardo) – who is a certainty to be a team captain one day and probably a General Manager, everybody loves him. You have Xmus Flaxon Jaxon – Waxon (Donatello) – the guys a genius, can learn a playbook overnight and is always studying looking for ways to improve. If you ever get the chance to listen to him mic’d up he calls out plays before they are being run the majority of the time. That leads me on to big Buster “Boulder” Bawls, it is pretty evident he is Raphael. The guys a heedcase, proper loose cannon! Yeah I cannot say much more about him, if you can keep him on the straight and narrow you have got a real asset on your hands. The issue is he is a bit of a prick and is looking to fight with anyone and anything. Back in our high school days he went fighting with a goal post and took it down singlehandedly. Our coach saw it was impressed and said he was going to move Buster to Nose Tackle. As those words left our coaches mouth, Buster yelled “I will show you a f*cking Nose Tackle” and broke our coaches nose with a right hook! Safe to say nobody asked Buster to switch position again.
Stephen A Smith – Big boy Buster has got himself some issues.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah he is mental! Obviously that leaves Michelangelo which is me, it is not as exciting or as impressive as the others but that came about basically because I am the most charismatic and entertaining, there is never a dull moment when I am round! I also scored the lowest in the wonderlic test…
Stephen A Smith – Now that you mention it about joining the league as a group of 4, was there not another of group of Scotsmen that entered the DSFL draft and were in the same draft class as you?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah there was, think they called themselves the 4 horsemen or something corny like that after Ric Flair, I have no clue they were supposed to be our biggest threat but I think they lost half their clique. Not everyone is cut out for this gig, ultimately we were just made of sterner stuff.
Stephen A Smith – Ha ha be careful now Jeeeeroy, I can just imagine Raylan Crowder (San Jose Sabercats – Defensive End) charging through the door with his Money in the Bank briefcase.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Could you imagine that? I have seen the way he moves though he would rather cash that in for a bargain bucket from the colonel, he is a big heefter who flatters to deceive.
Stephen A Smith – Right Jeeeeroy we have digressed a little bit here. You went into your first and final playoff game (spoiler alert) with the Minnesota Grey Ducks, it was a road game against the London Royals. A team you have gone public about multiple times as the team you hate the most across the whole simulation league. Do you regret going public about your hate and do you think your words fuelled them to play harder against you and the rest of the Grey Ducks?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I have very little regrets in my life Stephen and I have to say, saying F*CK The Royals on multiple occasions is not one of them. Whether that is the Royal Family (except Harry), or the football team. I cannot stand them or anything they stand for, monarchy belongs in the stone ages and a football team that honours that to do.
Stephen A Smith – It is like speaking to a brick wall with you when it comes to the London Royals football team and their nickname, there is no connection between them and the Royal family.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – So you keep saying Stephen and I could not care less!
Stephen A Smith – So you travelled to London for your playoff game against the Royals and you guys excuse me for saying did not put up a good performance and ultimately lost by 3 scores (33 – 13). Your passing game could not get going with your quarterback Ryan “Turnover” Negs, throwing a pick, losing a fumble and only managing 69 passing yards. How big an impact do you think his subpar performance had on the outcome?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Look Stephen, Turnover will be the first to admit he did not have the greatest of performances. But he was popping his playoff cherry, he is a young qb who has learnt from the experience. He is a bit of a clown himself and 69 is his favourite number so despite what the stats say he will probably be amused by his passing yards. Going back to your question though, I do not think his sole performance was the main factor behind us losing, could he have played better? Absolutely but it is what it is. We as a defence also hold ourselves accountable as we allowed 33 points, regardless of how poor the offence is playing we hold ourselves to higher standard than that and it is definitely not acceptable!
Stephen A Smith – Okay, okay, I hear you. Let us take a step away from your defence and offence for a second then and talk about special teams. You were the team’s leading return man for the majority of the season and you put up a relatively impressive performance you had 235 return yards which must be some sort of record in 1 game albeit it was from 7 kick offs! But you also had 35 yards returning from five punts. You returned your first kick for a game high 90 yards and were incredibly close to taking it to the house before being brought down at the London 9. How disappointed were you to come so close yet be denied your first career return touchdown?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I mean it is disappointing to get so close to scoring as it would have been a great game to break the duck, but I was not too upset as big Mike Rotchburns managed to capitalise on the field position and levelled the game up for us at 7 apiece. So thanks to him and the offensive line we managed to tie the game at 7 all. It was only after that the wheels came off and we let London get away from us and we could not capitalise.
Stephen A Smith – Yeah it was a pretty big implosion from you guys after you took the lead early in the 2nd quarter thanks to Maximus right foot, he had a fair game for you guys making both his field goals and converting his extra point attempt. He punted for a total of 397 yards on the back of 8 punts which is not ideal having your punter that busy but I am guessing you do not want to go back over what you have already discussed with me.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – You are right Stephen I do not really want to go back over it again. We just simply were not good enough. In a game of this magnitude you just simply cannot allow your opponent’s to score 20 unanswered points. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than that.
Stephen A Smith – Right we will move on from that then and focus on the ISFL draft. There were murmurs that you were unhappy about how an interview went with one of the teams having previously had positive conversations with a different member of the organisation. I believe it was the Chicago Butchers and if I know you like I think you do I imagine it has left a rather bitter taste in your mouth. Can you discuss this with us at all?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah I will not shy away with it I had great conversations with Tyron Shields about the prospect of joining the Chicago Butchers, I learnt a lot of my play from him and he helped build me in to the player I am today. You couple that with the fact that they also drafted a couple of my homies (Damian Blackfyre and Wasrabi Gleel) it would have been an ideal landing spot for me. I will not go in to too much detail about the issue I have or name that person, but apparently said person in the war room of the Butchers was not a fan of my scouting report and expressed doubts over my commitment and willingness to support the team by playing in different positions if required. That is all I will say on the matter in regards to said individual. I would also like to add I am grateful to be a Berlin Fire Salamander and I am glad that they drafted me.
Stephen A Smith – Sounds like this may have had a lasting impact on you. Now let us talk hypothetically for a minute here, let us say your contract has come to an end and you are now a free agent. The Chicago Butchers are approaching you and are offering a better deal than any other team, do you take it? What is your thought process here?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I will be honest with you Stephen, I am not sure. I would never trade Berlin directly for Chicago. If Berlin and I cannot come to an agreement, Chicago and another team are interested in me…. I would lean towards the other team, even if the contract from Chicago was offering me more money. My reasoning behind this is if you do not believe in me when I first break in to the league then why should I give you the time of day? You knew what I could do and I have shown you now that I can do it, why would I want to help you out when you showed no faith previously? I am not like that.
Stephen A Smith – I have to say I admire how honest and open you are when expressing affection and dissatisfaction on both teams and fellow pros, it might land you in some hot water but I admire you for it.
Part 3 coming soon….
This interview was brought to you by Crayola, proud sponsor of Jeeeeroy Lenkins
Stephen A Smith – I can tell you’re fired up here! Talk me through what emotions you were feeling when you caught that first interception and ran the ball back 82 yards for your first career touchdown? It was a memorable moment and it must have felt pretty special! Bearing in mind if you lost this game it was probably the end of your playoff aspirations and would ultimately have been marked down as one of the biggest disappointment in Grey Duck history.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I tell you what Stephen there are not many better feelings than that to be honest. Even if you take away the magnitude of the occasion and the way the events unfolded, it is still a great feeling. We fully deserved the win and I am just happy I played my part in doing it as I was not always at the races earlier in the season. This game will definitely go down as my fondest moment in the DSFL.
Stephen A Smith – Yeah it was definitely a big game for you dawg and 100% one of the most impressive cornerback displays I have seen in the DSFL in recent memory. Now you played the London Royals for the fourth time in your career in the penultimate game of the season with a playoff spot on the line between the Minnesota Grey Ducks, the Portland Pythons and the Kansas City Coyotes. How big an impact did the loss to the London Royals have on the morale within the team?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Thanks Stephen, the loss did not have the biggest impact on us to be honest. We were aware that the Kansas City Coyotes had only been held to one score against the Tijuana Luchadores and we held the head to head over the Portland Pythons. Everything was still well within our control and we knew if we beat the Coyotes at home we would make the playoffs. We beat them at home the season before with in my opinion and this is no disrespect to my former team-mates that were called up to the ISFL, but we were a much poorer team that season and still managed to get the dub. There was not a single Grey Duck on that roster that did not think we were going to beat the Coyotes.
Stephen A Smith – I have to say I love the confidence you and the rest of your team had heading into that game. Was there ever a chance that you guys suffered from over confidence? How would you have reacted had you not managed to get the win against Kansas City?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I guess looking from the outside you would maybe worry about over confidence but within the organisation and the locker room we just knew that was never going to happen. Sometimes you just have a feeling this is our moment and we will not let this slip through our grasps. I will be honest with you Stephen there was never a moment that whole week I thought to myself “what happens if we lose here?”, it never crossed our minds. We were a force last season and ultimately we let ourselves down.
Stephen A Smith – That brings me perfectly to my next point. You beat Kansas City nabbing yourself another interception, 2 passes defended and a sole tackle. Not one of your most dominant displays by any stretch of the imagination but still pretty solid nonetheless. Your man Damian Blackfyre put in another fine display, possibly his best performance in a Grey Ducks jersey. He tallied up 10 tackles, an interception and blocked a punt on special teams. It truly was a mesmerising performance and highlighted to everyone just what a player he is and an asset he was to the Grey Ducks defence. After this game you famously christened him Damian “Napalm” Blackfyre, what was it like playing with him and where did you come up with that nickname?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Ha ha ha, my man Napalm hates the nickname! The nickname came about because he was trying to make a twitter handle and wanted a dope nickname, similar to Megatron (Calvin Johnson – Wide Receiver formerly of the Detroit Lions) or Mapletron (Chase Claypool – Wide Receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers). After he put in a lights out performance like that, it made perfect sense for me to call him Napalm. My man got an interception, deflected a pass, stacked up ten tackles and the mother f*cker made a play on special teams! He was everywhere covering all areas of the field much like a napalm bomb would Stephen!
Stephen A Smith – Ha ha I love it! Napalm if you are watching this (I know you are), come on the show and we can go over some alternative nicknames for yourself and talk about our Steelers.
Commercial Break – Are you tired of your kidding eating all their crayons? Are they not eating their 5 a day? Look no further as Crayola have developed new vegetables crayons that come in different flavours and sizes. We promise to turn your fat little satan spawn in to the next Jeeeeroy Lenkins, get them in your nearest supermarket, convenience store or chemist. This ad was brought to you by Crayola, proud sponsors of Berlin Fire Salamanders Cornerback Jeeeeroy Lenkins. “I use to be like you kids, then I started eating crayons and now I am a professional athlete”.
Stephen A Smith – Thanks for joining us folks, before we proceed any further I need to highlight those adverts man, I love them. Is there a reason you’re dressed as a teenage mutant ninja turtle?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah I joined the draft with four other Scotsmen and we were referred to as the 4 Turtles, I think it is something to do with my eyes. But you have Tony Yeboah (Leonardo) – who is a certainty to be a team captain one day and probably a General Manager, everybody loves him. You have Xmus Flaxon Jaxon – Waxon (Donatello) – the guys a genius, can learn a playbook overnight and is always studying looking for ways to improve. If you ever get the chance to listen to him mic’d up he calls out plays before they are being run the majority of the time. That leads me on to big Buster “Boulder” Bawls, it is pretty evident he is Raphael. The guys a heedcase, proper loose cannon! Yeah I cannot say much more about him, if you can keep him on the straight and narrow you have got a real asset on your hands. The issue is he is a bit of a prick and is looking to fight with anyone and anything. Back in our high school days he went fighting with a goal post and took it down singlehandedly. Our coach saw it was impressed and said he was going to move Buster to Nose Tackle. As those words left our coaches mouth, Buster yelled “I will show you a f*cking Nose Tackle” and broke our coaches nose with a right hook! Safe to say nobody asked Buster to switch position again.
Stephen A Smith – Big boy Buster has got himself some issues.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah he is mental! Obviously that leaves Michelangelo which is me, it is not as exciting or as impressive as the others but that came about basically because I am the most charismatic and entertaining, there is never a dull moment when I am round! I also scored the lowest in the wonderlic test…
Stephen A Smith – Now that you mention it about joining the league as a group of 4, was there not another of group of Scotsmen that entered the DSFL draft and were in the same draft class as you?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah there was, think they called themselves the 4 horsemen or something corny like that after Ric Flair, I have no clue they were supposed to be our biggest threat but I think they lost half their clique. Not everyone is cut out for this gig, ultimately we were just made of sterner stuff.
Stephen A Smith – Ha ha be careful now Jeeeeroy, I can just imagine Raylan Crowder (San Jose Sabercats – Defensive End) charging through the door with his Money in the Bank briefcase.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Could you imagine that? I have seen the way he moves though he would rather cash that in for a bargain bucket from the colonel, he is a big heefter who flatters to deceive.
Stephen A Smith – Right Jeeeeroy we have digressed a little bit here. You went into your first and final playoff game (spoiler alert) with the Minnesota Grey Ducks, it was a road game against the London Royals. A team you have gone public about multiple times as the team you hate the most across the whole simulation league. Do you regret going public about your hate and do you think your words fuelled them to play harder against you and the rest of the Grey Ducks?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I have very little regrets in my life Stephen and I have to say, saying F*CK The Royals on multiple occasions is not one of them. Whether that is the Royal Family (except Harry), or the football team. I cannot stand them or anything they stand for, monarchy belongs in the stone ages and a football team that honours that to do.
Stephen A Smith – It is like speaking to a brick wall with you when it comes to the London Royals football team and their nickname, there is no connection between them and the Royal family.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – So you keep saying Stephen and I could not care less!
Stephen A Smith – So you travelled to London for your playoff game against the Royals and you guys excuse me for saying did not put up a good performance and ultimately lost by 3 scores (33 – 13). Your passing game could not get going with your quarterback Ryan “Turnover” Negs, throwing a pick, losing a fumble and only managing 69 passing yards. How big an impact do you think his subpar performance had on the outcome?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Look Stephen, Turnover will be the first to admit he did not have the greatest of performances. But he was popping his playoff cherry, he is a young qb who has learnt from the experience. He is a bit of a clown himself and 69 is his favourite number so despite what the stats say he will probably be amused by his passing yards. Going back to your question though, I do not think his sole performance was the main factor behind us losing, could he have played better? Absolutely but it is what it is. We as a defence also hold ourselves accountable as we allowed 33 points, regardless of how poor the offence is playing we hold ourselves to higher standard than that and it is definitely not acceptable!
Stephen A Smith – Okay, okay, I hear you. Let us take a step away from your defence and offence for a second then and talk about special teams. You were the team’s leading return man for the majority of the season and you put up a relatively impressive performance you had 235 return yards which must be some sort of record in 1 game albeit it was from 7 kick offs! But you also had 35 yards returning from five punts. You returned your first kick for a game high 90 yards and were incredibly close to taking it to the house before being brought down at the London 9. How disappointed were you to come so close yet be denied your first career return touchdown?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I mean it is disappointing to get so close to scoring as it would have been a great game to break the duck, but I was not too upset as big Mike Rotchburns managed to capitalise on the field position and levelled the game up for us at 7 apiece. So thanks to him and the offensive line we managed to tie the game at 7 all. It was only after that the wheels came off and we let London get away from us and we could not capitalise.
Stephen A Smith – Yeah it was a pretty big implosion from you guys after you took the lead early in the 2nd quarter thanks to Maximus right foot, he had a fair game for you guys making both his field goals and converting his extra point attempt. He punted for a total of 397 yards on the back of 8 punts which is not ideal having your punter that busy but I am guessing you do not want to go back over what you have already discussed with me.
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – You are right Stephen I do not really want to go back over it again. We just simply were not good enough. In a game of this magnitude you just simply cannot allow your opponent’s to score 20 unanswered points. We hold ourselves to a higher standard than that.
Stephen A Smith – Right we will move on from that then and focus on the ISFL draft. There were murmurs that you were unhappy about how an interview went with one of the teams having previously had positive conversations with a different member of the organisation. I believe it was the Chicago Butchers and if I know you like I think you do I imagine it has left a rather bitter taste in your mouth. Can you discuss this with us at all?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – Yeah I will not shy away with it I had great conversations with Tyron Shields about the prospect of joining the Chicago Butchers, I learnt a lot of my play from him and he helped build me in to the player I am today. You couple that with the fact that they also drafted a couple of my homies (Damian Blackfyre and Wasrabi Gleel) it would have been an ideal landing spot for me. I will not go in to too much detail about the issue I have or name that person, but apparently said person in the war room of the Butchers was not a fan of my scouting report and expressed doubts over my commitment and willingness to support the team by playing in different positions if required. That is all I will say on the matter in regards to said individual. I would also like to add I am grateful to be a Berlin Fire Salamander and I am glad that they drafted me.
Stephen A Smith – Sounds like this may have had a lasting impact on you. Now let us talk hypothetically for a minute here, let us say your contract has come to an end and you are now a free agent. The Chicago Butchers are approaching you and are offering a better deal than any other team, do you take it? What is your thought process here?
Jeeeeroy Lenkins – I will be honest with you Stephen, I am not sure. I would never trade Berlin directly for Chicago. If Berlin and I cannot come to an agreement, Chicago and another team are interested in me…. I would lean towards the other team, even if the contract from Chicago was offering me more money. My reasoning behind this is if you do not believe in me when I first break in to the league then why should I give you the time of day? You knew what I could do and I have shown you now that I can do it, why would I want to help you out when you showed no faith previously? I am not like that.
Stephen A Smith – I have to say I admire how honest and open you are when expressing affection and dissatisfaction on both teams and fellow pros, it might land you in some hot water but I admire you for it.
Part 3 coming soon….
This interview was brought to you by Crayola, proud sponsor of Jeeeeroy Lenkins