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First-round Giants offensive guard Francis “Sisi” Mauigoa blocks out some time for some NFL kickoff Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.
Q: Your famous draft night quote, “I’ll die for Jaxson Dart.” What does that mean from a football standpoint?
A: It means I’ll do anything to protect him. Going out there and put your body on the line, so the quarterback can play freely. Because I know Jaxson’s a type of guy to run around sometimes, so making that extra play of going downfield and blocking for him, those are the type of moments that I live for.
Q: What have you learned about Jaxson?
A: He’s a very serious guy. But he’s very relaxed when you’re in the locker room, like he’s always coming around chilling with you, making fun, making jokes. But then when he’s on the field or in the meetings, he’s locked in.
Q: Give me an example.
A: Yeah like [Friday], something happened, and I guess the whole room was laughing, and he was in there and just be like, “Hey, it’s go time, we got stuff to go over. We don’t have time to laugh around or joke around for something stupid. We got to get focused in on the plays.”
Q: His quarterbacking style?
A: He’s awesome, man. Like I say he’s locked in. He’s got everything down, so anything that triggers his mind he’s going to write it down. Today in practice we had somebody miss a route, and he gets on their ass quick. He got the leadership skills as well.
Q: What’s the best feeling for an offensive lineman?
A: The best feeling would be dominating. When you dominate somebody, and you take that will, and you don’t want to play anymore, it’s the best feeling because now you know you’ve done your job.
Q: Can you see that in their eyes?
A: Oh yeah, yeah, for sure. You’ll see it in the playing style as well. … When you see guys that normally come off the ball, and now they’re just cruising off. I know this from college, but in NFL it might be different, but you can tell the difference between their technique that now you know, OK, this guy probably wants to go home now, and you just keep doing your job.
Q: So you have a killer instinct?
A: Yeah, Yeah.
Q: What’s your definition of a killer instinct?
A: Red.
Q: Red?
A: Just look at you, I don’t care if it’s Quinnen Williams and I don’t care if it’s the big All-Pros, A.D. [Aaron Donald] — I just see red. You know what? I looked at you as a young kid, I still have that respect, but at the end of the day, we’re here to play football.
Q: Describe the feeling of allowing a sack.
A: It’s the worst thing ever. You’re paid a lot of money to protect the quarterback, and allowing a sack would be one of the worst things that could happen, because you’ve got people trusting you to protect the quarterback, you got people that rely on you. It’ll trigger your mind, but at the same time, I like to keep it neutral. Not too high, not too low. Don’t think too negative, don’t think too positive. When you make a good play, on to the next. Make a bad play, you got another opportunity to don’t make that happen again. God forbid it happens, it’s on to the next. OK, now I know what happened, boom.
Q: What is your definition of mental toughness?
A: Mental toughness is when fourth quarter and you don’t feel like running down the field, you don’t feel like moving your feet, that’s when mental toughness comes into play. When you’re tired, you’re fatigued, what are you going to do at that point?
Q: Physical toughness?
A: When you’re in a long drive, and they sub out another player and they bring in a new fresh off the bench, and you’re out there and you got to be able to hold your ground and not be able to break into that part of the game where you like slack off your technique.
Q: What would you tell Giants fans about John Harbaugh?
A: Hard coach. Very old-school type of coach. He’s a fun guy to hang around with off the field, but when you’re in field, you kind of see some aura behind him where he’s like if practice is hard, the game will be easy. And on the wall, I see “Earn the Right,” and that kind of stuck with me, and that kind of reminds me of him. You got to earn the right to be here, you got to earn the right to be a Giant, you got to earn the right to be 1-0.
Q: Is Jaxson ready to take a second-year leap?
A: Of course. I’m very confident in the quarterback and I’m very confident in our system as well. Not only in the coaching staff, but we have a lot of playmakers in the team. There’s a lot of names.
Q: What do you like about the system?
A: It’s open. Coach Nags [Matt Nagy, offensive coordinator], Coach G-Ro [Greg Roman, senior offensive assistant], they’re very smart. They know how to operate the game. They know how to call a certain play on a certain look. They got a whole bunch of plays.
Q: Describe this offensive line.
A: We’re ready to dominate whatever comes in our way.
Q: Is this offensive line ready to play Bully Ball?
A: Yeah. That’s the whole mentality. We got to play Bully Ball, we got to be able to do everything.
Q: Whatever comes to mind: Jermaine Eluemunor.
A: Funny guy, but he’s very technical. He does things that kind of surprise me — he’s very athletic. Can move really well. That’s really surprised me for the size he is.
Q: Andrew Thomas.
A: A beast. He’s very respected by the whole offense, the whole team.
Q: Jon Runyan Jr.
A: Another technical guy. Feet, hands, everything goes in the right place.
Q: John Michael Schmitz.
A: Very smart.
Q: Can this be a top-10 offensive line?
A: That’s the goal. Top one.
Q: Is it realistic?
A: We believe in it. Yeah. I believe in it.
Q: Your thought on facing rookie Cowboys safety Caleb Downs?
A: He’s a good player. He’s a great player. About the talking behind it, I don’t really care about it. I’m excited to be a Giant. The mentality of going in there and dominating, that’s all I care about.
Q: If the Giants didn’t pick you at 10, they might have picked him. Were you aware of that?
A: I mean, if they didn’t pick me, it would be a wrong choice. … It is what it is.
Q: Arvell Reese
A: He’s a very smart cat that knows a lot about football. Physically, he’s very tough. He comes off the ball, he has them hands that will shoot straight through you and he’ll just stay low. He has a lot of balance. Heavy-handed guy, which I don’t get because he looks skinny. Well he looks big, but compared to offensive linemen, but he got heavy hands. He can run side to side, and he don’t get tired easily. He’s always out there.
Q: Abdul Carter.
A: He’s very hypergenic. He makes his own juice. He’s the type of player where you look on film and you’re like, “That’s something that I never seen before.”
Q: Brian Burns.
A: He’s just like A.T. [Andrew Thomas]. He earned his respect all over the place. You could see it in practice.
Q: Do you trash talk?
A: No.
Q: How do you feel when others trash talk you?
A: I don’t really care about it. When I’m on the field, the whole mentality will be red, and if you try to talk at me, good luck trying to get something out of me. The only time I’ll trash talk if it’s my brother [Francisco] playing on the other side.
Q: Offensive linemen you like to watch?
A: When I was in college [Miami, Fla.], I used to watch Penei Sewell [Lions], Lane Johnson [Eagles] for his anchor, the left tackle for the Minnesota Vikings [Christian Darrisaw], he gets down and he’s very athletic with how he plays, Taliese Fuaga [Saints]. But tight now for guard stuff, I like to watch Chris Lindstrom [Falcons], Quenton Nelson [Colts] when he pulls, and the Broncos’ right guard [Quinn Meinerz].
Q: You played in college with Cam Ward.
A: He’s going to be a baller no matter what.
Q: You caught a backwards pass from Carson Beck for a 3-yard TD.
A: The quarterback came in the huddle, called a different play, so we were all looking sad. Luckily the defense calls a timeout, we went up the sideline, told Coach [Shannon Dawson], “Hey Coach, call the play right now, we’re going to score.” And I guess Coach finally had the guts to call it.
Q: What drives you?
A: My “why” is my family. I grew up in American Samoa where the minimum wage was $5 an hour, so I [saw] my dad, my mom work countless hours just to provide for the family. Some nights we’ll just live off of like just bread and butter, that’ll be it. There’ll be days where we struggle to get food. Just seeing the hard work and the sacrifice that they make, it really moves me. As a kid, I barely see my dad at home. It’s like you start wondering why. And then when you’re older, you got all these responsibilities, now you understand like my dad wasn’t home because he was out there working the whole night, the whole day. I mean, he was working as a taxi driver at night, and during the day he will work at the gas station, and then later on, he’ll go and official volleyball. Stuff like that would just motivate me. They sacrificed a whole lot to put me where I’m at, so I don’t want to let that go to waste.
Q: You were referring to your brother when you said, “We grew up as warriors.”
A: Our high school mascot’s a warrior. But the way that I say that is we grew up earning whatever we got. We didn’t have anything like handed off to us. My parents had to make the sacrifice to send me and my brother out to California when I was a freshman, and it was just us going out there. We didn’t have family around, so we went in as exchange students and we lived with a host family and everything. I didn’t even know how to speak english at that time, we just had to find a way to communicate and to be able to mingle in with the society.
Q: You played volleyball?
A: Volleyball was our first sport. Both of my parents met on a volleyball court. They look into the future a lot, so volleyball ain’t going to get us nowhere.
Q: Bryant McKinnie.
A: When I was at Miami, he’s one of them guys that I look up to. I used to watch a lot of his film. He was one of them people that I reached out tp.
Q: Personal goals?
A: Being neutral, and dominating.
Q: Four dinner guests?
A: Jesus Christ, The Rock [Dwayne Johnson], Kevin Hart, Ryan Reynolds.
Q: Favorite movie?
A: “The Blind Side.”
Q: Favorite actor?
A: Ryan Reynolds.
Q: Favorite comedian?
A: Jay Gillis.
Q: Favorite meal?
A: My mom’s famous sweet chili chicken.
Q: What will be your emotions before kickoff Sunday night standing in the tunnel?
A: It’s going to be surreal. Gonna be the first NFL game of my life. Most people remember this game, the first-ever game. It’s a statement game. There’s a reason why they brought me in, and there’s a reason why they trusted me to be on there. So it’s a statement game.
Q: Describe Giants fans.
A: They can love you up, and they can hate you when you’re not doing good.
Q: You’re OK with that?
A: It motivates me. … I grew up with the saying that you not only carry yourself but you carry out your family, you carry out your village, you carry out your people, and for me I have my people behind my back because I have my last name on my back. So, I’ve always wanted the best for my people.
