Former NFL wide receiver Mohamed Sanu hung up his cleats after a well-traveled last few years of his career, bouncing from team to team. Still, one question will always haunt him: the collapse in Super Bowl 51, when the Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 against the New England Patriots and lost the lead, costing them their second opportunity to win their first championship. So, of course, I had to ask the questions as well. Sanu joined the Hoodie Chroniclez podcast and was asked a question aimed at examining what went wrong, what exactly the momentum was that played a role, and whether momentum is a physical force, a gravitational pull, or how it exists. One thing is for sure: momentum is a force. Sanu would say, "Just the ability and the way they came out in that second half, they came out with ultimate resilience, I mean, we came out and try to continue and close it, but the way they prepare, and being a part of that team a couple years later, you saw why they were able to battle and play all sixty minutes." When asked to define momentum, Sanu would also say, "It's its own thing; there's no simple way to describe it. Once you feel it, you know that it's there." Sanu would also be asked about playing with some of the best QBs the NFL has ever had, including Tom Brady, Matt Ryan, and Matthew Stafford, and how they gained command of the locker room. He would say, "I think they all had a different way of earning the locker room's trust, and I didn't get to spend a long time with Tom [Brady], but Tom did a tremendous job of doing that. His communication was player-to-player and coach-to-player. He just knew how to engage with each and every one of those guys." During Sanu's playing career across eleven seasons, he played in 136 games, had 435 receptions for 4,871 yards and 27 touchdowns. Today, he works closely with today's youth by hosting charity golf events back in his native country, where his mother is building a community center serving underprivileged youth and underserved communities. The full interview can be found below.
This article originally appeared on Touchdown Wire: Mohamed Sanu Opens Up on the Falcons' 28-3 Super Bowl Collapse