New Orleans Saints Wide Receiver Emmanuel Sanders
Conference Call with New Orleans Media
Thursday, November 26, 2020

Obviously, you are usually in the middle of football season when Thanksgiving rolls around, but what's your favorite Thanksgiving dish?
"I like dressing because you don't really get that all the time. I feel like my wife cooks ham, we eat turkey right at the facility, rarely ever dressing in like pumpkin pie. I'm really excited about everything. Obviously, I'm not the biggest dude in the world. So like food isn't something that just like I love, right, but on Thanksgiving, I go back and I tear down a little bit more. But I like Thanksgiving just because it's the day to really just sit back and reflect and just be grateful for everything that you have. Because I feel like some days like we wake up, and just forget about being grateful about certain things. And so I know it's about the food. But for me, like it's always a reflection of just being grateful and reminding everybody just be grateful to be living and be grateful to be in a situation that you're in and that you've got air in your lungs, if you're not in a good situation to be able to overcome that. So that's why I really like this day."

What are you reflecting on this year?
"Oh, I've got two beautiful kids that are healthy. Obviously, I could sit back and talk about smartness and everything. But for me, it is all about health. As long as my kids are healthy and my family is healthy, I feel like everything else would take care of itself. So I'm blessed to say that this year, my family's healthy, everybody's in good spirits, everybody has so much love in the air and so I'm just thankful for that. It's 2020, there's so much negativity going around. But through it all, there's always some positives that you could look at. I'm just thankful to have my family and that goes all the way to my sisters and everybody. Everybody's in good spirits these days."

Mike (Thomas) mentioned after the game that Taysom (Hill) throws with a little bit more heat on his passes. And I'm just curious, is there an adjustment to that at all, like when you play with a different quarterback that has a little bit more velocity versus another one?
"Taysom definitely has more zip. Today even at practice we were doing this scramble on a play. He comes and he zips and it's like high and I mean, like literally. I tried to put my hands up to time it up and it just flew over my head. And the majority of the time, like I would be upset that obviously I didn't catch it, or whatever. But I was just like, dude, that had way too much heat on it for me to be moving across the field full speed, right? And there's and he is throwing it that hard. But it is a great thing. I don't want to speak as if it is a bad thing. It is actually a great thing. You get the ball in your hands faster, you are able to make more plays in my opinion. But as far as velocity, yeah he has great velocity. But I'm just happy to Taysom in general and just the way he played last week and I'm looking forward to him capitalizing on that again this week."

You've played with Super Bowl winning teams, you've played with good playoff teams, and you played with some teams that had really good defensive lines. Could you just say what you see from this defensive line from the Saints when you see these guys working?
"Yeah, that 2015 team we had Von Miller, Derek Wolfe, we had so many great players. And we were getting after the quarterback. I remember I was talking to Dennis Allen and I told him I said, 'Look, defense wins championships and if we can get this defense rolling how it is supposed to be rolling it is going to be dangerous.' And I said that to him, like four weeks ago, and the defense has just taken off. It is just amazing to see. Going into games and knowing that you have got one of the top defenses in the NFL with obviously Taysom at quarterback right now, but Drew is going to be coming back. We have got Mike times and Alvin Kamara, we've got so many weapons with a defense behind us. So it has potential to be dangerous, but at the same time, it's not going to take care of itself. We've got to go out and get it and it feels good to know that this team is deep enough, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be hoisting that Lombardi Trophy at the end of the season. But again, it's just not going to be given to us to us. We've got to go take it."

You got your revenge, air quotes, on the 49ers a couple of weeks ago, and now get to play at Denver, how special will that be for you? I know there won't be able to be all of your family and everything to be there, but what's it going to be like for you to go back and play in a place that you played for six seasons?
"I think my emotions were kind of down on it. Because I love everybody in that organization, especially the people who were there during the Super Bowl times and the good times. I just think of John Elway, just a guy who gave me an opportunity and believed in me. Coming out of Pittsburgh, really nobody even knew about me. He gave me an opportunity to play with Peyton Manning and I'm forever grateful. I'm forever grateful to the Broncos organization. Because this is just how I feel you, when you think of me, you think of my name, you've just got to attach the Broncos to it, right? I played there six years and Elway gave me two contracts to be able to take care of my family, my kids, kids, kids and I'm forever grateful for that. Words can't really even express that. But one thing that I'd still, like my emotions aren't in it as much because of the fans, like the fans out there, just the love that they gave me week in and week out every Sunday. I mean, they really, there were some days that I went into the stadium not really feeling that well and just seeing the fans and their energy, they brought the best out of me every time I played in that stadium. So I'm definitely going to miss running out of the stadium and seeing the fans and really feeling like I was playing at Mile High Stadium. Yeah, you're playing against the Broncos. But as of right now, as far as the team, it's just nameless faces out there to me. And the ultimate goal is to go out and win because they're standing in the way of this team and myself and my family and trying to win another championship. So we've got to go out and handle business."