Leonard Williams to Eagles fans: Bring on the crowd noise!
The Giants' Leonard Williams celebrates after an NFL wild-card game against the Vikings on Sunday in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
Leonard Williams knows that Eagles fans will be loud on Saturday night when the Giants visit Philadelphia for a Divisional Round playoff game.
His attitude: Bring it on.
The veteran defensive tackle enjoys crowd noise and tries not to differentiate based on the sentiment behind it.
“I don’t really tune it out; I just make it my own noise,” he said after practice on Thursday. “When I hear crowd noise, I don’t see it as that’s the opponent’s crowd. It’s a crowd cheering, at the end of the day.”
Williams said he “loved it” when Vikings fans in Minneapolis were fired up on Sunday when the teams met in the Wild Card round. The Giants won, 31-24.
Perhaps no Giants player enjoyed the day more than Williams, who had not appeared in the playoffs in eight NFL seasons with the Jets and Giants.
“It was an amazing experience,” he said. “The atmosphere in the stadium was incredible. Their fans were super-loud . . . Not only going to my first playoff game but winning it felt incredible.
“I mean, just seeing everybody’s smiles and coming together and being happy for one another and quickly moving on to the next team and knowing what every team’s goal is every season is in arm’s reach of us at this point is super-exciting.”
Williams said players spoke about not buying into the notion that experience is a key factor in the playoffs.
“We talked among ourselves and said it’s a football game, at the end of the day, and most of us have been playing football since we were 8 years old,” he said. “So we have to go out and just treat it like a game.
“With that being said, it still is a different feeling in the playoffs, and now I feel like we have a little bit of that playoff experience and a win under our belt and just a little more fire and attitude going into this one.”
Notes & quotes: LB Azeez Ojulari (quadriceps) is listed as questionable. Every other Giant is expected to be available for Saturday’s game.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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