Justin Houston Q&A: Following Up a Historic, 22-Sack Season

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Justin Houston came a half-sack shy of tying Michael Strahan's single-season record in 2014 and signed a six-year, $101 million contract extension in July.

The leader of one of the NFL's most talented defenses recently sat down with Bleacher Report to discuss how he's prepared to follow up his huge season.

Bleacher Report: I find it strange that there's not a lot of biographical information out there on you. There's not a really good profile of you. Do you intentionally not seek a lot of attention?

Justin Houston: I don't care for a lot of attention. The only attention I want is when I'm on the field. When I step off the field, I could care less. I just want to play football. I know some guys like the attention; I just want to play football.

B/R: One of the things that's been talked about with this team is that a lot of the players are very group-oriented. Guys like Derrick Johnson and Tamba Hali make it a point to not talk much about themselves. Do you take a cue from that?

JH: I think that's the way things are around here. Things we do around here are done to get the ultimate goal. You have to work together, so we tend to keep everything very family-oriented. We keep it in the locker room. I have a job to do on the field, and those guys have a job to do. So I can't do my job unless they do their job, so we work together.

B/R: That idea takes me back to the final game last season. You have 22 sacks. You're one sack from breaking the all-time record. Yet you spend the end of the game dropping into coverage instead of rushing the passer. Most guys would want that record.

JH: That's the play they call. Whatever Coach calls, that's my job to do. I'm here to do what the coach says.

B/R: You have 22 sacks. The record is 22.5.

JH: (laughs) That's what he calls, that's what I have to do. It's not my decision to make.

B/R: And you didn't look back and say, "Hey, could you have let me rush?"

JH: No, I didn't look back at that game. I looked back at the games where I had sacks and missed, where I had opportunities. [Those] are the games that I beat myself up on, the plays I got mad at. Not the plays at the end of a game. I couldn't care less about that. It was more the games like Miami—I know I missed a sack. I know Oakland—I had a chance that I missed an opportunity. The Seahawks—there was an opportunity I had there that was taken away. Those are the plays I look back on and regret, but not the plays the coaches called.

Reed Hoffmann/Associated Press

B/R: There are 10 guys who have had a season with 20 or more sacks. Four of them are active (Houston, J.J. Watt, Jared Allen and DeMarcus Ware). Of the six who are retired, five are in the Hall of Fame (Mike Strahan, Chris Doleman, Reggie White, Derrick Thomas and Lawrence Taylor). Only Mark Gastineau is not in the Hall. Does that register with you?

JH: Oh yeah, that's the ultimate goal. I want to be known as one of the greatest to ever play this position when I'm done playing. I think that should be everybody's goal when they're done playing. You shouldn't be just playing. I play because I love playing. I don't just play for a check.

B/R: Defensive coordinator Bob Sutton talked about you studying the game and learning formations so that you could learn the game so well that you could let your natural ability take over. Talk about that process.

JH: I'm still learning, but I think my position coach, Coach [Gary] Gibbs, does a really good job of breaking teams down and putting things in that help you remember. He constantly keeps going over things again and again on the field and in the meeting rooms, so you get to the point that you remember it out on the field the whole time. I'm still learning today, but it's starting to become part of the repetition. A lot of teams run the same thing. It's a copycat league, so if you see something once, you'll probably see it again later on. The more you see it, the more it's just a reaction now.

B/R: So can you do 20 sacks again?

JH: I would like [to], but I can't say that I'm going to get 20 sacks. It's a team effort. My guys behind me have to do a great job in coverage. My guys in the middle have to do a great job of pushing the pocket. So a lot of times I reap the benefit of a team effort.

B/R: So when you sacked Marcus Mariota in the preseason, he started jawing at you. What was that about?

JH: I wasn't really paying attention, but he was walking up behind me. But I didn't hear anything. I don't think he said anything; he was just mad and walking up. I did tell him, "No. 13, Mamba, told me to do that to you." That's De'Anthony Thomas. He said to just give him hell when I get to him. They were teammates in college. It was just fun. So I just looked at him and said, "Mamba told me to do that to you." He told me to talk trash to him.

B/R: So what did you think of Mariota?

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

JH: I think he's good. He sits in the pocket well. Most guys with speed, when they first get to the league, they're looking to leave the pocket. They try to use their feet to get them out of situations. But he's the opposite way around. He trusts his arm and sat in the pocket and made some throws. He seemed really poised. He didn't get rattled. He sat there and made some throws.

B/R: I was talking to St. Louis coach Jeff Fisher the other day, and he said that he feels the league is better at teaching the pass rush these days than in the past. What do you think he means by that?

JH: Not really, because I can watch film and see guys doing the same things way back when that are done now. The guys from 25 years ago. I also think it's the coach. I have two great coaches and [my teammate] Tamba Hali. That's what he's known for, pass rush. I had two great guys to learn from, and you can watch film of guys from 25 years ago, and they still rush the passer the same way.

B/R: Who do you watch? Any favorites?

JH: Not really. Coming out [of college], I was a big fan of DeMarcus Ware. I thought he was the best at 3-4 [linebacker], and he was good against the run, and he dropped into coverage.

B/R: But he played the opposite side from you.

JH: It's pretty much the same thing. You change the steps up for the side.

B/R: Any old-timers?

JH: Not really, because growing up I didn't think I was going to play defense. I thought I was going to run the ball. That's every kid's dream, to be a running back or something.

B/R: So what did you want to do?

JH: I thought I was going to be a running back.

B/R: Then you got too big for the position.

JH: When I first started playing, they put me at defensive end and tight end.

B/R: So you never even got a chance to play running back?

JH: No.

B/R: So you never got a chance to live the dream. Not even in Pop Warner?

JH: I started playing football in the seventh grade.

B/R: Ever ask?

JH: No, I just let the coach put me at whatever position I played.

B/R: So you're living everybody's dream except for your own?

JH: (laughs) I am living my dream. Sometimes it's just not meant to be. I was meant to be a pass-rusher.

Charlie Riedel/Associated Press

B/R: You seem like a very nice, personable guy. But this is not a game for nice, personable people—and in pass-rushing, I've noticed over the years that those guys tend to be a little edgy.

JH: I think you have to know when to turn it on, when to control it. Because to be a great player, you can't have that mentality the whole time to be aggressive. Sometimes if you're too aggressive, they're going to run a boot your way. So you have to know when to control it. You have to zone in and focus.

B/R: Did you learn that on this level or in college?

JH: This level. When Coach Gibbs was telling me to study the formation, I learned to zone in. They give me a play, and then I look at the formation. I zone in on the tackle and see if he's giving me a run or pass stance, and then I'm all in after that.

B/R: I was talking to your agent, Joel Segal, about you, and he said that "Justin is just different." I asked him what he meant by that. He said, "You have to get to know him. But he's just different. He's very business-like." And one of the things that people talk about here is that same trait. Last year, when you didn't get the contract then, you just came in and went about your business. You didn't talk about it at all. A lot of players get distracted by contract situations.

JH: I thought about it and I prayed about it, but I put it in God's hands and I just focused on football. Watching other guys in that same situation, they focus on it, and they don't play as good. I didn't want that. I didn't want to be thinking on the field. I play the game because I love the game. When it's time for business, it's time for business. When I play football, I just want to focus on football. I have an agent to take care of that, and that's what I hired him to do.

B/R: Chiefs general manager John Dorsey made a funny comment during the negotiations. He said your wife is a lawyer and that he didn't want to mess with her. She's pretty serious.

JH: Oh yeah, she is. But she really doesn't get involved with what I have going on with that. With football, she doesn't get involved.

B/R: How long have you been married?

JH: A year.

B/R: Kids?

JH: A little boy, and a little girl on the way.

B/R: Congrats. How old is the boy?

JH: He's three, but he looks like he's about five. He's going to be huge. He's going to be bigger than me. I'm not going to make him play, but if he wants to play I think he'll be good. When he's at practice, after practice he'll run on the field and try to do what I'm doing, if I'm doing extra work.

B/R: He'll probably want to be a running back. Who was your favorite running back growing up?

JH: Barry Sanders or Emmitt Smith. One of those two.

B/R: Do you realize how much bigger you are than both of those guys?

JH: Now I do. Then I didn't.

B/R: They'd both come up to maybe your shoulder. Did you have some moves like them? Barry moved like no other human ever.

JH: I did have some moves. I couldn't move like Barry at running back. But I feel like I'm athletic enough that I could have done it.

B/R: So how good a running back could you have been?

JH: I think I would have been real good. In basketball I played point guard, so I feel like I could have done it.

B/R: You have a handle?

JH: Oh yeah, I can dribble the ball.

B/R: Shoot?

JH: Yeah, not like I used to. It's not there anymore, the shot. I was all-state in basketball and football out of high school.

B/R: All-state in Georgia is not bad.

JH: Not bad. You gotta take it for what it is.

B/R: Was it always going to be football, or did you think it might be basketball?

JH: It was always going to be football. In ninth and 10th grade, I had coaches at all these basketball camps asking me what it was going to be at the next level and I just knew it was football.

B/R: How come? Every football player I have ever met thinks he could have made it in basketball.

JH: There are guys 6'8" doing what I do in basketball, and I'm 6'3". That's a huge difference. It's hard to guard those guys, and then there are the little quick guards, so I felt football was my best chance.

Jason Cole covers the NFL for Bleacher Report.