October 23, 1997

BUTLER SAYS PACKERS ARE READY FOR SECOND HALF

In a national media conference call on Thursday, October 23, Green Bay Packers safety LEROY BUTLER said his team is confident about the second-half of the season and answered other questions on a variety of subjects. Butler and the Packers face the New England Patriots on Monday night in a rematch of Super Bowl XXXI:

What is the mood of the team after the bye week?

We’re refreshed. We’re very confident. We figured out some of the reasons that we weren’t playing so well. It was maybe because the confidence level was a little low. We have fresh minds, fresh bodies and we’re ready to go.

Do you feel the AFC is catching up to the NFC?

Oh, yes. They’ve closed the gap considerably in the first half (of the season). If there was a gap, they’ve closed it because they have so many top teams – Denver, Jacksonville. In the NFC, we really don’t have that one team that’s playing so well and has a big gap against all the teams in the AFC. San Francisco’s playing real well right now. This could be the year that they (AFC) play well in the Super Bowl, if not win it.

Do you like being the underdog going into the rematch with the Patriots?

They’re obviously favored because they’re playing great. They have a great team. They have a wonderful coach who knows how to pull the best out of them. It takes a lot of pressure off of us. We’ve had a lot of pressure on ourselves because we want to repeat. Now, the pressure’s on them.

As Super Bowl champions, has your team gotten used to being the prime-target of everyone’s schedule?

We haven’t adjusted. It’s kind of sad to say because going into this year we really didn’t figure out that people were going to gun for us. We can just see that some teams have really exploited our weaknesses. A lot of people built into their off-seasons, "how can we attack the Packers." They’ve done a pretty good job at it.