Right now on the heels of talking some NFL action, it's the off-season, it's always busy, but it's time to have a chat with someone who's keeping busy in LA. When he's not tackling people, when he's not being a team captain, when he's not hanging out with his legendary dad, he's just being an LA resident. UCLA and Rams, he does it all.
He's the safety for the Los Angeles Rams. It's Quinton Lake. Quinton, how are you, man? Doing good and when I'm not doing all those other things, I get to talk to you, so that's fun too. Yeah, that's always fun, man.
You gotta get it in where you fit it in. Well, listen, outside of having a chat with me, you just came back from Japan. What the heck were you doing out there?
You gotta, I mean, man, you can't say that. You won't know until you go out there, but you know, Japan is, that's my second time going out there. I love being out there. I love the food, love the culture, and really just the overall experience has been great.
That's somewhere, if I wasn't playing football and I wanted to live somewhere, I would definitely consider it. It's that amazing. The people are great. It's so respectful and everything out there is just made for human efficiency. So if you haven't gone out there for everybody listening and you want to go out there, especially if you're on the West Coast, Japan is the place to be.
And let's say you could eat the food off the floor. It's so clean. Everybody's so polite out there. Absolutely. Quinton Lake is joining us here on the JR Sport Brief Show. We know that the season at the Rams that you guys just had, 10 and 7, it feels like a transition period. You guys still went out there and had success. You were named a team captain. You just had the best season of your career. How do you sum up the individual success you had and also where the team is kind of still going? Yeah, a lot of the success came from the off season, you know, before that season.
You know, the hard work, the effort, the communication, all those things that kind of led up to the season that I have is really why I was able to have the results that I did. And I think for us as a team, we really kind of found our identity. If you look at the year previously before this season, we were also 3 and 6 before our bye week.
Obviously, this past season, we were 1 and 4. So, we kind of knew how to overcome some adversity. And the mindset and mentality never changed when we were in the building. We just knew we had to come in, put our best foot forward, and do all the things that we could control to be able to win games.
And I think having that mentality each and every week allowed us to carry the momentum the second half of the season, both two seasons ago and this past season. So, we're excited, man. We got some new pieces on our team that, you know, I'm excited about. We got a lot of guys back on defense, a lot of guys that had, you know, very, very, very successful seasons. So, you know, I'm happy. And I think now we put everybody in the map to say, you know, we're not really a dark horse. We're a favorite.
Rams captain, one of the Rams captains, Quinton Lake, is here with us. What did that mean to you to kind of have that honor bestowed upon you in only your third season? Yeah, it's fulfilling. You know, you never really know what your hard work will get you, you know, where the effort and the amount of hours that you put in, even when people are not watching. And I think that is a reflection of that being named captain is a reflection of how much my teammates trust in me, how much the coaches trust in me and respect me.
But it was awesome. And, you know, I say this time and time again, I would not be the person I am or the player that I am today without the people in this building, whether it's from the coaches, the training staff to my teammates. You know, these are people that have helped me become not only the man, but the player I am today. So it was great, you know, to be able to be named team captain early on in my career. You know, it's, it's awesome.
But that is just another stepping stone to eventually get to where I want to be. But I'm very happy and hopefully, you know, the same respect and the same camaraderie that I have with everybody continues over the course of my career. Well, Quentin, you talk about everybody in that building. And there's general public, we don't hear from any one voice more than coach Sean McVeigh. That man talks. It's no nonsense. It's no business.
It's straight to it. He's a relatively young guy. What doesn't the public see about Sean McVeigh? I think what the public would need to see is how personable he is to each and every one of his players. You obviously see how smart he is, how good of a coach he is, the accolades that comes with that. But he cares so much about you as an individual. And I think that's what people really need to understand is, yes, you know, he's an NFL coach, you know, he is the head of the program.
And everybody understands that. But, you know, he wants to get to know you more as a man and as a person more than a player. You know, obviously, we have a job we need to do as NFL players, you know, we have to go out there and perform. But at the same time, when you know you have a coach that supports you through what you're going through, whether it's off the field or, you know, personal stuff, that means a lot. And it makes you want to play the game, obviously for the team, but specifically for him. And I think that reflects our ability to, you know, be able to overcome the adversity because we know we have the supporting cast within, you know, Coach Meve, who knows that, you know, he's going to ride with us no matter what. No matter through the ups and downs, through the obstacles, we have a guy in Coach Meve that is going to support us no matter what. No, Quinton, we've seen a success that he's had in his relatively young career for a young man. We see the same thing with you with a lot more to go. Obviously, growing up, man, you had a legend.
Your dad, Carnell Lake, is a Steelers legend. And of course, there's always that weight and the balance. You want to establish yourself and you want to listen to dad, but you want to do your own thing. How has that balance worked out as you kind of taking your own path in career?
Yeah. You know, I never had the pressure of, you know, he was a professional athlete, I need to be a professional football player too. I think, you know, I just see it as a blessing, you know, it's a blessing to be able to have somebody who laid the groundwork and the blueprint for you to be successful. And not only that, you know, now he's an amazing resource where I can reach out if I have questions.
I can, you know, ask if I, you know, don't necessarily have the answers myself. And that's something I'm very, very grateful for because not a lot of, rarely anybody has that, especially for a guy who's playing the same position as he did, you know, going through, you know, similar things where, you know, I'm able to play different positions like he did as well. So, you know, I see it as a blessing.
And growing up, I never had that pressure of, hey, you know, you're going to be an NFL player. That's just something I wanted to do because, you know, he, I looked up to him and he was my role model. Without a shadow of a doubt, Quinton Lake is here with us on the JR sport re-show coast to coast. You're out in LA, you're playing for the Rams, you do a lot in the community. And a part of what you're doing is also spreading awareness about heart health.
Phyllis, then what's going on, Quinton? Yeah, I think I've gotten the opportunity to form a relationship with Edward Life Sciences. And they do a great job of spreading awareness about heart health and disease. Interestingly enough, it affects millions of people, specifically minority groups, black community groups. But the thing about it is, you know, I have a platform and it hits close to home in the sense that people need to understand that your heart is one of the most important organs in your body outside of your brain. And if that is affected, and sometimes you don't know it's affected, you know, you can be in a lot of trouble. And I think the thing with me is, I've had history in my family where it's been affecting me. So now I get the grateful, very, very opportunity to show people that, you know, get a regular checkup. It's not hard.
It takes no more than 30 minutes to an hour to get a checkup to see how your heart is doing. And also that is spreading awareness about, you know, sometimes that you won't know you have symptoms or the symptoms will be things of like a common cold or other things. So spreading awareness around that, where it just takes such a small amount of your time. You know, even me as an athlete, a person that's in really good health, you know, it's important to me too, because you just never know. You know, it can affect people that are old, it can affect people that are in good health, that are young. So, you know, I think it's important to be able to spread awareness around this, because it has affected millions of people around the nation. Is there any place that people can go to find out more information so they can check in on their checkup?
Yeah, most definitely. You can go to Edwards Life Sciences. They are an organization out here in California. Or you can go to Off the Sidelines, and that is another place where you can learn more information about it. But yeah, those are the two places where you can get more information. At the end of the day, this is what I would say.
If you want to take a step, go to your doctor, go to a trusted physician and tell them, hey, I would like a heart scan or hey, I would like to check up on my heart health. And I think that's a good step of getting people to find problems maybe early, or just get an understanding of, hey, this is where I'm at, and these are potential steps I need to take forward to help my body and help my heart. Thank you so much, Quinton. Rams, defensive back, and Captain Quinton Lake is here with us. As we start to wrap things up, I want to ask you just quickly about the rest of your off-season. I mean, you put work into your body, and you want to obviously protect yourself and also prepare for the year.
What does the next couple of months look like for you heading into July? Yeah, so it's really just, really, we have two more weeks of the off-season, or about, I would say, three more weeks. And that time is really just to, you know, continue to train, get your body ready. I think the biggest thing is you want to train hard enough so that when you get, or when you have to report all the stuff we have to do at the facilities, these are the things that you need facilities, easy. So that's the goal right now, you know, keeping your body in shape, making sure that you're ready so that when you do have to put, you know, your cleats on the grass with everybody else, you can be one step ahead.
Yeah, nothing too much. I'm not going to Japan in the next couple weeks. I'll be out here in California, you know, just working out and, you know, getting my body when we have to report later in April. Well, we know you'll be back. We now see that Matthew Stafford is going to be back.
Coach McVeigh is going to be back. The NFL draft is coming up. What message do you have for our listeners across the country who happen to be fans of those Rams? Yeah, the biggest thing and the thing I want to say is, one, we support, we appreciate you guys so much because we play for you guys. But another thing is to do not be surprised if we go all the way. You saw what we did last year. You saw what we did the year prior to that. It is only an upward track for us as Rams players. So you guys have a lot to look forward to.
And don't be surprised if next year we're holding up that Lombardi Trophy. You heard it from Quinton Lake. Quinton, where can people follow you and all the works that you do? Yeah, you guys can follow me on Instagram at Q Lake with two E's and on X or Twitter as I used to call it.
It's crazy now. But Twitter, Quinton underscore Lake. Reach out if you have any questions and you guys will be very, very happy. Not only with the Rams, but my performance will come in the next season too. Onward and upward, Quinton. We look forward to chatting with you on down the line. I'll shoot your holler, man. You be well. Yep, you too. Appreciate you.
