Wedding & Super Bowl: Vollmer Talks Two Rings In One Year With Bob Socci
BOSTON (CBS) – Bob Socci, the voice of your New England Patriots, takes to the Sports Hub airwaves to discuss prospects, scouting reports, team needs, welcome special guests and everything else you need to know ahead of the 2015 NFL Draft every Sunday at 8am through the end of draft season!
Patriots veteran offensive tackle Sebastian Vollmer, a former second round pick for New England back in 2009, was a guest of Bob Socci's NFL Draft Preview show on Sunday morning.
It's been quite the year for Sebastian Vollmer: First, Germany won the World Cup, then he became the first German native to win a Super Bowl. And more recently, he tied the knot.
"Two rings in one year, right?" Vollmer joked.
In regards to the first ring, the one he earned back in February when his Patriots beat the Seahawks 28-24 in Super Bowl XLIX, Vollmer talked about what his life has been like since.
"I think you enjoy it for a few days afterwards, try to relive it and all that stuff. It's kind of a surreal feeling [winning the Super Bowl], but then it's really time to get back to work," Vollmer told Socci. "The offseason starts a little later [for us] than other teams, so you're kind of back to business really quick."
New England has won the AFC East division title every year since he's been in the NFL, but the Bills, Dolphins and Jets all made significant changes this offseason in the hopes of knocking the Patriots down a peg.
Vollmer admits he hasn't paid too much attention to the transactions, but defensive linemen are always on his radar.
"I'm sure there will be a couple good battles out there," said Vollmer, who now has to take on the likes of Ndamukong Suh, a Rex Ryan-coached Bills defense and a d-line tandem in the Meadowlands (Muhammad Wilkerson, Sheldon Richardson) as good as any front in the league.
Vollmer grew up in Germany playing soccer and swimming competitively. Socci was curious to know what drew him to the sport of football, or American football as it's known in his homeland.
"I started off playing soccer and concentrated on swimming pretty early on, maybe 8 or 9 [years old] or something like that. I stopped swimming when I was maybe 14 or so, so I wanted to get back to a team approach. I enjoyed the individual sport of swimming, but I wanted something with a common goal. I wanted something different, and obviously football is about as different as you get in Europe," said Vollmer.
"I got bigger, I got strong and all that stuff, and it just came kind of naturally to me. One day a friend of mine took me to a tryout and I really fell in love with the sport and really got stuck with it. I played for four years and was lucky enough to get a scholarship to Houston."
One of the things Bob Socci finds interesting about Vollmer's transition from college to the NFL is the type of offense they ran at Houston under head coach Art Briles, and later Kevin Sumlin, which is an up-tempo, pass-heavy system.
One question about Vollmer's NFL readiness was the lack of a running attack with the Cougars. Both Briles and Sumlin love to throw it over all over the yard, so scouts questioned if Vollmer could run block in the pros.
"I think I had a good base and understanding of the passing game in general. We probably had 95 plays a game [at Houston] and 85 of them were passes. I would attribute [my NFL transition] to coaching. Coming in with Dante Scarnecchia as an offensive line coach, obviously, was really detail oriented and I really had no choice of getting better. So I definitely appreciate that.
"I had him for a few years, and then with [new line coach Dave DeGuglielmo] coming in really taking a focus on run blocking. I think it's really just embracing the technique and going at it. I feel like I can learn something from every coach I've ever had, haven't been too many, but you pick the good stuff and implement it."
With the NFL Draft right around the corner, Vollmer also talked about what he looks for in a new teammate, how last year's rookies Bryan Stork and Cameron Fleming impacted the offensive line and the pressures of repeating.
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