Margus Hunt: NFL season started out hard, getting better
Margus Hunt, Defensive Tackle for the NFL's Indianapolis Colts, gave a rare interview recently to ERR's sports portal, saying that he is happy at his current team, desipte offers from other teams coming in last spring.
Hunt, 32, originally from Karksi-Nuia, Viljandi County, moved to the Colts in 2017 from the Cincinnati Bengals, and signed a new two-year contract in March this year.
"There were a couple different offers, but I liked it here. The team is great, the coaches are good. I didn't want to leave much," Hunt told ERR's Aet Suvari.
"Somehow, this team spirit is so good here, it's hard to describe. I didn't want to spoil it by going somewhere else. We have a great camaraderie and I didn't want to give it up," he went on.
Hunt had got steady games in the past two seasons, but what about this season.
"It started really hard. We didn't end up in a good place for holding off offenses, but now it has started to get a bit better, and will hopefully improve statistically," Hunt said.
Before the season, Hunt had said in an interview published on his own website that he wanted to be the best on defense. How had that turned out?
"There is still work to be done," Hunt said.
"At the start of the season, I couldn't get going with this, but now I'm trying to get better with every training session," Hunt continued.
"It has started quietly better now. Hopefully the season will end properly," he added.
Speaking of which, the Colts' season has been a bit up and down so far. Currently in second place in the AFC South, a very tight division with only two wins separating top-placed team the Houston Texans, with the Jacksonville Jaguars in last place, the Colts had previously led the division until a couple of recent losses against Miami and Pittsburgh. What happened?
"Unfortunately, it's always the way that every Sunday, you don't know what will turn up. Sometimes, we get lucky, other times, they do," Hunt explained.
"That's why this is the most watched game [in the U.S.] - you never know what's going to happen."
The season is just past the halfway mark, so what remains for the club?
"Still the same thing - first to ty to clinch the division, and then to make the playoffs," Hunt said.
"We have the same roster we did last year, now we just have to play the way we did at the end of last season (when the Colts made the playoffs-ed.). We're very capable of that."
As to personal goals, Hunt said his aim was: "Just to play better. To be more in action in the middle of the game," he said, adding that while gridiron was tough on the body and he'd picked up a couple of injuries, there had been nothing to keep him out of the sport.
"I hadn't had any exposure to American football from a young age, so I had to build up better body resistance. Everything we do here is designed to last a whole season," Hunt noted, adding that family, including his two children, was crucial in contributing to his career.
The full interview (in Estonian) is here. The Colts are next in action on Sunday, Nov. 18, at home at the Lucas Oil Stadium against Jacksonville.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte