Nnamdi Asomugha: Bowles brings a calm attitude to defense

After the loss to the Detroit Lions, Nnamdi Asomugha mentioned that in the 4th quarter, the defense had gotten away from the scheme that had been so successful shutting down Calvin Johnson and the rest of the Lions offense. He said that they had tried more blitzing and played more zone coverage.

The obvious implication was that it was a mistake to do so. Soon after, Juan Castillo was fired and people couldn't help but speculate whether Asomugha's comments had anything to do with. For his part, Nnamdi says he didn't the like the suggestion that he might have been a part of Castillo's firing.

"I had a tough time last week when those stories came out, to be honest. It was more so a character thing and that's something that I would never do as a player," he said.

As he rightly points out, these are the decisions for players to be making.

"As a player, how do you really adjudicate something like that? My mind can't even think on that level because I'm a player. Those decisions are all for the people in upper management. But I couldn't say if the players let him down or what the reason was for why he was let go. As a player, I can't even think on that level."

He says that both he and the team still have great respect for Juan.

"You know, it's a part of the business of football. We all respect him. I respect Juan as a man, as a coach. Obviously, he's going to land on his feet and he's going to do well. It was tough, at first, to hear it because you've pretty much grown so much with a guy and seen him grow so much. But you know that he's going to be fine wherever he ends up."

That said, there is a new guy in town and in contrast to Castillo's famous intensity, Nnamdi says Bowles is more relaxed.

"The thing about Todd is, he's real chill. I don't know if you guys have interviewed him or anything; there's like an equanimity about him. It doesn't matter what's going on, he's always going to be calm and just relaxed and stuff like that. So, that's good. He always feels like there's always a solution, no matter what we're going through. So, I think that's one of the big qualities that he's going to bring."

For those scoring at home, yes, a football player has just used the words adjudicate and equanimity.