Sunday conversation: Redskins' Phillip Buchanon glad to be part of the mix

The Washington Redskins this past offseason aimed to bolster their secondary and added nine-year veteran Phillip Buchanon to the mix as their third cornerback alongside DeAngelo Hall and Carlos Rogers.

Buchanon was a free agent after having spent the previous season with Detroit, and Washington was an attractive option to him because he had a great deal of familiarity with members of the team as well as the front office.

In signing with the Redskins, Buchanon was reunited with University of Miami teammates Santana Moss and Clinton Portis, and fellow Miami product Rocky McIntosh, as well as general manager Bruce Allen, who signed Buchanon in 2006 to play for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In this week’s Sunday conversation, I check in with the nine-year veteran, who last week had his best game of the season with five tackles and three pass deflections -- two of them on back-to-back plays while guarding Reggie Wayne in the final 2-½ minutes of the game. We discuss his roots, his transition to a new team, and his interesting eating habits.

When you decided to sign with Washington, what were your expectations, and what was it that made you feel like this would be a good fit? BUCHANON: “My expectation is to win, and win at all cost. Since I’ve been here, I’ve definitely embraced being able to play with Santana Moss, Clinton Portis, Rocky McIntosh -- all former Miami players -- and Bruce Allen. I’ve always heard a lot of good things about Coach Shanahan, and so far, he’s one of the best coach I’ve ever had in the NFL as far as him and Gruden. I’m just trying to figure out how to make plays to help us get over the hump, and everything’s cool right now. We’re .500 and we want to be able to pull out these close games.”

Was the chance to play with fellow Hurricanes a big factor?  BUCHANON: “That to me helped. Me just being here in this whole DMV area with the Santana Moss and guys here as well as Ray Lewis and Ed Reed in Baltimore, it’s just kinda motivated me to step my game up as well, too.”

Talk about that whole Miami tradition and level of expectations that if you went to ‘The U,’ you have to be baller.  BUCHANON: “It’s not pressure, it’s just pride. We hold a high standard of pride, and the one thing I know from playing at Miami, we hate being embarrassed. That’s the one thing I learned from playing at Miami. Even though the whole time I was there we won, we just had a lot of pride and everybody cared about every little thing, and that’s the way it was.”

With the Redskins’ defensive scheme, Jim Haslett often puts Rogers in the slot, and divides the field into halves. Whatever side you’re on, you cover that receiver. That gives you a chance to cover the top receiver some times. How do you like that challenge?  BUCHANON: “It’s always a good opportunity to be on the field, so for me, that’s enough for me. I just go out and play the best I can. Whether it looks good or bad, I’m always trying to put for the best effort I can, and put for my knowledge from the film study and place it on the field so I can help us win.”

Last week, Reggie Wayne got the best of you for a few catches early on, but then when they were trying to move downfield and eat up clock with a little more than two minutes left, you shut him down. What was the key to making those in-game adjustments and keep him in check?  BUCHANON: “People have their opinion, but I wouldn’t say Reggie got the best of me. Some of the things they were doing, they knew what we were doing and that was a Reggie-Peyton Manning thing. I would say maybe two plays he got the best of me, but overall, it was Peyton Manning/Reggie Wayne, Pro Bowl/Hall of Fame connection that was working. And then the only key for me, when I see the game on the line, it was just press, let’s play ball. Y’all know what I’m gonna do, let’s go.”

Coming out of high school (Lehigh High, Lehigh Acres, Fla.), you were a star in both baseball (playing center field, left field and lead-off hitter) and football (running back/cornerback). How did you decide to go with football over baseball?  BUCHANON: “In Fort Myers, we eat and breathe and I can’t say the other word, but we live for football. In South Florida in particular, football is the most dominant sport. Coming from Little League, you’d have two- and three-thousand people at games, and then to high school, it was 10,000 people at games. So for me, I was good at baseball because it was one of the first sports I played, and I kept playing it the whole time. People actually told me that I would make it in baseball before I made it in football.”

Did that give you extra motivation to make football work?  BUCHANON: “I was just motivated in general. I turned down a deal to play for the Cincinnati Reds coming out of high school, so I could’ve done baseball first, but when they said if I signed that deal, the summer may be over, I was like, man, I don’t see myself just playing baseball. I see myself playing football and baseball, so I decided to go to Miami."

Were those the only two sports you played in high school?  BUCHANON: “I did it all in high school. I went from football to basketball to baseball and track at the same time. So I was always busy, and then I did summer baseball, and summer football and basketball every now and then, too. And track just came naturally because I was always the fastest guy. But actually in high school, the most rush I ever got was in high school basketball and track. It was more encouraging and exciting for other people to see me go against players in basketball and beat people in track. It was more of a pride thing between our schools.”

Any memorable moments from basketball?  BUCHANON: “One of my best games, I scored about 35 points in basketball. But what’s funny is, I scored 35 games in my last game when I broke my wrist and we were getting ready to go into the playoffs. So, I had broke my wrist and I played six or eight more games and then I had to go to the doctor to get checked out and next thing I knew I was in a cast, so I missed the rest of the post-season. I knew I had hurt it, but I loved playing with my teammates so much that I had just taped it and kept playing, but they said the bone was messed up, so I had to stop.”

How about track?  BUCHANON: “Track, I made states every year. I made state in the 4-by-100, and I should’ve won the 100, but I messed it up my ankle playing pickup basketball (rolls his eyes), so I just came in seventh at states.”

So, how did it go playing baseball and football at Miami?  BUCHANON: “I did football and baseball my first year, but then my grades started to struggle, and Butch Davis told me, ‘You came here on a football scholarship, not a baseball scholarship.’ So, I just had to go with football, but the following year, I did football and track.”

You’re always walking around win a carton of coconut water. Earlier this week when we talked you said it’s better for you than Gatorade, and you said that you only eat organic foods. Let’s talk about your eating habits.  BUCHANON: “I’m really big as far as trying to eat healthy. I eat a lot of organic and farm fresh foods. I’ve actually been doing it for a year and a half now, and I’m just trying to give myself an edge as far as energy out there on the field.”

What’s your favorite organic dish?  BUCHANON: “Organic anything. Organic chicken, organic beef, I can eat anything farm raised. It makes me feel comfortable. Plus, I’m a very, very picky eater. I’m picky about a lot of things, but I’m definitely picky about my food.”

So, I imagine that makes it kind of hard when you go out to eat, huh?  BUCHANON: “Yeah, it does. It kills me some times. I’ll be like, ‘I can’t eat that, so I’ll try that, but I can’t try that,’ and I’ll sit there and be so hungry and be so bothered by me being so picky. It’s frustrating sometimes.”

Do you have a favorite place to eat in the DC area?  BUCHANON: “My chef. I got a chef this year, so it’s easy for me to stay in the house and let everything come to me. So it let’s me be a little more lazy, and just sit and watch more football film.”

So, I’m guessing no Bens Chili Bowl for you, huh?  BUCHANON: “Nah, nah, none of that stuff. I’m more of a guy that I love on my downtime to be at home. I’m a real homebody.”

Well, Bens is a D.C. landmark, so if ever you’re going to cheat, you’ve gotta try that out.  BUCHANON: “Hahaha, I will. I’ll do that.”

Click here to order Phillip Buchanon’s proCane Rookie Card.



(tbd.com)