Lurking in the Shadows: the flamboyant cornerback is one of the league's best at his position—but try as he might, the spotlight eludes him - Interview: Ray Buchanan - Cover Story

Football Digest, Dec, 2001 by Charles Odum

Jessie Tuggle ended up getting a fumble recovery for a touchdown. Jamal [Anderson] ran just outstanding. It was just everything going our way, and we had more confidence going into the playoffs.

FD: That season thrust you guys into the national spotlight. You were quite the media celebrity that week before the Super Bowl, especially when you wore the dog collar to media day. What prompted that?

RB: You don't get too many opportunities. I've learned a lot watching other guys. You look at how to be recognized and how to market yourself and how to make money off the field. Everybody knows you can go out there and play the game, but being different when you walk out there, people wonder, "What is this guy going to do?"

People accused Deion Sanders of being a hot dog, but it was obvious that he was very smart in the way he played the game off the field. You know, some coaches don't like that. They think if you're a hot dog, you're showing that team up. But they have to understand the marketing moves and how you make a name for yourself. It's taking it to the next level. When you do great things and you're being flamboyant, it's not so much being selfish just to be recognized.

FD: So in Miami before the Super Bowl, when you were out there with a dog collar on, you weren't just making an impromptu joke?

RB: I felt like, why not me? Everybody is going to start talking about the dog collar instead of just the game. It was probably one of the best moments I've had. It was about us being the underdog, and I swear I saw about 1,000 fans with dog collars because we were the underdogs. It turned into a fashion statement.

FD: Atlanta is football country with college football, and yet the Falcons are somewhat of a sleeping giant because they have never enjoyed back-to-back winning seasons to earn real trust from the fans. Would you have ever thought in 1998 that this team could fall back to 5-11 and 4-12 so quickly?

RB: Never. Never in my right mind. You know what? With the salary cap the way it is now and it being so difficult to keep your players, it is so difficult compared to how it was in the past. It's hard to expect a team to come back and repeat.

Everybody thought St. Louis would definitely come back and repeat last year. It's hard to keep the guys. Teams lose a certain edge by losing people, and other teams get better. Players are moving around so fast and there are so many coaching changes, you never know who is going to be in the Super Bowl. Everybody really has a shot. Some teams are long shots, it's true, but if you are an average football team that is well-balanced, you have a shot at being in the Super Bowl.

FD: When the Falcons lost defensive coordinator Rich Brooks and defensive line coach Bill Kollar, a lot of people thought they might be jumping ship because this is the last year on coach Dan Reeves' contract. Did you worry about that when you made the decision to re-sign with the team?

RB: I wanted to know because in the past there have been so many changes here. But Dan made a commitment to start keeping the players that we have, and he said he wasn't going to make that many changes, but he was going, to try to add on to what we had.