YST: Where did you grow up?
JG: "I grew up in a lot of different places because my dad was a football coach and we moved around quite a bit when we were young. I was born in Pennsylvania, but I lived in Florida, Texas, Louisiana, Ohio and New Jersey among other places."

YST: And Brill, where are you from?
BG: “A suburb of Chicago in Illinois.”

YST: Jason, Did you play a lot of sports when you were growing up?
JG: “I played a lot of sports like football, baseball, basketball when I was young and I have seven brothers and sisters and we were all very involved in sports.”

YST: You moved around quite a bit when you got into pro football at first, right?
JG: “I had a couple different stops early on, right out of college. I played with the Saints for a year, in Canada for a year and also in the World League in San Antonio before coming here. But I've been with the Cowboys for seven years, which is a pretty long time for an NFL job.”

YST: Did the fact that your father was a coach give you any edge as far as competing in sports?
JG: “He certainly was very supportive of what we did. But one of the great things about having a dad who's involved in coaching is that he created an atmosphere where we could be exposed to it only as much as we wanted to be. He was the kind of guy that if we had a question, he always answered it. But he never got too involved and imposed his knowledge or experience on us. He never forced us into playing sports. He was just a great resource.”

YST: Did any of your three brothers continue their sports careers past high school?
JG: “Yeah, my oldest brother Jim was the captain of his college football team. He's now actually head coach at the high school I went to in Cleveland. I played with two of my brothers, John and Judd, in college at Princeton. John was a receiver and Judd was a running back. We were all a year apart so we had one year where we were all on the field at the same time. That was a great experience. They both played in the NFL as well. John played for the Bengels and Judd was here with the Cowboys and then with the Eagles. They are both now coaching in the NFL. So we're all still involved in it.”

YST: And your father?
JG: “My dad is a college scout with the Cowboys. He lives in New Jersey and scouts the college territory in that part of the country.”

YST: How did you end up at Princeton?
JG: “I was recruited as a football player to go there and it ended up being a great place to go to school for so many differnet reasons. It was a great place for me to play football, I met my wife there, my brothers went there and I met my best friends in the world there. It was a great athletic, academic and social experience. It's one of those decisions you make when you're 17 when you're trying to figure life out and you don't realize the impact a decision like that makes in your life. It was the single most important decision I made in my life in many ways. I feel very fortunate to have gone through that experience.”

YST: How did you and Brill meet?
BG: “We met in college at Princeton in a Geology Lab. Jason would always leave early to go to baseball practice and I could never understand how he could balance sports with academics. “
JG: “We didn't start going out till a couple years later. I was visiting a couple of buddies at their dorm and she was there and she asked me to go out (Laughs).
BG: He walked me back to my dorm room which was out of the way to where he was going. I realized later that that was a BIG deal for him. “

YST: And how many years have you been together?
BG: “We've been together for 12 years and been married for four.”

YST: What did you get your degrees in?
BG: “I was in the Woodrow Wilson school which is public and international affairs and went on to law school. But I'm not practicing now.”
JG: “Mine was in History.”

YST: Having graduated from Princeton, I guess you stress the importance of an education.
JG: “When I graduated from high school and decided to go Princeton, that was something of a safety net. My parents always said pursue your dreams, but make sure that foundation was being laid. That's what I tell kids now -- that if you make good choices in your life, you can pursue what you want to pursue later in life. If you don't get an education and you dont put yourself in those types of positions, you can't pursue your dreams. But if you do all the things that you're supposed to do, then all of a sudden when your 22, you can do a lot of differnet things because you have this degree. “

YST: Tell us about the charities you are involved in.
JG: “That would start with the foundation that Brill and I started a couple of years ago called Jason Garrett Starfish Charities. The highlight of that foundation is a youth football camp we do, which is coming up on its fifth year. It gives me an opportunity to coach and a lot of my friends on the Cowboys and chance to work with the kids. We give the proceeds from that camp to four different charities -- the Intervention Center in Irving, the Spina Bifida Association of Dallas, Happy Hill Farm Academy and Home west of Fort Worth and Crossroads Homeless Shelter in Irving. It's been a nice relationship that we've developed and it's something we're pretty proud of.”

YST: I guess being in your position enables you to help those who are less fortunate.
“Brill and I are in unique positions as individuals and in the profession we are in. We're very priveleged and one of the expressions we like to use is, ‘with privelege comes responsibility.’ In so many different ways we've been very blessed. We came from good families with great backgrounds. I know hard work and all that is always involved but we've also been very blessed with a lot of great opportunities. So I think it's in both of our hearts to try to give that back to those who are in less fortunate positions.”

YST: How did you come up with the name of the Starfish charity?
“It's one of our favorite stories. It's about a kid who's out on a beach after a big storm and all the star fish had washed up on the beach and he's throwing them back in the ocean. This woman comes up and says, "what are you doing?" He tells her if the sun hits these starfish they are going to dry up and die. She responds, ‘The beach goes on for miles and there are millions of starfish. Your efforts really aren't going to make a difference.’ And the kid reaches down and says, ‘It will make a difference to this one,’ as he throws it into the water. That's the theme of what were doing. We've chosen local charities and people we think make a difference in individuals lives. We've seen people be positively affected by these organizations and what these people are doing for them. These problems seem to be huge and people sort of throw up their hands and say there's nothing we can do about it. Well, there is something we can do about it. If your helping one person that makes a difference.”

YST: Was it any tougher for you to make it into the NFL coming from an Ivy league school?
JG: “It's a big jump for anybody even if you went to a place like Nebraska. Of course the jump is a lot greater coming from an Ivy league school. The biggest differnces for me was the speed of the game. Things just happen so fast in the NFL. But the more you're involved in it the slower the game gets.”

YST: You obviously have to have quite a bit of intelligence to go to a Ivy league school. How does that type of intelligence translate onto the football field as far as reading defenses, that sort of thing?
JG: “I think there are different kinds of intelligence. There are some people who are smart football players who aren't book smart. Where that comes from, I don't know. There are some people who have great instincts and great knowlege and a good feel for the game. Darryl Johnston is one of the smartest football players I know -- very book smart in college and very smart football player. There is clearly a correlation. “

YST: How did you come to be with the Cowboys?
JG: “I spent one year with the Saints on the practice roster and after I was released the next year I went to the World League for a year. After that I played in Canada for a year and then I got a work out for Norv Turner, the Cowboys' offensive coordinator at the time. Troy Aikman was the qb and Steve Burlein was his backup and there was an opportunity to compete fo the third spot. In January of 1992, they signed me. I came down here and worked out and was with the team that year. It took me a while to get here but it's been a real good experience.”

YST: How has the five week stretch in which you started different from the rest of your professional career?
JG: “In some ways it's different -- I've never been the guy who is the starting quarterback. It's kind of a stretch. It's different getting all the reps in practice and knowing that youre gonna play on Sunday afternoon and and the Sunday afternoon after that. But my approach was very similar to what its always been. I've always had the attitude that when I get the opportunity I'm going to be ready for it. I prided myself on really being prepared mentally. But when you dont take the reps in practice youre not always as sharp as you need to be to be successful. But thats the nature of the backup quarterback position.”

YST: Was it difficult to hand the position back to Troy?
JG: “It was hard going back to not being the starter. It's quite obvious why I'm not playing, because I think Troy Aikman is the best quarterback in the NFL. I'm smart enough to know that he should be playing. “

YST: What has the last few weeks been like for you Brill?
BG: “I think I've tried to keep everything as normal as possible because I think that helps him on the field to be prepared. Its been fun to see him play, but I think he's always contributed to the team in a positive sense. But it's a joy to actually get to watch him play.” JG: “She's been tremendous these last few weeks. Brill has done a tremendous job of allowing me to focus on football.”

YST: Do you two spend time with the other players away from the football field?
JG: “Sure because our schedules are so similar. Most of our friends who aren't involved in football are off on Saturday and Sunday. For us, that's the busiest days of the week. So your social life tends to focus around what the team is doing.”

YST: Do you have one moment in sports that stands out?
JG: “Being part of the Super Bowls is really special and the Thanksgiving game is something that is really neat for a lot of different reasons. But some of my best memories of games are little things that happen within a game that no one else sees. It's maybe a reaction after a pass or something like that. People always say this is a such huge game the Cowboys have coming up, but when I was playing seventh grade football, those games were as big as any game we're playing now. What we do now is very public, but that doesn't necessarily make the game any bigger or more important. For some guy who is playing for the junior high title on Thursday night, that game is what it's all about. Man, he's gearing up for that all week. I think were all fortunate enought to have those experineces along the way. It's the stuff that you remember for the rest of your life. “

YST: What NFL players, past or present, do you respect the most.
JG: “My favorite player when I was growing up was Brian Sipe, who played for the Cleveland Browns. I really liked how he played the game. He got it done in a lot ofdifferent ways, he was tough and he was a great leader. Now there are a lot of guys that I have a lot of respect for. There are 20-30 guys in our lockerroom alone. Troy, Michael, Emmitt.. I really respect all three of those guys.”

YST: You guys say you plan to have kids down the road. What involvement would you like them to have in sports.
JG: “I would want them to be involved only if they wanted to be. I would want that because of all the great exepiernced I have had in sports. But I hope I would never be a father who pushed them into anything they didn't want to do.” BG: “Yeah, I think its important to get know the individual, even as a child and let them do what ever it is that they have a passion for, whether its playing football, or playing the piano or swimming. What ever it is that makes their life more meaningful. “