football player<\/a>?<\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s kind of in my blood, my pops he actually played in the NFL so honestly, it was a thing that I was just kind of born into. I feel like I\u2019ve had it in my blood my whole life. My dad never really pushed me to play football, but it was a thing once I put those pads on I fell in love with it.<\/p>\n
What are your favorite moments from your football life?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019d say my senior year in high school playing against Bosco. It was pretty sweet because all my other buddies were done with football and everyone just kind of showed up to the game with all my hometown friends. It was a sweet game. We ended up losing but definitely that and then I\u2019d say probably my first game, my junior year at Cal Poly, it was just kind of all the hard work I put in and I put into reality and I had a great game and that\u2019s really what started my junior year.<\/p>\n
If you could hang out with any football player past or present for a day, who and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m going to go with Jack Lambert that guy is my absolute idol, linebacker for the Steelers. Obviously, my Pops played for the Steelers, so we are huge Steelers fans. He\u2019s an old school downhill linebacker; he plays mean and really smart and is someone I try to model my game after.<\/p>\n
What is your favorite defensive scheme and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m going to go four-two. I like a four-two because I like to stay in the box and when you got four down lineman and they take up gaps it\u2019s easy to run around so if you got a good defensive line in front of you, especially with four down and you got big enough defensive linemen that could hold two offensive linemen then it makes the two guys that are in the middle. They can run around and play free.<\/p>\n
What stands out about your film the most?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019d say my motor and my physicality. One thing you notice on film is a lot of my plays are hustle plays so it\u2019s a thing where a guy is going to miss a tackle and I\u2019m going to go and make the play just because I want to make that tackle more than you do, and then my physicality too. I feel like my physically the point of attack. I\u2019m usually driving guys back.<\/p>\n
What should we know about Mikey D\u2019Amato the person?<\/strong><\/p>\nMikey D\u2019Amato as a person is super hard-working, I\u2019ll never say no. I\u2019m always going to work hard. I\u2019ve been overlooked my whole career and like I said, I\u2019m never going to say no you\u2019re going to tell me that I\u2019m too small that I can\u2019t do it. That\u2019s just not going to happen. I\u2019m always going to come. I\u2019m going to put my foot on the pedal. Just a hard worker.<\/p>\n
What do you love the most about the game of football?<\/strong><\/p>\nDefinitely the physicality aspect of it. It\u2019s like the biggest thing you can\u2019t be is when you look someone in the eye like the running back and you\u2019re going to go against them all game and once you hit them a couple times you could tell it starts to put wear and tear on them and that\u2019s when you know you got them so I would say definitely with the physicality part of it.<\/p>\n
Who is the most underrated player played with and why?<\/strong><\/p>\nI\u2019m going to go with my buddy Travis Anderson played with him in high school. He\u2019s honestly the most gifted athlete I\u2019ve ever played with in my entire life, hardest worker he\u2019s about to be going into his junior year at Boise State. I think he\u2019s going to pop onto the scene. I think he\u2019s going to be one of the best safeties in college football. I definitely watch for that guy. Travis Anderson is definitely the hardest worker and most humble kid I\u2019ve ever met.<\/p>\n
What would a team get in a player like you?<\/strong><\/p>\nYou\u2019re definitely going to get a guy that has a super high motor. I keep the same pace from the first to the fourth quarter. I\u2019m never going to give up, always going to be the first one in the building and last one to leave. Super hard-working like I said. And I\u2019m always ready to learn and continue to grow. I\u2019m honestly newer to linebacker. I\u2019ve only played linebacker for 2 to 3 years so I\u2019m not even close to what my peak is yet. I\u2019m going to keep growing and I\u2019m a good teammate to. All my teammates say that I\u2019m a pretty good guy in the locker room, so I\u2019m a big camaraderie guy and I\u2019m a pretty good leader too. So, all those traits that\u2019s what you\u2019re going to get out of me.<\/p>\n
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![\"Football](\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/00edb5291ce4ed2db5ebbaec0c0618f682f402ecc6bec392a5a1f72a950d64bb?s=100&r=g\")
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Writer\/Scout\/Interviewer for Draft Diamonds since January 2020. You can find me on X at @jrberendzen and Instagram at justinberendzen<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Read More<\/a> Justin Berendzen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"2027 NFL Draft Prospect Interview: Mikey D\u2019Amato, LB, Cal Poly Name: Mikey D\u2019Amato Position: LB College: Cal Poly Height: 6\u2032 0\u2033 Weight: 235 lbs X: @mikeydamato2 Instagram: @mikey_damato_ What made you decide you wanted to be a football player? It\u2019s kind of in my blood, my pops he actually played in the NFL so honestly<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":907066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3774,3790,32661],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-907065","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-draft","8":"category-football","9":"category-prospect"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=907065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/907065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/907066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=907065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=907065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=907065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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