New York Giants Tutan Reyes is what you can call an NFL veteran. In his 10 year NFL career Tutan has been on a few teams (Carolina, New Orleans, Buffalo, Jacksonville), and is still around especially this upcoming year with a job to protect one of the games top quarterbacks being Eli Manning and playing under one of the toughest coaches with the Giants head coach Tom Coughlin.

Tutan has quite a story to tell to as he chats with QtheQuestion.com writer Chris Kredible. From the beginning of his career and how at one point he really thought he was going to play professional baseball. Tutan even breaks down the adjusting he had to do in switching to be a O-Lineman as his coaches knew this was the best move for him to succeed in the NFL. Aside from that growing up in Jamaica, Queens, New York Tutan hasn’t forgot where he came from. Willing to give back to his community he also runs his national scholarship fund “Beyond The Burroughs” as philanthropy is a big part of life.

Chris Kredible: Whats good man?

Tutan Reyes: Chillin man, everything good. I just got back home from my homeboy’s wedding.

Chris Kredible: How’s it feel to be back home?

Tutan Reyes: Good man, I’m loving it. It’s been awhile, like 10 years since I’ve been in New York.

Chris Kredible: For people who don’t know, give them a background story of where your from?

Tutan Reyes: Well I’m from Jamaica, Queens. I lived in Kew Gardens for a minute, went to August Martin High School in South Jamaica. Born in Brooklyn, went to college at Ole Mississippi University which is like the south sole compared to New York (laughs). I graduated, got my degree, got drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2000. I just signed with the Giants so now I’m back in New York, so it’s like a homecoming. I’m just excited to be back home.

Chris Kredible: Ok that’s what’s up. I heard you were named after the great King Tut. Is that true?

Tutan Reyes: Oh Yeah definitely, man, my full name is Tutankhamen.

Chris Kredible: (laughs) That’s your birth name? is that what is on your birth certificate?

Tutan Reyes: (laughs) Yeah that’s what’s on my driver’s license, passport, everything. My mom was intrigued with the Natural History museum when she got to New York, my aunt and mom were pregnant at the same time, so she made a deal with my aunt that whoever’s child was born first would be named after King Tut. So my mom won.

Chris Kredible: Do you get questioned a lot with people thinking you have a fake name?

Tutan Reyes: All the time. People be thinking I’m saying “two-tons” like “two tons of fun” when I say my name is Tutan, I guess since I’m a big dude. But then they be like “oh ok I get it now” (laughs).

Chris Kredible: (laughs) That’s crazy. It’s not too often that you hear about dudes coming out of the NYC playing football. How you get into football and not basketball or baseball?

Tutan Reyes: Well I loved baseball at first. I swore that what I was going to play professionally. Then I got to high school and started throwing curveballs and I couldn’t hit them (laughs). So I went on to football and got pretty good at it. Kept working on it, and played tight end in high school. When I got to college, I wasn’t fast enough to play tight end so I put some weight on. I didn’t like it at first, because no more touchdowns or running over people, I moved to guard and my coach down at Ole Miss told me I could either stay at tight end, and be pretty descent, or be a pretty good lineman, and make good money in the NFL.

Chris Kredible: I’m guessing that was a hard transition.

Tutan Reyes: Yeah, I mean at that age, you really don’t know what’s best for you, although you think you do. Coaches saw something I didn’t see. I wasn’t eating right and things of that nature. So they told me to play line, this is what you have to do. I was against it at first, than eventually I came around to it and it worked out for the best, and I’m here now because of it.

Chris Kredible: How much weight did you have to put on to fill in your position?

Tutan Reyes: Aww man (laughs) I probably only had to put on 6 lbs at that time. But when I came to college I was 248 lbs, and by the time I started playing line, I was 275 lbs. Then by the time I left college I was 300 lbs.

Chris Kredible: What are some of the difficulties of being an offensive lineman in the NFL?

Tutan Reyes: Um, I think the way you take care of you body because you’re usually going against people who are 300 lbs and up. Usually defensive linemen are going to be bigger or quicker than you, and for myself, I’m considered to be undersized for an offensive guard compared to a lot of the guys I play with. It’s a lot of contact, like one big sumo wrestling match and if you got about 50 to 75 plays a game for 10 years, that’s a lot of wear to your body.

Chris Kredible: I feel like offensive linemen are underrated. If you take a look at most NFL dynasties, they all had a great lineman in front of the quarterback. Do you feel like it’s an underrated position?

Tutan Reyes: Yeah most definitely, it’s a humbling position. You don’t get the accolades the way quarterback’s or running back’s do. In reality, the game can’t start until the ball crosses that line, so we are very much needed. We’re underrated, but you want to be in the mind set of just doing your job and accept it for what it is.

Chris Kredible: So the Giants will be the 5th team you played for. Lots of Giants fans such as myself, are happy to see your addition and feel you’ll be a great asset to the line. Being a veteran how do you feel you’ll help the line?

Tutan Reyes: I think just providing that experience. The guys we have now, the starting 5 have been together for 5 years now, won a Super Bowl together, pretty much set in the way executing a great line. We have a terrific RB, Brandon Jacobs and my job right now is just to provide that depth. If someone go down, I could step in so the line won’t miss a beat in the offense. I’m just learning the terminologies and everything and I’m just excited about the opportunity to play.

Chris Kredible: Does anything need to be worked on, any areas you’ll be a change too?

Tutan Reyes: I mean I’m sure there are areas that can be worked on, but the line now got everything pretty much down packed, they’ve been taking care of business for some years now, so I’m just here to add depth, know my role and do my job as a linemen.

Chris Kredible: How do you feel about playing for Tom Coughlin?

Tutan Reyes: He’s real cool man, I like the way he does things. When I was at New Orleans we used to scrimmage against Jacksonville where he was at the time, and we liked the way he ran things, they were quick on and off the field. He’s a no non-sense guy. But I’m really familiar with the way he does things.

Chris Kredible: So you’re playing in the NFC East, that’s probably the best NFL division. How you feel about that?

Tutan Reyes: I mean throughout my career I was played in divisions that were really tough, like last year AFC south had Jacksonville, Indianapolis, Tennessee, so I’m used to it all throughout my career. As long as we do our jobs, we should be fine.

Chris Kredible: So you’re 10 years deep in the NFL which is like 25 human years of doing anything. How much more you think you got left in you?

Tutan Reyes: (laughs) Hey man, as long as I’m able to still run around and keep up with the younger dudes, I won’t be going till they put me off the team. An old friend of mines, Ronnie Williams who has been a mentor for me since I was younger, He said “When you wake up in the morning and hard for you to get out the bed and you don’t want to work and do the things that make you successful on the field, it’s time to give it up.”

Chris Kredible: What do you got going on outside of football?

Tutan Reyes: I have my scholarship fund going, “Beyond the Boroughs” It’s a national scholarship fund and we give up to 20,000 for kids going to college. I’m excited to say we just handed out our first set of scholarships, this year we had 5 that went out this year. I attended a High School graduation in Brooklyn to present a scholarship to a gentleman who will be attending Xavier University in New Orleans, Louisiana this fall. I’m real excited about it, I’ve been working on it for awhile, lots of guys from the NFL have supported it too. Its real positive and just my main thing I got going on, aside from my two kids.

Chris Kredible: That’s definitely a good look. What do you see yourself doing after football?

Tutan Reyes: I’ve been transitioning myself to doing what I’ve been doing now, doing lots of philanthropy, working with kids. Initially I wanted to coach, but I don’t think I have that in me anymore. My main focus is on “Beyond the Boroughs” and getting back to the family life. It’s hard being away from my kids.

Chris Kredible: How old are your kids?

Tutan Reyes: My son will be 11 and my daughter is 17 months.

Chris Kredible: Congrats man.

Tutan Reyes: Thanks. I appreciate that.

Chris Kredible: Any plugs?

Tutan Reyes: You can find out more about my scholarship fund at http://www.beyondtheboroughs.org/, definitely will be raising more money to help put more kids in college, and I’m happy to be with the Giants and back in NY.