Highlight Reel: What NFL Life is Actually Like Pt. II

Julian Edelman goes behind the scenes on the life of an NFL player and reveals secrets you won't find anywhere else

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Games of Names.

Speaker 2 (00:02):
I'm Julian Edelman, and we got a brand new compilation,
Highlight Reel starting now.

Speaker 3 (00:09):
Now, Julian explains what NFL training camp is really like.

Speaker 1 (00:13):
Okay, training camp questions, pull back the curtain behind what
life like is in training camp now that's happening. I
know it's probably a little bit different from when you
played to now, but let's talk about it anyway. Do
you remember your first training camp? Yeah? What was it like?
The first time, Like you walked in that building. It
it's like a beat for beat when you walked into
the building for the first time.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
It's a mixed emotion, you're like, especially for a rookie.
My situation, I was seventh round draft pick, changing position,
like I was in a different It's different for everyone,
but I could I could probably say it's it's similar
for everyone that Like, I mean, there's a there's like

(00:51):
a nervousness anxiety that's floating. Did I do enough work
in the office season? Am I in good enough shape?
Am I going to be able to make the team?
What's going Am I going to be able to fix
the six things that I didn't do in mini camps?

(01:12):
The way I really wanted to that they talk to
me about like there's a lot of that going on
in your head. And then for me as a first
rookie camp, we still had double days, and I was
anticipating that I was going to be on like a
lot of stuff, and I've never really ran a lot
in practice, you know, so like I was a quarterback,

(01:36):
you guys have to half the time you're like playing
like goal line game, goal post throws, you know, all
special teams are working their nuts off or you're doing
like quarterback stuff. But it was never like taxing. So
I was like nervous for that. And then you also
had your conditioning test that you wanted to go in
and I always wanted to go in and turn heads,

(01:58):
so I wanted to show them how how easy it was.
So you're anticipating that there's like a lot of and
then there's like I remember, there's a lot of logistics,
so many logistics schedules, and well you got to go
over the whole rule book or like in a bridge
version meeting of the rules you go over every year
when you when you get in, you take your physical,

(02:20):
you do your conditioning test, and there's a team meeting. I
always depend if you came back early. If you're a quarterback,
you came back, you had to go to the early camp.
Rookies early camp, injured's early camp, so you had to
do three days before everyone else reports, and then you know,
when you get there, you do your physical. It's kind

(02:41):
of like the first day of school. Everyone's got like
a fresh fit on. Everyone's got a suntan.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Someone's got bleached hair.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Yeah, someone's got something, you know, the new there's a
new car in the drive, you.

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Know, and the someone got paid. Yeah, everyone got paid. Yeah.
But free agent, new meat, what new meat, free agent
big free a. Yeah, but you've seen that, you've seen
we've all seen.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Each other of the mini camps. But this is you know,
guys bring ship. You know, you see guys bring their system.
Because we stayed at a hotel. Roommate or no roommate,
rookie year, roommate, Okay, who's your roommate, rookie year, who's
my rookie?

Speaker 4 (03:16):
I had.

Speaker 1 (03:18):
I had a.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
He was a guy that was like in his third year,
but he was bouncing around the league. He had a
hyperbaric chamber. I forgot his name.

Speaker 1 (03:27):
That's sick.

Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yeah, he had a hyperbaric chamber in the living room.
Asked if I could use it, use it for a
little did it work. Didn't feel a thing. But you
report and then you have to do your conditioning test.
And when we do our conditioning test, is that day
one condition day one. Okay, this is after the physical.
Once you've been cleared for your physical, there's like a

(03:49):
lunch and then there's the conditioning test. Now, when we
do our conditioning test, everyone in the organization would be
out on the conditioning field to watch. I'm talking personal
scouts or the personnel scouts, the college scouts, every football coach.

(04:11):
There's like two hundred people associated team, all with their
little fucking notebooks, all like given your mean mugs. Like
the start of the season's about to start, you know,
and so a lot of you get a lot you
get anxiety from that. You know, you're sitting there, especially
when it's your first few times doing it, You're like, oh, fuck,
ownership owner, mister Kraft's out there fucking walking around.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
You know, everyone's there. They want to see what who
you know what I mean.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
And so you do the conditioning test, and then after
that's done, you have a team meeting, you go through
all the rules, and so you basically you know, you
go over, you're late, you know, it's five thousand dollars.
If you're you miss a day unannounced or unexcused, it's
twenty thousand dollars. If you're over your report weight each pound,

(05:04):
it's five hundred and sixty two dollars each day it's over.
So if that's two pounds, Bill would go to someone,
what's the map to that?

Speaker 1 (05:13):
You know, what's that?

Speaker 2 (05:15):
It'd be like some you know, oh, it's twelve hundred bucks, coach, right,
twelve hundred dollars. Like he would do that, right, and
then he'd go every year he would go in and
he would talk about, look, if it burns, you can't
have it in the hotel room. Don't be coming here

(05:38):
with your incense, your fucking candles. If it burned, like,
we can never burn anything inside the hotel. Clearly didn't
know smoking, so like you know what I mean, but
like if it burned, And then after the batt light thing,
remember anybody brought a crossbow on, we would go over

(06:00):
the I didn't realize it was because I'm at light.
He would go over that rule you can't gamble on
NFL facilities. You can't have a weapon anywhere on an
NFL facility.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
And it says guns, but he'd.

Speaker 2 (06:16):
Be like and light that means crossbows, sling shots. He
would give on all those examples swords. Don't be fucking
you can't have like it would would it would be
fun Like any.

Speaker 1 (06:29):
Dude's ever bring like animals, like a pet or anything,
like someone's got like a tarantula they.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Bring the lineman brought a duck and put it in
Donald's locker and it lived there for like three days.
And I think Nate Soldier took the duck and raised it,
and the duck is somewhere still alive.

Speaker 1 (06:47):
I think, amazing.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
No, So we would go over all the rules, and
so you get there at like eight.

Speaker 1 (06:56):
The conditioning test is are like one.

Speaker 2 (06:59):
This meet is at like four, and so they would
schedule all this stuff so you couldn't leave the facility,
but you had downtime at the facility. So you're basically
there all day. And then you go over like expectations, coaches,
vision of the team, and then you break up OD

(07:19):
and you get into like, all right, this is what
we're installing for tomorrow and then it fucking just jumps
into it.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Yeah, backtrack real quick. It's no secret that NFL players
participate in weed. So where were guys going to smoke
or are they just doing non smoking ways or like
would they go in car like take rides or like
how did that work? No? One would smoke at the hotel, okay,
but you had flexiblit. It's not like you were like
locked down going from like hotel to facility.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
No.

Speaker 2 (07:44):
And also guys had houses, like we had a I had.
My house was like all these way we just go
to the house for but you had curfew, so you
had to sleep, So we go to if we had
like a two hour break, we go play ping pong
at my house for forty five to an hour.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Now do guys just absolutely resent having to go to
hotels when they live nearby?

Speaker 2 (08:03):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (08:03):
It was it nice to just be ay word camp,
let's fucking start, let's be here. Yeah, I mean it's
just part of it. Yeah, I don't you know that.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
It was kind of nice to get I like, just
to sign have to worry about shit.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
You didn't you know what I mean? It kept the
kept the main thing, the main thing.

Speaker 2 (08:22):
You don't have to worry about clothes this that I
mean you did, but just less.

Speaker 1 (08:27):
It was just like less less distractions. Yeah yeah, And
when did you guys move out of the hotel? Dude?
I remember it being like five weeks or something. That's all.
It used to be long. Now they're only there for
like two weeks with the beds at least nice. They
set them up nice.

Speaker 2 (08:41):
Uh, shout out residents in they're all right, yeah, not
like your home bank I brought I think I brought
a mattress by like your.

Speaker 1 (08:53):
Six seven eight.

Speaker 4 (08:55):
Now.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
People always ask, I'm sure with training camps, like what's
the worst part of training camp? But what's the best part?
Like what's something that like people don't realize is like
fun or something you look forward to with regards to
training camp.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Uh, best best part of training camp is you know
the excitement of the start. It's the start of the season.
You know the crowds out there. You know you've been
in OTAs, you've been in mini camps and it's just
the team there. You go out there and you get
to feed off the energy of the crowd. H. The

(09:28):
first like five days or four days are like all right, yeah,
and then after that it just becomes a grind and
you start getting tired. Like not you're tired, but you
get beat up when you start introducing pads and when
you used to hit a lot more.

Speaker 1 (09:40):
You know, it was tough.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Like I remember in my early part of my career
with the double days. It was run in the morning,
passes in the afternoon. Uh, you had your sleep rooms
like guys would take naps. There's like designated rooms with
a bunch of mattresses and you'd be like a fucking
Vietnamese open and you'd have like eighteen seven foot freaking

(10:05):
athletes hanging off of bed trying to get in thirty
five minutes to sleep before the next practice because it's
eighty two degrees eighty eight degrees with fucking ninety percent
humidity in Boston.

Speaker 1 (10:17):
I mean it was.

Speaker 2 (10:17):
It's just a grind, and what makes it really hard
is that you have to focus when you're tired.

Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yeah, it's like it's like hell week.

Speaker 2 (10:25):
I mean not like hell wek Hell Week is way worse,
like with the Seals, but like having to go in
and after when you were a young player and you
were on everything, you had to go balls of the
walls both practices every day, but then you had to
go in and install at night for the next day,

(10:47):
and you had to correct things from that practice early
practice to the second practice. It was like you had
to be on when you were dying, like, you know,
tired and mentally exhausted from you know, the amount of
stuff that you're doing and it's all new, you know,
you know, you didn't want to fuck up your hairpin

(11:09):
turn on fucking special teams and or the three plays
that they installed for kickoff that day. And then you
had you know, an additional a NASCAR sheet that you
had to remember for the five terms that you could
use for the conditioning the next day. Like it was
just a lot of like a lot of like studying
and when you're tired, ye mental stamina, mental stamina. And

(11:34):
that's where you know guys would not make the team,
is when they'd fuck up their formations or they would
be slow and not do something on that you know
we went over, Like that's part of this process. Training
camp is essentially it's a race to who could be
the best and most effective prepper going into the season,

(11:54):
meaning who knows how to install their shit, who knows
how to practice effectively. Who knows how to get all
their plays ran and practiced without having to fuck it
up and start.

Speaker 1 (12:03):
Over a program?

Speaker 2 (12:04):
You know, who can take the you know, the drills
the best, and and and and which coaching staffs can
come up with the drills that will put these guys
in situations for ball security. Like it's a race who
can prepare the best? That's what it is.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
Now, do you even lose your playbook?

Speaker 4 (12:24):
Ever?

Speaker 1 (12:25):
See anyone lose their playbook? No? Nah, you don't. I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (12:31):
I would only bring my playbook to like my house
or like you weren't. I wasn't carrying around to fucking
you head socks.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
You had binder.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
And then so as it started off three inch binder,
and then like I think in twenty eleven twelve, like
my fourth or third year, they we started going to
the iPad. Okay, And it used to be you know,
now the iPad is the best because it has the
library of all your cutups and coaches can just send

(12:59):
you all right, guys, we got we got a thirty
play cut up of their dbs here.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
You know.

Speaker 2 (13:04):
Before that, you know, I have probably eight hundred CDs
that you you could go into the film guys and say, hey,
can I get those cut ups coach or coaches would distribute. Yeah,
you know, all right, watch this for tomorrow's practice. We're
gonna go over it in this, you know what I mean. So,
like the iPad is such a technological fucking advance there, Yeah,

(13:26):
because it just makes it I mean, but you know
a lot of the older guys that came from the binders,
even when we had the iPads, would stay binder, like
Brady would stay binder.

Speaker 1 (13:36):
There's something about having something tactful that you can write
on and you have a pencil and you can put
it through. But I can see the simplicity of an
iPad that it's all fucking there.

Speaker 2 (13:45):
Yeah, It's just also the you know, the everyone prepares differently,
and like some people need to be pin on paper
because they by the time you could even highlight in
the plays on the fucking iPad, because you get your
sheets of play all drawn out, and I always used
to like to go over them with my highlighters and
my spots and colored coat and ate and my shit.

(14:07):
Like the X was always a red or you know,
you know, the Z was always the yellow, the pink
was the other, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (14:14):
And I would do all my and then in.

Speaker 2 (14:15):
The coaching point with the coach would say it just
sometimes jotting it down. Was I used to jot still? Yeah,
but I used my iPad for the film. The film,
it was like the best. Yeah, just it's all of it.

Speaker 1 (14:27):
Yeah. Did you ever see any guys and maybe this
didn't happen to New England, but did you ever see
any guys maybe play up injuries or a little bit
to get a little bit of like maybe some veterans
just not have to be participate as much or like
any little little games like that to just kind of
conserve energy. We were pretty good with that. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:45):
I remember when I broke my thumb bobby balls with
my ball guys.

Speaker 1 (14:52):
I was doing.

Speaker 2 (14:55):
I was, I was, I think I was rehabbing, rehaving
my shoul, I think, and I was running routes and
I was on pup and like I broke my thumb
doing ball drills and like they kind of I was
trying to get back and they kind of were like,

(15:15):
let's just like at that point in my career, They're like, well,
we need you in fucking January, June.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
September, right, now can you like you know what I mean?
So like there's a lot of that.

Speaker 2 (15:25):
Yeah, and you know there's always I the game is
the like the guys that barely make the team, that
whole injury stuff. That's yeah, And I was on that game,
but like I was never it's you know, do you
cut a guy to put him on or do you
medical red shirt?

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Or do you uh you know, do you you you
put him on? I R there's a bunch of those
things that I don't. I didn't. I was never a
part of I kind of know. But whatever, do you
ever see any out of out of the blue kind
of cuts or roster moves that like the team kinds
like oh shit, Like yeah, there was always there's always
like there was always.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
A joker maker, like a joker card or what do
they call that.

Speaker 1 (16:14):
There was always like just one. There was always like
a surprise make every year.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
But you like, when you were there for a while,
you knew who the guys were gonna, like you could
tell by you could tell by performance, how coaches talked,
h attitudes of certain players, willingness of certain players, rep

(16:39):
distribution to those players after doing well in certain things,
maybe in a completely different aspect of the game, but
you see them get rewarded, take advantage, Like you could
see that stuff.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
So like a fan might see, oh that guy got traded.

Speaker 2 (16:53):
That fan could also see like you know a guy
that has like a billion catches, but half of them
were like.

Speaker 1 (17:00):
Not really, you know what I mean. So there wasn't
any like big surprise because because when you're plugged and
you understand the patterns, you understand how it's going, it's nothing.
It comes out like.

Speaker 2 (17:09):
Low or five years to realize, yeah, you know they're
every But before that, I.

Speaker 1 (17:14):
Was like, oh my god, we trade Richard Seymour Yeah, oh.

Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, Logan Manks is gone, oh what we cut this guy?

Speaker 1 (17:24):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (17:25):
You know what I mean, because you never know what
they're trying to build the team for, you know what
I mean, And you don't know how because our our
team was always different because we wouldn't it's like standard
all right, usually can always keep six receivers, you keep.

Speaker 1 (17:38):
Five running backs, you know what I mean. Ours.

Speaker 2 (17:41):
I remember one year like we had like four receivers going,
like we cut down to four receivers. Because there's also
the free agency game of the other teams that your
personnel department's been eyeing and scanning to see who's let
go in that world.

Speaker 1 (17:55):
So it's like an ongoing thing. Yeah, what's the biggest
like faux pas or fuck up? You've seen a rookie do?
I mean?

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Anytime like an undrafted guy or a rookie like is
late to something, I'm like, I would just turn them off.
It means you don't think this is serious enough, because
I remember, like I I literally for a preseason game
when I was like bawling already. I remember I lost

(18:25):
the keys to my hat, my car and we had
and this was for a preseason game for the meeting
that I knew I wasn't playing in. I lost the
keys to my car. And is when I lived in
Foxboro and we had a new neighbor and I had
all the all the my neighbors were players that were
already at the facility and there was no uber. Yeah,

(18:49):
and so I'm literally on an island. I went to
a person's house. I had no clue of this new neighbor.
I said, Hey, I know this is kind of crazy,
but I have twenty two minutes to get to a place.
It's gonna take me fifteen minutes to go through. Now
you're gonna say it's gonna be thirty, but with the
way you'll drive with me in the car, we're gonna

(19:10):
be good on cops. Will you take me to my
team meeting? And it's literally yes, they took me. They
only lived that house for like they left.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
But you make it on time.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
I made it on time one minute I came sprinting
in Chattio, goes Bro, you could have just told me.
I would have fucking told you. We're good like sweating bullets.
I think I already had.

Speaker 1 (19:36):
A super Bowl. Could you just ride your bike?

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Well know the you can't because it was so it's
we used to stay like in share Walpool.

Speaker 1 (19:48):
Or Sheraton four points. Oh okay, it wasn't. It wasn't
receiving Yeah it wasn't. Okay, hotel, Okay, I got I
mean I went through it. Well. Shout out to your
and your neighbor knew who you were. You were able
to be like I don't know, Yeah they did, Yeah,
they did. Shout out them. Shout out them. What's the
biggest improvement you saw someone like maybe a rookie or

(20:13):
an undrafted.

Speaker 2 (20:13):
The biggest improvements I ever saw was James White really
and it was it was not just from training camp,
but it was from like his first year to his
second year. Like we he didn't I think he was
on IR or something. They didn't play much his rookie year.
I think we won a super Bowl. What year was
his rookie year?

Speaker 1 (20:33):
He was drafted in two thousand and fourteen. He's a
fourth front pick out of Wisconsin. Yeah, but he did.
He was on that team. So he has three super Bowls.
But I don't know how much he played his rookie year.
He played three games, yeah, yeah, and then he went
on IR. Yeah. And then no, he didn't play any games. Yeah,

(20:54):
he didn't play anything. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
And so when I remember, I remember watching him come
back from year too, he looked like a different football player,
like because he was in that program. They when when
you're not playing, say you're on practice squad or or
you're hur.

Speaker 1 (21:12):
Like they have a whole different life.

Speaker 2 (21:14):
They live with like the the wait staff, those guys,
and they're like breaking these guys and training these guys
like college style training where they have to wake up early,
get their workout, the run before they have to do
all the like the football stuff with the team, like
they work the fuck out of those guys, and a
lot of those guys that don't bitch and complain about

(21:35):
it and that take advantage of it. A lah James White,
yeah go on to be a lot better because of it.
And he is the prime example of that, someone who
you know didn't fucking bitch your moan when he was
a fourth round draft pick and didn't like really play
his rookie year was going on to a team that
went on to win a super Bowl with Shane Veren
who caught thirteen passes or whatever. You know, we'd like

(21:57):
kim go because James know and then you know James
did what he did, but like seeing him develop and
progress was like, man, he worked his fucking balls off.

Speaker 1 (22:10):
No, no, what are some like fun moments from training
camp things? Maybe coaches did this fin I know you
guys would go see movies. We go see movie. They'd
break it up. We do like a team movie. I
gotta see what movies we did?

Speaker 4 (22:23):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (22:23):
Loan Survivor did Loan Survivor?

Speaker 2 (22:25):
And Wahlberg came and talked to the whole team and
they rent out a theater and get all the snacks
and stuff for the boys unlimited, which is it's so
fun when you have that like surprise, Yeah, you know
what I mean. Now, it's like every four days you
have a day off in training camp. That would be
after like nine days of grinding, maybe eleven, you'd make alignment,

(22:48):
try to catch a punt when anytime you got to
miss a meeting or like there was a team thing
where we all had to come together to like get
out of meetings. That was the best thing in fucking
and rookie skits you need, Like I with the older
you get, the more you need the rookie skits because
it becomes repetitive. I've heard verbatims these same meetings. Yes

(23:11):
for you know, nine, ten, eleven, twelve.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Firearms got it? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (23:16):
Yeah, or you know you're literally repeating what coach says
before he says it, you know. So, like the rookie
skits are always just a great breakup and then you
get to also learn your teammates, which who's funny of
these guys who thinks they're a little too full of themself,
of these guys who's like got no heart when it

(23:38):
comes Like you learn a lot through these rookie skits,
you know, who's just a straight killer that like wants
nothing to associate with this, but plays so good that
you're like, Okay, fuck it, you know what I mean,
I put themself.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Out there to be a part of the team even
though they don't like it. Yeah, it's those are those
are the fun things. The movie was great.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
We did a paintball thing once, was that OTAs or regardless.
We did a paintball thing where we went as a
team in paintball, which was fun.

Speaker 1 (24:07):
Fun.

Speaker 2 (24:08):
We used to go to like the bowling alley up
the Patriot Place a bunch yeah, uh yeah. And anytime
like we'd have our family, we'd have like family days
were like you got off meetings early and they'd barbecue
and they'd bring in all the floaties for the kids.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
I remember Lily at a young.

Speaker 2 (24:28):
Age and getting to bring her and they'd put them
all on the in the stadium for the kids and
they're running around and I'm just sitting there like, man,
that's so that had to be so fun, as you
know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (24:39):
Like core memories for kids to see that stuff.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
Yeah, those those are and then like you know, just
the best thing, you know, like when when you're you're
those those days when when you're older, when practice finished,
it was like the best, but it changed on why
throughout your career. You know, it was the best because

(25:04):
you're shot, you're tired, like they used to work you,
and it was hot, you know what I mean, And
it was full go, full pad. And then you know,
when you're younger, it's just like to go out and
get like the line faster for food.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Or you know, like get a sleep bed.

Speaker 2 (25:19):
You know, by the time you're older, you get to
see your little kid come run on the field, and
you know, you get to go engage with the fans
and go engage with a lot of the Patriots Foundation
organizational people, which you know, it seems after a long
ass day of work, it's you know, it's a lot,

(25:40):
but it was always gives you a perspective afterwards, so
you know, and it also gives you the memories I
remember being that kid going to the training camp for
the Niners or the softball games for the Niners, and
you know what I mean, like those that's the fun
stuff getting there early.

Speaker 1 (26:01):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (26:03):
The process, the work, the process. Yeah, now it fucking
sucked and it was a grind. I don't I hated it,
like you hate it, but you love it and you
need it.

Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yeah, you know.

Speaker 2 (26:14):
It's kind of like when you're a parent and your
kid has a cough. Yeah, you know that they don't
like the taste. I have to pin like my kid
down to take the cough medicine.

Speaker 1 (26:24):
She's like, I get it.

Speaker 2 (26:26):
But when the cough goes away and they hate it. Yeah,
they hate the taste, but the cough goes it becomes effective.
They're like, oh yeah, yeah. It's kind of the same thing,
like that hill and we have to run that fucking hill.
How many times up and down the hill you think
you've run? I mean a lot, probably in the thousands,
thousands if you think about it. We do like seven
to six after practices an off season. You can you

(26:51):
can count that up. So that's six hundred in one season.
Ish you're you're saying, I don't know a lot.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
No, was there any sort of like this last question,
any sort of like ritualistic thing you guys would do
to signify the end of training camp, Like when I play,
we did doubles. When doubles were over, we go eat
our faces with China b fat shout out my crag
football they're dead now, but like we just like eating
China Buffet was like the end of camp and now
we're going. It's like anything you guys would do, like ritualistically,

(27:21):
that would be like, okay, camp's over, now we're fucking it.
There used to be the craft party okay in the Cape.

Speaker 2 (27:25):
In the Cape, but it it was always a little
tricky because sometimes there'd be a guy. There'd be a
guy and that didn't make There'd be a guy that
would go to the party and that got cut because.

Speaker 1 (27:37):
It's like a more of like a like would be
like a ring thing too or.

Speaker 2 (27:40):
No, it's more of like the final team okay goes
to not the final team, but like it's like the
start to the season when in theory you're supposed to
have your final team in the books. But we always
had like moving parts, guys get cut, bring guy in. Yeah,
So like that was always like you could tell who

(28:01):
thought they were comfortable and making the team is who
would show up to that party. But there were a
couple of times where there'd be some guys getting knocked
at the party. I think, yeah, but that was kind
of like the last because your family is again we're there.

Speaker 1 (28:18):
Is training. I keep saying last one, but actually last one.
How is training camp different the year after a Super
Bowl versus just a regular training camp.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, there's a difference because anyone who's new on the
team thinks that they're a part of it, okay, and
I don't realize how hard it is to get there.
And then there's a learning curve for that. And then
there's also you know, there's different situations for each year.
You know, sometimes guys are banged up going into it.
Guys get emotions. I was emotion you get emotionally drained.

(28:48):
Sometimes after a long period of success, like the training camps,
like what clears the cobwebs and Bill did a great
job of that, and the coaching staff did a great
job of that of always keeping you know, some would
say a little too good of a job at that
of keeping us level minded.

Speaker 3 (29:06):
Next up, how NFL players actually choose their agents?

Speaker 4 (29:10):
This is Lauren from Texas. My question is for Julian.
How does finding an agent work? Do they find you?
Do you go and look for them? Do they get
paid when you get paid? Who do you know to trust?
So that's my question. I like the podcast, It's really good.

(29:32):
Informative and positive.

Speaker 2 (29:34):
Thank you Lauren from Texas. How do you get your agent? Well,
I'll give you my experience. I was coming out of
Kent State, so I didn't I didn't have a lot
of agents pursuing me. But my coach, Doug Martin was
represented by Ian Duben Sports at the time.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
They do a lot of coaches too, Righthand have a
lot of.

Speaker 2 (29:59):
Coaches they have, they have coaches and I uh, I
met with a few other agents and they were all
I mean, you could tell there were some swindly dudes,
like some dude from Robert I'm talking east West swindlely. Oh,
so a little different, you know, like some Uncle Buck vibes.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
What's east west swindly? Midwest? Midwest? Did I say east West?
You're talking about the SRI.

Speaker 2 (30:25):
I was thinking about the shrine like some some just
it's just swindle business. And then you know, my, my,
my coach put a word into my to Ian Dubin
or something, and Don called me and basically gave his
pitch and they flew me out to la and so
that's how I signed with them. So if you're a
high talented guy out of college, there's there's guys coming

(30:47):
at you all day. And back in the day before
the guys were getting paid the agents, which my agents
were like like regular type dudes, like low key agents,
and that's kind of how I liked it, you know,
I didn't want the flashy, this kind of there's agents
that you know, back in my day, they would give

(31:08):
guys a bunch of money so like they could get
their car or whatever while they're training. It was basically
a loan that they had to pay back once they
got their money from their signing bonus, which I don't
I didn't do that, but that's what I've heard used
to be done. And then like the agent would pay
for the living, they would pay for the training, which

(31:31):
you know for three months that's fifty sixty grand, you know,
so that you get a loan from your your agent
and if or it, you know, they could do there's
some guys that'll eat that cost because if they have
a first round guy, they're going to make you know,
millions of dollars. So like, I don't know how they
pitch it to certain guys, but there was there was

(31:54):
deals within deals on how you got your.

Speaker 1 (31:56):
Agents back in the day.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Now it's changed completely nowadays, because these guys are getting
agents pitchdas out of high school though. Yeah, you know,
because there's agencies that represent athletes, that have divisions that
represent NIL. So now you know they'll they'll send over
their NIL department, get these kids younger and then feed

(32:18):
them into their you know, the big system of who
they are. You know, you got the Rosenhaus, you got
the other big ones to see. You know, there's there's
five or six big ones, and then you got like
these mom and pop shop agents, you know.

Speaker 1 (32:31):
And I wouldn't.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
Put my agency in that because they got some big
I mean my agent. Yes, they didn't have a boatload
of guys, and they had a certain amount of different
types of guys you know. So uh that's how you
got agents. I guess when when you're a pro, get connected.
You know, they start coming to practices.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
No, what else is an agent providing for you? Besides
just like thet ndered contract negotiations, so.

Speaker 2 (33:02):
On field, they're doing all the on like the negotiation
talks between the club and you. Okay, so the GM
or whoever handles the personnel on the on the team,
they'll call your agent anytime or if you want to
have something said you could you could have your agent
call and do that.

Speaker 1 (33:22):
So there's a good buffer system. Okay for business, mostly business,
nothing on the field, none of that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (33:28):
It's mostly just now off the field. Your agent also
can get you at like in commercials. They can get
marketing stuff, shoe deals. But also you know, there's different
agencies for different type things. So like when I was playing,
I had my football agent with Chusey and Dubin. They

(33:51):
handled everything on the field and they would get they
would get me stuff off the field. But I had
multiple people getting me stuff off the field.

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (34:00):
At that time, I had like a fashion agent person
person that was like when I was doing stuff with
Joe's jeans and with Cage and you know, doing all
this you know fashion e stype type stuff or or
appearance type fee or designing something like, I had an
agent for that so then they would get a cut
of whatever they brought me from there. And then I
had you know, a TV agent which was a different

(34:23):
agent than my dument agent, which was a different agent
than the fashion agent. You know, so there's there's multiple
different agents which I like to do it like that,
you know, there they are, Yeah, there are people, there
are houses like you can go to companies that have
one that does it all.

Speaker 1 (34:38):
Soup to nuts.

Speaker 5 (34:38):
Yeah, the big boys, Yeah, did like Ian Douban put
you in touch with the fashion and the entertainment people
or do you kind of do that on your own?

Speaker 1 (34:45):
A little bit of both. Okay.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
You know, they would look for my interests and they
would put me like the I think they got me, Yeah,
got me into a fashion weet or something, you know
what I mean that hasn't made friends there, and you
know that's it's just a lot networking and then you
find and then you know, yeah, so multiple different agents

(35:07):
for these athletes and especially now you have social media managers. Yeah,
I had a whole different department that was you know,
doing that and there was multiple different kind of so
called agents. It's not just one guy.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Now for your like the main contract agents they're taking
what three percent off of like gross or after attack?
Like what do they how do they actually get paid?
So you're you're agent on the field, the standard is
usually three percent of what you get your you're on
the field contract. Now there are guys that negotiate that

(35:47):
down that get huge deals, you know what I mean?
They can negotiated, give me if you do it for
one percent or now you're even seeing guys do it
on their own a lah, you know, Lamar Jackson. Now,
if they get you something that's not associated with the team,
like that's off the field, not your contract for playing
with the team, a Toastitos commercial, a Toastito's commercial, then

(36:10):
they usually would take like ten percent of what it
would be. Okay, so they would get three percent of
what you're on field, what you were getting through the
team for playing for the team, and then they get
ten percent of anything they brought you off from off
the field. And that's usually ten to fifteen twenty range.

(36:33):
That that that range, and that that comes from a
lot of different people. You know ten it's usually ten.
But you know, you get up into those model worlds
and stuff because you know, like you dip over and
you've done some stuff for that that market you get
like those agents they take like fifty percent from like
it's crazy. So like there's a whole Each industry is

(36:57):
a little different. Sure, and I'm sure the size of
each contract matters on the size of each what sure
that agreements between you know and with like the entertainment business.
There's the managers, there's agents, there's even lawyers sometimes.

Speaker 2 (37:14):
Yeah, so your agents are usually are a one stop shop,
so you don't have to do like in Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (37:20):
Yeah, it's all there. It's all in one. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Your your sport agent handles the team, so like you
don't have like in they're the lawyers that are doing
the legal legality work. They're also doing the negotiation they
you know, so like there's in sports, it's a little
different than Hollywood.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
Do you know anything? And I know that you don't
probably not experience it from your career, but as always
fascinating to me that like teams, let's say a player
is requesting a trader wants to get moved. That like
teams let an agent of a player seek out deals.
Do you know anything about there? I've never been in that. Yeah.
I thought that was pre or interesting that a front

(38:01):
office would like, well I made an agent go look
for some deals and speak on their agents.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
They have guys on every team, so you know, they
have relationships and that's what the that's the value of
having an agent is the relationship that they have with teams.
If he has a guy on that team, you know,
and he does good business with that guy, you know,
then the team's going to be more linked, you know
what I mean. And it's just that that's that that

(38:27):
was the whole thing when we were talking about Lamar's negotiation,
like there was no relationship between each side and each side,
which is you know that it's it's just new. That's
why it was looked at differently. It got done. But
he also used a lawyer. He did it more of
like a Hollywood contract.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
You'd get your own deal and your lawyer like Irons
and all. So that's what he kind of did.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
He did it so like in Hollywood, right, you get
your your agent gets a fee, your manager gets a fee,
and then then there's a lawyer that tightened everything up
and gets you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
I think he kind of handled it like that without
the others.

Speaker 2 (39:04):
He just you know, did the deal, which you know,
looking back, if I knew what I knew now, sick
frank on him. I wouldn't sick frank on him, but
I would, you know, I would know how to do
a deal, yeah, and I would just have a lawyer
tighten it up, yeah, and and go over you know,
and and the legality talk and you know what I mean,

(39:27):
all you have to have is your lawyer. You know it,
like you know now, but like and maybe Lamar does
now through that experience, which you know, that could be
huge going forward for him in his life, Like that
could be major. He's a pioneer. You know, anyone thinks
everyone's crazy for the first time they do shit, Hey man,
that trail Blazer, because.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
I was like, man, he's crazy. You don't got an agent.
What's three percent of That's a lot of money for
that contract.

Speaker 2 (39:50):
But it's also you know, it's a convenience cost and
more for your mind, you know what I mean. You're
you're paying that cost to let them do their work
so you can keep your mind on football, because we're
you know, at heart, you're paying the people to give
you the convenience so you can work on your craft,

(40:13):
you know what I mean. That's why I always had
a team of people when I was playing, Like let
them worry about everything, have someone find someone you can trust,
really go over that, and then you know, so you
can keep the main thing the main thing, and everything
grows if you do well on the field, no matter what.

(40:34):
Like I was talking to young guys at the Patriots practice,
and I was thinking about it. I was like, whatever
your goal is as a professional athlete, like when you're
on this team, the process is all. Whatever it is,
the process is still the same. Whether it's to be

(40:55):
the best player, whether it's to be the best teammate,
whether it's to make the most money, whether it's to
be the most famous.

Speaker 1 (41:01):
I like all those.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Whatever your goal is, to get to the best of that,
you have to do the same ship. So you might
as well do the ship and realize that those all
grow when you do the ship. I don't know if that, if.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
You are performing on the field, will trickle down to
all of this.

Speaker 2 (41:23):
Everything which ultimately comes down to that practice. That's why
that practice means so much, because you know what I mean,
you put so much time and effort in to get
your body as explosive as it possibly can. Now you
have these certain amount of reps that you have before
you go into pads. Every rep is freaking important, you know, And.

Speaker 1 (41:46):
Like you said, it starts with keeping the main thing
the main thing.

Speaker 5 (41:48):
So many of these guys like you want to get
over their skis and do media and social media, and well,
you're always your you know what, I mean like found right,
but like before you've done any you know what I mean,
like before you've done.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
But you also can tell like what guy's goals are
through you know what they are when we.

Speaker 1 (42:06):
Reselling your T shirts back when you were playing, like
you could have put the best design on the planet
out and if you get hurt or if you don't
perform well, or if you don't win a super Bowl,
it doesn't matter. Or if you could put out the
whatever design after super Bowl. It's it's just how it goes.
When the main thing is the main thing, then the
other stuff follows, and then.

Speaker 5 (42:23):
You gotta you just gotta worry about the head coach
of New England coming up to you MLA in the
lunch room and corner and you trying to negotiate deals
right then and there.

Speaker 1 (42:31):
One you call like Duban right after that, Hell yeah,
I righted his ass out.

Speaker 2 (42:37):
You know, we don't need to have the age is
involved here, you know, And didn't you know he goes
like this, Bill goes like this. He goes look like
you say something to your agent. I say something to Casario.
They say something like there's so many fucking people, Like well,
why we could just do this ourselves. He literally, you

(42:59):
say something something to your agent. He says something to Casario,
Casario says something to He's like late, that's what he's
laid out, like a nice try, buddy. I was like, Coach,
I I just I just let my agent do this.
I'm dumb football player. Oh I played stupid. Who he
knows everything about me.

Speaker 1 (43:22):
That old New England football coach. Fucking guy. Yeah, we
don't talk about him.

Speaker 2 (43:26):
We'll bleep that leap, that name until he comes in
this motherfucker, until his until he's right here on this
goddamn couch.

Speaker 1 (43:33):
We're bleeping his name.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
Now what NFL media training is really?

Speaker 4 (43:37):
Like?

Speaker 5 (43:38):
What is like media training like in the NFL when
you get drafted?

Speaker 2 (43:44):
At least when I was getting drafted, I still believe
they still have it. You go to a rookie symposium.
Now undrafted guys don't go, but all the draftees they
go to a symposium and it's a seminar that breaks
up into class and workshops and a lot of game

(44:04):
type learning activities in order to like inform guys about
the wealth they're about to come into, how to deal
with agents, how to deal with the media. I'm sure
nowadays they probably have a workshop or a station that's
about social media because it's such a big impact and

(44:25):
it kind of walks these guys through the introductory stages
of what it's like being in the NFL with all
these responsibilities.

Speaker 1 (44:33):
Is that where Chris Carter tells you get a fall guy? Yeah?

Speaker 2 (44:35):
Yeah, that's where christiary moment. Yeah, he says, you gotta
get a fall guy. So media has worked into that now.
It's also broken down each team with all their rookies.
Usually the rookies have a certain amount of hours that
they could be at the facility to learn rookie stuff.

Speaker 1 (44:58):
So like after.

Speaker 2 (45:00):
Organized team activities or mini camps or even training camp
two days a week, the rookies have to stick around
for a presentation of whatever that theme is for that day,
and sometimes it would be media.

Speaker 1 (45:14):
How to handle the media.

Speaker 2 (45:17):
In New England, we used to have we used to
have one of the generals. He was the guy who
handled the media. He was in the Navy. He handled
the media immediately after nine to eleven for the White House.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
Oh wow.

Speaker 2 (45:40):
He would come in and teach us basically how to deflect,
how to dictate, and how to take control of an
interviewer when you're being.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Asked a question, how do you do that?

Speaker 2 (45:54):
Well, whatever someone answers or asks you, you can answer
however you want right. And there's also deflection things where
you don't you know, we always had like keywords where
ask coach Belichick, you know, if we got uncomfortable, if
we didn't know what to say, like outs, outs, we
had outs. And the only reason we would do this,

(46:16):
and we would do these little media teachings or handlings
or seminars is because we didn't want the media to
be a distracted a distraction. And you know, I know
Bill gets a terrible rap for how he handles the media,
but like that's just strategic. So he doesn't give anything
to the media that other guys sometimes do. Like if

(46:41):
you listen to a head coach going into a game,
sometimes they'll give you the first goddamn fifteen plays they're
gonna run because they're gonna tell you we've been emphasizing this,
we do this, this, this, and it gives you, you know,
it gives you a little advantage if you if you're listening,
you know what I mean. So, or if you listen
to a guy to say, hey, you know, this whole week,

(47:01):
we've been working on our drop back pass game because
we feel like, all right, so fellas, put your antennas up.
They got some drop back pass that we're gonna be seeing,
you know what I mean. It's stuff like that that
can be used as an advantage for your opposing team.
So that's how why Bill would bring in certain people
like this guy who deflected everything after allowed show us

(47:24):
little techniques. But that's why he would do it because
we didn't want to a give anything to the opponent.

Speaker 1 (47:30):
B We didn't want to make any.

Speaker 2 (47:31):
Distractions because football and pro football for an athlete and
a coach is hard enough. It's fucking hard to win
the National Football League. Okay, now try doing it when
you have a spygate, a fucking a murder, a fucking deflate,
like then it makes it even crazier because all you're
being asked after that point is about that specific thing.

Speaker 1 (47:55):
So it becomes distraction.

Speaker 2 (47:57):
And that's something that happened because of how maybe someone
handled it in the media, you know. So we were
just always taught that, like we're here to get better
and because that's ultimately what we're really there to do.
If you're not lying and you're not just giving a line.
That's literally what the focus should try to be. Like

(48:18):
when you ask someone about an injury. Okay, if you
go out as a player and you say, well, you know,
I think I'll be back in six weeks. Okay, comes
back in four weeks. Oh, well, the doctor didn't know what.

Speaker 1 (48:31):
He was saying. Is he ready? Is he ready? Is
he not?

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Comes back in four weeks and gets hurt again?

Speaker 1 (48:37):
Oh was it too soon? All right?

Speaker 2 (48:38):
He says six weeks? It takes eight weeks? Oh what
the setback was there? A setback? Was the rehab terrible?
Oh he's not healing. So you know, why would we
go out and say that, Because all you're gonna have
to do is answer about that again. So like that's
what you know, getting better each day in the injury thing.
The whole injury answer that you always hear is because

(48:59):
that's the honest truth. You don't want to put a
deadline on something that you have to be accountable for
when you don't really know how your body's going to react,
because yes, that's what it is for standard, but you
could be either above or below the standard on that
specific injury.

Speaker 1 (49:15):
So like there's just a bunch of ways.

Speaker 2 (49:17):
That we were taught literally taught on how to handle
the media through you know, multiple different ways, you know,
with the team, with the NFL our team. Individual team
was a little like a little more about it, and
that was just so we didn't make a distraction, which
is an oxymoron considering what's going on North Carolina.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
What were some of your favorite like deflections or like
go to like out phrases. My favorite was always just
as bill. Yeah, so if I'm like, oh, Brady's been hurt,
is he going to be there's whispers if he's going
to be playing?

Speaker 2 (49:54):
Do you have any information on that? You just go
well on that I would speak more. There was a
set of lines, speak for yourself, okay, put the team first,
don't believe the hype. Ignore like there's all these little things.
So if I'm not I can't, I can't speak for Tom.
You go ask Tom, Go ask to ask Tom. You
don't want to speak for someone. So that was something

(50:15):
that he we always talk about, give me another one,
let's try it again.

Speaker 5 (50:17):
Look like you got a little banged up on that
third and seven catch out there.

Speaker 2 (50:21):
How are you feeling you know it's after a game.
We were all banged up after a game. You know,
we'll go in this week and try to get our
body back to the best we can. You know it's
gonna be against another new tough opponent. But it was
good to get out of here with a win and
get that play in. But you know, after games, we
all were all banged up.

Speaker 5 (50:41):
There's a lot of controversies surrounding the most recent wide
receiver signing. A lot of people saying that it was
shouldn't have signed this guy amidst everything he's got going
on off the field. Well, can you tell us how
it's going in the wide receiver room.

Speaker 2 (50:54):
Look, you'd have to ask coach on that. I'm I'm
just here to worry about improving myself. All I keep
hearing is if we all individually improve ourselves, collectively will
improve as a team. So I'm just taking Coach Belichick's
words and I'm trying to improve myself.

Speaker 1 (51:08):
You guys, coach on that.

Speaker 5 (51:09):
You just lost forty three to seven, second straight loss.
What needs to change around here?

Speaker 2 (51:14):
We need to fucking coaching staff this place, fucking son.

Speaker 1 (51:21):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (51:22):
You know, it's tough to win the National Football league. Uh,
you know, we got to get back to the little things.
It all starts with practice. So I'm sure that we're
gonna have, you know, a good week of practice this
week to give ourselves a best our best opportunity to
go out and when we need to practice better.

Speaker 5 (51:39):
Were there ever we just did a fun little roleplay exercise.
There was there ever, like a a practice role play
with you guys, like before the season.

Speaker 1 (51:47):
Yeah, okay.

Speaker 2 (51:47):
It would be like that would literally call like the
rookie guy like all right now, uh, rookie, how fast
are you going to be?

Speaker 1 (51:57):
Uh? You just got hurt. How many weeks are you
at out? Uh?

Speaker 2 (52:02):
And the guy if he was listening, but he'd be like, yeah,
I don't know. Day to day, day to day, you
know what I mean, It would be like you passed. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:14):
It was always so much easier for the defense as usual.
Always were there reporters that were a little bit more
safer than other reporters. Uh, what do you mean, like
Mike Reese knows the deal and he's not going to
come in.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
Yeah, you kind of knew just through local beat reporters report. Honestly,
I think the local people in Boston have always been like,
I was always pretty decent with.

Speaker 1 (52:41):
All of them.

Speaker 2 (52:41):
I feel like I never felt like none of them.
I never had a bad instant where I felt like
someone was out to get me or you know, I
understand if you understand what they're trying to do and
what they have to do, And sometimes you don't because
it's right after a game and you're you'retionally, physically, mentally exhausted.

(53:02):
But their livelihood is to try to report on your team.
And this reporting, essentially is what makes our sport our sport,
you know, giving the media access to the players which
the fans get are granted and that's what it makes
the thing go. So it's hard to understand that as
a player sometimes, but I felt like we were everyone

(53:26):
was pretty I mean, there's guys, I felt pretty decent
with everyone.

Speaker 1 (53:32):
We were also a decade into like the Belichick regime.
They kind of all knew the deal.

Speaker 2 (53:36):
You know, we had a lot of media in our
locker room always, but it would get heated up when
we would play, like the playoffs, and you know, when
you get the people that are coming from the other
cities that we don't play very often, how they would
ask questions, would be different than how the cowboys are
in town. Yeah, like they don't know how we handle

(53:59):
our meat, you know what I mean. But I felt,
you know, Boston gets this whole rap. You know, their
sport talk is crazy, you know, whether it's the radio
is But we didn't see those people in the day
to day locker room, you know, like the people that
were all the beat writers and stuff.

Speaker 1 (54:14):
I remember when fucking Ian Rappaport was a little beat writer.

Speaker 2 (54:18):
A bunch of the guys on the on the on
the TV now that are all like, yeah, big TV guys.
They all started doing this ship, you know, and then
they hustle.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
They're hustlers.

Speaker 2 (54:27):
They're in there every day trying to make a fucking story.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
And you got to think about that, and you know, it's.

Speaker 2 (54:33):
Not our job to give them a story.

Speaker 1 (54:36):
But it kind of is. No, it's true.

Speaker 5 (54:39):
So it's like we don't understand that relationship isn't even
taking the you're right, what they provide to the game,
it's changed his whole perspective.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
You know, and it is it is hard for an
athlete after you get your teeth kicked in and you
lose a crazy game, and you know, they got asked
the questions, but it is hard to answer or answer
question that you think at the time are stupid, right,
but it you know what I mean, it's it's part
of it.

Speaker 1 (55:07):
And I think that the media, you know, there's.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
A lot you could tell that there's a lot more
media training now for sure.

Speaker 5 (55:13):
And you think about a city, I mean, I'm a
homer for sure, but like you think about Boston. What
other city has two twenty four hour sports networks, two
news major newspapers with like Hall of Fame level columnists,
insane sports radio that like is I mean like making there's.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Probably like yeah, like three, there's like Chicago has, probably
New York probably has that.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
Dallas just for football.

Speaker 5 (55:39):
Yeah, but Dallas doesn't have the network. They don't have
They don't have like NBC Sports Boston to that capacity,
Like do they not?

Speaker 1 (55:45):
I don't think so In New York. I think New
York they have their own.

Speaker 5 (55:48):
Yeah, New York does for sure, But it's just it's
I feel like the like you said, the microscope and
wanting to make stories and be in there every day,
and like the level of professionalism is is really turned
up in Boston.

Speaker 2 (55:59):
I don't Yeah, yeah, but I just think it's you
can use the media like you can use them in
a positive fashion. Oh yeah, you know, there's there's countless
guys that always got to break with them because of
how they treated them. You know, you look at like

(56:21):
how Matthew Slater would you know, or like if if
you like, he would always treat the you know, the
everyone with so much respect that because of that respect,
they would out of respect, they wouldn't ask him stupid questions. Yeah,
I like that, So you can how you are to
them is how you're gonna be treated.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
Yes, so get them on your side. I'm with you,
you know what I mean a little bit, and I
you know, I I don't know.

Speaker 2 (56:47):
I'd be tired in some days with certain certain people.
But there's no hard feelings now now that I'm in
this side of on this side of the the line,
it's like now I appreciate what they do because I'm
sitting there a not in New England anymore, and we
still have to talk about them.

Speaker 1 (57:04):
I love to hear about what's going on with the Patriots.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
So I'm I'm relying on the beat writers now on
what's going on, even though I know, you know, with
what they write is you.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Know always you still get something out of it.

Speaker 5 (57:18):
I was gonna say, because when it's training, camp time
or even practice refreshing Mike Reece's Twitter like Mike, Yeah,
they're the voice of the what's going on and keeping
it real.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
How often, like what are your media responsibilities like through
any given week during the regular.

Speaker 2 (57:31):
Media responsibilities, you are available if you are not hurt
every day to the media Monday through Thursday, or Monday
through Monday through Friday, or could be Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,
like our our main practice days after practice media is
in there, or or it's before practice.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
And available meets like in the locker room after or
like car have.

Speaker 2 (57:52):
To be available for that was another thing, like half
of our guys, like more than half of our guys
whenever the media was in there during the regular day
was like out. They they didn't want it. Everyone was
so scared to say something wrong that no one wanted
to do. The media scattered, so everyone would like be
in the weight room or you know, somewhere, and you know,

(58:16):
usually you have certain guys that would talk, and you
had certain days after a while that you would go.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Usually it was probably like once a week when did
they when were they allowed in the locker room. They've
been they've been a win. Yeah, Like is there like
a there's a softer practice, there's an hour that they
can be.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
So during the work week practice or during practice week,
they're there an hour Like right before you're about to
go out to I think is it before?

Speaker 1 (58:41):
I think it used to be before.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
It used to be before practice and then after the
game you have ten minutes to like clear your thoughts
and then they come in right after ten minutes.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
That's kind of crazy, and then you might get called
to the podium.

Speaker 2 (58:58):
Then then Stacy James is like our media guy. He
would call certain the certain and round up the guys
that would go to the media, or he would kind
of give you the you know, hey, we're just going
to do you.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
At the locker.

Speaker 2 (59:10):
He was like the main point of contact for everything
between with everything, Like if you didn't go do media
for a couple of days, Stacey would come and say,
you know, yeah, I've done you haven't done media in
a couple of days. You know, the NFL can find you.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
You know.

Speaker 2 (59:26):
He would kind of be a reminder and he he
used to have to like he used to have to
deal with everyone, you know, coaches, players, anything to do
with the media, Stacy James, He's.

Speaker 1 (59:37):
Dealt with us on the other side when we were
doing the documentary. Yeah, that's such a tough job.

Speaker 2 (59:43):
I can't imagine going to the head coach after getting
losing in a super coach we got to go do
media or you know, grabbing Tom or grabbing Gronk or
you know, he had to grab everyone at the highest
of the highs, but also the lowest the lows.

Speaker 1 (59:59):
That's brutal.

Speaker 5 (01:00:00):
So was he if and if say you did slip
up and you did give him a sound bite and
you did say throw somebody under the bus?

Speaker 1 (01:00:07):
Is Stacy the guy you go talk to or they
would call you. What happens if like someone says something
that gets to be national news or boltimbore material.

Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
Oh that very next day, team meeting eight o'clock sharp
could be headlining the fucking coaches meeting things, not what
to do in the media.

Speaker 1 (01:00:28):
Oh so the whole team's here, the whole team.

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
Oh jeez, this is an example of what we are
not supposed to do. And then play like a clip,
play the clip, read the clipping to you.

Speaker 1 (01:00:41):
No, but did he do it to Light. Didn't Light
say he did it to him. I believe that for
the you, the media, yeah yeah, or the union, the players. Yeah.
Were there any like habitual line steppers. No, Because what
our coach would do.

Speaker 2 (01:00:57):
Is before, like in his teaching on how to do
the media, he would grab examples from other teams, like
this is like what we're not supposed to do, okay,
and then the guy would say, yeah, you know, you
know it's it's look, it's fucking mini camps. Like this

(01:01:18):
guy was in college last year and this is what
he says. And he'd go like, look, you know, I
think I'm going double digit sacks this year.

Speaker 1 (01:01:27):
I'm the fastest. And then Bill he would read it.

Speaker 2 (01:01:33):
But how he would read it would fucking everyone start
laughing at his ship. Look, he'd read it like elevens. Look,
he'd have like a little like fucking Lawrence Taylor didn't
even do that. And then he keep reading you know
what I mean, yeah, just like just killing the kid.
And then he'd go like uh and then and then uh, yeah,

(01:01:57):
So he would give us examples on what not to do.

Speaker 1 (01:02:01):
That's pretty funny. That's that's the guys that like regularly
show upon Sanders.

Speaker 2 (01:02:04):
Yeah, no, I'm find it'd be current just heard because
those guys could say stuff to Bill and Marshawn Lynch.
It'd be like a no name guy saying something that
like is fuel on the fire for the other guys.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
What part of your career did you start getting a
little bit more leeway and not just for like you know, interviews,
but with some of the media that we were doing.
Social media, Yeah, commercial social media.

Speaker 2 (01:02:32):
I would say after the super Bowl, the first first
super Bowl, you know, I mean after the first big
contract maybe, yeah, but you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:40):
Know it's a New England medium moment.

Speaker 5 (01:02:42):
I really like And I would like to find this
specific item when Chris Long wore the Julian Edelman mask locker,
I want to find that. We got to get that
in the nuthouse, freaking low behind that again, I don't
even know he just bought. He spent like two thousand
dollars on getting a mask made of my face and
he did the media in my yellow shirt, my red

(01:03:04):
beanie in my mask.

Speaker 1 (01:03:06):
We have the picture I put it there. Fucking Kyle.
I think about that like kind of word of Chris.
It's kind of nailed it. He kind of did is
that your Those are my earphones that I used to
wear all the time. Is that a Red JA eleven?

Speaker 2 (01:03:25):
No, that's the I would always turn my hat inside out,
So it was just Red.

Speaker 1 (01:03:29):
I don't know why I think about that, like somewhat
often he's so fun, he's he was a fun teammate.
Chris is the man man.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
But yeah, it's It's also media is very different now
because a lot of these you know, it's going to
be interesting to see what the league does because a
lot of these guys won't say anything to the league's
media and then they just hold it on their podcast,
which is brilliant, which is smart. Absolutely, which is brilliant,
like Micah yep. And there's the the Saint Brown's yep.

(01:04:02):
I mean the kels Kes. Absolutely, they're the.

Speaker 1 (01:04:04):
Pioneers of it.

Speaker 2 (01:04:05):
Really, there's other guys that do it, but like they
were really like two prime guys active that were prime
Active stars.

Speaker 1 (01:04:13):
Yeah, guys that weren't going to get the call you
know every Tuesday, Prime Active Stars.

Speaker 5 (01:04:19):
What do you think would happen if, say, the year
is twenty seventeen and you went to New England's head
coach and said, starting.

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
A podcast coach weekly. We talk football every week.

Speaker 2 (01:04:35):
I have guests on you know what at that point
in my career, if if it was done, I used
to do a radio show. That's true that the team did, right,
you would do it. We would do the radio show
for like you would do the radio show and they
would give you like one hundred flights of jet blue.

Speaker 1 (01:04:54):
Oh that's what you get for it. Yeah, that's pretty cool,
you know what I mean?

Speaker 2 (01:04:56):
Like yet, yeah, mint nice, but you get taxed on it,
so you're paying thirty three cents a dollar. But regardless,
you would do like you would get paid stuff for
that radio show that was associated with the organization. So
if I knew what I know now, what I would
have done is probably formulate my own and make it

(01:05:20):
we're out about things I was comfortable talking about, and
then hire my own my own advertisement so I can
make money directly instead.

Speaker 1 (01:05:29):
Of Brain Free, Big Brain podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
I would probably, Yeah, that's what the guys are doing now,
you know, cause like.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
I mean, we were pitching games with names and making
games with names of thing when you were still playing,
like we were going to set that up now potentially
we did not. Yet we were pitching it and it
would all kind of happened right when you were starting
reg now, I thought we that was like twenty nineteen,
but we developed We were developing it to do while
you were still an active player.

Speaker 2 (01:05:55):
We were a podcast, not games with names. We didn't
know the concept yet because.

Speaker 1 (01:06:00):
The reason why we did it Evergreen and on Tuesdays
was because off day and it wouldn't be touching hot,
taky shit and you could record a bunch.

Speaker 2 (01:06:08):
You could never interview someone on a Tuesday. This wasn't
thought about until at least nineteen. But you were still
playing in nineteen, I know, but it wasn't seventeen. Well, semantics,
and you were still active.

Speaker 1 (01:06:19):
You were still active two years we were formulated. While
seventeen and nineteen that's two super Bowls. I had a
good football left to be played. Yeah, that's a different
that's difference. And like if you were active or not
that if you had played another year, you probably would
have been doing this show while you were active. Now
it wouldn't have been like talking about fucking the game

(01:06:42):
right after the fact. We probably would have recorded a
bunch in a row in the off season and dropped
them out. It was hard for me to do that stuff.
Though I know.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Like I would, I don't know if I would have
been able to do it, because you got to be
able like that's we also.

Speaker 1 (01:06:56):
Didn't know what we didn't know at that that point
right about it wasn't what it is now. There weren't
many active guys. We didn't know what we were doing.

Speaker 2 (01:07:03):
Then I did think about the team whenever we did anything.

Speaker 1 (01:07:09):
That's the difference between you and most other guys.

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
You know what I mean, Like I, I didn't want
to get too big with in loud with our stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:07:17):
What if your place starts slipping? And then remember remember
with the fucking NFL Films documentary in Mexico that you
recorded that we were down in like June or something
in Mexico, you tore your a CL and then that
August or whatever, and then that aired after you toy
your a CL and people were like, why is you
skateboarding with an ACL? They couldn't comprehend that we did

(01:07:39):
it off and there was a lot of heat, not
a lot, but there was enough people talking about that,
so ship like that. Yeah, it's just sad because you
got to think about it.

Speaker 5 (01:07:46):
There's no I in team, but there is an eye
on Instagram, and there's eye in Twitter and TikTok and
Twitter and TikTok. Yeah, you gotta think about that. No
YouTube makes no sense at all. But I'm just saying
it YouTube.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
There is a to b the tube. Okay, all right,
I think it was terrible. I was sure we've missed
a lot of questions. I'm sure we missed a lot
of like intricacies that people might want to know about
the NFL media. So please the media landscape, So please
put your questions in the YouTube comment section or anywhere
you can comment. We've been pulling them on doing it.
So any more questions and nuance on this stuff. Please

(01:08:20):
let us know about educating the fans. Yeah, maybe shout
out Mike Grease starstruck at Our. At our premiere, Mike
Greese was like, oh my god, first wrote like my
first article. I think he went to a Jewish camp
with the soft He's got aura. Mike Grease has aura.
Mike Mike Reese felt safe because.

Speaker 5 (01:08:39):
He's a good he's straight up man. He's not some
gotcha guy.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Yeah, he's a.

Speaker 2 (01:08:42):
Legit and he would he would like let you know
when he like, sorry, tools, I gotta ask it, but
you know, like literally you could see in his eyes
and it hurt him that he had to ask me
a certain question like yeah, I don't even know.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
But you know, probably he's getting pressure to get some
stuff too. Yeah. Shout out Mike Grease, Shout up OUTC, Tom, Tommy, Jeff.
How was good? Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in
every Tuesday for a brand new episode and every Sunday
for another Games with Names Highlight

Speaker 4 (01:09:16):
H