OTB Sports: Julian Edelman

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
If you were a character in the office, who would
you be? I'd probably be you. Secretly, everyone thinks, oh,
he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But you know,
I know how you got that money to buy that bar.
At the end, you're basically in the whole time, you're
the smartest one there. All right, Well, listen, that's a theory. Hi.

(00:33):
I'm Julian Edelman, twelve year NFL veteran for the New
England Patriots, three times Super Bowl champion, Super Bowl m
v P producer, content creator, analyst on Inside the End. Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we get it. You're a stud streaming on Paramount. Okay, okay,

(00:54):
Julian and lastly transitioning into one of the hosts of
the greatest forced podcast of all time, named Games with Names,
on a mission to find the best game to dog
of all time. Greatest of all games. Yeah, that's me.
How you guys doing, Hello, my friends, and welcome to

(01:20):
a very exciting episode of Off the Beat Sports. As always,
it's me your host, Brian baum Gartner. Now you just
got a little sneak peek from my interview today with
the legendary I think we can call it that legendary
New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman a man, well

(01:43):
you could say, a man that really did his job
over twelve seasons in the NFL, three Super Bowl wins
and the distinct honor of being the m v P
of Super Bowl three. But you know what, it seems
like he could have just on a little bit more.
Am I right? Well now he is. Julian had an

(02:06):
incredible career on the field, and now he's expanding his
reach into the wonderful world of entertainment. He's starring on
Inside the NFL and now into my neck of the woods,
a brand new podcast called Games with Names, which I'm
excited for you to hear about. But I'm also excited

(02:26):
to dive into our interview today. So strap it in, folks,
slap on the old helmet, and uh let's get ready
to hear from one of football's all time great wide receivers,
Julian Edelman. Bubble and Squeak. I love it, Bubble and

(02:50):
squeak on Bubble and Squeaker, cook it every month, left
over from the nut before. What's up, Julian? How are
you doing? I'm good? How are you? I'm good? I'm good.

(03:13):
I'm just I'm out here in Los Angeles. Oh are
you in Los Angeles? Now? I am, I'm in Los
Angeles now. Well, you're a big entertainer now. I mean,
not that you weren't before, but you know that's where
the entertainers live. I hear my daughter lives out here.
That's why I live out here. I'm a nor Cow kid.

(03:34):
I'm a Northern California kid. So it's it's it's different.
It's different where I'm from. By the way, just off off.
Your voice sounds. Really it's a good, good voice for like.
I don't know if it's the headphones that I'm wearing
right now, but the voice sounds. It's a good voice.
You like me, You like me in your head, that's
what you're saying. You're in my head right now. Thank you.

(03:59):
I mean, that's that's a great compliment. I mean, you
have a you have a face for television. I've got
a voice for being in your head. I guess do
you think I could have gotten in your head? Do
you do you think I could have gotten in your
head on the football field? No? Come on, no one could,
No one could get in my head. No one. The

(04:20):
only person who could get into my head was my me,
like I would give myself like that's the only thing.
But usually other guys I was pretty good at that,
you know, especially when I was in the prime of
my career. Like early on in my career, I was
still learning. But once I knew the material and I
once I was comfortable and I had experience and remembered things,

(04:42):
like I was so confident in my ability that I
was getting in other people's head. Yeah, I know that
about you, but I still I feel like I could
have gotten in your head. I feel like I could
have found some button to push that would have stopped
the Patriots dynasty. No, no, because anytime a guy I
would try to do that, like it's like that's the

(05:05):
last thing you want to do, because especially if you're
on like a if you're on a good team, like
it's never gonna go down like that. When you're on
like a mediocre team and you're playing like week eight,
you're eight, no, and this other teams like two and six,
and this guy's talking and you already it's like the
middle of the year. So the first part of the year,
you're excited the season started. Then you start getting beat

(05:28):
up that there's a middle chunk of the season where
you're like, man, it's a grind. You know, you're mentally,
emotionally just exhausted. And so sometimes when that would happen,
it gave you a little spark because you go to
that one of those crappy teams or a mediocre team.
It's hard to get up to play that when you're
you know, when you're always doing well, and then you know,
so you would use that kind of stuff and you

(05:49):
would put it in your head and create a story
and then I would attack that person and I would
try to embarrass them. Yeah, that makes sense, That's probably
what would have happened. Um, I want to go back.
You talked about being a nor Cow kid. You grew
up in Redwood City, California. How would you describe your childhood?

(06:10):
Good childhood, great child sports, sports and more sports, A
lot of sports. But I had a great childhood. You know,
my my parents were you know, hard working, middle class people.
My dad was a mechanic and very involved in my
whole sport life and just in my life in general.
My mother was, you know, the lady that kind of

(06:31):
kept everything together, stayed at the house, raised us there
was no crazy struggles, but it was definitely, you know,
it was a tough taught childhood just because of how
my father, how demanding he was of of me, specifically
in my family, for achieving greatness out of practice or

(06:51):
you know, doing you know a spelling you know, the
spelling words for the week. He'd worked with me and
homework and he was just he'd always pushed me, and
you know, it was tough, but I wouldn't be where
I'm at without that childhood, right. What was your what
was your go to sport growing up? Was it football
initially or no? Yeah, I mean I was. I was

(07:14):
on the football field when I was in diapers because
my brother was seven years older than me and my
dad coached him, uh in Pop Warner. He started playing
when he was eight. So I grew up on the
field around the coaching staffs and you know, organized football,
and it was like the you know, like the tough
guy thing. And I was really good at baseball. I
played a lot of baseball, but I had too much

(07:36):
a d D like, especially as a young kid, and
I played a lot of basketball as well, but I
just couldn't. I had to have something like my mind
would float off in like the middle of the third inning.
You know you're picking daisy, and then you have to
like focus up, and you didn't get that same feeling
you felt when you scored a touchdown. Like scoring a

(07:57):
touchdown when I was a kid, like that was the
most electric, euphoric feeling. I used to dream about it
at night, like on certain things I could. I still
have the same dream a cutback, spin move turn when
I started dreaming it when I was eleven years old,
because this guy Tafo, he told me about it once
and when I was like eleven, you gotta if you're

(08:18):
in the sideline, you gotta stiff arm and then spin
off and then keep it going. And I would dream
that same dream over it because I love that, you know,
that touchdown feeling. I don't know the other sports I
loved him, but they never nothing compared to my love
for the game of football. Mano Imano man Verse Man

(08:38):
man Verse Man. So the the Oklahoma drill, you like
the Oklahoma draw? I mean you don't like the oklow.
It's Oklahoma drill is fun for a time and place
when you're young. But I'm just saying, like, you know
you're playing man coverage. It's it's literally the you know,
this man is trying to cover you using technique, good tellnique,

(09:00):
using your strengths, exploiting their weaknesses and finding that's like
a that's like a puzzle every time, you know. And
then when you get to beat that man, he knows
you you can beat him every time, you know. I
don't know. That's just that that that got me going
when I was a kid and kept it going to laugh. Now,
I'm told that in eighth grade that you would sometimes

(09:23):
pretend to be Tom Brady. True, yeah, like eight Yeah,
I mean he was a berry a kid. He went
to Sam and he was from San Mateo. I lived
in Redwood City, which was a town over a couple
of towns, San Carlos, Belmont, Sam, San Mateo. And he
I just loved. He was a scrappy guy. He didn't

(09:45):
get drafted in the first round. You know, his whole
college story when he was at Michigan where he was
battling Handy because he was the guy that was supposed
to come in and make Michigan the best. And all
Tom did was just grind and win, grind and win.
And I just loved that about him. When I was
a kid and he was from the Bear So there
was that connection, Like you rooted for him, and he

(10:07):
already had a Super Bowl in two thousand one. I
was in eighth grade and so like this on the
asphalts of Recess and be like, I'm Brady all time, QB.
Let's go. And so it was his It was it
was his ability to grind and the fact that he
had adversity through college and and and and getting into

(10:28):
the NFL. That's what you admired. And yeah, he was
the underdog. Yeah, he was always the underdog, even when
he wasn't the underdog, but he was always treated like
the underdog. And he just keep kept proving people still
to this day that he's not. He's the top dog.
He's the alpha dog. And I love that. You could
tell he had that killer instinct in him, and he would,

(10:49):
especially when he was younger, You're getting all fired up,
and you know the TV would catch that, or you know,
it was just I liked him. He was a fiery guy.
He didn't reminded me of Montana. I was a Montana guy, right. Well,
I heard you had two two dogs growing up, Dwight.
What was it Dwight in Montana, Is that right, Tim Dwight, Yeah,
Dwighton Montana. We had him for about eight months until

(11:13):
they only listened to me and they started biting people
and they had to get rid of them. They were
like these they were black labs over pictures. My parents though,
they were like so much we found out like it
was crazy, but I was like, yeah, we can't be
having this. These guys are nipping. Okay, you are quarterback
for your high school team, barely five ft tall, a

(11:37):
hundred pounds. Yet your senior season you lead your team
to a thirteen and oh record yards twenty nine touchdowns,
another thirteen touchdowns rushing. You're good, I mean and no North,
I mean California football. This is this is legit. And

(11:58):
so you might wonder who was recruiting you for college.
No one was, is this right? No one offers you
a scholarship? Yeah, zero scholarship. You know, we had a
really good football team that was in my senior two
thousand four at Woodside. We had a we had an
unbelievable running back by the name of Tyrese Jacks, and

(12:19):
so we had, you know, really good receivers like we
I went and poached a bunch of the basketball guys
and recruited him to come play football down Dominic, Duncan Cruise,
Kenneth Walker, we had Spencer Garrison, who was a track
kid who I played football with a lot. So we
had like it was like a perfect storm. So you know,
it was really Tyrease was like the show. He was

(12:40):
rushing for like two He was the guy that everyone
was looking at. I mean he was a man child
on the football field in high school, you know, and
I was a late bloomer I was at by that
time in my senior year, I was about five eight,
you know, you know, probably buck sixty, buck fifty. Yeah,
I didn't get recruited out of it, but you know
that that all those stats and stuff. I mean, back

(13:02):
in those days, you just throw it, throw it his
higher high and far as you can to that guy
who's six six Duncan Cruise, and you know you're gonna
get touchdowns. So we had. That was a fun year
and that was one of the you know, you know,
you still think about your high school days to go
out the way we did because I don't know, if
you know, the year before our season got canceled, we

(13:22):
had a full mutiny on head coach. There's a chant
going on in the locker room. It was on like NBC.
They covered it like nationwide. Our principal canceled our season
with like three games to go because no one would
rat on who started like this chant in the locker room.
They brought it every single teammate, every single guy, and

(13:42):
said and asked were you in the chant? And everyone
said no, and and they said, uh, do you know
he started the chance? And they said, I don't know
the whole team, So they canceled our season. So that
it was that was a perfect storm that that that
senior year where we just went out and we were
so mad. We went out and wirt know and it
was it was a great, great way to go out. Man,

(14:03):
it was so fun. Did you consider giving football up
at that point? I did? Uh not? Not. At that point.
I was in a you know, I was in an
area and I had a lot of friends that they
were all getting their acceptance letters to you see Berkeley,
and some would go to the party kids to go
to Chico State and you see Santa Barbara or Stanford

(14:27):
and you know, and I was in limbo, like what
am I gonna do do I try to go to
junior college too. I mean, you know, you're you're I
wasn't highly recruited, so you know, you still have that
that that mindset of when you're going into something unknown,
especially when you're that young, and you know that's a
big transition to go from high school to college, whether

(14:50):
it's community college or a regular four year college. You know,
these next four years of your life are a huge
part of building your foundation and what are going to become.
I never thought I wasn't gonna play football, but there
was an anxiety going into that decision of like, what
do I do now? Right? Right? Well, yeah, you go

(15:13):
to San Mateo where you do play football, you have
a school record for rushing yards, you are still playing quarterback.
Does that start to get the attention of schools. Yeah?
So I ended up going to College of San Mateo.

(15:33):
Our head coach Larry Owens, he was a Redwood City guy,
and I I have to admit I originally wanted to
go to College of San Francisco because College of San
Francisco was like the big dog junior college in the country.
They get a lot of bounce backs guys that went
to like a four year full ride. Some would get happen,

(15:53):
you know, kids would get in trouble, they'd have to
go back. And this is before the portal days, so
that they would go to Juco for a and then
get rerecruited so you didn't have to lose a year.
So you get a lot of those guys that would
go to San Francisco and uh, I'm I'm honestly so
glad I didn't. And because CSM was so me it
was once again an underdog kind of school, a tough

(16:15):
group of guys that worked their tails off, and that
was instilled through the coaching staff Coach Owens, coach Taller,
coach Pollock, and uh, you know, it was a It
was a team that everyone around the Bay Area was from.
You didn't get guys from other states and stuff. So
there was a camaraderie between playing and that in that environment,
which is the last time you get to play with

(16:37):
people you grew around, you know, because then you go
to college, you go to then you go to like
I went to Ohio after that, and you're going to
the Midwest and I'm a Bay Area kid. A melting pot.
There's Polynesians and black kids, Mexicans, there's Asian kids, you
know what I mean. Like then you go to Ohio,
white and black. You know, it's it's completely different. So

(16:57):
like that is a special year in my life because
that was the last time I got to play with
like my people from where I'm from, you know. And
and that's what CSM was really about. A tough group
of guys, young men that are that are like treat
it like it's a family. You know. Once a bulldog,
always a bulldog. And that's when I started getting a
little notoriety. We had a really successful year. We went

(17:20):
to the Bulldog Bowl and played this guy, Brent Shafer,
who was a really stud quarterback, one of those bounced
back so he was a starting quarterback at Tennessee. Came back,
played uh at College Sequoia is another junior college in
northern California, and we were playing in a bulldog game
and we ended up with a win, ended up like
number eight in the nation. And then after that, that's

(17:42):
when I started getting, you know a little more attention.
I got a lot of attension. You know, I was
starting to get letters from Pac ten schools, Big ten schools,
eat SEC schools, Big twelve schools. You know, I was
getting all these letters, which I was a static. You know,
no one's ever wanted me, and it probably made nothing,
but I was getting letters and I like that was
the biggest high. I wanted to be wanted, you know

(18:05):
what I mean. But then these letters kept on saying
the same thing. We want you to stay another year.
We don't have enough scholarships. You talked to the coaching stuff.
We don't have scholarships this year. We want you to
stay another year and produce that same kind of statu
and we'll take a shot on you. Or they wanted
me to change positions. And you know, then I come back.
It was in the winter and we were doing some

(18:25):
running as a team and I'm walking up the hill
and coach Tullock or Public. There are two different guys,
but the same SEAE coaching Staff's real I run, It's weird. Uh.
They came up to me and and he goes, yeah,
there's a school ken't State that wants to talk to you.
They flew in or something. They want to offer you
a scholarship and bring you out. And I was like,

(18:48):
where's Ken State is it? Because my goal was to
play quarterback at a Division one level, and like it's
a D one because there's a couple other like D
twos and stuff that we're coming. And I was like,
I'm cool with that. I won't play quarterback at D
one and they're like, yeah, it's D one, it's in
the MAC. I was like, what's the Who's in the MAC?
And they're like, you know, like Bowling Green Miami, And

(19:08):
I knew Bowling Green because that's when Brandon of this
Jacob's quarterback back in the day, he was in the
Heisman hunt, like in that little area of my high
school and junior college life. He was lighted up. And
Ben Roethlisberger went to Miami, Ohio, and you knew of
Ben Roethlisberger. So then I, you know, I I went
and took the visit, and you know, it was definitely
a culture shock of everything aesthetically on like how Ohio

(19:33):
is like built. It's like little hills and you know,
pretty flat, and and just the people and very comforting
and heart of the earth type people, and you know,
it was like I went out there and watched the
practice and I was like, hey, I can start right
away here, and you know, I wanted to. That's why
I ended up committing to their coach Martin And you

(19:55):
wanted to be quarterback. That was it for you. I
wanted to be that, yeah, and that gave you an opportunity.
You became three year starter, Derek. Kent State. A good
decision for you to go there, A great decision, unbelievable decision.
Part of my story, part of my foundation. Love Kent
State University, Love Northeast Ohio. I mean I learned a

(20:15):
lot in those three years in college on the field,
off the field, you know, perspective of of how that
part of like the country and like I never left California,
so that was like a huge thing. I remember my
mom crying when I left. You know, it was like
my third time on our second time on a plane,
you know what I mean, Like, you know, I loved it,

(20:38):
and then you think about it football wise, you know,
see I did go to a big school. I changed
positions right away. Then I'm dependent on, you know, a
quarterback to throw me a ball. Maybe you get eight
to fourteen targets a game. You go on that you
have six seven to you know, nine catches a game

(20:59):
or whatever like that. That's balling out in college, you
have to do that. For three years as a receiver.
I had the ball in my hand every single play
at Kent State, So either I was distributing it, or
I was showing my athleticism while running, or just showing
that I was a football player. So, you know, and
I learned how to play in the cold. You know,
it just so happened. I went to a very cold

(21:21):
place in New England, and I started playing in snow
games in Ohio and then the weather out there is
outrageous crazy. I mean, I played in a game against
the Ohio University at Kent where we had a lightning delay, hail,
and then by the end of the game it started snowing,
and then at like at the beginning of the game,

(21:41):
it was like hot. It was crazy. I never I
never experienced this. I'm literally it's seventy five and sunny
where I grew up my whole life. You know, maybe
it gets the fifty we're throwing on a hoodie, but like,
you know, it was crazy. So I learned a lot,
I met a lot of great people, and I honestly
loved Ohio, Northeast Ohio, and I'm I'm a static that

(22:05):
It's part of my journey because once again it goes
into that category of that underdog, you know, like can't state,
can't read, can't rag, can't state, you know, And you
go into the locker room in the league, and I
loved it. I was from Kent State and I'm still
in the same locker room with you who You're at Alabama,
you went to USC you went to Oregon. You guys

(22:27):
did all that with all that great facilities, all that money.
Probably got a pay cut when you came into call
the pros because you guys are getting paid out then.
And I'm still in the same spot, you know what
I mean. You have an amazing career through high school

(23:00):
and then in college, but you're working hard in not
the biggest places. Are you thinking you're going to the NFL?
Is that always a part of your consciousness? I mean
I hear at some point you thought you were going
to become a firefighter after college. I looked into it. Yeah,

(23:21):
But are you always thinking about the NFL still and
that you can play at that level at that time
of my life? No, okay, you know subconsciously that's your dream,
you know, when you're When I was an eight year
old kid or a seven year old kid watching Dion Sanders,
Jerry Rice, Brent Jones, Ken Norton coming off the field

(23:44):
thrown gloves. I wanted to be that guy, you know
what I mean, That's what I wanted. So obviously it
was a dream. But when I was there were so
many things that went on in my life where I like,
I hurt my back my senior high school a little bit.
So I go to you know that that was also
a part of the story, and you know, baseball end up.
Quentin went to Juco. Juco had to like battle to

(24:06):
take out like the first they had a first string
quarterback and that's like a senior quarterback who started the
year before in junior college because it's only two years.
So like that was a task and I wasn't like
thinking about anything other than just trying to win the
job and then trying to win games and keep this
guy off my back. Then I go into CSM and
I'm kind of the same predicament. There's a you know,

(24:28):
a prototypical six ft six gun sling and bounced back
guy who played in baseball. He's like twenty eight years old.
I'm like nineteen battling against him. So like I had
that story narrative that that was in my mind. Then
after that, it's just about winning games because the pressures
of you know, when you get to college, the game

(24:48):
is it's it's still a game, but there's a lot
more on the table, you know what I mean, There's
people getting fired if you don't do well. You get
focused on people that gave you an opportunity to go
the place you're at, trying to work hard and and
and repay them through the results you try to put
on the field, you know. So then I was dealing

(25:09):
with that, and after that, I'm trying to make the
NFL am I gonna be this? Am I going to
be that? So like I always in my life have
always had to worry about what's on my plate right now,
and it's always served me to the best. And you know,
in grand in like the grand scheme of things, it's
probably the best. So then it keeps me, you know,
blindered up. Yeah, Uh, it seems like the right time

(25:34):
to talk about you have a connection. I mean we
talked about you have Dwight and Montana, your dogs that
you unfortunately ended up having to give away. You also
have a connection being from the Bay Area and you
live around Jerry Rice. Now I understand you dated Jerry's
daughter when you were in high In fact, you took

(25:55):
her to prom. That to her, I went to her,
I went to her. You went to her problem. Okay,
so she invited you to her prom? Yeah, I guess. Yeah.
And then when you were in college. My understanding is
is that you said the following that you needed to

(26:18):
get addicted to the Jerry Rice mentality and that you
needed to work hard. You needed to get up before
everyone else and outwork them. And there was a hill
that he made famous in in Redwood City that he
would run up for training and you would start training
on this hill. Is that right when you would come

(26:39):
home from college? Yeah? Yeah, Yeah. Me and Jaqui we've
you know, we were little kids from eighth grade to
like high school and you know, dear friend and you know,
a little puppy love. So that was always fun and
that was a fun experience and an unbelievable thing. And
she's an oblieble person and they're a great family that

(27:02):
I you know, I was around a little bit, but
as far as coming back from college, you know, and
really taking on the mindset because then you at that
time I was really researching, you know, great people and
who who who more than than Jerry Rice, who I witnessed,
you know, in his forties catching a thousand you know,

(27:24):
catching a hunter ball or going for a thousand yards
in his forties. I mean the um longevity, the discipline,
the sacrifice, uh, and the hard work that he put in.
And there was like a documentary that I watched. It
was like an older one and I saw that hill
and everyone knew Edgewood Park over there on the border

(27:45):
of San Carlos and Rodwood City. There was like a
three mile track that you could do. And there was
also a hill at Kenyatta College is a junior college
at the top of the hill in Redwood City. And
it was like a I don't know if my masks on,
but like it was probably like a sixty degree pitch
and you would go from like it was sandy hard

(28:07):
to like hard and then you have it was probably
like a hundred a hundred and fifty yards up, so
it's not like a thirty yard you know thing. And
so yeah, I would go out there and I would
try to outwork people and and and you know, run
that hill, because that's what Jerry Rice did. And then
when I became a receiver, you know, catching bricks, that's

(28:28):
what Jerry Rice did. You know you hear that, and
and and now you're seeing all these these to transition
and a completely different tangent. And now that's why you're
seeing the receiver position transition into the NFL faster than ever.
It used to take some time. But I think with
the information that these kids have on how to practice,

(28:50):
what to practice, what to eat, how to recover, like
all these things you could learn on social media, and
with the information that you have in your poem. I
remember like going like stealing a DVD of this Jerry
Rice thing and throwing that in and like you saw
him like running this hill with like I think Ricky
Waters was in the background or something, and like you
know what I mean. So like, yeah, yeah, that's awesome.

(29:14):
Despite you working hard, you don't get an invitation to
the combine in two thousand nine, but your shuttle drill
time was faster than anyone else who was there. Now
you don't get invited to the combine. You've graduated with
all these unbelievable numbers from Kent state, what what are

(29:39):
you thinking in your head? Are you are you getting
drafted or is your football career done? What? What are
you thinking? Well, at that time, I was committed. You know.
The time I was in limbo was like immediately after
my last game of college, you know, there's like a
you know what is that? That's you end? And we
never went to a bowl. So we'd ended November early December,

(30:05):
and then like you have a couple of months to
see what you're going on and and that's what happens.
So that was the time where like I went and
visited a firehouse and Cincinnati, and you know you just
kind of throwing shipped away and seeing what sticks sticks?
Can you swear on here? I'm sorry? You want so? Uh?
You know That's that's what I was doing with with

(30:25):
that when I was doing like my train once I
went to training, and once I i I started really
taking it to a whole another level as far as
like I was how much I slept, how much I
ate training twice a day, trying like doing everything, going
to class at night. Every time I compounded a week

(30:45):
of that, my confidence went higher and higher. And then
once I didn't get invited to the combine that pissed
me off, you know, So that was that made me mad,
and that made my pro day that much more important,
so than it gave me more time to compound hard work.
You know, all the consistent things that I was doing
to go out and perform on that day that I

(31:07):
had to for the scouts. That gave you extra motivation.
I mean I already had the motivation, but it was like,
all right, that's that's lame. We get it cool, you know,
all right, what I went to a MAC I rest
for like yards that year. I threw for like almost
two two thousand of my senior year in college. And

(31:28):
you're not gonna let me come to the combine. It's
fucking bullshit, Yeah, because I'm at mad at the MAC
right now? Are are you? Are you thinking at all
at this point that you're still going to be a quarterback? No?
By this point I hired my agent, Don Yee from
me and Doubing Sports, and uh, he instilled a lot

(31:50):
of confidence in me. And you know, with what Don
said to me, and he's seen a lot of football
players over his career of representing guys, and you know,
you gotta be kind of a talent agent when you're
an agent, and he kind of pumped me up. And
once he started doing that, you know, then I was
working out and I linked up with Charlie Fry. He

(32:10):
was a starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns at the
time and he was just just transitioned into the Raiders.
He was starting at the Raiders, and he trained at
the same facility I did in Euclid, Ohio, which was
like on this it was like a Rocky four training
montage video when you rolled up to this place like
potholes on the side of a fuicking like railroad track,

(32:32):
and like, I don't know anything about Cleveland because that's
the only place I went into Cleveland. I usually stayed
in camp, but I was thinking it had to be
the rough area of Cleveland, and like, I loved it.
It was just like a grind and he went there
and so we linked and so I started working with him,
and he was giving me insight of like just as
a quarterback, what quarterbacks like in and out of their receivers.

(32:53):
Do they like flat to downhill on in cuts? Doing this?
And he, you know, he worked with me, which you know,
I'm in debt to him for a long time because
he was a starting quarterback taking a shot on a
guy that he said, oh, you know this guy works hard.
Let me, let me rub off and throw with him.
And you know, I would just be in his back
pocket and ask him questions and let him talk. And

(33:14):
you know, that helped me a huge And he'd come
and throw my my workouts so that we had a
built in timing and stuff, and he kind of taught
me a little at the beginning stages of running routes
and uh yeah, that's that's when I started playing quarterback
or receiver. But I got worked out by some teams
like the Pittsburgh Steelers work they wanted they worked me
out as a safety. They wanted to be seeing me

(33:36):
do some safety drills. The Patriots initially sent their running
backs coach and put me through running back drills. So
you know a lot of a lot of guys were curious,
especially in that year two thousand nine. I don't know
if you remember. In two thousand eight, that's when the
whole Wildcat bad came. You know, the Patriots got blown
out by Miami and the wild Cat so everyone, you know,

(33:59):
you get these little trends in the NFL and and
that was like, who who could be like throwing type
running back for a potential package. And that's when my
stock started raising. Interesting, do you have any idea before
the draft who who's really interested? So I had in

(34:20):
my mind who I thought was interested. And then you know,
so draft day comes and first day and I going
first day, first day, No, so I didn't even watch
the first day. Back then there was only two days
of draft. Now there's like three or four, you know
what I mean. He starts on Thursday Friday. But I
was on day two, which is like the late rounds
and about you know, I went on and you go.

(34:43):
So the process goes. You do your combine pro day
work out individually for teams. Teams fly you out for
visits to meet with their doctors, to talk with their
upper department, like their gms, and see the facilities and
they just kind of want to pick your brain. And
then the draft comes. Now I did like seven workouts.

(35:05):
I did like five or four trips, and like so
everyone gauges like how many trips you go on you'll
potentially get drafted. You know, yeah, you probably can get
drafted if you went on like four four more trips
you know what I mean. Like, so as a late
down guys, that's that's what you're thinking about. You're talking
to guys. And I went on a visit to Miami,
and I like, I was like, man, this is my

(35:25):
first time in Miami, Florida. And you go out there
and you see the facility. You see like the work life. Like, man,
I see like Joey uh Joey Porter. Joey Porter is
hitting like golf balls in the practice field. There's like
pre made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and like a
cool like cafe and I'm like, man, this is awesome.

(35:46):
And they brought me in there, you know, they test
me and they worked me out a bunch, and so
I thought there was some interest with Miami, especially with
the Wildcat. And then I went to Chicago and then
I went to a couple other spots San Francisco, which
it was like a regional thing. But I originally thought
Miami potentially might give me. But in like the first

(36:09):
day the second round, they got Pat White and I'm like,
well that's gone because he was like a running quarterback.
I'm like, oh, well, they're not gonna draft two guys,
are they like something like that's gone. And then the
sixth round starts coming and there's a bunch of there's uh,
you start getting calls from teams for like a priority

(36:30):
free agent. We had like four or five teams call
that like, hey, we're not going to draft you, but
if you go on drafted, we'll give you twenty dollars
to sign with us and we'll bring you to camp.
And so the sixth round ends and I'm talking with
my agent and you know, I'm kind of sad I
wanted to get drafted, you know, because now I'm just
starting to get all these deals. But then we turned

(36:52):
on a different cap and I'm like, all right, now
we gotta focus on what's our plan of action going forward.
We put down the teams and we decided, you know,
the Hackers were a team that wanted to, you know,
offer me a contract. I was like, well, you know,
me and my agent came up with a decision that
that would probably be the best fit. So we're talking.
He goes, all right, if we go undrafted, will sign

(37:14):
with the Packers. We'll take their offer up, and we'll
go there. They don't have a slot, they don't have this,
they don't have a punt return at the time, and uh,
that's our deal. And then it is right before I'm
about to hang up Don, which is Brady's agent. So
he's dealt with the Patriots, and he's got like a
little you know, you know what I mean, he knows

(37:35):
how the handling that he knows like certain tactics, and
he's seen it for at that time twelve straight years,
you know, with Brady. Right, and he goes, you know,
the Patriots did. And the Patriots didn't bring me in
for a visit. They worked me out twice and they
drilled me on like chalkboard. The second time. I'm like, oh,
these guys hate I'm like, I call protections here and

(37:57):
they're in college as a quarterback, but like I don't know,
I'm over here making ship up. I'm like, yeah, that's
over front. Uh, this guy comes, he swings out, you know,
and Ivan fears he's testing me. He's like, what the
funk you call it that? Or I'm like, yeah, it's inverted,
you know what I mean. I'm trying. So I'm over
here like they fucking hate me. They think I'm dumb,

(38:20):
and all of a sudden, right before I'm about to
hang out my agent after making the decision on the Packers.
He goes, you know, the Patriots did trade and get
another seventh round pick. You know, wouldn't be surprised if they,
you know, picked you up. I don't know, but I
wouldn't be surprised, you know. And then later on in
the later part of the seventh round, Yeah, you know,

(38:41):
I got the call and they picked me, and Don
was right, and that was history. How how excited were
you to be one to be drafted and two to
be going to a team, a real contending team at
that point in the middle of their dynasty. I mean,
I'm was. I was very excited, you know. I mean

(39:02):
that was That's like a dream when you're That's the
dream you had when you're a kid, is to get
to experience that with your family, your friends, you know,
getting to go out and get an opportunity to play
in the National Football League, throwing the helmet, get free towels,
free socks. I went to Kent State. We had to
pay for like protein shakes in our locker room. We

(39:22):
had a vending machine, okay, you know what I mean,
like all the little things like it just I thought
it was so cool, like that was so pro. That
was like a word we used to say, like if
a guy looked good and he was all like, you know,
Jerry Rice, he was like a professional, always had his
little towel, and you know what I mean, like you're
gonna get to become potentially a pro. But then, you

(39:43):
know how my mind works, I instantly started thinking. I
talked to my my agent, and he goes, well, you
didn't make the team yet, you know, he just got drafted.
And so then I started, you know, looking it up
and like seventh rounders barely make teams. You know there's
there's already a long shot. So then you instantly go
into you know, the mindset will now everyone, all my friends,

(40:03):
all my family, they're all happy. Now you gotta go
out and you gotta go put the work in. You
gotta go do it. Yeah. How different was the work
when you started a training camp and started working with
them from the work that you've been doing on your own.
Completely different. I was training just to get like good times,
and you know what I mean, Like when you're training

(40:25):
for the combine or you're training for your pro day,
you're training for the drills that you're getting tested on.
That's completely different than having football legs, especially for a
guy that's never been in a full practice as a
receiver or a special teams guy. I was a fucking quarterback.
I was like of the periods in college. I'm sitting

(40:45):
there playing goalposts throws with sucking the quarterbacks while the
special teams goes defense. You know what I mean, Like
quarterback schedule is completely different, or doing drills. You're throwing
a lot, you know what I mean, Your your legs
don't get tired. As a core her back. I remember
I would run and get so tired and like, man,
I have to go do this again. I don't know
if I could, I I might as well just throw

(41:06):
this one in the least. Like when you become a receiver,
you're running all practice long. I was never used to that,
so I had to like learn that you have to
get your football. I was dead. I was shot, like
I was so my my rookie training camp, and that's
when we had double days, so you had run run practice,
run game in the morning, passing the afternoon. It was hot, muggy,

(41:28):
and in Boston. I mean it was completely different. I mean,
it just was. It was something that I've never been
used to the amount of yarded. You were putting on
your legs at a high you know, at a higher velocity.
And I was on everything. I was on, you know,
punt punt return, kickoff, kickoff return, back up holder, on
field goal, field goal block. You know, when you're a

(41:51):
rookie trying to make the team, you barely play offense.
I would get like three reps and then you go
play like after practice they would put like the guy
newcumbers and you guys get to scrimmage each other, you
know what I mean, Which is a pivotal point in
your improvement process because you're getting those reps. But you
know that's compounded on top of a full fucking practice

(42:13):
where you're on scout team doing all the scout team
reps you're doing. You know, you get three reps when
the starting receivers tired, then you gotta go the whistle blue.
I'm what am I own? Is it fucking punt pup? Like?
It's just like a whole another It is crazy and
you and you you're trying to make a team and
you're in the New England Patriots. There's a fucking there's
a standard, you know, it's It was one of the

(42:35):
most stressful. And then you get home at night. You
have to study in your room because you're you're you're
learning a new language. You know, when you when you
learn football, especially there's like three systems, four systems. I
was in, you know, kind of a West Coast type
offense in college. This was completely different. That takes a lot,
you know, you really have to compute that, and guys

(42:56):
that don't, they're not there. You know, it don't matter
how how good you are out that if you can't
get lined up right and know the fucking snap count,
you're gone, you know what I mean. That's a lot
when you have to compute that all right, what's the formation,
what's personel, what's the play? Who am I on this play?
What's coverage? What's because everything changes, you know, so the
ability to process that's a lot of stress for a

(43:17):
young football player in this league. That's why, you know,
I feel for a lot of these younger guys. You see,
I'm watching training camps right now. You watch these guys
that are like, you know, they're all over the place
because there's so much going in these guys mind. When
you're a young guy, a late round to undrafted guy.
You're not like the first rounder who's over here laughing,
drinking water because you know he's getting paid, Like you're

(43:40):
sitting here like a cornered animal back against the wall.
I'm doing everything I can to make this team, you know,
I mean competing, and it was like a whole new
experience and you're trying to work harder than everybody else. Right,
That's that's the philosophy. That's that's what the work that
you put in, and that's what you're doing there, right.

(44:00):
The rabbit gotta be the rabbit, and everyone's chasing when conditioning,
you know, going to the drill to drill, when the
whistle blows, you're running like you gotta expend a lot
more energy if you're trying to be seen. At what

(44:32):
point through O t S and training camp, at what
point do you feel like you're going to have a job,
You're gonna have a spot or was it not until
the very end? I felt like I made some ground
After the first preseason game. Tom Brady the year before
missed the complete season towards a c L. Matt Castle
at his year that year that he went on to

(44:54):
Kansas City. So this was Tom's first game Lincoln Financial Field,
Philadelphia in Sylvania, two thousand nine, August seventeen. I don't
know if that date is right, but it sounds like
in that it could be like a four game window
where it's off on there. Well, it was against the
Eagles and it was in two thousand nine. I have
that done, but I don't have the day, but go ahead,

(45:16):
and so you know, this is Tom's first game back,
and so he's I mean, when you have a big
time injury, like an a c O, which I've had
through my experience those first couple of games, Man, you
could do all the rehab, but there's no live bullets
and you ain't getting hit, you know what I mean.
So there's a psychological battle, there's a psychological hump that

(45:38):
you have to overcome through the play of the game
after a huge injury. And and the whole team, you
know what I mean, it's Tom Brady. So the whole
team's you know, a little edgy at our first preseason
game because we were about to get some clock because
we wanted to you know, we wanted to see where
we're at. We get a game time decision Welkers not playing.

(45:59):
That was his back up all camping well and in
camp and also Scotty O'Brien special teams coordinator. He comes
up to me pregame he says, we're gonna have you
cover a kick. We're gonna have you cover kicks. You're
gonna return punts. You're gonna we're gonna start you at
punt returner. And like the whole time in camp, I
really wasn't so like they wanted to see me. So

(46:20):
I was starting that receiver. I was starting on kickoff,
kickoff return, and punt. First game, so electric it was.
I was so excited for this game, but so focused
and like kind of very nervous. And first play of
the game on kickoff, I make a tackle. Awesome, great,
then we go three and out. Uh, then we we

(46:42):
they score something and then first playoff offense, Tom gives
me a swing signal and he hits me on his
first throw coming back from the A C L and
so like, And then I had like five catches in
that game. I was getting open a little bit. You know,
things were starting to pay off. And at that point,
you know, you go against the same guys over and over,
they learned your tendencies and I didn't know how to

(47:03):
run routes yet, so I didn't know what my tendencies
were even working at the time. So in camp I'm
getting covered. But then you're learning this new stuff in
the game against guys that don't know you, and you're
making plays. And then finally, you know, they go back
on defense and we go back on defense. They punt
up a kick and I returned to punt for a
touchdown like a seventy five yarder. And after, you know,

(47:25):
like after that game, my confidence got higher, and it
wasn't like I was gonna make the team, but I
thought to myself. I looked into myself as like, I
can play here, I can play in this league. I'm
gonna be all I'm gonna be all right. I didn't
know if I was making team because I end up
getting hurt the next I sprained my ankle next week.
So after that, like, was that enough to make the team?
Oh my god, am I gonna make the team? I

(47:46):
don't know that I've seen you know what I mean,
You just never know. But the versatility that I showed
throughout camp in preseason, you know, I had a lot
of backups to guys, you know, so I could back
guys up. So that made the versatilities with Ultimate really
kept me on the team. Yeah. The Patriot way when
when when are you introduced to the Patriot Way? Is

(48:07):
it right away or is this a gradual way that
you learn first day? First day? Read the sign when
you walk in, there's a sign with there's a sign
when you walk in, Be attentive, work hard, put the
team first, do your job on the sign out. When
you leave the facility, there's a sign out. Don't believe

(48:29):
the hype, speak for yourself, ignore the noise, and always
put the team first. Like you walk in the building,
you see the sign, see all the trophies, You see
the pictures, and you see Tom Brady's pictures, West Welk,
Greeney Moss two years ago they were eighteen one. This
is a big time team, you know. And then you

(48:50):
go into the auditorium. You know, coach addresses the whole
of the rookies because this is rookie camp. You going there,
it's like Darth Vader walks in or like God or
something when built, because like everyone's like different things. Those
are two different things and Darth Vader but okay, but

(49:11):
definitely Darth Vadery. He walks in and like there's a
little chatter, guys, you know, everyone's kind of excited. There's
like sixteen and the whole team is out there. This
is just rookies. It's like sixteen guys, and there's all
the coaches up in the back and there's like there's
like they're not they're like coach assistance. They're guys that
are trying to become coaches, but they're like little do boys,

(49:31):
so they gotta do everything. They gotta turn on the
lights and fucking get everything ready. And all of a sudden,
like and all of a sudden, one of the coaches assistance,
he comes comes over the middle of auditory and puts
the podium, sits down. Everyone sits down, and and fucking
Bill walks in the lights like shine up. Place gets
completely silent. All of a sudden, he singles someone out.

(49:55):
He's I think he's singled Uh, it was probably Chunk.
He'd always single out, but you know, the first round
guy because you know, hey, you're not you're not a
first rounder anymore. You're all trying to make this team.
And he goes, who's that on the wall because all
the walls had all these like moments of last year
of players making cool plays. He shows a picture of
Logan Mankins. He goes, who's that or or Matt Light

(50:18):
one of the two, and he goes, I don't know,
and he goes, he don't fucking know. I don't know
if it was Pat, I don't know who's singled that.
But he goes, you need to tell me. You're a rookie,
never even played in the game, and you're gonna have
this guy is gonna be sitting here and three weeks
and you're not gonna know his fucking name. After that,

(50:39):
everyone went to like the guy who's in the operations
guy gave me a print out of like of everyone's
name everyone, like in the fucking cafeteria, people around the hallways,
people are like study like you know what I mean.
He wouldn't like pick on a guy, but he would
What he would do was he would he would he
would let everyone know that everyone is accountable for everything,

(51:03):
you know what I mean, Which that's like you're on edge,
your shoulders are back whenever he walks in the room,
because you never know if he's gonna test you what
you know, so like, especially your young guy first time,
first team meeting, that that, and that's when you're like,
oh yeah, it's done differently here. And then a couple
of weeks later you start seeing the veterans come in
and you see how they work, you see the time

(51:23):
they put in. You know, it's not like, you know,
the superstars are over here dilly dacking around. They're they're
working their asses off, They're doing things to get better,
you know what I mean? And that you know I
there's no specific fucking playbook of the Patriot Way. You
just see it through actions of people that have been there.
You know, Teddy Bruski walks in and it's Teddy Bruski

(51:46):
still working his ask Kevin Falk, Tom Brady, Randy Moss,
West Welker, you know, like the studs. These guys went
eighteen and one last year. I was still like a
little kid. So like it is like, all right, yeah,
that's the Patriot Way. When you see the top of
the top working their tail off, holding everyone, holding themselves accountable,

(52:09):
being reliable, being dependable, Do you eventually develop a relationship
with coach Belichick that you're able to relax? Is there
is there a point in time once you learn how
it's done and you become one of the older guys.
Does that happen ever or is it always? Yeah, it

(52:33):
happens a little bit here, it happens. But I mean
he he'll still get on you if you don't. If
you're not it doesn't matter who you were, if you
weren't producing, and if you did something wrong and you
need to be coached, you can coach it, you know,
which I don't know how, you know, like, but it
got to a point where I could walk by him

(52:53):
and like in the hallway and like, hey, coach, Like
I'd always give him like one of those hey coach,
have you just like fuckingman, I go, but I don't.
That was like year eight eight years. Oh that's crazy
that long? Really Yeah, I mean, I mean you could

(53:17):
tell when like he would dick with you. That means
you're not you're in the game. But like like like
little things, it's very hard to explain. It could be
a look, it would it didn't even have to be
the words. It could be a look or a smile,
a grin. Yeah. That there's like a lot of nonverbal

(53:37):
communication that goes on. Interesting that's going on all the time.
Brady now has referred to as his security blanket, his
little brother. This is the guy you looked up to
and pretended to be when you're a kid. Who were
you more nervous or intimidated to meet and work with

(53:58):
Bill or Tom bhil I was more like scared and nervous.
That's the coach, you know. Tom was like, I mean,
you'd feel that same. You never want to let anyone
when you let someone, like when you do like a
mental era Emmy on a player, he didn't do something
the way it was. I felt like I was getting
cut at those early years. You know what I mean.

(54:20):
You don't want to disappoint him because ultimately, you know,
as a quarterback, if the guy can't do him practicing
and can do in the game, so that you're limited
the opportunity, especially as some brown guy. So you know
you're definitely nervous. But to meet Tom and you know,
be around him, that was just kind of like Dan boy,
get a little fan, a little like, oh man, what's

(54:42):
up Tom? Hey? How are you doing? Like I the
first time I met him, I'm running too? Like a
special teams like pre meeting, like a meeting pre pre meeting.
A guy would have to go to like the special
team's coach, like fifteen minutes before the meeting, or like
sometimes even hours before the meeting, and like he would
explain everything in the meeting to me, and then I

(55:03):
had to, you know, like he just wanted that he
was my guy, Scotty. He was looking out. That's the
way of a guy looking out for you. He's preparing,
you know, he was gonna give me the meeting for
the meeting. So it was just reiteration, reiteration. Reators should
give this kid a shot. If he knows his ship,
he's gonna be able to play. So I love that
that he did that, but I had to go to
so many meetings. I'm running in with the fucking like
three and a half inch binder with the playbook because

(55:25):
we didn't have iPads back then at that time. I
went to iPads like two or three years later. And uh,
I'm running through like a chicken. My head cut off.
I'm gonna be like I'm going like five minutes early
to the pre pre meeting because you know it, you're
trying to make a team. I'm running over and through
the gates to the locker room or the doors. Tom
walks in and I'm like and like drop my binder.

(55:49):
I'm like, oh ship Tom Brady. He's like he knew,
he like knew my name. He goes Julian Tom. I'm like,
nice to meet you, Tom. Trying to play it cool,
but but you're like the nerdy kids in school who
drops his binder on the ground, like like big gloved. Yeah,

(56:12):
when he's following the chan a little girl or whatever.
That's good. I got like, I got like like uh
and then I had to go back and go to
the meeting. It was like made my day met Tom Brady, right,
you were. I mean, you did so much for the team.
I mean not only all of this stuff. During your career,
you end up playing some safety when when you guys

(56:36):
need it was that fun for you, Oh corner, it
was Nicols, So it's the third corner that comes in
and plays the slot defender. That was all. I had
a blast. That was fun. Um. You know, delivering a
hit is sometimes better than receiving a hit, I'm sure.

(56:57):
And it was just a fun experience. And I can
play defense in Pop Warner literally and I was a
quarterback and then Bill one meeting or one day Josh
Bowyer who's the defensive coordinator for He's the defensive coordinator
somewhere right somewhere right now. I should know that I'm
an analyst. But he comes up to be pre game

(57:22):
like we were going we were going through guys, like,
guys are getting hurt. That's the thing about the league, man,
It's it's fifty three guys, but there's a hundred percent
injury rate. And you know you're going through guys, guys
coming off the street. And goes, see, hey, come up
to me before team meeting. He guys, you're gonna be
with us today. I'm like, what, let me never be
with you? And he goes, hey, you're gonna be with
us Nicol. We're gonna throw in Nickel a couple of things.

(57:43):
See what you could do? And I was like, oh, show.
So it was fun. I loved it. It was it
was it was a It was so fun. Honestly, defense
is different. You could run around and hit people, and
you know, like if you know conceptually what the offense like,
I could cheat because I knew concepts down in distance.
Not cheap, but I was just very informed on like

(58:05):
situational type offensive play. So it helped me. And then
you know, going back to offense, it helped me to
sit in meetings and learn the techniques of the defensive
backs and what they're trying to do with Lena scrimmage,
and what they're trying to do once they're in phase,
out of phase, you know, on certain coverage I was learning.
So it was it was honestly, it was. It was
a great thing for my progression to the player I became. Yeah,

(58:28):
you know, that's actually really interesting. I've talked to some
other guys in the league about that. That having the
perspective of the other side. In other words, as an
offensive player, you have a sense of what the defense
is doing and how to beat them in some ways

(58:50):
better than guys who are exclusively defensive players. Right, and
what you're looking at from the other side gives you
the ability in some way to know and read what's
effective on the other side of the ball, right, Yes, sir,
and that and that's what you know. You see a
lot of that, like with coaches when you see, like

(59:10):
I I referenced, the coach's assistant who's like the coffee guy.
So a lot of the times when they're early on
in their life, like Matt Patricity did this. Who's you know,
technically an offensive line coach this year for the New
England Patriots. But he started he wanted to be a
defensive coach. I think Bill sent him to offense and

(59:30):
he had to learn the offensive line person that he crossed,
he crossed teaches them, you know. So he has to
stick on offense for two or three years, learn offense,
and then he throws him back on defense. He's done
that with a few different coaches, you know, And I
got to have that kind of like experience through a player,
which was, you know, awesome. Yeah. I mean, look, we

(59:51):
could talk all day about your career with the Patriots.
You end up at the end of your career or
being the number two player in the history of the
NFL too, Jerry Rice, who helped teach your work ethic
in both yards and receptions in the playoffs. You win

(01:00:14):
three Super Bowls with the New England Patriots, Super Bowl
for one and fifty three Super Bowl MVP with I
don't know, I read that it was over half of
the receiving yards. It felt like you were the entire
offense in Super Bowl fifty three against the Rams, just

(01:00:37):
an unbelievable career. But super Bowl fifty one, I want
to talk about just really briefly, when you're down so
big to the Falcons, by the way, my hometown team
who have had to win a Super Bowl, Atlanta, also
the Red and the Blue. My friend, Yes, when you

(01:00:59):
said to um what you said to him at halftime,
did you believe you could come back? Honestly, I did.
I knew it was gonna be tough, and I knew
the percentages were down. But like, first off, there's never
really a There hasn't been a blow out on Super
Bowl in a while. I mean there wasn't kind of
thirteam with Denver and Color at Carolina. But I ain't

(01:01:21):
gonna blow us out, Okay, and you're not gonna blow
We're a hard like we're a mentally tough football team.
There's gonna be some things to happen, which we we
helped produce a lot of the production of the Atlanta
Falcons through turnovers a pixel, you know what I mean,
Like we gave them a lot, but we also were
moving the ball and we were doing things. There are

(01:01:43):
a couple of things we were doing well. But if
we were tightened up a little bit here and there.
You know, we didn't get to really see much of
our defense. We were setting him up for shitty uh
fuel position a bunch and they were like, they didn't
really get to open up their game plan. So once
we got back on track after that resettlement of halftime,
you know, being a raw rock guy, Yeah, we're gonna

(01:02:05):
do it this that, And first third down, I dropped
a third down like I would have been I probably
would have broke a tackle, and it was a man
covers a little under route and I was under gone.
I had him, you know, And after that, I was like, fuck,
you know, but that's gonna be tough. It's gonna be
tough now. And then you know, things started and everyone
kept on saying, you can't win the game with one play,

(01:02:27):
You can't go out one place is not winning a game.
So why don't we just try to do our job?
Why doesn't everybody? If we all do our job collectively,
the unit will win each every play and we'll see
where we go from there. And that's what started happening.
You know. You start, you started feeling momentum coming our way,
and we we started everyone started honing in. Everyone did

(01:02:48):
put a little extra into their mental capacity of like,
all right, hey, I need to just do this. Let's
go to our fundamentals of each and every play. If
this happens, we know this, there's chance of this happened.
There's sixty percent chance of this happening. Let's like let's hone,
let's honeing it in and let's do it. And and
you know, we went out and we did it. It

(01:03:08):
was crazy, and watching that game, it's still crazy, but
that was that team's mind. You know. I played on
some really crazily strong, mentally strong football teams and and
to to see that one, that team that two thousand
and seventeen year, like to be down that far and

(01:03:30):
and especially in the Super Bowl to go we we've
been down a bunch, Like I kept on thinking of
like back when we were playing thirteen. We were playing
uh Cleveland, we needed like two scores and like a
minute and thirty and we somehow won that game. You know.
On then Denver was up twenty four, oh on us
in in thirteen, and we came back and won that

(01:03:50):
game at half. After the half, we had like these
comeback wins. So I was like, like we could do this,
Like you're you're playing all scenarios in your head. And
I also had some thoughts like damn, we ain't gonna
do this, you know what I mean? So like I
bounced it back and forth and and the thing that
ultimately keeps your mind in the right places when what
you know, the coaches always preaches, think about what you
got to do for your job. Yeah, is your catch

(01:04:14):
with a couple of minutes to go that ends up
tying the score shortly after? Is that the greatest catch
in Super Bowl history? I don't know. There's some good catches.
There's some you know, Julio had an unbelievable toe tap.
Matt Ryan that that toe tap like outbreaking route, like
a thirty yard ball down the field on the sideline,
jumps over hand and face that was a great catch.

(01:04:38):
The helmet catches a really good there's something really good catches,
you know. To be even put in that category, or
to even be asked that question, I'll take that you
didn't answer, just pointing it out, just pointing it out.
My cots deception didn't work. Oh yes, Oh gosh, it's no.

(01:04:59):
You have to do the Patriots way anymore. They're not
paying you. Bill is not gonna come walking in the
room and give you ship. No, you can answer the question. Now,
that's a really good call back. I honestly think that
I don't know. It's hard to put one onto Okay, alright, fine,

(01:05:34):
I have another Super Bowl question for you. In Super
Bowl forty nine, the end of the game, did you
think Marshawn was getting the ball? And were you? Were
you surprised or glad that he didn't? Uh? D all
of the above. It's Marshawn Lynche. You know a lot

(01:05:57):
of people fail to to mention. And Dante high Tower
on the play right before that play where he brought
down Marshawn Lynch while taking on a blocker. The play
right before the pick saved the game, you know. And
and that was probably the reason why, because we we
threw in our personnel group that was like straight run,

(01:06:18):
like run gun, We're blitzing every you know what I mean.
It was one of those all out blitzes and uh
thank god they didn't. Yeah, thank god they didn't. You
don't know the butterfly effect on that one. Yeah. Uh.
As I mentioned, you win the m v P in
Super Bowl fifty three of all of York of all

(01:06:38):
the games with the Patriots, of all of the the moments,
the plays, do you have one that stands out above
all else? Ah, I mean the Super Bowl fifty three.
The hill I had to climb that year. It was
fucking early, you know, I tear my c H. I

(01:06:59):
gets spended and like I said, after an a c
L you know, those traumatic injury, especially a guy that
has to run like you learn how like that was
a huge thing. And I was like I was in
my It's not like I was twenty two, you know
what I mean. You know, I had a lot of
things going on on the field off the field. To

(01:07:20):
end that that was the hardest year of my life.
And to end it the way our team got to
and and I got to it was you know that
that was such a and also experience and something great
for like me as a as a person to to know,
you know, like you always I've been through some a
lot of adverse situations. But you gotta continually do those

(01:07:41):
kind of things. You gotta contin It's not. Oh, it's
not easy. You know when people always some people will
come to you and say, like, man, it's so crazy
this your story is that Well, there's gonna be like
ten other stories that you have to you know, continually
do and anytime you get to chalk up a win,
it's hard to win, you know, and anything, and and
you know, to win that with my folks there, my family,

(01:08:03):
my daughter, Like that was amazing. That was like one
of the happiest days of my life, just just through
the like the pressure, like it was just a long year.
That was like a really tough year, Like mentally emotionally
it was you know, you're not feeling physically right because
you don't you don't become like that's a process when

(01:08:23):
you tear your a c o. Like your you can
go out and play in like eight months, nine months,
Like you can run routes, I could look good, but
can you continually compound and have this like endurance to
go out and like each week, like you're you feel
like crap, you can't walk till Thursday. Then you come
back and you you get ready for the next week.
And like then at the end of the year, you're

(01:08:44):
starting to feel like your knees getting better a little bit,
you know what I mean, because you're you're putting that
yardage on your leg. Your your body's adapting and like
it was that was that was cool. And the way
we did it too was we weren't supposed to win
it and that was awesome. Wasn't my favorite, but that's
one of my favorite moments, not necessarily the win, but
like that feeling after with my folks, my family. Yeah,

(01:09:07):
once again overcoming adversity. I've I've noticed on your social
media you it's possible you're a little bit of a
fan of a television show called The Office. We had
in our seventh year, near the end, we had Steve
Carrell Michael Scott leave the show. Talk to me a

(01:09:29):
little bit about your feelings when Brady leaves for the Buccaneers.
I mean it was at that time it was tough.
You know, you become really like we spend more time
with the guys in that locker room, especially in those

(01:09:49):
those months in the season. I mean we're putting in
thirteen fourteen hour days. You know, people, and it's not
just like the on field stuff. It's stay off the
field stuff. You like going to work with people you
love and that that makes you better, you know, like
that having that and you know it was a mixed

(01:10:10):
emotions though you wanted him and his family to be
happy and and satisfied with everything, and and so it's
that's a part of this game. It sucks. But every year,
regardless of the team, there's gonna be new coaches, there's
gonna be new players. And I never thought like that
would be hard because we were so accustomed to that.

(01:10:31):
But that was that was hard. It's one of your
best it's one of your best friends, a guy that
has done so much for you and your in in
my life, a lot of guys and for that organization,
you know, that was a very that was that was tough.
But then instantly you turn on, well like, now we
gotta go out and we got a we gotta go
find a way to win without them. And we didn't

(01:10:53):
do much of that that year. Mhm. Right, if you
were a character in the office, who would you be?
I'd probably be you. Secretly, everyone thinks so he's not
the sharpest tool in the shed. But you know, I
know how you got that money to buy that bar.

(01:11:14):
At the end, you're easily in the whole time, you're
the smartest one there. All right, Well, listen, that's a theory.
That's a that's a theory. Julia, I just came up
with that. Whoo who would Tom be uh Dwight? Uh? Yeah?

(01:11:40):
Good good? What about? What about? What about Bill Correl?
What like? Yeah? Yeah, he probably would. I don't know.
Buil builds his own guy. It's hard to put he's
his own character. I couldn't put one on him. But

(01:12:03):
he's the he's the world's best boss, right, self proclaimed?
Who said that? So No, I'm just saying he's the
world's best boss, right like that's Michael Scott. He's got
the mug that says world that means it's self proclaimed
from him. Yeah. I'm a little nervous talking about Bill lately, honestly,

(01:12:25):
because I've been doing it too much. And I gotta
go to a practice here soon. And I know because
he's already gave me one of the talks like how
can I turn on the fucking TV and I see
you impersonate me all the time? Like he gave one
of those, and I still love the guy. Yeah, no more,

(01:12:46):
no more, no, no more. You're done with impersonating again.
I hear you have a hell impersonation. I gotta I
gotta put it on old. Yeah, yeah, it makes sense.
I gotta feel that The next time I see him,
you know what I mean, already already gave a couple
after the last time I saw him, and he already
said that what I just said like poking a little

(01:13:09):
fun at me. But I don't know if it's really fun.
Is it fun? Is he joking? Is he not choking?
Is he throwing like a mind trick on me? Is
he do using the forest like this? Dude's fool. I
got some cards behind there something, there's a card behind there.
There's a card you don't know. I am fascinated to

(01:13:29):
see what happens with the Patriots this year. Fascinated it's
it's it'll be very, very interesting. The no offensive coordinator
who's calling place? Thing? Is this a Jedi mind trick?
Or does it fail? And I'm not even asking you,
I'm just saying I personally me, I'm not putting this

(01:13:50):
on you. I'm not asking you to say anything. I'm
saying I'm fascinated to see how it how it plays out.
I am too, I mean, this is this is a
big challenge. This is you know, and but who would you?
I mean, who knows? This guy's coach Melichick's probably like
I need this challenge. I want to see I'm gonna
you know what I mean, who knows, I don't. That's

(01:14:12):
so that's so interesting. I was thinking exactly the same
thing the other day. So I have I've been at
at at two golf clubs, clubs where golf happens, and
there are pros at golf clubs, and the pros at
golf clubs sometimes get bored with golf because all they
do is play golf and hit golf balls and show

(01:14:34):
people how to hit golf balls. And twice two different
guys that I know have decided that the game has
become too easy, and so they are they learned how
to play left handed. And I was literally just thinking
the same thing about Bill. Has doing it the standard

(01:14:55):
way become too easy. Now, let's do something just a
little bit different and see if we can approach or
learn or be balanced in a new way trying something new.
I don't know, I think I believe, you know, there's
some I don't know that I see who knows that?
But you know, like there's so many other variables that

(01:15:18):
people like when you're in the building, you know what
goes down, Like there's something that like he probably could
have had something lines something went through. This didn't happen,
that happened. This happened, you know. But it's gonna be very,
definitely interesting to see the developmental stage, the developments of
Mac Jones, you know, going in without a guy like

(01:15:39):
that's a big relationship, an offensive coordinator, the guy who
calls the play with with you know, a young quarterback
trying to thrive and trying to blossom in this system.
You know, it's Josh McDaniels. He's a great offensive you know,
he's he's a he's a really good he knows x's
and knows he knows that there's an art to calling plays,

(01:16:00):
you know, And I'm not I'm not. I'm confident that
you know, Bill called plays for the Cleveland Browns on offense.
I don't know if you remember that, but he did.
You know that some happened, but he called plays. So
he's called plays on offense. But the games evolved, and
if there's anyone who can do it, though, if anyone
in the league can do it, that's the man. But

(01:16:24):
it's gonna be it's gonna be fucking crazy. That's gonna
be a tough one. But if anyone can it's Bill.
Uh you retire from the NFL one just last year
in April. Within three hours you have a new job
there at inside the NFL. Uh. Congratulations on that. Congratulations

(01:16:47):
on what you're doing. I love listening to you and
hearing your insights, both from your time there and what
you see. I'm sure you still are the hardest working
man and doing your research to keep all of us
understanding what what's going on out there. I appreciate that
so much. You've got a kid's book, this was a

(01:17:09):
while ago. Trilogy, you have a trilogy trilogy. Well, this
just made me laugh. The squirrel named Jewels, and a
goat named Tom, and an old owl named you. Gotta
see the pictures too. It's pretty it's pretty cool. Those
are fun. Yeah. I mean you could have hidden it
a little bit better than that. But Jules and Tom

(01:17:32):
and the old and the Old, the old wise owl
and now breaking news. Games with Names new podcast launching
very soon. Just announced What can you tell me about
your new podcast? Games with Names? Well, Games with Names
and partnered with this comic Sam Morrel. Very funny, very funny,

(01:17:55):
Upper East Side kid from New York. You know, been
a fan of his for a long time. And what
he's been doing, and uh, I wanted to start a podcast.
And we've been sitting around thinking about ideas of what
what can we do a podcast? All? You know, I like,
I like to talk. I want to talk maybe a
little bit here and there. I got some insight. And

(01:18:18):
my buddy who just so happens his name is Kyler.
He's just one of our he's part of Coast Productions,
one of our directors, huge part of our business. He
comes in one day after Thanksgiving. This was like a
year and a half ago when we started developing this
thing and he goes, yeah, ranted an old kid at
a sports bar, and we didn't know each other, but

(01:18:42):
we recognized playing football against each other. And it was
crazy to hear his perspective of this crazy game we
played in and my perspective. And you know, we wanted
to hear the crazy perspective of important games and people's lives,
you know, And so we wanted to find the best

(01:19:02):
game with the greatest names. And then that's what this
is the sports history podcast. Over fun games. You know,
everyone talks about the Goat greatest of all time? What
about the Dog the greatest of all games? We need
to find the dog. What's the greatest game? Everyone's always
arguing about it, Like now, is it the Statue Liberty

(01:19:24):
game with Boise State, Oklahoma? Remember that crazy game? Is
it the eighteen and one Giant loss against the Giants
and the Patriots? You know? And then there's also cool
games that like you get to you get to talk with,
like we had Ricky Williams on and then to talk
about when he was at University of Texas and he
broke Tony Dorset's all perfectly broke every record and that

(01:19:46):
was like his going to hear his perspective on that
game and like how he prepared, what was going on
in pop culture back in It's a fun podcast with
some you know, guys just having conversations talking crap, you know,
me and Sam and I'm super excited. I'm super excited
for it. It's it's been really fun, you know, especially

(01:20:07):
with the guys that we've had on. I don't know
if I'm supposed to tell every guys, but you know,
we had Michael Irving, We had Paul Pierce talk about
the wheelchair game. Did he shoot his pants? Did he
not shoot his pants? We get the direct answer from
Paul Pierce himself. That's called a teasers. And then we
also that's a teaser. We had eight We had Eli

(01:20:29):
and Teddy Brusky come and talk about the eight teen
and one. Teddy Bruski's first time ever talking about this game.
I don't know if that's a fact, but he usually
doesn't talk about losses. So we're gonna run with it.
Elis on there. We had Peyton when he started the
season off with the game he threw seven touchdowns when
he just signed Welker from tom and he comes out

(01:20:49):
and lights up a seven game, a seven touchdown opening
game against defending Super Bowl champions in the Baltimore Cold
or Baltimore Ravens. Like, we're gonna have some We're gonna
get Joe Namath on this bad Boy. We're gonna get
a bunch of people. It's gonna be it's it's it's
been fun and we've already got a bunch in in
in the books and I'm I'm excited. And you know,

(01:21:11):
Sam has been awesome to work with. He's a he's
I have to, like, you know, I have to learn
how to come up with something when he says something
so funny to like, like my comeback skills are are
kind of weak right now because when you work with
the comic they're just so witty. They're on top of you,
like you could drill. You could throw like a you know,

(01:21:31):
a dick joke out like in front of Kurt Warner
and make it somehow like I don't know, it's weird,
you know what I mean? All congratulations on that. I
cannot wait to listen. Just annount breaking news here on
off the beat. What's the what's the game you think

(01:21:52):
we should do? What's your favorite game? What? What? What
is your greatest game of all time? What's your dog
greatest of all games? But not necessarily football, right, No,
it's all sports we're doing. We're gonna we're getting soccer
on here. We're getting it all. Get a NASCAR will
make some wrestling. I think both. You could make an

(01:22:15):
argument for either Game six or Game seven of the
one World Series between the Atlanta Braves and the Minnesota Twins.
Kirby Puckett hits the home run and then the next
game small pitches you need to get smalt. Maybe for
Game seven of what many people consider the greatest World

(01:22:37):
Series of all time between the Braves and the twins.
I don't know that one just popped into my brain.
Um small Smaalty. If Smalty would talk about it, he
probably hasn't talked about it ever, So that would be
That would be something football man doesn't have to be.

(01:22:58):
We're gonna, We're gonna, We're gonna, you know, I mean,
the the USC Texas college football game. That's gotta be
up there. We're gonna cover that bad boy. That Rose
Bowl was unreal. That was right when I was in
college too. Yeah, I was an electric game. That That's
when the Rose Bowl was cool. Yeah, you want to
you want to know the greatest sporting game. I don't

(01:23:20):
know if it's a game that I ever witnessed live.
I was very I was young. I was young, but
I was there at the Olympics when Kerry Strong broke
her ankle and they won the gold medal. I was
there in Atlanta. We might have to get that race

(01:23:42):
with me. We gotta get you come on and talk
about that. We'll get it. We'll get We'll get the winners.
And what is it the four by one who broke
their ankle, the carry struck the gymnast when the women
won the gold medal. Can do it. You do it, Bella, Carol,

(01:24:03):
you were there. I was there, I was there, that
was in Atlanta. There. That's yeah, Wow, that's awesome. We'll
have to get you a pretty good I appreciate having
congratulations on that. Julian, congratulations. Thank you so much for
coming and talking to us. So freaking interesting to me.

(01:24:25):
The your career, how hard you had to work, the
ups and downs from high school all the way until
well not anymore. Now you just you retire and you
get a new job, and now you've got more. So
I don't respect you so much anymore. But back then
you worked hard. Yeah, it's it's it's it's not retired.

(01:24:48):
I mean the no, i'man what they like to call
the transition phase. You're transitioning. You never really retired. What
am I gonna sit and do nothing? I can't retire
a d D. Julian, thank you so much for being on,
No problem, man, I appreciate a big fan. It's it's
it's honestly an honor. Julian, my friend, what a pleasure

(01:25:23):
to have you on today. Thank you so much for
coming by and talking to me. I can't wait to
relive some of my all time favorite sports moments with
you on Games with Names listeners, make sure to go
check that out and thank you for tuning in today.
I have been having so much fun expanding into the

(01:25:43):
world of sports. I really hope that you're leaving these
feeling inspired in a way. These athletes, the work that
they put in, the dedication that they have it is well,
it's it's mind blowing. So why don't you and you
take that inspiration and I want you to do something
great this week, all right, or just relax, that's cool

(01:26:08):
to whatever makes you happy, as long as you were inspired,
all right. I'll be back next Tuesday as usual with
a brand new episode of Off the Beat, and I
will see you then. Off the Beat is hosted an

(01:26:32):
executive produced by me Brian Baumgartner, alongside our executive producer Langley.
Our producers are Diego Tapia, Liz Hayes, Hannah Harris, and
Emily Carr. Our talent producer is Ryan Papa Zachary, and
our intern is Sammy Cats. Our theme song Bubble and
Squeak performed by my great friend Creed Bratton, and the

(01:26:55):
episode was mixed by Seth o'landski.

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