JOE LINTA- FOOTBALL HEAD COACH HAMDEN HALL

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
That's Sports the nine sixty ninety sixpoint nine FMW E l I. He
has been on this show many times. I love him. I was just
telling telling my producer Nick Federico thatJoe Linda used to run clink or I
know if he still runs clinics,and he used to tell my grandsons to

(00:22):
come down and he used to comedown to the camp. That day was
a one day thing and they hada blast. And I was just telling
him and Joe. I don't knowif he'll remember this, but I was
telling I know I do because mygrandson told me. Nathan is a big
Eagles fan. And that was theyear you had the kicker come down Joe
and he reminded the kicker that hemissed a field goal attempt that might have
won the game. I said,you didn't bring it up to him,

(00:45):
and Nady said, yeah, Idid. Okay, God must that got
you in good with him. Butthat's a true story. He did it
because Nathan would do that when hewas younger. But Joe lent the NFL
agent, but Hampden Hall football coachand he's got a biggie today. First
of all, Joe, good tohave you boored coach. Thanks for having
me be here. I love it. And of course you know you are

(01:07):
like and you see how can Ilike in you? Uh, you're like
a duke in college basketball? Youknow what that Cameron said. They don't
lose there. You don't lose atthe Beckerman Center. Joe, Well,
we managed to do it once inan exhibition game this year. That doesn't
can forget exhibition you over the years, Yeah, it's been pretty good.
Yeah, you're right, your homerecord has been great. Now today you

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play a bowl game. This isfor the GMIR I believe the name is
the GAMIR Championship, a New Englandbowl game. And you're playing Dexter Southfield
School out of Massachusetts, and youplayed them at one o'clock. Is that
right? Yes? They are.The Bob Kraft, the owner of the
Patriots, that's their school. Hehas a lot of his family have gone
there and he's been a big benefactoryto that school. And we've played them

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over the years. We didn't playthem in the last two years, but
really looking forward to this one.This ought to be good. Huh.
I mean, don't worry to tellI have to take a back seat.
You're going down you know, bea long trip back to Massachusetts. Don't
worry about it. Uh, Icould talk like that Jocas anyway. You
know, every year we touch baseand you send me emails and I get

(02:12):
stuff. But this year you sentme an email like early you said,
and I could tell when Joe Lintasends it out he's excited about this team.
I mean, this guy's telling mewith all the Division one prospects that
he said this you had told mein the email, this may be the
best team you've had in several years. Well, it's in terms of talent,
it's the best team we've ever hadhad. We were eleven and oh

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a couple of years ago, butwe didn't have the number of players that
we have. And we have theleast six or seven guys that are Division
one offer Division one Double A offersIVY League. We have one, two,
three, four kids right now thatare IVY League offered. Really good
for those very very blessed of agreat bunch of kids. And not only
are they good football players, they'regreat students. And uh that's why we're

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gotting some many colleges come in tosee these kids because it's you know,
you go where the players are,and these guys are good and they deserve
it absolutely. I mean I hearit when I hear things like that Ivy
League, you know, offers onthe table. I mean, that's just
say what you want. Ivy League. You know you put that on your
resume, Joe, that looks prettygood. And you would know because your
son went to Brown Yeah. Yeah, and I want that place down the

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street myself. About I know youdid, I know you did. I
know you, I know you did, But I just I think it's great,
I really do. But so it'san what was your regular season?
Would you lose one game? Well, we played a non league game,
first game of the year in Septemberagainst a really good team from Long Island

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Lutheran. They're one of the topteams around and it was crazy. We
just had multiple kids cramping up.I don't know, I've never seen such
a thing. But no, no, no, I know, I know
you don't do that. I understand. But then we got religion and we
run the table since then and todaylooking for a bowl championship. Last week,

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tell the folks you played Procter Academyand you played them up in New
Hampshire and you're down nineteen zip andyour rally scored twenty unanswered points and win
the game twenty to nineteen. Thatmust have been one of those uh pulsating
games. Huh, well it wasby the end of the middle of the
second quarter when it's nineteen nothing andyou know you're you should be beating them,

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You're just shaking your head like,oh my god, this is And
then finally towards the end of thesecond quarter we started doing what we do
and uh, you know they weplayed defensive way we know how, and
uh, offensively we have you know, just some great play in the second
half. And that's a good team. These are good teams. We play
like they I know. I knowthat they have a kid going to full

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ride to Oregon State. The kidteam were playing today as a kid going
to Penn State. Many others sothis wow, you know, this is
Uh, these are no walks inthe park. No, no, I
want to say, there's no messaround here. And you had the and
you did have the privilege. Soyou did coach both of your sons at
Hamden Hall, and I got achance to see him both play. Both
were very very good, you know. How much I loved your younger guy.

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And I know he got hurt,but boyd I love watching them play
because you know why, Joe,when they took the field, they're all
business and they played the game theway it was supposed to be played.
Was that simple to me? Well, it was the best moment of my
life to do that. And youknow, there's a lot of people thought,
oh, he's just going to bedaddy ball, and and that was
really my intent. When I gotthere, I told the head man,
so I'll give you three years untilPJ graduates. And then his senior year,

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I realized, oh my god,I loved it. And eight years,
like a bad smell, I'm stillthere? Is it? Eight years?
Joe? Well, eight years laterit's eleventh, eleventh, Oh my
goodness, Uh wow, that's amazing. And the league you're I mean,
and you started out in this fairChester Conference and then that seemed to break

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up up yet running battle every yearwith Hopkins. You don't play them anymore.
They actually stop that and I tryto keep it going, but they
didn't want any part of it.So you don't play anybody really in state
anymore? Is that right? Thereare teams in our league, like we
played Greenwich Country Day a couple ofweeks ago, Saint Luke's. We play
there in the league. This leaguewe're in, it's called the Evergreen League.

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There's thirteen teams stretching from Greenwich tomiddle of New Hampshire, and almost
at least half the two thirds ofthe schools have pgs out of state kids.
For example, the kids that Procergoing to Oregon State is from New
Mexico and he's a fifty year kid. So our kids are all CIA eligible
and they're local. Obviously, wedraw from twenty five minutes away or less,

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so it's we're kind of at abig disadvantage. You're trying to do
this, but we put it togetherwith Scott State and it ends up being
okay, a little better. No, okay, it actually works out pretty
good. Now we can just switchthere. How we all know you're fel
agent, and I didn't realize thatnot one, but both of your sons
are in the business now too withyou, Is that right? Yeah?

(07:08):
Tjuh've got into real world for abouta year after he was with the Kansas
City Chiefs that one year and hedecided that you know, he loved it
I didn't tell him to do itor not do it, and he just
gravitated towards it and took his testthe summer, passed it. And so
now in the next year or two, I'll be able to either croak or
quit and people to know that it'sokay. Come holid, don't talk like

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that. How many how many playersdo you have right now in under your
tutelage? Uh, give or takeabout thirty nine, although that's going to
change for the positive on Monday.But uh, it's it's been plucked.
It fluctuates between thirty seven to fortyin that range because you know, in
any given week, somebody might getadded to a practice squad, somebody might

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get released, that type of thing. So it's a it's in that thirty
seven to forty. Now you atone time one of your big guys there
it was under you was Joe Flacco. And Joe Flacco this past week worked
out because they lost their quarterback.Uh, he worked out for the Browns
yesterday. Now is he still Wouldhe still be with you if he signed?

(08:20):
I hope? So unless you knowsomething, I no, no,
no, ma, Well listen,if I can get a little, a
little big here a little piece ofthe action. I wouldn't mind. But
so, how did did you do? Hear anything from it? How did
the workout go? Uh? Theycalled up and they're like, this kid's
arm is like it was ten yearsago. He's got a I mean,
he just got a Holzer for anarm, and he stays in shape.

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He's a I mean, a guy'sgot five kids and he stays in shape.
He's thirty eight, but he's twentyeight in terms of his mentality really
the condition, the way his armis. And they called up yesterday and
they were like, you know,they you know, just were amazed by
how well he could throw. Andyou know, right now he you know,
they did not sign him yesterday becausewe just decided we would. You

(09:05):
know, he wasn't going to playin a game Sunday even if they did
sign him. So we're going totake a pause, you know, because
there's a couple of other teams thatare quarterback needy right now, and reassess
it over the weekend. And Iwould say by Monday, quarterbacks are going
down like flyes here in the inthe NFL this year. So i'nbelievable.
Well, he certainly could have goneto the New York Giants, I'll tell
you that, and maybe the Jets, maybe the Papers all three grow.

(09:31):
Yeah, absolutely, I won't arguethat. I can't even argue that.
You're right. So, now thatyour sons are in there, now the
business, do they have players tooas well or what? Uh? You
know, Usually what happens is muchlike calls recruiting. The assistant coaches go
out on the road and then thehead coach comes in. You know,
I'm kind of Marianna Rivera, comein and close at the end. But

(09:54):
you know, I'll recruit some ofmy own guys. Like one of the
kids we just fell for this yearwas the kid named may and tipped in
from Yale who's gonna hopefully light itup for the Bulldogs today. And uh,
we just think he was a veryvery underrated kid, and you know,
we're hoping, crossing our fingers thatwe could work with him. Don't
know yet, but uh so Ilike these IVY League guys. And you
know, we have kids in theleague right now from Princeton. Penn Deeter

(10:18):
eyes On from Yale's playing for theTexan. So I like these IVY League
guys because you know what you're getting. They're smart, they're tough, they're
no bs, and they're just ajoy to work with. Well, you
know what, You're right and thatthat's Uh, they're smart, they're good
kids, exactly right. Why wouldn'tyou want to play kids like that?
You know underneath you know what Imean handling them. Well, when we
recruit a kid from like a Bigten school or an SEC school, I'll

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always bring that up and I'll say, these Ivy League guys are all picking
me and they're smart. Very goodshow, Lent, you're on, You're
on your game today show. Uhdid you ever have those Seriously? I
mean, you have these guys andyou're handling them and really their futures in
your hands, and they're jobs andstuff. Do you ever get in the
disagreements with them? Do they eversay I really want to do this or

(11:05):
Joe set this up? You knowwhat I'm trying to say. Do you
ever get into that or or not? Uh? Yeah? I mean I
the older I get, the morementoring I become. I'm not like their
buddy. Like you know, Itell these kids when I recruit them.
You know, you and me arenot going to be socializing unless you like
Bingo, we're not going to begoing out together, so it's a mentoring
relationship. And you know, Irealized that when I signed someone, I'm

(11:30):
messing with someone's future, someone's son. And I went through this with PJ.
You know, I'm like, ifPJ was a baseball player, which
he used to be, and hewas going for a baseball agent, I
would want it to be somebody thatcared about him A and B was the
president of the company and not theJV team. So I take that same
pride of doing it. And youknow, I'll tell these kids, like,
look, here's the unbarnished truth.You're not going to like what I

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say, but you'll know it's foryour best interest in the truth. And
if you don't like it, thenyou should pick somebody else. I mean
you actually, I mean you couldtell them, hey, listen, I
don't think you're maybe good enough ormaybe you're not gonna you're not gonna be
able to cut it here. Youshould look at this of it, you
know what I mean. I knowwhat you're saying. Well, it's not
it's really the end of the careerthat the look at a different team is

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not the case. But like aftersay a kid gets cut five times over
three years, I will call himand say, look, you either need
to fire me or move all yourlife and I'll help you get a job
in a real world. You know, one of the two. So okay,
And if I'm saying that, thatmeans there's very little chance. And
usually I'm pretty correct about that afterdoing this for so long, Now has

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that happened a lot or lately?With that, you know what NFL stands
for, not for long. Soeverybody's gonna if we're all gonna die at
some point, So everybody's career isgonna die at some point. Okay,
Like for example, Joe Flacco,he might play another year or two here,
So at some point I don't reallyhave to have the conversation when I'm

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Joe, You're forty seven years oldand it's not going to happen. But
the kid that's two or three yearsinto it who's been cut two, three,
four times doesn't work. Now thatthe great escape is the XFL or
the USFL or sometimes CFL. Buteven then it's it's inevitably going to end.
And a lot of the Ivy Leagueguys, my son included my son

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somebody had his rights in Canada.He's like that, I'm not going up
there and get my brains beat infor sixty five grand. And I'm okay
with that. No, no,I that's fine. No, I understand
exactly. But that's an Ivy Leaguekid who can go out and make big
money in the real world. AndI understand if you're somebody from a lesser
situation, maybe the CFL is attractive, you know, and it's it's too

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crazy of a game to not bepassionate about. It's want to do it.
And it's the same thing with thehigh school kids that I bring in
here to recruit. Look, thisis not fun at him at all.
I mean, this is a GlnEbecause we workr because you know, we
only have twenty five kids on theteam. So it's hard and you have
to be prepared for this journey towork the way you're going to have to

(14:03):
work to get to where you wantto get to. But the kids that
come to us, they want toplay football in college. They're not this
is not an activity, right parrectI understand. Yeah, they know this
is a tough hall. If they'renot coming to him the all to you
know, to just play football,or you're coming for a purpose, and
we establish that going in when werecruit and talk to these kids, you
know it, say, look,here's the deal here. Don't come here.

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If you're just looking for a placeto play football, you stay somewhere
else or go somewhere else. Butif you're really serious about it, you
want to get recruited and you qualifyphysically. Like for example, if if
a noseguard is five nine, twohundred and eighteen pounds and he's a really
really good high school player, buthe doesn't have a good opportunity to go

(14:48):
to college, I would tell theparents and the kid, look, I
don't know that I can get youto Alabama by coming here. So within
reason, I'm going to tell them, like, look, here's what it
is, unless you have a Roseburgor whatever. Because I don't want to
it's too serious of a business.You don't want to mislead the Absolutely,
you don't want to mislead them.Make sure it's a good experience for everybody,

(15:09):
me included. Yeah, no,no, exactly right, exactly.
That won't make you look too good. If you did that and it didn't
work out, well, I'll tellyou what you're a great guy. You've
been a friend of this show formany many years. I love having you
on. You tell it like itis, and I like that. But
today, Joe, you know whatI'm saying. It's on the line,

(15:31):
Joe Championship. I'm when I getoff the phone here, I'm gonna go
sit in my computer watching them andfigure out what the first play is going
to be. So between now andtwelve, if you have any ideas,
text me the first place. Letme tell you something. It's funny,
he says that because I've actually hadheight. When I go to high school
and coach, what do you wantto call? First play the game?
And I'll look at their play thingI'll say I would call this me personally,

(15:54):
Joe. I want to surprise him. I want to come out and
throw the ball. Throw it wellmy fifteen second sort of will mind my
eleven and oh team. The bestplay I ever called was that we weren't
one to playing the championship at BrownStadium ironically, and we had Luke Schoonmaker
who now plays for the Couple.He was playing quarterback. We also had
a kid named Corey Millowse who ranlike a four three eight fort He was

(16:15):
a freaky athlete and a phenomenal footballplayer. Anyways, what are we going
to run? The first play andblah blah blah, screen pass, run
the trap run the so we putCorey and Jet Motion ran a quarterback sneak
and Luke ran eighty yards on thefirst listen. Uh, you know I'm
rooting for you. Best of lucktoday, Joe, bring it home and

(16:37):
again one o'clock at the Beckhaman Centersright there in Hampden, Hampden Hall playing
Southfield, Mester, Southfield, Dexter, Southfield and from Massachusetts and send them
home with a big l okay andget the championship. And I'm rooting for
you, coach. Thanks and moaningfor having me anytime. Joe, You're
welcome anytime. Have a great day. Thank you, by bye.