August 6, 2023 • 39 mins
New England Patriots center David Andrews speaks with Andre Norman about his family life, the importance of football, his impact in the New England community and how much Tom Brady taught David during his time of snapping the ball to him.
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Ladies and gentlemen, it is your host Andri Norman. We
are still here and we're back inje Let Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We have with us a phenomenal guest. What I'm saying,
how many Super Bowls?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Did you actually too? Been to? Three?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Gonna conte you? We don't, We don't cont.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
I still remember that one though, that one I probably
remember more than the.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Other ones, mister Dave Andrews. So how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm doing good, happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This is your building, we are we're in.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I don't spend a lot of time down on this.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And are you still on the field, yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Fielding in that locker room.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So do you look at the trophies out front?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I mean where we passed them every day coming in?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How's it? How is it like walking by those two trophies?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
It's more interesting walking by the other four you weren't
a part of, you know, And uh, the tradition, you know,
And I think it's a reminder one for guys that
have been here, how hard it was to get there.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's not easy.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It It wasn't, you know, just a good day and
the winner to win a game, you know, I mean
it was a culmination of that whole year, everything you
put into it, and then you know it's.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Got everyone's names out there.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
And I think that's a big thing for me too,
because it's the ultimate team game. And it wasn't one person,
one guy, one side of the ball. It took every
guy on that roster, every coach, every equipment manager, strength staff,
you know, trainer.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Everybody's all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It's the whole for to be successful, it takes a
whole organization.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've seen some organizations, not necessarily football, basketball, baseball, where
it starts with leadership, and leadership comes down if the
leadership is strong at the top and they get it.
There's a lot of great leaders, but they might not
be sports leaders, and they get it. So mister Craft
gets it and it comes all the way down.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I see, Yes, it's it's you know, I've gotten to
know mister Craft, you know, as I've gotten older and
spends more time doing things with him. And very fortunate
in an organization like this, And you know, honestly, I
was undrafted, so I had the choice.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, I was fortunate.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I didn't get told where I was going to play.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I got to choose.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And you're a smart man, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I mean I thought I thought, you know, if I
was gonna choose somewhere, why not go Like I thought
I'd be selling insurance in a couple of year, you know,
a couple of years or something, right, So I was like,
maybe I can go learn something how a successful organization looks,
you know, how how something professional and something.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
They just came off the twenty fourteen Seahawk super Bowl,
So I was like.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, this is a golden it's some place.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, like I maybe I can learn something to go
sell insurance or whatever it was I was gonna do.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I didn't know I'd be sitting here nine years later.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So on the leadership ro well, you came with the
intended learning something to go start your own.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Business, which is cool. So even though you're still here
with happy you're still here, what did you learn.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
One it takes.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It's not just one person, and it's not just one thing.
It's not coach Belichick, it's not just mister Craft, but
it you know, there's a standard that mister Craft sets,
the coach sets that all the assistant coaches have to set,
and then you know, then it gets into the players
where you know you're not going to have every player
buy in, you know immediately right, you know, And it's
(03:11):
kind of this, you know, but those guys that I
looked up to were guys that were patriots for so long,
had done it the right way, you know. I came
into a room with a guy like Sebastian Vollmer, Ryan Wendell, these,
you know guys my age.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Now, is it patriot way a real thing?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think so? I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It's all I've known, so I'd like to say it's
a real thing.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So team captains, Yeah, what do you know about that?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I've been very fortunate. I've been a captain since twenty seventeen,
so six year.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You came in undrafted and you worked your way to
become team Team captain has to be respected across the board.
So how did you win the respect of all the
other players?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I mean, look, I think I think leadership is such
a weird thing. Everyone talks about leadership and it looks
different for everybody, and I think you have to have
all different kinds of leaders You can't have, you know,
all your team captains jumping down people's throats and you know,
doing things. You know, you got to have like a
guy like James White was one of the best leaders
(04:17):
you know I've been around.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But he didn't say much.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
You know, But James, every day you knew he's doing
his job. He was going to be dependable, accountable by example.
He led by example. He didn't say much and he
didn't need to. I'm a little bit of both, you know.
I mean, I I enjoy I really enjoyed being here.
I like to let loose in this building. And you know,
I think my wife says I'm football Dave when I'm
at work, and sometimes unfortunately that gets brought home a
(04:43):
little bit, you know. But I I enjoy I liked
I like to have fun, I like to be here.
I'm intense about it. I expect people to do what's
expected of them. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think. You build trust in people by, you know,
knowing that they're gonna do what's expect of them. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And if you're playing the line with somebody, to have
an excess sex successful line, you gotta have five people
working on the same page. It's the most interesting position
is sported and so I need to trust that my
right guard is gonna pick off the blitzer.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That's coming to you know, hit me.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
In the head, and if it's not, you're gonna get
hit in it.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, you know, and then you know you not greated.
Things happen. They get paid two on the other side
of the ball now, right. So but you know, I
think when I've been here with guys and having that
trust in them, and you know, and you drill it
so much, you work at it, you go through those
hard times together that when it's you know, when it's
time two point play to win the Super Bowl, you
(05:37):
know what. You know what they're about to do, and
you know what you're about to give them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So we ain't got no close ones. We just win.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But as a team captain, now, I watch football. Anybody
watch football teams with madominantly black. So you're a white captain,
what I'm saying. And you're not the quarterback or you're
not like the middle linebackers. So how is it talking
to the other players? How do you get them like listening, buying?
What was that cultural gap or is it one? Or
was it just football?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I think a locker room is a special place, and
you know, I think you know, there's not as much
I think I had noticed more of an age gap,
you know, guys.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Old guys, young guys.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think, you know, that's
kind of I can.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Remember even my like younger year when I was married
and some guys weren't it. We would all go, you know,
go hang out with each other, spend time, and then
it's kind of like the married folks either went home
or guys with kids went home. I used to go
out then go out with my wife, have dinner with
her after being you know, hanging out with the guys
all day. And then you know, single guys would be
you know, hanging with the single guys.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And so how do you manage to single guys and
keep them? There's so much senpation to be a football player.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I mean, I think it takes all different kinds, right.
You can't just have all leaders that are married with kids.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
No, no, no, how do you when a guy wants to
go to a club but he wants to hang out
and you know, what's impacting his play?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
How do you think I think that's different, right, because
then if it's impacting the play, impacting our team, that's
got to be addressed, right, And like the biggest thing
about being a professional, you know, there's guys that don't
go to bed at nine o'clock at night, and that's fine,
and they can still show up and perform.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And if you can do that, that's more to you.
I ain't like that.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I gotta get you know, what's your bedtime?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Man? Last night?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I think I was in bed at like a forty five.
You act like one of the old guys now now,
But I don't go to I just it's hard for
me to turn my mind off. It takes me a
while to relax, and there's nights I'll lay there for
an hour and a half. But no, I mean I think. Look,
I think at the end of the day, all guys
want to perform, right, and this is a performance based business.
So if there's something that's gonna hurt that guy that's
(07:40):
not performing, you.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Gotta let him know.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And as a young guy, old a older guy, you
might see it that he doesn't see it because maybe
somebody else can do that and still perform, but he can't.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I think, you know, you gotta address it.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And look, if you there's no one that likes to
have more fun than me, just go watch some.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Of the parade videos from where we want super bowls off.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have my shirt off, and it
was you know, you did it, but like that was
the time to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know, there's a time.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
There's a time for playing, there's a time for work.
And I think that's you know, I think as a
younger guy, you know, you try to explain that to him,
you know, and and let him know that you can
do all those things and have fun and you know,
but also you got a short window to do this,
and you might as well pour all those trips you
can into it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just as a fan, it seems like a long window
because we don't we don't retire.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
We just watch everything and they rotate new folks.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
But I just know, when you're growing up in Georgia,
Dan Reeves legendary.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Coach should be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
He's not.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That is a travisty. It is NFL commission. He's actually
do that because that man was phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
It's uh, you'll actually explain that to me, is coach Belichick.
So and to go into the Hall of Fame, you
have to be as a coach or a player. Now
maybe they're like the thing is as well as playing
career wasn't necessarily the Hall of Fame. Definitely a coaching career,
but I think his coaching career, but they're saying, you know,
but overall his life impact on the game.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Is then they split it in half. Is either playing yeah,
you can't just yeah, but you don't mix them.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You can't mix them.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
But like if you mix it, I mean, what who's done.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
His coaching crib I folled him from Cleveland, Denver all
the way down to Atlanta. So what was it like
growing up with him as your uncle?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So it was just kind of lightning in the bottle
for me because I grew up in Atlanta and he
was the coach of the Falcons and it was such
a you know, huge impact. And everyone always asked me like, oh,
like you know, what do you touched you about? He
didn't teach me anything about football.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
He just watched him.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I watched him and I could.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I was too young to know what blocking scheme they
were running and type of off I didn't know. I
like to watch the people, and I like, I was
a bigger kid, so I like seeing old lineman. That
was for my confidence and to be around and like
see these huge, giant enormous people as a bigger kid.
That made me feel, you know, because no one wants
to play a line in second grade.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
But I know, well, you and the guys used to
play line. We played street football.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I've never played another position.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
We used to play football on as kids, and I
played center, I mean quarterback, and you would come back
your hoy was open. I'm like, dude, you was on
the line and weren't supposed to be out of the field.
You shouldn't be open.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well you did? You just run off for passes in
the beginning.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
I mean, I started playing organized football in first grade.
Oh so, I mean I've been It's my whole life.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I've been in it.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
But you know, I mean I I I watched how
he treated people off the field and how his players
treated people, and that had a bigger impact on my
NFL career.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Then, so he's your mom's brother, your dad's brother.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
So he's actually my great uncle. He's my mom's uncle.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Okay, cool, Yeah, So so you grew up in Georgia.
How was that?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It was all?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It was unreal.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Coach Rick, who I got to play for, just got
into Georgia and they started going to the SEC Championship.
My first Georgia game ever was an SEC Championship game,
and I just fell in love with Georgia, and you know,
it was intro. All my families from Alabama, so except
for my grandfather is a Georgia fan, so it was
very it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
My mom went to Auburn, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
So it was kind of interesting Ti War Eagle, my
dad was role tied mom of War Eagle my dad.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That was a real household thing.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Then.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, my dad didn't go to Alabama. He actually went
to Sandford and Birmingham, but he.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Was Alabama fan.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He was Alabama fan. But I just I just grew
up in Atlanta. Georgia was huge, and that was that,
you know, Georgia.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I painted my red, my room red. I mean it
was I was all in, all in red, still still in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So who used to come to your games when you
were a kid, took you to practice.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
My dad, my dad was very involved. He was my coach,
and he was hard on me, very very hard on me.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Good good job, dad, because it paid, it paid all.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
And it's funny now that I have a kid, you know,
and not like I catch myself sometimes I'm just like, oh, man.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
But so back then, did you understand it fully? What
do you mean? Because I've been mean dad to my kids.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
It seemed me, you know, I didn't understand it, and
I didn't you know. He always used to tell me,
you know, I don't need another friend. I got plenty,
you know, and and things like that, and I'm not
here to.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Be your friend. And he was always really hard on me.
He's really demanding. Uh, and you know, it's frustrating.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I grew up playing baseball and that that caused
me a lot of strike because I wasn't good enough
in baseball and he was a better baseball player.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh he's better than you with baseball and so like,
and I strogged.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So he pushed me in baseball and I couldn't. I
couldn't figure out how to adjust and how to make
it work, make it work. And then when football came around,
that's where it became like he could push me and
I could figure it out and I could. It clicked
and it was just something that we, you know, we
bonded over and he always coached me. And then you know,
as we got older, you know, and I got to Georgia,
(12:51):
I kind of had to be like, hey, this isn't
you know, little league football anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
This is big boy football now.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So you're gonna send him down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, you know, we're gonna have to take a step back. No,
but uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
He was always, you know, a huge support and so
I mean my mom driving me around and.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I had to lose weight to play football, and and.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
I had to play with kids older because I was
so big and lose weight, and you know, my mom
would pack me carrot sticks and salary and.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Two times state champions.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah that was in high then she was packing me
a lot of food because then I ironically had to
gain weight, so you know, she really you know, it
really helped me out in that fraud.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And what was it just poured into me?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What was the best lesson that you got from your
dad going through that experience?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Man?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Uh, I just think just toughness, you know, and just
he was just never to quit, you know, and it
was okay to lose, but it was never okay to quit,
you know.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And I think there was a lot of times I
wanted to quit.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
And you know, my first football practice, he gave me
the opportunity to quit, and he was like, if you're.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Done, we can be done.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We'll go through something else.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, And you know, I just knew that that.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Even though that was an option, it wasn't really an option,
you know. And you know, and and there was times
at Georgia I doubted myself and and didn't know if
I wanted to keep on the journey. And you know,
again he I mean, you no, he didn't. He didn't
make me make a decision, but he made the decision
pretty clear for me.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So what do you say?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
You know, I got in my freshman year and I
grew up hunting and fishing, and all my buddies were
not many of them were playing college football, and you know,
I was seeing their college life looked a lot different
than my college life, and uh, you know, I was like,
you know, maybe maybe this is it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Maybe that was you know, the end of my journey.
And I was just down, you know, and.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
You know, I kind of was like, you know, I
think that I'm just gonna hate up and I might
just you know, hunt and fish and kind of yeah,
that's a job, it was. I think at eighteen, I
thought it was a job, you know. And he said,
all right, that's fine, and he goes, you know, you're
gonna have to come home, You'll have to leave and
get a job.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I'm starting here thinking, oh, I got it pretty good here.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You know, I'm living in this dorm room. I get
all my meals paid for. I really don't have a job.
And it was like, hey, you know, you can hunt
and fish for the rest of your life. You can
do that an you know, to you're eighty years old
until you you know, pass away. But you got four
years left to play this game. So why don't you
think on that important to that a little bit? And
I think that you know, even though it was about
hunting and fishing, you talked about young guys, right, Like
(15:24):
that's a good message for anyone, whatever it may be.
So maybe it's hunting fishing for some people. Maybe it's
other things for people, right, And you know, it's such
a small window.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I think our.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Lives are such a grand This is such a blip
on the radar in reality, this NFL career. So again,
it just goes back to why wouldn't you give it
everything you had?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So draft night, Yeah, it's become a spectacle. Now, it's
like the event of the year. It's a smart it's
competing with the Super Bowl. Now, yeah, it's phenomenal. It's
like because the fans really get to kind of wow,
it's crazy. Where were you want on draft nights?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I spent one day at the lake, I'm pretty sure,
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And then day two.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You didn't go On day one, no, I wish Did
you expect to go day one?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
No? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Did you expect to go day two?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
No? I thought I thought there would be a change,
you know, I just you know, I played in the SEC.
I started three years at Georgia, you know, from in
my opinion, had a very successful college career. You know,
I thought, you know, maybe in the seventh round, sixth round,
that you know, someone would take a shot.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
You know, we figured it out. Looking back, I mean,
I thank god they didn't because I got to be here.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But what was it like at the end of the draft.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You didn't spend all that work, all the Little League,
all the character sticks I spent, two time high school champion,
did not get drafted, even though there's an option in
the back down.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I had prepared myself, you know, and I surrounded myself.
You know, my parents, you know, they weren't opened me up,
you know, and and my agent. You know, he wasn't
you know, feeding me a bunch of bull, you know.
And so I had prepared myself. But any kid, right,
I mean it hurts and uh, you know, and and
I can remember everyone like yo, being like, oh, I'm
(17:16):
going on these visits and and no team came and
visited me, no team.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Flew me out. I didn't go to the Combine, I
didn't go to the Senior Bowl. Uh. The only coach
that came and saw me was Coach Belichick. Only coach.
And it was an awesome experience. I mean, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And he's that guy, yeah official, So when comes to
see you, it's like back in the day's vincentbody coming
to see you.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
I mean, And it was right after the fourteenth Super Bowl,
So I mean, you know, it was just it was
an awesome experience. Then that comes around and and he
told me so he told me when he visited me
that they weren't going to draft a center. The year before,
they had drafted a kid who won the Rimington, which
is like the best center in college. So he won
(18:00):
that they drafted him. He started as a rookie in
the Super Bowl. His name was Brian Storkey was a
really good player and he so they told me they
weren't drafting the center, which makes sense, right, They just
got one, yeah, invested in the fourth round. Shaq Mason,
who I trained with. He played at Georgia Tech. He
plays for the Texans now. He's still one of my
best friends. We played six years together. We were training
(18:23):
together in Atlanta and I was helping him snap because
people were saying he couldn't play guard in the league,
that he needed to play center, so I was teaching
him to snap. They drafted Shack and started the fourth round.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So I'm kind of like he.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Lied to me, you know, like, but he draft him
as a center.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
So he called me after the draft and goes, you know,
I said something about Shaq, and he goes, Shack will
never play center for us.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's going all right.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And still nine years later, he's never said a lie.
He said a lot of truths I didn't want to hear,
but he's never said a lie, you know. And as
something I've always appreciated about coach, he's brutally honest. So
when I got the offer, I mean, honestly, the Patriots
offered me the most money my signing bonus, which was
obviously big and to me and you know at that time,
(19:09):
but then also, like I said earlier, it was just.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Why wouldn't you come here? I mean, why wouldn't if
you had the opportunity? Why listen?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Listen the world? You heard what the man said? Why
would you not want to come here? This is the
place to be? And there's no question.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So I mean, I just you know, and I had
leaned on my uncle a little bit and talked to
him about it, and you know, but it just seemed
like this was the place to.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Be and that God chose me to go.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Didn't tell you to go to Denver.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
No, Denver, I didn't even I think I had Atlanta, Atlanta, Dallas,
and maybe Baltimore. Maybe.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How would you have felt if you went to Atlanta
and you was on the other side of their Super
Bowl loss because you're down twenty eight to three in
the third quarter?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Third? How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Because I haven't been on that side. I've only been
on the good side.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You would have went to Atlanta, You've been cheering for
three quarters.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I don't you know, It's so hard. Who knows what
my life would look like if I was in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
How is it to be down twenty eight to three?
That had to be embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yeah, I mean you're sitting there and it's your first
super Bowl and.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
What a story. You know, you're sitting there, right, And
it goes back to coach telling them lies.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
He told us that week that the Super Bowl is
not a real like doesn't feel like a real football game.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
It feels like it's two football games.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
There's the first half, which is the first game in
the second half, and momentum is very weird in the
super Bowl because there's longer breaks, you know, it's TV
time off. Yeah, you gotta get those commercials. It's a
very it doesn't flow like a normal game. And no,
so he told me that and I'm like, what, It's
just a football game, you know, And surely he was right.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And he's too in his conversation. Yeah, so you know
he has he has to get up to six. He
got six rings technically, so.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
We you know, everyone wants to know what did you
guys say at half?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Like what was that halftime speech?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Right? Like to me, like it was like a miracle speech,
you know, like the epic sport movie speech and it
wasn't there was nothing said. I can remember they came
in and we rode on the board. I think we
had ran forty five plays, which is a lot for
our first half. Forty five plays, some time in possession,
make it count or something like that, and oh.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Man and on, hold on, no, I mean, the biggest
comeback in Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
But you got to look you gotta look at how
we got there. Right, So so we're driving the ball.
I think we had a fumble on their side of
the fifty, current over right, So now we're moving the
ball like you're we had Steven Goskowski, I mean, you're
you got three points on the board, right, fumble, the
pick six, we were on their side of the fifty.
So now that's two scoring opportunities that we turned the
(21:49):
ball over on their side of the fifty.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
So there's games in football that you feel like you're playing.
The score might look like something. And I've been on
both sides where you're winning. It doesn't feel like you
got control of the game because there's other factors.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So you were losing, but you are you in control when.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
You're running forty five plays and had the time of possession,
like you're doing something.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Now, we weren't scoring, you weren't executing completely.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
But we were moving the football and we could feel that,
and uh, you know, we knew that to come back,
we were about to have to press the tempo and
that was gonna make the plays. I think it's still
the most plays ever ran. I think we ran ninety
nine plays in the Super Bowl and we felt them
getting tired. They had a great pass rush. I mean,
Grady Jarrett still at a.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
High level, but he was killing it. They had Dwight
Freenie on the edge. I mean, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Rememberphen was in He's not the same Freenie from on Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
But no, he was still playing really well. But and
then but Grady Jarrett had three sacks against us. So
I mean they're talking about him being the Super Bowl MVP,
which and I mean he played.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
His tail off, but in the first half.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think we just knew.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And it goes back to that trust, right, Like I
couldn't make it. I couldn't make this Julian Edelman catch, right,
Like I had to have Julian know that he was
going to do his job. Tom was going to make
that throw. And so and so was going to run
the route to pull the safety whatever it was, right.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But how did you feel as you started mounting the child?
I mean you like like another energy come over you.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
I mean it was and you just felt the damn break.
But you know you just had to control what you
can control, right, Like, we can't make up twenty five
points on one play.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Let's let's go.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
When Julio caught that pass, let me tell you that
what was right in front of the old line? What
was you think when Hulo caught that pass?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
And I think he had a foot issue and then
the whole thing was like he can't do this, he
can't do that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
He went up there.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
And I'm like, whoa, I was listening.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That was right in front of the bench and we
were just like that's bad. But that's where it goes.
But football is the greatest team sport because then high
tower makes the strips sad. But people don't talk about
there was a special teams player that no one wants
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So it was a kickoff, right we and I don't
know that you know, you have to talk about Matthew
Slater about it, but we do a kickoff and we
end up pinning I'm deep deep, not in the end zone,
but like deep in their side of the field. And
if they it was on one of those drives, on
maybe a sack to get them out of field goal range.
(24:11):
If they had been you know, at the twenty five
thirty yard line, whatever, it was their field goal range. Yeah,
And that situation does not talk about And that's why
football is such a great sport because without that play,
it's such a.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Little little thing.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
The games, inside of the games.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Without that play, they're probably in field goal range to
kick the game and it's it's over, but it's not.
It's not.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That's us. We got that one.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Yeah, we did get that one.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
So now, biggest comeback in Super Bowl history? What's the
biggest comeback in outside of the field?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh man, when you felt like you was down twenty
eighty three and you fought your way back.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, I got benched
my rookie year.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
That was one. And then you know that outside of football,
outside of football, outside of football, let me, I think
I've been very fortunate, man.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
You know, I haven't had major health The only health
things have been football related. And you know, I think
maybe for me, I guess the twenty nineteen season, I
had a health scare and that was probably, you know,
a little bit bigger than football.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So you set out, that's when you set out for
the year. Yeah, I had.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I got diagnosed with blood clots in my lungs and
blood clots are not good.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
No, They're not good. And I didn't know that at
the time.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So you set out for a year and got blood
then isn't treatment?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, and I mean it was. It was a very
weird year because.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
One the whole time I was in the hospital, they
didn't know where the blood clot came from.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So, you know, people get them after surgeries and it's.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Still a big deal, but like they kind of they
can they can they feel comfortable. Okay, you had the surgery,
You're okay and in mind. So I mean I was
getting tested for cancers. Yeah, I mean I'm calling family
members like, hey, do we have health histories, like, you know,
like things I don't you don't know about, because they're
asking me all kinds of questions, and you know, I
mean I would I can remember being in the hospital
and they come pick me up at like ten o'clock.
(26:07):
In the morning and I come back like four o'clock
in the afternoon after running.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All different kind of ye who would go to the
hospital with you?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My wife was there with me.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
She's been she's been a rock star, she's she's always
you know. She actually was in New York and then
either trained or flew back, I can't remember. And she's
always been by I've been in the hospital for about
ten days in total of my career. I had a
kidney thing in twenty seventeen that missed two weeks, and
I was in the hospital five days.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
She was there for three of them because I was
in Colorado for two of them.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
We gotta do this, We gotta do this. It was
Mother's Day not that long ago. Yeah, and you just
said the wife was dead with you at your lowest point. Yeah,
gotta get a wife a shout.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Out, yes, my wife and Kenny, come on, no, no,
not my wife. Give it to her. Forget get the
fans of watching the people behind the wall. Come all right,
that's what you act like.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
You know, my wife maybe at you. You know she's
been beside me.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
No, no, no, you talk about her, talk to We
need the fan basic because again, there are people who
are watching this who talk about their wife, Yeah, they
talk about their moms. They don't talk to their moms.
They don't talk to the people that help them. I
want you to talk to the women who stood with
you at your doctor's house.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I appreciate you, babe. You know, we've been very fortunate,
and I could imagine having someone else beside me and
watching you become a mother and getting to go down
that journey with you.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Our son's lucky to have you. I'm very lucky to
have you, and that you chose to do this life
with me.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
There you go. I'm saying, when'd you get married? What day?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
April eighth, twenty seventeen, So we've been six years.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Why April eighth? It sounds like like random day.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I mean it was Saturday.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
He wanted to be an April. When you pick it
Saturday in April?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Well, you know, I mean I wasn't getting married when
we had work coach. I was like, be here, no,
I mean I could have, but she knows I'm not
doing that. So she had between March and April and
not even all the way. In April, I left for
my honeymoon to come back up here for work. So
we had from the Super Bowl that year till April sixteen.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
You gave her a window.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
When I got married, I told my wife, we got
to get married any place in six one seven. I'm
from Boston, I said. She wanted to go out to
like Rockport was like on the cliffs overlooking the.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Old schat and beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It was nice.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I said, no, I'm from Boston, six one seven. Pick
anything in the city limits and I'll go there. Because
I earned youth programs, I had all these little kids,
the little girls in my programs. I went to dinner
with one last night. Then ninth tenth graders. They live
in the city. They're going through a lot. They haven't
really seen moms and dads, and I wanted them to
come to my wedding.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The highlight of my wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I had probably like ten or fifteen little girls from
my high school program who stood in the back and
watched me get married.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
And had we gone to Rockport, wouldn't they would have
been able to couldn't go.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So I say, listen, they got it. That's part of
my life, what I'm saying. And so I know you
do a lot of charity work and outreach. Tell me
about it.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's we're very fortunate, and
that's something I had no idea about this organization and
what what all they do?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Idiot? I mean, I got here and.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
You know, within one of the first weeks, we're going
to Boston Children's Hospital as a rookie class doing things.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You're meeting with the lady Donna.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
On our Donna's Donna, Donna's the true. So she's shout
out to Donna.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Donna's the best.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
And what I like, Donna Donna finds what you're interested in, right,
And so when you're interested in something and giving back,
it's a lot more genuine versus than being told.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You're gonna go to read this book, you're gonna go
do this event.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
And so that's something that I found super helpful. And
you know, it's interesting. Me and my wife talked about this.
We've talked about this a bunch lately. This is a
really amazing city, an amazing community.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I agree, and and.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
All the people that give back, all the different things,
it just it's amazing. It never ceases to amaze us
how many things are out there, you know, and it's
you know something in it every week that you have opportunity,
and it it becomes harder once you have a kid,
you know, because you're trying to balance and spending time
with them and uh spending time with your wife and
spending you know time and you know, this week we
(30:33):
have two things we're doing, uh.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Tomorrow night and Friday night.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Some charities that you know we're interested in and you know,
so we've found some things, whether it's uh, team impact
has been one I found very interesting and like I said,
I love sports and I just you know, having I
don't know if you know anything about team impact, but
they pay our kids, uh sick kids with college teams
(30:57):
and let those kids be a part of the team.
And it's now just like a one time thing, you know,
Like I know, like Michigan's basketball team, the kid's been
on the you know, sitting on the bench during the
games and things like that.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
So just amazing stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
And another one this week, I'm going to his mass
falling heroes, you know, honoring you know, men and women
that you have given their life.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
For our country in Massachusetts. It's kind of you know,
a local, local thing. And you know, those are two
things this week that are just you know, popped up.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And I can tell you this as a dad and
balancing time. My son's gonna be eighteen, and of all
the things that he've watched me do that had the
greatest impact is watching me help other people.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I mean there's the times I sit him down and
give him the dad talk, or I help him put
down to put the rules crew together, or we build something.
He gets that, but that's consistent in what he sees
all every day. But when he sees me go out
and help other people, then the conversations me and his
mom have about charities, outreach, global politics. I remember one
(32:00):
time he called me he was like, hey, Dad, it
is so bad with the North Koreans doing to the
South Crans.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I wish they would stop.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Because he grew up listening to NPR and listened to
his mother on the phone talking about the people being
oppressed or going through strife, and now he wants to
be a political scientist amongst others. Wow, it was those
conversations that don't that'd be almost robbing your kid. If
he can't see you, you don't have to spend your
entire life helping people. But he needs to see that.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I'm definitely excited. I took him.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
I took my son and he's too young to remember,
but I took him to a breast cancer event this
fall with me where we were at the YMCA.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
You know, and the baby. The reason I did it,
I was like, well, you know, he's a cute kid in.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
My opinion, right, and what what mom, grandma's don't love,
you know, sixteen month olds.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So I brought him and you know, he was loving it.
They loved it.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
And I know Matthew Slater does it. And I think
that's it goes back to what I said about my uncle,
like right, like seeing how he treated people off the
field and took time to be genuine with people and
things like that. I think that well, like I said,
I had that had to I remember that more about
my uncle than anything he did coaching once.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I'll tell you this, you say, he won't remember it.
Of all my memories as a kid with my mom,
I grew up, got in trouble when I went to prison,
and I got sentenced to prison. I actually stayed in
the prison five miles from here mci Walport. So I'm
at the prison and I'm there and I'm getting in
trouble and I'm doing what I do. One day I
woke up and I said, man, I'm the king of nowhere.
(33:29):
I become like the top guy in this prison.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But so what, who cares?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Nobody cares that I'm like the top gang member in
this prison in the middle of nowhere. And I decided
I wanted to do something different. And I sat down
and I said, what do I want to do? I said,
I want to go to college because I want.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
To be successful.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
And what gave me part of that inference was my
mother when I was a little little kid. I can
barely remember it. She used to go to college and
she took me to class for her because she didn't
have a babysit. And subconsciously I remember going to college
with my mom. I don't remember one thing, not the building,
not the classroom. I remember sitting at her leg, sitting
on the floor.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Holding her leg. But I remember being there.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And I can tell you nothing about the experience other
than I was there, and it's in there. So he
might you might not think you remember, but the imprint
you put on his heart and the imprint you put
on his life when the time comes it'll come out.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So he enjoyed that day, I hope.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
So, I mean, so I'm excited about doing more of
that stuff with him, you know, now that he's a
little bit older, and I just think I think that's important,
you know, And I think I remember going to work
with my dad at times, and things like going to
work with my grandfather, and I do think those like
leading by example talking about leadership again, leading by example
(34:50):
for kids, I think means a lot more than words
like you just said.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So is your wife from Georgia as well?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
She has, she cheered at Georgia. So we started dating
a junior year in college.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So our families from Georgia, families from Georgia.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Both from Georgia, Yes, sir, did they get along? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
My parents are obviously all Georgia fans now too, so
but yeah, I mean I think, you know, having the
grand kid, you know, has definitely brought everyone a lot
more closer to and.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So, you know, I think.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
It's hard though, it's hard being up here away from family,
and I think we started to figure that out more
once we had a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And built in baby cities help.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
And then I think you give your parents a little
bit more grace once you have a kid and you
figure out they you know, it wasn't as easy as
you thought it was. Yeah, you know, so I think
that's been something interesting. You know, you give them a
little bit more grace for you know, things they did,
and you know, you think that whatever decisions they were
making at the time, they thought they were the right decisions,
you know, and.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
They were just trying to do their best to you
know impact you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I agree, So let's let's do this. We're gonna do this. Ford.
If dad was hitting here right now, knowing what you know,
knowing what you just said, what would you want to
say to him?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I appreciate you never let me take the shortcut, always
making it hard.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
He's crying right now.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
He's a because I you know, he helped me out
a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Listen, you're a phenomenal young man. You're married, you got kids,
you're doing you're doing community work. I'm saying, you're raising
a family. You're on the greatest team on playing it early.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Know what I'm saying. I have to ask this one question.
I believe in keeping it about the person. He was
a center. Ye who would you hate to.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
I just I've been fortunate. I mean, you know, give
a shout out to my college quarterback Aaron Murray. They
throw the ball feels like every play now in the SEC.
But at the time, he was, you know, the leading
pastor in the SEC for a while. All he still
might be we'll have to fact check that, but fact
check that he.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Was for a while.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But like I said, they slinging that thing around now
and then you know, I got to I got to
snap it to one of the best, if not the best,
I think the best ever do it tom So.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And that was you know, what was it like from
a confidence standpoint, it was you know that I've seen
the sidelines and he's like, yeah, I mean, so what
is like being his center? You him being your quarterback.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
He pushes you and he kind of wants to see
if you're gonna break right, if you're.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Gonna just cramped, okay, well out there working, ah no,
he wants to see and talking about him getting.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Created, He's gonna be like, well, you weren't hydrated enough,
you weren't doing your pliability. Let me stand up. So
he uh he uh, he pushed you, man, and he
pushed you real hard. He wanted to see if you
would break.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
That's I'm working with Tom.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Always be prepared, you know, and I think no one
was more prepared than him, day in the day out.
He treated people well, you know, I mean as an
undrafted rookie, he knew my name. So for me, that
was a huge coming in, right, like, wow, why do
you know my name?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And you know why because you're David and how it
should be known.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah, but at that time, I was the undrafted rookie,
so you know.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
But he you were a super Bowl champion even when
you undrafted. You just didn't know it. I didn't know
your future has already written.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
He uh.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
I can't say enough good things about him. I mean
he was It was hard learning because I'm learning at
this pace right and he's up here on what he knows,
so now you're sitting there. But was great because it
challenged me to be like, all right, well, like you
made this call, why do I like, let me go
and try to figure out where this.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Call come from? What it does you know? And it
really pushed me.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
And yeah, I learned a lot from him. Yeah, I
think we had a good thing. We had a really
good time playing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
With the joke brother, I thank you for coming to
hang out with us, thank you
Speaker 3 (39:19):
For having me
Ladies and gentlemen, it is your host Andri Norman. We
are still here and we're back inje Let Stadium.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
We have with us a phenomenal guest. What I'm saying,
how many Super Bowls?
Speaker 3 (00:13):
Did you actually too? Been to? Three?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Gonna conte you? We don't, We don't cont.
Speaker 4 (00:19):
I still remember that one though, that one I probably
remember more than the.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Other ones, mister Dave Andrews. So how you doing.
Speaker 3 (00:25):
I'm doing good, happy to be here. Thanks for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
This is your building, we are we're in.
Speaker 3 (00:30):
I don't spend a lot of time down on this.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
And are you still on the field, yeah?
Speaker 3 (00:34):
Fielding in that locker room.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
So do you look at the trophies out front?
Speaker 3 (00:38):
I mean where we passed them every day coming in?
Speaker 2 (00:40):
How's it? How is it like walking by those two trophies?
Speaker 4 (00:44):
It's more interesting walking by the other four you weren't
a part of, you know, And uh, the tradition, you know,
And I think it's a reminder one for guys that
have been here, how hard it was to get there.
Speaker 3 (00:59):
It's not easy.
Speaker 4 (01:00):
It It wasn't, you know, just a good day and
the winner to win a game, you know, I mean
it was a culmination of that whole year, everything you
put into it, and then you know it's.
Speaker 3 (01:11):
Got everyone's names out there.
Speaker 4 (01:13):
And I think that's a big thing for me too,
because it's the ultimate team game. And it wasn't one person,
one guy, one side of the ball. It took every
guy on that roster, every coach, every equipment manager, strength staff,
you know, trainer.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Everybody's all.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
It's the whole for to be successful, it takes a
whole organization.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
I've seen some organizations, not necessarily football, basketball, baseball, where
it starts with leadership, and leadership comes down if the
leadership is strong at the top and they get it.
There's a lot of great leaders, but they might not
be sports leaders, and they get it. So mister Craft
gets it and it comes all the way down.
Speaker 4 (01:50):
I see, Yes, it's it's you know, I've gotten to
know mister Craft, you know, as I've gotten older and
spends more time doing things with him. And very fortunate
in an organization like this, And you know, honestly, I
was undrafted, so I had the choice.
Speaker 3 (02:05):
Yeah, I was fortunate.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
I didn't get told where I was going to play.
Speaker 3 (02:08):
I got to choose.
Speaker 2 (02:08):
And you're a smart man, yeah.
Speaker 4 (02:10):
I mean I thought I thought, you know, if I
was gonna choose somewhere, why not go Like I thought
I'd be selling insurance in a couple of year, you know,
a couple of years or something, right, So I was like,
maybe I can go learn something how a successful organization looks,
you know, how how something professional and something.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
You know.
Speaker 4 (02:26):
They just came off the twenty fourteen Seahawk super Bowl,
So I was like.
Speaker 3 (02:29):
You know, this is a golden it's some place.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah, like I maybe I can learn something to go
sell insurance or whatever it was I was gonna do.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I didn't know I'd be sitting here nine years later.
Speaker 1 (02:37):
So on the leadership ro well, you came with the
intended learning something to go start your own.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Business, which is cool. So even though you're still here
with happy you're still here, what did you learn.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
One it takes.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
It's not just one person, and it's not just one thing.
It's not coach Belichick, it's not just mister Craft, but
it you know, there's a standard that mister Craft sets,
the coach sets that all the assistant coaches have to set,
and then you know, then it gets into the players
where you know you're not going to have every player
buy in, you know immediately right, you know, And it's
(03:11):
kind of this, you know, but those guys that I
looked up to were guys that were patriots for so long,
had done it the right way, you know. I came
into a room with a guy like Sebastian Vollmer, Ryan Wendell, these,
you know guys my age.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
Now, is it patriot way a real thing?
Speaker 3 (03:29):
I think so? I mean.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
It's all I've known, so I'd like to say it's
a real thing.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
So team captains, Yeah, what do you know about that?
Speaker 4 (03:39):
I've been very fortunate. I've been a captain since twenty seventeen,
so six year.
Speaker 1 (03:45):
You came in undrafted and you worked your way to
become team Team captain has to be respected across the board.
So how did you win the respect of all the
other players?
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (03:55):
I mean, look, I think I think leadership is such
a weird thing. Everyone talks about leadership and it looks
different for everybody, and I think you have to have
all different kinds of leaders You can't have, you know,
all your team captains jumping down people's throats and you know,
doing things. You know, you got to have like a
guy like James White was one of the best leaders
(04:17):
you know I've been around.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
But he didn't say much.
Speaker 4 (04:19):
You know, But James, every day you knew he's doing
his job. He was going to be dependable, accountable by example.
He led by example. He didn't say much and he
didn't need to. I'm a little bit of both, you know.
I mean, I I enjoy I really enjoyed being here.
I like to let loose in this building. And you know,
I think my wife says I'm football Dave when I'm
at work, and sometimes unfortunately that gets brought home a
(04:43):
little bit, you know. But I I enjoy I liked
I like to have fun, I like to be here.
I'm intense about it. I expect people to do what's
expected of them. That's the biggest thing.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
I think. You build trust in people by, you know,
knowing that they're gonna do what's expect of them. Right.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
And if you're playing the line with somebody, to have
an excess sex successful line, you gotta have five people
working on the same page. It's the most interesting position
is sported and so I need to trust that my
right guard is gonna pick off the blitzer.
Speaker 3 (05:13):
That's coming to you know, hit me.
Speaker 2 (05:14):
In the head, and if it's not, you're gonna get
hit in it.
Speaker 4 (05:17):
Yeah, you know, and then you know you not greated.
Things happen. They get paid two on the other side
of the ball now, right. So but you know, I
think when I've been here with guys and having that
trust in them, and you know, and you drill it
so much, you work at it, you go through those
hard times together that when it's you know, when it's
time two point play to win the Super Bowl, you
(05:37):
know what. You know what they're about to do, and
you know what you're about to give them.
Speaker 2 (05:40):
So we ain't got no close ones. We just win.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
But as a team captain, now, I watch football. Anybody
watch football teams with madominantly black. So you're a white captain,
what I'm saying. And you're not the quarterback or you're
not like the middle linebackers. So how is it talking
to the other players? How do you get them like listening, buying?
What was that cultural gap or is it one? Or
was it just football?
Speaker 4 (06:04):
I think a locker room is a special place, and
you know, I think you know, there's not as much
I think I had noticed more of an age gap,
you know, guys.
Speaker 2 (06:15):
Old guys, young guys.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think, you know, that's
kind of I can.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
Remember even my like younger year when I was married
and some guys weren't it. We would all go, you know,
go hang out with each other, spend time, and then
it's kind of like the married folks either went home
or guys with kids went home. I used to go
out then go out with my wife, have dinner with
her after being you know, hanging out with the guys
all day. And then you know, single guys would be
you know, hanging with the single guys.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
And so how do you manage to single guys and
keep them? There's so much senpation to be a football player.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
I mean, I think it takes all different kinds, right.
You can't just have all leaders that are married with kids.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
No, no, no, how do you when a guy wants to
go to a club but he wants to hang out
and you know, what's impacting his play?
Speaker 4 (06:56):
How do you think I think that's different, right, because
then if it's impacting the play, impacting our team, that's
got to be addressed, right, And like the biggest thing
about being a professional, you know, there's guys that don't
go to bed at nine o'clock at night, and that's fine,
and they can still show up and perform.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
And if you can do that, that's more to you.
I ain't like that.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
I gotta get you know, what's your bedtime?
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Man? Last night?
Speaker 4 (07:19):
I think I was in bed at like a forty five.
You act like one of the old guys now now,
But I don't go to I just it's hard for
me to turn my mind off. It takes me a
while to relax, and there's nights I'll lay there for
an hour and a half. But no, I mean I think. Look,
I think at the end of the day, all guys
want to perform, right, and this is a performance based business.
So if there's something that's gonna hurt that guy that's
(07:40):
not performing, you.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Gotta let him know.
Speaker 4 (07:42):
And as a young guy, old a older guy, you
might see it that he doesn't see it because maybe
somebody else can do that and still perform, but he can't.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
And I think, you know, you gotta address it.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
And look, if you there's no one that likes to
have more fun than me, just go watch some.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
Of the parade videos from where we want super bowls off.
Speaker 4 (08:02):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I have my shirt off, and it
was you know, you did it, but like that was
the time to do it.
Speaker 3 (08:07):
You know, there's a time.
Speaker 4 (08:08):
There's a time for playing, there's a time for work.
And I think that's you know, I think as a
younger guy, you know, you try to explain that to him,
you know, and and let him know that you can
do all those things and have fun and you know,
but also you got a short window to do this,
and you might as well pour all those trips you
can into it.
Speaker 1 (08:27):
Just as a fan, it seems like a long window
because we don't we don't retire.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
We just watch everything and they rotate new folks.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
But I just know, when you're growing up in Georgia,
Dan Reeves legendary.
Speaker 3 (08:43):
Coach should be in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
He's not.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
That is a travisty. It is NFL commission. He's actually
do that because that man was phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
It's uh, you'll actually explain that to me, is coach Belichick.
So and to go into the Hall of Fame, you
have to be as a coach or a player. Now
maybe they're like the thing is as well as playing
career wasn't necessarily the Hall of Fame. Definitely a coaching career,
but I think his coaching career, but they're saying, you know,
but overall his life impact on the game.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
Is then they split it in half. Is either playing yeah,
you can't just yeah, but you don't mix them.
Speaker 3 (09:15):
You can't mix them.
Speaker 4 (09:16):
But like if you mix it, I mean, what who's done.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
His coaching crib I folled him from Cleveland, Denver all
the way down to Atlanta. So what was it like
growing up with him as your uncle?
Speaker 4 (09:26):
So it was just kind of lightning in the bottle
for me because I grew up in Atlanta and he
was the coach of the Falcons and it was such
a you know, huge impact. And everyone always asked me like, oh,
like you know, what do you touched you about? He
didn't teach me anything about football.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
He just watched him.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
I watched him and I could.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
I was too young to know what blocking scheme they
were running and type of off I didn't know. I
like to watch the people, and I like, I was
a bigger kid, so I like seeing old lineman. That
was for my confidence and to be around and like
see these huge, giant enormous people as a bigger kid.
That made me feel, you know, because no one wants
to play a line in second grade.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
But I know, well, you and the guys used to
play line. We played street football.
Speaker 4 (10:07):
I've never played another position.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
We used to play football on as kids, and I
played center, I mean quarterback, and you would come back
your hoy was open. I'm like, dude, you was on
the line and weren't supposed to be out of the field.
You shouldn't be open.
Speaker 2 (10:17):
Well you did? You just run off for passes in
the beginning.
Speaker 4 (10:20):
I mean, I started playing organized football in first grade.
Oh so, I mean I've been It's my whole life.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
I've been in it.
Speaker 4 (10:26):
But you know, I mean I I I watched how
he treated people off the field and how his players
treated people, and that had a bigger impact on my
NFL career.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
Then, so he's your mom's brother, your dad's brother.
Speaker 4 (10:39):
So he's actually my great uncle. He's my mom's uncle.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Okay, cool, Yeah, So so you grew up in Georgia.
How was that?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It was all?
Speaker 4 (10:46):
You know?
Speaker 3 (10:46):
It was unreal.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (10:48):
Coach Rick, who I got to play for, just got
into Georgia and they started going to the SEC Championship.
My first Georgia game ever was an SEC Championship game,
and I just fell in love with Georgia, and you know,
it was intro. All my families from Alabama, so except
for my grandfather is a Georgia fan, so it was
very it.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
My mom went to Auburn, you know.
Speaker 4 (11:10):
So it was kind of interesting Ti War Eagle, my
dad was role tied mom of War Eagle my dad.
Speaker 2 (11:15):
That was a real household thing.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
Then.
Speaker 2 (11:17):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (11:18):
Yeah, my dad didn't go to Alabama. He actually went
to Sandford and Birmingham, but he.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Was Alabama fan.
Speaker 3 (11:25):
He was Alabama fan. But I just I just grew
up in Atlanta. Georgia was huge, and that was that,
you know, Georgia.
Speaker 4 (11:32):
I painted my red, my room red. I mean it
was I was all in, all in red, still still in.
Speaker 2 (11:37):
So who used to come to your games when you
were a kid, took you to practice.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
My dad, my dad was very involved. He was my coach,
and he was hard on me, very very hard on me.
Speaker 2 (11:47):
Good good job, dad, because it paid, it paid all.
Speaker 4 (11:50):
And it's funny now that I have a kid, you know,
and not like I catch myself sometimes I'm just like, oh, man.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
But so back then, did you understand it fully? What
do you mean? Because I've been mean dad to my kids.
Speaker 4 (12:02):
It seemed me, you know, I didn't understand it, and
I didn't you know. He always used to tell me,
you know, I don't need another friend. I got plenty,
you know, and and things like that, and I'm not
here to.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Be your friend. And he was always really hard on me.
He's really demanding. Uh, and you know, it's frustrating.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
And I grew up playing baseball and that that caused
me a lot of strike because I wasn't good enough
in baseball and he was a better baseball player.
Speaker 2 (12:28):
Oh he's better than you with baseball and so like,
and I strogged.
Speaker 4 (12:30):
So he pushed me in baseball and I couldn't. I
couldn't figure out how to adjust and how to make
it work, make it work. And then when football came around,
that's where it became like he could push me and
I could figure it out and I could. It clicked
and it was just something that we, you know, we
bonded over and he always coached me. And then you know,
as we got older, you know, and I got to Georgia,
(12:51):
I kind of had to be like, hey, this isn't
you know, little league football anymore.
Speaker 3 (12:54):
This is big boy football now.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
So you're gonna send him down.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Yeah, you know, we're gonna have to take a step back. No,
but uh yeah.
Speaker 4 (13:01):
He was always, you know, a huge support and so
I mean my mom driving me around and.
Speaker 3 (13:05):
I had to lose weight to play football, and and.
Speaker 4 (13:09):
I had to play with kids older because I was
so big and lose weight, and you know, my mom
would pack me carrot sticks and salary and.
Speaker 2 (13:15):
Two times state champions.
Speaker 4 (13:17):
Yeah that was in high then she was packing me
a lot of food because then I ironically had to
gain weight, so you know, she really you know, it
really helped me out in that fraud.
Speaker 3 (13:26):
And what was it just poured into me?
Speaker 2 (13:29):
What was the best lesson that you got from your
dad going through that experience?
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Man?
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Uh, I just think just toughness, you know, and just
he was just never to quit, you know, and it
was okay to lose, but it was never okay to quit,
you know.
Speaker 3 (13:46):
And I think there was a lot of times I
wanted to quit.
Speaker 4 (13:49):
And you know, my first football practice, he gave me
the opportunity to quit, and he was like, if you're.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Done, we can be done.
Speaker 2 (13:57):
We'll go through something else.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
Yeah, And you know, I just knew that that.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Even though that was an option, it wasn't really an option,
you know. And you know, and and there was times
at Georgia I doubted myself and and didn't know if
I wanted to keep on the journey. And you know,
again he I mean, you no, he didn't. He didn't
make me make a decision, but he made the decision
pretty clear for me.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
So what do you say?
Speaker 4 (14:21):
You know, I got in my freshman year and I
grew up hunting and fishing, and all my buddies were
not many of them were playing college football, and you know,
I was seeing their college life looked a lot different
than my college life, and uh, you know, I was like,
you know, maybe maybe this is it.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
Maybe that was you know, the end of my journey.
And I was just down, you know, and.
Speaker 4 (14:41):
You know, I kind of was like, you know, I
think that I'm just gonna hate up and I might
just you know, hunt and fish and kind of yeah,
that's a job, it was. I think at eighteen, I
thought it was a job, you know. And he said,
all right, that's fine, and he goes, you know, you're
gonna have to come home, You'll have to leave and
get a job.
Speaker 3 (15:00):
I'm starting here thinking, oh, I got it pretty good here.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
You know, I'm living in this dorm room. I get
all my meals paid for. I really don't have a job.
And it was like, hey, you know, you can hunt
and fish for the rest of your life. You can
do that an you know, to you're eighty years old
until you you know, pass away. But you got four
years left to play this game. So why don't you
think on that important to that a little bit? And
I think that you know, even though it was about
hunting and fishing, you talked about young guys, right, Like
(15:24):
that's a good message for anyone, whatever it may be.
So maybe it's hunting fishing for some people. Maybe it's
other things for people, right, And you know, it's such
a small window.
Speaker 3 (15:33):
Yeah, I think our.
Speaker 4 (15:35):
Lives are such a grand This is such a blip
on the radar in reality, this NFL career. So again,
it just goes back to why wouldn't you give it
everything you had?
Speaker 2 (15:45):
Right?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
So draft night, Yeah, it's become a spectacle. Now, it's
like the event of the year. It's a smart it's
competing with the Super Bowl. Now, yeah, it's phenomenal. It's
like because the fans really get to kind of wow,
it's crazy. Where were you want on draft nights?
Speaker 4 (16:03):
I spent one day at the lake, I'm pretty sure,
you know.
Speaker 3 (16:09):
And then day two.
Speaker 2 (16:12):
You didn't go On day one, no, I wish Did
you expect to go day one?
Speaker 3 (16:17):
No? No, no, no.
Speaker 2 (16:18):
Did you expect to go day two?
Speaker 4 (16:19):
No? I thought I thought there would be a change,
you know, I just you know, I played in the SEC.
I started three years at Georgia, you know, from in
my opinion, had a very successful college career. You know,
I thought, you know, maybe in the seventh round, sixth round,
that you know, someone would take a shot.
Speaker 3 (16:38):
You know, we figured it out. Looking back, I mean,
I thank god they didn't because I got to be here.
Speaker 2 (16:44):
But what was it like at the end of the draft.
Speaker 1 (16:47):
You didn't spend all that work, all the Little League,
all the character sticks I spent, two time high school champion,
did not get drafted, even though there's an option in
the back down.
Speaker 4 (16:55):
I had prepared myself, you know, and I surrounded myself.
You know, my parents, you know, they weren't opened me up,
you know, and and my agent. You know, he wasn't
you know, feeding me a bunch of bull, you know.
And so I had prepared myself. But any kid, right,
I mean it hurts and uh, you know, and and
I can remember everyone like yo, being like, oh, I'm
(17:16):
going on these visits and and no team came and
visited me, no team.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Flew me out. I didn't go to the Combine, I
didn't go to the Senior Bowl. Uh. The only coach
that came and saw me was Coach Belichick. Only coach.
And it was an awesome experience. I mean, I loved it.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And he's that guy, yeah official, So when comes to
see you, it's like back in the day's vincentbody coming
to see you.
Speaker 4 (17:40):
I mean, And it was right after the fourteenth Super Bowl,
So I mean, you know, it was just it was
an awesome experience. Then that comes around and and he
told me so he told me when he visited me
that they weren't going to draft a center. The year before,
they had drafted a kid who won the Rimington, which
is like the best center in college. So he won
(18:00):
that they drafted him. He started as a rookie in
the Super Bowl. His name was Brian Storkey was a
really good player and he so they told me they
weren't drafting the center, which makes sense, right, They just
got one, yeah, invested in the fourth round. Shaq Mason,
who I trained with. He played at Georgia Tech. He
plays for the Texans now. He's still one of my
best friends. We played six years together. We were training
(18:23):
together in Atlanta and I was helping him snap because
people were saying he couldn't play guard in the league,
that he needed to play center, so I was teaching
him to snap. They drafted Shack and started the fourth round.
Speaker 3 (18:33):
So I'm kind of like he.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Lied to me, you know, like, but he draft him
as a center.
Speaker 4 (18:38):
So he called me after the draft and goes, you know,
I said something about Shaq, and he goes, Shack will
never play center for us.
Speaker 3 (18:45):
It's going all right.
Speaker 4 (18:47):
And still nine years later, he's never said a lie.
He said a lot of truths I didn't want to hear,
but he's never said a lie, you know. And as
something I've always appreciated about coach, he's brutally honest. So
when I got the offer, I mean, honestly, the Patriots
offered me the most money my signing bonus, which was
obviously big and to me and you know at that time,
(19:09):
but then also, like I said earlier, it was just.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
Why wouldn't you come here? I mean, why wouldn't if
you had the opportunity? Why listen?
Speaker 1 (19:15):
Listen the world? You heard what the man said? Why
would you not want to come here? This is the
place to be? And there's no question.
Speaker 3 (19:23):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (19:23):
So I mean, I just you know, and I had
leaned on my uncle a little bit and talked to
him about it, and you know, but it just seemed
like this was the place to.
Speaker 3 (19:32):
Be and that God chose me to go.
Speaker 2 (19:34):
Didn't tell you to go to Denver.
Speaker 3 (19:35):
No, Denver, I didn't even I think I had Atlanta, Atlanta, Dallas,
and maybe Baltimore. Maybe.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
How would you have felt if you went to Atlanta
and you was on the other side of their Super
Bowl loss because you're down twenty eight to three in
the third quarter?
Speaker 2 (19:55):
Third? How does that feel?
Speaker 3 (19:58):
Because I haven't been on that side. I've only been
on the good side.
Speaker 1 (20:01):
You would have went to Atlanta, You've been cheering for
three quarters.
Speaker 3 (20:05):
I don't you know, It's so hard. Who knows what
my life would look like if I was in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
How is it to be down twenty eight to three?
That had to be embarrassing.
Speaker 4 (20:14):
Yeah, I mean you're sitting there and it's your first
super Bowl and.
Speaker 3 (20:20):
What a story. You know, you're sitting there, right, And
it goes back to coach telling them lies.
Speaker 4 (20:24):
He told us that week that the Super Bowl is
not a real like doesn't feel like a real football game.
Speaker 3 (20:30):
It feels like it's two football games.
Speaker 4 (20:32):
There's the first half, which is the first game in
the second half, and momentum is very weird in the
super Bowl because there's longer breaks, you know, it's TV
time off. Yeah, you gotta get those commercials. It's a
very it doesn't flow like a normal game. And no,
so he told me that and I'm like, what, It's
just a football game, you know, And surely he was right.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
And he's too in his conversation. Yeah, so you know
he has he has to get up to six. He
got six rings technically, so.
Speaker 3 (20:59):
We you know, everyone wants to know what did you
guys say at half?
Speaker 2 (21:02):
Like what was that halftime speech?
Speaker 4 (21:04):
Right? Like to me, like it was like a miracle speech,
you know, like the epic sport movie speech and it
wasn't there was nothing said. I can remember they came
in and we rode on the board. I think we
had ran forty five plays, which is a lot for
our first half. Forty five plays, some time in possession,
make it count or something like that, and oh.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Man and on, hold on, no, I mean, the biggest
comeback in Super Bowl.
Speaker 4 (21:29):
But you got to look you gotta look at how
we got there. Right, So so we're driving the ball.
I think we had a fumble on their side of
the fifty, current over right, So now we're moving the
ball like you're we had Steven Goskowski, I mean, you're
you got three points on the board, right, fumble, the
pick six, we were on their side of the fifty.
So now that's two scoring opportunities that we turned the
(21:49):
ball over on their side of the fifty.
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Right.
Speaker 4 (21:53):
So there's games in football that you feel like you're playing.
The score might look like something. And I've been on
both sides where you're winning. It doesn't feel like you
got control of the game because there's other factors.
Speaker 2 (22:03):
So you were losing, but you are you in control when.
Speaker 4 (22:05):
You're running forty five plays and had the time of possession,
like you're doing something.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
Now, we weren't scoring, you weren't executing completely.
Speaker 4 (22:13):
But we were moving the football and we could feel that,
and uh, you know, we knew that to come back,
we were about to have to press the tempo and
that was gonna make the plays. I think it's still
the most plays ever ran. I think we ran ninety
nine plays in the Super Bowl and we felt them
getting tired. They had a great pass rush. I mean,
Grady Jarrett still at a.
Speaker 3 (22:31):
High level, but he was killing it. They had Dwight
Freenie on the edge. I mean, I think.
Speaker 2 (22:36):
Rememberphen was in He's not the same Freenie from on Baltimore.
Speaker 4 (22:38):
But no, he was still playing really well. But and
then but Grady Jarrett had three sacks against us. So
I mean they're talking about him being the Super Bowl MVP,
which and I mean he played.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
His tail off, but in the first half.
Speaker 3 (22:49):
Yeah, you know, I mean I think we just knew.
Speaker 4 (22:52):
And it goes back to that trust, right, Like I
couldn't make it. I couldn't make this Julian Edelman catch, right,
Like I had to have Julian know that he was
going to do his job. Tom was going to make
that throw. And so and so was going to run
the route to pull the safety whatever it was, right.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
But how did you feel as you started mounting the child?
I mean you like like another energy come over you.
Speaker 4 (23:13):
I mean it was and you just felt the damn break.
But you know you just had to control what you
can control, right, Like, we can't make up twenty five
points on one play.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Let's let's go.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
When Julio caught that pass, let me tell you that
what was right in front of the old line? What
was you think when Hulo caught that pass?
Speaker 4 (23:27):
And I think he had a foot issue and then
the whole thing was like he can't do this, he
can't do that.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
He went up there.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
And I'm like, whoa, I was listening.
Speaker 4 (23:37):
That was right in front of the bench and we
were just like that's bad. But that's where it goes.
But football is the greatest team sport because then high
tower makes the strips sad. But people don't talk about
there was a special teams player that no one wants
to talk about.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
Tell us about it.
Speaker 4 (23:49):
So it was a kickoff, right we and I don't
know that you know, you have to talk about Matthew
Slater about it, but we do a kickoff and we
end up pinning I'm deep deep, not in the end zone,
but like deep in their side of the field. And
if they it was on one of those drives, on
maybe a sack to get them out of field goal range.
(24:11):
If they had been you know, at the twenty five
thirty yard line, whatever, it was their field goal range. Yeah,
And that situation does not talk about And that's why
football is such a great sport because without that play,
it's such a.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Little little thing.
Speaker 2 (24:24):
The games, inside of the games.
Speaker 3 (24:25):
Without that play, they're probably in field goal range to
kick the game and it's it's over, but it's not.
It's not.
Speaker 2 (24:31):
That's us. We got that one.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
Yeah, we did get that one.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
So now, biggest comeback in Super Bowl history? What's the
biggest comeback in outside of the field?
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Oh man, when you felt like you was down twenty
eighty three and you fought your way back.
Speaker 4 (24:46):
Yeah, I mean I think you know, I got benched
my rookie year.
Speaker 3 (24:51):
That was one. And then you know that outside of football,
outside of football, outside of football, let me, I think
I've been very fortunate, man.
Speaker 4 (25:04):
You know, I haven't had major health The only health
things have been football related. And you know, I think
maybe for me, I guess the twenty nineteen season, I
had a health scare and that was probably, you know,
a little bit bigger than football.
Speaker 2 (25:19):
So you set out, that's when you set out for
the year. Yeah, I had.
Speaker 4 (25:21):
I got diagnosed with blood clots in my lungs and
blood clots are not good.
Speaker 3 (25:26):
No, They're not good. And I didn't know that at
the time.
Speaker 2 (25:30):
So you set out for a year and got blood
then isn't treatment?
Speaker 3 (25:32):
Yeah, and I mean it was. It was a very
weird year because.
Speaker 4 (25:37):
One the whole time I was in the hospital, they
didn't know where the blood clot came from.
Speaker 3 (25:42):
So, you know, people get them after surgeries and it's.
Speaker 4 (25:45):
Still a big deal, but like they kind of they
can they can they feel comfortable. Okay, you had the surgery,
You're okay and in mind. So I mean I was
getting tested for cancers. Yeah, I mean I'm calling family
members like, hey, do we have health histories, like, you know,
like things I don't you don't know about, because they're
asking me all kinds of questions, and you know, I
mean I would I can remember being in the hospital
and they come pick me up at like ten o'clock.
(26:07):
In the morning and I come back like four o'clock
in the afternoon after running.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
All different kind of ye who would go to the
hospital with you?
Speaker 3 (26:12):
My wife was there with me.
Speaker 4 (26:13):
She's been she's been a rock star, she's she's always
you know. She actually was in New York and then
either trained or flew back, I can't remember. And she's
always been by I've been in the hospital for about
ten days in total of my career. I had a
kidney thing in twenty seventeen that missed two weeks, and
I was in the hospital five days.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
She was there for three of them because I was
in Colorado for two of them.
Speaker 1 (26:37):
We gotta do this, We gotta do this. It was
Mother's Day not that long ago. Yeah, and you just
said the wife was dead with you at your lowest point. Yeah,
gotta get a wife a shout.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Out, yes, my wife and Kenny, come on, no, no,
not my wife. Give it to her. Forget get the
fans of watching the people behind the wall. Come all right,
that's what you act like.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
You know, my wife maybe at you. You know she's
been beside me.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
No, no, no, you talk about her, talk to We
need the fan basic because again, there are people who
are watching this who talk about their wife, Yeah, they
talk about their moms. They don't talk to their moms.
They don't talk to the people that help them. I
want you to talk to the women who stood with
you at your doctor's house.
Speaker 4 (27:21):
I appreciate you, babe. You know, we've been very fortunate,
and I could imagine having someone else beside me and
watching you become a mother and getting to go down
that journey with you.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Our son's lucky to have you. I'm very lucky to
have you, and that you chose to do this life
with me.
Speaker 2 (27:43):
There you go. I'm saying, when'd you get married? What day?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
April eighth, twenty seventeen, So we've been six years.
Speaker 2 (27:51):
Why April eighth? It sounds like like random day.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I mean it was Saturday.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
He wanted to be an April. When you pick it
Saturday in April?
Speaker 4 (27:59):
Well, you know, I mean I wasn't getting married when
we had work coach. I was like, be here, no,
I mean I could have, but she knows I'm not
doing that. So she had between March and April and
not even all the way. In April, I left for
my honeymoon to come back up here for work. So
we had from the Super Bowl that year till April sixteen.
Speaker 2 (28:21):
You gave her a window.
Speaker 3 (28:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (28:22):
When I got married, I told my wife, we got
to get married any place in six one seven. I'm
from Boston, I said. She wanted to go out to
like Rockport was like on the cliffs overlooking the.
Speaker 3 (28:32):
Old schat and beautiful.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
It was nice.
Speaker 1 (28:33):
I said, no, I'm from Boston, six one seven. Pick
anything in the city limits and I'll go there. Because
I earned youth programs, I had all these little kids,
the little girls in my programs. I went to dinner
with one last night. Then ninth tenth graders. They live
in the city. They're going through a lot. They haven't
really seen moms and dads, and I wanted them to
come to my wedding.
Speaker 2 (28:52):
The highlight of my wedding.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
I had probably like ten or fifteen little girls from
my high school program who stood in the back and
watched me get married.
Speaker 3 (28:59):
That's all.
Speaker 2 (29:00):
And had we gone to Rockport, wouldn't they would have
been able to couldn't go.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
So I say, listen, they got it. That's part of
my life, what I'm saying. And so I know you
do a lot of charity work and outreach. Tell me
about it.
Speaker 4 (29:12):
Yeah, I mean, you know, it's we're very fortunate, and
that's something I had no idea about this organization and
what what all they do?
Speaker 3 (29:21):
Idiot? I mean, I got here and.
Speaker 4 (29:26):
You know, within one of the first weeks, we're going
to Boston Children's Hospital as a rookie class doing things.
Speaker 3 (29:31):
You're meeting with the lady Donna.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
On our Donna's Donna, Donna's the true. So she's shout
out to Donna.
Speaker 3 (29:39):
Donna's the best.
Speaker 4 (29:40):
And what I like, Donna Donna finds what you're interested in, right,
And so when you're interested in something and giving back,
it's a lot more genuine versus than being told.
Speaker 2 (29:51):
You're gonna go to read this book, you're gonna go
do this event.
Speaker 4 (29:54):
And so that's something that I found super helpful. And
you know, it's interesting. Me and my wife talked about this.
We've talked about this a bunch lately. This is a
really amazing city, an amazing community.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
I agree, and and.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
All the people that give back, all the different things,
it just it's amazing. It never ceases to amaze us
how many things are out there, you know, and it's
you know something in it every week that you have opportunity,
and it it becomes harder once you have a kid,
you know, because you're trying to balance and spending time
with them and uh spending time with your wife and
spending you know time and you know, this week we
(30:33):
have two things we're doing, uh.
Speaker 3 (30:34):
Tomorrow night and Friday night.
Speaker 4 (30:36):
Some charities that you know we're interested in and you know,
so we've found some things, whether it's uh, team impact
has been one I found very interesting and like I said,
I love sports and I just you know, having I
don't know if you know anything about team impact, but
they pay our kids, uh sick kids with college teams
(30:57):
and let those kids be a part of the team.
And it's now just like a one time thing, you know,
Like I know, like Michigan's basketball team, the kid's been
on the you know, sitting on the bench during the
games and things like that.
Speaker 3 (31:08):
So just amazing stuff like that.
Speaker 4 (31:10):
And another one this week, I'm going to his mass
falling heroes, you know, honoring you know, men and women
that you have given their life.
Speaker 3 (31:18):
For our country in Massachusetts. It's kind of you know,
a local, local thing. And you know, those are two
things this week that are just you know, popped up.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And I can tell you this as a dad and
balancing time. My son's gonna be eighteen, and of all
the things that he've watched me do that had the
greatest impact is watching me help other people.
Speaker 3 (31:38):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I mean there's the times I sit him down and
give him the dad talk, or I help him put
down to put the rules crew together, or we build something.
He gets that, but that's consistent in what he sees
all every day. But when he sees me go out
and help other people, then the conversations me and his
mom have about charities, outreach, global politics. I remember one
(32:00):
time he called me he was like, hey, Dad, it
is so bad with the North Koreans doing to the
South Crans.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
I wish they would stop.
Speaker 1 (32:06):
Because he grew up listening to NPR and listened to
his mother on the phone talking about the people being
oppressed or going through strife, and now he wants to
be a political scientist amongst others. Wow, it was those
conversations that don't that'd be almost robbing your kid. If
he can't see you, you don't have to spend your
entire life helping people. But he needs to see that.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
I'm definitely excited. I took him.
Speaker 4 (32:29):
I took my son and he's too young to remember,
but I took him to a breast cancer event this
fall with me where we were at the YMCA.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
You know, and the baby. The reason I did it,
I was like, well, you know, he's a cute kid in.
Speaker 4 (32:44):
My opinion, right, and what what mom, grandma's don't love,
you know, sixteen month olds.
Speaker 3 (32:49):
So I brought him and you know, he was loving it.
They loved it.
Speaker 4 (32:52):
And I know Matthew Slater does it. And I think
that's it goes back to what I said about my uncle,
like right, like seeing how he treated people off the
field and took time to be genuine with people and
things like that. I think that well, like I said,
I had that had to I remember that more about
my uncle than anything he did coaching once.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
I'll tell you this, you say, he won't remember it.
Of all my memories as a kid with my mom,
I grew up, got in trouble when I went to prison,
and I got sentenced to prison. I actually stayed in
the prison five miles from here mci Walport. So I'm
at the prison and I'm there and I'm getting in
trouble and I'm doing what I do. One day I
woke up and I said, man, I'm the king of nowhere.
(33:29):
I become like the top guy in this prison.
Speaker 2 (33:31):
But so what, who cares?
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Nobody cares that I'm like the top gang member in
this prison in the middle of nowhere. And I decided
I wanted to do something different. And I sat down
and I said, what do I want to do? I said,
I want to go to college because I want.
Speaker 2 (33:44):
To be successful.
Speaker 1 (33:46):
And what gave me part of that inference was my
mother when I was a little little kid. I can
barely remember it. She used to go to college and
she took me to class for her because she didn't
have a babysit. And subconsciously I remember going to college
with my mom. I don't remember one thing, not the building,
not the classroom. I remember sitting at her leg, sitting
on the floor.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Holding her leg. But I remember being there.
Speaker 1 (34:09):
And I can tell you nothing about the experience other
than I was there, and it's in there. So he
might you might not think you remember, but the imprint
you put on his heart and the imprint you put
on his life when the time comes it'll come out.
Speaker 2 (34:25):
So he enjoyed that day, I hope.
Speaker 4 (34:27):
So, I mean, so I'm excited about doing more of
that stuff with him, you know, now that he's a
little bit older, and I just think I think that's important,
you know, And I think I remember going to work
with my dad at times, and things like going to
work with my grandfather, and I do think those like
leading by example talking about leadership again, leading by example
(34:50):
for kids, I think means a lot more than words
like you just said.
Speaker 3 (34:53):
Sometimes.
Speaker 2 (34:54):
So is your wife from Georgia as well?
Speaker 3 (34:55):
She has, she cheered at Georgia. So we started dating
a junior year in college.
Speaker 2 (35:01):
So our families from Georgia, families from Georgia.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
Both from Georgia, Yes, sir, did they get along? Yeah? Yeah,
I mean.
Speaker 4 (35:08):
My parents are obviously all Georgia fans now too, so
but yeah, I mean I think, you know, having the
grand kid, you know, has definitely brought everyone a lot
more closer to and.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
So, you know, I think.
Speaker 4 (35:24):
It's hard though, it's hard being up here away from family,
and I think we started to figure that out more
once we had a kid.
Speaker 2 (35:30):
And built in baby cities help.
Speaker 4 (35:33):
And then I think you give your parents a little
bit more grace once you have a kid and you
figure out they you know, it wasn't as easy as
you thought it was. Yeah, you know, so I think
that's been something interesting. You know, you give them a
little bit more grace for you know, things they did,
and you know, you think that whatever decisions they were
making at the time, they thought they were the right decisions,
you know, and.
Speaker 3 (35:52):
They were just trying to do their best to you
know impact you.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
I agree, So let's let's do this. We're gonna do this. Ford.
If dad was hitting here right now, knowing what you know,
knowing what you just said, what would you want to
say to him?
Speaker 4 (36:11):
I appreciate you never let me take the shortcut, always
making it hard.
Speaker 2 (36:17):
He's crying right now.
Speaker 3 (36:19):
He's a because I you know, he helped me out
a lot.
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Listen, you're a phenomenal young man. You're married, you got kids,
you're doing you're doing community work. I'm saying, you're raising
a family. You're on the greatest team on playing it early.
Speaker 2 (36:36):
Know what I'm saying. I have to ask this one question.
I believe in keeping it about the person. He was
a center. Ye who would you hate to.
Speaker 4 (36:46):
I just I've been fortunate. I mean, you know, give
a shout out to my college quarterback Aaron Murray. They
throw the ball feels like every play now in the SEC.
But at the time, he was, you know, the leading
pastor in the SEC for a while. All he still
might be we'll have to fact check that, but fact
check that he.
Speaker 3 (37:05):
Was for a while.
Speaker 4 (37:05):
But like I said, they slinging that thing around now
and then you know, I got to I got to
snap it to one of the best, if not the best,
I think the best ever do it tom So.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
And that was you know, what was it like from
a confidence standpoint, it was you know that I've seen
the sidelines and he's like, yeah, I mean, so what
is like being his center? You him being your quarterback.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
He pushes you and he kind of wants to see
if you're gonna break right, if you're.
Speaker 4 (37:37):
Gonna just cramped, okay, well out there working, ah no,
he wants to see and talking about him getting.
Speaker 3 (37:47):
Created, He's gonna be like, well, you weren't hydrated enough,
you weren't doing your pliability. Let me stand up. So
he uh he uh, he pushed you, man, and he
pushed you real hard. He wanted to see if you
would break.
Speaker 2 (38:05):
That's I'm working with Tom.
Speaker 4 (38:10):
Always be prepared, you know, and I think no one
was more prepared than him, day in the day out.
He treated people well, you know, I mean as an
undrafted rookie, he knew my name. So for me, that
was a huge coming in, right, like, wow, why do
you know my name?
Speaker 3 (38:27):
You know?
Speaker 2 (38:28):
And you know why because you're David and how it
should be known.
Speaker 4 (38:32):
Yeah, but at that time, I was the undrafted rookie,
so you know.
Speaker 2 (38:38):
But he you were a super Bowl champion even when
you undrafted. You just didn't know it. I didn't know
your future has already written.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
He uh.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (38:47):
I can't say enough good things about him. I mean
he was It was hard learning because I'm learning at
this pace right and he's up here on what he knows,
so now you're sitting there. But was great because it
challenged me to be like, all right, well, like you
made this call, why do I like, let me go
and try to figure out where this.
Speaker 3 (39:03):
Call come from? What it does you know? And it
really pushed me.
Speaker 4 (39:09):
And yeah, I learned a lot from him. Yeah, I
think we had a good thing. We had a really
good time playing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
With the joke brother, I thank you for coming to
hang out with us, thank you
Speaker 3 (39:19):
For having me
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