2001: Episode Seven, 20 Years Later

In this episode, Patriots.com's Mike Dussault and Erik Scalavino share their perspectives on the 2001 season and discuss the comparisons from that team to the 2021 season, tying together the entire podcast series.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
The two thousand and one New England Patriots, the team
that started an NFL dynasty. In a season full of
dramatic twists and turns on and off the field, the
upstart Pats shocked the world, redefining what it meant to
be a team and a Patriot. Twenty years and six
Super Bowl championships later, we're revisiting that historic season, hearing

(00:26):
from different perspectives that were there to witness it firsthand
and tell the tale, from players to coaches, local and
national media, and even some fans, mixed with some of
the most iconic sounds that define the season. It will
be a unique six part journey back as we follow
the roots of the Patriots dynasty for the one championship
that started it all. We are all Patriots, and tonight

(00:47):
the Patriots at champions I might do so. And this
is two thousand and one A Super Bowl Sound Odyssey,
Episode seven. Twenty years later. Hello and welcome to episode
seven of two thousand and one A Super Bowl Sound Odyssey.
My name is Mike Dousso, and if you're listening to this,
I'm hoping you listen to the first six episodes you

(01:09):
relive the two thousand and one season from start to finish.
And now we're producing another episode which will be one
part commentary, one part kind of analysis of the two
thousand and one season and maybe drawing some comparisons to
the twenty twenty one season, and just kind of an
overall overview of that season. And you know, you get
to hear a little bit of my perspective. And I'm

(01:30):
also joined by my colleague Eric Scalavino, who has been
here a writer for Patriots dot Com for since two
thousand and six. Is that correct, right? Yeah, And Eric
has some great perspectives. I didn't get a chance to
include him in the in the overall project, but I
thought this was a perfect time for the two of
us to share a little bit of our perspectives on it.
And of course, I mean I you know, posted it

(01:50):
and produced it, but never really got a chance to
tell you a little bit about what I thought of
the season and where I was in my life. So
we're going to take you through the whole season, highlight
some of the bigger moments, and you know, give our
perspectives on them, as well as featuring some of the
sounds that you heard throughout the series that you know,
really made an impression on us. So Eric, to start,
where is Eric Scalavino in two thousand and one as

(02:13):
a Patriots fan and just professionally in your career. Well, okay,
in two thousand and one, this is going to knock
your socks off, I think Deuce. I was working as
a television news producer down in Providence, my hometown, and
I used to volunteer to do special projects such as
you know, election night coverage or anything outside the normal

(02:35):
broadcast window, and that included Patriots games. And I loved
doing that because it was a sport I loved, a
team I loved, and so the on air sports guy
who was like the second in line there, he would
be the guy who covered the game. So he and
I would go up to the games almost every weekend
that there was a home game in the two thousand
and one season, so I was here for almost every

(02:56):
home game that year and got to see it right
from the press box and the Foxboro Stadium. And then
with five minutes left, as they announced for the media,
we'd go down to the field and sit or stand
in the back end zone. If you're looking at the television,
would be to your left. Hand side where the tunnels
are for the visiting team and the Patriots in the
old stadium, and we would watch the ends of the

(03:17):
games from that end zone, and that would come to
be a very significant end zone later in the season
for things that happened. Yes, good foreshadowing there. So at
the time, I was here for many of those games
in person, and I can just say that the way
it unfolded halfway through the year, my buddy and I

(03:38):
were just we didn't think it was gonna end the
way it did. Let's just put it anyone really, Yeah,
well that's I mean, so you were already in the
thick of it. I mean, you know, for me and
I think we're you know, similar in our Patriots fandom
of growing up that we you know, it was a
terrible team for the most part. I mean, I think,
you know, for most Patriot fans in the eighties, you
had the highlight of their Super Bowl run and every

(04:00):
thing that that entailed with that, with how exciting it was. Uh,
then saw a lot of bad games in the early nineties.
Bledsoe of course arrived and you know, I think that
kind of set the stage for this two thousand and
one season. And you know, going into the project, they
really want to make sure that Drew bledsoe got his due,
and you know, I think obviously there are plenty of

(04:20):
moments throughout the season, um where Drew did get his
due and and certainly that the Pittsburgh games stood out.
Loved what you know, a lot of people had to say.
But you know, for me personally, I had graduated from
college in ninety nine, I had moved out to Los Angeles.
I was going to Patriot gagames to watch Patriot games
at Sonny McLean's in Santa Monica. Uh, you know, getting
there bright and early at ten AM is the game

(04:40):
start time. So there at n I'm not gonna drink
at all and then buy about you know, kickoff coming Like, yeah,
I guess I'll have a beer. But it was it
was an interesting season because of course, you know, they
started winning and I'm like, course, I moved to California
and this is when they start to win. So uh,
but I think going into the season, as you said, uh,
you know, I wasn't really paying attention during the offseason

(05:02):
to the Patriots at that point. It was and obviously,
as you know, as we laid out an episode one,
and Scott Peoley did such a great job of, you know,
talking about what the philosophy was of the team going
into that season. The core philosophy was that we were
going to go out and find good players that maybe
weren't household names at at you know, good contracts, and

(05:27):
we felt like we knew the league and the players
in the league very well in terms of our pro
personnel scouting background, and I don't mean just me, I'm
talking about our coaching staff as well. And what we're
going to try to do was bringing good players that
fitth Bill's system that we were giving an opportunity to

(05:50):
and if they succeeded, we were going to reward them. So,
you know, the core philosophy was to go out and
get good football players that could play in Bill's system
but also be a part of the culture that we
were creating. Because the culture is extremely demanding, it's exhausting,

(06:10):
and it's rewarding, and we had to go out and
find players who had the personality and the makeup that
matched how we wanted to be as a football team.
And you brought in a lot of free agents, which
of course a lot of people drew comparisons this year
to the twenty and twenty one team of the free
agent class that they brought in, and really, I mean,

(06:33):
I think we're still kind of waiting to see how
that plays out. But of course, and that two thousand
and one team, they found a lot of good players that,
you know, maybe even if they weren't big names, they
played roles Larry Izzo, you know, guys who came in
and really established I think what we'd go on to
see over the next twenty years in terms of, you know,

(06:54):
maybe not this high priced, big name guy, but guys
that could play the way they wanted them to. And
they certainly hit gold on that free agency class. Oh,
this certainly did. And but I don't think any of
us really appreciated at the time how talented a lot
of those guys were. And they were still there was
a good mix of younger veterans and more established veterans

(07:16):
who were sort of holdovers from the Parcels Belichick era
of the Jets, the Giants of you know, that sort
of time frame, and I think we just kind of thought, like, oh,
you know, that's the typical head coach bringing guys he
knows and guys he likes and it worked for Parcels
in the you know, in the mid nineties there when

(07:37):
he when he took over and he had Bledso and
he brought a lot of the old Giants guys in here,
and they won pretty quickly. But I think, you know,
especially the way the season started out one you know,
one and three, Bledso goes down and you're thinking, this
is not only a potential catastrophe, Belichick might not keep

(07:58):
his job at the end of this, he might even
keep his job through the season. At that time, that's
what a lot of people were kind of thinking. Because
you lost your million, one hundred million dollars franchise quarterback
to an injury. You know, you had a terrible record.
You had this young kid in his second year, and
some of us were completely thrown off that he was
even in there at all. They look at we had
Tommy and Damon Neeward, so I still had two really

(08:20):
good guys in a room, and we just you know,
we just started. We took baby steps, you know, and
then we grew from there. And the more the more
he showed he can handle, the more we did. It
was such a rough start to the season. There's I
don't think anybody outside of this own this football team

(08:41):
could have envisioned that they had a chance to do
anything like they did. Yeah, and at that time, it
almost felt kind of like part for the course, like
you had no expectations. I mean you were like, I
guess we're not going to this year, right, you know,
maybe it's gonna be another one of those two or
one win seasons. But I really liked the connection, of
course that you have in a Rhode Island dated Roady.

(09:01):
And this was the last season that the Patriots were
at Bryant College, which was where they held their training camp.
There plenty of stories all over the place that that
came out of Bryant, but this was the last one.
And you know, before they moved here, the new stadium was,
you know, being built, and they have the facilities here now.
But I'm sure you spent plenty of time at Brian.
I did, as especially as as a kid. I mean

(09:23):
I was. I wouldn't say I was a rabid football fan,
or I wouldn't say it was a rabbid Patriots fan
as a kid, because I didn't really know that we
had a team around here that was back in like
the late seventies, early eighties, when you know, the late
seventies they were pretty good. But I was football pro
football wasn't really on my radar at that time. I
was a kid. I was playing soccer. I was more

(09:44):
into you know, school and soccer and other things. And
my dad loved football too. So when we turn on
the TV, the Dallas Cowboys were always on television, and
so I kind of was like, oh, I think I
like the Cowboys. They think I'm a Cowboys fan. And
then as I got a little bit older, maybe nine,
ten eleven years old, my dad was like, you know,

(10:04):
he'd showed me the sports page and I'm like, I'm
seeing pictures of this team in red and it says
Smithfield on it. I'm like, Dad, what is this? We
have a football team? And he's like, yeah, the Patriots.
They play up in Foxborough. It's only half hour away,
but their training camp is right down the street here.
We live ten minutes away from Brian College. He would
take he and my mom would take me to go
see training camp in August. And this was back before

(10:30):
you know, the velvet ropes and keeping people at bay,
and like we were literally a few feet away from
the practice field and then at the end of practice,
literally when the final whistle blew, they would take the
ropes down. We could walk onto the field and go
up to any player and ask for autographs and so
to see them up close at Briant College really made
it personal for me. Yea and that last year, that

(10:51):
two thousand and one year, like there was a little
bit of hope that Okay, maybe maybe they can be good,
maybe we can make a playoff push, just to get
in the playoffs this year, because they were coming off
what were they five and eleven the previous year, and
you thought, okay, they've added some things. Belichick's in his
second year, bledsoe well established as the guy here. Now's
the time bledso has already been to a super Bowl.

(11:13):
At this point, they can do it again. They can
turn around, they can be a playoff contender. That's kind
of how we thought of it going into the year.
And I mentioned before about my buddy from the TV station.
We would we would cover the games, but we weren't
covering training camp that year, so we had no idea
that there was a backup quarterback sort of not really controversy,

(11:35):
but a situation. Yeah, well, somebody making a push, somebody
making how some of the beat reporters talked about, you know,
watching him. My memories at Tom were like Carrie and
Drew at Drew shoulder pads and Damon Huart shoulder pads.
Like he was like like an afterthought, not just to us,
but to the staff which went out and got a

(11:58):
number two veteran quarter back. You know, there's one part
I wanted to talk about too, because this was something
that I wish I had an opportunity to dive more into,
and that was unfortunately that the passing away of Dick Raybin,
the quarterbacks coach. Sad news today out of Foxborough that
quarterback coach Dick Raybin died of heart failure at mass
General Hospital today. It's only forty five years old, you know,

(12:20):
and in a lot of seasons, this would have been
the biggest thing that happened to a team, you know,
a coach passing away, you know, just at the towards
the end of training camp. You know, looking back now,
you know, does it seem like that is something that
that is kind of you know, and not all respect
to him, of course, and you know, Brady talked about
how much he meant to Tom Brady's development. But it's

(12:41):
just I guess in a way, it's a little sad that,
you know, someone someone passed away at the beginning of
the season and that almost became a footnote into a
season that had just incredible ups and downs throughout. And
you know why it's even sadder, Deuce, is that I
think if it weren't for Dick Raybin, the Patriots might
not have drafted Tom Brady. You know, we've heard plenty

(13:03):
of stories over the years about how Belichick was sort
of like lukewarm about man, Okay, we kind of need
a quarterback. I'm so so about this Brady kid, and
Dick raybind as we understand, it was the guy who
really was like, look, I know what I'm talking about.
I believe in this kid. We gotta take he's available
at this late stage, we gotta take him. We gotta
take him. So if it weren't for him and his

(13:25):
belief in Brady, none of this probably ever happens. Yeah,
So think about put that in perspective for a second,
and like, who would have taken Brady? Would you have
even been drafted, would you have been an undrafted rookie
somewhere would you have ever become what he's become. I
think you have to look at Dick raybind and say
you can't forget about him, because without he was a
key component to this team being who they are. So

(13:46):
they wrap up training camp, the opening game lackluster loss
to Cincinnati Bengals. You know, hey, I'll due respect to
the Bengals now that they're making a little playoff run,
but you know, nine to eleven, of course happens, and
you know, for me putting the project together, you know,
getting the chance to talk to Joe Andrewsie and for
him to just you know, really it was the emotion,

(14:08):
such an interesting interview to just let I couldn't believe
how he laid right into it, laid the whole story out.
Obviously we had to do a little bit of editing
on the episode, m but you know, for the Patriots
to have such a connection to the tragedy of nine
to eleven, um, you know, directly to the multiple firefighters.
Of course, his brothers, um, you know, we're all we're

(14:30):
all in and around the scene, and I mean just
the I had never heard when he relayed the story
that you know, his brother said held his fingers just
a little. That's how close it was getting out of
one of the towers. And I know this is not
a video already name, but my brother holding his index
and his thumb together when I first ran into him
at my parents' house, and you know, holding it close

(14:51):
together and saying, that's how close he was to death.
He was running out of town one when it was
falling behind him, and you know, it was still gives
me chills to even talk about it and mention it.
But like I said, I can never fathom what he
or any of his colleagues or my brothers went through
in the day of and the day's leading afterwards. It's

(15:13):
just it's impossible to separate nine to eleven, the Patriots,
Joe Andrewsie and of course just that moment of him
running out of the tunnel that has really become, you know,
not just an iconic moment for the Patriots, but I
think really just the NFL in general right of patriotism,
of you know what that kind of meant to everybody
in that moment. It was just it's amazing what happened

(15:36):
in that game afterwards. But the build up itself was
probably enough to tell a whole story, which it clearly was.
And I mean, how poetic that they were playing in
their first game after nine to eleven. They're playing not
only Joe Andrewsie's hometown team, but his hometown team is
from New York, which took the brunt of the nine

(15:57):
to eleven attacks. But they're playing a team called the
Jets after nine to eleven, and what you know, jet
liners meant at that point, they became, you know, a
bye word for terrorism that point, and just the there's
so many tie ins to that game and the emotion,
and that was one of the games that I was

(16:18):
fortunate to attend. Coincidental story about Week two that year
was supposed to be Patriots at Carolina. What a difference
that might have made in the season if that hadn't happened,
and if they did play that game and you know,
Bledzo maybe doesn't get hurt, and just all the butterfly
effect of that. But I think it was just more

(16:40):
poignant that they come back and play their second game
against the Jets right after nine to eleven. I mean,
it was a it was a turning point for the
country having football back after that week, and it was
certainly the turning point in this organization's history. It's it's
hard to imagine sports and a national tragedy intersecting like
this with just a team like named the Patriots. Right,

(17:01):
amazing how that all happened Right now. By the way,
I want to point out that the former New York
City police officer a Bill and Rosie and his three sons,
who are New York City firefighters, are at midfield with
their brother Joe and Rosie the Patriots guard. Of course,
then you get into the game, it's another man. These

(17:22):
Patriots don't look too hot, you know, struggling against the Jets.
And I gotta give my producer Matt Morrell, who did
a fantastic job on, you know, putting all of the
audio together for this. You know, I got to admit,
when I see all the highlights of Drew bledso getting
lit up by mo Lewis, I always was like, I mean,
it looks like a hard hit, but people describe it
like it was, you know, the biggest hit they'd ever seen,

(17:44):
the hit Mo Lewis put on Drew Bledsoe. Like you
can hear it when you watch the NFL films clip
and most people have only experienced it through social media. Now,
when you were there, it sounded like somebody dropped like
a salad bowl full of bricks right in front of
you on the bench. Like it was so loud, it
was like a small car accident. And I was on

(18:04):
the opposite side of the stadium and I heard that,
and you watched Bledsoe go down, and there was a
from everybody like everybody knew, like, oh no, so I didn't.
I don't think it really fully hit me until Matt
Morrel pulled the actual audio audio of the radio broadcast
Blood Cell deep drop, steps up, now, rolls to the right.

(18:25):
Now he's gonna have to run if it's twenty twenty
five thirty, Oh, I don't think first down. He got
back on the fire side as he tried to run
the ten yards for the first down, and I'm sure
down he's going to get up on this one. You go,
he really got hit. You can hear it. You hear

(18:46):
the smack. And that to me the realization of wait,
was that Bledsoe getting hit? That huge crash I heard
twenty five thirty Oh, that really to me put it
into into perspective of really how hard the hit was.
I mean, you were there. I don't know if you
heard it, but I feel like that sound kind of
sent a signal to the whole stadium that this is

(19:09):
this is serious. Well, I think you know, the radio
broadcast have what I called parabolic mics. They have these
guys standing you've seen them. They're guys that stand on
the sideline with they look like these these round, circular,
just giant microphones and they basically hold them to get
the ambient sound of you know, you hear the quarterbacks cadence,
and you hear the crashing of the helmets and the

(19:29):
pads at the line of scrimmage. And that hit took
place right near a guy with a parabolic mic, so
it jumped out even more on the radio broadcast. Now
from our perspective, we were sitting in the press box,
which is on the opposite sideline, several rows up, so
we saw the hit. But you know you're hearing it's
a cheering crowd. You didn't hear it. We just thought, oh,

(19:49):
let's gets knocked out of bounds, and they were like,
why is he not getting up? What's going on over there?
There's people crowding around, and like it didn't register that
it was that big a hit to us at the time.
It only registered when we saw Tom Brady come out
later on and we're like, I mean, I do believe
Drew came in for another snapper? He did, Yeah, he
handed it off a few times. They right, So we
were like, Okay, he took a hit, Okay, he's fine.

(20:12):
We didn't think anything of it. And then the next
series after that, I think, was when we see number
twelve come trotting on the field. Tom Brady is again,
you're right, Drew blood Cell is not on the ball again.
My my buddy and I from the TV station look
at each other. I'm like, what is going on? Why
are they putting the third string quarterback in? Because we
had no idea that Drew that Brady had become the

(20:35):
number two quarterback here. Like I said, we had we
didn't cover training camp on a daily basis, so we
weren't privy to the minutia of oh, there's a there's
a backup quarterback duel going on here, and there's this
young right. Yeah, we didn't really think about it. Also,
because Drew was the guy, we never anticipated that there

(20:56):
would be anybody other than Drew taking a snap for
this team after he had signed that monstrous contract, and
he was clearly the most you know, high profile player
in the franchise's history. Why is a six round pick
from last year coming onto the field. We didn't really
register what was going on at the time. I don't,
I mean, and I don't think a lot of people did.

(21:17):
And I mean certainly the Beat beat writers that we
talked to who watched training camp, Tommy Kerran Parrello our friend,
of course, you know, they saw something going on. But
before the days of the internet, before the days of
you know, tweeting out your your camp observations, you really
had to go and probably dig to find those things. No,
I did not think that Drew Bledsoe was the guy.
Drew bledso was the hood ornament on CMGI field. In

(21:41):
September of two thousand, I spoke to people who indicated
to me that Robert Craft was having some reservations as
to whether or not he wanted to go ahead with
Drew Bledsow and he ultimately did. But you know, Brady
comes in, throws a couple of passes, he becomes the guy.
I mean, and I think just in retrospect, you know

(22:03):
what the Patriots in the Colts rivalry was to become
over the next decade at least with with Brady and Manning.
And it's amazing in retrospect that you know, they put
up forty four points on the Colts. Of course that
was you know, defensively defensive. So I think you see
a little bit of that veteran defense starting to emerge.
He heard some of the players, you know, during during

(22:24):
the show talk about, you know, the pressure to step
up a little bit. Hey we got a young quarterback.
It's like any other young quarterback coming in and get
getting getting your feet with um. You don't want to
put too much on him, but you know, you try
to bring along slowly. Antoine Smith becomes a focus with
his running former AFC East guy with the Bills, who

(22:46):
you know, still has something to prove. They got two
wins over the Ram over the Colts that year. Uh,
what a what a crazy start to Brady Manning. That
that that's how it kind of happened. Brady's first start
thrust into the Flames and his defense kind of carried
them to the win and kind of maybe gave you
a little bit of hope of hey, we've got these
veteran defenders, maybe they can at least hold the fort

(23:09):
I don't think anyone believed just yet that Tom Brady
was going to be the guy that he was going
to win the job. But I think what was apparent,
and I think this is why people drew comparisons back
to this season this year was you've got an inexperienced
quarterback coming in. This was the formula in this first game.
The defense has got to produce takeaways. The quarterback does
not produce any giveaways. As Tommy Kurran put in ten

(23:30):
and two, keep it steering straight. It was a resounding
victory for the Patriots. Brady mostly at his hands at
ten and two when just got the car out of
the garage, down the street and back to the garage,
And that was a sense after that game, well, at
least he didn't wreck the family car. You know, did
you have any feeling there at the beginning of that

(23:50):
when when Tom Brady kind of took over. I mean
we didn't know what was to come, of course, but
at least it maybe gave us a little bit of
hope there at that point in the season. I don't
even know if I was yet, like I might have
checked out at this point been like the backup, Letzo's out.
I'll see what happens down the road. But just an
interesting first game for Brady to start. Was such a
foreshadow of things to come. It was. And the funny

(24:11):
thing about it was you mentioned that they beat the
Colts twice that year. That was back when the Colts
were part of the AFC East, and this was before
the two thousand and two realignment. There were five teams
in the AFC East, the Colts with that fifteen and
even in the bad years of the Patriots that you
and I lived through as youngsters, you could always count
on the Patriots beat in the Colts to get that

(24:33):
one win or the two and fourteen, the one and
fifteen years that was the Colts. You knew, okay, we
got a chance against these guys. So when they dropped
forty four points on Manning, like Manning wasn't Manning at
the time either, yea, you know, he got very young Manning.
It wasn't spokesperson Manning. You just thought to us, it
was just like, well, that's just us beating up on

(24:54):
the Colts like we always do, even in bad years.
Even a young quarterback like Tom Brady can come in
and beat up on the Collts. Great. You know, that's
all kind of we thought about that game. We didn't
have any sort of projection that this was going to
be something we were going to see a lot of
over the next ten plus years between those two guys.
But I like the comparison you make about how the

(25:15):
twenty twenty one team had a young quarterback with some
new free agents that came in and established somewhat defense,
and you kind of figured, Okay, that's going to be
the formula to win, and for a while in twenty
twenty one, that was the formula. Now we all know
the way this season ended, right, but polar opposites right
of the endings. But I think you saw the same

(25:38):
type of steady game management like progress from Mac Jones
this year that you kind of saw with Brady. The
difference was, I think a couple of weeks later against
well against Miami, but against the Chargers in particular, when
the Patriots are down late and it's up to the
young kid to bring them back. Brady was showing us

(26:00):
something right off the bat with that Charger game that yeah,
if we're down two scores, I can bring you back right,
and that was something that kind of opened our eyes
a little bit to like, how was he doing and
that I think the Charges had Doug Flutie at the time. Yeah,
if I'm not mistaken. So Brady beat Doug Flutie, who
at the time we were thinking, Oh, the Charges got Fluty,

(26:22):
this is not going to be a game. And then
we I'm actually in Tennessee. I'm at the Titans game.
They were playing the Bucks. I believe that was our
our alternate road game that year instead of the Patriots.
We went on a trip when the Skies opened up again.
So we're sitting in what's now Nissan Stadium watching the
scores pop up, and we're seeing the Patriots come back
late in the game and we're like, oh my god,

(26:43):
Brady is making them come back in this game. That's
when we first kind of thought like, Wow, is this
kid gonna do something? Yeah special? Like how does he
come back from that? This is Brady we're talking about,
not bled Sody, you know, came in there and we won.
And I remember the optimism of mister Kraft, you know,

(27:07):
he was so optimistic this could be the guy. And
I'm thinking, oh yeah, but I'm like, man, I don't know,
but sure enough he was right. He was the guy.
And uh, but all of Brady's hard work paid off,
like uh, you know, he obviously such an overachieve, you know,
a guy that just made himself great. But he had

(27:28):
great coaching along the way. But he's he was really special.
So that was my first inkling that there might be
something and specially maybe a big word here, but bruin something. Hey,
maybe we have a nice backup quarterback here. That's kind
of what I thought at the time. Well, it's crazy
because you know, against the Colts that that first started

(27:50):
one hundred and fifty nine passing yards. The next week
against Miami sixty nine. I mean, and and I think
that's what was really interesting to me about the season.
We mentioned the Colts, how a lot of what happened
in this season, not just what it foreshadowed a lot
of what was going to happen. And the style of games.
The loss in Miami thirty to ten, three turnovers, you know,

(28:10):
you kind of fall back to earth. But then, as
you mentioned, I think that that Chargers game certainly one
where you started to believe. I mean, you know, throws
for three hundred and forty five yards. What would have
made you think going into that game that all of
a sudden he was going to explode. Um. But then
you go into the next game, you go another quick
rematch with the coltson and this is probably a good
time to bring up Um. You know David Patton, who

(28:32):
as we were putting this project together, uh, you know,
Matt Smith and Brian Moorey put together Pats from the Past.
They did a great interview with David Patton UM where
he touched on a lot of the stuff. And then unfortunately,
you know, the accident happened while we were producing the
podcast and he passed away UM, which just made it
even more haunting kind of listening to him and and
a lot of the things that he says during the podcast,

(28:53):
and then they got a lot of great stuff from him,
UM that that I, you know, felt that I had
to include and you know in this game was was
you know the of his career. You know how he
scored the touchdowns. Everyone can't be the All American every
every player can't get the accolades, every player can't make
it to the Hall of Fame. But to say that

(29:14):
I did something that two Hall of famers. Did you
know that that that's really humbling. That makes me feel
pretty good, because that's just it. When I when I
was given my opportunities, I always felt like I could
be an eighty catch ninety catch receiver any given season,
but that just wasn't my role. And that was, you know,

(29:36):
one of those first instances. A lot of things were
starting to happen with this team that you know, felt
a little out of the norm. Maybe, like you said,
maybe there's something special. I don't know, but there's something,
and then this happens. Things special things are really kind
of starting to happen with with Patton and Indie because
especially deuced with the history that I was used to
as a Patriots fan, things never went their way. Okay,

(29:58):
they broke their way in Adie five to get to
the super Bowl, and then they get clawbered. They broke
their way in ninety six ninety seven when they went
to the Super Bowl with parcels, and then they faced
the onslaught of the packers and whaant. Right, we were
used to things not going their way, So even when
things were breaking their way, you knew there was eventually

(30:20):
going to be another shoe that was going to drop,
and it was going to drop big time. So you're right,
we started seeing like, hey, this is unusual. Things are
kind of going our way a little bit. But na, right,
that's the Boston, New England and you coming out now.
Of course we're at this point now and again you
talk about the loss of Miami. They go to Denver

(30:41):
and they lose. That's another place that Brady always had
problems struggle. I thought, you know, there were some really
interesting comments, especially Damien Woody talking about that. I remember
talking to Damien Woody in the locker room after the
game and he sort of explained it. This game was different.
There was an anger because as we felt like we
let one slip away today, and that to me was

(31:03):
the day they decided, hey, we're pretty good. We can
play with anyone. If we can go out to Denver
play a C plus game and still have a chance
to win, we can compete with anybody. You know, you're
three and four on the season. But they felt coming
back like, you know, hey, we got something here if
we even when we didn't play our best, we were
still kind of in it. And that really began a

(31:25):
win streak. You get to see, you know, Mike Vick
get to see a little bit of him in Atlanta,
they knocked them off. They go to Buffalo, get a
tough win there as always I mean again talk about
recurring themes Buffalo, and then you know, we get to
the Rams game, which was, you know, again a highlight,
and I think in the historical context of this season,
I think everybody kind of has known at this point, like, yeah,

(31:46):
that was the game where they figured out that they
got to hang with a good Super Bowl champion type team.
But I think as in the process of doing the
podcast and really drilling down on it, and you know
what was it exactly? It was, you know, the physicality
that they brought, you know, the resilience that they showed
throughout that game, but you know, to hang with the

(32:06):
Super Bowl champs, and you know, it's it's funny because
nowadays there's there's no more there's no victories like that,
Like the Patriots don't lose games now, and you're like, well,
we hung with them. I mean maybe we we've third
over that last year in twenty twenty a tiny bit,
but it just shows how different the team was. This
would be the last time that they would lose, Uh,
and it's just such a I guess probably maybe one
of the most famous losses non Super Bowl losses in

(32:29):
Patriots history, at least regular season wise. That really kind
of seemed to fortify the team and get them focused
on their own goal. And they didn't lose again. They didn't.
And it's funny that you put it that way because
I was at the game covering it with my on
air reporter from the TV station, and we're sitting in
our usual spot in the press box, looking forward to

(32:51):
this game all week. Like you said, the defending Super
Bowl champs, the greatest show on turf, the hype of
I believe it was a Sunday night game, so much
drama leading up to that game that week, a lot
of hype, and they played their hearts out, the Patriots,
and at the end of it, they came up just short.
And I look at my buddy at the final whistle

(33:15):
and we both had the same thought at the same time,
and we both expressed it to each other simultaneously, and
we said, this team's not gonna win another game this year,
because our thinking was they just played the game of
their life. They played the best they could possibly play.
The Rams didn't quite play their best and still beat you.

(33:36):
So how are you possibly like, yeah, okay, it was nice,
you were at home, you had the home crowd, you
played the right and they still beat you. So we're like,
if that's the best they can do, And we look,
we're looking at the schedule. We're thinking they're not going
to win anymore games this year. We had just the
opposite thought that the Patriots themselves did. And thank god

(33:58):
because they're ones on the field doing it. But it's
just so ironic that they did the opposite of what
we expected. They didn't lose another game that year. Belichick
turned the entire organization around when he went up in
front of the team after losing that night game. And
this is the first time he ever was super positive

(34:19):
with the guys in like that year, in six weeks
or whatever it was, when he stepped up and he goes,
I'll tell you what that game's on me. I blew it.
I blew this game, no question it was me. He goes,
If you guys play as hard as you did in
this game every week, and if we coach as hard
as we did like we did this week, we'll see
him again. We'll see that team again and sure as

(34:41):
hell we did. They did, and so they started rolling
him off. At that point, they beat the Saints thirty
four seventeen and roll them one point win over the Jets.
As always, you know, these divisional games often closed. Cleveland
squeak out an overtime win over the Bills again at Buffalo.
You know, it's just prime example of dynasty Patriots that

(35:02):
no matter how good they are, they're headed to a
super Bowl. It was always kind of you know, there
are a lot of plenty of games that were tough
against Buffalo to get that weird late bye week, which
I guess we got a little bit of a flavor
of this season, and then they go down and absolutely
hammer the Panthers. Um. You know, I think one of
my favorite parts of the whole of the whole podcast
were the stories about them flying back and watching on

(35:24):
TV and knowing if the Jets and Raiders go, if
the Jets pull out the win, Charlie Weiss watching it
on his TV, you know, Damian Woody was great, say,
you know, I think the drinks did flow on that flight.
They end up getting a late you know, a late
by I mean almost sneaking into the bye, which you know,
I mean, these days with one by never never going
to happen. You're never going to slip into the by

(35:45):
like that. But what an ending to the season, you know,
rolling off six straight wins, getting into the playoffs, getting
the bye, and securing another extra game at Foxborough Stadium,
which you know, I think the game against Miami to
thee in the last game, which they won twenty thirteen.
I think that was a little bit of an underrated
game considering, uh, you know what was at stake, and

(36:06):
you know, they Miami played them tough, and you know,
obviously had hammered them earlier in the season thirty to ten.
That was one that was a little bit of an
underrated victory for me when you look back at the season.
But overall, they really took that Saints game, turned it around,
and you know, headed towards the playoffs. And I think
I'm glad you brought that game up in particular, because
that's the one coming off the Rams loss, and I believe,

(36:28):
if my memory is right, that was the week that
Belichick declared Brady was going to be the starter going forward,
regardless of Drew's health status. My job is to make
the decisions for the football team. And that's what I'm
gonna do. I'm going to make the best decisions I
can for the football team. That's what That's what mister
Krafts pay me to do, and that's what I'm going
to do. I'm gonna make the decisions that I think
are the best for the football team, t am as

(36:51):
in team. And I remember famously, you know, our colleague
Paul Perillo in that locker room scrum with Bledsoe asking
him about that and next question, you know, and like
you could tell, Drew was seething because he was a
competitor and he didn't want to lose his job and
who is this kid to take my job? Like we

(37:12):
were all flabbergasted at that point. But look what Brady
did with that opportunity, that vote of confidence. I think
that win over the of the Saints speaks to again
foreshadowing what was to come with Brady, like this is
your team, now go get it. And he did. And
little did we know, well, but the playoffs begin, and

(37:34):
I'm glad earlier you brought up, you know the impression
that it had getting to go to Bryant and interact
with the players and you know, and I still remember
crystal clear as day, the first Patriots game that I
ever went to, you know, in the old stadium, and
I just remember, you know, the old stadium was closer
to Route One than the stadium is now, so when
you would come up from the south side, it just

(37:57):
looked like a castle on a Hillty absolutely, you know,
it was just towering. Wasn't a big stadium, the big
lights overlooking the big lights. Uh. It was also one
of the scariest places I've ever been, which I think
I've said because of the fans in this I mean,
it was a free for all there. If you didn't
get to go to a game. I mean, now you're
you got Trader Joe's five guys. It's like, you know,

(38:18):
family outing here around Gillette Stadium. But at that time,
it was a rough crowds, drunk people, handcuffs. Yet it
was not exactly the most family friendly environment. But in retrospect,
I have such a fond memories of of just getting
to see the NFL atmosphere for the first time in
that stadium and went to quite a few games there.

(38:40):
How cool was it that this final game in Foxboro
Stadium was in the middle of a blizzard. Yeah, perfect,
Oh my god. You know me, I love the snow
and I got to go to that game as well,
covering it for the TV station. And there was there
was so many press who were actual for that game
that they had to build an auxiliary press box out

(39:03):
in the parking lot. They basically set up a big tent.
Paul was not that's usually where Paul gets put, but no,
it was just a handful of us and they set
up you know, big screen TV heaters. So we're out
in this snowstorm, covered by the tent, but we're watching
it from the parking lot and we can hear like
the crowd roaring, but we're watching it on television. I mean,

(39:26):
that's one of those Mother Nature came in and gave
an assist big time for that game and for it
to be the last game at that stadium. A lot
of like you said, a lot of a lot of
bad memories, but also a lot of um poignant ones too,
like when you're a kid, everything seems just so larger
than life. And that stadium as crummy as the seats were,

(39:48):
as cinder blocky as it kind of seemed, and you know,
high schoolish. It was still our stadium. It was the
stadium we grew up in, and for it to go
out in that fashion was I mean, it was so surreal.
It felt like you know those little snow globes that
you shake up and the snow just kind of like

(40:08):
softly falls. That's how the snow was falling that night.
It was very magical and it felt like, am I
really witnessing this? Is this a dream? Like? You know,
this kind of like a magical experience. And the whole
field was covered. It was probably the most fun I
had in the game ever. Am I really watching the Patriots?

(40:30):
Do this? Have this season? Have the end of Foxborough
Stadium be this game, this type of game against like
a high powered Raiders team. This can't be. I have
to be dreaming and right, Yeah, And that's what's kind
of funny about this game in retrospect, is is I
mean it's as one of the most famous games in
certainly Patriots history and as well as in NFL history,

(40:53):
but largely uneventful until about the last three minutes of
the game. I mean that's really where all of a
sudden you just have you know, the Patriots they finally
managed to put together a touchdown drive. Brady you know,
slides into the end or I guess it is slide.
He spikes it and then he slides um setting up
you know, at first, I think the play that I
was glad to get Rob Ryan to talk about was

(41:14):
just you know, the stop, the third down stop towards
the end of the game. Uh, you know, it really
had Michael Lombardi talking about it. You know, we had
a run that we called Charlie Gardner, you know, breaks
out into the open and uh, you know, we if
he goes riot, he scores. If he goes left, he
probably gets the first down. He goes right up John
Ritchie's back, and you know we don't get the first down.

(41:37):
Everybody walking through those plays where you know, and you
compare it to this season where when the Patriots were
getting wins, they're getting stops at the end. They're getting
that key stop and this stop by Richard Seymour and
and Brian Cox, and you know, you got to give
credit to the whole defensive front. But you know, to
force a punt in that situation, just to set up
the opportunity for Adam Vinatieri to make one of the longest,

(42:00):
it's hardest, most impossible kicks in NFL history. The kick,
the kick of I mean that play that couldn't be lost. Yeah,
that that led into then that kick. You know what
a way to just cap off that stadium with with
with an all time NFL player. I mean, for all
the terrible play you saw there over the years, it
was finally defined by one of the greatest plays. Away
it was, And just a few minutes earlier, we thought

(42:22):
that it was going to end on one of the
most disappointing plays we'd ever seen. No continues to come down.
Brady call in signals, the direct snapped, Brady standing in there,
looks to the left, russ the football. It's on the
ground and it's if it's a fumble or a pass attempt.
I believe it's going to be called a fumble. It
is a fumble, and the Oakla Raiders recovered, and then

(42:42):
the tuck rule gets brought back in and we were
all again as a media contingent down in that end zone.
We're kind of like looking around in each other because yes,
the tuck rule had been called before on very rare occasions.
None of us, as you know, aren't a football fan
as we were, and as as as as diligent a

(43:06):
reporter as we were, we weren't thinking of the tuck rule.
We saw it from Brady's back, So we're looking at
Brady's back as he's getting hit, and we're thinking, this
is how this season is going to end with that,
and we're a whimper, Yeah, just an absolute whimper, right,
and then again the magical snow kind of like you know,

(43:28):
Frosty when he puts the hat on and like the
magical Christmas wind comes in. Right. Hey, the game's not over,
you know. That's kind of how it felt, Like, what
Walt Coleman, are you serious? We have the ball still?
I mean, and I think everybody from the players that
were on the field, obviously a lot of the people
that were in the stadium had completely different experiences than

(43:49):
people watching on TV because probably a large portion couldn't
even see the tuck as well. But I think everybody
thought it's a fumble, yeah, and that it's an obscure
rule since been done away with, And you know, some
of the players mentioned it had happened earlier in the
season against the Jets, but as you said, extremely rare,
No it's not popping into the forefront of anybody's mind

(44:09):
when that play happened again. You know, you're just you're
you're adding on to all these different plays that you know,
they just made another special about the Tough Cruel on
ESPN plays that will go down in history. What was
your perspective on the kick? Well, you're outside the stadium,
is no. I was actually in the stadium, but I
saw the kick and didn't see it at the same time.

(44:30):
And I'll explain. I told you before about how in
the old stadium at the last five minutes, reporters get
to go and stand in the end zone where the
ramps to the Patriots and the visitors locker room are,
and that looking at your TV screen is to the left.
Adams kick was at the end zone to your right

(44:51):
if you're looking at it on the TV screen. So,
the snow is coming down, it's dark, it's a little foggy,
misty in the air, and I can see clearly Adam
Ken Walter, Lonnie Paxton. I can see the line, I
can see the snap, the whole the kick. The kick
goes up and just disappears into the snow. We couldn't

(45:11):
see the uprights at the other end of the field.
All we heard was the crowd roaring, and we said,
he made it. He must have made it. We couldn't
see it. We didn't know we were at the other
end zone and it was impossible to see through the
snowflakes flying. So we're just like looking at each other dumbfounded,
like that was forty five yards, wasn't it? In like

(45:33):
three or four inches of snow. Impossible kick to make
and he makes it crazy And I love the perspectives.
I mean, got you know, Jermaine Wiggins on the field
talking about, man, just don't let me be the guy
that blows it. For me, I was on the field
goal protection team, so I was the wing in the

(45:54):
wing position, which is kind of like right behind where
the tight end is, and so you know, you're always like,
all right, I don't want to be the guy that
holds somebody or doesn't block the right guy, and you know,
he gets thrown and blocks the kick and I forget
it was like Charles Woodson, I forget who else. There
was a bunch of plays and I'm like, man, did
they put the whole team over here? And luckily a

(46:15):
couple of those guys at the snap of the ball
they slipped because of the field conditions. So it kind
of took a little bit of the pressure off me,
you know, making sure that I didn't cause no holding
or I wasn't the guy that you know missed the block.
And when that kick went through, it was just like, man,
you know, it was spectacular, both of those kicks, but
the one to send this into overtime. If you go

(46:36):
back and look at that when that one was, that
one was tremendous. What can you say about the kick?
I mean, it's just and now it's memorialized up in
the middle of a store place in Patriots plays, which
you know, maybe if you're if you're visiting, that'll give
you a sense of perspective of how close the stadium
was to the highway back then. But still needed, of
course another kick in over time, which you know, maybe

(46:58):
maybe a little bit less difficult. But um, just a
remarkable win overall against a team that you know, really
probably might have been the best team in the AFC.
I know Pittsburgh had had the number one seed, but
you know, this was an all star team and they
needed some breaks. They got some breaks they did, um,
but they had to move on the next week and
they had to go face a Pittsburgh team that Um,

(47:19):
you know, I had some wartz. I think you know,
we all know what Cordell Stewart was and you know
what he ended up being. But also Jerome Bettis was
a huge key to that, to that team. And then
you had you know, two receivers um that were you know,
thousand yard receivers. Of course, Blacsical Burrows. Patriots fans became
much more familiar with him down the road. We won't
talk about that seven season here, um, but I think

(47:41):
what stood out to me most and I loved Lawyer
Malloy's story. Nobody gave us a Shotton hill to to
to beat the Steelers in Hindesfield, Like that just wasn't
going to happen. And it was evident. And as soon
as we flew over Pittsburgh, like you know, it was
all yellow and gold. Um, we went out, I think

(48:03):
we went out, went out to breakfast. Me and Tom
had a lot of time to talk, and it was
just all this Steeler you know shit um uh being
you know, being worn, and you know people were talking
about the game and you know, yeah, you know this
this this new kid Brady. You know, uh, he's good,
but you know he has no chance against our defense,
you know. And he's sitting right there, you know, and

(48:25):
I'm just you know, we're just soaking it in me
and I remember me and Brady just like soaking in
the atmosphere or whatever. And and um, I was like, man,
see this, this is what it's all about. Bro. Again,
that was taking some Pats from the past. And you
can go to that and listen to his you know,
full edited interview with Matt and Maury Um. But kind

(48:45):
of random they would make the captains fly to the city. Yeah, sit,
you know, have to go through a media day and
then fly back. But the story of Malloy talking about
him and Brady sitting there and listening to all these
Steeler fans chirp uh. It's certainly my You had a
motivated Patriots team that believed in themselves. But it sounded
like the whole lead up to that game from all

(49:06):
the terrible towels everywhere they went, to the passionate Pittsburgh
fans too. You know. Of course, we know teams have
to pack up, they have to make plans. You had
a one week turn around to go to the super Bowl.
You can take it however you want. As they don't
even they're thinking, they're like, well, that's probably a logistics thing.
I mean, I know talking to Paul, it was like
you flew back here and then you flew right to
New Orleans. So those things might have been blown up

(49:28):
a little bit. But overall, I think this was a
Patriots team that made the most of those things and
those little slights and those little worthy underdog mentality. Back then,
they really were the underdogs, and they embraced it fully, absolutely,
and I think we saw a brown the middle of
this twenty twenty one season. We saw a little bit
of that where you know, hey, things were breaking their way.

(49:48):
You know, we'll take the wins where we can get them.
They're scrappy there. You know, other factors are playing into
why other teams who maybe better are not playing as well,
and so you can understand why there was that natural
sort of correlation between this year, this past season, if
twenty twenty one and twenty years ago in two thousand
and one. But you know, obviously the difference was you

(50:11):
had a quarterback who none of us knew at the
time was going to be considered the greatest ever. And again,
I think you had a lot more talent on that
two thousand and one team than we gave them, probably
credit four at the time realize it, didn't really realize
or appreciate just how how good a team that really was.
And they would go on to prove it, obviously by
winning three out of four in the ensuing years. But

(50:35):
I love that story too, about him and Brady going
out to breakfast in Pittsburgh and nobody knowing recognizing them,
and they're talking about him right next to him, and
I could just picture him saying, I'm sitting right here right,
you know. And Lawyer Milloy, I mean, he'd been in
the league for a few years, was known player, Like yeah,
should I gotta known who lawyer of Malloy was. But
this game to me again, and you just you talk

(50:57):
about things that from this season that foreshadowed kind of
ways of winning or you know, team composition or things
that would echo through the next twenty years. And I
really look at this as Troy Brown Special teams all right,
Josh Miller set to kick it away back at the
forty five is Troy Brown Miller punting right to left,
handles the snap and gets the kick away. This one

(51:18):
is returnable, coming right to Troy Brown at the forty five.
He heads left of the fifty, straight up the middle
of the forty five till the forty till the thirty
five to thirty twenty five fifteen ten five pies in
puts down, huts down, huts down, Troy Brown. You could
just see it coming all the way up the middle
where he always goes. This is the game where he

(51:39):
had a real good defense in Pittsburgh. He knew that
it was going to be tough. I think the game ended,
we were on defense. They were in two minutes, yeah,
and kind of Cordell was kind of scrambling out and
we forced him out of pocket, and I was kind
of chasing him over to the sidelines towards the end
of the game, and he kind of threw it out
of bounds or something, and I was near that sideline
and you know, kind of stall some smirks on the faces,

(52:01):
and you know, I mean, just you know, I think
it was pretty cool. And I never played it. You know,
that was the first year back in hines Field. Didn't
play in hines Field, you know, And so that was
pretty unique to go back to Pittsburgh and to be
able to win the af Championship game in a place
that I had played in it for four years. Of
course we have to talk about the Bledsoe element of it, which,
oh yeah, you know, just becomes just incredibly poetic for

(52:25):
him and a poet. He talked about a poetic ending
for old Foxboro Stadium, Shaver Stadium, Sullivan Stadium, whatever you
want to call it, all the iterations. But Drew Bledso,
you know, comes in, Brady goes down with an injury,
Drew throws a touchdown to David Patton, you know he
and I know Tommy Kern in the podcast says, the
Patriots survived Drew bledso that day after that, quite honestly,

(52:50):
I'm not going to romanticize that the way so many
people have over the years, but the Patriots survived Drew
Bledso in the AFC Championship he hit Joey Porter between
the fives. He threw a backwards over the head, falling
down pass that also could have impicked and would have
been if people actually expected the ball to become popping out.
You've got every bit of evidence as to why Drew
Bledsoe was valuable off could make some throws and why

(53:12):
he was never going to get his job back, some
ridiculously bad decisions, but it was a great team win.
As you pointed out, he certainly made enough positive plays
that he had an impact. He did have some narrow
misses with some mistakes that that might have changed the game,
but luckily the football gods were on our side that day.

(53:34):
You know, just what did it mean for you? Because
I mean for me as a you know, Drew bledso
turned this franchise around. I mean, I remember being in
high school, having sat through the early nineties, the one
two win seasons, and when you finally had Drew Bledsoe
a quarterback, it just it gave you a reason to
tune in, to be excited. He had, you know, the
big game against the Vikings, and at that game actually
as a fan, you know these games that really just

(53:54):
made you feel like, hey, we're an NFL franchise now.
And I think everybody, as great as you felt for
Tom Brady and everything that Tom Brady became, you had
a lot of special feelings for Drew Bledsoe, and I
think for him to be able to get that opportunity
to come in to contribute, to really be able to
say we wouldn't have won the Super Bowl without Drew Bledsoe.
And and and I think that that's what, you know, this

(54:15):
game really said to me. And I love what Paul
had to say, because he was as big a Drew
Bledsoe fan as there was. I think I've already explained
how Drew was was one of my favorites. I really
enjoyed covering him. That's really why I became a season
ticket holder long before I ever started working. Here was
the day they signed Drew Blitzo, that they drafted Drew

(54:35):
bledso one overall back in ninety three. So he goes
back in the game, and now all I'm thinking is,
oh God, now like this run, which which I thought
was inevitably going to come to one end that day anyway,
now they're going to get to blame Drew, Like if
Tom didn't get hurt, everything would have been great, And
now it's all going to be Drew's fault. And I
was a bundle of nerves. And I know you're not

(54:56):
supposed to be when you're covering the game. You're supposed
to be impartial and all that crap. Well, yeah, throw
out all out the window. I was just I wanted
to puke, is what it was. It was probably the
best way to describe it. And he comes out four
plays touchdown. It was like pass pass run, gets lit
up on the sideline, touchdown pass and all of the

(55:17):
passes were darts. I mean, he came in on fire,
and I was like, this is gonna be awesome, you know,
for him to kind of experience that special moment of
Drew coming in and his teammates being so happy for
him and the fans being so happy for him. Between
special team scores with Troy and and Drew, this game, again,

(55:38):
it was another iconic game that that stood out and
has a place in Patriots hist Oh. Absolutely, And I
think it was again poetic justice that Drew got to
play the bulk of that game. The overwhelming majority of
that game was Drew's because Brady got hurt or very
early on, so it was mostly Drew. And like you said,

(56:02):
he felt like he contributed to that ring that he
got because that's the only ring he got in his career.
And it's ironic that the guy who was your franchise
quarterback wasn't the reason why they won the Super Bowl.
But he was certainly I think a major part of
why they got to the Super Bowl, because without a
backup quarterback like him coming in, they probably don't win
that game. And I was scared to death, not that

(56:25):
he was in the game. I was scared to death
when he took a hit on the sideline that looked
a lot like the one he took against the Jets
in that second game, and I'm thinking, oh my god,
please don't let it happen again. And he pops right
up and runs back to the huddle almost more invigorated,
and the touchdown pass he throws to Patton was again
more foreshadowing of something to come a couple of only

(56:47):
a week later in the Super Bowl. Of course it
would be Brady throwing at that time, but it was
again Patton, that route, that corner of the end zone,
the same direction too. Just everything about it just seemed
like it was meant to be, which is why after
they won that game, deuce and you only had the
one week in between, which was very unusual, uh in

(57:08):
NFL history. I felt so good on Super Bowl Sunday
about the Patriot's chances of beating the Rams, after I
had said, I know, I had said with my buddy
that they were never going to win a game again.
But after seeing everything that happened since that day straight wins,
I just felt like, this is meant to be. It's

(57:29):
nine to eleven, they're called. It's the third time they've
been to the super Bowl in New Orleans. My oldest
brother kept on saying, after the whole playoffs, you know
you're going to super Bowl. It's destiny. It's you're going there.
I'm telling you you're going there. It's destiny. You guys

(57:49):
are going to Patriots, right, winning blue team, after this,
after this last year, you know, it's it's it's meaningful.
Third times, the charm. They get a rematch against the Rams,
it has to be. It just has to be. And
I was like, they're not going to lose this game.
I knew it going driving into my television station that

(58:11):
they they weren't going to win that game. And that's
where I watched the super Bowl from my station because
I was producing our coverage from back there. The ending
to me was as special as any ending for personal
reasons too. So yeah, well we can get into that,
move into it, um, you know, for me. I was.
I was living in La still and uh, I remember
going to my friend's house in Hollywood, his art in

(58:33):
his house as an apartment. Love. This is the terrorists
up in Hollywood. Remember watching it? I mean he I
grew up with this guy. He didn't know anything about football.
I had my reversible Drew bledsoe Jersey, remember that. I
was ready. It was hard though, because, as you mentioned,
the previous two Super Bowl appearances, and you know, I
was a young kid when they got blown out by
the Bears. I was in college when you know, they
almost kind of hung in there for a little bit

(58:54):
with the Packers, and the Packers kind of pulled away. Um,
So in some ways I think I felt going in,
I'm like, we're probably gonna get hammered again. You know,
this is this is how it seems to go. But
at the same time, like you said, there was just
so much magic around this team and and that's why
it's it's great to be able to produce this project.
But I don't think I could do it for the

(59:15):
three the O four season. They're just you know, certainly
amazing seasons. But when you look back at all the
different moments throughout the season as we've touched and this
is part of the reason why I wanted to, you know,
do a final episode to really just kind of bring
them all together. Um, it did feel like, hey, something's
kind of pointing our way, and I think when it
started the way it did, and obviously the Thai law,

(59:37):
you know, pick six, which was another iconic moment of
this season, and Water goes back to throwing here the
bloch by Mike right well, the pack of pick upward
twenty five twenty picks it up and Pok three take
the lead. We're like the first half you started to

(59:58):
build a lead, but it's almost like the NFL today
where you got a lead on Patrick Mahomes, how many
you got thirty points on them? Because if you only
have fourteen to twenty, they're gonna make a push. And
it felt like throughout the game as well as they
were playing, it was just a matter of time before
the Rams started to get it going. And I don't

(01:00:18):
think anybody really could have anticipated that it would have
happened quite as easily as it did at the end
of the game, where it was basically bing bang boom,
bing bang boom, and it's a tie game setting up.
You know, obviously one of the early moments of Tom
Brady's career. I mean arguably the moment that he became
a you know, a star or you know, obviously at

(01:00:40):
the very least a Super Bowl champion. But how did
you feel going into that final drive? Wow? Just back
up real quick to that the lead, which should have
been twenty one points because the Tebucky Jones fumble recovery story,
twobou getting a hurricane. So we're outside in the auxiliary

(01:01:04):
press box, which at the Superdome at the time, you
just in a in a section of the stands that's
just media. You know, when the place is going berserkis
Tebucky Jones is running down the sideline. There were a
ton of Patriots fans there, and he's coming down the
sideline and he's running and I'm just I just stood up,
and I have my two hands over my head with
the number one sign up and I'm jumping up and down.

(01:01:26):
I'm not ashamed to admit it. This is my team
was going to win the Super Bowl. And I didn't
care that I was a member of the media, and
I didn't care who wanted to look at me. And
you know, give me the stink eye. It didn't matter
to me, And then I realized the flag was there,
and some drunk like ended up dumping up one of
those paddle'brian hurricanes all over me. So like, not only

(01:01:48):
did I lose my professionalism in the spur of the moment,
the flag takes it back, so my team hasn't won
now and I was sticky the whole rest of the game.
So it was a three time loser for me. But
obviously we know how the game ended if they don't
call the holding penalty on mcguinnist, which it was. I mean,
they were killing game long, but like a lot of times,

(01:02:11):
those those calls don't get made. So if they allow
that play to stand, the Rams don't come back. The
Rams are demoralized. So that was a huge turning point
for the Rams. I think it gave the Rams hope
because they scored like the next player two plays later
or whatever it was, and they were right back in it.
But as you know, Deuce, when I was growing up
in playing sports, I was a kicker. I went from

(01:02:33):
soccer to football, but made the transition as seamlessly as
you could soccer player to kicker and punter m to
see it actually happening before my eyes, thinking a kicker
is gonna win the Super Bowl for the Patriots and
it's not. Well. Yeah, I was jealous of Adam vent
Terry for sure, big time. But I'm thinking, I'm thinking,

(01:02:55):
like I willed this into existence, They're gonna win this way,
They're gonna win by a kicker winning the Super Bowl
for the Patriots. And it was a long kick too.
It wasn't a chip shot. It was forty seven yards
I think forty eight. It wasn't a chip shot. And
I'm thinking, this is too unreal. But he's gonna make it.
I just knew he was gonna make it. Ken Walter

(01:03:17):
will hold, Lonnie Paxton will snap from the far hash
mark angle. Little left for Adam Gonna Terry. Forty eight
yard field goal attempt set to go, snap all down,
kick up kick is on the way, and it is good.
It's good. It's good. A minitary boop to forty state
yard field goal, and the game is over. As a

(01:03:39):
Patrios a super Bowl champion, patrius A super Bowl Champions,
the best team in the name. Believe I had a
minitary forty eight yards baby. The mystery to me was
how seven seconds ago? I got ticked off the clock,
because no matter how long it was, that doesn't take

(01:03:59):
that for a field goal to be made. But hey,
I'll take it. They won the game in dramatic fashion,
everybody running onto the field, and I remember literally leaping
up and down through the holes of my TV station,
and one of them, my friends that used to go
on those road trips with us, was sitting there with
this huge grin watching me literally almost hitting my head
on the ceiling. I was like jumping up and down,

(01:04:22):
exulting like I have never before for a win before
then or since. I've never been more ecstatic about a
Patriots win than that game. What a play I mean
by Adam Vinetaria, I mean just I know Bill Belichick
has said over the years that you know, we felt
like Adam was their best player, and it almost didn't
believe it because I think by that point you had
developed so much trust in him as a player, as

(01:04:44):
a fan, you know, even you know, being I wasn't hardcore,
I gotta watch every snap of every game back then
that that obviously I became an am, but you just
there was a swagger above Vinatieri that Yeah, you just
had such confidence in him, and you know that moment
when it went through. Great to talk to, you know,
the guys about Antoine Smith, especially who I think you

(01:05:05):
know happens to like run into the frame like high
step Hie, high stepping in there. Yeah, I'm thinking about
thirty yards behind the ball. So I'm back there so
I can see it and ask the kick is in
the air. I'm kind of suffling on the field looking
at it to make sure that it goes through. And

(01:05:25):
when it went through, I just it was just as well, Emoses.
First first thing I can think of me just to
row it out there on the field. You know that
moment was captured me just one and out there high
stepping through my arms in the air like yeah, we're
world chaps. We didn't won the Super Bowl. To hear
talking to these guys throughout the project, throughout the project,

(01:05:47):
how much it still means to them to be a champion,
tip to have won with this group of guys and
the bond that it forms between them. You can just
hear it in their voice, how they talk about it,
how they talk about their teammates. And it might have
been Damian Woodie, I think who said, you know, once
you're in this group, you're in it for life. Yeah,
you know what it's um. I always said that playing

(01:06:09):
in an industilure part of a fraternity, a small fraternity,
but when you were in a Super Bowl, you're part
of a special fraternity within a fraternity, because not everybody
could say that they were champions. And all I've always
said during those years, those champions deals, early years, championship years,

(01:06:31):
all the grind and the sweat and the doubt and
everything that went in went through it. To feel that
confetti come down on your head multiple times, This is
not a better feeling in the world, such a perfect ending,
but it felt like it was all kind of building
to that. And now in retrospect, and even probably right
after the kick went through the uprights, you felt like,

(01:06:54):
that's it. That made sense. This is how it was
supposed to go all along, through all the ups and downs,
and you know, now you look at that season in
retrospect and it's one of the most remarkable seasons in
sports history, with all the with everything that that happened,
I just I don't know how you could ever quite
have everything happened like that for one team with so
many ups and downs and drama and people getting hurt

(01:07:16):
and national tragedies and a coach passing away and you know,
everything that you talk about, and then not only that,
but little do we know at the time that this
was kind of what we were about to sign up
for for the next twenty years and become spoiled. But
at that time it was all new to you. The
Patriots won the Super Bowl, and I thought it was

(01:07:39):
our one and only chance in my lifetime. I really did.
That's that was what made it even more special to me,
was that like I had, like, you know, you're right
about all the things coming together, and it almost felt
like it makes you believe in a higher power if
you don't already. And I would pray, like, just let
me see one super Bowl when please, That's all I'm

(01:08:01):
asking for, is a Patriots fan, Just one, And this
was it, And I said, I can die a happy man.
Now I've seen the Patriots win a Super Bowl. They're
never gonna do it again. I know that that's fine,
but they did it once, and they did it in
such dramatic fashion, and it was meant to be for
all those reasons that you just enumerated I'll take it.
It's the one and only time we're ever going to

(01:08:23):
be here and do this, so let's just exult in it.
Let's enjoy it, because we're never going to see this again.
And I was so happy to be wrong. And that
night February third, two thousand and two, exactly twenty years
to the day that we're releasing this podcasts, it's almost

(01:08:46):
I almost feel deuced like I did in that snow
Globe game against the Raiders, where it almost feels like
this twenty years that have gone by, it have been
a dream that I really don't want to wake up from.
You know, did we really just have a twenty year
run of success? Did we really just win six Super
Bowls in that time? Did we really have the greatest coach,

(01:09:08):
the greatest quarterback, the greatest kicker, the greatest tight end
of all time on our team? Where now the team
that people love to hate because we win so much.
Where the Cowboys, Steelers, Niners, Raider? Where that team? Where
that organization? We have six Super Bowls as many as

(01:09:29):
any other team that's tied with the Steelers. Like this
is not real. I'm dreaming right, And now four years
after that Super Bowl. I started working for this organization
and was able to be part of half of the
Super Bowl run of success in three and it just
seems like it's almost hard to believe twenty years have

(01:09:50):
gone by, and now it feels like after the end
of this twenty twenty one season, we're into twenty twenty two,
the calendar year, and soon to be the season team
building period. Who knows what the next twenty years are
gonna bring, but it feels like the start of a
new chapter in Patriot's history for real now, especially having
this past season played against Tom Brady as a buccaneer,

(01:10:14):
He's officially moved on. We've had the closure of that
era gone by. We have Mac Jones, and who knows
how long Mac Jones's career will last, what he'll end
up becoming. But I think we can appreciate at least
what Mac did this past season as a rookie, because
it's important to remember Brady wasn't a rookie. He was
in his second year, and I think it's important to

(01:10:34):
make that that distinction. You know, how would how would
you know Brady have played in two thousand if he
were thrust into it? Would he have done that, would
he have won the Super Bowl? I don't know. But
we're in a new era now and I think this
twenty twenty one season puts a nice bow on the
era that was with Brady and the Super Bowl wins. Yeah,
I just I love, I love he brought up you know,

(01:10:54):
Mac in twenty twenty one, and that's how just to
kind of wrap it up, you know, I look at
where they went from two thousand and one and how
they built around Brady, because I think that's what a
lot of people are wondering now, like how do we
build around Mac? And you know, you look at the
drafting of Dion Branch. The next year, you know, you
get David Gibbons. You know, you start to add pieces

(01:11:15):
around that that play towards his strengths. But I also
think that every year they knew they had to change,
and some years it was better than others. But you know,
two thousand and four, you're bringing Corey Dillon, You're coming
off a Super Bowl championship. But I think that that
you know, kind of mode and development, it's important. I
think you have a different kind of perspective on the
defense now, where you know that defense in two thousand

(01:11:35):
and one, you had a lot of experienced guys that
had played in ninety six and a Super Bowl and
had been around and had played under Pete Carroll. And
it had some ups and downs, and then when you
got to those points, those guys were all coming into
their prime. Teddy Bruski, Mike Vrabel, William McGinnis, these are
you know, that defense. I mean, I sometimes look back
at going into games from you know, two thousand and

(01:11:57):
one to two thousand and four, says knowing, our defense
is gonna beat them up. They're gonna beat them up
bad because that's the attitude that they played with in
the experience, and you know, just the overall balance of
the defense. And I think that's something that you know,
going forward you have to look at a little bit
because I think that this defense, as much as you
want to, you know, just kind of say, oh, it's
a veteran defense like two thousand and one. You know,

(01:12:18):
I think some of these pieces are are older, They're
not in their prime like the McGuinness and the Bruskies
were in two thousand and one. But of course you
have Richard Seymour, Christian Barmore, you have young kind of
young pieces, and I think those are those are the
ones that they have to kind of continue to build. Certainly,
no two seasons are alike, but you can definitely draw
some comparisons between where that team kind of went, how

(01:12:40):
they tried to move on from you know, wanting a
Super Bowl to you know, continuing to win super Bowls
and you know what this team has to do now. Yeah,
And I'd also add that it's important to note that
twenty years is a significant amount of time in football terms.
The game has changed in two decades. The style of
play is different, and it was twenty years ago. We

(01:13:03):
saw it firsthand in the wildcard loss in Buffalo and
then the subsequent divisional round Buffalo loss to Kansas City.
Defense more important than ever against the type of quarterback
that you're going to be facing more and more, the
athletic guy, the big guy who can throw, who can run,
who's going to run you over at times, and is

(01:13:25):
gonna make clutch plays. You have to play a different
style of defense. You have to have different types of players.
You know, would the Patriots, as talented as they were
in two thousand and one, would that defense have been
able to keep up with the mahomes Is or the
Josh Allens, or the offenses that are like more like
the Rams were back then, but it's more prevalent. And
the quarterbacks are different. You know, they're not just pocket passers.

(01:13:47):
They're guys that can do everything. So it's a it's
a new era in the NFL, and it's a new
era for the Patriots. M I'm excited to see where
the next twenty years take us. What you saw were
the seeds of all Patriot championship teams. Offensively, yes, it
was Tom, but there was always an unbelievable and a

(01:14:09):
lot of ways undefensable at least for first down to
pick up slot receiver. So Troy Brown, we got Wes Welker,
we got Julian Edelman. That's a hallmark for the two
decades of Patriots brilliance. They are a team that valued
special teams then and now. They were a team that

(01:14:30):
played unbelievably coach defense. Witnessed to play by Malcolm Butler
against the Seahawks on the goal line. You know, here's
a play they kind of run. They coached at Nobody
does that. So the seeds looking back, were of all
the Patriots two decades of brilliance they had. Probably all

(01:14:55):
their other teams were more talented than this one overall,
although this had some unbelievable talent. Needless to say that
a lot of them were really young, and they had
a coaching staff all worked that it's got it, and
they rarely beat themselves. That was the case at oh one,
and that was the case it was two decades later.

(01:15:16):
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(01:15:36):
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