December 7, 2022 • 49 mins
Patriots Hall of Fame finalist Logan Mankins is our guest on this edition of Pats from the Past. Highlights include: Which NFL Pro Football Hall of Fame player helped get Mankins ready to play and excel in the NFL? The pursuit of Perfection. Plus, Why he chooses to make his home in New England.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:07):
It's time now for another episode and Pats from the
Past podcast. Matsmith alongside Paup Burlo pleas to be joined
by number seventy on your scorecard, but number one in
our hearts at least today, Paul. Yeah, and you better
be careful. Yeah. And that's Logan Mankins. Logan, thanks for
coming in. How you doing, man, I'm doing great. Thanks
for having me guy. Yeah, I really appreciate it, all right,
Logan when we start these with everybody, because I don't
(00:27):
I mean, like, maybe people know what some ex patriots
are doing, but I think there's a lot of people
that go, Logan, Mankans, where is he these days? What
are you up to? I think fans would love to
know that. Well, I'm still here in New England. We
live in north out of burl Still, just down the
road from Foxborough, and we have a little farm and
we raise beef, cattle, hey, firewood, all that kind of
(00:49):
fun stuff. Why is a California Northern California kid? What
is it about New England? Because I think, and I'm
being very stereotypically stereotypical, go here. I think people would
be surprised. Patriot fans would go Okay, his career's over.
Finish it in Tampa. He's going to go back to
northern California at some point in time. Why still New England?
(01:09):
I mean, and this is somebody who loves New England,
has lived here his entire life. Yeah. Well, we had
lived here for nine years before I got traded, and
then the timing of the trade was school was about
to start, so my wife and kids stayed here and
I went there just for the season to Tampa, and
then we did that. Then I came back after the
season and my daughter was in high school, so we
(01:32):
didn't want to make her move while she was in
high school, so I went to Tampa for the season
again and they stayed here. And then by the time
I retired, we just made the decision that our oldest
is in high school, let's let her finish high school.
And then she was graduating in high school, our next
one was coming into high school. So we just made
(01:53):
the decision to stay here and make this our forever place.
So that's great, Yeah, because I was one of those
that I would have said, yeah, you know, Logan Mankins
will be back on the ranch out And it was
at Cathy's Valley. Yeah, yeah, Cathy's Valley, Californe. I figured
you'd be long gone and had to find and then
I show up at Bishop Fian mad Yeah, you know,
so one of those classic Bishop Fenwick. Bishop Fian tilts
(02:14):
in the Catholic Central League. So there's Logan Mankins. So
Logan Paul's office is now next to mine, and I'm
regaled weekly with you know how great Fenwick is. Fenwick
kicked his team's ass, blah blah blah. And he tells me,
he goes, oh, you wouldn't believe this. I read into
Logan Mankins. Other than Bruski, who he knows obnoxious on
the sidelines, is Paul the most obnoxious parent of a
(02:36):
kid that you've run into a high school game. And
he's got to be right. Well, I don't know. I
don't get to see him during the game, but he's
always very gracious and defeat so well see he's he's
being kind. I usually bitch about the referees for about
a half hour, but it was funny. This is this
is a kind of a funny story. So last year
when Logan son Case Mankins is a truemendous two way
(03:01):
player for Bishop fian and my oldest son Will they're
the same same age. Not as tremendous a two way
player for Fenwick, but he does well. So we're at
Fenwick two years ago and it was one of those
games where I was, you know, hell bent for leather,
like if I could have found an official in the
parking lot, things could have been bad. And I see
looking at the I got did you see that whole day?
(03:23):
Missing a touchdown and Logan goes and then holding if
they don't call it so but he was spoken like
a two offensive line. But what was great was my
friends are constantly as you probably get a lot of this,
they're constantly busting my balls. Oh, oh, big tough Paul Like, oh,
he talks to Tom Brady, he talks to Teddy Bruski. Oh,
why don't you talk? Where's all your boys? Wis makings?
(03:45):
Wi's all? So, don't you know? Logan comes over at
the end of the game. You talk about being gracious
in defeat, gracious in victory. He comes over after the game,
says goodbye to my wife and I and I get
the bro hug. I got a little bro hug in there.
Would you like to make fun of me about for
people road. So all of my friends now looking like, wow,
you really do know those guys, like, go, what do
(04:05):
you think I worked there for twenty years. I've never
met anybody, So it was it's been kind of nice.
Case played some basketball last last Winner or so. I
bumped into Logan a few times, and he was here
in Foxborough at the draft party too, so he's been
around and Logan and I'm I can verify Paul, because
Paul was saying this to me when he came back.
He goes, You're not gonna believe it, And I'm not surprised,
(04:26):
he goes. I think Patriots fans would not be surprised
as well. Regular guy, nice guy parent who isn't screaming
and yelling and swearing at the referees like most of
the other parents are. Fie right with his hat, probably
just like that was a draper Farms. Yeah, you know,
you would not have any idea that this is a
(04:48):
you know, decade long NFL player, for a ten plush
years NFL player, with the amount of Pro Bowls and
All pros, and you would have no idea just sitting
in the stands watching his kids, just like everybody else right,
And I hope this doesn't come across in a way.
It's sort as I'm saying, think about in my mind
that somebody could take it as an insult, and I
hope it wouldn't never be that way. But Logan as
(05:08):
the second greatest guard in franchise history, you're are you
okay being behind John Hannah? Yeah, that's fine. Who by
the way I spent But if it wouldn't change my life,
I get it, I'd still be the same. But I
don't know if you ever had a chance to really,
you know, watch Hannah or anything like that for the days.
And I spent some time with John a couple of
(05:29):
summers ago down on his cattle farm down in Alabama. Crusty,
great patriot and great guy. I think you guys would connect. Yeah,
I've done him a few times that Yeah, we uh
would swap stories and it was it was great meeting
him and hearing all the great things he had to
talk about. And he just started yelling at you about
not running the ball enough. It's well, he said he
(05:50):
liked running the ball because he didn't like the pass block,
and that pass blocking is pretty tough, so especially against
the talent they have nowadays. He loved watching you play.
He loved watching you play. And I would say, as
an outsider, for somebody to get a stamp of approval
from somebody like John Hannah, that means a lot more
than Paul Parollo or Matt Smith or any any other
(06:11):
Tom Dick and Harry, because here's a legit guy. Well,
he loved watching you play. Yeah, and John, he was
respected by everyone, his teammates, his opponents, other coaches. So
that's always what I wanted. If they wrote I was
good in the paper, that was great. But I wanted
my teammates. I wanted to earn their respect, and I
wanted opponents not to want to play me. So that's
how it was. Did you think when you were coming out,
(06:35):
did you think you're going to be a first round pick?
I didn't know. I everyone told me probably a second rounder.
And it was funny. The day of the draft, I was.
We had a me and my wife had a little
apartment in Fresno, and we had a little draft party
and just people kept showing up more and more. Like
my dad, he's a he likes to have a good time,
(06:57):
so he was inviting everyone he saw, whether he knew
them not, so that was always great. Doesn't make him
a bad guy, no. But we're sitting there and my
offensive coordinator from Fresno was one of his best friends
was with the forty nine ers and he calls me.
He goes that I just talked to my best friend.
They're taking you with the thirty third pick. I was like,
oh sweet, right down the road from here. And then
(07:21):
I was like, hold on, someone else is calling me
and I click the phone over and it was Scott Pioli.
He's like, we're taking you right now. I was like, oh, okay,
So it was great. I was. I think I was
very fortunate to come here. I'm it worked out the
best to come here. I'm glad that the nine Yeris
weren't picking thirty two the Patriots to were. So you
(07:43):
obviously it did work out. You were part of a
lot of wins here and you had a great career.
Did you think it at the time, You know, like
you were so close to being close to home and
now you have to go to New England, which I
can't tell you how many players will tell you I
didn't really even know where New England was because they
think it's a state and not a region. What were
you thinking about the culture, you know, both the culture
(08:03):
with the team and the cultures shock of going from
West coast to East coast. Yeah, I wasn't, like he said,
totally aware of they said New England. I was like, Okay,
that's on the East coast, but I didn't know it
was like right outside of Boston. I didn't know where
the stadium was or Foxborough or any of that stuff.
And guys are like, oh, You're gonna go play with
Tom Brady And I'm like, I'm not even sure who
(08:25):
Tom Brady really is, right, I didn't watch that much
NFL football. I didn't up until my senior year of
high school. I loved watching NFL football, and then once
I got to college, I kind of stopped paying attention
and had many other things going on. So is that
because you Is it because it was so much for
you to play? It took so much physically, mentally and
everything like that that when the time came that you
(08:48):
had quote your own time or downtime or however you
want to call it. I got other things I need.
I want to do that interest me rather than shit
and watch this because I'm living and I'm in a divisional.
In school, you're working. It's a job. Yeah, And and
the schedule kind of makes it that way. So in college,
you play on Saturday. Sunday, you go in for lifting,
(09:12):
you watch the game, and you have your conditioning, so
that's most of your Sunday while NFL football is on,
so you can watch games on Monday night and Sunday night.
But other than that, during the day, you were usually busy,
So we didn't watch a lot of it. And as
I got older in college, we had I already had
my first daughter and everything like that. So the longer
(09:32):
I was in college, the more responsible I'd just started becoming,
and we had a lot of other things to do
to support her and my future wife. So so when
when you were drafted, it was you know, tackle out
of first No State, and then you got here and
almost immediately it was guard. Yeah. Did you know that
(09:53):
that you would be a guard or was that something
that Bill had talked to you about beforehand? I assumed
it was going to happen. So my coach of Fresno
was Pat hill Ye, and I got invited to the
East West and the Senior Bowl, and he goes he
was an old line coach for Baltimore one of those
with Bill, and he goes, I think the best thing
(10:14):
for you to do is go to these two all
star games, go to both of them, and just play
guard at both of them. Tell him you don't want
to play tackle. I was like, all right, So I
took his advice, and when I got there, I said,
I'm playing guard, not tackle. And then because he said
I was going to get moved to guard, that's what
his opinion was. So when I got here, I just
assumed I was going to Garden. That's where they told
(10:34):
me to go. So then it was day one, right, yeah, yeah,
it was uh yeah, the first day always Guarden. What
I did play tackle a couple of games. About that,
athletic people, I mean the transition, the transition from college
chapros obviously a big transition transition position wise. Did you
(10:54):
think that that was a big deal guard to tackle.
I didn't think it was until I did it. Okay,
it's uh so a guard, everything is way faster, Like
everyone is lined up closer to you. Everything happens faster.
The guys aren't as fast as you're going against that tackle,
but you have more time before they get to you
to set everything up, and the guys inside are way bigger,
(11:16):
way stronger. I thought guard was a lot more physical.
The few games I played at tackle, I felt awesome
after the game, whereas guard, you feel it's like two
eighty to three fifty every time, just bam, bam bam.
So I think, and Paul helped me on this, if
you agree with me or not. I think fans look
(11:37):
at offensive line and maybe other than center, where there's
an alleged you know, the center quarterback exchange that needs
to happen, and it's got to be consistent. But I
think fans will get offensive lineman and maybe other than
left tackle. I think they think they're all the same. Yeah,
and when you see there's current players on this team
and around the league, Hey, you know, we recognize you've
(11:58):
got positioned versatility. Oh we like the fact that you
can play guard and play tackle. And I think fians
think that it's just interchangeable and can get on a
guy geez, why is he? You know, it's not as
interchangeable as maybe us dummy fans like to think. Is
that a fair statement? Oh? Definitely. It takes h for
a guy to be able to do multiple positions well
(12:20):
between guarden tackle, not so much center and guard. But
for a person to be able to do guard end tackle,
they got to understand the game very well and have
a lot of athletic ability, which they already do. But
I mean, like position, I don't know how to really
pronounce it or say it, but they've got to be
able to flip all that in their mind all the time.
(12:42):
You've got to be smart. Definitely got to be smart
to be able to do both of them, because it's
different ways and techniques to do both those spots. Now,
did you have to move sides at all? No, thankfully
and stuck on the left side, oh, which was nice
because I was always right handed. And then once I
got to know I always played on the left side.
And once you get stuck for me personally, once I
(13:05):
got in that left handed stance, that was the only
one I was ever going to be able to do
it again, I get in a right hand stance, and
I feel funky. When you got here, Logan, you know,
rookie first rounder, so you come with that kind of
baggage and I mean, oh, here's a guy I gotta guarantee.
Blah blah, blah, Who is here somebody that you can
think of that helped you the most to help make
that transition to NFL offensive lineman from college? How do
(13:29):
you recall that rookie year and who helped you along?
And because I think what people say now they consider
they don't remember it, but they should remember it. We're
talking about a plug and play guys from day one
started just like that. And then again another thing. I think, Oh,
anybody can do it, No, nobody, not everybody can do it.
You have to be a Logan Nakins kind of person
to do it well. There was a lot of bumps
(13:50):
in the road. It wasn't always beautiful. I remember getting
yelled at plenty of times and not Scar Scar Bill
whoever you couldn't think of in there, but let Tom
get hit plenty of times. But you learned as you go,
and by the halfway part point of the season, I
felt pretty comfortable and what I was doing and it
wasn't as bad as those first few games. But there
(14:13):
was lots of guys that helped. First of all, I
had an awesome O line coach that was I'm so
lucky and fortunate to play for him. I wouldn't have
wanted to play for anyone else. So I had that
going for me. I had a lot of older guys
in our room that they were here to win, like Matt,
like Cope and Neil, those guys, that's all they wanted
(14:34):
to do was win. And they just because you were
a rookie didn't mean anything. They would help you. You
were their teammate. So that was awesome. There was like
we didn't have rookie hazy and craft like that. We
were all there for one purpose. Matt was awesome. I
remember we got here and was that rookie camp or
OTAs or something, and he invited my wife and our
(15:00):
children over to meet his wife and children, just to
make the whole transition easier. So having guys like that
in your locker room makes life a lot easier when
you're already dealing with stuff you have no idea. You're
learning every day as you go as a rookie, so
having older guys that are willing to help you as great.
So I found it interesting when you said, you know,
you got drafted by the Patriots, and well you're gonna
(15:22):
go and block for Tom Brady, and you're like, I'm
not really even sure who Tom Brady is. How long
did it take you to sort of realize that he
was a little different than just the other team's starting
quarterbacks on What was it like sort of getting indoctrinated
into that, Well, it was great Tom. He's a special player,
as everyone already knows, but he's also a special leader
(15:42):
and a special guy. He was a great teammate to have.
You wanted a block for the guy, The coaches wanted
you to make every block for him, and that makes
it so much better when you really respected, you liked
the guy, and you know he cares about you and
you care about him, and that's why we wanted him
make the blocks for him. We didn't do it just
(16:03):
because it was our job. We actually liked and respected
him and wanted him to do good. So, but there
was lots of guys on this team I didn't know
anything about. I remember my rookie year, Richard Seymour was
here and he was holding out and I was like,
who's this guy everyone's talking about. I found out the
first day he came back. He was a handful. So
I got a lot of welcome to New England movements.
(16:25):
What was what was that like lining up against Richard
Seymour when he comes back. Oh it was I still
didn't know who he was but or what he did,
but I was like, damn, this guy is big. What
the heck? And then of course where he lines up
every day for practices right over me, and the first
one I want he ran me over. I was like,
holy shit, I better better figure out how to block
(16:47):
guys like this. And then we went to the first
game and I was like, oh man, everyone's not like
I was like, thankfully not everyone's like this guy does it?
Did it not surprise you? Logan? I mean it took
him probably a little longer than I think maybe he
wanted or some of the people that were closest to him.
But is it no surprise? Do you have to get
and knocked on your rats by Richard Seymour that he's
(17:09):
in the Professional Football Hall of Fame? Oh yeah? And
he should have been there. There was no question he
was special talent. Not everyone has got his ability. So
tall and long, and he's strong and athletic, and he
had the right mentality and he was just a very
good player. He was smart too, So maybe playing here
(17:29):
is first I don't know However, many years when he
was asked to take on double teams and not get
the sack numbers, that probably slowed him down. But as
far as impacting the game, he made a big impact.
And I know he helped me too, because I practiced
against him every day for like four or five six
years something like that, and we had lots of fights
(17:50):
and all kinds of stuff. But when we got to
the locker room, we always talked about how to I
would ask him what he looked at sometimes, and he
would ask me, like, how do you get the hands off?
And this kind of thing and that thing just from
guys that a different point of view than a coach's
point of view, like the guy that's actually doing it.
So I always had a lot of respect for him.
(18:12):
You talked about being, you know, selfless and you know,
like Richard was, but you obviously displayed that you talked about.
I don't forget that you played tackle a little bit,
Matt Scott. You know that the anecdote from Dante about
the day that you had to play tackle like on
a moment's notice. So we were we were. This was
your first year. Both Paul and I are kind of
embarrassed about it. To be perfectly honest with it, I
(18:33):
don't want to put words in Paul's mouth, but we're
part of the Hall of Fame committee to select people
to get on the ballot, and then legitimately when the
people get on the ballot, it's a fan vote, you know,
and as you can imagine skill position, guys, you know
we're gonna get the fan vote. But this is the
first year that you were on that ballot. And so
(18:53):
it's part of one of the things that I do
here is, Hey, who can who's a great person as
an ambassador for Richards Anymore, for Ty Law, for Teddy Bruski,
for Logan Makons, that can really speak to who that
person was as a player and why they deserve to
be why do they think they would be a great
Patriot Hall of Famer. And of course we went to Dante,
(19:13):
and so we're talking to Dante and he's giving you
all the platitude that you could think of that Dante
would give you nobody tougher comparing you as somebody who
did coach. He wasn't maybe an offensive line coach, but
he was on the team when Hannah was here. So
it's not blasphemy for him to mention your name, and
to me, that's an awful lot of credibility. But we
(19:33):
stopped after one point. All right, Dante, that was great.
He goes, I'd like to say one more thing. This
is really important to me. And he talked about again
how selfless you were and the fact that I don't know,
I guess it was light probably who got hurt. And
you're playing the Ravens and you're guess what, Logan, you're
playing tackle this week and that's the Ravens with Terrell
Suggs and somebody like that. And he talked about how
(19:56):
you nearly pitched a shut out that game, but that
you were pissed on one particular play that maybe Sugs
got a hand up or maybe like sort of swept
and knocked Tom down. And he talked about how pissed
you were about that, and he goes, you know, it's
okay for the quarterback to get rid of the ball too, Logan,
don't blame that one on you. But that's how he thought.
That's how he felt about you. Do you remember that
(20:19):
game in that week having to kick out? Yeah, I
still remember. I shouldn't have got beat on that one,
I just went set a little too far. I got
feeling too comfortable and he got me on enough and under.
But yeah, those games we uh. I actually liked going
out to tackle ever right now and then just I
don't know. It was fun just to change it up
every now and then. But that was the second time.
(20:42):
The first time I played tackle, I didn't find out
till like twenty minutes before the game, so that one
was a little tougher. But the one against the Ravens
was nice because I actually got the practice all week
at tackle, so that was a lot better. But it
was I liked tackle. It was fun. What was the
other one? Miami? And then one time I had to
play the second half I think against the Texans or something,
(21:05):
so that was the backup tackle. It amazes me, like,
what does he say, like, yeah, I got I set
to why I got? I got up and under it
like it was probably twenty years ago at this point,
like xactly you remember your bad plays. Oh, I can
tell you about the tape measure home runs I allowed
in college, but I don't want to get to that's
another podcast for a different time. Um, just you know, again,
(21:28):
I want to stay with the teammate and the selflessness
and the season you played on a torn acl well,
you know, Philip Rivers played a quarterback, you know, in
the AFC Championship game against you guys on a torn
ACL and I think it was one of the more
heroic performances I've seen. You played a whole season like that,
Like how do you how do you do that? I
don't know. They said maybe I was loose used to
(21:49):
having a loose knee or something. I don't know, but
I had to wear with those weird braces for most
of the year and uh her for the first couple
of games, and then it just kind of went away.
So and then after the season we went and saw
the doctor and he's like, this thing's been torn a
long time. Oh so you didn't realize it until we
(22:10):
didn't know it was fully torn. One of those doctors
just kind of shook it around and said, well, what
do you think? And I was like, well, let me
give it a shot this week at practice and he's
like all right. And then I got through drills, I
was like, we'll just go with it. He's like all right,
well we need to get it checked out later. So see,
(22:30):
people think that sometimes you overstate just how matter of
fact people are about things. This is logan making. This
is how he was in the locker room after games.
He would talk about, you know, the game plan and
what they did well, and it was the same level
of intensity and just matter of fact everything. You know, Well,
you know what do you think? Yeah, well I can
(22:50):
give it a shot of practice, Like see if I
could play. He had a town acl right, and it's
like it's his job. It's there's no big deal. I'm
just going to go out and get the job done.
Do you get embarrased when you hear that logan? Like
people like Paul and I want to heap praise on
you for that. You're an offensive lineman. You probably don't
give a sugar about like, yeah, that's all I was
supposed to do well. Everyone loves to be praised, but
(23:14):
I do get embarrassed when it's in front of me.
I'd rather talk. I don't want to embarrass you, believe me,
And I'm not like you know, I've been I've been
Matt and I've been here for over twenty years. So
it's like, you know, it's not like the wide eyed
Chris Farley on Saday Night Live, like that was awesome,
you know, when I'm not in awe of you know,
(23:34):
but but that's an awesome are inspiring, that's season. Most
people sadly today at work have the sniffles and they're
down for three days, do you know what I mean?
And and so when somebody says, no, it's important to
go to work, and I might not be feeling one
hundred percent, but I still think I can do my job. Yeah,
(23:58):
it's that's different. Yeah, that's well. I think people used
to ask me why I did it, and I was like, well,
my dad always said, if you can go to work,
you go to work. And he always joked, just tape
an aspir into it and you'll be all right. Did
you try it? But it was it was fine. It
(24:18):
hurt for a while and then it went away, and
then it just uh. I really noticed it as a
season went on. There was no more squatting in the
weight room, like that stuff was not happening anymore. Or
if you like tried to walk down an incline, you
could feel your knee sliding. But so thankfully the football
fields already inclined. I think you know, your league is
(24:39):
filled with really really tough players and like, yeah, I
mean I see what you guys go through. I remember
the other Algae crumplers here. I don't know if you
guys crossed. I forget the timeline, but what he went
through to play every week was ridiculous and you could
see the toughness. But I think a lot of people
in your situation Logan would have said, this is my career.
I have a finite amount of time to earn money,
(25:01):
and if I play on a torn acoh, it might
affect my performance. It could affect my salary down the
look they're gonna probably look to, you know, makee me
take a haircut next year, or if I'm going to
be a free agent. But yet you put all that
aside and just said, no, I have a job to
do and I'm going to go out and do it well.
I was fortunately I just signed a big contract. And
then the guys around the league that would get this
(25:27):
big deal and then they would get hurt, and I
was like, this is what people do. Those guys are
tough too. Like in our locker room, I would make
fun of guys like that, and so then I'm possibly hurt,
not one hundred percent knowing if I'm hurt or not.
And I'm like, well, I don't want to be that
guy that I've been ragging on for my whole career already, right,
you don't want to be a fraud? Yeah, right? And
(25:49):
up until that point, I was that my sixth year,
I'd never missed a practice or game, so I was like,
I can't. I can't start getting hurt now. Right then
I did get a few practices off that year. So then, logan,
is that all part of maybe your principle and your values,
because I do think Patriot fans remember that you wanted
(26:10):
to take a stand. You felt like the Paul helped
me out on the language of it, you know, with
a rookie contract or something like that. Right, you got
I mean, you got screwed. I mean, let's say like
you're going to be a free agent. And then that
uncapped year came in, I'd think in ten something like that,
in right after night, and they changed the minimum years
(26:30):
for you know, went to six years, and that's what
led to your yeah, hold led to an argument and
a holdout. So but in that case, you're you're not
doing anything different than playing on a torn acl It's
I'm here to do a job. Wait a minute, I'm
here to do a job. But why are the rules
changing on him? This isn't fair and I need to
take a Stanford. Is that all part of the principles
(26:52):
that make up logan makings? Oh yeah, definitely. And technically
we called a holdout, but it wasn't a holdout because
I wasn't right, right, you weren't. Yeah, so really absolutely right.
I didn't refuse to come to work. I just chose
not to be on a team yet, right, And it
was all about money and all that stuff. But was
that hard for you Logan to do that? Oh? Yeah
(27:13):
it was. It was hard at first until I made
up my mind. And then once my mind was made up,
it was easy because I'm very stubborn when it comes
to stuff like that. So I didn't want to do it,
Like I I hated it came to that situation. I
did not want to do that, but I felt that
to me personally, I felt that was the right thing
(27:34):
to do. So maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but
to me it was, So that's why I did it.
You'll be glad to know that your buddy, Andy Hart
and I never called it a holdout just for that
exact reason that you just said. We were very much
pro pro player in that stance and the fact that
that changed you feel. I'm not saying that you know
you were the impetus behind it or anything like that.
(27:55):
Are are you happy now for the future players that
maybe that's something that they, you know, in the negotiation,
that helped work to their favor. Possibly the money right
now is I thought it was crazy when I played.
It's out of control. Now it's awesome for the players.
But that's what every other older player says. Guys ten
(28:16):
years before me thought I was getting paid crazy money
but got it. Yeah, I don't know. Each guy has
to do what they feel is right for them personally,
and everyone's different and some guys are stronger minded than
other people. So it just all depends on who you are,
all right. You talk about the old man status, then,
I don't know how much football you watch today. I
(28:37):
think to the lay person, and I would consider Paul
and I both the late kind of person. You look
at offensive line play around the league, it just doesn't
seem like it's as good as it was maybe in
years gone by. Do you agree with that? I haven't
watched it close enough to say that, but I do
watch some of it, and I don't feel it's as
physical I see. I've talked to people to still playing coaches,
(29:01):
and they're like, a lot of the things you guys
used to do, you would get ejected for it now.
So like we used to blindside everyone, like I was.
I did watch the game where David Andrews got uh blindsided? Yeah,
And I was legal when I played, right, Like we
ran down the field looking on interceptions for d Lineman
because we knew they were coming because we did it
to them a few plays before, right, But those kind
(29:24):
of plays are outlawed now, and we used to do
that on a consistent basis, or diving into people's knees
and all that stuff. So it's a lot different now.
When when you look back the seventh season obviously bitter
sweet for everybody, do you feel like the team sort
of ran out of gas? Just the sort of the
pressure of being unbeaten kind of caught up to you. Possibly.
(29:48):
I was still so young, only my third year. I
was just happy to be playing football and just don't
but we had so many older guys that really knew
and understood football at that time, and maybe they they did.
I know it was a very uh, I guess you
call it stressful season. Well, as the year went on,
(30:10):
it got more stressful and more pressure on you, not
just from not to lose, but like Bill that year
had his foot on the gas pedal. Every game felt
like when we'd watch film, like we lost the game
and we would be someone by forty year twenty year,
and then you'd come in and feel like you lost
the game. But I didn't feel burned out by the
(30:32):
end of the year. We just didn't played well. I know,
me and the offensive line we didn't play good enough
that game. And usually if the old line doesn't play good,
you don't win. So that's how it goes a lot
of times when you look back at that logan and
you say, you know, it felt like a loss even
though you're trashing teams. Yeah, how did that manifest like
(30:53):
in the film room when you're looking at it and
stuff like that, Does that motivate you or do you
have to have a special kind of mentality to like,
look and I know what he's trying to do here,
He's looking for almost literally perfection on these plays. Does
that help drive you to be a better player. Oh, definitely.
And our offensive line coach Dante, he said, we're not
(31:14):
going to be perfect, but we're gonna strive for it
every game and every practice. So he preached that already.
And as an old lineman, you could have eighty great blocks.
On the eighty first play, you give up a sack
and that's all everyone talks about. And you had a
horrible game, right, So it's we're used to that as
old lineman, That one bad play ruins at all. So
(31:34):
you've got to be perfect on all of them, unless
it was always best when you had to play and
you got beat by someone and fortunately you were running
the ball the other way or something and it didn't
affect a play at all. Do you think, and this
is another great fan debate, it would have been better
for them to lose, you know, and then you get
that monkey off your back. Did you enjoy the pursuit
(31:57):
of perfection? Yeah? I loved it. When we squeaked out
the win was that week seventeen in New York when
we win by three or something, Yeah, I was so happy.
We want that to keep it alive. So because then
after that, you only have what three more games to win.
I wouldn't change it. I changed that we lost the
(32:17):
last game, but the rest of the season, I wouldn't change.
People are like I have a lot of people say,
don't you wish you just lost the Chief Championship and
didn't get there? And I'll take the shot if we lose,
we lose, but I'll take the shot of winning. I mean,
I tell this all the time, being on all those
plane rides back and forth, you'd be hard pressed, Matt,
(32:41):
you and I talked about this all the time. You'd
be hard pressed to ever know based on the mentality
of the players, the interaction on the way home, if
you guys want are lost. You guys were just business like.
There's one huge exception, and that was the Indianapolis game
that year in oh seven. We came I think ten
down in the fourth or two touchdowns to beat the
(33:04):
undefeated Colts, and you guys went crazy on that. On
that flight home and another one bites the dust was
going and I think Glannie might have had that cranked up.
It was amazing to me how business like you were otherwise,
and then to see that like, oh this really was
a big game. It wasn't just like the next game,
(33:25):
you know, well, you know, on to Cincinnati. It wasn't
like that. You could see it with the mentality of
the team, and then I felt like that kind of
carried you through the rest of that regular season. To
your point, it did mean a lot to go unbeaten.
I did, And like you said, that game against Manning
and the Colts, we always we had such a big rivalry,
and for both of us to be undefeated that late
(33:46):
in a season and to get that win was big.
Did you enjoy that rivalry, Logan, I mean you were
talking about you know, we were only a young player there,
still in your third year or something. But did you
get a sense of, oh, this is a year, every day,
ordinary NFL game when you're playing those guys. Yeah, especially
well I first came in, we started, we were playing
them every year because we're both division winners, and then
(34:08):
my second year we had to go lose to them
in the ASC championship game, which we would have won
that Super Bowl for sure, but absolutely that was a
heartbreaker losing that game. I was a second year guys
sitting on that sideline going holy crap, I don't know
where we went in by twenty one or something. I
was like, We're going to go to the super Bowl
and then we craft the bed the second half. Oh
(34:28):
my gosh, I can't believe we lost that game. Those
in particular, so they had won three in a row
and then one o three in a row. They had
won three and then they went three after you like,
is that the whole in the resume? Is that? Do
you do you have? Oh? Yeah, if you look back.
People asked me all the time, and I'm like, yeah,
(34:48):
I wish I would have won a super Bowl. But
at the end of the day, I tried to tell
like my family members, would that make me a better
dad or husband? Or now I want to be a farmer?
Now would have changed my life at all? No? Did
I want to win one. I tried my absolutely hardest
to win one, but it just didn't work out. And then,
as you said, you know in oh six, you're gonna
(35:11):
beat Chicago. If you don't lead seven, you're thirty seconds
away from perfection. So it's not like you weren't on teams.
You know, some guys played their whole career. You know
Joe Thomas, you know, another tremendous offensive lineman, plays his
whole career in Cleveland. He never had a sniff. Yeah,
so yeah, sure, I'm sure he would have liked to
have won a super Bowl. He never came close it.
(35:31):
You know, you were on teams that had a lot
of success. Yeah. I came close a lot a bunch
of times, a bunch of AFC championship games and lost
two super Bowls. So I would give up. I don't know,
some accolades. I give up all my accolades to win
a super Bowl. But I only got those because I
(35:52):
was a decent player. But other than that, I I
don't know. It wouldn't change anything for me now. So
I'm okay, I'm content without winning a Super Bowl, isn't it?
You know you talked about things that you tell your
family members. Okay, in life, you're gonna get knocked down.
Oh yeah, it's how you get up or don't get
up that really defines you. You know. So if you're
(36:14):
gonna sit there in your room and suck your thumb
because you lost, you know, to the giants, what you know?
What kind of person are you? Does that help you
as a as a parent? You know, as to say
I live this? You know? Now what do you do
about it? Oh, it's so true. And if that's the
worst thing that happens during my life, that'd be awesome. Like,
(36:35):
there's so many things that people go through way worse
on a daily basis than losing. It's your livelihood and
your career and what you're striving for. But at the
end of the day, it's it's still a game, and
so many people are going through way worse things. So
you just got to remember those kind of things. Perspective, Yeah, perspectives, right.
(36:56):
We talked a little bit about the Colts Ravens. I
think we brought up which would you know any any
team in particular that you were like that was the rival,
that was the one that I I always joined to Pittsburgh.
I hated the Jets and the Ravens, and that's because
we played them every year and they had good players
on defense. What about Channing Crowder, Yeah, we didn't like
(37:18):
him either. I was going to get to my individuals.
One of my all time great Logan Mankins postgame meetings
in the locker room. I believe Matt Light had his
way a little bit with Channing Crowder and I was
asking you, so what happened because I don't know. I
just looked up and saw Matt pounding him on the head.
So that was pretty cool. It was mid light always
(37:38):
had an understanding there was The only words spoken were
be ready. And he wasn't usually next to me on
field goal and I look and he that year he
wasn't because that was the year he had like a
broken hand or something. So he had this cast on
his hand of again with and he's lining it up
next to me, and I'm like, what the heck's Matt doing.
(37:59):
He's like, ready, sound like blogging that. I look over
and Matt's like pulling his helmet off and then hit
him on the head with his cast and then it
turned into a whole melee. So yeah, you see that
smirk on his face. That's how he told the story
to me hit the post game. It's like, yeah, you
just pounded on him on his head. Yeah, it was great.
But Crowder he would be. He had been antagonizing Matt
(38:21):
the whole game and we were beating him pretty good
by then, so Matt just lost lit the fuse a
little bit and lost it. And Matt was always he
was a great teammate too. I remember we played Detroit
one year. I don't know if he was on Thanksgiving
or not, but me and Sue had been fighting the
whole game and it came time for field goal, and
I just that year Matt was next to me on
(38:43):
field goal. I just said get ready, and I knew
I jumped. Sue came low on the field goal. I
jumped back and I was pulling his helmet off, and
I looked to my side and Matts just punching him
in the ribs as hard as they can and as
fast as they can. Kind of teammates you want, right, Absolutely, absolutely,
And that was even better because the referees only threw
a penalty on Sue, no one else. Um. I mean,
(39:07):
there was no disrespect to a guy like Channing Crowder
and Sue she's still playing today, which you must amazed,
and he was. I have no problems with Sue. He's
an awesome player. That's just how I played football, and
he played it, so he would have done the same
thing to me, So I'm not worried about it. Who
were the people, Logan, when you think about it, when
you knew that you were going to play them that week,
that you said I'd better put more time in. I
(39:29):
better study more, I'd better get my body even more right.
Who are the guys that gave me the most difficult times?
There was Sue's number one. It that you had to
be ready. He was always a long, hard day and
he played hard and he was he was a special
strong guy, and uh, you had to be ready for
that game. There was numerous other guys. When I played
(39:50):
against Richard in Oakland, he was He was still a
very good player then, and of course that was the
game the first time played in New England, so he
was going like a five million miles an hour. He
was wanting to kill us for trade him. Who else?
Albert Hainsworth in his early career was so good and
then he just I don't know, he got paid and
(40:11):
just quit. But his first like five years he was special.
I got to play Aaron Donald his first two years
in the league, and just his athletic ability is phenomenal
for someone inside at a three technique. He's special, special talent.
But I watched now and I see some of these
(40:33):
guys there. There's just so many good athletes that are
so big now it's it's pretty amazing. So I wanted
to get back to that Tom Brady thing that you mentioned,
you know, just kind of getting to know him when
you got here. He certainly knew who you were, because
when you got dealt to Tampa. I don't know how
much of this you know. I'm sure you talk to
him privately. It was basically a wildcat strike. Tom Brady
(40:57):
grew a beard like yours and he was not happy
for a long time. Right, Um, how could did that
make you feel? Like? To know that you had that
kind of respect from from a guy like that? Oh? Great?
Tom Sowell respected, So to be respected by him was
always great. And he knew how much the team and
football meant to me. And I wasn't just here collected
(41:18):
and checked that it. I actually was doing all I
could to make the team better, make myself better, to
win football games. And I knew i'd be missed the
day guy traded. There ended up being a big party
at my house that night, and I didn't throw it,
just a lot of guys came over and we toured
(41:38):
up pretty good that night, and so it was good.
Didn't know that I meant something the most of those
guys that I mean, when you get kicked in the
in the in the privates like that. But to know
that you have the support of the people that you
were going to battle with every single day, Yeah, it
probably doesn't take the sting away, but it makes you
(41:59):
feel like maybe you would in the right thing if
you had. Because you were saying earlier, you know, all
you asked for is a respect out of your teammates.
That's what you're playing for, right Yeah. Yeah, and your
teammates and your coaches. I always wanted to make my
coaches happy and or in their respect. So but I
knew there was a possibility I could get traded. There's
there always is, and we had had discussions on things
(42:22):
and we just couldn't come to a mutual agreement, and
then that was one of the possibilities. So I have
no hard feelings on it. It's a business, right right.
You know you mentioned you know still seeing Sue play,
you can still watch Tom play. Are you surprised? Did
you think when you were here that something like that
(42:44):
was he talking about it? Then? Did you think that
could you even entertain the fact that this guy would
be playing into his mid forties. I didn't think he'd
be playing that long, but before I left, he was
definitely in his taking care of his body trend and
his new those new workout regimens and all that stuff.
So but the amazing thing is he's still going and
(43:06):
he still plays very well. And I couldn't go that long.
I was done mentally. I think I retired at thirty three,
and my body was fine. I could have kept playing,
but mentally I just wanted to do something else. Was
part of that Tampa just sort of not being in
the mix anymore, or was it just that you had
you'd had enough? Well that did play into it. That's
(43:27):
probably what wore me out mentally. Yeah. So I went
to Tampa my first year and it was just a
shit show. They had a new coach at New GM
and they were trying to rebuild, and there was just
so many people in that building that not building but
locker room, that just didn't care. They were just on
a team to be on the team. So the second
(43:48):
year they got rid of at least a third of
those or a third of the team, and brought in
guys that they found, guys that cared, And the second
year was so much better. I think we only won
six games, but just the effort and the change of
people carrying and getting guys that wanted to play football.
(44:08):
They might not have been as talented, but they did
the right things. They worked hard, they studied, they were
where they were supposed to be. They might not have
been able to make the ninety nine yard touchdown, but
they'd get you down there in five or six place.
So it's not all about being the best athlete. It's
you got to be able to put in. You gotta
be smart, study because everyone's good so and you got
(44:31):
to be where your your teammates expect you to be.
Do you think that that's why you clicked here? Locan?
Is because the things that maybe people can't put their
finger on, the study time, the caring, the doing the
little things and the extra things, the details, the fundamentals,
that's what this program. Those are kind of the tenants
that this program's built on. And that's what you believe. Oh,
(44:54):
I fed in perfect. I loved to hear I laugh
when those guys say New England's no fun team or something.
We had a blast we were see Bill, you had
a pretty good group though, don't you think you would
an unremendous group? Yeah? Fun guys, We worked hard and
we played hard. We had fun. Together, and we but
(45:15):
we worked hard together. And I always said, Bill doesn't
care if you joke around and have fun, but you
better be doing what you're supposed to be doing. You
better not be screwing up at practice, screwing up in
the games, late to anything. If you do everything you're
supposed to do, then you're allowed to have fun and
joke around and do dumb things a practice and in
the locker room, but then when you're plays called, you
(45:38):
better not screw up out there. So and you knew
that seventy two had your back or sixty seven had
your back or sixty one had your back. You guys
were close and you held each other accountable, didn't you.
Oh yeah, definitely. We worked out together. We ran together.
We uh, we did stick together. There was one year
(46:02):
so when we would run, we would always stick together
on the sprints. And we were all pretty good guys
at running. We could run pretty good. And uh, when
you're dirt OTAs, Bill starts yelling at us because we're
all in a line just running. He's like, you, guys,
I know, Neil, you're faster than so and so, and Meggas,
(46:23):
you're faster than him. You guys, should be ahead of him. Light,
you should be up there passing everyone, and Light just
keeps saying, don't break, don't break. We stick together, band
of brothers. So the next one we run Light, we
stayed in the same line, and Bill's getting pissed, and
then pretty soon Bill tells everyone else to stop running.
(46:45):
Now it's just the old line. We have to run
and stick and stayed and we stayed together the whole time.
I don't know how many extras we had to run,
but the whole time Lights going hold and no one
wrote though. We stuck together. So finally Bill gave up.
Let the team leaves again, right right right, But that
(47:05):
was just Light. He loved to do stuff like that.
He's like, we gotta stick together, no one break. Do
you still it sounds like you're still in touch with
with Matte that any any other teammates. Yeah, Copan still
he lives right down on Rhode Island. Russ Hoakstein lives
in the same town as I do. Lights and Foxboro still,
(47:26):
so I see those guys that are around the area
and still talk to a few others. Still get together
for barbecues, Not as much anymore. So my kids are
older now, and lights kids are older. But the other
guys their kids are still young and they're running around
like crazy. So not as much as we used to.
(47:47):
Everybody's busy, right, And I mean I don't mean that.
I don't mean that as everybody's busy, busy with life right.
It's crazy how busy you can get. And now it
seems like I don't remember this when I was a kid.
But my kids signed up for every sport that's available.
I'm like, do we have to sign up for everything? Like,
can't we take a season off on something? But no,
(48:09):
you're just year round sports. It feels like driving kids everywhere,
you know. We started this off And I was busted
Paul's boss about, you know, being that parent in the stands?
Do you like being in the stands? Do you enjoy
watching your kid and watching them play? Such a great feeling,
isn't it? Yeah? I do. So. I coached my boys
a football six seventh and eighth grade, and then when
(48:31):
they get to high school, I stop. But I was
offered to coach at the high school, and I told
him I just want to be a fan and sit
and watch and enjoy watching them. And and then I
told him I could complain about his coaching so but no,
I just like watching them. We talk about stuff after
the game on what they should have done, just like
(48:53):
every other day. Yeah, yeah, Logan, thanks for stopping by,
Man all right, it's a lot of fun, a lot
of fun. Nothing else, that's it. It It was very easy
one to say, yes, we aim to put out your gut.
Yeah we're still we can still roll. What do you get?
What do you want to share? You guys have the questions. No,
I think I think we touched on every day we
wanted Logan. Thanks for coming in, Man than our guest
(49:15):
was Logan Mankins on this episode of Tat from the Past.
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(49:36):
more podcasts.
It's time now for another episode and Pats from the
Past podcast. Matsmith alongside Paup Burlo pleas to be joined
by number seventy on your scorecard, but number one in
our hearts at least today, Paul. Yeah, and you better
be careful. Yeah. And that's Logan Mankins. Logan, thanks for
coming in. How you doing, man, I'm doing great. Thanks
for having me guy. Yeah, I really appreciate it, all right,
Logan when we start these with everybody, because I don't
(00:27):
I mean, like, maybe people know what some ex patriots
are doing, but I think there's a lot of people
that go, Logan, Mankans, where is he these days? What
are you up to? I think fans would love to
know that. Well, I'm still here in New England. We
live in north out of burl Still, just down the
road from Foxborough, and we have a little farm and
we raise beef, cattle, hey, firewood, all that kind of
(00:49):
fun stuff. Why is a California Northern California kid? What
is it about New England? Because I think, and I'm
being very stereotypically stereotypical, go here. I think people would
be surprised. Patriot fans would go Okay, his career's over.
Finish it in Tampa. He's going to go back to
northern California at some point in time. Why still New England?
(01:09):
I mean, and this is somebody who loves New England,
has lived here his entire life. Yeah. Well, we had
lived here for nine years before I got traded, and
then the timing of the trade was school was about
to start, so my wife and kids stayed here and
I went there just for the season to Tampa, and
then we did that. Then I came back after the
season and my daughter was in high school, so we
(01:32):
didn't want to make her move while she was in
high school, so I went to Tampa for the season
again and they stayed here. And then by the time
I retired, we just made the decision that our oldest
is in high school, let's let her finish high school.
And then she was graduating in high school, our next
one was coming into high school. So we just made
(01:53):
the decision to stay here and make this our forever place.
So that's great, Yeah, because I was one of those
that I would have said, yeah, you know, Logan Mankins
will be back on the ranch out And it was
at Cathy's Valley. Yeah, yeah, Cathy's Valley, Californe. I figured
you'd be long gone and had to find and then
I show up at Bishop Fian mad Yeah, you know,
so one of those classic Bishop Fenwick. Bishop Fian tilts
(02:14):
in the Catholic Central League. So there's Logan Mankins. So
Logan Paul's office is now next to mine, and I'm
regaled weekly with you know how great Fenwick is. Fenwick
kicked his team's ass, blah blah blah. And he tells me,
he goes, oh, you wouldn't believe this. I read into
Logan Mankins. Other than Bruski, who he knows obnoxious on
the sidelines, is Paul the most obnoxious parent of a
(02:36):
kid that you've run into a high school game. And
he's got to be right. Well, I don't know. I
don't get to see him during the game, but he's
always very gracious and defeat so well see he's he's
being kind. I usually bitch about the referees for about
a half hour, but it was funny. This is this
is a kind of a funny story. So last year
when Logan son Case Mankins is a truemendous two way
(03:01):
player for Bishop fian and my oldest son Will they're
the same same age. Not as tremendous a two way
player for Fenwick, but he does well. So we're at
Fenwick two years ago and it was one of those
games where I was, you know, hell bent for leather,
like if I could have found an official in the
parking lot, things could have been bad. And I see
looking at the I got did you see that whole day?
(03:23):
Missing a touchdown and Logan goes and then holding if
they don't call it so but he was spoken like
a two offensive line. But what was great was my
friends are constantly as you probably get a lot of this,
they're constantly busting my balls. Oh, oh, big tough Paul Like, oh,
he talks to Tom Brady, he talks to Teddy Bruski. Oh,
why don't you talk? Where's all your boys? Wis makings?
(03:45):
Wi's all? So, don't you know? Logan comes over at
the end of the game. You talk about being gracious
in defeat, gracious in victory. He comes over after the game,
says goodbye to my wife and I and I get
the bro hug. I got a little bro hug in there.
Would you like to make fun of me about for
people road. So all of my friends now looking like, wow,
you really do know those guys, like, go, what do
(04:05):
you think I worked there for twenty years. I've never
met anybody, So it was it's been kind of nice.
Case played some basketball last last Winner or so. I
bumped into Logan a few times, and he was here
in Foxborough at the draft party too, so he's been
around and Logan and I'm I can verify Paul, because
Paul was saying this to me when he came back.
He goes, You're not gonna believe it, And I'm not surprised,
(04:26):
he goes. I think Patriots fans would not be surprised
as well. Regular guy, nice guy parent who isn't screaming
and yelling and swearing at the referees like most of
the other parents are. Fie right with his hat, probably
just like that was a draper Farms. Yeah, you know,
you would not have any idea that this is a
(04:48):
you know, decade long NFL player, for a ten plush
years NFL player, with the amount of Pro Bowls and
All pros, and you would have no idea just sitting
in the stands watching his kids, just like everybody else right,
And I hope this doesn't come across in a way.
It's sort as I'm saying, think about in my mind
that somebody could take it as an insult, and I
hope it wouldn't never be that way. But Logan as
(05:08):
the second greatest guard in franchise history, you're are you
okay being behind John Hannah? Yeah, that's fine. Who by
the way I spent But if it wouldn't change my life,
I get it, I'd still be the same. But I
don't know if you ever had a chance to really,
you know, watch Hannah or anything like that for the days.
And I spent some time with John a couple of
(05:29):
summers ago down on his cattle farm down in Alabama. Crusty,
great patriot and great guy. I think you guys would connect. Yeah,
I've done him a few times that Yeah, we uh
would swap stories and it was it was great meeting
him and hearing all the great things he had to
talk about. And he just started yelling at you about
not running the ball enough. It's well, he said he
(05:50):
liked running the ball because he didn't like the pass block,
and that pass blocking is pretty tough, so especially against
the talent they have nowadays. He loved watching you play.
He loved watching you play. And I would say, as
an outsider, for somebody to get a stamp of approval
from somebody like John Hannah, that means a lot more
than Paul Parollo or Matt Smith or any any other
(06:11):
Tom Dick and Harry, because here's a legit guy. Well,
he loved watching you play. Yeah, and John, he was
respected by everyone, his teammates, his opponents, other coaches. So
that's always what I wanted. If they wrote I was
good in the paper, that was great. But I wanted
my teammates. I wanted to earn their respect, and I
wanted opponents not to want to play me. So that's
how it was. Did you think when you were coming out,
(06:35):
did you think you're going to be a first round pick?
I didn't know. I everyone told me probably a second rounder.
And it was funny. The day of the draft, I was.
We had a me and my wife had a little
apartment in Fresno, and we had a little draft party
and just people kept showing up more and more. Like
my dad, he's a he likes to have a good time,
(06:57):
so he was inviting everyone he saw, whether he knew
them not, so that was always great. Doesn't make him
a bad guy, no. But we're sitting there and my
offensive coordinator from Fresno was one of his best friends
was with the forty nine ers and he calls me.
He goes that I just talked to my best friend.
They're taking you with the thirty third pick. I was like,
oh sweet, right down the road from here. And then
(07:21):
I was like, hold on, someone else is calling me
and I click the phone over and it was Scott Pioli.
He's like, we're taking you right now. I was like, oh, okay,
So it was great. I was. I think I was
very fortunate to come here. I'm it worked out the
best to come here. I'm glad that the nine Yeris
weren't picking thirty two the Patriots to were. So you
(07:43):
obviously it did work out. You were part of a
lot of wins here and you had a great career.
Did you think it at the time, You know, like
you were so close to being close to home and
now you have to go to New England, which I
can't tell you how many players will tell you I
didn't really even know where New England was because they
think it's a state and not a region. What were
you thinking about the culture, you know, both the culture
(08:03):
with the team and the cultures shock of going from
West coast to East coast. Yeah, I wasn't, like he said,
totally aware of they said New England. I was like, Okay,
that's on the East coast, but I didn't know it
was like right outside of Boston. I didn't know where
the stadium was or Foxborough or any of that stuff.
And guys are like, oh, You're gonna go play with
Tom Brady And I'm like, I'm not even sure who
(08:25):
Tom Brady really is, right, I didn't watch that much
NFL football. I didn't up until my senior year of
high school. I loved watching NFL football, and then once
I got to college, I kind of stopped paying attention
and had many other things going on. So is that
because you Is it because it was so much for
you to play? It took so much physically, mentally and
everything like that that when the time came that you
(08:48):
had quote your own time or downtime or however you
want to call it. I got other things I need.
I want to do that interest me rather than shit
and watch this because I'm living and I'm in a divisional.
In school, you're working. It's a job. Yeah, And and
the schedule kind of makes it that way. So in college,
you play on Saturday. Sunday, you go in for lifting,
(09:12):
you watch the game, and you have your conditioning, so
that's most of your Sunday while NFL football is on,
so you can watch games on Monday night and Sunday night.
But other than that, during the day, you were usually busy,
So we didn't watch a lot of it. And as
I got older in college, we had I already had
my first daughter and everything like that. So the longer
(09:32):
I was in college, the more responsible I'd just started becoming,
and we had a lot of other things to do
to support her and my future wife. So so when
when you were drafted, it was you know, tackle out
of first No State, and then you got here and
almost immediately it was guard. Yeah. Did you know that
(09:53):
that you would be a guard or was that something
that Bill had talked to you about beforehand? I assumed
it was going to happen. So my coach of Fresno
was Pat hill Ye, and I got invited to the
East West and the Senior Bowl, and he goes he
was an old line coach for Baltimore one of those
with Bill, and he goes, I think the best thing
(10:14):
for you to do is go to these two all
star games, go to both of them, and just play
guard at both of them. Tell him you don't want
to play tackle. I was like, all right, So I
took his advice, and when I got there, I said,
I'm playing guard, not tackle. And then because he said
I was going to get moved to guard, that's what
his opinion was. So when I got here, I just
assumed I was going to Garden. That's where they told
(10:34):
me to go. So then it was day one, right, yeah, yeah,
it was uh yeah, the first day always Guarden. What
I did play tackle a couple of games. About that,
athletic people, I mean the transition, the transition from college
chapros obviously a big transition transition position wise. Did you
(10:54):
think that that was a big deal guard to tackle.
I didn't think it was until I did it. Okay,
it's uh so a guard, everything is way faster, Like
everyone is lined up closer to you. Everything happens faster.
The guys aren't as fast as you're going against that tackle,
but you have more time before they get to you
to set everything up, and the guys inside are way bigger,
(11:16):
way stronger. I thought guard was a lot more physical.
The few games I played at tackle, I felt awesome
after the game, whereas guard, you feel it's like two
eighty to three fifty every time, just bam, bam bam.
So I think, and Paul helped me on this, if
you agree with me or not. I think fans look
(11:37):
at offensive line and maybe other than center, where there's
an alleged you know, the center quarterback exchange that needs
to happen, and it's got to be consistent. But I
think fans will get offensive lineman and maybe other than
left tackle. I think they think they're all the same. Yeah,
and when you see there's current players on this team
and around the league, Hey, you know, we recognize you've
(11:58):
got positioned versatility. Oh we like the fact that you
can play guard and play tackle. And I think fians
think that it's just interchangeable and can get on a
guy geez, why is he? You know, it's not as
interchangeable as maybe us dummy fans like to think. Is
that a fair statement? Oh? Definitely. It takes h for
a guy to be able to do multiple positions well
(12:20):
between guarden tackle, not so much center and guard. But
for a person to be able to do guard end tackle,
they got to understand the game very well and have
a lot of athletic ability, which they already do. But
I mean, like position, I don't know how to really
pronounce it or say it, but they've got to be
able to flip all that in their mind all the time.
(12:42):
You've got to be smart. Definitely got to be smart
to be able to do both of them, because it's
different ways and techniques to do both those spots. Now,
did you have to move sides at all? No, thankfully
and stuck on the left side, oh, which was nice
because I was always right handed. And then once I
got to know I always played on the left side.
And once you get stuck for me personally, once I
(13:05):
got in that left handed stance, that was the only
one I was ever going to be able to do
it again, I get in a right hand stance, and
I feel funky. When you got here, Logan, you know,
rookie first rounder, so you come with that kind of
baggage and I mean, oh, here's a guy I gotta guarantee.
Blah blah, blah, Who is here somebody that you can
think of that helped you the most to help make
that transition to NFL offensive lineman from college? How do
(13:29):
you recall that rookie year and who helped you along?
And because I think what people say now they consider
they don't remember it, but they should remember it. We're
talking about a plug and play guys from day one
started just like that. And then again another thing. I think, Oh,
anybody can do it, No, nobody, not everybody can do it.
You have to be a Logan Nakins kind of person
to do it well. There was a lot of bumps
(13:50):
in the road. It wasn't always beautiful. I remember getting
yelled at plenty of times and not Scar Scar Bill
whoever you couldn't think of in there, but let Tom
get hit plenty of times. But you learned as you go,
and by the halfway part point of the season, I
felt pretty comfortable and what I was doing and it
wasn't as bad as those first few games. But there
(14:13):
was lots of guys that helped. First of all, I
had an awesome O line coach that was I'm so
lucky and fortunate to play for him. I wouldn't have
wanted to play for anyone else. So I had that
going for me. I had a lot of older guys
in our room that they were here to win, like Matt,
like Cope and Neil, those guys, that's all they wanted
(14:34):
to do was win. And they just because you were
a rookie didn't mean anything. They would help you. You
were their teammate. So that was awesome. There was like
we didn't have rookie hazy and craft like that. We
were all there for one purpose. Matt was awesome. I
remember we got here and was that rookie camp or
OTAs or something, and he invited my wife and our
(15:00):
children over to meet his wife and children, just to
make the whole transition easier. So having guys like that
in your locker room makes life a lot easier when
you're already dealing with stuff you have no idea. You're
learning every day as you go as a rookie, so
having older guys that are willing to help you as great.
So I found it interesting when you said, you know,
you got drafted by the Patriots, and well you're gonna
(15:22):
go and block for Tom Brady, and you're like, I'm
not really even sure who Tom Brady is. How long
did it take you to sort of realize that he
was a little different than just the other team's starting
quarterbacks on What was it like sort of getting indoctrinated
into that, Well, it was great Tom. He's a special player,
as everyone already knows, but he's also a special leader
(15:42):
and a special guy. He was a great teammate to have.
You wanted a block for the guy, The coaches wanted
you to make every block for him, and that makes
it so much better when you really respected, you liked
the guy, and you know he cares about you and
you care about him, and that's why we wanted him
make the blocks for him. We didn't do it just
(16:03):
because it was our job. We actually liked and respected
him and wanted him to do good. So, but there
was lots of guys on this team I didn't know
anything about. I remember my rookie year, Richard Seymour was
here and he was holding out and I was like,
who's this guy everyone's talking about. I found out the
first day he came back. He was a handful. So
I got a lot of welcome to New England movements.
(16:25):
What was what was that like lining up against Richard
Seymour when he comes back. Oh it was I still
didn't know who he was but or what he did,
but I was like, damn, this guy is big. What
the heck? And then of course where he lines up
every day for practices right over me, and the first
one I want he ran me over. I was like,
holy shit, I better better figure out how to block
(16:47):
guys like this. And then we went to the first
game and I was like, oh man, everyone's not like
I was like, thankfully not everyone's like this guy does it?
Did it not surprise you? Logan? I mean it took
him probably a little longer than I think maybe he
wanted or some of the people that were closest to him.
But is it no surprise? Do you have to get
and knocked on your rats by Richard Seymour that he's
(17:09):
in the Professional Football Hall of Fame? Oh yeah? And
he should have been there. There was no question he
was special talent. Not everyone has got his ability. So
tall and long, and he's strong and athletic, and he
had the right mentality and he was just a very
good player. He was smart too, So maybe playing here
(17:29):
is first I don't know However, many years when he
was asked to take on double teams and not get
the sack numbers, that probably slowed him down. But as
far as impacting the game, he made a big impact.
And I know he helped me too, because I practiced
against him every day for like four or five six
years something like that, and we had lots of fights
(17:50):
and all kinds of stuff. But when we got to
the locker room, we always talked about how to I
would ask him what he looked at sometimes, and he
would ask me, like, how do you get the hands off?
And this kind of thing and that thing just from
guys that a different point of view than a coach's
point of view, like the guy that's actually doing it.
So I always had a lot of respect for him.
(18:12):
You talked about being, you know, selfless and you know,
like Richard was, but you obviously displayed that you talked about.
I don't forget that you played tackle a little bit,
Matt Scott. You know that the anecdote from Dante about
the day that you had to play tackle like on
a moment's notice. So we were we were. This was
your first year. Both Paul and I are kind of
embarrassed about it. To be perfectly honest with it, I
(18:33):
don't want to put words in Paul's mouth, but we're
part of the Hall of Fame committee to select people
to get on the ballot, and then legitimately when the
people get on the ballot, it's a fan vote, you know,
and as you can imagine skill position, guys, you know
we're gonna get the fan vote. But this is the
first year that you were on that ballot. And so
(18:53):
it's part of one of the things that I do
here is, Hey, who can who's a great person as
an ambassador for Richards Anymore, for Ty Law, for Teddy Bruski,
for Logan Makons, that can really speak to who that
person was as a player and why they deserve to
be why do they think they would be a great
Patriot Hall of Famer. And of course we went to Dante,
(19:13):
and so we're talking to Dante and he's giving you
all the platitude that you could think of that Dante
would give you nobody tougher comparing you as somebody who
did coach. He wasn't maybe an offensive line coach, but
he was on the team when Hannah was here. So
it's not blasphemy for him to mention your name, and
to me, that's an awful lot of credibility. But we
(19:33):
stopped after one point. All right, Dante, that was great.
He goes, I'd like to say one more thing. This
is really important to me. And he talked about again
how selfless you were and the fact that I don't know,
I guess it was light probably who got hurt. And
you're playing the Ravens and you're guess what, Logan, you're
playing tackle this week and that's the Ravens with Terrell
Suggs and somebody like that. And he talked about how
(19:56):
you nearly pitched a shut out that game, but that
you were pissed on one particular play that maybe Sugs
got a hand up or maybe like sort of swept
and knocked Tom down. And he talked about how pissed
you were about that, and he goes, you know, it's
okay for the quarterback to get rid of the ball too, Logan,
don't blame that one on you. But that's how he thought.
That's how he felt about you. Do you remember that
(20:19):
game in that week having to kick out? Yeah, I
still remember. I shouldn't have got beat on that one,
I just went set a little too far. I got
feeling too comfortable and he got me on enough and under.
But yeah, those games we uh. I actually liked going
out to tackle ever right now and then just I
don't know. It was fun just to change it up
every now and then. But that was the second time.
(20:42):
The first time I played tackle, I didn't find out
till like twenty minutes before the game, so that one
was a little tougher. But the one against the Ravens
was nice because I actually got the practice all week
at tackle, so that was a lot better. But it
was I liked tackle. It was fun. What was the
other one? Miami? And then one time I had to
play the second half I think against the Texans or something,
(21:05):
so that was the backup tackle. It amazes me, like,
what does he say, like, yeah, I got I set
to why I got? I got up and under it
like it was probably twenty years ago at this point,
like xactly you remember your bad plays. Oh, I can
tell you about the tape measure home runs I allowed
in college, but I don't want to get to that's
another podcast for a different time. Um, just you know, again,
(21:28):
I want to stay with the teammate and the selflessness
and the season you played on a torn acl well,
you know, Philip Rivers played a quarterback, you know, in
the AFC Championship game against you guys on a torn
ACL and I think it was one of the more
heroic performances I've seen. You played a whole season like that,
Like how do you how do you do that? I
don't know. They said maybe I was loose used to
(21:49):
having a loose knee or something. I don't know, but
I had to wear with those weird braces for most
of the year and uh her for the first couple
of games, and then it just kind of went away.
So and then after the season we went and saw
the doctor and he's like, this thing's been torn a
long time. Oh so you didn't realize it until we
(22:10):
didn't know it was fully torn. One of those doctors
just kind of shook it around and said, well, what
do you think? And I was like, well, let me
give it a shot this week at practice and he's
like all right. And then I got through drills, I
was like, we'll just go with it. He's like all right,
well we need to get it checked out later. So see,
(22:30):
people think that sometimes you overstate just how matter of
fact people are about things. This is logan making. This
is how he was in the locker room after games.
He would talk about, you know, the game plan and
what they did well, and it was the same level
of intensity and just matter of fact everything. You know, Well,
you know what do you think? Yeah, well I can
(22:50):
give it a shot of practice, Like see if I
could play. He had a town acl right, and it's
like it's his job. It's there's no big deal. I'm
just going to go out and get the job done.
Do you get embarrased when you hear that logan? Like
people like Paul and I want to heap praise on
you for that. You're an offensive lineman. You probably don't
give a sugar about like, yeah, that's all I was
supposed to do well. Everyone loves to be praised, but
(23:14):
I do get embarrassed when it's in front of me.
I'd rather talk. I don't want to embarrass you, believe me,
And I'm not like you know, I've been I've been
Matt and I've been here for over twenty years. So
it's like, you know, it's not like the wide eyed
Chris Farley on Saday Night Live, like that was awesome,
you know, when I'm not in awe of you know,
(23:34):
but but that's an awesome are inspiring, that's season. Most
people sadly today at work have the sniffles and they're
down for three days, do you know what I mean?
And and so when somebody says, no, it's important to
go to work, and I might not be feeling one
hundred percent, but I still think I can do my job. Yeah,
(23:58):
it's that's different. Yeah, that's well. I think people used
to ask me why I did it, and I was like, well,
my dad always said, if you can go to work,
you go to work. And he always joked, just tape
an aspir into it and you'll be all right. Did
you try it? But it was it was fine. It
(24:18):
hurt for a while and then it went away, and
then it just uh. I really noticed it as a
season went on. There was no more squatting in the
weight room, like that stuff was not happening anymore. Or
if you like tried to walk down an incline, you
could feel your knee sliding. But so thankfully the football
fields already inclined. I think you know, your league is
(24:39):
filled with really really tough players and like, yeah, I
mean I see what you guys go through. I remember
the other Algae crumplers here. I don't know if you
guys crossed. I forget the timeline, but what he went
through to play every week was ridiculous and you could
see the toughness. But I think a lot of people
in your situation Logan would have said, this is my career.
I have a finite amount of time to earn money,
(25:01):
and if I play on a torn acoh, it might
affect my performance. It could affect my salary down the
look they're gonna probably look to, you know, makee me
take a haircut next year, or if I'm going to
be a free agent. But yet you put all that
aside and just said, no, I have a job to
do and I'm going to go out and do it well.
I was fortunately I just signed a big contract. And
then the guys around the league that would get this
(25:27):
big deal and then they would get hurt, and I
was like, this is what people do. Those guys are
tough too. Like in our locker room, I would make
fun of guys like that, and so then I'm possibly hurt,
not one hundred percent knowing if I'm hurt or not.
And I'm like, well, I don't want to be that
guy that I've been ragging on for my whole career already, right,
you don't want to be a fraud? Yeah, right? And
(25:49):
up until that point, I was that my sixth year,
I'd never missed a practice or game, so I was like,
I can't. I can't start getting hurt now. Right then
I did get a few practices off that year. So then, logan,
is that all part of maybe your principle and your values,
because I do think Patriot fans remember that you wanted
(26:10):
to take a stand. You felt like the Paul helped
me out on the language of it, you know, with
a rookie contract or something like that. Right, you got
I mean, you got screwed. I mean, let's say like
you're going to be a free agent. And then that
uncapped year came in, I'd think in ten something like that,
in right after night, and they changed the minimum years
(26:30):
for you know, went to six years, and that's what
led to your yeah, hold led to an argument and
a holdout. So but in that case, you're you're not
doing anything different than playing on a torn acl It's
I'm here to do a job. Wait a minute, I'm
here to do a job. But why are the rules
changing on him? This isn't fair and I need to
take a Stanford. Is that all part of the principles
(26:52):
that make up logan makings? Oh yeah, definitely. And technically
we called a holdout, but it wasn't a holdout because
I wasn't right, right, you weren't. Yeah, so really absolutely right.
I didn't refuse to come to work. I just chose
not to be on a team yet, right, And it
was all about money and all that stuff. But was
that hard for you Logan to do that? Oh? Yeah
(27:13):
it was. It was hard at first until I made
up my mind. And then once my mind was made up,
it was easy because I'm very stubborn when it comes
to stuff like that. So I didn't want to do it,
Like I I hated it came to that situation. I
did not want to do that, but I felt that
to me personally, I felt that was the right thing
(27:34):
to do. So maybe it was, maybe it wasn't, but
to me it was, So that's why I did it.
You'll be glad to know that your buddy, Andy Hart
and I never called it a holdout just for that
exact reason that you just said. We were very much
pro pro player in that stance and the fact that
that changed you feel. I'm not saying that you know
you were the impetus behind it or anything like that.
(27:55):
Are are you happy now for the future players that
maybe that's something that they, you know, in the negotiation,
that helped work to their favor. Possibly the money right
now is I thought it was crazy when I played.
It's out of control. Now it's awesome for the players.
But that's what every other older player says. Guys ten
(28:16):
years before me thought I was getting paid crazy money
but got it. Yeah, I don't know. Each guy has
to do what they feel is right for them personally,
and everyone's different and some guys are stronger minded than
other people. So it just all depends on who you are,
all right. You talk about the old man status, then,
I don't know how much football you watch today. I
(28:37):
think to the lay person, and I would consider Paul
and I both the late kind of person. You look
at offensive line play around the league, it just doesn't
seem like it's as good as it was maybe in
years gone by. Do you agree with that? I haven't
watched it close enough to say that, but I do
watch some of it, and I don't feel it's as
physical I see. I've talked to people to still playing coaches,
(29:01):
and they're like, a lot of the things you guys
used to do, you would get ejected for it now.
So like we used to blindside everyone, like I was.
I did watch the game where David Andrews got uh blindsided? Yeah,
And I was legal when I played, right, Like we
ran down the field looking on interceptions for d Lineman
because we knew they were coming because we did it
to them a few plays before, right, But those kind
(29:24):
of plays are outlawed now, and we used to do
that on a consistent basis, or diving into people's knees
and all that stuff. So it's a lot different now.
When when you look back the seventh season obviously bitter
sweet for everybody, do you feel like the team sort
of ran out of gas? Just the sort of the
pressure of being unbeaten kind of caught up to you. Possibly.
(29:48):
I was still so young, only my third year. I
was just happy to be playing football and just don't
but we had so many older guys that really knew
and understood football at that time, and maybe they they did.
I know it was a very uh, I guess you
call it stressful season. Well, as the year went on,
(30:10):
it got more stressful and more pressure on you, not
just from not to lose, but like Bill that year
had his foot on the gas pedal. Every game felt
like when we'd watch film, like we lost the game
and we would be someone by forty year twenty year,
and then you'd come in and feel like you lost
the game. But I didn't feel burned out by the
(30:32):
end of the year. We just didn't played well. I know,
me and the offensive line we didn't play good enough
that game. And usually if the old line doesn't play good,
you don't win. So that's how it goes a lot
of times when you look back at that logan and
you say, you know, it felt like a loss even
though you're trashing teams. Yeah, how did that manifest like
(30:53):
in the film room when you're looking at it and
stuff like that, Does that motivate you or do you
have to have a special kind of mentality to like,
look and I know what he's trying to do here,
He's looking for almost literally perfection on these plays. Does
that help drive you to be a better player. Oh, definitely.
And our offensive line coach Dante, he said, we're not
(31:14):
going to be perfect, but we're gonna strive for it
every game and every practice. So he preached that already.
And as an old lineman, you could have eighty great blocks.
On the eighty first play, you give up a sack
and that's all everyone talks about. And you had a
horrible game, right, So it's we're used to that as
old lineman, That one bad play ruins at all. So
(31:34):
you've got to be perfect on all of them, unless
it was always best when you had to play and
you got beat by someone and fortunately you were running
the ball the other way or something and it didn't
affect a play at all. Do you think, and this
is another great fan debate, it would have been better
for them to lose, you know, and then you get
that monkey off your back. Did you enjoy the pursuit
(31:57):
of perfection? Yeah? I loved it. When we squeaked out
the win was that week seventeen in New York when
we win by three or something, Yeah, I was so happy.
We want that to keep it alive. So because then
after that, you only have what three more games to win.
I wouldn't change it. I changed that we lost the
(32:17):
last game, but the rest of the season, I wouldn't change.
People are like I have a lot of people say,
don't you wish you just lost the Chief Championship and
didn't get there? And I'll take the shot if we lose,
we lose, but I'll take the shot of winning. I mean,
I tell this all the time, being on all those
plane rides back and forth, you'd be hard pressed, Matt,
(32:41):
you and I talked about this all the time. You'd
be hard pressed to ever know based on the mentality
of the players, the interaction on the way home, if
you guys want are lost. You guys were just business like.
There's one huge exception, and that was the Indianapolis game
that year in oh seven. We came I think ten
down in the fourth or two touchdowns to beat the
(33:04):
undefeated Colts, and you guys went crazy on that. On
that flight home and another one bites the dust was
going and I think Glannie might have had that cranked up.
It was amazing to me how business like you were otherwise,
and then to see that like, oh this really was
a big game. It wasn't just like the next game,
(33:25):
you know, well, you know, on to Cincinnati. It wasn't
like that. You could see it with the mentality of
the team, and then I felt like that kind of
carried you through the rest of that regular season. To
your point, it did mean a lot to go unbeaten.
I did, And like you said, that game against Manning
and the Colts, we always we had such a big rivalry,
and for both of us to be undefeated that late
(33:46):
in a season and to get that win was big.
Did you enjoy that rivalry, Logan, I mean you were
talking about you know, we were only a young player there,
still in your third year or something. But did you
get a sense of, oh, this is a year, every day,
ordinary NFL game when you're playing those guys. Yeah, especially
well I first came in, we started, we were playing
them every year because we're both division winners, and then
(34:08):
my second year we had to go lose to them
in the ASC championship game, which we would have won
that Super Bowl for sure, but absolutely that was a
heartbreaker losing that game. I was a second year guys
sitting on that sideline going holy crap, I don't know
where we went in by twenty one or something. I
was like, We're going to go to the super Bowl
and then we craft the bed the second half. Oh
(34:28):
my gosh, I can't believe we lost that game. Those
in particular, so they had won three in a row
and then one o three in a row. They had
won three and then they went three after you like,
is that the whole in the resume? Is that? Do
you do you have? Oh? Yeah, if you look back.
People asked me all the time, and I'm like, yeah,
(34:48):
I wish I would have won a super Bowl. But
at the end of the day, I tried to tell
like my family members, would that make me a better
dad or husband? Or now I want to be a farmer?
Now would have changed my life at all? No? Did
I want to win one. I tried my absolutely hardest
to win one, but it just didn't work out. And then,
as you said, you know in oh six, you're gonna
(35:11):
beat Chicago. If you don't lead seven, you're thirty seconds
away from perfection. So it's not like you weren't on teams.
You know, some guys played their whole career. You know
Joe Thomas, you know, another tremendous offensive lineman, plays his
whole career in Cleveland. He never had a sniff. Yeah,
so yeah, sure, I'm sure he would have liked to
have won a super Bowl. He never came close it.
(35:31):
You know, you were on teams that had a lot
of success. Yeah. I came close a lot a bunch
of times, a bunch of AFC championship games and lost
two super Bowls. So I would give up. I don't know,
some accolades. I give up all my accolades to win
a super Bowl. But I only got those because I
(35:52):
was a decent player. But other than that, I I
don't know. It wouldn't change anything for me now. So
I'm okay, I'm content without winning a Super Bowl, isn't it?
You know you talked about things that you tell your
family members. Okay, in life, you're gonna get knocked down.
Oh yeah, it's how you get up or don't get
up that really defines you. You know. So if you're
(36:14):
gonna sit there in your room and suck your thumb
because you lost, you know, to the giants, what you know?
What kind of person are you? Does that help you
as a as a parent? You know, as to say
I live this? You know? Now what do you do
about it? Oh, it's so true. And if that's the
worst thing that happens during my life, that'd be awesome. Like,
(36:35):
there's so many things that people go through way worse
on a daily basis than losing. It's your livelihood and
your career and what you're striving for. But at the
end of the day, it's it's still a game, and
so many people are going through way worse things. So
you just got to remember those kind of things. Perspective, Yeah, perspectives, right.
(36:56):
We talked a little bit about the Colts Ravens. I
think we brought up which would you know any any
team in particular that you were like that was the rival,
that was the one that I I always joined to Pittsburgh.
I hated the Jets and the Ravens, and that's because
we played them every year and they had good players
on defense. What about Channing Crowder, Yeah, we didn't like
(37:18):
him either. I was going to get to my individuals.
One of my all time great Logan Mankins postgame meetings
in the locker room. I believe Matt Light had his
way a little bit with Channing Crowder and I was
asking you, so what happened because I don't know. I
just looked up and saw Matt pounding him on the head.
So that was pretty cool. It was mid light always
(37:38):
had an understanding there was The only words spoken were
be ready. And he wasn't usually next to me on
field goal and I look and he that year he
wasn't because that was the year he had like a
broken hand or something. So he had this cast on
his hand of again with and he's lining it up
next to me, and I'm like, what the heck's Matt doing.
(37:59):
He's like, ready, sound like blogging that. I look over
and Matt's like pulling his helmet off and then hit
him on the head with his cast and then it
turned into a whole melee. So yeah, you see that
smirk on his face. That's how he told the story
to me hit the post game. It's like, yeah, you
just pounded on him on his head. Yeah, it was great.
But Crowder he would be. He had been antagonizing Matt
(38:21):
the whole game and we were beating him pretty good
by then, so Matt just lost lit the fuse a
little bit and lost it. And Matt was always he
was a great teammate too. I remember we played Detroit
one year. I don't know if he was on Thanksgiving
or not, but me and Sue had been fighting the
whole game and it came time for field goal, and
I just that year Matt was next to me on
(38:43):
field goal. I just said get ready, and I knew
I jumped. Sue came low on the field goal. I
jumped back and I was pulling his helmet off, and
I looked to my side and Matts just punching him
in the ribs as hard as they can and as
fast as they can. Kind of teammates you want, right, Absolutely, absolutely,
And that was even better because the referees only threw
a penalty on Sue, no one else. Um. I mean,
(39:07):
there was no disrespect to a guy like Channing Crowder
and Sue she's still playing today, which you must amazed,
and he was. I have no problems with Sue. He's
an awesome player. That's just how I played football, and
he played it, so he would have done the same
thing to me, So I'm not worried about it. Who
were the people, Logan, when you think about it, when
you knew that you were going to play them that week,
that you said I'd better put more time in. I
(39:29):
better study more, I'd better get my body even more right.
Who are the guys that gave me the most difficult times?
There was Sue's number one. It that you had to
be ready. He was always a long, hard day and
he played hard and he was he was a special
strong guy, and uh, you had to be ready for
that game. There was numerous other guys. When I played
(39:50):
against Richard in Oakland, he was He was still a
very good player then, and of course that was the
game the first time played in New England, so he
was going like a five million miles an hour. He
was wanting to kill us for trade him. Who else?
Albert Hainsworth in his early career was so good and
then he just I don't know, he got paid and
(40:11):
just quit. But his first like five years he was special.
I got to play Aaron Donald his first two years
in the league, and just his athletic ability is phenomenal
for someone inside at a three technique. He's special, special talent.
But I watched now and I see some of these
(40:33):
guys there. There's just so many good athletes that are
so big now it's it's pretty amazing. So I wanted
to get back to that Tom Brady thing that you mentioned,
you know, just kind of getting to know him when
you got here. He certainly knew who you were, because
when you got dealt to Tampa. I don't know how
much of this you know. I'm sure you talk to
him privately. It was basically a wildcat strike. Tom Brady
(40:57):
grew a beard like yours and he was not happy
for a long time. Right, Um, how could did that
make you feel? Like? To know that you had that
kind of respect from from a guy like that? Oh? Great?
Tom Sowell respected, So to be respected by him was
always great. And he knew how much the team and
football meant to me. And I wasn't just here collected
(41:18):
and checked that it. I actually was doing all I
could to make the team better, make myself better, to
win football games. And I knew i'd be missed the
day guy traded. There ended up being a big party
at my house that night, and I didn't throw it,
just a lot of guys came over and we toured
(41:38):
up pretty good that night, and so it was good.
Didn't know that I meant something the most of those
guys that I mean, when you get kicked in the
in the in the privates like that. But to know
that you have the support of the people that you
were going to battle with every single day, Yeah, it
probably doesn't take the sting away, but it makes you
(41:59):
feel like maybe you would in the right thing if
you had. Because you were saying earlier, you know, all
you asked for is a respect out of your teammates.
That's what you're playing for, right Yeah. Yeah, and your
teammates and your coaches. I always wanted to make my
coaches happy and or in their respect. So but I
knew there was a possibility I could get traded. There's
there always is, and we had had discussions on things
(42:22):
and we just couldn't come to a mutual agreement, and
then that was one of the possibilities. So I have
no hard feelings on it. It's a business, right right.
You know you mentioned you know still seeing Sue play,
you can still watch Tom play. Are you surprised? Did
you think when you were here that something like that
(42:44):
was he talking about it? Then? Did you think that
could you even entertain the fact that this guy would
be playing into his mid forties. I didn't think he'd
be playing that long, but before I left, he was
definitely in his taking care of his body trend and
his new those new workout regimens and all that stuff.
So but the amazing thing is he's still going and
(43:06):
he still plays very well. And I couldn't go that long.
I was done mentally. I think I retired at thirty three,
and my body was fine. I could have kept playing,
but mentally I just wanted to do something else. Was
part of that Tampa just sort of not being in
the mix anymore, or was it just that you had
you'd had enough? Well that did play into it. That's
(43:27):
probably what wore me out mentally. Yeah. So I went
to Tampa my first year and it was just a
shit show. They had a new coach at New GM
and they were trying to rebuild, and there was just
so many people in that building that not building but
locker room, that just didn't care. They were just on
a team to be on the team. So the second
(43:48):
year they got rid of at least a third of
those or a third of the team, and brought in
guys that they found, guys that cared, And the second
year was so much better. I think we only won
six games, but just the effort and the change of
people carrying and getting guys that wanted to play football.
(44:08):
They might not have been as talented, but they did
the right things. They worked hard, they studied, they were
where they were supposed to be. They might not have
been able to make the ninety nine yard touchdown, but
they'd get you down there in five or six place.
So it's not all about being the best athlete. It's
you got to be able to put in. You gotta
be smart, study because everyone's good so and you got
(44:31):
to be where your your teammates expect you to be.
Do you think that that's why you clicked here? Locan?
Is because the things that maybe people can't put their
finger on, the study time, the caring, the doing the
little things and the extra things, the details, the fundamentals,
that's what this program. Those are kind of the tenants
that this program's built on. And that's what you believe. Oh,
(44:54):
I fed in perfect. I loved to hear I laugh
when those guys say New England's no fun team or something.
We had a blast we were see Bill, you had
a pretty good group though, don't you think you would
an unremendous group? Yeah? Fun guys, We worked hard and
we played hard. We had fun. Together, and we but
(45:15):
we worked hard together. And I always said, Bill doesn't
care if you joke around and have fun, but you
better be doing what you're supposed to be doing. You
better not be screwing up at practice, screwing up in
the games, late to anything. If you do everything you're
supposed to do, then you're allowed to have fun and
joke around and do dumb things a practice and in
the locker room, but then when you're plays called, you
(45:38):
better not screw up out there. So and you knew
that seventy two had your back or sixty seven had
your back or sixty one had your back. You guys
were close and you held each other accountable, didn't you.
Oh yeah, definitely. We worked out together. We ran together.
We uh, we did stick together. There was one year
(46:02):
so when we would run, we would always stick together
on the sprints. And we were all pretty good guys
at running. We could run pretty good. And uh, when
you're dirt OTAs, Bill starts yelling at us because we're
all in a line just running. He's like, you, guys,
I know, Neil, you're faster than so and so, and Meggas,
(46:23):
you're faster than him. You guys, should be ahead of him. Light,
you should be up there passing everyone, and Light just
keeps saying, don't break, don't break. We stick together, band
of brothers. So the next one we run Light, we
stayed in the same line, and Bill's getting pissed, and
then pretty soon Bill tells everyone else to stop running.
(46:45):
Now it's just the old line. We have to run
and stick and stayed and we stayed together the whole time.
I don't know how many extras we had to run,
but the whole time Lights going hold and no one
wrote though. We stuck together. So finally Bill gave up.
Let the team leaves again, right right right, But that
(47:05):
was just Light. He loved to do stuff like that.
He's like, we gotta stick together, no one break. Do
you still it sounds like you're still in touch with
with Matte that any any other teammates. Yeah, Copan still
he lives right down on Rhode Island. Russ Hoakstein lives
in the same town as I do. Lights and Foxboro still,
(47:26):
so I see those guys that are around the area
and still talk to a few others. Still get together
for barbecues, Not as much anymore. So my kids are
older now, and lights kids are older. But the other
guys their kids are still young and they're running around
like crazy. So not as much as we used to.
(47:47):
Everybody's busy, right, And I mean I don't mean that.
I don't mean that as everybody's busy, busy with life right.
It's crazy how busy you can get. And now it
seems like I don't remember this when I was a kid.
But my kids signed up for every sport that's available.
I'm like, do we have to sign up for everything? Like,
can't we take a season off on something? But no,
(48:09):
you're just year round sports. It feels like driving kids everywhere,
you know. We started this off And I was busted
Paul's boss about, you know, being that parent in the stands?
Do you like being in the stands? Do you enjoy
watching your kid and watching them play? Such a great feeling,
isn't it? Yeah? I do. So. I coached my boys
a football six seventh and eighth grade, and then when
(48:31):
they get to high school, I stop. But I was
offered to coach at the high school, and I told
him I just want to be a fan and sit
and watch and enjoy watching them. And and then I
told him I could complain about his coaching so but no,
I just like watching them. We talk about stuff after
the game on what they should have done, just like
(48:53):
every other day. Yeah, yeah, Logan, thanks for stopping by,
Man all right, it's a lot of fun, a lot
of fun. Nothing else, that's it. It It was very easy
one to say, yes, we aim to put out your gut.
Yeah we're still we can still roll. What do you get?
What do you want to share? You guys have the questions. No,
I think I think we touched on every day we
wanted Logan. Thanks for coming in, Man than our guest
(49:15):
was Logan Mankins on this episode of Tat from the Past.
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