December 19, 2025 • 44 mins
On this episode of Pats From the Past, former Patriots linebacker Willie McGinest sits down to discuss his draft process, plus the highs and lows of the dynasty era.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
It's time for another addition to Patch from the Past podcast.
It's Matt Smith, It's Paul Pillo, and it's number fifty
five in your scorecard, but number one in our hearts.
Willie McGinnis joins us. Willie, thank you so much, appreciate it.
So I don't know if you remember this, many many
moons ago when we started this, Brian Morey and I
had this great idea to do Patch from the Past talk.
The guys used to play go down Memory Lane, and
(00:26):
the first person we had was Willie McGuinness. Really, but
we bollocks the whole thing so badly from a technical
standpoint that it never saw the air.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I had to ask Brian to leave, and I just said,
go over there and take care of your No.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So I was going to tell you to blame Brian
on the whole thing. That's why it didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Okay, we can, we can. Since he's not here, we
can we can.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Blame blame him and you can stick him in a
locker like you once did, which is one of my
favorite times, one of my favorite days.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Pretty much good, yeah, okay, you were.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It was a different time, mat when PFWOL really really
got along with the players very well.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We would we were like we always got along, right.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So a lot of people started the Celtics Lakers game
last night. You have a divided loyalty there is it.
A SoCal guy, but you're not.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's my second home. Yeah, like it's you know, I
posted it's good to be home, and uh, you know,
I was happy to be home, uh and be there
and it's so happy they were playing the Lakers, right,
and of course you know from you know, the Long
Beach area, La County area, so the Lakers are a fixture,
(01:35):
you know in that area, and it's my team. I
like the Lakers as well. Used to be a season
ticket holder. So I was just enjoying it. Man, I
hadn't been to a Celtics game in a while, so
just enjoying it. Energy there isn't it Very good energy,
very good energy. Team looks good.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah. I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
A lot of the a lot of the players didn't play.
We didn't see the matchups we thought we were going
to see. But I mean still being there. I mean,
the the TV is different than the old you know,
the garden. Yeah, I mean I remember going to the
garden and now it's like the way you enter is different.
I was just kind of like, you know, looking around,
(02:16):
it's it's super nice. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Can you imagine there's somebody who remembers the garden?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Paul, Yeah, we don't have that many, only people like us.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So let's get into it. Willie, you too mentioned its
southern cal kid And what did you know if anything
about the Patriots other than that they were kind of
in the league. And Paul and I would talking about
just beforehand, was Dallas in on you? Was Jerry thinking
that he was going to get you?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I thought I was going We had Yeah, I had
Dallas Cowboy representatives at my draft party. And I elected
not to go to New York. You know how that goes,
so you never know where you're going to go in
the draft. But I elected not to go to New
York have a party with all my friends and family,
just you know, something intimate and fun. And I had
three Dallas Cowboy representatives at my draft party. And the
(03:06):
deal was that they were going to move up. I
think they had like the twenty sixth pick or whatever.
They were going to trade Harper the receiver, and they
were going to take me with the fifth pick. They
had that. I remember the hat, the Dallas cowboy hat
was there, everything, and they were going to take me.
(03:27):
I remember coming in from my visit with Parcels. We
had one visit. We had one good meeting. It was great.
But I didn't hear anything else from the Patriots after that,
So I thought I was going to be a cowboy. Honestly,
I was waiting to be a cowboy. And then when
well my name was called fourth, every I just kind
of everybody just kind of looked around. They looked a
(03:48):
little confused, picked up the stuff, left Yank and I
remember watching the screen because they had the screen on
Jerry and he slammed the table or slam the phone
or something, and uh, Parcels calls and I was just
like what I said, New England? What the hell is
(04:09):
New England? Like where am I going? Because you know,
I know Drew. I went there. I played against Drew
in college Washington State. But I would just it wasn't
on my radar, so I was thrown off.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Good memory. Matt, you had that one, now.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Were you just were you disappointed or did the hey
I'm going to the NFL kind of overtake maybe any
of the discipline.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Now, I didn't have a favorite team I wanted to
go to. I mean, of course I knew about the
Dallas Cowboys more than I do because they were winning.
You know that they want to wear a couple of
Super Bowls just prior to that. So but I wasn't
sitting there, Oh, I gotta I have to go to
this team. I think it's a little different now, these
these guys. They was like, well, I don't want to
get drafted by this team or that team. I was
(04:48):
just happy and fortunate because of where I came from
and you know, everything you go through and being the
first in your family to graduate college and to be
you know, a position again a draft.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
It was such an honor.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So I was just I was just excited once I
found out where everything was and I talked to Parsales.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Hey, the party started.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Our first thing for me, Matt is that that I
don't know if you catch this, but Willy was well
ahead of the game when he came to branding. You know,
he's got his own party going.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I'm not New York. I'm doing my own thing.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Everybody does that. Now, everybody's kind of oh, well ahead
of the curve.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
In terms of worrying about Willie as opposed to the
NFL at the start.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
The Parcels thing though that I think you were going
to start.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It just seems to me from afar like you want
of the you know, big athletic outside linebacker right out
of Parcells's playbook.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
That's exactly what he's looking for. It seemed like a
perfect fit.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, And when Parsales went into the Patriots Hall of Fame,
we talked about that his evaluation, like when he evaluated
players before he became a head coach, Like when he
used to evaluate players and the style and type and
proto type of players that he used to you know,
scout and bring in and and want on his team.
(06:09):
And then when you look at the Giants team that
he won a couple of Super Bowls with with that staff,
and uh, that's that's that's that's the type. That's the prototype.
The big, the fast, the physical guys like yeah, like
Pepper and LT and and all those guys and the
big d n s like that was just him. And
(06:30):
then when you got drafted, when I got drafted and
got here, there are a lot of Giants you know
that were on the team that he had brought over.
You know that that kind of fit the bill for him.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
RKK always bragged it, you're his first.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Yeah, first pick. Yeah, when he bought the team.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, that's a nice little son, right, Yeah, that's that's
a lot. There's a lot of those, by the way,
but that's a nice little thing to know that you
were his first you know that in his ownership.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You're the first guy you know it started.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Why was it important to you, Willie to be here
when Parcels went into the Hall of Fame? Was it
just like representing him to support.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, I mean it's like he you know, when when
you when you travel through this NFL life and you've
come across so many you know, guys that you've played
with and that coached you and you work with, and
you know, he he took a chance on me in
the draft, like he drafted me, and he believed in me,
(07:31):
and you know, I just remember coming in as a
young rookie and not really knowing what to expect and
having a guy like that. I was comfortable because I
was used to those type of coaches and I had
you know, I didn't have to end skin. I was
like I took the coaches like that. That was you know,
(07:53):
that was brutally honest. That was brash, that getting your
face and do all that. But then I'll you know,
that'll love you up at the same time. And Lawrence
Taylor was one of my favorite players, you know, growing up,
you know, along with Tippitt, you know, and Derek Thomas
and a couple of other guys. So you coached the
(08:13):
greatest you know, in my opinion, and the greatest you
know player defensive player to do it in my position.
And just our interaction and just like I said, giving
me a shot and believing in me. That's you know
that that says a lot. And then our relationship once
I got.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Here, and you guys had a lot of success, you know,
right out of the shoot ninety four, your rookie year,
you guys end up, you.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Know, being being a playoff team.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
I guess who.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah, now we all remember it.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You know, you'd be amazed how much Bill Parcells remembered
each and every detail of that loss. Really was talking
about talking about, you know, a crossing route to Ray
Crittin and that went off his face and picked off,
you know, and we were going in to take the lead,
and I mean he the attention to detail from a game.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Sharp.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
It was a physical it was a physical game. It
was a great game.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And that team was kind of built like the giants.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
You know was on that team.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I remember Eric Turner, the late great Eric Turner, big safeties,
big linebackers. I think was pleasant over there at the time.
I think so, yeah, I mean they kind of looked
like us, you know over there. Testa Verdi was a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
You made the playoffs your rookie year. You guys take
a step back in ninety five. What was a ninety
six season like for you, Willie where there's so many
guys on that team that ended up being foundation pieces
for your team that won it in two thousand and one.
But that whole defense, you know you threw Ted Johnson,
Tye Lawyer, all you guys. You know, that was a
(09:50):
hell of a defense in ninety six.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, we were a young group of guys. I think
that you know, they were trying to put together. Bill
was trying to put together that foundation of guys. Like
we talked about how you liked the build his defense
from I would say the trenches, you know, to the
back end and just the style of guys, you know,
ties of physical corner from Michigan, a guy that you
(10:14):
can put on the island and he could pretty much
do whatever.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Plays the run.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You know, big you know, Big Ted, we called him
the Monster again, super physical, big linebacker, you know, and
it you had to fit the style we played. We
played at true three four, so in that time, you know,
the stand up linebackers, the mic and the will, they're
not covered up, they're standing over the guards. So you're
(10:38):
taking on isoles, you're taking on guards, you're taking on
full backs. We played at true three four, So you
had to fit that mode and have that mentality and
have those physical players to play that. And I just
felt that I was lucky that I was one of
the foundational pieces that Bill believed in. And then that
(11:01):
prototype just kind of carried through this whole Patriot you know,
legacy from from from then till you know, probably till now.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It's hard to imagine with all this, you know, it's
thirty thirty plus years ago, but that nineteen ninety sixteen
that was the first home playoff win. Now, with all
the wins that you enjoyed after that, right, do you
remember back to that run and how special. It one
starts off with that strange game in the fog against Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, when the fog game where it's the bus.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, they were saying like we I don't know how
how we can generate fog, Like everything was our fault,
the fog, the lights I think went out, the power
went out in Jacksonville. It was something every week. But
I just remember like playing against those physical teams and
how hard it was and how tough it was. And
that Pittsburgh team, man, there was something serious as well.
(11:56):
They were talented. Coward was coaching at the time. It
was that defense is one of the best defenses in
the league. And offensively, I mean they had you know,
like you said, the bus, they had a physical offense,
and they had a lot of vets on that team.
And me being young still seeing all these players out
here that I was watching, you know, it's kind of like, hey,
you don't have time. You really didn't have time to
(12:18):
just sit back and just grow up. Like you had
to get in there and you had to understand and
you had to learn it. There's a lot of pressure
on you from from Bill's staff to play at a
certain level.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
You know, I was talking about that with al Grow.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Al Grow was at yeah, you know, Bill's retirement and
he was just talking about how the information you had
to get fed, the information digested, go out and you
had to compete.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
And you know, he told me I was one of
the guys that was able to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So that meant a lot because if you wasn't prepared,
if you wasn't ready, I don't care what pick you were,
Bill wasn't playing you, period.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And does that take a special sort of a thing, Willy,
Like the roads littered with guys who really talented, you know,
have all the measurables and stuff like that. If they're
not going to get it or get thrown into it
and absorb it, you're going to fall behind.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Right, Not only will you fall behind, but it's not
always you know something I've learned, it's not always how
much you can lift, how fast you are. You got
to be able to apply everything to the football field.
You know, you got guys that can go in there
and left five hundred pounds and do all these crazy
acrobatic things. They're talented physically, you put them in a
(13:28):
foot on a football field, you know it's average. And
I think back then you didn't have as much time,
you know, you were These camps were long and tough
and hard, and as young players coming in, like how
(13:51):
I look at as I'm coming into a locker room
with grown ass men, like with families, and these guys
are serious and like it's doggy dog like if you
got to go in and you got to earn everything,
nobody's gonna give anything to you. And then once you
get an opportunity, like you gotta go. There's no time
(14:11):
like the pressure that Parcels put on younger players. There
was just like no time you couldn't you couldn't feel
sorry for you. I remember hearing him say that all
the time to everybody, nobody's gonna feel sorry for you,
this and that, like his sayings, and he was right,
that's just how the game is. I mean now it's
a little bit different in a lot of ways. But
(14:34):
back then and then playing against those type of teams,
like you didn't have time to feel sorry for yourself
or you know, oh I'm a little tired, I'm a
little beat up, or this or that, or the game
plans going in and you're not getting it, you won't
be in the game, so you guys.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Obviously really exciting time around here.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You win those two games, you know, against Pittsburgh and Jacksonville.
You're still a young team, obviously very talented team. What
was it like, you know, how was there a distraction
with what was going on with with coach Parcels at
the time and all the all the rumors about him
possibly leaving.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
He didn't make it a distraction for us, you know.
I respect him for that, and it wasn't something that
he addressed constantly to the team. We didn't talk about
it in meetings. We we we weren't as players sitting
around and that was the only thing we're talking about.
(15:33):
We know the media had caught a hold of it
and what was going on.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I think they were talking about the whole They never
talked about the matchup.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I get it, you know, And that's what happens, you know,
super Bowl week, if somebody gets in trouble, if there's
a coaching thing that may happen, whatever it is, that's
that's top news, right, That's what goes into it. So
you know, that's one of the things they tell you
got to avoid the distractions and the big game. But
(16:02):
I'm not going to make excuses while we lost to
the Green Bay Packers to say, oh, we were distracted
and you know we were all thinking about Bill leaving
and that threw us off or whatever. No, that that's
that's not what happened. They beat us, and you know,
we didn't perform the way we should have. We have
some some eras on on you know, on on special teams,
(16:25):
and you know, we gave up some plays on defense
and you know whatever else offensively, you know, they got
going on defense. Reggie White got I mean, geez, he
got going. And then after the game, actually that's when
Bill came up to me and we I was in tears,
(16:45):
I remember, because I was I was a little emotional.
I was hurt, and then I knew he'd probably be going.
And then he pulled me to the side like he
did a couple of guys who we had those relationships with,
and just told me how much, you know, he loved
me and appreciated me, and that you know he was
going to be leaving, and you know, we had our
(17:06):
personal talk. And you know, coming off the field with
the confetti falling for the other team and they're usher
and you off the off the field and then you
go into the locker room and everybody's down and you
hear that. You know, it's just it's just it wasn't
it wasn't. It wasn't a good day.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You know, does that memory? Where is that memory live
in your head as opposed to winning the other three?
Like you're one of the fortunate ones, WILLI Because there's
guys who've gone and they never win it, you know,
guy like Danny Marino. You know, does the loss of
Green Bay bother you more than any of the or
(17:47):
did winning it get that taste out of your mouth?
And maybe it did, because maybe that now dominates as
opposed to the loss.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I mean you always remember the loss. I do
because it was my first one and because of who
we're playing against. You know, it's a memorable game and
you're not guaranteed to get back to a super Bowl.
We got back with five years later, so you know,
we were. I was fortunate to learn a lot from
(18:15):
that first super Bowl. Like you don't know how the
operational part works during the whole week, It's it's totally different.
Everything is off, even the game day operations, the time difference,
the way you warm up, the way you come out,
you know, it's everything is different. So I think the
(18:35):
thing that it prepared me for the next time is
understanding how the operational part of it works and how
you're going to have the distractions. My first one, I
wanted to make sure everybody was there. I might have
did too much media wise. You know, there's a lot
of things you learn as well. And then the game.
(18:58):
How fast it was. You know how fast the game went,
and all the things that surround that game. And you
gotta you gotta remember we had enough guys on that
team to say, listen and talk to the other guys.
Everything surrounding the game is gonna be there. It's gonna
be bigger after the game if we win. I said,
the worst feeling is walking off that field and the
(19:19):
confetti's coming down and they're actually trying to get you
off the field for the other team to present the trophy.
You don't want that feeling.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
What was you know?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So Pete Carroll comes in, Yeah, and you know what
was that those times like for you personally it was
a struggle.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Because of your health.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, but what was that whole thing like when when
sort of the difference between parcels and and Belichick with
him sandwiched in.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, it was different personalities, and Pete still had success.
He still won a super Bowl the way he does it.
But I think for this team, it was built for Parcels.
The mental reality, how we were coached, the personality, you know,
(20:06):
the motivation piece, how he interacted, it was all. It
was totally opposite with Pete. Pete was, you know, more
of a cheery guy who was his energy was different.
I don't want to say, you know, we wasn't as disciplined,
but I don't. I don't think guys were or respected
(20:29):
the way Pete handled things as as much because he
was just Okay, we're gonna find you, or we're gonna
do this, or we're gonna do that, or sometimes he
you know, he's a little more rational. Par Sales was
cussing you out. He was in your face. You already
knew if that door closes, even if it's five minutes
(20:51):
before the meeting, don't walk in like That's a perfect example.
We had meetings and Parcels always start in five minutes early,
and you knew that. So if the meeting was at eight,
you got to be in there at seven fifty five.
And if you wasn't in there at seven fifty five,
and that door was closed through not walk in because
(21:12):
he was going to embarrass you. He's going to cuss
you out. You were still gonna get fined, You might
get kicked out. When Pete was a coach, guys would
walk in late and he would just look up to
the team and go right back to what he was doing.
And guys, Okay, it's kind of different. You know, the
styles were different. Everything was different. Doesn't mean it doesn't work,
(21:33):
but I think for that group, for that group.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
It didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Did you were you? Did RKK ask your opinion because
you had? I mean no, Bill was in the secondary
in ninety six, specifically with Lawyer, and I think those
guys talk about RKK talking to him. Did you get
a vote? Were you? Was your opinion asked for when
it came time to bring Bill back.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I don't know if it was a vote, but it
was definitely what do you think or what do you think?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Type of thing? You know, And.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I know he was a good coach. I mean, like
I said, he coached my favorite linebacker, and I know
he was on the staff.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
And then.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Oddly enough he was drafting trying to draft me. I
think Cleveland had the ninth pick. So I met with
Belichick for a while and he told me, he was like,
I'm gonna take you, but I don't think you'll be
there with the knife pick. So oddly enough, I think
(22:37):
if I would have got past New England and Dallas,
I probably would have been in Cleveland with the ninth pick.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So one of the things that really stood out to
me with Belichick was sort of how he treated you
and I think you got Did you guys work together
to sort of develop.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Some kind of plan to sort of maintain a.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Little bit because you had you really struggled earlier in
your career and then all of a sudden you were
available all the time.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Well, a lot of it had to do with health as well. Yeah,
you know that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Did Bill have anything to do with that?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So they allowed Alex to come in, Oh okay, And
I think the start of that was was was Pete
and Alex and me understanding my body and what I
needed to do, you know physically. I wasn't like I
didn't hydrate a lot of it. Certain things I just
didn't do as a player. I didn't think I needed
to do that. I had to learn, and you know
(23:33):
a big part of that was just doing a self assessment, saying, Okay,
this is what you got to do, this is what
you need to do as a professional. You got to
understand that if you're having like a lot of fast twitch,
you know, muscle little injuries, there's something going on that
you got to figure out, you know, with your body.
And I think Pete kind of started to let that develop.
(23:56):
He wasn't here long enough. And then when Bill came.
Bill was all about on everything possible to make sure
guys are available and that you're going to have a
chance to win a game, regardless of what that is,
whether it's nutrition, whether it's the way we worked out,
how he designed meetings, the preparation, whatever it was, to
(24:18):
give us the edge that you know, used to hear
all the time, getting the edge, getting the advantage. And
that was a big part of it, bringing Alex in
and allow him to not only work on me, but
work on Seymour, work on time, work on everybody. And
you see how you know instrumental he was. He ended
(24:38):
up being you know, really good friends with Tom as
well and running you know.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
His business.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
One thing that I don't know that fans maybe appreciated
a lot about that. William. This took a little time
after two thousand and one, but again that core, it's
Bruce ki Rabel comes in. Ted Johnson is still there
that corner in the lit locker room. Were you the
head cock at that point in time, which I think
kind of people someone who maybe.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
From time to time, Yes, he Willy patrols that locker room. Absolutely,
How important was intimidated?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Was that role maybe that you took on Willy to
help not only police a locker room, but to like
I can, Richard Seymour obviously looks up to you. You
know you had you got Seymour when he was a
young pop. You know, it's my younger brother to teach
guys like that. Look at this is what it's all about.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Dude. You got to.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Listen to me. You know, it's maybe it's not saying it,
but it's it's leading by example so that these guys
buy in.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, And you know, I don't I don't think that
was like the title. I think it was something that
was unsaid just because of you know, the guys that
the Foundational guys that were there, like we mentioned, and
we figured out, what's our blueprint, what do we want
to be. We had locker room leaders, We have positional leaders,
(26:00):
you know, in every position, and you know, we started
that competing thing. So of course I was placed. I
was placed there, you know by you know, by Bill.
And it's not like we had a talk and say, Okay,
you're going to police the locker room, you're gonna do this,
(26:22):
You're gonna do that. I think organically he saw we
had a lot of leaders, you know brew you know,
Troy Brown, I can go down the line. We had
a lot of leaders on that team. But to push
the message that what patriots, what we were going to
be like, you know, what we needed to do, and
(26:44):
understanding of like its team over individualism and everybody's going
to be held accountable, whatever that was. I think those
things started, you know, to get implemented by certain guys,
not that everybody had a specific role. You got to
do this or you got to do that. I think
(27:04):
the core guys understood that because we were held over
from the last regime.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
I don't this not in any way to minimize a
coaching staff or head coach or anything like that. But
if you don't have that today in professional sports. You're
kind of cooked, aren't you. Yeah, you, because you've got
to be the guys that help deliver the message.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The coaches really don't run the locker, al right, The
players do. And if the players don't buy in, And
you guys have been around long enough to see a
lot of great players, a lot of great teams, coaching staffs,
whatever the case may be. But if the players don't
buy in, it doesn't matter how good you are, or
how good the game plan is, or how great of
a coach you are. If the players don't buy in,
(27:47):
it's not going to work. And just remember we have
went to a Super Bowl with that same team when
Pete came in. And do you guys are here right,
do you think all the players that Terry Glenn's and
all this stuff that was going on, do you think
all the players bought into to the new regime.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I don't think it was it was you know, I
can't sit here and say it was Pete's fault. I
gotta say like we had a lot of guys that
you know, didn't buy in, that maybe wasn't mature enough
to handle his coaching style that didn't buy in, and
it was it didn't last long. So you got to
buy in, and you got to get guys on board,
(28:28):
and they have to believe and understand what's happening to
create that culture.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
But you got to have the right guys.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it seemed Belichick recognized that because when he you know,
when he slowly, you know, in two thousand and then,
some of those guys that maybe weren't buying in, you know,
you know, some of them got older. Guys like Bruce Armstrong,
you know, just naturally got older.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
And stubborn in his ways exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
You know, I was trying to be polite.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
One of the few, I wouldn't say one of the
few guys, but one of the first guys who intimidated
the hell out of me in that locker room.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Bruce were Yeah, Bruce when I came in, Like Bruce,
I remember running errands for Bruce as a rookie. I
remember going to get breakfast for Bruce. But that was
you know, that's how it was. And I respected him
because he was you know, he was a he's a
Pro Bowl player. He's one of the best left tackles
in the game. He was the guy. I went against
him practice to get better. He helped me sharpen my tools.
(29:21):
I learned a lot from him. But Bruce was aggressive,
and Bruce, you know, he talked trash and if you
didn't you know, hey, back then and there, you get
snatched up if you didn't, you know, if you didn't
do what you were supposed to do. It was a
different time.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, he was an interesting guy, obviously, No, I know,
I did. I enjoyed he was one of the really
interesting guys to interview because if you didn't.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Feel like it, he wouldn't and he would talk to.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
And he would just tell you move along.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And there were a lot of guys like that, but
he had when he spoke, he had something to say generally,
but brought in a lot of I think recognizing we
need to make sure we're getting the message here. In
that two thousand and one team, I don't know what
the number was, but digit twenty or so. You know,
new guys you know that came in and you guys
(30:14):
all of a sudden take flight with Tom what was
you know, that whole that whole thing.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Like, uh, he got an opportunity, you know, due to injury,
and I think Drew had just signed for one hundred
million that year, so we nobody thought that, oh, this
is this is going to happen. Tom's about to take
over the one hundred million dollar quarterback Drew's job, or
whatever the case may be. We just figured that, you know,
(30:42):
Drew has an injury and Tom's taken over.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
I think Tom wasn't he a third quarterback at the time.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Well he moved up in that he did Camp.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
You were okay. So there was a lot that took
place that year. By the way, we lost our quarterback coach,
Rayvon and Camp. So there was a lot that was
going on in that in that year. But nobody thought
that was gonna like that switch. Nobody thought that Tom
was going to just come in take the position over,
(31:15):
because even when he came, we didn't we didn't just
go on a winning.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Spree right away.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
I think our record was close to five hundred, were
six and six, right, Yeah, So you know, nobody thought that, okay,
this is that was like, this is what happens when
there's an injury, next got next man up. But to
our surprise in the meeting, when Drew got healthy and
(31:40):
Bill had that innate ability to see that this is
where we was going, and there's a there's a history
to that, and people don't like I dug a little deeper.
Bill Belichick had played against Drew. He played against Drew
with the Jets, he played against Drew with Cleveland when
(32:03):
he was coaching with the Jets with Bill, and then
when he was the head coach with Cleveland, he played
against Drew. So as a defensive minded coach, you kind
of dig into the quarterback and all those different things.
So maybe he had a lot more insight of where
Drew how far he could go. I don't know what
year that was for Drew. Drew came in ninety three,
(32:28):
eight or nine years, eight or nine years, so you
kind of know what a guy is by then, and
you do have experienced game planning against him. So maybe
he knew his ceiling, maybe he knew his flaws, Maybe
he knew, you know, what he could or couldn't do,
or whatever the case may be. I just think that
was a pretty historical move. When the owner gives a
(32:50):
quarterback one hundred million dollars and you got a guy
be right, you better be right. You got a guy
who's coming in playing playing good. There's nothing's jumping off
the charts. At the time. Our defense was probably the
callous on the team, no question about it. And you
hand over the throne when Drew gets healthy and we
get that. We had that team meeting and he says, listen,
(33:14):
he says, I always do what's best for the team,
not the individual, and some of my decisions may not
always be popular for individuals or some people, but I'm
always going to do what's best for the team, and
saying that we're going to continue to move forward with
(33:35):
Tom as a quarterback, because you know, the Meetia was like,
it's Drew healthy, when is he coming back? And all that.
That was our meeting when he handed it over the
time and we all kind of looked around like, okay,
a little surprised, just like we were surprised when he
did the thing with Lawyer. You know again, same speech.
(34:03):
You know, it's my decisions isn't always based on individuals,
it's best on based on what's best for the team.
And he traded Drew and you know, a Lawyer to
Buffalo and Tom took over. But even before that, he
announced that Tom was going to be the quarterback. And
(34:23):
then when Tom got hurt, and Drew started against Pittsburgh,
was at the AFC champion. Came in, Yeah, and Drew
had a phenomenal game. Everybody's kind of like, okay, we're
going back. We're going to go back to Drew came
in the meeting, did the same thing. Time's are started
because the media, you guys, everybody starts going crazy. We
(34:45):
got a controversy, we got a quarterback dilemma. We got this,
we got that. It's like nope, And even Drew thought
that was it, like he got it. He had got
his job back. Like I know, you guys have talked
to Drew and yeah, you guys. Even Drew was like, Okay,
I did what I need to do. I played great.
We won.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
This is my dream.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I'm gonna start in the super Bowl and I'm gonna
have an opportunity to win because when I had my
other opportunity, I didn't I didn't do what I needed
to do. So I'm gonna win this time. And then
again in the meeting, Bill makes the call, We're going
to time. We're going back to time. He's our quarterback
and that's the direction we're moving in. I don't want
(35:28):
anybody talking about it in the media. I'm doing what's
best for the team, and like I said, everybody might
not like it.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
The room just went the air just out of the room.
It was like, all right, let's go.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That one to me didn't surprise me as much because
I thought that one was all about Tom's ankle. If
Tom was healthy, I felt, I felt like the way
he had played for you guys, he deserved And I
was a huge Drew guy, you know that. But the
first one did surprise me. I thought, when Drew was healthy,
he'd get a chance to win his job back. And
Bill basically said that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
You don't pay a guy that much, right, and and
like not if you're paying a quarterback that much, how many.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
Lives does he have? Absolutely, he has a million lives,
no matter what.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
And it was bold.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, there's a guy that Paul mentioned. You know a
lot of the roster turnover guys that came in, and
you know one one guy that came in that was
playing your position, playing the same side of the ball,
was Mike Crabel. What was your first impressions about him
when he came in?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Willie big, physical, athletic, white guy that plays linebacker.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
That's good. That uh.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Talks a lot of you know, his personality. You fit
right in. You fit right in. He was smart, you know,
very well super smart. And you know he had come
from a good system in Pittsburgh, so we know he
knew the game. And I think Bill changed it for
him because he's playing like d n right when he
(37:01):
was with Pittsburgh and for us again that prototype linebacker
Bill loves coming from that system. Mike six', five two
fifty whatever the. Case put him, outside stand him. Up he's,
fast he's, athletic he's, smart he can, drop he can
play in. Space they just fit everything we were doing
(37:21):
because at that time we were still our base was you,
know A tampa, two but we were still playing the
true thirty four defense where the linebackers, had you, know
a lot of. Responsibility you had to be a pass,
rusher you had to play the, run and you had
to be able to drop in coverage and understand coverages
in the passing. Concepts and he fit you, know he
fit That bill.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Perfectly is he one of the few guys that could
give it back To. Belichick he can.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Give back to.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Anybody you, know he he's never at a loss for,
words you, Know, mike but it's all in this. Person
that's how he plays as. Well you know he's, aggressive you,
know he get after. You he's a, playmaker and it's
going to tell you about.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
It, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
We're gonna we're going to be respectful of your. Time
SO i want to jump ahead a little bit to
two thousand and, three And paul Mentioned i'm going to
Let paul ask this. Part but, first you, know before
we get to the, play how badly were you hurt
on that final drive In? Indianapolis In, INDIANAPOLIS i mean.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
You were really it was hurting. Injured so you.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Were you were really hurt on that, play weren't?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You? Right so here here's here's here's here's a little
something THAT i don't know if you know or may not.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Know that week of.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Practice one of the things That belichick again talk about,
preparation we talked about on the defensive side That Peyton
manning liked to do is if there's a player injured
and you're trying to run off the field and you're
trying to run somebody on the, field he would snapped
the ball to get the. Penalty at the, time there
(38:56):
was no rule a TIME i root for, injuries, right
if you're, injured automatic time. Out the team doesn't get
charged or any of. That it's just an injury. Timeout
SO i Heard belichick during practice all the, time like
(39:19):
talking about. It if you're, hurt stay, down don't try
to crawl off or limp, off because the other guy's
gonna be. Coming you're not gonna get. Off this guy's
gonna snap the ball and it's going to be a. Penalty,
well that was an important. Drive they were driving down
to win the. Game you, know we're whooping them pretty
good the first, half and they had all the momentum
(39:40):
in the second. Half in this drive they were they
were marching, down kind of like a two minute. Situation
SO i went to make a move and my knee
got caught in the turf AND i went down AND
i GOT i tried to get, up AND i was
about to try to limp off like.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
And.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
BILL i Remember bill in my, EAR i can hear
him in, practice stay. Down WELL i stayed. Down we
were prepared for this. Situation clock, stops everything, stops injury
time out AND i come. Off IF i wasn't as,
HURT i would have came in the next. Play REMEMBER
i was, out, LIKE i didn't come back, IN i
(40:20):
think till fourth.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
DOWN i think you're, right, Right, yeah, Yeah, yeah that sounds.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
RIGHT i didn't come back in till fourth.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Down IF i was like you, know IF i, was
if there was just SOMETHING i was, FAKING i would
have came right back. In there was no rule that
you couldn't come back in the next. PLAY i would
have came right back. In BUT i was out till fourth,
down TILL i was ready to.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Go so what do you remember about the? PLAY i
would argue that that single play won you guys another
Super bowl because.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
It's a big. Statement AND i think he might be.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Right AND i know you guys had all the confidence
in the world that you could have gone To indy and.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
Beaten we didn't want to go Back anore.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Exactly SO i think that singular play allows the playoff
game to be back In.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Foxborough.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
YEAH i didn't know how big it was until we, did,
RIGHT i mean the way we finished what was fourteen and.
Two home field throughout home field was super important in those. Days,
yeah we got the home field, advantage you, know it
was we stop. Them we kind of duke you Know Peyton.
(41:23):
Maddie you know we kind of throw them off disguise
and threw them off on that. Play he checked into the.
Play you, know that was perfect for what we were.
IN i was disguising LIKE i was in. Coverage the
n man on the line in our defense never drops
in the. Coverage we're always. Rushing so just playing chess
with him and doing some of those. Things and great
penetration By Terror washington and the guys up, front AND
(41:47):
i come off and you, know funny, Enough rabels running
down to field with me with our.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
Hands up.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
The Image rabel's running down the field with me on that.
Play but how instrumental winning that game, was you, know
it was a total team. Effort but certain things stand,
out of course because that was the end of the
game and it meant a, lot but that that game
and winning that, game like you guys, said it put
(42:16):
us in position to have an opportunity to win that,
game to win A Super.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Bowl all, right we want to wrap it up with
You willie. Here but you, know three three, Titles which
one was your? Favorite which one was the best team
that you played?
Speaker 5 (42:27):
On that's.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
TOUGH i would probably say we GOT i mean we
we we Added Rodney, Harrison we we added you, know
we had we added The Sante samuel like we we
we we.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Got we got some good. Players, YEAH i don't.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Know it's probably the. Last it's probably the, Fourteen probably
the old.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
FOUR i think the four had the best blend, offense
offense and. Defense you guys were always so good defensively that,
YEAR i.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
Would, say balance wise all the way. Around, yeah it.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Four it's, great thank you for coming.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
HERE i tell you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
What it's great to see you on the sideline and
you Hugging. Rabel the connection between the past and the.
Present to, me that's what it's all aboulish it. Is
i'm very sentimental about stuff like. THAT i love. It
and WHEN i see you there and the reaction that
the two of you, have like great and, great that's
(43:34):
what it's all.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
About and, he's, uh he's taking all that in his
own way and he's filtering it through the team and
you can kind of see everybody's the. QUESTION i this
is remind you of the old one team where nobody
thought you guys would be where you were and you
just got guys just came out of. Nowhere but it
takes a coach like that that have that. EXPERIENCE i
(43:56):
know he wasn't, there but to have that experience and
understand and know and be on the team to build
it inside, out, guys having, fun but working, hard being,
accountable the, preparation believing in, hisself putting team over, individualism
and all the things that he's. Incorporating he was. With you,
(44:17):
know he played for some great coaches and he's implementing.
That but he's doing it rab, style verbal. Style So
i'm proud of. HIM i enjoyed watching. THEM i told
him that on the, sideline and hopefully this team can
just keep going in the right.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Direction, wellie thanks for your.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
Time thank, you, GUYS i appreciate. It
It's time for another addition to Patch from the Past podcast.
It's Matt Smith, It's Paul Pillo, and it's number fifty
five in your scorecard, but number one in our hearts.
Willie McGinnis joins us. Willie, thank you so much, appreciate it.
So I don't know if you remember this, many many
moons ago when we started this, Brian Morey and I
had this great idea to do Patch from the Past talk.
The guys used to play go down Memory Lane, and
(00:26):
the first person we had was Willie McGuinness. Really, but
we bollocks the whole thing so badly from a technical
standpoint that it never saw the air.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
I had to ask Brian to leave, and I just said,
go over there and take care of your No.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
So I was going to tell you to blame Brian
on the whole thing. That's why it didn't.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Okay, we can, we can. Since he's not here, we
can we can.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Blame blame him and you can stick him in a
locker like you once did, which is one of my
favorite times, one of my favorite days.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Pretty much good, yeah, okay, you were.
Speaker 2 (01:00):
It was a different time, mat when PFWOL really really
got along with the players very well.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We would we were like we always got along, right.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
So a lot of people started the Celtics Lakers game
last night. You have a divided loyalty there is it.
A SoCal guy, but you're not.
Speaker 3 (01:14):
It's my second home. Yeah, like it's you know, I
posted it's good to be home, and uh, you know,
I was happy to be home, uh and be there
and it's so happy they were playing the Lakers, right,
and of course you know from you know, the Long
Beach area, La County area, so the Lakers are a fixture,
(01:35):
you know in that area, and it's my team. I
like the Lakers as well. Used to be a season
ticket holder. So I was just enjoying it. Man, I
hadn't been to a Celtics game in a while, so
just enjoying it. Energy there isn't it Very good energy,
very good energy. Team looks good.
Speaker 5 (01:52):
Yeah. I mean.
Speaker 3 (01:55):
A lot of the a lot of the players didn't play.
We didn't see the matchups we thought we were going
to see. But I mean still being there. I mean,
the the TV is different than the old you know,
the garden. Yeah, I mean I remember going to the
garden and now it's like the way you enter is different.
I was just kind of like, you know, looking around,
(02:16):
it's it's super nice. It's a beautiful place.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Can you imagine there's somebody who remembers the garden?
Speaker 2 (02:20):
Paul, Yeah, we don't have that many, only people like us.
Speaker 1 (02:25):
So let's get into it. Willie, you too mentioned its
southern cal kid And what did you know if anything
about the Patriots other than that they were kind of
in the league. And Paul and I would talking about
just beforehand, was Dallas in on you? Was Jerry thinking
that he was going to get you?
Speaker 3 (02:40):
I thought I was going We had Yeah, I had
Dallas Cowboy representatives at my draft party. And I elected
not to go to New York. You know how that goes,
so you never know where you're going to go in
the draft. But I elected not to go to New
York have a party with all my friends and family,
just you know, something intimate and fun. And I had
three Dallas Cowboy representatives at my draft party. And the
(03:06):
deal was that they were going to move up. I
think they had like the twenty sixth pick or whatever.
They were going to trade Harper the receiver, and they
were going to take me with the fifth pick. They
had that. I remember the hat, the Dallas cowboy hat
was there, everything, and they were going to take me.
(03:27):
I remember coming in from my visit with Parcels. We
had one visit. We had one good meeting. It was great.
But I didn't hear anything else from the Patriots after that,
So I thought I was going to be a cowboy. Honestly,
I was waiting to be a cowboy. And then when
well my name was called fourth, every I just kind
of everybody just kind of looked around. They looked a
(03:48):
little confused, picked up the stuff, left Yank and I
remember watching the screen because they had the screen on
Jerry and he slammed the table or slam the phone
or something, and uh, Parcels calls and I was just
like what I said, New England? What the hell is
(04:09):
New England? Like where am I going? Because you know,
I know Drew. I went there. I played against Drew
in college Washington State. But I would just it wasn't
on my radar, so I was thrown off.
Speaker 4 (04:20):
Good memory. Matt, you had that one, now.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
Were you just were you disappointed or did the hey
I'm going to the NFL kind of overtake maybe any
of the discipline.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
Now, I didn't have a favorite team I wanted to
go to. I mean, of course I knew about the
Dallas Cowboys more than I do because they were winning.
You know that they want to wear a couple of
Super Bowls just prior to that. So but I wasn't
sitting there, Oh, I gotta I have to go to
this team. I think it's a little different now, these
these guys. They was like, well, I don't want to
get drafted by this team or that team. I was
(04:48):
just happy and fortunate because of where I came from
and you know, everything you go through and being the
first in your family to graduate college and to be
you know, a position again a draft.
Speaker 5 (05:00):
It was such an honor.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
So I was just I was just excited once I
found out where everything was and I talked to Parsales.
Speaker 5 (05:08):
Hey, the party started.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
Our first thing for me, Matt is that that I
don't know if you catch this, but Willy was well
ahead of the game when he came to branding. You know,
he's got his own party going.
Speaker 4 (05:18):
I'm not New York. I'm doing my own thing.
Speaker 5 (05:20):
Now.
Speaker 4 (05:21):
Everybody does that. Now, everybody's kind of oh, well ahead
of the curve.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
In terms of worrying about Willie as opposed to the
NFL at the start.
Speaker 4 (05:31):
The Parcels thing though that I think you were going
to start.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
It just seems to me from afar like you want
of the you know, big athletic outside linebacker right out
of Parcells's playbook.
Speaker 4 (05:45):
That's exactly what he's looking for. It seemed like a
perfect fit.
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Yeah, And when Parsales went into the Patriots Hall of Fame,
we talked about that his evaluation, like when he evaluated
players before he became a head coach, Like when he
used to evaluate players and the style and type and
proto type of players that he used to you know,
scout and bring in and and want on his team.
(06:09):
And then when you look at the Giants team that
he won a couple of Super Bowls with with that staff,
and uh, that's that's that's that's the type. That's the prototype.
The big, the fast, the physical guys like yeah, like
Pepper and LT and and all those guys and the
big d n s like that was just him. And
(06:30):
then when you got drafted, when I got drafted and
got here, there are a lot of Giants you know
that were on the team that he had brought over.
You know that that kind of fit the bill for him.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
RKK always bragged it, you're his first.
Speaker 5 (06:45):
Yeah, first pick. Yeah, when he bought the team.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, that's a nice little son, right, Yeah, that's that's
a lot. There's a lot of those, by the way,
but that's a nice little thing to know that you
were his first you know that in his ownership.
Speaker 5 (06:58):
You're the first guy you know it started.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
Why was it important to you, Willie to be here
when Parcels went into the Hall of Fame? Was it
just like representing him to support.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Yeah, I mean it's like he you know, when when
you when you travel through this NFL life and you've
come across so many you know, guys that you've played
with and that coached you and you work with, and
you know, he he took a chance on me in
the draft, like he drafted me, and he believed in me,
(07:31):
and you know, I just remember coming in as a
young rookie and not really knowing what to expect and
having a guy like that. I was comfortable because I
was used to those type of coaches and I had
you know, I didn't have to end skin. I was
like I took the coaches like that. That was you know,
(07:53):
that was brutally honest. That was brash, that getting your
face and do all that. But then I'll you know,
that'll love you up at the same time. And Lawrence
Taylor was one of my favorite players, you know, growing up,
you know, along with Tippitt, you know, and Derek Thomas
and a couple of other guys. So you coached the
(08:13):
greatest you know, in my opinion, and the greatest you
know player defensive player to do it in my position.
And just our interaction and just like I said, giving
me a shot and believing in me. That's you know
that that says a lot. And then our relationship once
I got.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Here, and you guys had a lot of success, you know,
right out of the shoot ninety four, your rookie year,
you guys end up, you.
Speaker 4 (08:37):
Know, being being a playoff team.
Speaker 5 (08:39):
I guess who.
Speaker 4 (08:40):
Yeah, now we all remember it.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
You know, you'd be amazed how much Bill Parcells remembered
each and every detail of that loss. Really was talking
about talking about, you know, a crossing route to Ray
Crittin and that went off his face and picked off,
you know, and we were going in to take the lead,
and I mean he the attention to detail from a game.
Speaker 1 (09:01):
Sharp.
Speaker 5 (09:02):
It was a physical it was a physical game. It
was a great game.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
And that team was kind of built like the giants.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
You know was on that team.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
I remember Eric Turner, the late great Eric Turner, big safeties,
big linebackers. I think was pleasant over there at the time.
I think so, yeah, I mean they kind of looked
like us, you know over there. Testa Verdi was a quarterback.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
You made the playoffs your rookie year. You guys take
a step back in ninety five. What was a ninety
six season like for you, Willie where there's so many
guys on that team that ended up being foundation pieces
for your team that won it in two thousand and one.
But that whole defense, you know you threw Ted Johnson,
Tye Lawyer, all you guys. You know, that was a
(09:50):
hell of a defense in ninety six.
Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, we were a young group of guys. I think
that you know, they were trying to put together. Bill
was trying to put together that foundation of guys. Like
we talked about how you liked the build his defense
from I would say the trenches, you know, to the
back end and just the style of guys, you know,
ties of physical corner from Michigan, a guy that you
(10:14):
can put on the island and he could pretty much
do whatever.
Speaker 5 (10:16):
Plays the run.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
You know, big you know, Big Ted, we called him
the Monster again, super physical, big linebacker, you know, and
it you had to fit the style we played. We
played at true three four, so in that time, you know,
the stand up linebackers, the mic and the will, they're
not covered up, they're standing over the guards. So you're
(10:38):
taking on isoles, you're taking on guards, you're taking on
full backs. We played at true three four, So you
had to fit that mode and have that mentality and
have those physical players to play that. And I just
felt that I was lucky that I was one of
the foundational pieces that Bill believed in. And then that
(11:01):
prototype just kind of carried through this whole Patriot you know,
legacy from from from then till you know, probably till now.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
It's hard to imagine with all this, you know, it's
thirty thirty plus years ago, but that nineteen ninety sixteen
that was the first home playoff win. Now, with all
the wins that you enjoyed after that, right, do you
remember back to that run and how special. It one
starts off with that strange game in the fog against Pittsburgh.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Yeah, yeah, when the fog game where it's the bus.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, they were saying like we I don't know how
how we can generate fog, Like everything was our fault,
the fog, the lights I think went out, the power
went out in Jacksonville. It was something every week. But
I just remember like playing against those physical teams and
how hard it was and how tough it was. And
that Pittsburgh team, man, there was something serious as well.
(11:56):
They were talented. Coward was coaching at the time. It
was that defense is one of the best defenses in
the league. And offensively, I mean they had you know,
like you said, the bus, they had a physical offense,
and they had a lot of vets on that team.
And me being young still seeing all these players out
here that I was watching, you know, it's kind of like, hey,
you don't have time. You really didn't have time to
(12:18):
just sit back and just grow up. Like you had
to get in there and you had to understand and
you had to learn it. There's a lot of pressure
on you from from Bill's staff to play at a
certain level.
Speaker 5 (12:28):
You know, I was talking about that with al Grow.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Al Grow was at yeah, you know, Bill's retirement and
he was just talking about how the information you had
to get fed, the information digested, go out and you
had to compete.
Speaker 5 (12:41):
And you know, he told me I was one of
the guys that was able to do that.
Speaker 3 (12:44):
So that meant a lot because if you wasn't prepared,
if you wasn't ready, I don't care what pick you were,
Bill wasn't playing you, period.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And does that take a special sort of a thing, Willy,
Like the roads littered with guys who really talented, you know,
have all the measurables and stuff like that. If they're
not going to get it or get thrown into it
and absorb it, you're going to fall behind.
Speaker 3 (13:08):
Right, Not only will you fall behind, but it's not
always you know something I've learned, it's not always how
much you can lift, how fast you are. You got
to be able to apply everything to the football field.
You know, you got guys that can go in there
and left five hundred pounds and do all these crazy
acrobatic things. They're talented physically, you put them in a
(13:28):
foot on a football field, you know it's average. And
I think back then you didn't have as much time,
you know, you were These camps were long and tough
and hard, and as young players coming in, like how
(13:51):
I look at as I'm coming into a locker room
with grown ass men, like with families, and these guys
are serious and like it's doggy dog like if you
got to go in and you got to earn everything,
nobody's gonna give anything to you. And then once you
get an opportunity, like you gotta go. There's no time
(14:11):
like the pressure that Parcels put on younger players. There
was just like no time you couldn't you couldn't feel
sorry for you. I remember hearing him say that all
the time to everybody, nobody's gonna feel sorry for you,
this and that, like his sayings, and he was right,
that's just how the game is. I mean now it's
a little bit different in a lot of ways. But
(14:34):
back then and then playing against those type of teams,
like you didn't have time to feel sorry for yourself
or you know, oh I'm a little tired, I'm a
little beat up, or this or that, or the game
plans going in and you're not getting it, you won't
be in the game, so you guys.
Speaker 4 (14:51):
Obviously really exciting time around here.
Speaker 2 (14:54):
You win those two games, you know, against Pittsburgh and Jacksonville.
You're still a young team, obviously very talented team. What
was it like, you know, how was there a distraction
with what was going on with with coach Parcels at
the time and all the all the rumors about him
possibly leaving.
Speaker 3 (15:12):
He didn't make it a distraction for us, you know.
I respect him for that, and it wasn't something that
he addressed constantly to the team. We didn't talk about
it in meetings. We we we weren't as players sitting
around and that was the only thing we're talking about.
(15:33):
We know the media had caught a hold of it
and what was going on.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
I think they were talking about the whole They never
talked about the matchup.
Speaker 3 (15:39):
I get it, you know, And that's what happens, you know,
super Bowl week, if somebody gets in trouble, if there's
a coaching thing that may happen, whatever it is, that's
that's top news, right, That's what goes into it. So
you know, that's one of the things they tell you
got to avoid the distractions and the big game. But
(16:02):
I'm not going to make excuses while we lost to
the Green Bay Packers to say, oh, we were distracted
and you know we were all thinking about Bill leaving
and that threw us off or whatever. No, that that's
that's not what happened. They beat us, and you know,
we didn't perform the way we should have. We have
some some eras on on you know, on on special teams,
(16:25):
and you know, we gave up some plays on defense
and you know whatever else offensively, you know, they got
going on defense. Reggie White got I mean, geez, he
got going. And then after the game, actually that's when
Bill came up to me and we I was in tears,
(16:45):
I remember, because I was I was a little emotional.
I was hurt, and then I knew he'd probably be going.
And then he pulled me to the side like he
did a couple of guys who we had those relationships with,
and just told me how much, you know, he loved
me and appreciated me, and that you know he was
going to be leaving, and you know, we had our
(17:06):
personal talk. And you know, coming off the field with
the confetti falling for the other team and they're usher
and you off the off the field and then you
go into the locker room and everybody's down and you
hear that. You know, it's just it's just it wasn't
it wasn't. It wasn't a good day.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
You know, does that memory? Where is that memory live
in your head as opposed to winning the other three?
Like you're one of the fortunate ones, WILLI Because there's
guys who've gone and they never win it, you know,
guy like Danny Marino. You know, does the loss of
Green Bay bother you more than any of the or
(17:47):
did winning it get that taste out of your mouth?
And maybe it did, because maybe that now dominates as
opposed to the loss.
Speaker 3 (17:54):
Yeah, I mean you always remember the loss. I do
because it was my first one and because of who
we're playing against. You know, it's a memorable game and
you're not guaranteed to get back to a super Bowl.
We got back with five years later, so you know,
we were. I was fortunate to learn a lot from
(18:15):
that first super Bowl. Like you don't know how the
operational part works during the whole week, It's it's totally different.
Everything is off, even the game day operations, the time difference,
the way you warm up, the way you come out,
you know, it's everything is different. So I think the
(18:35):
thing that it prepared me for the next time is
understanding how the operational part of it works and how
you're going to have the distractions. My first one, I
wanted to make sure everybody was there. I might have
did too much media wise. You know, there's a lot
of things you learn as well. And then the game.
(18:58):
How fast it was. You know how fast the game went,
and all the things that surround that game. And you
gotta you gotta remember we had enough guys on that
team to say, listen and talk to the other guys.
Everything surrounding the game is gonna be there. It's gonna
be bigger after the game if we win. I said,
the worst feeling is walking off that field and the
(19:19):
confetti's coming down and they're actually trying to get you
off the field for the other team to present the trophy.
You don't want that feeling.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
What was you know?
Speaker 2 (19:29):
So Pete Carroll comes in, Yeah, and you know what
was that those times like for you personally it was
a struggle.
Speaker 4 (19:36):
Because of your health.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Yeah, but what was that whole thing like when when
sort of the difference between parcels and and Belichick with
him sandwiched in.
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Yeah, it was different personalities, and Pete still had success.
He still won a super Bowl the way he does it.
But I think for this team, it was built for Parcels.
The mental reality, how we were coached, the personality, you know,
(20:06):
the motivation piece, how he interacted, it was all. It
was totally opposite with Pete. Pete was, you know, more
of a cheery guy who was his energy was different.
I don't want to say, you know, we wasn't as disciplined,
but I don't. I don't think guys were or respected
(20:29):
the way Pete handled things as as much because he
was just Okay, we're gonna find you, or we're gonna
do this, or we're gonna do that, or sometimes he
you know, he's a little more rational. Par Sales was
cussing you out. He was in your face. You already
knew if that door closes, even if it's five minutes
(20:51):
before the meeting, don't walk in like That's a perfect example.
We had meetings and Parcels always start in five minutes early,
and you knew that. So if the meeting was at eight,
you got to be in there at seven fifty five.
And if you wasn't in there at seven fifty five,
and that door was closed through not walk in because
(21:12):
he was going to embarrass you. He's going to cuss
you out. You were still gonna get fined, You might
get kicked out. When Pete was a coach, guys would
walk in late and he would just look up to
the team and go right back to what he was doing.
And guys, Okay, it's kind of different. You know, the
styles were different. Everything was different. Doesn't mean it doesn't work,
(21:33):
but I think for that group, for that group.
Speaker 5 (21:36):
It didn't.
Speaker 1 (21:36):
Did you were you? Did RKK ask your opinion because
you had? I mean no, Bill was in the secondary
in ninety six, specifically with Lawyer, and I think those
guys talk about RKK talking to him. Did you get
a vote? Were you? Was your opinion asked for when
it came time to bring Bill back.
Speaker 3 (21:56):
I don't know if it was a vote, but it
was definitely what do you think or what do you think?
Speaker 5 (22:02):
Type of thing? You know, And.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
I know he was a good coach. I mean, like
I said, he coached my favorite linebacker, and I know
he was on the staff.
Speaker 5 (22:12):
And then.
Speaker 3 (22:15):
Oddly enough he was drafting trying to draft me. I
think Cleveland had the ninth pick. So I met with
Belichick for a while and he told me, he was like,
I'm gonna take you, but I don't think you'll be
there with the knife pick. So oddly enough, I think
(22:37):
if I would have got past New England and Dallas,
I probably would have been in Cleveland with the ninth pick.
Speaker 5 (22:45):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:45):
So one of the things that really stood out to
me with Belichick was sort of how he treated you
and I think you got Did you guys work together
to sort of develop.
Speaker 4 (22:55):
Some kind of plan to sort of maintain a.
Speaker 2 (22:58):
Little bit because you had you really struggled earlier in
your career and then all of a sudden you were
available all the time.
Speaker 5 (23:06):
Well, a lot of it had to do with health as well. Yeah,
you know that.
Speaker 4 (23:10):
Did Bill have anything to do with that?
Speaker 5 (23:12):
You know?
Speaker 3 (23:12):
So they allowed Alex to come in, Oh okay, And
I think the start of that was was was Pete
and Alex and me understanding my body and what I
needed to do, you know physically. I wasn't like I
didn't hydrate a lot of it. Certain things I just
didn't do as a player. I didn't think I needed
to do that. I had to learn, and you know
(23:33):
a big part of that was just doing a self assessment, saying, Okay,
this is what you got to do, this is what
you need to do as a professional. You got to
understand that if you're having like a lot of fast twitch,
you know, muscle little injuries, there's something going on that
you got to figure out, you know, with your body.
And I think Pete kind of started to let that develop.
(23:56):
He wasn't here long enough. And then when Bill came.
Bill was all about on everything possible to make sure
guys are available and that you're going to have a
chance to win a game, regardless of what that is,
whether it's nutrition, whether it's the way we worked out,
how he designed meetings, the preparation, whatever it was, to
(24:18):
give us the edge that you know, used to hear
all the time, getting the edge, getting the advantage. And
that was a big part of it, bringing Alex in
and allow him to not only work on me, but
work on Seymour, work on time, work on everybody. And
you see how you know instrumental he was. He ended
(24:38):
up being you know, really good friends with Tom as
well and running you know.
Speaker 5 (24:42):
His business.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
One thing that I don't know that fans maybe appreciated
a lot about that. William. This took a little time
after two thousand and one, but again that core, it's
Bruce ki Rabel comes in. Ted Johnson is still there
that corner in the lit locker room. Were you the
head cock at that point in time, which I think
kind of people someone who maybe.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
From time to time, Yes, he Willy patrols that locker room. Absolutely,
How important was intimidated?
Speaker 1 (25:14):
Was that role maybe that you took on Willy to
help not only police a locker room, but to like
I can, Richard Seymour obviously looks up to you. You
know you had you got Seymour when he was a
young pop. You know, it's my younger brother to teach
guys like that. Look at this is what it's all about.
Speaker 5 (25:31):
Dude. You got to.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
Listen to me. You know, it's maybe it's not saying it,
but it's it's leading by example so that these guys
buy in.
Speaker 3 (25:40):
Yeah, And you know, I don't I don't think that
was like the title. I think it was something that
was unsaid just because of you know, the guys that
the Foundational guys that were there, like we mentioned, and
we figured out, what's our blueprint, what do we want
to be. We had locker room leaders, We have positional leaders,
(26:00):
you know, in every position, and you know, we started
that competing thing. So of course I was placed. I
was placed there, you know by you know, by Bill.
And it's not like we had a talk and say, Okay,
you're going to police the locker room, you're gonna do this,
(26:22):
You're gonna do that. I think organically he saw we
had a lot of leaders, you know brew you know,
Troy Brown, I can go down the line. We had
a lot of leaders on that team. But to push
the message that what patriots, what we were going to
be like, you know, what we needed to do, and
(26:44):
understanding of like its team over individualism and everybody's going
to be held accountable, whatever that was. I think those
things started, you know, to get implemented by certain guys,
not that everybody had a specific role. You got to
do this or you got to do that. I think
(27:04):
the core guys understood that because we were held over
from the last regime.
Speaker 5 (27:09):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
I don't this not in any way to minimize a
coaching staff or head coach or anything like that. But
if you don't have that today in professional sports. You're
kind of cooked, aren't you. Yeah, you, because you've got
to be the guys that help deliver the message.
Speaker 3 (27:23):
The coaches really don't run the locker, al right, The
players do. And if the players don't buy in, And
you guys have been around long enough to see a
lot of great players, a lot of great teams, coaching staffs,
whatever the case may be. But if the players don't
buy in, it doesn't matter how good you are, or
how good the game plan is, or how great of
a coach you are. If the players don't buy in,
(27:47):
it's not going to work. And just remember we have
went to a Super Bowl with that same team when
Pete came in. And do you guys are here right,
do you think all the players that Terry Glenn's and
all this stuff that was going on, do you think
all the players bought into to the new regime.
Speaker 5 (28:04):
I don't. I don't think so.
Speaker 3 (28:06):
I don't think it was it was you know, I
can't sit here and say it was Pete's fault. I
gotta say like we had a lot of guys that
you know, didn't buy in, that maybe wasn't mature enough
to handle his coaching style that didn't buy in, and
it was it didn't last long. So you got to
buy in, and you got to get guys on board,
(28:28):
and they have to believe and understand what's happening to
create that culture.
Speaker 5 (28:32):
But you got to have the right guys.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
Yeah, it seemed Belichick recognized that because when he you know,
when he slowly, you know, in two thousand and then,
some of those guys that maybe weren't buying in, you know,
you know, some of them got older. Guys like Bruce Armstrong,
you know, just naturally got older.
Speaker 5 (28:48):
And stubborn in his ways exactly.
Speaker 4 (28:51):
You know, I was trying to be polite.
Speaker 2 (28:53):
One of the few, I wouldn't say one of the
few guys, but one of the first guys who intimidated
the hell out of me in that locker room.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
Bruce were Yeah, Bruce when I came in, Like Bruce,
I remember running errands for Bruce as a rookie. I
remember going to get breakfast for Bruce. But that was
you know, that's how it was. And I respected him
because he was you know, he was a he's a
Pro Bowl player. He's one of the best left tackles
in the game. He was the guy. I went against
him practice to get better. He helped me sharpen my tools.
(29:21):
I learned a lot from him. But Bruce was aggressive,
and Bruce, you know, he talked trash and if you
didn't you know, hey, back then and there, you get
snatched up if you didn't, you know, if you didn't
do what you were supposed to do. It was a
different time.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
Yeah, he was an interesting guy, obviously, No, I know,
I did. I enjoyed he was one of the really
interesting guys to interview because if you didn't.
Speaker 5 (29:48):
Feel like it, he wouldn't and he would talk to.
Speaker 4 (29:50):
And he would just tell you move along.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And there were a lot of guys like that, but
he had when he spoke, he had something to say generally,
but brought in a lot of I think recognizing we
need to make sure we're getting the message here. In
that two thousand and one team, I don't know what
the number was, but digit twenty or so. You know,
new guys you know that came in and you guys
(30:14):
all of a sudden take flight with Tom what was
you know, that whole that whole thing.
Speaker 3 (30:18):
Like, uh, he got an opportunity, you know, due to injury,
and I think Drew had just signed for one hundred
million that year, so we nobody thought that, oh, this
is this is going to happen. Tom's about to take
over the one hundred million dollar quarterback Drew's job, or
whatever the case may be. We just figured that, you know,
(30:42):
Drew has an injury and Tom's taken over.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
I think Tom wasn't he a third quarterback at the time.
Speaker 4 (30:48):
Well he moved up in that he did Camp.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
You were okay. So there was a lot that took
place that year. By the way, we lost our quarterback coach,
Rayvon and Camp. So there was a lot that was
going on in that in that year. But nobody thought
that was gonna like that switch. Nobody thought that Tom
was going to just come in take the position over,
(31:15):
because even when he came, we didn't we didn't just
go on a winning.
Speaker 5 (31:18):
Spree right away.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
I think our record was close to five hundred, were
six and six, right, Yeah, So you know, nobody thought that, okay,
this is that was like, this is what happens when
there's an injury, next got next man up. But to
our surprise in the meeting, when Drew got healthy and
(31:40):
Bill had that innate ability to see that this is
where we was going, and there's a there's a history
to that, and people don't like I dug a little deeper.
Bill Belichick had played against Drew. He played against Drew
with the Jets, he played against Drew with Cleveland when
(32:03):
he was coaching with the Jets with Bill, and then
when he was the head coach with Cleveland, he played
against Drew. So as a defensive minded coach, you kind
of dig into the quarterback and all those different things.
So maybe he had a lot more insight of where
Drew how far he could go. I don't know what
year that was for Drew. Drew came in ninety three,
(32:28):
eight or nine years, eight or nine years, so you
kind of know what a guy is by then, and
you do have experienced game planning against him. So maybe
he knew his ceiling, maybe he knew his flaws, Maybe
he knew, you know, what he could or couldn't do,
or whatever the case may be. I just think that
was a pretty historical move. When the owner gives a
(32:50):
quarterback one hundred million dollars and you got a guy
be right, you better be right. You got a guy
who's coming in playing playing good. There's nothing's jumping off
the charts. At the time. Our defense was probably the
callous on the team, no question about it. And you
hand over the throne when Drew gets healthy and we
get that. We had that team meeting and he says, listen,
(33:14):
he says, I always do what's best for the team,
not the individual, and some of my decisions may not
always be popular for individuals or some people, but I'm
always going to do what's best for the team, and
saying that we're going to continue to move forward with
(33:35):
Tom as a quarterback, because you know, the Meetia was like,
it's Drew healthy, when is he coming back? And all that.
That was our meeting when he handed it over the
time and we all kind of looked around like, okay,
a little surprised, just like we were surprised when he
did the thing with Lawyer. You know again, same speech.
(34:03):
You know, it's my decisions isn't always based on individuals,
it's best on based on what's best for the team.
And he traded Drew and you know, a Lawyer to
Buffalo and Tom took over. But even before that, he
announced that Tom was going to be the quarterback. And
(34:23):
then when Tom got hurt, and Drew started against Pittsburgh,
was at the AFC champion. Came in, Yeah, and Drew
had a phenomenal game. Everybody's kind of like, okay, we're
going back. We're going to go back to Drew came
in the meeting, did the same thing. Time's are started
because the media, you guys, everybody starts going crazy. We
(34:45):
got a controversy, we got a quarterback dilemma. We got this,
we got that. It's like nope, And even Drew thought
that was it, like he got it. He had got
his job back. Like I know, you guys have talked
to Drew and yeah, you guys. Even Drew was like, Okay,
I did what I need to do. I played great.
We won.
Speaker 5 (35:06):
This is my dream.
Speaker 3 (35:07):
I'm gonna start in the super Bowl and I'm gonna
have an opportunity to win because when I had my
other opportunity, I didn't I didn't do what I needed
to do. So I'm gonna win this time. And then
again in the meeting, Bill makes the call, We're going
to time. We're going back to time. He's our quarterback
and that's the direction we're moving in. I don't want
(35:28):
anybody talking about it in the media. I'm doing what's
best for the team, and like I said, everybody might
not like it.
Speaker 5 (35:34):
The room just went the air just out of the room.
It was like, all right, let's go.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
That one to me didn't surprise me as much because
I thought that one was all about Tom's ankle. If
Tom was healthy, I felt, I felt like the way
he had played for you guys, he deserved And I
was a huge Drew guy, you know that. But the
first one did surprise me. I thought, when Drew was healthy,
he'd get a chance to win his job back. And
Bill basically said that's not going to happen.
Speaker 3 (36:02):
You don't pay a guy that much, right, and and
like not if you're paying a quarterback that much, how many.
Speaker 5 (36:08):
Lives does he have? Absolutely, he has a million lives,
no matter what.
Speaker 4 (36:13):
And it was bold.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
Yeah, there's a guy that Paul mentioned. You know a
lot of the roster turnover guys that came in, and
you know one one guy that came in that was
playing your position, playing the same side of the ball,
was Mike Crabel. What was your first impressions about him
when he came in?
Speaker 3 (36:31):
Willie big, physical, athletic, white guy that plays linebacker.
Speaker 5 (36:36):
That's good. That uh.
Speaker 3 (36:39):
Talks a lot of you know, his personality. You fit
right in. You fit right in. He was smart, you know,
very well super smart. And you know he had come
from a good system in Pittsburgh, so we know he
knew the game. And I think Bill changed it for
him because he's playing like d n right when he
(37:01):
was with Pittsburgh and for us again that prototype linebacker
Bill loves coming from that system. Mike six', five two
fifty whatever the. Case put him, outside stand him. Up he's,
fast he's, athletic he's, smart he can, drop he can
play in. Space they just fit everything we were doing
(37:21):
because at that time we were still our base was you,
know A tampa, two but we were still playing the
true thirty four defense where the linebackers, had you, know
a lot of. Responsibility you had to be a pass,
rusher you had to play the, run and you had
to be able to drop in coverage and understand coverages
in the passing. Concepts and he fit you, know he
fit That bill.
Speaker 4 (37:41):
Perfectly is he one of the few guys that could
give it back To. Belichick he can.
Speaker 5 (37:45):
Give back to.
Speaker 3 (37:46):
Anybody you, know he he's never at a loss for,
words you, Know, mike but it's all in this. Person
that's how he plays as. Well you know he's, aggressive you,
know he get after. You he's a, playmaker and it's
going to tell you about.
Speaker 2 (38:01):
It, yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:04):
We're gonna we're going to be respectful of your. Time
SO i want to jump ahead a little bit to
two thousand and, three And paul Mentioned i'm going to
Let paul ask this. Part but, first you, know before
we get to the, play how badly were you hurt
on that final drive In? Indianapolis In, INDIANAPOLIS i mean.
Speaker 5 (38:20):
You were really it was hurting. Injured so you.
Speaker 1 (38:23):
Were you were really hurt on that, play weren't?
Speaker 3 (38:26):
You? Right so here here's here's here's here's a little
something THAT i don't know if you know or may not.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Know that week of.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
Practice one of the things That belichick again talk about,
preparation we talked about on the defensive side That Peyton
manning liked to do is if there's a player injured
and you're trying to run off the field and you're
trying to run somebody on the, field he would snapped
the ball to get the. Penalty at the, time there
(38:56):
was no rule a TIME i root for, injuries, right
if you're, injured automatic time. Out the team doesn't get
charged or any of. That it's just an injury. Timeout
SO i Heard belichick during practice all the, time like
(39:19):
talking about. It if you're, hurt stay, down don't try
to crawl off or limp, off because the other guy's
gonna be. Coming you're not gonna get. Off this guy's
gonna snap the ball and it's going to be a. Penalty,
well that was an important. Drive they were driving down
to win the. Game you, know we're whooping them pretty
good the first, half and they had all the momentum
(39:40):
in the second. Half in this drive they were they
were marching, down kind of like a two minute. Situation
SO i went to make a move and my knee
got caught in the turf AND i went down AND
i GOT i tried to get, up AND i was
about to try to limp off like.
Speaker 5 (39:58):
And.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
BILL i Remember bill in my, EAR i can hear
him in, practice stay. Down WELL i stayed. Down we
were prepared for this. Situation clock, stops everything, stops injury
time out AND i come. Off IF i wasn't as,
HURT i would have came in the next. Play REMEMBER
i was, out, LIKE i didn't come back, IN i
(40:20):
think till fourth.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
DOWN i think you're, right, Right, yeah, Yeah, yeah that sounds.
Speaker 5 (40:25):
RIGHT i didn't come back in till fourth.
Speaker 3 (40:26):
Down IF i was like you, know IF i, was
if there was just SOMETHING i was, FAKING i would
have came right back. In there was no rule that
you couldn't come back in the next. PLAY i would
have came right back. In BUT i was out till fourth,
down TILL i was ready to.
Speaker 2 (40:39):
Go so what do you remember about the? PLAY i
would argue that that single play won you guys another
Super bowl because.
Speaker 1 (40:46):
It's a big. Statement AND i think he might be.
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Right AND i know you guys had all the confidence
in the world that you could have gone To indy and.
Speaker 5 (40:53):
Beaten we didn't want to go Back anore.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Exactly SO i think that singular play allows the playoff
game to be back In.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
Foxborough.
Speaker 3 (41:01):
YEAH i didn't know how big it was until we, did,
RIGHT i mean the way we finished what was fourteen and.
Two home field throughout home field was super important in those. Days,
yeah we got the home field, advantage you, know it
was we stop. Them we kind of duke you Know Peyton.
(41:23):
Maddie you know we kind of throw them off disguise
and threw them off on that. Play he checked into the.
Play you, know that was perfect for what we were.
IN i was disguising LIKE i was in. Coverage the
n man on the line in our defense never drops
in the. Coverage we're always. Rushing so just playing chess
with him and doing some of those. Things and great
penetration By Terror washington and the guys up, front AND
(41:47):
i come off and you, know funny, Enough rabels running
down to field with me with our.
Speaker 5 (41:53):
Hands up.
Speaker 3 (41:56):
The Image rabel's running down the field with me on that.
Play but how instrumental winning that game, was you, know
it was a total team. Effort but certain things stand,
out of course because that was the end of the
game and it meant a, lot but that that game
and winning that, game like you guys, said it put
(42:16):
us in position to have an opportunity to win that,
game to win A Super.
Speaker 2 (42:19):
Bowl all, right we want to wrap it up with
You willie. Here but you, know three three, Titles which
one was your? Favorite which one was the best team
that you played?
Speaker 5 (42:27):
On that's.
Speaker 3 (42:31):
TOUGH i would probably say we GOT i mean we
we we Added Rodney, Harrison we we added you, know
we had we added The Sante samuel like we we
we we.
Speaker 5 (42:48):
Got we got some good. Players, YEAH i don't.
Speaker 3 (42:54):
Know it's probably the. Last it's probably the, Fourteen probably
the old.
Speaker 2 (42:59):
FOUR i think the four had the best blend, offense
offense and. Defense you guys were always so good defensively that,
YEAR i.
Speaker 5 (43:07):
Would, say balance wise all the way. Around, yeah it.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Four it's, great thank you for coming.
Speaker 5 (43:13):
HERE i tell you.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
What it's great to see you on the sideline and
you Hugging. Rabel the connection between the past and the.
Present to, me that's what it's all aboulish it. Is
i'm very sentimental about stuff like. THAT i love. It
and WHEN i see you there and the reaction that
the two of you, have like great and, great that's
(43:34):
what it's all.
Speaker 3 (43:34):
About and, he's, uh he's taking all that in his
own way and he's filtering it through the team and
you can kind of see everybody's the. QUESTION i this
is remind you of the old one team where nobody
thought you guys would be where you were and you
just got guys just came out of. Nowhere but it
takes a coach like that that have that. EXPERIENCE i
(43:56):
know he wasn't, there but to have that experience and
understand and know and be on the team to build
it inside, out, guys having, fun but working, hard being,
accountable the, preparation believing in, hisself putting team over, individualism
and all the things that he's. Incorporating he was. With you,
(44:17):
know he played for some great coaches and he's implementing.
That but he's doing it rab, style verbal. Style So
i'm proud of. HIM i enjoyed watching. THEM i told
him that on the, sideline and hopefully this team can
just keep going in the right.
Speaker 1 (44:29):
Direction, wellie thanks for your.
Speaker 5 (44:31):
Time thank, you, GUYS i appreciate. It
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