Speaker 1: Time for another edition of Paths for the Past podcast
Speaker 1: Matt Smith alongside with Paul Perillo, and we were pleased
Speaker 1: to be joined by number fifty one on your scorecard,
Speaker 1: but number one in our hearts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm happy to be here.
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me, Thanks for being here, Gerard really
Speaker 1: appreciate it.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: We normally when there's an audience of Patriot fans and
Speaker 1: that's who's listening to this, and you get somebody like
Speaker 1: a Kevin Flock, people don't necessarily know what he's up
Speaker 1: to these days. I think most Patriot fans know what
Speaker 1: Garrod Mayo's up to these days. Do you like it?
Speaker 2: Oh? I love it? I love it. You know.
Speaker 3: I feel like my calling is just to develop people,
Speaker 3: and so whether we're talking about players, you know, to
Speaker 3: help them become someone that they never thought that could become,
Speaker 3: or an entrepreneur. I just like developing people. And that's
Speaker 3: I feel like I'm in my calling right now.
Speaker 4: Did you know that you were going to get into that?
Speaker 4: You know, even as a player.
Speaker 3: Man, let me say you, I always knew I wanted
Speaker 3: to be around the game to a certain extent. Uh,
Speaker 3: when I when I first retired coach actually asked me
Speaker 3: to ask me to coach, and I was like.
Speaker 2: Nope, I remember that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I said, I need a break, and so that
Speaker 3: break was good and that's when I went and worked
Speaker 3: in business for a few years. I worked that Optum
Speaker 3: for three years, which is a great experience. I'm always
Speaker 3: looking for opportunities to be uncomfortable. Uh, you're never comfortable
Speaker 3: in this building. And so, uh, it kind of called
Speaker 3: me back, and you know, Bill called me. He actually
Speaker 3: he actually convinced my wife first, uh, to get me
Speaker 3: back into coach, well, to get me into coaching initially,
Speaker 3: and then my wife and Bill kind of put the
Speaker 3: pressure on me.
Speaker 4: Something about that position. The linebacker's matt right. You know,
Speaker 4: Mike Vrabel always talked about being a coach, wanting to
Speaker 4: be a coach. I know Teddy Bruski has talked about it.
Speaker 4: He's you know, uh, toys around a little bit with
Speaker 4: the high school level. What is it about the position?
Speaker 4: It's it's so you guys are smarter than everybody, you.
Speaker 2: Know what I think.
Speaker 3: So honestly, you know, obviously on the offensive side, you
Speaker 3: can say the quarterback or center, but you know, when
Speaker 3: you think about the linebacker position, you know, they have
Speaker 3: to tie everyone together, they have to tie the back
Speaker 3: end to the front end. And we've been fortunate enough,
Speaker 3: you know, around here in New England to have you know,
Speaker 3: great linebackers. You know before me you mentioned a few,
Speaker 3: you know, Teddy Brusky, Mike Vrabel. Those guys did a
Speaker 3: great job passing the torch off to me. And I
Speaker 3: feel like I did a good job passing the torch
Speaker 3: off to a guy like Dante Hi Tower who you know,
Speaker 3: they've they've kept, you know, kept the tradition going.
Speaker 1: So, you know, I think when we talked to a
Speaker 1: lot of people who played in your era, Gerrod and say, hey,
Speaker 1: I have any interest in being a coach and everything,
Speaker 1: Hell no, they can't tell me. You've got a young family.
Speaker 1: You're certainly was much younger when you started than it
Speaker 1: is now. It's a grind, man, that had to be
Speaker 1: part of you know, if you're not all in, how
Speaker 1: could you do this? That had to be at least
Speaker 1: a significant point of your decision making.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, you know, I wouldn't I wouldn't coach if I
Speaker 3: didn't feel like I had the support of my wife
Speaker 3: and kids. And so it is a grind and you know,
Speaker 3: and saying that though I would say my family they.
Speaker 2: Enjoyed the process.
Speaker 3: They enjoy you know, coming out to training camp, they
Speaker 3: enjoy going to the games, and they understand I'm doing it,
Speaker 3: you know, with a with a larger goal in mine.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: With that being said, there's there's nothing else that really
Speaker 3: gets my blood pressure up then going out, you know,
Speaker 3: in a good way, is to go out in the field,
Speaker 3: you know, in the practice field and just getting guys better.
Speaker 3: So that's why I do it. My family supports me
Speaker 3: one hundred percent, and you know, I have a good
Speaker 3: time doing it.
Speaker 4: And you talked about, you know, Bruce Ki and Rabel
Speaker 4: sort of laying the groundwork for you, And I'm just curious,
Speaker 4: you know, Matt and I were talking before we started
Speaker 4: just how quickly you became one of those guys like it.
Speaker 4: It didn't seem like there was any transition at all
Speaker 4: for a rookie. And you were kind of like, you know,
Speaker 4: girod Belichick right away, like how did that happen so fast?
Speaker 1: I remember Brady said, you know, oh you mean Gerard Belichick, Like,
Speaker 1: oh you mean Belichick?
Speaker 2: Kevin fuck Belichick.
Speaker 3: That year, you know, honestly, it just comes down to
Speaker 3: I think Bill enjoys the company of people who enjoy
Speaker 3: football and not really what football.
Speaker 2: Has to offer.
Speaker 3: You know, obviously a lot of the players, they get
Speaker 3: paid a lot of money. You know, they can get
Speaker 3: in front of the you know, in front of the
Speaker 3: line at the clubs early. But if you love football,
Speaker 3: if you love just to study the game, whether it's offense,
Speaker 3: defense or special teams, then you have a good relationship
Speaker 3: with Bill and you know all of those guys. Honestly,
Speaker 3: when I came in, I just wanted to be a
Speaker 3: sponge and learned as much as possible. The year prior
Speaker 3: they won every game but won the Super Bowl, And
Speaker 3: so I wasn't coming into an organization, even though it
Speaker 3: was a top ten pick, I wasn't coming into an
Speaker 3: organization where, you know, there is a whole overhaul of
Speaker 3: the team. We had a bunch of leaders on that team.
Speaker 3: You know, Rodney was on that team, Randy Malls, Tom
Speaker 3: Brady Vrabel, Vince Wilford, Tye warn although Richard Seymour. I mean,
Speaker 3: that team was loaded. And so for me to come
Speaker 3: in it was more like, all right, let me just
Speaker 3: learn from everyone else and not say anything unless.
Speaker 2: I have to.
Speaker 3: But I I will say this, The reason I would
Speaker 3: say I gained the respect of the players is because
Speaker 3: I would go in there when Bill was on the
Speaker 3: computer and ask them, hey, man, the guys are tired.
Speaker 3: You know, we don't want to be in pads today.
Speaker 3: And you know, rookie in this year, no one really
Speaker 3: wanted to go in there, right because, I mean, Bill's
Speaker 3: a tough guy. And so for me, my mom, I
Speaker 3: was always raised you know, if the worst thing someone
Speaker 3: could say to me is no, then go ask. And
Speaker 3: so I would go in there and I would say,
Speaker 3: you know, I always joked around. I was batting three
Speaker 3: hundred at the time. I'm bating, you know, two fifty
Speaker 3: four hundred at a time. Because I would go in there
Speaker 3: and sometimes, you know, the request would be granted, and
Speaker 3: then other times he'd be like, hey, get out of here.
Speaker 3: But when I would go back in the locker room
Speaker 3: and tell guys, you know, we're not in pads today,
Speaker 3: it was like a celebration and like literally like picking
Speaker 3: me up on their shoulders. It's like this guy went
Speaker 3: into the fire, went to the dragons the dragons layer
Speaker 3: and asked for something and got it. And so That's
Speaker 3: how the nickname, you know, Derwi Belichick and all those
Speaker 3: things started to come up. But I think the guys
Speaker 3: really realized that I cared more about them than myself,
Speaker 3: than my ego or anything like that. Like I didn't
Speaker 3: care about getting cussed out. Even to this day, you know,
Speaker 3: I get cussed out. It's like, all right, whatever.
Speaker 1: Do you think that you gained a little respect maybe
Speaker 1: from Bill? Like who's this rookie that time asking me,
Speaker 1: you know, can we not practice in pads this afternoon?
Speaker 1: Like that's that's Rabel's job, that's bruised, this rookie's coming
Speaker 1: in and doing it. Did you gain a little respect?
Speaker 2: I think so?
Speaker 3: I think so, And I would say even now to
Speaker 3: this day, I feel like, you know, I tell Bill
Speaker 3: I still call him coach, but for the purposes of this,
Speaker 3: you know, I tell Bill what it is, like, this
Speaker 3: is what it is. I don't sit there and agree
Speaker 3: with everything he has to say. He doesn't agree with
Speaker 3: everything I have to say. There's a mutual respect there where,
Speaker 3: you know, I see things a little bit different. And
Speaker 3: when we talk about diversity, not trying to segue or
Speaker 3: jump ahead, but when we talk about diversity, most of
Speaker 3: the time, people only talk about you know, black and white,
Speaker 3: or they talk about skin color, but there's also, you know,
Speaker 3: diversity of thought. There's also generational diversity, and I think
Speaker 3: those things oftentimes get missed when people really talk about diversity.
Speaker 3: I think Bill's done a good job getting guys around
Speaker 3: him that can relate more to the players, because now,
Speaker 3: you know, he's not getting any younger, he's getting older.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, we're carrying the flag and
Speaker 3: carrying all the things that he's instilled in us as
Speaker 3: coaches and me as a player prior. But you know,
Speaker 3: we're trying to disseminate that message to the rest of
Speaker 3: the guys.
Speaker 4: You know, you brought up you know, your draft and
Speaker 4: where as we're recording this, it's draft weekend. Just any
Speaker 4: thoughts or memories of what draft night was like for you?
Speaker 3: Yeah, Draft night? Yeah, Draft night for me was it
Speaker 3: was great. You know, I didn't go to the draft.
Speaker 3: I wasn't even invited back then, they only invited like
Speaker 3: the top you know, three or four. I wouldn't have
Speaker 3: gone anyway. I'm more of a I want to be
Speaker 3: around my family with things like that, and so I
Speaker 3: was in Virginia with my mom and my grandparents, to
Speaker 3: my brothers, my uncle, you know, and we were out there.
Speaker 3: I was raking leaves with my mom. I was raking
Speaker 3: leaves outside, and so my brothers, you know, when we
Speaker 3: get together, we rarely get together, but when we all
Speaker 3: get together, we like to have a drink or two.
Speaker 3: And so one of my brothers he was like, all right,
Speaker 3: we're gonna do a shot every pick that goes by
Speaker 3: that you're not picked.
Speaker 2: And so I was.
Speaker 3: Like, whoa, Yeah, I know if I would have went twentieth,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be here today. And so and that's why
Speaker 3: I don't drink Patron to this day now, because we
Speaker 3: were drinking Patron and I was the tenth overall pick.
Speaker 3: So you do the math. You know, it's a good time.
Speaker 3: Though it was a celebration. You know, there are a
Speaker 3: lot of tears because honestly, you know, these are things
Speaker 3: you think about when you're a five year you know,
Speaker 3: five six year old kid, Like, especially where I'm from,
Speaker 3: you know, you don't really see too many people just
Speaker 3: get out of there. And even though in Virginia we
Speaker 3: have a lot of professional athletes, but you know, per
Speaker 3: capita at the same time, you know, it's tough and
Speaker 3: like there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears go
Speaker 3: into it, you know, to any dream. And then when
Speaker 3: you're finally able to realize that dream, it's it's a
Speaker 3: very special moment. The hard part after that is resetting it. Right,
Speaker 3: So now you get you know, you accomplish your goal.
Speaker 3: You accomplish your dream. Now you got to move the flags, dick, right,
Speaker 3: we got to move it again. Now what's the next dream?
Speaker 3: And so that's kind of how I think about it.
Speaker 1: Did you have any inkling that the Patriots were interested
Speaker 1: in you?
Speaker 3: I had a little inkling because so funny story, I
Speaker 3: wasn't even coming here on a thirty visit initially, and
Speaker 3: I was on my way to another team. I won't
Speaker 3: say the name of the team, but it's a huge rival.
Speaker 3: They wear green. But I was on the way. I
Speaker 3: was on the way with me and rhymes with Mets.
Speaker 3: I was on the way out there, and the Patriots
Speaker 3: called and said, hey, you know, can he swing through
Speaker 3: here before he you know, just real quick before he
Speaker 3: goes to New York. And I ended up coming here
Speaker 3: spending a lot of time with Matt, Patricia and Dean
Speaker 3: P's at the time. And then I was gone and
Speaker 3: it was just that quick, you know, it was that quick.
Speaker 3: And I went to New York and the rest was history.
Speaker 3: That was the only thing, because when I went at
Speaker 3: the Combine, this was the weirdest, weirdest Combine interview for
Speaker 3: me that I had. I had a lot of them
Speaker 3: as well, coming out as an underclassman. But I went
Speaker 3: in the room and you know, everyone's in there. Bill
Speaker 3: wasn't in there, I don't believe, but no one said anything.
Speaker 3: So I go in the room. You remember how you
Speaker 3: know the interview process works at the Combine.
Speaker 1: Well, I've heard a little bit about it, Like you know,
Speaker 1: there's a bloat horn that coach off in the hallway
Speaker 1: to mad Dash with everybody that's going to everybody's room, right,
Speaker 1: And you get in there and there's a clock.
Speaker 3: You're on the clock, the clock that's right. And so
Speaker 3: I go. I go into the Patriots. So you know,
Speaker 3: this is right before, this is right after the Giants
Speaker 3: just won the Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: So I go.
Speaker 3: I visit with the Giants. They're having a party because
Speaker 3: they knew they weren't supposed to win that game either, right,
Speaker 3: So like I go in their room and everyone's like
Speaker 3: dancing like a ha ha ha ha, a whole bunch
Speaker 3: of laughing and things like that. And then I go
Speaker 3: to the Patriots room and it's like stone cold, like silence.
Speaker 2: For two minutes.
Speaker 3: Now, if you ever, if you ever, just like set
Speaker 3: your clock to two minutes and don't say a word.
Speaker 3: It is a long time.
Speaker 2: It's uncomfortable.
Speaker 3: Or do a plank. Do a plank for two minutes.
Speaker 3: It is a very long time. Yeah, And no one,
Speaker 3: like you said, we're on the clock. So I'm sitting
Speaker 3: there like I just introduced myself and then no one
Speaker 3: asked me any questions, and so I'm like, all right,
Speaker 3: this is kind of weird. And then finally we got
Speaker 3: into football. But I didn't know if they were trying
Speaker 3: to figure out, like, you know, what I was thinking,
Speaker 3: or you know, see how I dealt with uncomfortable situations.
Speaker 3: But that I mean, I really didn't have like, all right,
Speaker 3: the Patriots are really looking at me. I thought I
Speaker 3: was going to go to Denver Detroit, you know, teams
Speaker 3: like that.
Speaker 4: So and they originally had the seventh pick. Yep, they
Speaker 4: traded down to ten. That's right, did that you know,
Speaker 4: sort of put them more on the radar for you
Speaker 4: or you still.
Speaker 3: Really still still had still wasn't thinking Patriots. You know,
Speaker 3: it's crazy, you know they trade back and still have
Speaker 3: a top ten pick, but at the same time, still
Speaker 3: didn't really think about them. I thought I was gonna
Speaker 3: go at twelve to Denver, and then Detroit had fifteen,
Speaker 3: So okay, so we're gonna look at.
Speaker 4: This now, Matt. So I had a twelve at Denver.
Speaker 4: The reason twelve Denver was twelve. Twelve for Denver was
Speaker 4: pretty good, Ryan Clay, he had a really good career.
Speaker 3: But if you go up that list though, all right,
Speaker 3: let me let me do it, all right.
Speaker 4: This is why I wanted to do this, because I
Speaker 4: wanted to see how in tune you were.
Speaker 2: I was. I was.
Speaker 3: I was pissed because I can say that. Of course,
Speaker 3: I was kind of pissed because Vernon Golston went at
Speaker 3: six to the gym.
Speaker 4: Okay, before you continue, I'm going to have to make
Speaker 4: an admission. I was a big Vernon Goldston guy in
Speaker 4: that drafted man. Was I wrong? Well, not the first time,
Speaker 4: it won't be the last.
Speaker 2: He absolutely looked the part.
Speaker 4: As he was couldn't play.
Speaker 3: He looked upon like they did everything they had, like
Speaker 3: Lawrence Taylor working with him at one points, like he
Speaker 3: went six, and then Keith Rivers went at nine nine. Yeah,
Speaker 3: and so like when those two guys went, I was
Speaker 3: just like, man, you know, no, no shot to those guys.
Speaker 3: I just at that time, I had a little bit
Speaker 3: of confidence in my game. And I love football. I
Speaker 3: love studying guys. And you know, is what it is.
Speaker 3: It all worked out.
Speaker 1: Do you walk? Did you follow the mark at that time?
Speaker 1: Like yeah, and everything going, hey, yes, we're hearing, we
Speaker 1: think you're going in the top ten.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: The funny thing is the only person to get it
Speaker 3: right was was Charlie Castley, Like the day before the draft,
Speaker 3: Bill's favorite Charlie Hey, he was the only one that
Speaker 3: got it right. Though Charlie Castlely got it right like
Speaker 3: me going to the Patriots.
Speaker 2: He had it at seven. And ye.
Speaker 4: This is it's a strange first round this two thousand
Speaker 4: and eight year, because I think there are a lot
Speaker 4: of good players like you and Matt. I mentioned Clady,
Speaker 4: Matt Ryan, Joe Flacco. This this good Keith to leave
Speaker 4: is part of this first round. And then there's some
Speaker 4: real busts. It's like no in between, there's no like, oh,
Speaker 4: but he was okay.
Speaker 1: Like both Goldstein because of the team.
Speaker 4: Like Glenn Dorsey, Vernon Goldston, if you mentioned Keith Rivers,
Speaker 4: you know this Brandon Albert wasn't wasn't great.
Speaker 2: It was okay.
Speaker 4: For Shad Mendenhall Pittsburgh. There's a lot of like guys
Speaker 4: that these are first round picks, but you know there
Speaker 4: is some good talent here to Dwayne Brown.
Speaker 3: Dwayne Right, Virginia Tech. And I would say there's a
Speaker 3: gold jacket in there though. And Matthew Slater, I'm putting
Speaker 3: it all.
Speaker 4: Well, now we're going down to the fifth round. He
Speaker 4: did write that down. But another guy still playing, still
Speaker 4: going playing, And how long you've been to coach now.
Speaker 3: Man, I'm going into my fourth year, so still going.
Speaker 3: And honestly, you know, I see Slaton there every single day.
Speaker 3: And like you talk about a guy who takes you know,
Speaker 3: takes care of his body, loves the game of football,
Speaker 3: loves actually loves special teams, not like these other guys
Speaker 3: who you know, they go on their visits and they're.
Speaker 2: Like, oh, I love special teams.
Speaker 3: Then you ask them like how many, I mean, how
Speaker 3: many snaps of special teams you have last year It's like,
Speaker 3: you know, coach didn't really want me on special teams.
Speaker 2: But when you think about a.
Speaker 3: Guy like Slater, a guy who who's really been the
Speaker 3: glue for a long time around here, like I feel
Speaker 3: like I was the bridge between like I only have
Speaker 3: one super Bowl. Like I'm not complaining I have won
Speaker 3: Super Bowl, but the bridge between that next generation. You know,
Speaker 3: I was the bridge between you know, myself and in
Speaker 3: high tower of that whole world when they won. Slate's
Speaker 3: been through through you know, through it since two thousand
Speaker 3: and eight and he's still going. So when you really
Speaker 3: think about that, he's the glue and I was just
Speaker 3: the bridge to go over there. But you know, he's
Speaker 3: he's a Hall of Famer, in my opinion, a guy
Speaker 3: you know, he doesn't go out there and play, you know,
Speaker 3: thirty snaps a game, but at the same time he
Speaker 3: makes a huge impact on the game.
Speaker 1: I would just want to follow up on that about Slater,
Speaker 1: and I think I think I've heard RKK at least
Speaker 1: talk a little bit about this. In an organization with
Speaker 1: so many great players like Teddy Bruski, really only he
Speaker 1: only played for the Patriots, but as Bill said when
Speaker 1: he retired, the perfect Patriot guys like Troy Brown, Hall
Speaker 1: of Famer's Richard Seymour, maybe the greatest ever play the
Speaker 1: game in Tom Brady. Is here a better representative of
Speaker 1: what the Patriots STANMD for than Matthew Slater?
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I mean, I think that's a
Speaker 2: that's a great point. You know.
Speaker 3: He he embodies everything you want, not only as a
Speaker 3: player on the field, but also off the field, giving
Speaker 3: back to the community, also really caring about the guys
Speaker 3: not as football players but as men and trying to
Speaker 3: mentor the next generation. And who knows when his last
Speaker 3: snap will be, you know, hopefully continues to play just
Speaker 3: like Tom is doing. But you talk about a guy
Speaker 3: who's just an all around great, you know, great man,
Speaker 3: man of God and just a guy that I have
Speaker 3: no problem following, it's Matt Slayter.
Speaker 1: Does he make you and I don't mean necessarily you girodmeo,
Speaker 1: But does he make the coaching staff's job a little
Speaker 1: bit easier knowing that you can lean on, Hey Slate,
Speaker 1: get this guy straight? You know, Yeah, I don't have
Speaker 1: I don't have time to do it or however that goes.
Speaker 1: But you know you can rely on him to help
Speaker 1: keep that to make the messaging what it needs to be.
Speaker 3: Absolutely and I would say, you know that that's also
Speaker 3: done by committee, right, And so you also have a
Speaker 3: Devin mccorty, you know, Devin McCarty of the world, who's
Speaker 3: also able to do those things and slate on the
Speaker 3: and then on the offensive side of the ball, you're
Speaker 3: gonna have some guys emerge here, right, some guys emerge.
Speaker 3: As far as you know, we don't usually talk a
Speaker 3: lot about leadership, but at the same time, you hope
Speaker 3: it happens organically and that guys will follow a particular individual.
Speaker 3: Most of the time that happens to be, you know,
Speaker 3: a linebacker or a quarterback. At the same time, it
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be. And so you know, when I
Speaker 3: think about leadership, you know, sometimes people get slapped with
Speaker 3: the title of leader but really don't deserve it, or
Speaker 3: people don't want to follow him. And coaching as well,
Speaker 3: So you think about coaching, it's like, all right, if
Speaker 3: this guy's a coordinator, he's a good leader. That's not
Speaker 3: necessarily true. Or if this guy's a head coach is
Speaker 3: a good leader. That's not necessarily true, and so like
Speaker 3: to go you know, to go into it with that assumption,
Speaker 3: I think is crazy. At the same time, having a
Speaker 3: guy like, you know, bringing this back full circle, having
Speaker 3: a guy like you know, Matt Slater and Devin mccordy
Speaker 3: and those leaders like that, I mean they're second to nine.
Speaker 4: So when you think back to that rookie year, you
Speaker 4: head into O eight, you and Matthew and you know,
Speaker 4: but first drive of the season, ten minutes into the season,
Speaker 4: you know, Tom goes down. What would do you remember
Speaker 4: sort of what was going through your mind to like,
Speaker 4: this is supposed to be this is the guy that
Speaker 4: went to all these Super Bowls, you.
Speaker 3: Know what, you know, personally speaking, you know, it hurt
Speaker 3: me a little bit and I was just like, oh no,
Speaker 3: you know, the season's over. But once again, that team
Speaker 3: was so strong that the guys were like, doesn't matter,
Speaker 3: next play and we ended up winning eleven games that year,
Speaker 3: you know, with Matt Castle at the helm. But we
Speaker 3: had a bunch of good players. And that's where I
Speaker 3: really learned that next man up mentality because people talk
Speaker 3: about next man up, but we kind of live it.
Speaker 2: Here.
Speaker 3: We live the whole, you know, whether it's a coach,
Speaker 3: whether it's a player, like next man up, be ready
Speaker 3: to go. And you know, I try to prepare the
Speaker 3: guys like that, Like it doesn't matter. I coach everyone.
Speaker 3: You know, I don't want to say I coach everyone
Speaker 3: the same. You know, I stole this quote, but I
Speaker 3: treat everyone fairly. I don't treat everyone the same, like
Speaker 3: I don't. I don't have to tell high Tower like yo.
Speaker 2: Move over right here.
Speaker 3: But there are some younger players who are like, hey,
Speaker 3: you got to move over and get into space.
Speaker 2: But you earned that. You earn that. And uh.
Speaker 3: But going back to that team, man, that team was loaded.
Speaker 3: You think about the guys who came off the bench
Speaker 3: on that team, you know, the Jarvis Greens of the world,
Speaker 3: even the Mic Wrights of the world, guys who had
Speaker 3: these these roles that they'll never you'll never hear about
Speaker 3: them as far as you know, the impact that they
Speaker 3: had on the game. But when you think about just this,
Speaker 3: think about the defensive defensive front. All right, Ty Warren
Speaker 3: never made a Pro Bowl, right, but unbelievable defensive end,
Speaker 3: no question. Vince Wilford, young, Vince Wilford unbelievable talent always,
Speaker 3: you know, doubled on every single play, Richard Seymour at
Speaker 3: defensive end, the backers, myself and Bruski and then Vrabel
Speaker 3: and then Dallas Thomas like that that front alone. Then
Speaker 3: in the back end you had you know, Brandon Merriweather,
Speaker 3: Rodney Harrison and those guys. But that team, and that's
Speaker 3: only the defensive side of the ball, the offensive side
Speaker 3: of the ball as well. It's just crazy, right, And
Speaker 3: so you know, I look back on that team and
Speaker 3: I'm just like wow. And then I look at the
Speaker 3: twenty nineteen defense, where we had a very good defense
Speaker 3: that year as well, And I always think about the
Speaker 3: differences between those two defenses, and even though they both
Speaker 3: were very good, they you know, did a lot of
Speaker 3: good things. In twenty nineteen, we had a very good defense.
Speaker 3: You know, the Boogeyman were going and you know, we
Speaker 3: made a bunch of plays. But then I look at
Speaker 3: the front. You know, everyone's like, how were you Rookie
Speaker 3: of the Year in two thousand and eight? It had
Speaker 3: nothing to do with me. They had everything to do
Speaker 3: with No one knew who I was, right, They just
Speaker 3: knew I was a top ten pick and we have
Speaker 3: all these beasts around them, right, And so I was
Speaker 3: able to go out there and really just free flow.
Speaker 1: You know what I remember about that twenty eighteen, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure you've heard it is Belchick's busting your balls
Speaker 1: and San Jose during warm ups and he's asking you
Speaker 1: why you have two trucks, right, right?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: And Mass is sitting there going first round money, first
Speaker 1: round money, right, And I just remember going, wow, like,
Speaker 1: here's Bill busting your balls as a rookie and everything
Speaker 1: like that. That to me really sort of said, you
Speaker 1: know that you were in a different relationship at that point,
Speaker 1: and you were probably I don't know, twelve games in
Speaker 1: or something like that in San Jose between playing I
Speaker 1: think it was between the Seattle and the Raiders West
Speaker 1: Coast trips out there.
Speaker 3: Yep, and we had Sanford, we had two West Coast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 1: But I remember that and going that's pretty interesting that
Speaker 1: that here's this legendary head coach and he's busting this
Speaker 1: rookie walls.
Speaker 4: And but you it was.
Speaker 2: It was normal, no doubt.
Speaker 3: And I would say the thing about Bill, you know,
Speaker 3: an interesting thing out there. I got benched going against
Speaker 3: san Fran on third down, because he put me in
Speaker 3: a position like I'm out there on third down and
Speaker 3: I was messing up some calls. He's like, you know,
Speaker 3: forget it, you're not even playing on third down. But
Speaker 3: I didn't look at that as like a slap in
Speaker 3: the face. Obviously, when you get benched it hurts at
Speaker 3: the time, but that benching really made me into the
Speaker 3: player that I was, because it was like, well, I'm
Speaker 3: not as good as I really think I am. And
Speaker 3: so like the way he's able to get the most
Speaker 3: out of players, the way he's able to, uh, you know,
Speaker 3: pull a lever here and there to get a guy
Speaker 3: to respond. Everyone's everyone's different as far as what makes
Speaker 3: him tick. Right, So some people, you know, intrinsic versus
Speaker 3: extrinsic motivators. Right, So extrinsic being like the money and
Speaker 3: all that stuff, you know, a pat on the back.
Speaker 3: The intrinsic motivator is like, I'm just disappointed in myself,
Speaker 3: like you know, getting a getting we call him at
Speaker 3: a boys. Getting an at a boy from Bill was
Speaker 3: like it was a huge because he didn't just patch
Speaker 3: you on your back for doing your job. And we
Speaker 3: always talk about doing your job. If you're just out
Speaker 3: there doing your job and you make the tackle, make
Speaker 3: it sack, you're doing your job. He's not patting you
Speaker 3: on your back. It's expected. And so like it's just different.
Speaker 3: And we've had we've had vets come to this team,
Speaker 3: and you know, multiple vets come to me and like, man,
Speaker 3: you know, I'm out here making plays and Bill's not
Speaker 3: saying anything to me. I'm like, bro, just pump your brakes.
Speaker 3: That's not how you know, That's not how it operates here.
Speaker 3: And so now when I look at the generation coming in,
Speaker 3: it's almost like, wow, all these kids get pats on
Speaker 3: the back the entire time, and so when they come in,
Speaker 3: that's how they grow up. Right, So whether it's you know,
Speaker 3: AAU and then college and especially with the transfer portal,
Speaker 3: now kids can just like bounce around. They're not playing
Speaker 3: bounce around, and really that's like I don't think that's
Speaker 3: you know, when I talk to my kids, I don't
Speaker 3: want them to run away or shy away from adversity, right,
Speaker 3: Like that can't be your first option.
Speaker 2: Like I'm leaving, and I know.
Speaker 3: Everyone has their own reasons and doing things like that,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, you only grow through pain,
Speaker 3: And so when I talk about that, I'm not talking
Speaker 3: about just physical pain. I'm talking about emotional and mental
Speaker 3: pain as well. That's how you get stronger and build
Speaker 3: the mental dexterity. That's how you get You know, your
Speaker 3: muscles don't grow unless they're sore the next morning, right
Speaker 3: if you go and work out. If you go and
Speaker 3: work out, if your biceps aren't sore the next morning,
Speaker 3: you didn't do enough. The same thing with your mind, right,
Speaker 3: Like if you come in there, if you haven't really
Speaker 3: pushed yourself or put yourself in an uncomfortable situation like
Speaker 3: every single day, Like, how can you expect to grow?
Speaker 3: It's just not going to happen if you're just sitting
Speaker 3: there doing the same thing over and over and over again.
Speaker 3: Like I mean, it's that's why I always talking about
Speaker 3: like imposter syndrome, always feeling like you're not good enough,
Speaker 3: because that's what really that's what really gets me going,
Speaker 3: and hopefully it gets the guys going where you always
Speaker 3: feel like you're not good enough and so I have
Speaker 3: to do more, I have to do extra.
Speaker 4: I love the Atta boy stuff. I remember Bill at
Speaker 4: a press conference. It was one hundred years ago. I
Speaker 4: don't remember when, what year, but yeah, we're not really
Speaker 4: big on positive. It's like one of those someone had
Speaker 4: asked him, you know, a question about that would maybe
Speaker 4: it was from a player. Yeah, maybe that's what sparked
Speaker 4: the reporter to ask the question. Yeah, we're not we're
Speaker 4: not really big on that around yet. And that that
Speaker 4: falls right in line with what you're talking about the
Speaker 4: three down. You know, you talked about sort of losing
Speaker 4: some time on third down. How is that role changed
Speaker 4: or is it changing with linebackers. Do you see as
Speaker 4: many guys that can play on three downs or less
Speaker 4: guys coming out of college?
Speaker 1: And do you expect it as one who did like
Speaker 1: like I did it, Why can't you you know?
Speaker 2: You know what I mean?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think I think there's still players out there
Speaker 3: that have the ability to play on third down, you know.
Speaker 3: And saying that, I would say a lot of these
Speaker 3: kids coming out of college just aren't being taught like
Speaker 3: some like the some things that we consider base sation
Speaker 3: at the professional level. No shot to the kids or
Speaker 3: the programs around around the country, it's just that are
Speaker 3: not being taught now. As far as you know, the
Speaker 3: game is obviously started to expand horizontally, right, so now
Speaker 3: it's like spread more spread, especially in the college ranks,
Speaker 3: and some of that stuff starting to leak over into
Speaker 3: the NFL. So I look at it as this, if
Speaker 3: a guy can run, all right, if a guy can
Speaker 3: run and stop, because that's another important thing, right, If
Speaker 3: you can't stop, that's a problem, then I'll work with you.
Speaker 3: And you have the ability to do it. Now, if
Speaker 3: you have the want to and the ability, we got
Speaker 3: to go out there and actually, you know, sharpen our
Speaker 3: sword each and every day. But going back to your point,
Speaker 3: I think there are two different buckets. Like if you
Speaker 3: play linebacker on third down, either you can cover someone
Speaker 3: or you can rush. I'll uh, you know, Dante Hi
Speaker 3: Tower playing you know, in that buck role as a floater, right,
Speaker 3: just floating around as that fourth fourth lineman. And and
Speaker 3: so I think this year though, I think, you know,
Speaker 3: just thinking about the guys that we have in the room,
Speaker 3: we have some guys that can rush and cover. And
Speaker 3: so we had you know, some guys that you know,
Speaker 3: past nation, they haven't even heard of problems, right, and
Speaker 3: so that's right, and so that and that to me
Speaker 3: is the exciting part. That is the exciting part, the unknown,
Speaker 3: and we're gonna go into it as a unit. We're
Speaker 3: gonna going into it together. And I would say, you know,
Speaker 3: even right now, not having some of those older guys
Speaker 3: in the room, it's beneficial for the younger guys because
Speaker 3: the older guys will be bored out of their minds
Speaker 3: with some of the things we're talking about. At the
Speaker 3: same time, it's forcing the younger guys to really take
Speaker 3: that step forward and really grow and develop without being
Speaker 3: hindered by any other uh, any other guys experience.
Speaker 1: When you became an older guy, Were you ever bored
Speaker 1: in the room?
Speaker 4: Oh?
Speaker 2: Absolutely, because it's human nature.
Speaker 1: But I guess I would never I wouldn't have guessed
Speaker 1: that that maybe you did a good job faking it.
Speaker 2: No, No, I would say this.
Speaker 3: I became more involved in the game planning, and I
Speaker 3: became more involved in what was actually happening on the
Speaker 3: field as a player. And so, you know, whether it
Speaker 3: was Matty p or you know, Pat Graham or whoever,
Speaker 3: it was like, we would have conversations, one on one conversation,
Speaker 3: so I didn't get bored, and so we exactly I
Speaker 3: got it in different places. Now, I was never disrespectful
Speaker 3: in the meetings or anything. I've fallen asleep or anything
Speaker 3: like that in the meetings. At the same time, like
Speaker 3: I want to get into the nitty gritty. I want
Speaker 3: to know the why. And so when a player is like, oh,
Speaker 3: you know, when I got into coaching, you know, people
Speaker 3: were like, you know, this guy, it was always a negative.
Speaker 3: This guy asked so many questions, and I'm like, no,
Speaker 3: that's a good thing. I want these guys to understand
Speaker 3: the why, why we're doing it, Why I want you
Speaker 3: to do it this way. Now, I always tell him,
Speaker 3: you know sports and in sports, and I would say
Speaker 3: football in particular is a very iterative sport, like you
Speaker 3: have to go out there and try things. And so
Speaker 3: I'm not saying to go out in the game and
Speaker 3: try things, but during this time during the spring, during
Speaker 3: training camp, like this is how I want you to
Speaker 3: do it. But if you're hard headed and want to
Speaker 3: try it that way, go out there and try and
Speaker 3: see what happens. Now, you can make a play here
Speaker 3: and there, but at the end of the day, like
Speaker 3: we're trying to make as many plays as possible and
Speaker 3: hopefully we come to some common ground. I'm not a
Speaker 3: guy who's stuck in my ways. I'm not static. I'm
Speaker 3: always looking for ways to grow. Even when I'm talking
Speaker 3: to these college kids, like virtually, I'm like, so, what
Speaker 3: did you guys call this?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to listen to these guys and try to
Speaker 3: pick up a few nuggets as well, because I'm not
Speaker 3: sitting here saying like I have all the answers. I
Speaker 3: know I don't or that even Bill has all the answers,
Speaker 3: and I think he knows he doesn't have all the answers,
Speaker 3: which is a good thing. And I think just learning from,
Speaker 3: you know, other people outside this building is always beneficial.
Speaker 2: So you go.
Speaker 4: Ahead just getting to that, you know, not being set
Speaker 4: in your ways. You talked about maybe some of the
Speaker 4: changes in the game, you know, more horizontally spreading out.
Speaker 4: Have you seen a difference in the linebackers themselves? The linebackers.
Speaker 4: There's a lot of talk about the Georgia kids, and
Speaker 4: I'm not putting you on the spot boat. You know
Speaker 4: what the draft is going to unfold over the weekend.
Speaker 4: But you never would have thought of a two hundred
Speaker 4: and twenty five and thirty pound guy being able to
Speaker 4: play in the inside in the NFL.
Speaker 1: You'd have laughed at that when.
Speaker 4: You were coming out, right, do you see that change?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 4: Is it something that is happening or is it something
Speaker 4: that is just a fact?
Speaker 3: I think you're spot on. I think you're spot on.
Speaker 3: I think where people get in trouble, I think good teams.
Speaker 3: I also use the Titans as an example, like that's
Speaker 3: almost a contrarian way of playing offense in today's world
Speaker 3: by having the fullback in there by having a big
Speaker 3: running back, and so it's all good to have small
Speaker 3: backers that can run and do all this stuff. When
Speaker 3: you're playing against spread offices. It's like, all right, now,
Speaker 3: what happens when it's January in Buffalo or January and
Speaker 3: you know wherever, and they're going to run the ball
Speaker 3: fifty times with a twohundred and fifty pound running back,
Speaker 3: Like you have to have some answer to that. So
Speaker 3: I think that you know the answer is to have
Speaker 3: a combination of know, bigger guys and also small guys
Speaker 3: that can run. And you know, we say it all
Speaker 3: the time. We're a game plan defense. We change each
Speaker 3: and every week, and you know, should have changed for
Speaker 3: that Buffalo playoff game.
Speaker 2: But that's either here there.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you're talking about you're talking about difference of opinion,
Speaker 1: and we're going to try things a different way. I
Speaker 1: want to take you back to the super Bowl you lost,
Speaker 1: and I have a fall up question about that. But
Speaker 1: how against the grain is it? Because I'm going to
Speaker 1: assume that this happened. I think that's what it certainly
Speaker 1: looked like to the lay people. Heyg rod, we're gonna
Speaker 1: let him score on this play. How difficult is that
Speaker 1: as a player whose job it is to stop them?
Speaker 1: How difficult is that from a you're just not brought
Speaker 1: up to do that?
Speaker 3: That's right, But I would say here we talk about
Speaker 3: situational football more than a lot of other places. And
Speaker 3: the reason I know that is because when guys come here,
Speaker 3: they have no clue what we're talking about. And we
Speaker 3: had you know, that situation in particular, Like we talk
Speaker 3: about that when there's no stress. So when there is stress,
Speaker 3: it's not like why are we doing this right, It's like,
Speaker 3: all right, we've talked about this in a low stress environment,
Speaker 3: so when we get into a high stress environment, it's
Speaker 3: not a huge panic attack on the sideline.
Speaker 2: But it's tough.
Speaker 3: It's tough to do that, but you also have to understand,
Speaker 3: like we're trying to win the game at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, we're trying to win the game. If
Speaker 3: that's letting them score, then yeah, mean that's what you
Speaker 3: gotta do.
Speaker 1: Does that lost, Uh? Does that loss still bother you?
Speaker 2: Absolutely? Absolutely? You know.
Speaker 3: But honestly, when I when I think about that team,
Speaker 3: we weren't even even really supposed to be there, Like
Speaker 3: we probably weren't the bet. We were not the best
Speaker 3: team and.
Speaker 1: Lost to the You lost to the Giants that right,
Speaker 1: And that's like a similar kind of game. I'm not
Speaker 1: a I don't know anything about point spreads or anything
Speaker 1: like that, but I remember like going into the game
Speaker 1: and the Patriots were a touchdown favorite, and go, wait
Speaker 1: a minute, didn't the Giants beat the Patriots in the wing?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: How are they?
Speaker 3: How are they under The thing that heard about that
Speaker 3: game is we had opportunities to win the game, as
Speaker 3: you know, as you know, we were in a but
Speaker 3: I would say we were a good team, just not
Speaker 3: a weren't a great team like I've been.
Speaker 1: We're a good team.
Speaker 3: We're a good team, and you know, we had opportunities,
Speaker 3: whether it was the cover two, you know, pot shot
Speaker 3: over there, you know over on, we're chung and those
Speaker 3: guys where, or you know, it's just a good throw
Speaker 3: byt Eli. It was a great throw. It was a perfect.
Speaker 1: One of the great underrated plays in Super Bowl history.
Speaker 3: And like even the you know, west On the drop ball,
Speaker 3: like everyone thinks about those plays. But at the same time,
Speaker 3: it's like, man, there's so many plays like the forced fumble.
Speaker 3: I forced the fumble on that game. We didn't get
Speaker 3: it back. It was just the ball wasn't bouncing our way.
Speaker 3: And I don't want to say it haunts me, but
Speaker 3: I do. I do think about that game, and as
Speaker 3: a player, you think about the next the super Bowl
Speaker 3: that I was a part of, I wasn't a part
Speaker 3: of I was.
Speaker 2: I was hurt.
Speaker 3: I got hurt in twenty fifteen, so lost to twenty eleven.
Speaker 3: Now I have to win one as a head coach,
Speaker 3: hopefully so.
Speaker 1: But you mentioned that I was going to ask you,
Speaker 1: you know, was the was forty nine bitter sweet for you?
Speaker 4: It?
Speaker 2: Uh? I don't want to say bittersweet because you know.
Speaker 1: You're do you do you still feel like a lot
Speaker 1: of people are injured, say men, I don't feel like
Speaker 1: I'm part of it. I was still and one of
Speaker 1: the rare things, correct me if I'm wrong in this. Like
Speaker 1: most of the guys that are injured, you are dead.
Speaker 1: You never see those guys.
Speaker 2: That's right.
Speaker 1: Bill knew that there was something special about you, and
Speaker 1: I was he one of the first people that this
Speaker 1: guy was on the sideline during I remember travel. That's
Speaker 1: a rarity at that point time, wasn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was, And I would say, and I was
Speaker 3: also a part of those you know, I was breaking
Speaker 3: down film and you know, getting with Steve and you know,
Speaker 3: you know, ever since I got heard it was and
Speaker 3: I did it three years in a row. You think
Speaker 3: about it, I was hurt three years in a row
Speaker 3: at various at various times. But I never wanted to
Speaker 3: be the guy who just bailed out on the team,
Speaker 3: especially after being voted captain you know, seven out of
Speaker 3: eight years, you know, by your peers. And so for me,
Speaker 3: it was always like I'm here to support as much
Speaker 3: as possible. I know, the coaches have a lot of
Speaker 3: things to do. I know, the defense probably just as
Speaker 3: well as some of these coaches, you know, not no
Speaker 3: shot to anyone, but I've done it for a while
Speaker 3: and you know, I would have those meet I would
Speaker 3: run meetings with those guys. I would you know, talk
Speaker 3: ball with them all the time. And it was it
Speaker 3: was sweet, it was there was no bitterness. You know,
Speaker 3: obviously I wanted to play the game, but it was
Speaker 3: it was good to get one.
Speaker 4: How about some of the players that you you went against,
Speaker 4: you know, some of the some of the teams, some
Speaker 4: of the rivalies. Just when you were talking about the
Speaker 4: eleven team, my mind went right to the Baltimore game. Sure,
Speaker 4: you know, like, what are some of the games that
Speaker 4: you remember the most? Some of the players that you
Speaker 4: remember most going against?
Speaker 3: Yeah, the ball, you know, anytime you play a team
Speaker 3: like that, whole division really is like Baltimore or Cleveland, Pittsburgh.
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, it's going to be a physical game,
Speaker 3: especially back then when teams have fullbacks. And that's that's
Speaker 3: back when the Jets were pretty good as well. So
Speaker 3: the Jets had great defense, they had you know, they
Speaker 3: also had a full back as well, So you knew
Speaker 3: that was going to be a tough game each and
Speaker 3: every week. When I think about players though, where I'm like, wow, man,
Speaker 3: that guy is very good. I think about Tony Gonzalez
Speaker 3: all right, when we played him down in Atlanta and
Speaker 3: we could not stop him.
Speaker 2: It didn't matter.
Speaker 3: It was like we put I want to say, we
Speaker 3: put Jamie on him and couldn't stop him. I was
Speaker 3: on him even when I'm in position, couldn't stop him.
Speaker 3: And so yeah, Talip ended up having to check him
Speaker 3: because this guy, this is I mean, he's an old
Speaker 3: man at this point too, but he was just a
Speaker 3: freak of nature. And at the if you watch the
Speaker 3: end of that game, Jamie and I are pretty much
Speaker 3: vising them like we're side by side.
Speaker 2: For That's why they changed the rule.
Speaker 3: Now you can't have, you know, two sets of hands
Speaker 3: on the guy at the same time. You can't just
Speaker 3: vice the guy up. But we just straight doubled him
Speaker 3: at the line of scrimmage on this at the same level.
Speaker 3: And so they ended up changing the rule after that.
Speaker 3: But man, that guy was. He was good.
Speaker 2: Another guy who.
Speaker 3: People don't often talk about but had a had an
Speaker 3: unbelievable year was Peyton Hillis remember that Cleveland and the.
Speaker 4: Pet It was I.
Speaker 3: Knew that was gonna be and look I played him
Speaker 3: before and it wasn't the same. It wasn't like that.
Speaker 4: He had one of those one of those days.
Speaker 2: I don't know what he had one of those years.
Speaker 2: He had one of those years.
Speaker 3: And you know, my thing was like, man, you know,
Speaker 3: Brandon Spikes one of the hardest hitting guys I've ever
Speaker 3: been around. Like if he was if he was gonna
Speaker 3: get you, he was gonna get you. And so a
Speaker 3: guy who wasn't strong in the weight room, but a
Speaker 3: guy who had a lot of pop on the field.
Speaker 3: And I still remember it was like the first quarter
Speaker 3: and Spikes had a clean hit at him, and I
Speaker 3: don't even think he saw Spikes. And I saw Spikes
Speaker 3: just fall to the ground. I was like, oh, shoot,
Speaker 3: it's gonna be along. I went in with a form tackle,
Speaker 3: just rolled him up, just like, you know, forget it.
Speaker 3: But I knew right there it was gonna be a
Speaker 3: long day. Then we got hit with the fumble Rouski
Speaker 3: in the same game. It was just that was tough.
Speaker 4: That was that was a bizarre game. It was very
Speaker 4: It wasn't often that you got blown out ever, No
Speaker 4: particularly by a bad team.
Speaker 2: I would say.
Speaker 3: All so, like anytime we played Peyton it was always like,
Speaker 3: you know, that game was a big deal.
Speaker 2: You know, Peyton manning guys.
Speaker 1: Just for you the quarterback on the defensive side and
Speaker 1: him on the other side. Could you get geeked up
Speaker 1: for that? Like, you know what, let me let me
Speaker 1: see what I can do against him, because this guy,
Speaker 1: he's the real deal on the other side. I want
Speaker 1: to try to match up with that.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 3: And I would say I had the benefit of going
Speaker 3: against Tom every day in practice, and Tom and I
Speaker 3: had multiple battles of you know, talking crap across the
Speaker 3: line of scrimmage and practice, and we had a lot
Speaker 3: of fun with it.
Speaker 4: It springs up a great I don't know if you'll
Speaker 4: remember this, but I know Tom does because Tom was
Speaker 4: mad at me for like two years. So during training
Speaker 4: camp one year, these two Gerard and Tom go ahead
Speaker 4: to head and they're in each other's face and we
Speaker 4: put it on the cover of the paper. You know, hot,
Speaker 4: hot hot, you know training camp, it's you know, tempers
Speaker 4: are flaring. Tom was not happy you you let I both.
Speaker 4: I went to both of them, Aulie and I apologize
Speaker 4: that I didn't mean nothing like that. You guys really fought,
Speaker 4: Like if you read this like we never once, you know,
Speaker 4: sort of implied that you guys were really fighting. It
Speaker 4: was just it was a great photo. It was you
Speaker 4: guys doing executly what you're talking about, getting the best
Speaker 4: of each other. From a competitive standpoint, Tom was not
Speaker 4: happening you. You did exactly what you just did. Right there.
Speaker 4: When I said, hey, I apologize, don't, Tom looked at
Speaker 4: me like he wanted to stab me, Like.
Speaker 3: He has he has that image to maintain the angel.
Speaker 3: I'll tell you a funny Tom story. Like you know,
Speaker 3: he's he's.
Speaker 2: A great competitor.
Speaker 3: And you know, the quarterback position is a very weird position,
Speaker 3: like you're you're protected by five three hundred plus pound guys.
Speaker 3: You're protected by play calls and you'll get the ball
Speaker 3: out quick, and you're protected by the referee. So it's
Speaker 3: a very interesting position. And usually those guys don't walk
Speaker 3: around like headbutting. This guy's pregame And so I'm sitting there,
Speaker 3: you know, and Tom and I always chatted up, you know, pregame.
Speaker 3: I'm on the sideline. No, you know how we do.
Speaker 3: We kicked the field goal at the end, yes, and
Speaker 3: so we're just out there. I have my helmet on
Speaker 3: this unbuckled, don't have my mouth pie saying I'm ready
Speaker 3: to go in and Tom, I hear my name, Mayo.
Speaker 3: I turn around and it's Tom and he head butts me,
Speaker 3: splits my tooth right down the middle. Right, I'm talking
Speaker 3: ten minutes before the game split. And I'm so pissed.
Speaker 3: I'm so pissed because my tooth is split down the
Speaker 3: middle and you know, going this way, going straight across.
Speaker 3: And so I'm like, you know, I go out there,
Speaker 3: I have a great game, right because I'm pissed off
Speaker 3: the whole game. And afterwards, I'm like, Tom, you're buying
Speaker 3: me a new set of teeth, and you're you're paying
Speaker 3: for it. And I want to go to your Dennis.
Speaker 2: I haven't. I haven't cashed in yet. I will though soon.
Speaker 1: So this is before your time a little bit. And
Speaker 1: I don't know if you've ever seen the footage. Paul
Speaker 1: will remember this. I certainly in Super Bowl thirty nine,
Speaker 1: and I think he did it for many regular season games.
Speaker 1: It was Tom and Daniel pregame and Tom would grab
Speaker 1: him by the face mask and they would repeatedly butt heads.
Speaker 1: Now clearly, at some point times we said dude, what
Speaker 1: are you doing?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: This isn't like, this isn't great And he changed, but
Speaker 1: it was a pregame routine.
Speaker 4: He and Graham would literally remember it.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, bang helmets before they read on the field. Man,
Speaker 1: you've never seen anybody do that too.
Speaker 2: No, that's crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I wanted to ask you real quick. You mentioned the
Speaker 4: games against Peyton being a little special, and I just
Speaker 4: you talked about the situational stuff, the famous fourth and
Speaker 4: two I think it was nine o nine. Just as
Speaker 4: a defensive player. Was there even a part of you
Speaker 4: that was like, Bill, what do you do? We can
Speaker 4: we could stop them? What are we doing?
Speaker 2: Man?
Speaker 3: You know, honestly, like it's easy to second guess those decisions.
Speaker 3: You know that decision, you know whether to take the
Speaker 3: ball and not take the ball. It's easy to second
Speaker 3: guess those decisions. Sometimes we would go out there, we
Speaker 3: would you know, be on fire. It's like, this is
Speaker 3: why this is my problem. I shouldn't say problem, but
Speaker 3: this is like the pushback or other side of the
Speaker 3: coin with the analytics thing, which is a huge piece.
Speaker 2: Now all the owners want to talk about.
Speaker 4: Oh, everybody would go for it. Now, everybody would go.
Speaker 3: For that exactly, but there's also a flow to the
Speaker 3: game that you have to feel like who's you know exactly,
Speaker 3: who's playing well, who's playing poorly?
Speaker 2: Like where's the momentum? Like what's the weather? Like?
Speaker 3: All those things have to be taken into account on
Speaker 3: those decisions. And honestly, I never really second guess. I
Speaker 3: shouldn't say never, because there's always times when you get
Speaker 3: together with the group you're like, man, I wish I
Speaker 3: had the opportunity, especially if it didn't work out, like
Speaker 3: I wish I had the opportunity to go out.
Speaker 2: There and you know, make a play. But is what
Speaker 2: it is.
Speaker 1: So I got I got two here for you. Then
Speaker 1: we can wrap this thing up. You know you said this,
Speaker 1: you're going into your fourth year of coaching, right in
Speaker 1: your first year. Maybe if you're checond year, I don't know,
Speaker 1: maybe even today, when you see something go out in
Speaker 1: the field, do you ever have an inkling like, damn, man,
Speaker 1: I could still make that play.
Speaker 2: Let me go out there and make that.
Speaker 1: Was there a tough transition when you first started coaching
Speaker 1: to going I can give them fifteen snaps this morning
Speaker 1: isn't where I needed to be. Let me do it.
Speaker 3: I always you know, those those thoughts always come in
Speaker 3: my head. Then I'm like, man, I feel great on Monday,
Speaker 3: so they quickly go out out.
Speaker 4: Not like your buddy, your heart old buddy Vrabel putting
Speaker 4: the stuff.
Speaker 2: I do things like that.
Speaker 3: But as far as just you know, honestly, like on Mondays,
Speaker 3: it's just like, man, I'm kind of sore, like.
Speaker 2: I feel great.
Speaker 3: I feel great, and I work out, you know how
Speaker 3: I want to work out when I want to work out,
Speaker 3: not worried about anything.
Speaker 2: So and you.
Speaker 1: Mentioned earlier in this conversation, Gerard, you were talking about diversity,
Speaker 1: and you're saying, you know, it's not just a skin thing.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a there's generational diversity, there's everything like that.
Speaker 1: You're in a unique position where this is a big
Speaker 1: topic of conversation on an enormous platform. Do you feel
Speaker 1: this is my word so I don't want to put
Speaker 1: words in your mouth. Do you feel encouraged that this
Speaker 1: is being at least addressed and there's an attempt to
Speaker 1: try to do this to fix wrongs where yes, the
Speaker 1: focus might be on skin color at this point in time,
Speaker 1: but I loved what you said about generational diversity. Diversity
Speaker 1: of thought. Diversity of thought, like that phrase. We shouldn't
Speaker 1: dislike each other. If I say it's cloudy and you go, no, man,
Speaker 1: it's sunny. I'm entitled to my opinion. You're entitled to
Speaker 1: your opinion. Do you see that maybe it's only in
Speaker 1: the infant stages that progress is at least trying or
Speaker 1: there's an attempt at trying to make progress.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely think, you know, the thought is definitely there.
Speaker 3: I think it's the top of mind, not only for
Speaker 3: coaches but also owners. There's still a lot of work
Speaker 3: that has to be done. And I would say some
Speaker 3: of these guys, and you know, minority coaches in general,
Speaker 3: even when they became head coaches, the stick was so short.
Speaker 2: That it was like the least was so tight.
Speaker 3: They really didn't have an opportunity like and this is
Speaker 3: why you're starting to see a lot of people go
Speaker 3: to this whole you know, forget the draft mentality, because
Speaker 3: the pressure to win right now is so high, no
Speaker 3: matter if you're white or black or it doesn't matter.
Speaker 3: It's so high that people are like, you know, like,
Speaker 3: forget the draft, we need to win now. But I
Speaker 3: would say, look at what happened in Sensi, right, you know,
Speaker 3: was Zach look at that situation versus whether like Vance
Speaker 3: Joseph or you know, any of those guys, like one
Speaker 3: year and it's like bum done. Now Zach, Zach's in
Speaker 3: the Super Bowl. It was sincy and so he had time.
Speaker 3: He had time and the expectation and Sensey obviously is
Speaker 3: a little different than other cities in the country. But
Speaker 3: at the same time, I would say the least was
Speaker 3: just different. My heart goes out more to Look, this
Speaker 3: is only my fourth year coaching, and I understand I'm
Speaker 3: very fortunate to even get the interviews that I've had
Speaker 3: to this point.
Speaker 2: I've had.
Speaker 3: Three interviews. I've had three interviews, uh in three years, Right,
Speaker 3: three interviews in three years. I feel very fortunate to
Speaker 3: have those interviews. I learned a ton, I met a
Speaker 3: bunch of great people. I feel bad for guys like
Speaker 3: Leslie Fraser, you know, I feel guys. I feel bad
Speaker 3: for guys even you know Todd Bowles. Now he's getting
Speaker 3: the opportunity, but I was feeling bad for him as well.
Speaker 3: Those coaches who it's like, what else do they have
Speaker 3: to do to prove? And look, I don't know these men,
Speaker 3: I've met them, but I don't know them off the
Speaker 3: field or anything like that. But if you were just
Speaker 3: to you know, strip strip the color all that stuff
Speaker 3: away and just put resumes up, like their resume is
Speaker 3: pretty sure they have some strong resumes, right, And so
Speaker 3: if you think about it that, when I know some
Speaker 3: Fortune five hundred companies, they have some you know, some
Speaker 3: things to kind of remove biases from applicants, like whether
Speaker 3: it's color or gender, age, they remove them from the resumes.
Speaker 3: You guys heard about this before, yes, yeah, so they
Speaker 3: remove them to try to, you know, try to remove biases.
Speaker 3: You know, you would hope that the league would get
Speaker 3: to a point where they're just going to hire the
Speaker 3: best person. And honestly, I don't want to be hired
Speaker 3: because I'm black. I've said this time and time again,
Speaker 3: like don't hire me and don't bring me in for
Speaker 3: an interview just because I'm black.
Speaker 2: Bring me in for an interview because you're curious. Bring
Speaker 2: me in for.
Speaker 3: An interview because you think I can lead your team
Speaker 3: to a super Bowl championship.
Speaker 2: And that's how I think about it.
Speaker 3: I feel like I feel like I'm a good coach now,
Speaker 3: I feel like I have a long way to go.
Speaker 3: I feel like I've long way to go as far
Speaker 3: as you know, the exendy knows. But at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, this game comes down to the players.
Speaker 3: And I always say it. You know, players win games
Speaker 3: and coaches lose games. So if you can't get the
Speaker 3: players to really perform for you, then it's on us
Speaker 3: as coaches.
Speaker 1: Did you enjoy playing? Did you enjoy your NFL days?
Speaker 3: Loved them? I loved my NFL days. Look I'm still
Speaker 3: in the league now, you know as a coach player,
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, yeah. As a player, I love those days.
Speaker 3: I love the camaraderie. I love being in the locker
Speaker 3: room with those guys. I love everything that we did
Speaker 3: on the field together.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: Obviously there's sometimes where it's like, man, you know, it's
Speaker 3: ninety five degrees, I am tired. But at the end
Speaker 3: of the day, anytime you get a group of people
Speaker 3: together that have one common goal, it's a beautiful thing.
Speaker 3: Whether we're talking about selling, you know, on a sales team,
Speaker 3: whether we're talking about you know, a football team, a
Speaker 3: basket it doesn't matter. Anytime everyone is putting, you know,
Speaker 3: their ego aside, right because remember, like ego is the
Speaker 3: enemy of all this stuff, right if they put their
Speaker 3: ego aside.
Speaker 2: And go after a common goal.
Speaker 3: And that's one thing around here, Like you can't have
Speaker 3: an ego in this building, right, It's like one ego.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 3: You can't have an ego in this building. And and honestly,
Speaker 3: we're like, you got to think about ego in general.
Speaker 3: Ego lives in the past, and it lives in the future.
Speaker 3: Like we have to live for today. And that's what
Speaker 3: I'm all about, living for today and really just getting
Speaker 3: the guys to go out there and perform.
Speaker 4: Give me one signature Girod Mayo play that you remember
Speaker 4: as your.
Speaker 3: Favorite signature Jerrod Mayo play.
Speaker 2: That's a tough one. Man.
Speaker 3: There are so many plays where even if it wasn't
Speaker 3: a tackle or anything like that, where I just, you know,
Speaker 3: smack an offensive lineman because you know this guy was
Speaker 3: a Pro Bowl offensive lineman. They've been hyping him up
Speaker 3: the whole game, you know, knocking this guy like, you know,
Speaker 3: hitting them very hard.
Speaker 2: Or I'm trying to think I've had.
Speaker 3: My favorite game was that Washington game in two thousand
Speaker 3: and at Washington.
Speaker 4: And that's a game that I remember a specific play about.
Speaker 3: You, and ye I thought that, Hey, but but yeah,
Speaker 3: but I would say this, it wasn't even the play.
Speaker 3: The night before I signed my contract extension. Okay, so
Speaker 3: that whole weekend it was like, all right, fly to Washington,
Speaker 3: this is my hometown, like you know, the DMV area,
Speaker 3: Fly down there. I signed my contract the night before
Speaker 3: the game, I go out there and get a.
Speaker 4: Game, big hit to cause the turnover.
Speaker 3: I caught the pick. I caught the pick in the game.
Speaker 3: So that was a great That was a great time,
Speaker 3: you know, not just the game, but just that whole weekend.
Speaker 1: Fantastic conversation. Gard really appreciate you.
Speaker 2: I appreciate you guys having appreciate your curiosity. Appreciate your curiosity.
Speaker 1: Gerard may Or, our guest on this edition of the
Speaker 1: Pats in the Past podcast.
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