Speaker 1: Yeah, it's time now for another episode of Packs from
Speaker 1: the Past podcast Matt Smith.
Speaker 2: Along with a hall Throllo. We're pleased to be joined
Speaker 2: by soon to be I don't know when you're retired.
Speaker 3: I can't remember, so I don't I can't do math.
Speaker 3: Looks he looks pretty good. But former Patriots kicker and
Speaker 3: soon to be Hall of Fame kicker. We all hope
Speaker 3: Adam Vanitary. Adam, thank you so much for coming here
Speaker 3: and joining us.
Speaker 4: My pleasure. Thanks for having me on. Yeah, what a
Speaker 4: what an introduction. Thank you.
Speaker 2: Well, let's tell fans what you're up to these days.
Speaker 2: What are you?
Speaker 3: What is Adam Vanitary doing to keep himself busy these days?
Speaker 2: Well, because you just retired, like last week, right, a couple.
Speaker 5: Of years now, I've been really enjoying some family life.
Speaker 5: It's when you're when you're fifty now and just not
Speaker 5: too long retired, you get you get to do a
Speaker 5: lot of fun stuff. So been coaching both of my
Speaker 5: sons in football and baseball, and and just really just
Speaker 5: just kind of embracing the the opportunities of doing some
Speaker 5: stuff that I never had the opportunity.
Speaker 4: To do before.
Speaker 5: So get into the honeydew list, get into stuff that
Speaker 5: I've put off for years, and kind of just chipping
Speaker 5: away at some things that I wanted to do a
Speaker 5: lot of traveling. Have a ranch out in Missouri, so
Speaker 5: I'd do a bunch of hunting and fishing and traveling
Speaker 5: and doing some of that stuff. So just enjoying some
Speaker 5: free time, and it's nice. It took me a long
Speaker 5: time to reprogram my mind into the not get up
Speaker 5: in the morning, get you a cup of coffee on.
Speaker 4: The way to work, and doing all the you know,
Speaker 4: it really took me about.
Speaker 5: Two or three years to decompress from football schedule and
Speaker 5: be able to watch the news and drinking cup of
Speaker 5: coffee at a slower pace. I guess so's it's kind
Speaker 5: of been a fun, fun transition for me.
Speaker 3: I think Patriot fans and football fans alike back in
Speaker 3: February when the Super Bowl was around, they saw the
Speaker 3: fan duel commercials and they said, well, who's this person.
Speaker 3: That's not Adam Van Terry. That's not the guy I remember.
Speaker 3: So I think people a lot of people were going, wow,
Speaker 3: look at and we'll talk about more of this later,
Speaker 3: but you've sort of you informed yourself from the skinny
Speaker 3: kicker that was chasing herschel walker down. You look like
Speaker 3: you could be in a bodybuilding competition if you wanted
Speaker 3: to tomorrow.
Speaker 5: I don't know about that, but yeah, I've had a
Speaker 5: lot of free time to stay in shape. My oldest
Speaker 5: son is twenty years old trying to get into a
Speaker 5: little bit of this influencing stuff. So he's kind of
Speaker 5: been pushing me, helping me with diet. And you know, boy,
Speaker 5: I tell you what, it's one of these things I
Speaker 5: am hold on for dear life.
Speaker 4: He's shooting this away and so.
Speaker 5: He doesn't have me yet, but he's not not far off,
Speaker 5: so I'm I think he helps me.
Speaker 4: It's probably that.
Speaker 5: Competitive nature too that you have in football, and it's
Speaker 5: fun kind of just doing some stuff that way too.
Speaker 5: And and you know, I've always said like people are like,
Speaker 5: you know, why why do you want to do this?
Speaker 5: And the tongue in cheek answer is, hey, you know what,
Speaker 5: when I get out of the shower, I want to
Speaker 5: look better naked than I do with my clothes on.
Speaker 4: And then it sounds silly and it's not.
Speaker 5: Really, but at the end of the day, you know,
Speaker 5: you know, at some point I'm going to continue to
Speaker 5: keep getting older, and I just I just want to
Speaker 5: feel good. I want to I want to keep my
Speaker 5: body in shape. I want to be able to do
Speaker 5: a bunch of stuff. And and looking in the mirror
Speaker 5: and being proud of the hard work that you continue
Speaker 5: to do is important to me.
Speaker 2: Well, you should, shouldn't he look? He should be very
Speaker 2: proud of how he looks in the mirror.
Speaker 6: Are you saying that you were? I'm proud of how
Speaker 6: we look.
Speaker 3: No, I didn't say that, but that's what.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Whatever, So with the I'm interested to coaching the kids too,
Speaker 7: And you mentioned they're little old.
Speaker 4: How did you get a little.
Speaker 6: Bit of a coaching bug? Did you like that?
Speaker 2: Well?
Speaker 5: You know, yeah, well, well, and that's the fun thing. Well,
Speaker 5: and that's the fun thing. High school plays on Friday nights,
Speaker 5: and you know, you're always kind of one of these
Speaker 5: you know, you go to a game, but and you
Speaker 5: want to be part of it, but you're always thinking
Speaker 5: about your own football stuff, and and you know you're
Speaker 5: traveling on the weekend.
Speaker 4: And and you miss out on some of the stuff.
Speaker 4: So when they were young, I coached him in some.
Speaker 5: Soccer and stuff in the off season in the summertime
Speaker 5: when you had some time. But but I really enjoyed
Speaker 5: trying to help young and impressionable kids, you know, teach
Speaker 5: them football, teach them, teach them all the right stuff,
Speaker 5: you know, like how to take pride in your job.
Speaker 5: And you're playing for the insignia on your head and
Speaker 5: the nave on your back, and you know, so it's
Speaker 5: not about just you, it's about your team and trying
Speaker 5: to instill some morals that I've learned from Hall of
Speaker 5: Fame coaches, some of the greatest people that I've been around.
Speaker 5: A good goosebumps thinking about it, just because it's like,
Speaker 5: it's fun to be able to share some experiences and
Speaker 5: what you've learned through twenty four years of playing in.
Speaker 4: The National Football League. There's lots of lessons.
Speaker 5: To be learned, and teaching them football the x's and
Speaker 5: o's is one thing, but teaching them how to be
Speaker 5: accountable and how to help your team win, and hey,
Speaker 5: this stuff is important.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: In high school there's so many things. There's so many
Speaker 5: things that are pulling them in different directions. If it's
Speaker 5: school girls, parties, this that, and all that stuff, and
Speaker 5: you're like, hey, you know, you get one shot at this,
Speaker 5: you know, you might have X amount of years and
Speaker 5: teaching them. Hey listen, not many guys get to play
Speaker 5: in college. Not many guys even even a lot less
Speaker 5: get to play in the in the pros. So for
Speaker 5: some of you, this might be your last year if
Speaker 5: you're a senior in high school, like, let's go out
Speaker 5: with a bang, you know, let's do the best we can.
Speaker 4: And we've had some success. Their teams have been to
Speaker 4: some of the state championships and stuff. So it's I
Speaker 4: get that competitive side. I'm not on the field.
Speaker 5: It's more stressful for me not being able to contribute
Speaker 5: on the field, you know, trying to teach these kids
Speaker 5: that way.
Speaker 4: But but I enjoy it.
Speaker 5: And then my younger son is only is going into
Speaker 5: eighth grade. He's the he's he's a wild man. He's
Speaker 5: the redheaded crazy kid. Where he got the color, I
Speaker 5: don't know, but but it's just so much fun teaching
Speaker 5: those young kids and watching them grow and mature and
Speaker 5: all that stuff.
Speaker 4: So I love it. I I you know, it's not
Speaker 4: not getting paid to do it, and it's not why.
Speaker 6: You do it.
Speaker 4: It's it's for the love of the game, and it
Speaker 4: truly is and and I think it's a ton of fun.
Speaker 3: It's awesome that you're able to do that with your kids.
Speaker 3: And this one is a little bit different and probably
Speaker 3: not a name of familiar to Patriot fans. Letst They
Speaker 3: really did a deep dive into your career at him,
Speaker 3: But it's kind of similar like Doug Blevins, Like he
Speaker 3: didn't have to help you, and I don't know how
Speaker 3: instrumental he was in your career and maybe to help
Speaker 3: set the stage before you do. Here's a guy who
Speaker 3: is teaching a future Hall of Fame kicker how to kick,
Speaker 3: who's doing it from a wheelchair. How instrumental was he
Speaker 3: in your career at him?
Speaker 5: Yeah, So my senior year in college, I would say
Speaker 5: that people would say that he was raw. He had
Speaker 5: good leg strength and power, but he was still raw.
Speaker 4: Right. I didn't never got.
Speaker 5: Really any real coaching other than what I learned on
Speaker 5: my own. You know, kick a ball and figure it
Speaker 5: out on your own. There's not that many kicking coaches
Speaker 5: out there, and even as many as there is, I
Speaker 5: think there's half of them that actually know what they're
Speaker 5: talking about.
Speaker 4: Right.
Speaker 5: So I met Brian Hanson who was a guy that
Speaker 5: was from South Dakota that was the punter for the Jets,
Speaker 5: who had known Doug and working out with him.
Speaker 4: He said, hey, go go goach this guy out. You know,
Speaker 4: he's passionate about it. He's pretty smart.
Speaker 5: Went out and worked out with Doug and he said,
Speaker 5: you should move out here and work with me. And
Speaker 5: so I moved to Abingdon, Virginia, got a job waiting
Speaker 5: tables and helping the high school team out there, just
Speaker 5: so I had a place to work out and kick
Speaker 5: and all that stuff. And Doug and I worked for
Speaker 5: a year, and I, you know, obviously hindsight, you know,
Speaker 5: had an opportunity to play for the Amsterdam Admirals, which
Speaker 5: was the NFL European League, and Doug was helping with
Speaker 5: that league as well, and it kind of springboarded me
Speaker 5: to the Patriots and the rest is history.
Speaker 4: You know, it's pretty pretty neat.
Speaker 5: But having along the way, I mean, there's so many,
Speaker 5: you know, there's so many people that helped along the way.
Speaker 4: Obviously, have a great family and parents who who.
Speaker 5: Took care of me and gave me what I needed
Speaker 5: and taught me their true life lessons. But coaches and
Speaker 5: you know, friends and people, you know, I mean, there's
Speaker 5: a million people that you can thank for.
Speaker 4: The success that you have. I'm not just talking to me.
Speaker 5: Anybody in life you could probably look at that way too,
Speaker 5: But Doug was definitely helped helped me develop my skills
Speaker 5: to the level that I needed to get to and
Speaker 5: then from there.
Speaker 6: So what was that experience?
Speaker 7: Like, you get to meet Doug and you find out
Speaker 7: he's got a little bit of a different circumstances, Matt said,
Speaker 7: you know, not a guy that you would expect to
Speaker 7: be a kicking expert in the situation that he was in.
Speaker 4: When we first thought he had cerebral palsy.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 5: I get to the airport, don't know that he's in
Speaker 5: a wheelchair, gets wheeled up to me. Hey, Adam, great
Speaker 5: to meet you, you know, crippled hand and all this,
Speaker 5: and I thought I was getting punked. Honestly, I was
Speaker 5: like looking around, like this has got to be a joke, right,
Speaker 5: But we later that day we went out onto the
Speaker 5: field and he was he was a kicking coach and
Speaker 5: in a wheelchair with a linebacker mentality right like he was.
Speaker 4: He was always fired up, always had a great attitude.
Speaker 5: Always wanted a go go, go, go go, and so
Speaker 5: I knew within minutes that he not only knew what
Speaker 5: he was talking about, but I knew right away that
Speaker 5: we were going to have a good relationship, you know,
Speaker 5: moving forward. So spent the week with him, and he said,
Speaker 5: you know what, I think you got what it takes,
Speaker 5: but you need some fine tuning. And he said, you know,
Speaker 5: how bad do you want it? I said more than anything.
Speaker 5: He said, pack up, you know, give a two week notice,
Speaker 5: pack up your stuff and come out here get a job.
Speaker 4: We'll work together for as long as it takes.
Speaker 5: So gave my two week notice and he expected me
Speaker 5: there like three days later. I drove through the night,
Speaker 5: got there in less than a day, and you know,
Speaker 5: his wife goes to check the newspaper or whatever and
Speaker 5: sees that my truck is parked.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm sleeping in my truck.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to wake anybody up when I got
Speaker 5: there at three o'clock in the morning. But yeah, he
Speaker 5: you know, he told the stories like man, when when
Speaker 5: I saw that, I knew you were committed.
Speaker 4: So together we did some great things.
Speaker 6: What was the experience like in Europe?
Speaker 7: You know, patriots are obviously going to be heading to
Speaker 7: Germany this year, but Amsterdam different kind of league.
Speaker 6: You know what am I getting myself into here?
Speaker 4: So I loved it.
Speaker 5: I loved my experience in Europe. A lot of the
Speaker 5: guys who got allocated, so it was kind of one
Speaker 5: of these most guys got allocated. I just got drafted
Speaker 5: by the admirals to go and play there. The guys
Speaker 5: that got allocated had probably a different idea. It's like,
Speaker 5: oh man, you're you're demoting me to the minor leagues
Speaker 5: and they didn't really want to do that.
Speaker 4: For me, it was a stepping stone.
Speaker 5: I was like, this might be the best opportunity that
Speaker 5: I'm going to have to and.
Speaker 4: It's professional football.
Speaker 5: Now we're not getting paid a ton of money, but
Speaker 5: you're getting to see a bunch of different countries.
Speaker 4: You have a day off. I jumped on the train,
Speaker 4: went sight Seed on my day off. I thought it
Speaker 4: was awesome.
Speaker 5: The level of football was another bump up from what
Speaker 5: I was used to at the college level. And I
Speaker 5: sat there and I was like, Hey, this is my opportunity
Speaker 5: to show these NFL teams what I am about what
Speaker 5: I have and so it was great because it was
Speaker 5: a truly professional thing. You're not going to class anymore.
Speaker 5: You're not worried about grades and all. This this is
Speaker 5: about your skill on the football field. And fortunately for me,
Speaker 5: it worked out pretty well and did pretty well.
Speaker 4: And you know, the.
Speaker 5: Patriots and the Colts were the two teams that were
Speaker 5: really interested in me, and Mike's men was a special
Speaker 5: teams coach that I talked to every week when I
Speaker 5: was over there, and he said, listen, we've got an
Speaker 5: older kicker, Matt Barr. He said, we just signed Tom
Speaker 5: Tupez a punter. We don't have a guy that can
Speaker 5: kick off, and we need a guy. And they said,
Speaker 5: we're going to bring in a couple of rookies. The
Speaker 5: best one is going to get a job. That's what
Speaker 5: I was told. And I said, well, I'll roll the
Speaker 5: dice with that. I'll give them what I got and
Speaker 5: and at that, you know, you have to trust the
Speaker 5: fact that they're telling you the truth. We get to
Speaker 5: training camp, there's myself and a couple Blair Cully and
Speaker 5: another rookie there and and.
Speaker 4: It worked out.
Speaker 5: They ended up cutting those guys and it was just
Speaker 5: Matt and I and we were competing.
Speaker 4: For the job.
Speaker 5: And and Bill Parcells after the before the third preseason game,
Speaker 5: he said.
Speaker 4: If I can say this or not, he said, well, this.
Speaker 5: Kind of PG right, he said. He walked up, you know,
Speaker 5: before the meetings, and he said, hey, Adam.
Speaker 4: This is the deal. Tomorrow. You're gonna take all the kicks.
Speaker 4: You're gonna take all the field goals, extra points, kickoffs.
Speaker 5: He said, see if you got what it takes, or
Speaker 5: if you pack up your ship and go home. I said,
Speaker 5: he said, you are right with that? I said, yes, sir,
Speaker 5: had a good game. And they cut Matt bar the
Speaker 5: next day and I didn't even didn't even know. I
Speaker 5: walked into the building the next day feeling pretty good
Speaker 5: that I kicked pretty well in the game, and and
Speaker 5: he called me into his office and he says, I
Speaker 5: don't want to hear anything in the media about you
Speaker 5: beat out Matt and this. And at this point I
Speaker 5: still didn't know Matt wasn't here. I was like okay,
Speaker 5: And then all of a sudden, the old Foxborough Stadium,
Speaker 5: the old dungeon. We walked downstairs and guys like, hey man, congratulations,
Speaker 5: good job. And I was like holy cow, like like
Speaker 5: this is now. It's becoming real. But even at that point,
Speaker 5: I'm so naive. I didn't even I thought I knew
Speaker 5: what it means. But you're you're one bad kick from
Speaker 5: getting kicked out of here anyway.
Speaker 2: Right, and and we'll get to that in a second.
Speaker 3: But I mean, I don't look at that is I mean,
Speaker 3: bars A Parcels.
Speaker 6: Guys, that's a Bill.
Speaker 4: Guy and so favorite all.
Speaker 2: Time kicker, right, And so he's a really good player.
Speaker 2: Plus he's really tight with the coach.
Speaker 3: So not only do you have to outperform, you've got
Speaker 3: to like trouble or triple outperform to beat out his guy.
Speaker 3: And I wonder if that was going through your mind
Speaker 3: as you're doing this or is it just competition?
Speaker 5: I you know, the way I was told that you're
Speaker 5: going to be the kickoff specialist this year, and then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, as can't progressed along, they start
Speaker 5: letting me go head to head against Matt. And I think, listen,
Speaker 5: all the respect in the world to Matt Barr, great kicker,
Speaker 5: did amazing things. As stats speak for himself. I learned
Speaker 5: a lot from just watching him. I think it was
Speaker 5: one of those perfect storm situations where you know he
Speaker 5: was getting older, and he didn't quite have the same
Speaker 5: leg strength anymore. And I was a young legged guy
Speaker 5: and I was I was, you know, and I had
Speaker 5: the competitive side and it too.
Speaker 4: I remember tupa saying, man, we know if I liked
Speaker 4: you or not because you were I don't know if
Speaker 4: he said arrogant, but I wasn't backing down. I guess
Speaker 4: this is my thing.
Speaker 5: And so so we get into camp and the first
Speaker 5: thing that I'd do is I'd know that, hey, outside
Speaker 5: of forty five, Matt doesn't have much of a leg,
Speaker 5: so I'd warm up.
Speaker 4: I'd go right outside of.
Speaker 5: Fifty and hit every kick fifty fifty four, fifty six,
Speaker 5: just to say I got more right. So that's the difference.
Speaker 5: And I don't think that that was I don't know.
Speaker 5: Maybe Coach Parcels maybe was like, well, we'll give him
Speaker 5: a shot and if he sucks, we'll bring back Matt.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 4: I don't know what the thought was.
Speaker 5: But I'm just happy to have the opportunity to show my.
Speaker 3: Skills because I don't know if I don't remember if
Speaker 3: it was week one or week two and we're talking
Speaker 3: ninety six two week two in Buffalo, and you missed three.
Speaker 4: Missed the extra point two field goals.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so that's the old NFL line. Not for long
Speaker 3: were you feeling any of that at that point?
Speaker 4: For sure?
Speaker 5: No, I felt that that day, every day before, and
Speaker 5: every single day of.
Speaker 4: My career after. Like, I never felt comfortable.
Speaker 5: And not to say that I didn't feel comfortable, because
Speaker 5: I was confident later on in my career, my skill
Speaker 5: level and all that, but I was always like, hey, listen,
Speaker 5: don't ever get complacent. Work your butt off every single
Speaker 5: day off seasons. Make sure you're doing all the stuff
Speaker 5: with the training staff in the weight room and eating right.
Speaker 5: I always felt like, listen, you were always a week
Speaker 5: or two or three from getting from from you know,
Speaker 5: they're always looking to either replace you with somebody better, cheaper, whatever.
Speaker 4: So I understood the game.
Speaker 5: I understood, so I never felt like I was overly comfortable. Now,
Speaker 5: you know, a couple of Super Bowl kicks in a
Speaker 5: few years later, I don't think that there you're.
Speaker 4: Not weake to weak. But on the other side, I.
Speaker 5: Always felt like I always every single year I had
Speaker 5: to reprove myself. And maybe that's why I played as
Speaker 5: long as I did, because I never felt like anything
Speaker 5: was guaranteed.
Speaker 7: So now you go to week three in Jacksonville and
Speaker 7: you don't have all those Super Bowl kicks on your resume.
Speaker 6: L So did you feel like you were a weak
Speaker 6: to week? I think you made four.
Speaker 5: I know Parcells said I was weak to week, so
Speaker 5: I mean, I didn't want to listen to the media,
Speaker 5: but I knew what that meant. And thank goodness, I
Speaker 5: think I made five kicks and a game winner at
Speaker 5: the end of the game, and you know, yeah, and
Speaker 5: overtime and and that kind of built a little confidence
Speaker 5: and kind of gave me a little bit and the
Speaker 5: rest of the season after. I don't want to say
Speaker 5: I don't I think I still missed a couple of
Speaker 5: kicks after that, but it was pretty pretty good season
Speaker 5: after that moving forward, So it helped out.
Speaker 4: I think that week I needed it.
Speaker 6: That fanboy Paul was at that game.
Speaker 3: I remember being in a parking lot waiting to go
Speaker 3: to a wedding and staying in the car, going I
Speaker 3: can't I'm not gonna leave until he makes this kick, which.
Speaker 2: I was confident in.
Speaker 3: Let's fast forward a little bit that year, Adham and
Speaker 3: we're talking about kicking, and that's what your role is
Speaker 3: and nobody expects the kicker to be able to make
Speaker 3: a tackle, get in the way maybe if he can.
Speaker 3: It's week fifteen down in Dallas, and it's the great
Speaker 3: herschel Walker, all the speed, all the strength and everything
Speaker 3: like that, and for all of the moments that you've
Speaker 3: had that are so memorable Super Bowl when he kicks
Speaker 3: overtime in the Snow Bowl with the Colts all time
Speaker 3: leading score, and so many people talk about the fact
Speaker 3: that you chased herschel Walker down your rookie year.
Speaker 2: Do you think that that play?
Speaker 3: You know, I don't know what people think that are kickers,
Speaker 3: but my guess is linebackers, a defensive lineman look at
Speaker 3: you a far different way than maybe the rest of
Speaker 3: the team. Did you get a sense at that point
Speaker 3: in time that your teammates are, oh, maybe this isn't
Speaker 3: just a kicker, whatever that means.
Speaker 2: Do you know what I mean? I do?
Speaker 5: Yeah, you know, I kicked the ball. He takes off
Speaker 5: and he breaks open, you know, and I'm sitting there going, oh,
Speaker 5: my gosh, you know, like he's got.
Speaker 4: A lane to the end zone.
Speaker 5: And I remember turning and running and unfortunately I wasn't
Speaker 5: that close. To him, and I didn't really have an
Speaker 5: angle on him, and I just start running and I
Speaker 5: just remember to myself, I'm like, I'm not gonna let
Speaker 5: him get to the end zone. And good lord, gave
Speaker 5: me ten seconds of speed. Maybe I don't know how
Speaker 5: it happened, but he wasn't slowing down, but I was catching.
Speaker 4: A little bit of ground, a little bit of ground, and.
Speaker 5: I ended up tackling him at the twenty something yard
Speaker 5: line or whatever same to touchdown. We end up losing
Speaker 5: twelve to six. I think it was all field goals
Speaker 5: in that game. And I remember probably the greatest compliment
Speaker 5: coach Barcelsa ever gave me. It was right after that
Speaker 5: game and he said, listen, that was one of the
Speaker 5: best players I've ever seen.
Speaker 4: He said, your team is going to treat you differently
Speaker 4: because of it.
Speaker 5: Now I had no idea what that meant, but I
Speaker 5: think I earned a little bit of respect, not just
Speaker 5: how he's our kicker. He's like, this dude cares about
Speaker 5: the team, and he did, you know, that's a great play,
Speaker 5: and and like I should And it wasn't. It wasn't
Speaker 5: about that. It was always just about like, hey, how
Speaker 5: can I contribute how can I help the team and
Speaker 5: what can I do to ultimately save a touchdown and
Speaker 5: hopefully help us win the game. And and I think
Speaker 5: at that point, yeah, I think to a certain degree,
Speaker 5: guys looked at me different, treated me different.
Speaker 4: Maybe a little bit.
Speaker 3: At that point I was going to say, did would
Speaker 3: Parcels say, did that materialize?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 5: For sure, I do remember a bunch of guys after that,
Speaker 5: like the following day, the Monday meetings that we're watching.
Speaker 5: You you always have a team meeting and then you
Speaker 5: break right into special teams and you watch all the
Speaker 5: special team stuff, and you know, coach made a Coachwatman
Speaker 5: made a comment about it, and guys like, dude, that's
Speaker 5: that was awesome. That was like I tell yeah, dude,
Speaker 5: you know that was awesome. And for me, it was
Speaker 5: always like I've never shied away in the weight room,
Speaker 5: I never shied away from other conditioning stuff because I
Speaker 5: wanted guys to know my job is physically less.
Speaker 4: Demanding, easier.
Speaker 5: For sure, I don't I don't get broken up and
Speaker 5: beat up and leading all over the place stuff. But
Speaker 5: I didn't want them to think that I didn't care
Speaker 5: any less. So I mean, it was always a challenge
Speaker 5: for me, Like the competitive nature was always like, Hey,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna go in the weight room and I'm going
Speaker 5: to do my best, And so the running backs are
Speaker 5: over there going damn it, I gotta work harder because
Speaker 5: I can't not beat him, you know what I mean.
Speaker 5: And so if I made my team one percent better
Speaker 5: just because I was working my butt off, awesome. I'm
Speaker 5: trying to get myself better. But it was always that way,
Speaker 5: and I think that was one of the cool things
Speaker 5: about our team in particular. We had such great leaders.
Speaker 5: I was a young guy, I was a leader. I
Speaker 5: just tried to keep my nose clean and not get
Speaker 5: in trouble, right, But we had the Willie mcguinnis and
Speaker 5: the Bruskis and the variables later on, you know, And
Speaker 5: I think those guys. I just remember Willie always saying, hey,
Speaker 5: six am, lifting group, be there kind of thing to
Speaker 5: all of the defensive linemen. And even if you were
Speaker 5: on time, if you were the last guy, you were
Speaker 5: getting punked for being late, right, and you might be
Speaker 5: there at five point forty five, But if you're the
Speaker 5: last one, and that's a different mentality. Not every team
Speaker 5: has that, and I think that was the reason why
Speaker 5: we were so successful, because because guys didn't shy away
Speaker 5: from holding each other accountable. But you have to hold
Speaker 5: yourself at the highest standard and the highest level to
Speaker 5: be able to say, dude, you're not doing your job.
Speaker 5: You're not doing it right. So you can't do that
Speaker 5: unless you're doing things right. And I think our group
Speaker 5: of guys at the beginning of the era had that.
Speaker 5: And I think obviously amazing coaching Tom Brady can't say enough.
Speaker 4: I mean, you got to have coaches, you got to
Speaker 4: have players.
Speaker 5: But we had a really, really, really good group of
Speaker 5: guys that that did everything they had to do to
Speaker 5: be successful.
Speaker 3: It sometimes doesn't get the credit of that. And what
Speaker 3: was it that Harrison would say at like five point
Speaker 3: thirty when Brady walked in did He used to say
Speaker 3: they in this right? Or good afternoon. It's five thirty
Speaker 3: in the morning and he's coming in and.
Speaker 2: They're busting balls about.
Speaker 3: It's holding everybody accountable and making yourself accountable is what
Speaker 3: you're saying.
Speaker 4: Right, It's not that way everywhere?
Speaker 5: Must you like every team not not even when I
Speaker 5: say team, I'm not talking organization, I'm talking every single
Speaker 5: year you have a new team, right, You've got twenty
Speaker 5: different guys, you know, some guys are gone, some guys retire,
Speaker 5: some they're new. It's a different team every single year.
Speaker 5: But when you have the leadership, not and leadership doesn't
Speaker 5: have to come from coaching.
Speaker 4: I've said it a million times. I say it to
Speaker 4: the high school kids, I say it to young kids.
Speaker 5: Leadership is always the best when it comes from the players,
Speaker 5: when you take that ownership yourself, because having a coach
Speaker 5: harp at you or whatever. Yeah, you're you're you're doing
Speaker 5: it for the fear for your job or whatever, whatever.
Speaker 5: But when your your peers are doing it, it just
Speaker 5: it just means different.
Speaker 7: Can I ask you that that ninety six team when
Speaker 7: you come in, do you feel.
Speaker 6: Like that sort of set the groundwork for what ended
Speaker 6: up happening.
Speaker 7: Did you feel like that that team, maybe you know
Speaker 7: as a as a super Bowl runner up, doesn't really
Speaker 7: get as much.
Speaker 5: I'm super naive. That's my rookie year. I don't know,
Speaker 5: Like I said, just going to Super Bowl things easy.
Speaker 4: It wouldn't be.
Speaker 5: Back again five six years later before we make it
Speaker 5: back again.
Speaker 4: I knew nothing.
Speaker 5: I just he didn't think, you know, a little bit
Speaker 5: about whatever is going on. We did have, you know,
Speaker 5: we had good leaders and some good old vets and
Speaker 5: stuff like that, but we still were a little ways
Speaker 5: away from it. And then obviously Parcell's leaving and Belichick
Speaker 5: leaving and Pete Carroll coming in, and the team kind
Speaker 5: of changed a little bit at that point. Still good,
Speaker 5: just different. But I think when when when Belichick came
Speaker 5: back and you know, nobody knew Brady was going to
Speaker 5: be Brady. You know, we see his pictures from his
Speaker 5: draft day stuff, were like, look at this chunky. But
Speaker 5: I've never met a more competitive guy than Tom.
Speaker 4: I never.
Speaker 5: I mean the way he transformed, transformed his body, the
Speaker 5: way his competitive side, his study habits, And I say him,
Speaker 5: there's twenty other guys, there's fifty other guys that are
Speaker 5: doing the same stuff, but Tom's the quarterback, so he's
Speaker 5: the captain, he's the figurehead.
Speaker 4: So but but I.
Speaker 5: Just think it was it's just it was just that's
Speaker 5: why it was so much fun. You know, Belichick never
Speaker 5: made it comfortable ever. We always said we're all walking
Speaker 5: on eggshells. I remember us winning the game, Josh Miller
Speaker 5: sitting next to me, and so I don't know what
Speaker 5: year this was, but its during the nine or ten
Speaker 5: in a row run that we had going on. And
Speaker 5: I don't remember who it was, but we whooped the
Speaker 5: crap out of the team. We won thirty five to
Speaker 5: seven or something. I mean, it was a it was
Speaker 5: a big scoring game and it was never really close.
Speaker 5: And I remember Belichick walking in and go, oh, you
Speaker 5: guys feel pretty good about this. And I won't tell
Speaker 5: the whole story because there's a few explicits in there,
Speaker 5: but he's just given us the business, right, And he
Speaker 5: went down the list of guys like, hey, Tom, okay, you.
Speaker 4: Know I think you had a good game.
Speaker 5: Well, here you're throwing into a defensive team meeting and
Speaker 5: you know, we're kind of chuckling and giggling a little bit.
Speaker 5: And then oh you think this is good enough, Well,
Speaker 5: now you're trying to get your quarterback killed with your
Speaker 5: offensive guys.
Speaker 4: And then he flips it over the defense. It flips
Speaker 4: it to the specialty.
Speaker 5: And he went through the list of guys and I'm like,
Speaker 5: and I remember Josh nudge me.
Speaker 4: He goes, God, damn, I fuck, we just got done
Speaker 4: kicking the crap out of this team, right, But He
Speaker 4: just kept it real and he's like, this is okay
Speaker 4: if you're playing this.
Speaker 5: Team, you think this is good enough. When you get
Speaker 5: to the playoffs, it's not right. And so he just
Speaker 5: there's always a there was always a feeling of we're
Speaker 5: really good, but we're never gonna get complacent. But if
Speaker 5: we continue to do what we're supposed to, we should
Speaker 5: beat the piss out of everybody.
Speaker 4: And that's what that's why it was so much fun.
Speaker 5: Practices weren't fun, meetings weren't fun, but Sunday after the
Speaker 5: game was always fun. It was always fun, you know,
Speaker 5: and that's why you start to build, you build a
Speaker 5: dynasty or a legacy of That's why guys wanted to
Speaker 5: come and play there because they just knew it's different,
Speaker 5: and it was.
Speaker 6: It was different.
Speaker 3: Do you have to be a different kind of a
Speaker 3: person that, like everybody can't take that. You come off
Speaker 3: a thirty five to seven win and you think you're
Speaker 3: the cat's ass and you're expecting to Monday to see
Speaker 3: all the highlights and every instead, every single unit gets ripped.
Speaker 3: You've got to be able to accept that and go this,
Speaker 3: SOOB is doing this for a reason, right, right, And
Speaker 3: it has to take a different.
Speaker 2: Kind of cat to accept that, doesn't it.
Speaker 5: And that was early too, that was when we were
Speaker 5: still developing stuff, like I think I think Coach Belichick
Speaker 5: and I think he.
Speaker 4: Would say that at the beginning he.
Speaker 5: Was much tougher than when when some of the Vets,
Speaker 5: when the Willies and the and the bruce Ki's and
Speaker 5: the Varabels. Now we're older veterans and we've been through
Speaker 5: it starts to change a little bit, and not not
Speaker 5: a lot, but but he's maybe like, Okay, hey, I
Speaker 5: love the opportunity practices.
Speaker 4: Hilarious, that's good.
Speaker 5: Hey, Vets, you're going to take the time off and
Speaker 5: you young guys are going to get killed today.
Speaker 4: But this is an opportunity practice. I love the terminology.
Speaker 4: It's funny, you.
Speaker 5: Know it was it was, you know whatever, But but
Speaker 5: it's it's always one of those things that that I
Speaker 5: learned so much, and and what I think you learn
Speaker 5: is is you can handle and your body can do
Speaker 5: amazing things if your brain allows you to, or if
Speaker 5: your brain just gets out of the way and doesn't
Speaker 5: tell you can't, you know what I mean. So so
Speaker 5: the and maybe that's a little bit of the military
Speaker 5: way of knocking guys down to build them back up
Speaker 5: into what you wanting to do. And you know, I
Speaker 5: mean they Parcels had military background and Belichick did, so
Speaker 5: maybe that's some of that.
Speaker 4: But I there's a million ways of skin a cat.
Speaker 5: I know, there's there's lots of teams that won Super
Speaker 5: Bowls different philosophies, but their formula is pretty damn good.
Speaker 7: So both of them, right, So two Hall of Fame
Speaker 7: coaches will obviously Belichick is going to be someday.
Speaker 6: How different were they?
Speaker 4: The two of them a.
Speaker 5: Lot of similarity. I would say more similarities than the differences.
Speaker 5: But they each have their own way of doing stuff.
Speaker 5: Obviously they're different, for sure, but but there's there's probably
Speaker 5: a lot of similarities as well. And and what I
Speaker 5: thought is these guys could they both had a really
Speaker 5: good and act of bringing out full potential guys and
Speaker 5: different ways of doing it. Some guys need to pad
Speaker 5: on the back, some guys need to be mf whatever.
Speaker 5: But but you know, we can look at guys that
Speaker 5: were problems on other teams and they come in and
Speaker 5: instantly contribute and become.
Speaker 4: A star for this team.
Speaker 5: Good guys that have helped these teams win, and and
Speaker 5: that's because they just they.
Speaker 4: Towed the line too.
Speaker 5: The guys that come in, they go, hey, this is
Speaker 5: a different organization. Guys are players are different, you know,
Speaker 5: leadership is different.
Speaker 4: And then they just they're not a problem.
Speaker 5: They come in and they do a great job and
Speaker 5: help contribute to victories and Super Bowls and stuff like that.
Speaker 4: It's it's it's great.
Speaker 6: This guy's the coach maker.
Speaker 2: Didn't think about it.
Speaker 7: Question, So we get ourselves in Belichick, Right, they played
Speaker 7: for Tony Dunge is also in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 6: Right, Pete Carroll's going to the Hall of Fame too.
Speaker 2: Question.
Speaker 7: I mean, did anybody that ever coached you, like just
Speaker 7: you know Joe Smith.
Speaker 5: No. Again, like I've always said from day one, I've
Speaker 5: been super blessed to be around the best coaches, the
Speaker 5: best players. Like I pinched myself all the time ago
Speaker 5: this like it could have been. It could have been
Speaker 5: way different. It could have been.
Speaker 4: You know, you play for a team that had zero
Speaker 4: success and zero whatever.
Speaker 5: It's just I always sit there and go, man, I
Speaker 5: I'm I'm not the four leaf clover. I just got
Speaker 5: lucky to be in the right spot at the right
Speaker 5: time through twenty some odd years, and it worked out
Speaker 5: pretty damn good, I think, you.
Speaker 3: Know, following up on something that you said, though, you know,
Speaker 3: there's a perception out there from fans and people who
Speaker 3: aren't in the locker room that we have to treat
Speaker 3: everybody the same, and maybe there's a baseline of that.
Speaker 3: But when you were talking about some guys need a
Speaker 3: pat on the tail, some guys you need to ride them.
Speaker 3: Were both Bills capable of doing that and knowing I
Speaker 3: can't ride this guy because I might lose him, so
Speaker 3: I got to build him up a little bit. Conversely,
Speaker 3: I got to sit on this guy. I ordern't get
Speaker 3: the best.
Speaker 4: Out of here. Well, Parcels. I only played for him
Speaker 4: my rookie year, and he was scars hell to me.
Speaker 4: I didn't want to be anywhere in general facinity like was.
Speaker 4: He was very entertaining.
Speaker 5: You know, we're in our stretching lines and he's going
Speaker 5: through the line and.
Speaker 4: He's given digs and he's hilarious.
Speaker 5: But you don't want to get caught laughing because oh
Speaker 5: you think that's funny of it. You know, I remember
Speaker 5: my rookie year. I'm going into the training room to
Speaker 5: grab a band aid. I don't even know why I
Speaker 5: was in there, but I was in there, and I
Speaker 5: watched him walk up to one of the guys that
Speaker 5: were on the table and he.
Speaker 4: Said, hey, let me ask you a question. Are you
Speaker 4: injured or you hurt?
Speaker 5: And so I'm listening but not trying to pay attentions
Speaker 5: that coach I don't understand, and he said, well, if.
Speaker 4: You're injured, you're really not any good to our team.
Speaker 4: You're not contributing, you know, blah blah blah.
Speaker 5: He said, if you're hurt, at least you can go
Speaker 5: out there and help and help our team do some stuff, you.
Speaker 6: Know, x y Z.
Speaker 5: So he goes, let me ask you, are you injured
Speaker 5: you're hurt? And he's like, said, I guess I'm hurt.
Speaker 5: He goes like, great, you'll have a red jersey and
Speaker 5: your locker. You're obviously be limited. You're gonna do some
Speaker 5: a few things or whatever. He goes to the next
Speaker 5: guy next to him, he goes, hey, are you injured
Speaker 5: or your hurt?
Speaker 4: He went down the whole thing, and I'm like, I
Speaker 4: get get the hell out of here, right. I'm like, hey,
Speaker 4: I'm not either I just didn't hear grabbing a band aid.
Speaker 5: You know, I'm good whatever, So that that's just a
Speaker 5: different mentality of and that maybe doesn't even fly now.
Speaker 5: That was thirty years ago, right, but it's just a
Speaker 5: different mentality of the way they do stuff. Right with Belichick,
Speaker 5: he was the defensive coach at the time, or the
Speaker 5: DB's coach at the time.
Speaker 4: I didn't have a name.
Speaker 5: I was a hey, hey four or I don't think, hey, asshole,
Speaker 5: that was my name right, right, But I didn't have
Speaker 5: a name until about the herschel Walker thing and then hey,
Speaker 5: now you got a name, right, But you have to
Speaker 5: earn your stripes, I think to a certain degree. And
Speaker 5: I was okay with that, like, like my dad coached me,
Speaker 5: and like I like that better than the everything is
Speaker 5: roses and come on, you'll be okay, Like, no, no,
Speaker 5: you don't have to be my friend, be a coach,
Speaker 5: be a tough guy, do what you need to. I
Speaker 5: like that way, But it's not for everybody. You're absolutely right.
Speaker 5: Some guys can excel and succeed in that. Other guys
Speaker 5: aren't very good at that. And I think what those
Speaker 5: two coaches in particular would do, they would get the guys.
Speaker 5: They would get the Rodney Harrisons and the junior sayous
Speaker 5: that love that stuff, right, And so then it worked
Speaker 5: for those guys. So Parcelszoway said that too. He's like,
Speaker 5: I just I want my guy. So when he would
Speaker 5: go to a new team, he would cherry pick ten
Speaker 5: guys off the old team and he'd be their core guys,
Speaker 5: their leaders in the locker room. And they might even
Speaker 5: they might even been past their prime, but they might
Speaker 5: be a solid be now they're not even an a
Speaker 5: player anymore, but that leadership brings everybody else up. And
Speaker 5: I think that's why they're so successful. I love the formula.
Speaker 4: It was never as comfortable, but I loved it.
Speaker 7: Then you go to the one team just for those
Speaker 7: guys you take. It's it's Anthony Pleasant, it's Rick Lyle,
Speaker 7: it's Bobby Hamilton, those kinds of guys that Bill Belichick
Speaker 7: now takes with them from the Jets.
Speaker 6: Yep, it perpetuates.
Speaker 7: So you know, I know you started off by comparing
Speaker 7: them saying how there's more similarities than we probably all
Speaker 7: would think.
Speaker 6: But I would imagine that.
Speaker 4: Welchick worked for Parcels.
Speaker 5: I'm sure he took a lot of his things and says,
Speaker 5: I'm gonna throw my own little spin on it. But
Speaker 5: a lot of the things that he learned through football
Speaker 5: probably the same way.
Speaker 3: Let's go to the snow game, Adam, and I'm curious
Speaker 3: as you're driving in that day when you see that.
Speaker 2: Now, kid from South Dakota, so it's.
Speaker 3: Not like you're a kid from Florida, so it's not
Speaker 3: like you haven't seen flakes before anything like that.
Speaker 2: What's going through your mind as you see the weather
Speaker 2: that day.
Speaker 4: Honestly, I shook my head and go, Belichick, you did
Speaker 4: it again. He did some.
Speaker 5: Voodoo shit to make the weather crappy because he loves that.
Speaker 4: This is not a Belichick bash. I love you.
Speaker 5: You're a great man and you're my favorite all time coach.
Speaker 5: But he would be the guy that would we go
Speaker 5: practice in the game field and I'm like, we're tearing
Speaker 5: up the field.
Speaker 4: He's like, ah, he can handle it. I'm like, handle
Speaker 4: it like.
Speaker 5: They're filling the holes in with sand and then they're
Speaker 5: painting green.
Speaker 4: To make it look like there's grass on the field.
Speaker 4: I'm like, this is bs. Why are you doing this?
Speaker 5: He's like, because they can't handle it and we can't.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, okay, that makes sense, all right, I
Speaker 5: got it. So of course it's gonna snow. Of course,
Speaker 5: I think the forecast said spotty little bit, maybe.
Speaker 4: Not eight inches of snow all day long, right, And
Speaker 4: so we get there. I don't think it's snowing yet.
Speaker 5: It's overcast, like it is most every day, you know,
Speaker 5: in the fall and the winter time. But it starts
Speaker 5: to snow when we go out there in like pregame
Speaker 5: warm up, like checking out the field and checking out everything,
Speaker 5: and what I remember is like the biggest snowflakes you've
Speaker 5: ever seen. I mean, gigantic, super cool cinematography wise, you know,
Speaker 5: if you're taking a camera, you're taking pictures, it's awesome.
Speaker 5: But to playing it sucks, you know, starts snowing hard
Speaker 5: and harder and harder. Now you can't even really see
Speaker 5: across the field to the other sideline.
Speaker 4: I'm like, this is gonna be absolutely miserable.
Speaker 5: But I'm thinking this team from California Oakland, they can't
Speaker 5: handle this. We're gonna whoop their butts in this stuff.
Speaker 5: And they come out and play really solid game.
Speaker 4: Most of the game.
Speaker 5: They're sticking it to us, right, they're playing really well.
Speaker 5: So and as a game progresses on, it just gets
Speaker 5: more and more and more. And you know, it was
Speaker 5: interesting going out there watching the whole tuck rule stuff
Speaker 5: and all that. You know, when Woodson goes around the
Speaker 5: corner and you know, hits Tom's arm, stripsack or arm
Speaker 5: coming forward whatever, I'm sitting there thinking, ah, Jesus, were
Speaker 5: cleaning out our locker tomorrow, right. I'm like, cause it
Speaker 5: looked like a fumble to me, right, And then all
Speaker 5: of a sudden, the referees are right, we're under review,
Speaker 5: and I'm like, okay, well, thank goodness.
Speaker 4: The rule at that time was what it is. I
Speaker 4: get it.
Speaker 5: And they change the rule after that, I get it.
Speaker 5: But the way they judged it that way was the
Speaker 5: right call. And I'm thinking to myself as I'm watching that,
Speaker 5: I'm thinking, man, we're cleaning out of locker. And then
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, the realism comes on to me,
Speaker 5: is like, you're gonna have to kick the hardest kicking
Speaker 5: your entire life, probably to give us a chance after that.
Speaker 5: So Kenny Walter, is my holder, comes up to me
Speaker 5: and he says, hey, Adam, all the snow all this stuff.
Speaker 5: He said, I'm not gonna even try to spin it.
Speaker 5: He said, I'm just gonna put it down, and wherever
Speaker 5: the laces are, the laces are. And I'm like, you're
Speaker 5: building a shit ton of confidence right now. But thanks
Speaker 5: a lot for this. But but so literally we went
Speaker 5: out there, it's forty five yards. Try to get a
Speaker 5: quick sweep off of the ground. And I'm thinking to myself, listen,
Speaker 5: you got to think like three things.
Speaker 4: Slow steps to it.
Speaker 5: And I've got like as long as cleats in my
Speaker 5: plant foot as I can to get a little bit
Speaker 5: of traction and stuff like that. But I'm thinking they're
Speaker 5: not going to be able to rush fast, so my
Speaker 5: timing can be a little bit slower because they're not
Speaker 5: going to be as fast either, So don't worry about
Speaker 5: that necessarily. But you're thinking, like you're trying to run
Speaker 5: on ice, right. You can't take big, long strides. You're
Speaker 5: going to slide and fall on your button. So I'm
Speaker 5: thinking shorter steps, try to just try to get your
Speaker 5: foot in place, try to get the ball above the
Speaker 5: line of scrimmage. I didn't want to smack my center
Speaker 5: in the butt. You know that didn't work. Out very good.
Speaker 4: So I'm like, get it above the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 5: They're not going to be able to get a good push,
Speaker 5: so it's not, you know, not as imperative to get
Speaker 5: it as high if you can think of all this
Speaker 5: stuff as you're going out there. But I'm just thinking,
Speaker 5: you have to get it online and give your off
Speaker 5: a chance, right, So.
Speaker 4: Get to the ball, kick it, you know.
Speaker 5: I look up, I'm like, okay, I didn't fall down,
Speaker 5: got it above the line of scrimmage. It looks like
Speaker 5: it's going fairly straight, but it's still got to go
Speaker 5: forty five yards and it was in a Blizzard's not
Speaker 5: an easy kick, and honestly, God, as it's leaving, I'm like,
Speaker 5: got a chance. You're right, I'm like, okay, maybe, but
Speaker 5: but when it got to the uprights, it's snowing so hard.
Speaker 4: I wasn't sure.
Speaker 5: I couldn't really tell until the referees went forward and
Speaker 5: raise their hand.
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh my god, I made this kick. Like
Speaker 4: I know.
Speaker 5: The reporters said, you know after the game, like, oh,
Speaker 5: you know, what's the percentage?
Speaker 4: I'm like, I don't know, you know, I'm.
Speaker 5: Like I look back at that and I go that's
Speaker 5: two percent. You know, I like, honest to god, I
Speaker 5: don't know how many times you can make that, but
Speaker 5: made it when I needed to, you know, kind of
Speaker 5: had a had a plan, kind of executed a plan.
Speaker 5: You know, I didn't want it to come off like
Speaker 5: a two iron super low, but that's the best I
Speaker 5: could do at the time, and it was.
Speaker 4: It was good enough.
Speaker 7: And then you get you know that it unfolds into overtime,
Speaker 7: and I know, Matt, you know, we were talking about
Speaker 7: this a little bit almost anti climatic because there was
Speaker 7: so much shorter, but there's still all that snow on
Speaker 7: the field before same mindset.
Speaker 5: The only good thing, if you can say a good
Speaker 5: thing is yes, it was twenty three to twenty four
Speaker 5: years whatever shorter, but we call time out.
Speaker 4: Our guys are trying to clear off as much snow
Speaker 4: as possible, and then Gruden maybe the only time that.
Speaker 5: You should maybe not try to ice the kicker, if
Speaker 5: you will, because it gave us another thirty seconds. We
Speaker 5: cleared a little bit more snow, wasn't completely clear, but
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 4: Way way more clear, way easier.
Speaker 5: That one was one of those like yeah, you're gonna
Speaker 5: make this like like I had all the conference the
Speaker 5: world that I was gonna make that and kick it
Speaker 5: a look up, I'm like, oh thank.
Speaker 4: God, So yeah it was. It was.
Speaker 5: It was a wild day. I'm happy that it happened
Speaker 5: that way. Never would want to do it again just because,
Speaker 5: but no, it was. It was pretty awesome. I've played
Speaker 5: in a few crazy games in Buffalo and stuff, but
Speaker 5: that one is.
Speaker 4: That forty five yarder to tie.
Speaker 5: The game is by far my favorite kick I've ever made,
Speaker 5: even Super Bowl kicks and all that, just because the
Speaker 5: difficulty level was as hard as you could get.
Speaker 4: You miss it, the season's over.
Speaker 5: I mean like you couldn't stack any more negative or
Speaker 5: potential stressful situations on top of that kick, And to
Speaker 5: make that thing was pretty awesome.
Speaker 3: It's really interesting to hear the way you say that,
Speaker 3: because there's so many people that it would be.
Speaker 2: Oh, you know, that's my job and deflect.
Speaker 3: When you hear somebody like Bill Belichick, who's said it
Speaker 3: many times and other great historians of the game call
Speaker 3: it the single greatest kick in the history of the
Speaker 3: National Football League, how does that make you feel?
Speaker 5: Well, it's a huge compliment. It's awesome to think that whatever.
Speaker 5: But as I look at other kicks and other things,
Speaker 5: I haven't watched every kick from everything. I know the
Speaker 5: Pat summer On one and some of those ones awesome too,
Speaker 5: but far the most difficult kick I've ever had to
Speaker 5: think and or or attempt.
Speaker 4: And yeah, you'd have to, you'd have to.
Speaker 5: I'd be hard pressed to find another one that stacks
Speaker 5: up to that. But you know, thank goodness, my team
Speaker 5: gave me an opportunity to try.
Speaker 6: It, and a couple of weeks later, yeah, that's that's nothing.
Speaker 6: Indoors indoors ty games.
Speaker 5: That was pretty awesome too, because I just you know,
Speaker 5: that game kind of back and forth and then the
Speaker 5: Rams catch up and oh my gosh, you know, and
Speaker 5: I remember I remember the commentator John Madden saying, ah,
Speaker 5: you know, she'd probably just take a knee, and thank goodness,
Speaker 5: we didn't.
Speaker 4: We had enough time.
Speaker 5: And you know, our philosophy, or at least Charlie Weiss's philosophy, is,
Speaker 5: you know, let's see if we get a couple first downs.
Speaker 4: If we can if we can get in range.
Speaker 5: And in that year I think we had I think
Speaker 5: I had five game winners, including that one in the one,
Speaker 5: and so we were blowing teams out, but we were
Speaker 5: winning games. And that's the cool thing about our team
Speaker 5: that particular year is we lost to the Rams earlier
Speaker 5: in the year, but it was a good game. Came
Speaker 5: right down to the end, and we built a lot
Speaker 5: of confidence in that game, and knowing that every close game,
Speaker 5: we were just building more confidence and more confidence.
Speaker 4: And I literally.
Speaker 5: Remember them kicking off to us and I go, we
Speaker 5: got a minute and a half left. I've seen Tom
Speaker 5: do it all year long, Like, hell yeah, we're gonna
Speaker 5: do it again, right, j R. Edmund Troy Brown bandinking,
Speaker 5: you know, Jermaine Wiggins has one, just a couple of places,
Speaker 5: bang bang bang bang all the way down the field,
Speaker 5: and I'm just thinking, hell yeah, you know.
Speaker 4: And so the feeling for that kick is never It's
Speaker 4: a game.
Speaker 5: You dream about it your entire life. You know, as
Speaker 5: a little kid, You're like, what's as a kicker, that's
Speaker 5: the dream, right, kicking a game winner in a Super Bowl.
Speaker 4: I mean, that's exactly what you think about.
Speaker 5: So I'm over in the net and I'm watching, you know,
Speaker 5: and I kind of have a routine like, hey, when
Speaker 5: we get to a certain yard line, I start to
Speaker 5: warm up a little bit, and everything's spent up.
Speaker 4: A little bit, so you start a little earlier.
Speaker 5: And it's funny because in my entire career, when you
Speaker 5: get ready for game winners, everybody kind of treats you
Speaker 5: like you've got some rare contagiouness.
Speaker 2: You got a let parsuit, you're no hitter in base.
Speaker 5: Yeah, nobody wants to talk to you, touch you, say
Speaker 5: anything to you.
Speaker 4: Two guys in my.
Speaker 5: Entire career in twenty four years, two guys Willie and lawyer.
Speaker 5: Lawyer and my lawyer, the two guys that would say
Speaker 5: something to me. And Willy comes up to me as
Speaker 5: I'm walking in and he gives me a right on.
Speaker 4: The butt, come on, man, we hit this thing.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I can't feel my ass cheek right now,
Speaker 5: but thank you for that.
Speaker 4: But okay, good.
Speaker 5: You know. But and and and Johnny Rotten, our equipment
Speaker 5: guy at the time, Johnny hillbrand And was like, you
Speaker 5: hit it, I don't get it, and he takes off
Speaker 5: down the sideline. So the funny things that you remember
Speaker 5: because everything's happening fast but slow.
Speaker 4: Everything slow motion kind of sort of in and you know, we.
Speaker 5: Finally, you know, dinking and dunkin and dinking and Duncan
Speaker 5: and Tom spikes the ball and it's all right, get
Speaker 5: out there and kick this thing. I'm thinking to myself,
Speaker 5: I'm like, forty eight yarder. It's not a chip shot
Speaker 5: by any means. It's a long kick. But I'm like,
Speaker 5: this is like like I everything's calm and quiet, lots
Speaker 5: of stuff is going on, but it just kind of
Speaker 5: your world just kind of shrinks to a little bit here.
Speaker 5: The only thing that I do remember is Rod Rutledge
Speaker 5: was my left wing and dre blies on the other side.
Speaker 4: And Rod is talking mad trash to him. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 4: talking all just just numbshit. I can see it too.
Speaker 5: It's like just yesterday, right, And and I'm the kind
Speaker 5: of guy that I like to get everybody set because
Speaker 5: I don't want to take my steps back and wait
Speaker 5: back there for a long time. And so Rod's over
Speaker 5: here just jahn, just talking trash, and I and Kenny's
Speaker 5: like waiting for me to get set, and I go, Kenny,
Speaker 5: make him stop.
Speaker 4: He does.
Speaker 5: Rod gets set, you know, and Rod's like, oh, you know,
Speaker 5: he gets down right, And so the biggest kick of
Speaker 5: your life, and this stupid crap is going on in
Speaker 5: front of you, right, like the stuff that's happening in
Speaker 5: front of you. And so I take my steps back
Speaker 5: and Kenny gives a set call comes boom boom boom,
Speaker 5: and it's like that golf shot that you don't even
Speaker 5: feel hit your club right, like it's just just nutted right,
Speaker 5: perfect right, and and I feel it leave my foot
Speaker 5: and without even looking up, I'm like, oh, that felt
Speaker 5: really good. And I look up it's dead center and
Speaker 5: I'm like, oh, yeah, you know. And at that point
Speaker 5: I turn and I'm jumping around and whatever, and Kenny's
Speaker 5: grabbing me, and the confetti starts.
Speaker 4: And all that stuff, and and it.
Speaker 5: Was just just I don't know, you know, it's just amazing.
Speaker 5: At that point, We've we our team fought so like
Speaker 5: six years for me and all the years and all
Speaker 5: the stuff, but but just that year in particular, with
Speaker 5: with Bloodshell going down and Brady coming in, the ups
Speaker 5: and downs, the nine to elevens, I mean just just
Speaker 5: the world was just a different place and for it
Speaker 5: all to come together like that, it was I mean, yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean absolutely I did.
Speaker 4: It was. It was just one of those things that
Speaker 4: you couldn't help it. And then and then.
Speaker 5: Johnny, who I love telling the story because because I
Speaker 5: have the ball.
Speaker 4: And on my and I see him, you know, we're
Speaker 4: the champions and all this stuff, and.
Speaker 5: I'm bringing my wife down from the crowd and where
Speaker 5: everybody's high fiving and hugging and all this stuff. And
Speaker 5: then all of a sudden, I see him coming over
Speaker 5: and he looks like he's been in a dogfight, right.
Speaker 4: Faces, all red shirts all pulled off, and I'm like,
Speaker 4: what happened? He goes, I got the ball.
Speaker 5: And I'm like, I'm like, awesome, I go what happened
Speaker 5: to you? And I wish like, like I've seen so
Speaker 5: many videos of the ball hitting the net and all
Speaker 5: this stuff, but you never see after that right hits
Speaker 5: the net, trickles down, Johnny catches the ball.
Speaker 4: The two ball guys or whoever they are, are like,
Speaker 4: give me the ball.
Speaker 5: He's like, nope, this is mine, and they're like attacking him,
Speaker 5: like trying to like hit him.
Speaker 4: And pull his arms and stack him and stuff. And
Speaker 4: he's like, I was not giving the ball.
Speaker 5: He runs inside, puts in the trunk, locks it up,
Speaker 5: and then he comes out and tells me, and I'm like,
Speaker 5: are you kidding me.
Speaker 4: Like this really happened during the Super Bowl.
Speaker 5: I wish, I wish I had video of that, but
Speaker 5: but it was just a yeah, incredible went off on
Speaker 5: the team.
Speaker 2: No, what a great memory.
Speaker 3: And you know, with the benefit of time now and
Speaker 3: as you're saying, you're as you're aging a little bit,
Speaker 3: you couldn't possibly think of this at the time. But
Speaker 3: do you understand that in that three week period between
Speaker 3: the two kicks in the Oakland game and the first
Speaker 3: the first super Bowl to ever be decided on the
Speaker 3: last play, the first super Bowl championship in this region,
Speaker 3: do you get an understanding of what your legacy is
Speaker 3: in this area if you ever did it, if you
Speaker 3: never did anything else at him those plays right there
Speaker 3: in that three week period. I mean, you never have
Speaker 3: to buy a stake in New England and forget for
Speaker 3: the rest of your life of what you were able
Speaker 3: to accomplish. And you accomplished so much more, but just
Speaker 3: in that period right there.
Speaker 5: I didn't realize it at the time, but over the
Speaker 5: next decade or two or whatever, I love it because
Speaker 5: every person that I meet tells me exactly where they're at,
Speaker 5: what they were doing.
Speaker 4: Like I've had people send.
Speaker 5: Me letters and say, my dad, who was elderly who
Speaker 5: watched this stuff physically was weeping in his chair.
Speaker 4: I got people telling me we were running down the
Speaker 4: street and freaking out and just.
Speaker 5: Do all kinds of crazy stuff. And like, for me,
Speaker 5: it's my livelihood, it's a game. It's what I've always
Speaker 5: wanted to do in my life. But I didn't understand
Speaker 5: what the magnitude of what it meant to everybody else
Speaker 5: until that time.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 5: And so so yeah, it's awesome. I like like every
Speaker 5: time I come back and people, I love to hear
Speaker 5: the story. So like, I bet you hate talking about this,
Speaker 5: I'm like, no, I love it, absolutely love it. I
Speaker 5: mean it's a great memory for all of us. And
Speaker 5: and you know, the Red Sox aren't start winning after that,
Speaker 5: like like like the the Massachuset, New England sports has
Speaker 5: been super spoiled the last two decades with Red Sox
Speaker 5: and Celtics and bro you know, like all the stuff that,
Speaker 5: Like it's just been amazing. It's just been a great run,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean.
Speaker 7: So you know, Bill after that, I'm not sure how
Speaker 7: long after the season was over, but he was sort
Speaker 7: of you know, retelling his thoughts, and he said, if
Speaker 7: you had told me I was going to have my
Speaker 7: best player in position to win the Super Bowl, I.
Speaker 6: Had of taken that situation.
Speaker 7: It's not often that a coach talks about his kicker
Speaker 7: in those kinds of terms.
Speaker 4: I've heard him say that, I thank you for the compliment.
Speaker 5: Obviously, there's so many unbel like I would never ever physically,
Speaker 5: hell no, I would never say that. But I felt
Speaker 5: like I was a guy that contributed to my job
Speaker 5: like everybody else did. And I can't get in everybody
Speaker 5: else's head. I loved it as much as anybody. I
Speaker 5: tried as hard as anybody, Like I competed as much
Speaker 5: as anybody else. But we had so many brothers, you know,
Speaker 5: like they're not my biological brother, but there was my
Speaker 5: brother as much as anybody else in this whole world.
Speaker 5: Like like, there's guys that mean the world to me
Speaker 5: throughout the last twenty years of you know, like I
Speaker 5: call weeee right now.
Speaker 4: You'd be like, what's that?
Speaker 5: You know?
Speaker 4: Are like the relationships that we built.
Speaker 5: And I always say that to people too, like that
Speaker 5: that have never won a Super Bowl or a high
Speaker 5: school championship or whatever I said.
Speaker 4: You'll have that for the rest of your life. It
Speaker 4: will be different for you because of it.
Speaker 5: The relationships that you build with these guys, it's just
Speaker 5: different now. I mean, it's just because what you had
Speaker 5: to go through to get to that level.
Speaker 4: It's just a just a different thing.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Bruce, Ki and Willie, and that's interesting to
Speaker 3: hear that.
Speaker 2: Pick up the phone and call those guys. What about
Speaker 2: Kenny and Lonnie? Because you guys, we.
Speaker 4: Talk all the time, all the time.
Speaker 2: You guys are literally the three of you.
Speaker 3: You're practicing by yourselves the whole time, and the three
Speaker 3: of you are responsible for some of the greatest moments
Speaker 3: of franchise system, no doubt.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: And people say, hey, how was that kick?
Speaker 3: To Bill or the media ask him, well, the operation
Speaker 3: was clean, And I don't think fans necessarily realize how
Speaker 3: important the operation.
Speaker 5: Those Yeah, you only get recognized if you screw up,
Speaker 5: mean a little bit different, but snapholed. They don't ever
Speaker 5: get it even mentioned in less thing goes wrong right.
Speaker 5: And I was so blessed that Kenny taught me a
Speaker 5: lot about kicking and trajectory of footballs and stuff. He
Speaker 5: learned it from John Casey when he was in Carolina,
Speaker 5: and then he brings it to me. It's like, hey, listen,
Speaker 5: I can hold, I can adjust to lean a little
Speaker 5: bit to help if if we've got a big win,
Speaker 5: we can take some of the draw off the ball.
Speaker 4: If I lean it a little bit more, I'm like,
Speaker 4: what the hell you talking about? Just put it down.
Speaker 4: I'll take it right.
Speaker 5: And over time, my trust level in him was incredible,
Speaker 5: like like I'm like, dude, like whatever you do, just
Speaker 5: do you because I know it's and it made it
Speaker 5: so much easier for.
Speaker 4: Me because I don't have to worry about all this
Speaker 4: other stuff.
Speaker 5: And and Lonnie another I mean awesome as well, like
Speaker 5: like those guys, And that's funny that you say it,
Speaker 5: because we have a little chain that we always go
Speaker 5: talking about family stuff. Are just funny stuff or hey
Speaker 5: remember this or whatever all the time once a month.
Speaker 4: At least, if not more often.
Speaker 5: So Yeah, And Donnie lives in California, casing Carolina and
Speaker 5: I'm in India now. So but it never goes away.
Speaker 5: The relationship is as good today as it was twenty
Speaker 5: years ago.
Speaker 6: Doesn't that make you feel good? Yeah?
Speaker 7: And so the whole like what is it slightly forward
Speaker 7: and to the left.
Speaker 6: Is that that Kenny?
Speaker 4: Well, so, so the amount of.
Speaker 6: That's how we want to get held. Remember, Yeah, when
Speaker 6: you're a nerd, that's that's that's that's that's the nerd stuff.
Speaker 6: We had to ask the kicker about it.
Speaker 5: Now that you're talking about that, then we'll explain it
Speaker 5: to the rest of the world.
Speaker 4: Yeah, a little bit of a forward.
Speaker 5: Lean allows you to get to hit the ball more solidly.
Speaker 5: Actually opens the sweet spot because all little kids always
Speaker 5: hit there and when they put it on a te
Speaker 5: they hold it back right and so they always miss,
Speaker 5: you know, And so a little bit of a forward
Speaker 5: lean it allows you to.
Speaker 4: Drive the ball a little bit more.
Speaker 5: And if you play in New England, it's windy every
Speaker 5: single day, so you have to learn how to drive
Speaker 5: the ball a little bit the lean as far as more.
Speaker 5: You know, away you always want to lean the ball
Speaker 5: a little So as a righty you're going to lean
Speaker 5: it a little bit to the right away from your
Speaker 5: body because your foot as it comes through you want it.
Speaker 4: To hit perpendicular to the ball.
Speaker 5: So but Kenny could actually go, hey, listen, we've got
Speaker 5: a big left to right wind so we wanted to
Speaker 5: actually almost cut into it a little bit.
Speaker 4: So I'm going to give you a little bit less lean.
Speaker 5: So your ball, if we were inside and there was
Speaker 5: no condition, your ball would actually draw a little bit.
Speaker 5: But that wind's pushing it, so it's going to keep
Speaker 5: it straight or vice versa. If it's blowing the other direction,
Speaker 5: then a little bit more lean. So I never even
Speaker 5: understood that. He's just like, you, don't worry about it.
Speaker 5: I'll get this figured out. But that was always and
Speaker 5: it's funny because they never really looked at the holder
Speaker 5: and the kicker right before they you know, there's a
Speaker 5: conversation going on all the time, and we'll find high
Speaker 5: ground or something like. We always want to go from
Speaker 5: a you know, you don't want to put the ball
Speaker 5: in a hole and trying to get a golf ball
Speaker 5: out of a hole, right, you want to have it
Speaker 5: high ground. If if you're hitting a scramble, you're gonna
Speaker 5: put it high ground so you get a good, clean hit, right,
Speaker 5: same kind of thing. There'd be times you'd be like, no, no,
Speaker 5: this is better here. You know, we're always working on
Speaker 5: because he's on his knee, can see.
Speaker 4: The ground better than me.
Speaker 5: And it sounds corny, but that's the little things that
Speaker 5: make the difference in the in the grand scheme of it.
Speaker 3: So we're talking about Lonnie Patson, the launch snapper, Kenny Walter,
Speaker 3: your holder, responsible for many things. If you go to
Speaker 3: the two thousand and three season and fast forward to
Speaker 3: Super Bowl thirty eight, and I think there's a lot
Speaker 3: of people that just look at Super Bowl thirty eight
Speaker 3: and Okay, maybe that's really where the dynasty was born.
Speaker 3: You guys were dominant that year, started that twenty one
Speaker 3: game winning streak, and you kick the game winning field
Speaker 3: goal again, and I think people.
Speaker 2: Don't know what's going on. Oh yeah, Adam had another.
Speaker 3: Game winner, but that was not your typical game winning
Speaker 3: field goal because of what was going on in that game.
Speaker 3: You actually missed a kick in that game, which probably people.
Speaker 2: Don't recall, and you had a kick blocked. You had
Speaker 2: unique circumstances that game, didn't you.
Speaker 5: Yeah, Lonnie got hurt earlier in the season. We had
Speaker 5: another holder or another snapper that got hurt. And then
Speaker 5: Brian Kitchen, who was retired, came in. Bill knew him
Speaker 5: from earlier in his career and he comes in and
Speaker 5: he had.
Speaker 4: A little bit of issues.
Speaker 5: He ended up cutting the webbing of his finger in
Speaker 5: the pregame meal buttering a roll.
Speaker 4: With a state knife. I don't know how that happens, but.
Speaker 5: Long story short, and in the whole week we had
Speaker 5: some some trials and tribulations, a little bit of craziness
Speaker 5: that went along. So yeah, there was a lot of
Speaker 5: extra circumstances that went into that game. But yeah, you know,
Speaker 5: Brian's best snap of his career was the game whin
Speaker 5: It was bang.
Speaker 4: Right on point.
Speaker 5: It was perfect, but yeah, it was. It was an
Speaker 5: interesting situation nonetheless.
Speaker 7: So this time though, you couldn't go out there never
Speaker 7: worrying about your snaper a holder this time. I'm sure
Speaker 7: that was front of mine. But yet right down the
Speaker 7: middle again forty one yards.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well, thank thank goodness, everything worked out well. Yeah,
Speaker 5: you know, it's one of those things like you know,
Speaker 5: I think the good performers at any any you know,
Speaker 5: kicking or a pitcher or whatever. You know, if you're
Speaker 5: if you're a closer and pitcher and somebody hits a
Speaker 5: home run and you lose the game, you gotta forget that,
Speaker 5: right because you're going to be out there again. And
Speaker 5: two days later, and if you're still thinking about that,
Speaker 5: you're gonna have some issues. And I think the best
Speaker 5: ones can clear their mind. And don't get me wrong,
Speaker 5: it's not easy to do. I mean, you're you're having
Speaker 5: a tough game, or you.
Speaker 4: Miss a kid gosh.
Speaker 5: I mean, I I remember the miss is way more
Speaker 5: than I remember the mix.
Speaker 4: I really do. I mean, they they just grind on
Speaker 4: you a little bit more because you're like, why the
Speaker 4: heck did I mix miss that? You know?
Speaker 5: So, yeah, having having a miss earlier in the game
Speaker 5: and and having one blocked earlier in the game, I'm
Speaker 5: sitting there going, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4: You know, but you have to be able to.
Speaker 5: Walk out there and at that particular time and go
Speaker 5: clear your mind and really just focus on the next
Speaker 5: second and a half what's what's happening in front of you.
Speaker 5: And it's sometimes easier said than done. The ones that
Speaker 5: can't do it usually usually on around very long.
Speaker 3: Were you excited at that point in time that you
Speaker 3: had another chance to quote unquote redeem yourself?
Speaker 4: Absolutely?
Speaker 6: Yeah.
Speaker 5: I hate ending a game on a on a miss
Speaker 5: or something like you miss one in the second quarter.
Speaker 5: You don't get another opportunity you're like, damn it, you know,
Speaker 5: I want to you know, you just want to have
Speaker 5: you know, it's not it's not about stats and how
Speaker 5: many of that is just you just want to You
Speaker 5: always want to finish on a good note.
Speaker 3: Do you again, with the gift of time, are you
Speaker 3: able at them to look back at all and say
Speaker 3: that you were part of a team. You're the last
Speaker 3: team to ever repeat the three and then the four teams,
Speaker 3: the last team in the NFL. There's been a lot
Speaker 3: of worthy candidates. Do you look at do you look
Speaker 3: back at that with a certain fondness of Well, that's
Speaker 3: really it's hard to win one.
Speaker 4: It's really hard to repeat. It's really hard to win
Speaker 4: three and four.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean that even you can saying that, Yeah,
Speaker 5: to a certain degree, that's that's even more impressive, not
Speaker 5: because you've won two, but the toll that it takes
Speaker 5: on a on a team to make it to a
Speaker 5: super Bowl. A lot of times it's hard to come
Speaker 5: back the next year because it's a month less offseason,
Speaker 5: it's a month you know, got it's just more difficult. So, yeah,
Speaker 5: you know it was those years were fun. They were
Speaker 5: just so much fun because we expected to beat everybody
Speaker 5: all the time. And I don't know if that that's
Speaker 5: not an arrogance. It's just a confidence that we had
Speaker 5: in the locker room that we knew that the guys
Speaker 5: that we had like, hey, if we play well, we
Speaker 5: execute Bill's game plan, we're going to win.
Speaker 4: You know, we didn't win every single time, but we
Speaker 4: want most of the time. You know, it was fun.
Speaker 5: It was a really fun run throughout that and you know,
Speaker 5: nothing against the Philadelphia Eagles or anything like that, but
Speaker 5: we just felt like we were a better team than them.
Speaker 7: So with obviously the brotherhood that you talked about, how
Speaker 7: difficult was it after the five season to leave?
Speaker 4: Very difficult.
Speaker 5: We could talk for two hours about that particular situation,
Speaker 5: but yeah, it I didn't want to go. I just
Speaker 5: felt like I wanted something that was fair. That's probably
Speaker 5: the nicest way I can say it. Never saw free
Speaker 5: agency for ten years, got franchised several times. All I
Speaker 5: wanted was a multi year deal, fair money, it's all.
Speaker 5: And they played games. And then I finally got a
Speaker 5: team that offered me that, and I gave him an
Speaker 5: opportunity to match or to give a real offer, and
Speaker 5: it didn't come. So I left, and that's about as
Speaker 5: nice as I.
Speaker 4: Can say that.
Speaker 7: So, Matt and I were talking about this before you
Speaker 7: came in, and I'm not sure if it was on
Speaker 7: your mind at the time, if it was part of
Speaker 7: the you know, the thought process, but like, ultimately the
Speaker 7: way it worked out, it may have been one of
Speaker 7: the best things that could have happened for you're kicking indoors.
Speaker 7: How many more years, fourteen more years?
Speaker 2: Has that ever happened to?
Speaker 3: Like?
Speaker 4: I mean this, Yeah, I was fortunate.
Speaker 5: I played two full careers with two different teams, right,
Speaker 5: I mean really, I mean ten years and fourteen years.
Speaker 4: I mean, are you kidding me?
Speaker 5: That's pretty awesome going to Indie. You know, I always
Speaker 5: said if I was going to leave an incredible organization,
Speaker 5: I wasn't going to go to a crappy organization that
Speaker 5: had no chance of winning, right.
Speaker 4: So didn't say AFC, NFC this or that.
Speaker 5: I said, play it in crummy weather in New England
Speaker 5: for ten years. If I'm going to leave, it's going
Speaker 5: to be for some It's going to be a South team,
Speaker 5: it's going to be a dome, it's going to be
Speaker 5: somewhere nicer weather. If you will, you know, and then
Speaker 5: I had a lot of teams that called, and then
Speaker 5: Indy made me an offer I could refuse.
Speaker 3: Was that a thought process that you know, like was
Speaker 3: the indoor part of it?
Speaker 2: Hey, this could really help.
Speaker 4: I didn't really look at it longevity wise.
Speaker 5: I didn't say, hey, I can extend my career doing this,
Speaker 5: But I did think, man, this is my stats shouldn't
Speaker 5: suffer going in sure, you know, if anything, they should improve,
Speaker 5: which they probably did over you know, my field goal
Speaker 5: makes versus missus. You know, percentages probably did go up
Speaker 5: being inside at that point. I think in my first
Speaker 5: ten seasons, I'd never missed a kick inside, which I
Speaker 5: was like, oh, that doesn't suck.
Speaker 6: You know, so Tom never lost the game in a
Speaker 6: dome for a long time.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and you got a chance at least to have
Speaker 7: one playoff game in Crumby Weather that first year.
Speaker 6: Right you were in Buffalo.
Speaker 7: You kicked five I mean Baltimore with five field goals
Speaker 7: in the slop there in Baltimore. I mean, that must
Speaker 7: have made you feel right at home, right, just like.
Speaker 5: Taking Yeah, it was funny because some of the new
Speaker 5: teammates they're like, man, I hated you for a long time,
Speaker 5: you better prove.
Speaker 4: You're worthy of it.
Speaker 5: Gary Brackett, one of our linebackers in particular, he came
Speaker 5: up to me after the game.
Speaker 4: He goes, you earned my respect like that in itself.
Speaker 5: I mean, because it was fifty some yacht right from
Speaker 5: one of them, right, fifteen to six or whatever the
Speaker 5: score was, so it was all field goals. Every point
Speaker 5: was scored by my field goals. Probably a boring game
Speaker 5: to watch unless you're a defensive minded person, but yeah,
Speaker 5: it was.
Speaker 4: It was a pretty good game I.
Speaker 3: Think from a Patriots fans perspective when you look back
Speaker 3: at that era and you look at the Patriots Colts rivalry,
Speaker 3: meaning Brady, it was one of the greatest periods of
Speaker 3: all time. You got to see it from both sides.
Speaker 3: What was that like to experience it from both times?
Speaker 3: I think, or I remember not proud to say this.
Speaker 2: Did you get booed when you came back at six? So?
Speaker 2: I think there was sort of smattering.
Speaker 4: Of booze was so.
Speaker 5: So this is exactly what they did, and I respect
Speaker 5: all of them for it. They cheered me when I
Speaker 5: came on, They booed me the entire game, and they
Speaker 5: any ovation to me when I left, which is a respect.
Speaker 4: Thing, which which I was like, I get it. I understand.
Speaker 4: That's cool.
Speaker 5: That's the gamemanship, that's the that's the twelfth player kind
Speaker 5: of thing, which was cool.
Speaker 4: I do remember later on when we came back, some
Speaker 4: of the fans dude, are you suck this and that?
Speaker 5: And I remember McAfee, who who never stays quiet for anything,
Speaker 5: turns around he's like.
Speaker 2: Really he sucks.
Speaker 5: Come on, like like he just challenged that guy, and
Speaker 5: like all the people around him were.
Speaker 4: Like, ah, it's pretty funny, like he got you, you know whatever.
Speaker 5: And then then it carried on. But but I didn't
Speaker 5: usually like to make too much. I try not to
Speaker 5: pay too much attention to the crowd and stuff. But yeah,
Speaker 5: you can absolutely hear it.
Speaker 4: But I get it.
Speaker 5: I mean I understand, like, listen, fans are are buck
Speaker 5: while they're awesome, they're awesome, and that's that's what makes
Speaker 5: them awesome.
Speaker 4: I mean they there's truly an advantage of playing at
Speaker 4: home in New England.
Speaker 2: You mentioned him, so I got to follow up with it.
Speaker 3: Please tell me you never have to pay when you
Speaker 3: and McAfee go out, but you have ever a made
Speaker 3: he in backafee blowing up into what he's blown up
Speaker 3: to now.
Speaker 5: You know, when he said he was going to retire
Speaker 5: from football and he was going to start all this stuff,
Speaker 5: I'm sitting there going to do don't do it?
Speaker 4: What are you talking? Like, are you kidding me?
Speaker 5: You're going to give up multimillion dollars a year on
Speaker 5: the field. And he's like, I got other things that
Speaker 5: are going to work out good. And I'm like, holy cuts.
Speaker 5: I'm like, like he was right. I was wrong, Like like,
Speaker 5: don't get me wrong, Like he still had many more
Speaker 5: years of playing, and he was a great team and
Speaker 5: he was fun to be around.
Speaker 4: And all that stuff. I'm so proud of him. He's
Speaker 4: done great. He's done amazing.
Speaker 5: Like I always knew he was the life of the party.
Speaker 5: I just didn't know he was going to kill it
Speaker 5: as well as he did.
Speaker 2: You've been out now for a couple of years.
Speaker 3: I think you need to wait another two or three
Speaker 3: years when you hear people to date about Pro Football
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame drawing a lot of kickers in the
Speaker 3: Hall of Fame.
Speaker 4: Adam too.
Speaker 3: But I don't think that there's anybody that would take
Speaker 3: a look at your career all time leading score, the
Speaker 3: clutch kicks the game when he kicks everything like that,
Speaker 3: and again, to quote one of the greatest stories of
Speaker 3: the game, Bill Belichick, he says, it's a no brainer.
Speaker 2: Adam, do you think about that? Is that on your
Speaker 2: mind at all? Is it important to you?
Speaker 4: I would lie if I said I'd never thought about it.
Speaker 5: That's that's an absolute That's not true. You know, when
Speaker 5: I played, I didn't ever want to talk about it,
Speaker 5: or I just kind of deflected that story. Now that
Speaker 5: I've sat back and thought about it a little bit more, yeah,
Speaker 5: I mean obviously, I mean, you lie.
Speaker 4: If you didn't say you want to be in that.
Speaker 4: Of course I do.
Speaker 5: It's a humongous honor to be considered one of the
Speaker 5: elite guys to ever play the game. I'll say this,
Speaker 5: you don't get there without playing with amazing teammates and
Speaker 5: having that opportunity.
Speaker 4: If I played, I don't know, pick a team.
Speaker 5: I'm gonna say the Alaska Eskimos because I don't want
Speaker 5: to disrespect any team in the league right now, But
Speaker 5: if you play for them and you never play. I
Speaker 5: look at a guy like Jason Hanson, I think he's
Speaker 5: a great kicker played a lot long time, played in
Speaker 5: a couple of playoff games. He doesn't get doesn't get
Speaker 5: the recognition because he didn't get to.
Speaker 4: Play in those types of situations.
Speaker 5: So for me, I sit there and I go, if
Speaker 5: I'm fortunate enough to have a gold jacket, which I
Speaker 5: hope I do. I hope I do. I hope it soon,
Speaker 5: you know whatever, and if it happens, it's it's more.
Speaker 5: Of course I had to kick those kicks, but I
Speaker 5: couldn't have been anywhere out there with without all of
Speaker 5: my teammates, without the coaches, without having them having faith
Speaker 5: in me to put me out for these certain situations
Speaker 5: and stuff like that. So of course you have to
Speaker 5: you have to make the opportunity when it presents itself.
Speaker 5: But there's just so many other, you know, people that
Speaker 5: they don't give you enough time to thank everybody that
Speaker 5: deserves things.
Speaker 3: You mentioned Hanson, and there's a handful of other kickers
Speaker 3: that you can think of, Oh, you know that that
Speaker 3: guy might have had a Hall of Fame career. But
Speaker 3: I think there's a unanimity, unanimous thinking of, well, there
Speaker 3: aren't a lot of kickers in the Hall of Fame.
Speaker 3: But if there's ever gonna be one. It's got to
Speaker 3: be this guy in Adam Vini Terry. How does that
Speaker 3: you know the fact that there just seems to be
Speaker 3: a consensus of it. I don't know that that's gonna
Speaker 3: happen when these netwis get in the room because there
Speaker 3: is all that politics that gets involved and everything like that.
Speaker 3: But there is a sense of this guy broke the
Speaker 3: mold and this guy his career did it.
Speaker 2: That's got to make you feel proud.
Speaker 4: It does, Yeah, it does.
Speaker 5: I mean again, like I always tried to take every
Speaker 5: not even every season, every kick, every game, every whatever,
Speaker 5: and do the best that I could to help my team.
Speaker 5: But when you turn around you look back on your career,
Speaker 5: it was pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: It's pretty fun.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'm so blessed, been so fortunate to be, like
Speaker 5: I said, to be put in the right situations with
Speaker 5: the right team, just to just some snot nose kid
Speaker 5: from South Dakota that nobody expected.
Speaker 4: To even make the team.
Speaker 5: The fact that Bill Parcells didn't cut me when he
Speaker 5: did and said, hey he's week to week. He gave
Speaker 5: me one more week. Thank you Bill, you know, thank
Speaker 5: you other coaches for hey, you know what, it's probably
Speaker 5: this kick is the hardest kick in History's probably not
Speaker 5: gonna make it, but we're gonna give you a chance,
Speaker 5: you know, things like that, like like without those opportunities,
Speaker 5: and I'm just a guy.
Speaker 6: Right, It's tremendous, perfect way to tremendous.
Speaker 2: Uh, can't thank you enough for the time. This was
Speaker 2: really good. I hope you're enjoyed an all the story.
Speaker 2: It was really really fun for us Outavin to tarry
Speaker 2: our guest.
Speaker 3: Everyone.
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