Speaker 1: Nat Smith joined by Brian Moory for our Pats from
Speaker 1: the Past podcast, and it has brought you by who
Speaker 1: but WB Mason. You're one stop shop for all your
Speaker 1: business needs for faster delivery of business products. And Brian,
Speaker 1: could there be a better Pats in the Past person
Speaker 1: to speak with than Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker Teddy Bruski. Tenny,
Speaker 1: thank you for joining us from the past. That's me
Speaker 1: I still have. I think I'd like to say that
Speaker 1: you could still come in off the edge and probably
Speaker 1: get a quarterback pressure, but I think at your current
Speaker 1: size you might you look more like a free safety
Speaker 1: at this point time. Speed rush, ye could speed rush,
Speaker 1: probably not bull rush, nothing physical, no counter moves or
Speaker 1: anything like that. But yeah, the counter with the spine
Speaker 1: speed to spin, but no power. Yeah. Let's let's remind
Speaker 1: Patriots fans who really shouldn't need this reminder, but just
Speaker 1: let's give everybody an update on what you're doing these days.
Speaker 1: And so my recollection is you got bumped up a
Speaker 1: little bit. You're at the Worldwide Leader down in Bristol,
Speaker 1: but you're on Sunday NFL countdown this year, and I
Speaker 1: gotta tell you it was a tremendous boost of energy
Speaker 1: to have you on the show. I'm not sitting here
Speaker 1: blowing smoke up your rear end things. But it was
Speaker 1: a great addition to that show that needed it, and
Speaker 1: I think you do a great job on that. So
Speaker 1: tell people what you're doing. Yeah, I mean I started
Speaker 1: out with ESPN as soon as I retired from here.
Speaker 1: I mean three days later after my retirement press conference,
Speaker 1: ESPN called and asked me to be an analyst. And
Speaker 1: I mean, I said, where is it. I didn't even
Speaker 1: know where they were. Do I have to take a
Speaker 1: flight or anything. It's a two hour drive And I
Speaker 1: said okay, And so I started out on the weekly
Speaker 1: the weekly beat, I guess you call it of NFL
Speaker 1: Live Sports Center, you know, radio, those type of things.
Speaker 1: And I was just happy there for you know, for
Speaker 1: ten years I did it, and they had talked to
Speaker 1: me about Sundays, but it was never really in my
Speaker 1: plans because I valued my weekends with the kids when
Speaker 1: they were when they were young, you know, so in
Speaker 1: doing all the weekend sports with the kids and everything.
Speaker 1: So it just worked out again where it came around,
Speaker 1: and you know, my boss asked me about Sundays again
Speaker 1: they moved on from Charles Woodson and they said they'd
Speaker 1: want me to, you know, take over the seat, and
Speaker 1: I said, sure, why not. And it's just been fun.
Speaker 1: It was so easy with Moss. I mean I knew Randy.
Speaker 1: I knew Randy, and you know, even Rex. You sort
Speaker 1: of know of Rex, you know, and I know his
Speaker 1: brother Rob, who was my linebacker coach for a few
Speaker 1: years here when he was here. Um, you know, Hasselbs
Speaker 1: got the BC connection, the New England connection, his father
Speaker 1: playing here. So it was really easy for me to
Speaker 1: sit in and feel comfortable with them, and they were
Speaker 1: all so welcoming to me. And Sam Ponder was you know,
Speaker 1: I had to get to know Sam a little bit.
Speaker 1: I hadn't known her, only seen her on college game day,
Speaker 1: but I had seen her on Countdown. So once that
Speaker 1: all developed, the show really started to get better, especially
Speaker 1: towards the end. And you know, the the reaction of
Speaker 1: it was positive from a lot of people. And then
Speaker 1: I think the network's happy about it. The chemistry between
Speaker 1: you and Randy is unmistakable. Well, I mean you can
Speaker 1: really tell you guys who were in the same walker
Speaker 1: room together. I think it really shows and it helps
Speaker 1: to show out tremendously. Yeah, in terms of respect with
Speaker 1: Moss and I and I remember doing a Monday night
Speaker 1: game here and Randy coming up to me when he
Speaker 1: was still playing and you know, saying what's up on
Speaker 1: live TV and all that stuff. So you know, really
Speaker 1: always you know, respected each other, but knowing each other
Speaker 1: now on even on a more of a personal basis,
Speaker 1: you know, talking about our interests and spending a lot
Speaker 1: of time together, you know how you have to sort
Speaker 1: of as a crew off camera. It's just really progressed
Speaker 1: and you know, hopefully, you know, it looks like the
Speaker 1: same CRUI is gonna be back next year for the show,
Speaker 1: so we're looking forward to that. Rex Ryan was always
Speaker 1: a good rival for us here at the Patriots. What's
Speaker 1: it like working with him and one of those conversations
Speaker 1: maybe like off the air, Uh, we talk a lot
Speaker 1: about a defensive football and we have a lot of
Speaker 1: the same perspective on things and how we see him
Speaker 1: and in our overall philosophy of football. He's a little
Speaker 1: more aggress something me in terms of his personalities and
Speaker 1: how he comes out, and that's what you need from Rex.
Speaker 1: Though he's an emotional guy. He wears his heart on
Speaker 1: his sleeve. You gotta love it about him. I think
Speaker 1: is the minute I got on set, I was like,
Speaker 1: I like this guy. You know. It's just all the
Speaker 1: players that play for Rex, you know, they can you
Speaker 1: can you can tell how they just care about them.
Speaker 1: And so I mean my son, I have a son
Speaker 1: named Rex, so he sort of had that. And it's
Speaker 1: funny because I would send text to my son and
Speaker 1: he and for me, he was always the only Rex
Speaker 1: that would pop up when I in the address books
Speaker 1: of Rex, and I'd be asking them questions about Okay,
Speaker 1: you gotta do the dishes or something like that, or
Speaker 1: when you come home, and and Rex Ryan with texting
Speaker 1: me saying, hey, bru, yeah, I think he just meant
Speaker 1: to go to your son. So I was texting Rex
Speaker 1: things about I was that I was asking my son too,
Speaker 1: So that was that was sort of a joke. It
Speaker 1: happened probably three to four times over the course of
Speaker 1: the season, and I finally figured out. But now I
Speaker 1: have two Rexes in my phone. That's funny. So Teddy,
Speaker 1: when you're coming out of college and you're getting prepared
Speaker 1: for the draft and everything like that, I mean, tied
Speaker 1: for the all time lead in sacks. Maybe Patriot fans
Speaker 1: don't remember that two time All American, They might not
Speaker 1: remember that. Were you surprised that you went in the
Speaker 1: third round or did you think you know, again, I'm
Speaker 1: maybe I'm harping on size a little bit. Did you think, geez,
Speaker 1: because of my size, that doesn't surprise me. Maybe that
Speaker 1: I'm going in the third round? Yeah, that's all it was.
Speaker 1: Really they you know, they saw six foot one, two
Speaker 1: hundred forty five pound defensive end. I mean, I knew collegiately.
Speaker 1: I was one of the three best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the draft. I mean, my numbers couldn't couldn't really argue
Speaker 1: with anyone else. I had the fifty two sack mark
Speaker 1: and tied Derrek Thomas like you're saying, And it was
Speaker 1: something I was extremely proud of. But you gotta project
Speaker 1: where you're gonna go, you know, And a lot of
Speaker 1: a lot of teams. The Lions wanted me to play
Speaker 1: defensive tackle, and the coach told me he was going
Speaker 1: to make me the next John Randall, you know. And
Speaker 1: then there was Polly and when he was with the
Speaker 1: Panthers wanted me to come in and play outside linebacker
Speaker 1: Greg Lloyd and Kevin Green and then the Patriots. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, want of you had more visions of me
Speaker 1: added off the ball linebacker. But I started on the
Speaker 1: ball playing Sam and then went off the ball to
Speaker 1: play Mike and Will and everybody just sort of had
Speaker 1: an idea of what I was going to be. And
Speaker 1: when you have that sort of idea and you're not
Speaker 1: sure that doesn't equal first round pick. You know, I
Speaker 1: understood that, and uh, you know I accepted that. But
Speaker 1: you know, coming in I got drafted by the Patriots,
Speaker 1: and luckily they moved up to get me in front
Speaker 1: of the Carolina Panthers and things worked out well. Teddy,
Speaker 1: how difficult is it for a guy to go playing
Speaker 1: with his hand down the ground to playing off the ball. Well,
Speaker 1: it took me three years to get to get used
Speaker 1: to it, Brian, because that says something. It's a different world, right,
Speaker 1: is it like learning? Almost? Yea worse than that. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, when you're down and you have your hand
Speaker 1: in the dirt, there's a certain vision that you have
Speaker 1: of what you see. And all I really had to
Speaker 1: see was the tight end that was in front of me,
Speaker 1: or the offensive tackles hip, you know. In college, that's
Speaker 1: all I had to do. It was very simple for me.
Speaker 1: But now I'm up and back and now my vision
Speaker 1: is so wide now and I'm seeing things that I
Speaker 1: have to decipher that I had. What does that mean?
Speaker 1: You know, my very first meeting with Dante Scarnekia, who
Speaker 1: was an assistant linebacker coach at the time and now
Speaker 1: grow they said, okay, here we go. I'm the only
Speaker 1: one in the room and they're trying to explain cover
Speaker 1: two to me, and they say, okay, when you recognize
Speaker 1: past dropped to the hook and I raised my hand,
Speaker 1: I say, where's that. I had never taken a drop
Speaker 1: in my life. I mean, I remember the Cincinnati Bengals
Speaker 1: coming to work me out and put me in some
Speaker 1: drops and all this stuff, and I fell down, actually
Speaker 1: dropping backwards, and I said, yeah, they're not going to
Speaker 1: pick me to myself as I done it myself off
Speaker 1: when I got up. But it is goodness for that.
Speaker 1: It's night and day. And it just took a little
Speaker 1: while to get used to it. But I had to
Speaker 1: find a role for me on the team that kept
Speaker 1: a job until I learned how to play linebacker. Just
Speaker 1: special teams and you'll hear coaches Bill talks about it
Speaker 1: all the time. Well, these guys, they got to show
Speaker 1: me something on special teams before we can even introduce
Speaker 1: them to what's going on. So the positive in your
Speaker 1: rookie year, and there was a lot of positives. Larry
Speaker 1: Wigham twenty five. I always remember twenty five and your
Speaker 1: scoreboard number one in your heart walk punt down at Baltimore.
Speaker 1: Who was there to scoop and score? Yeah, my first
Speaker 1: ever career touchdown I was against the Baltimore Ravens. See,
Speaker 1: playing special team does one thing and then also finding
Speaker 1: a role somehow to help the defense. I mean they
Speaker 1: saw I could rush the passer even still as a
Speaker 1: down lineman still, and so they tried to find a
Speaker 1: way to put me on the field. And al Girl
Speaker 1: made a package called Cactus because I went to the
Speaker 1: University of Arizona, so this called Cactus. I remember there
Speaker 1: was a package versus Buffalo when we got Rabel, we
Speaker 1: called it Buckeye, but for me, it was Cactus. I'd
Speaker 1: come in and I played defensive tackle. I got two
Speaker 1: sacks in the Super Bowl from the defensive tackle position,
Speaker 1: I mean beating guards and spin moves and all of
Speaker 1: that stuff, you know. So ill so Special Teams also
Speaker 1: became somewhat of an adjustment to me. The past Russian
Speaker 1: was natural. I remember Sweatman, who was the Special team's
Speaker 1: coach at that time, coming up to me in the
Speaker 1: hallways and telling me, a, you gotta start making some tackles,
Speaker 1: because it was three weeks and I hadn't made a
Speaker 1: tackle yet on kickoff team or punt team, and it
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, you gotta start showing us you can
Speaker 1: do some things, or we're gonna put somebody else in there.
Speaker 1: I went out the next game and had three Special
Speaker 1: Teams tackles. I was like, you got to produce, even
Speaker 1: you know, if you're in that developmental role, but still
Speaker 1: what they put you in, you still have to show
Speaker 1: progress and produce and make, you know, make plays. So
Speaker 1: that dovetails into probably not a very forgettable moment for you.
Speaker 1: And so blame the passer if you want, But Denver
Speaker 1: at home, Denver was loaded. Denver's loaded. That's an infamous
Speaker 1: national guard. A national Guard were killing the patriots and
Speaker 1: you go for it on fourth down and two pers
Speaker 1: throwing to number fifty four. Well, it wasn't supposed to
Speaker 1: go to me. The call was Brown, right, okay, And
Speaker 1: it was for Corwyn Brown. He was the personal protector.
Speaker 1: He was to release and then and and run a
Speaker 1: route that was deeper than mine and the out route,
Speaker 1: and I was the wing and I went out and
Speaker 1: there it was and the ball was there, and it
Speaker 1: was a perfect throw for a guy who's had so
Speaker 1: many interceptions interceptions for touchdowns, and like that's a different
Speaker 1: to being a rookie problem. Not at that point, right, not,
Speaker 1: at that point. I was still a defensive lineman on
Speaker 1: the bo team right there, from the from the universe, Arizona.
Speaker 1: But it came, it was in my hands for a
Speaker 1: second and then boom just dropped it and it was
Speaker 1: that started the route, you know. And I remember walking
Speaker 1: by parcels like you gotta cash that, Bruce Key. I'm like,
Speaker 1: oh man, So that was like you know what I
Speaker 1: did too. There was an article in the Globe, I think,
Speaker 1: after that, and there was a picture of me on
Speaker 1: the ground and I saved that article for a long
Speaker 1: time because I never wanted me to be that guy again.
Speaker 1: And sort of poetic justice in the AFC Championship game
Speaker 1: when I got that interception. Somebody might have just by
Speaker 1: a batted ball up in the air, a tip all
Speaker 1: up in the air, and I caught it, and I
Speaker 1: ran straight out of bounds and almost it was almost
Speaker 1: in the same area where I dropped that pass. So
Speaker 1: that's a little bit of a little bit of redemption
Speaker 1: for me. But whenever I see someone have a moment
Speaker 1: like that, I always think of my moment and and
Speaker 1: that was my rookie year, and yeah, that was what
Speaker 1: I won't forget. So you mentioned parcels reaction. What was
Speaker 1: it liked to come in and play for Bill Parcels
Speaker 1: as a rookie. What were your first impressions of him.
Speaker 1: I had never been, you know, just a different type
Speaker 1: of coach I had never experienced. Dick Tomy was my
Speaker 1: coaching in college. Parcels was much more aggressive, much more Jersey,
Speaker 1: you know, sort of like my father, you know, you know,
Speaker 1: really rough Italian man like my dad was. But I
Speaker 1: know Parcels not Italian or anything like that, but still,
Speaker 1: um that type of personality, aggressive, break you down, build
Speaker 1: you up type of thing. Um excuse me. Just very
Speaker 1: fortunate that Bill was the one that laid my football
Speaker 1: foundation that I call it because you know she After
Speaker 1: Bill left, I mean, Carol came in and it was
Speaker 1: Pete Carroll came in and it was like night and day.
Speaker 1: But for Bill to teach me, you know, those type
Speaker 1: of lessons about you know, hard work and what it
Speaker 1: took to put into the game was something that was
Speaker 1: special to me. I mean I started making plays my
Speaker 1: rookie year, even in practice, and they started to see progress.
Speaker 1: And this is this is Bill Parcels for you. He
Speaker 1: used to drive his Cadillac all the way to the
Speaker 1: to the to the bubble back then, and every it
Speaker 1: was like that El Dorado, he just get a different
Speaker 1: El Dorado. It is a different color whatever it was.
Speaker 1: And I had one good practice where I stepped in
Speaker 1: front of Degg Megat and I intercepted Bled. So when
Speaker 1: I took it back, I got a sack on Bled.
Speaker 1: So something like that. And Parcels says, Bruce Ki, get
Speaker 1: in my car. And so he drove me back to
Speaker 1: practice and it was about a good that's getting called
Speaker 1: to the principles. Yes, yeah, oh shit, oh sorry, like
Speaker 1: what is this about? You know what I mean? So um,
Speaker 1: he drives me in the car and he talks to
Speaker 1: me about a few things and then only talks to
Speaker 1: me about for half the riot is getting an accountant.
Speaker 1: And I said, and he says to me, I've seen
Speaker 1: more guys go down to the irs than to drugs
Speaker 1: or women or anything like that. Man, So go ahead
Speaker 1: and get your get your accountant and make sure things
Speaker 1: are in order. And I went home called my agent,
Speaker 1: said I need an accountant, and he said it's November. Man,
Speaker 1: you don't need an accountant right now. But I don't
Speaker 1: care get one anyway, because that was a that was
Speaker 1: like a moment for me, because there was Bill Parcel's
Speaker 1: telling me that I could I could be in this
Speaker 1: league for a long time, and you know, it was
Speaker 1: just it was just a moment. I'll never forget that
Speaker 1: Cadillac ride in that El Dorado you talk about. You
Speaker 1: talked earlier about your kids. Here's one that's a teachable
Speaker 1: moment for your kids as a dad. The coach doesn't
Speaker 1: talk to the kid who he doesn't think has got
Speaker 1: really any future, you know. Yeah, he's on the kids
Speaker 1: who he sees something in maybe that he's not getting
Speaker 1: anything out of. Or he talks to the kid that
Speaker 1: he needs a little bit something more out of that
Speaker 1: must have kind of blown your mind a little bit
Speaker 1: that you're getting called into the principal's office, Like I said,
Speaker 1: mobile style. But he showed you then that he cared.
Speaker 1: He did, and he cared in a way that I mean,
Speaker 1: even if guys had problems, Bill will try to help
Speaker 1: them fix their problems. I remember hearing the stories I
Speaker 1: mean about him just getting involved in guys' lives. But
Speaker 1: for me, I didn't have problem. I had problem. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was more of I see a future for you.
Speaker 1: So this is a step where you can make that
Speaker 1: make sure that future is going to be a good one.
Speaker 1: And you know that was really positive for me. That's awesome.
Speaker 1: So then how are you affected by his departure after
Speaker 1: your rookie season and this is the NFL. I mean,
Speaker 1: I remember seeing that article by Will McDonough and the
Speaker 1: you know, the headline and parcels to leave after the
Speaker 1: super Bowl and everything like that, and one year and
Speaker 1: you're done. You know, I valued my time with him
Speaker 1: so much, you know, But to see that he was
Speaker 1: leaving is I had no idea what to what to think.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm a rookie. I don't know what's going on, Okay,
Speaker 1: who's the next coach going to be coming in? I
Speaker 1: thought the coach was going to be Belichick, really because
Speaker 1: Parcels didn't take the plane ride back, but Bill was
Speaker 1: on that plane, and Bill was going around to certain
Speaker 1: specific players and having individual conversations, and I was wondering
Speaker 1: why he was doing that. And he remember him talking
Speaker 1: to me and saying, you did a great job. That's
Speaker 1: a good rookie year. You just got to keep working
Speaker 1: and improve, like he was talking about the future, like
Speaker 1: the immediate future. And he walked away and I said, Okay,
Speaker 1: I guess he's going to be our next coach. And
Speaker 1: then of course that didn't work out, and then Pete
Speaker 1: Carroll came in. But you know, so everything's just like,
Speaker 1: I don't know who the coach is going to be.
Speaker 1: I just got to make year I keep my job somehow, someway,
Speaker 1: because that's how you that's how players, when you're going
Speaker 1: through all these problems and all these distractions and all
Speaker 1: these coaches changing, it's it's just about, Okay, well, how
Speaker 1: can I keep my job? And that's what my thought
Speaker 1: process was at that point. You were listening to the
Speaker 1: Pats from the Past podcast brought to you by who
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Speaker 1: business essentials for free with no minimum order breaking furniture, facilities, maintenance,
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Speaker 1: WB Mason. But is it intoxicating? Teddy? Your rookie year,
Speaker 1: you go to the Super Bowl and despite all this
Speaker 1: turmoil and everything, you know, what kind of a foundation
Speaker 1: that you have in a nucleus that you have with
Speaker 1: this team? Was there any part of it? Was there
Speaker 1: an assumption like we'll be back, Yeah, this is easy.
Speaker 1: You know, I did it my rookie year. We'll be back.
Speaker 1: This team's loaded. Do you make an assumption at that
Speaker 1: point in time? Or is there so much chaos going
Speaker 1: on that you just got to worry about? Am I
Speaker 1: going to be here? Yeah? With all the change and
Speaker 1: the coaching change, I wasn't thinking anything about us being
Speaker 1: successful consistently down the line and going back to the
Speaker 1: Super Bowl. I was thinking about how do I continue
Speaker 1: to get better to be more of a part of
Speaker 1: the team. Because from those conversations I told you about
Speaker 1: with Sweatman and Parcels and you know, not knowing how
Speaker 1: to play linebacker. I was like, if I don't learn
Speaker 1: to play this linebacker position, I'm not going to be
Speaker 1: around long anyway, so it won't matter. So after my
Speaker 1: first year, I just knew there was so much more
Speaker 1: work for me to do in terms of, you know,
Speaker 1: sort of establishing myself and formulating a career at the
Speaker 1: linebacker position. So Pete comes in in nineteen ninety seven.
Speaker 1: You guys get off to a four and oh start,
Speaker 1: and I remember the conversations in the locker room, you know,
Speaker 1: guys like Lawyer talking about how you guys were much
Speaker 1: more aggressive under Pete and how it was kind of
Speaker 1: refreshing that he was letting you guys be yourselves almost
Speaker 1: And then some adversity hit and those conversations changed quickly
Speaker 1: to you know, maybe we needed that heavy hand. What
Speaker 1: do you remember most about that transition and how difficult
Speaker 1: that was? Was that for a young football team because
Speaker 1: your nucleus of what ended up being Super Bowl champions
Speaker 1: was very young at that point. Yeah, it's man to
Speaker 1: give so much control to a young team like that.
Speaker 1: I'm looking back on it now. It was a mistake.
Speaker 1: I know, Pete Pete left here a better coach because
Speaker 1: what I know now is this Pete has something called
Speaker 1: tell the Truth Mondays. Like Pete would name all the days.
Speaker 1: It was competition Wednesday, turnover, Thursday, no repeat, Friday, those
Speaker 1: type of themes for days. But for Monday, we come
Speaker 1: in after the game and just watch the film and
Speaker 1: then we'd start on the days on Wednesday. So we
Speaker 1: went to USC and he started tell the Truth Monday,
Speaker 1: which is you turned on a film and it's like
Speaker 1: you're gonna get it for the mistakes that you made.
Speaker 1: And that type of tone was never set when he
Speaker 1: was here, you know, it was it was more of
Speaker 1: him allowing the older players. I mean, I mean we
Speaker 1: still had I mean as we had Coats and Armstrong
Speaker 1: and some of those guys that were the veterans. Henry
Speaker 1: Thomas came in a little later after the Super Bowl.
Speaker 1: Yeah yeah. So but that type of accountability piece I
Speaker 1: think he learned, and he ended up taking it to
Speaker 1: USC in Seattle, but it wasn't here, and I think
Speaker 1: that was something that he probably needed to help us. Interesting,
Speaker 1: very interesting did he. But with that being said, Teddy
Speaker 1: and I think everybody here who remembers that era, maybe
Speaker 1: fans and media did they give Pete a bad rap
Speaker 1: because we've seen what he could do, and maybe if
Speaker 1: the structure was a little bit different here at that
Speaker 1: point in time and Pete had a little bit more
Speaker 1: experience under his belt, he's a good coach. I don't
Speaker 1: think there's any question about that from a football standpoint, right. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's tough to follow up Bill Parcels. I think that's
Speaker 1: just the basic thing. And like you say, a lot
Speaker 1: of us were young, and I mean a lot a
Speaker 1: lot of times. You know you're getting that, Um, I
Speaker 1: just don't think the leadership that ended up being here
Speaker 1: still was in development. I mean I was in I
Speaker 1: was in a small leadership position at that point. I'm
Speaker 1: still learning how to be a part of an every
Speaker 1: down defensive unit. So I mean, and Lawyer was young,
Speaker 1: I mean even Ty was young. Willy was still young.
Speaker 1: Will Willie was still young too. So developing what type
Speaker 1: of leadership style that we each had, I think it
Speaker 1: got thwarted because you went from the Parcels type of
Speaker 1: leadership sort of theory to an easier, more expect you
Speaker 1: to get it done on your own type of thing
Speaker 1: with Pete Carroll and at that point maybe guys ended
Speaker 1: up their own interpretation of it was one that didn't
Speaker 1: help the team. So, you know, after those three years
Speaker 1: in Belichick came back, I think when it started. That's
Speaker 1: of course, that's when it finally started to formulate. So
Speaker 1: when Bill came in, were you thumbs up on that?
Speaker 1: Because you had had worked with him during your rookie season,
Speaker 1: it was good to know that, you know, I knew
Speaker 1: the guy. Um, you know, I knew he would pretty
Speaker 1: much be like a lot a lot like parcels Um.
Speaker 1: Of course, you know he was. I remember the first
Speaker 1: time in ninety six, my experience with Belichick was I
Speaker 1: didn't even know who he was, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: it was we're we're in a defensive meeting room and
Speaker 1: he starts cursing out at all our defensive backs in
Speaker 1: terms of talking about the offensive lineman and how they
Speaker 1: should never be able to cut you and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And I look back and was like, oh, is that
Speaker 1: the Cleveland guy? You know, that's all I remembered him as,
Speaker 1: you know, yeah yeah, So I was like, okay, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what I'm starting to learn. The staff and everything
Speaker 1: like that, you know, as a rookie, but you know,
Speaker 1: and then coming back, of course, I remember seeing him
Speaker 1: in the hallway, and you know, he was happy to
Speaker 1: be here, like we had to give up a first
Speaker 1: round pick and all that stuff because that was the
Speaker 1: trade or whatever the deal was. But I was glad
Speaker 1: he was back because I just knew how much I
Speaker 1: enjoyed my experience with Parcels. But I knew it was
Speaker 1: going to be hard, you know, because I remember that
Speaker 1: training camp with Bill Parcels that year was extremely hard,
Speaker 1: and so I knew the work was going to start
Speaker 1: to start again. Do you think you guys needed hard
Speaker 1: at that point in time? Teddy, Well, I think every
Speaker 1: football team needs hard. I mean the first element, it
Speaker 1: has to be hard. It has to be tough. Don't
Speaker 1: show me love off the back, man, I don't even
Speaker 1: want it, you know, after everything that I've been through
Speaker 1: in thirteen years and looking back, I mean, you know,
Speaker 1: you start to develop a personal relationship with players, and
Speaker 1: I get that, but they got to respect you first,
Speaker 1: and you got to earn that respect, and it comes
Speaker 1: through coaches pushing players, because when it comes down to it,
Speaker 1: I think players should be pushed and they should be
Speaker 1: pushed hard. To the point where even if you don't
Speaker 1: like your coach for a little bit, and that's okay,
Speaker 1: that's okay, But I don't need a best friend. I
Speaker 1: need a coach that's going to tell me how to win.
Speaker 1: So you guys, go five and eleven the first year here, yea,
Speaker 1: did you think the direction was going the right way
Speaker 1: at that point? I mean, what did you think? Uh? Man?
Speaker 1: I know that we're on a sort of a downward spiral.
Speaker 1: That's all I knew, because I think Pete's first year
Speaker 1: was ten and six, then ninety seven, then eight and eighth,
Speaker 1: then five and eleven, and it was like, Pa, what
Speaker 1: are we doing? You know? But I just knew Bill
Speaker 1: was trying to establish who he was. I mean also
Speaker 1: I was trying to establish who I was as a player.
Speaker 1: So you can through all this stuff that's going on
Speaker 1: with Parcels and Carol when the losing and the difference
Speaker 1: of philosophies, then Belichick comes in, everybody's trying to figure
Speaker 1: themselves out. And I am a prime example of that
Speaker 1: in terms of who I was and who I was
Speaker 1: trying to form to be. And no, the Pete Carroll
Speaker 1: years wasn't they were not successful. We did not win
Speaker 1: a championship, but that's where I initially started to learn linebacker.
Speaker 1: And that third year I started to play a lot
Speaker 1: more and feel more comfortable to where, all right, I
Speaker 1: think I got this down. I got it down to
Speaker 1: the point where I think I can do this for
Speaker 1: a long time. And then, of course Pete Lee's bow
Speaker 1: Polini was the defense was a linebacker coach. There just
Speaker 1: a huge in terms of my development development at the linebacker.
Speaker 1: Steve Sidwell was a defensive coordinator, so I was almost
Speaker 1: in the development of phase for those three years until
Speaker 1: Bill came in and then you know, all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: you know, there I was ready to go for him.
Speaker 1: One of the things we talked about before we started
Speaker 1: this was the evolution as you're growing as a player
Speaker 1: your shoulder pads. In ninety seven and ninety eight, I
Speaker 1: don't think Bruce Armstrong had as big as Nero. Look
Speaker 1: big I had. I had neck problems actually, which I
Speaker 1: needed that neck role. Um stingers I had a problem
Speaker 1: with and I was trying to find the neck role
Speaker 1: and they thought a bigger neck role would help and
Speaker 1: all that stuff, and yeah, it was cumbersome and the
Speaker 1: pads look big, and I get, I get, I get
Speaker 1: people to make fun of me about it when we
Speaker 1: watch old school pictures and all that stuff about those.
Speaker 1: But it ended up, you know, streamlining down to the
Speaker 1: cowboy collar because I think I just learned to manage
Speaker 1: my neck in terms of strength and conditioning in the
Speaker 1: in the in the weight room and finding the right
Speaker 1: sort of combination of what what neck role to use,
Speaker 1: and then it started to stream down. But I remember
Speaker 1: having you know, Bill told me that we didn't know
Speaker 1: if your neck was gonna last, you know, because of
Speaker 1: the problems I was having. So you know, that was
Speaker 1: something I overcame. Um, you know, the cowboy callar ended
Speaker 1: up working great towards the end of my career. I
Speaker 1: got thirteen thirteen years out of it, and uh, you
Speaker 1: know the next still doing all right now. So it
Speaker 1: all worked out. It all worked out. Something I never
Speaker 1: remember here, you having a problem with your neck. I
Speaker 1: know you had a problem in college publicly, right right right, Well, okay,
Speaker 1: you get the stinger. You get the stinger and they
Speaker 1: just dissipate and then you go back out there after
Speaker 1: your arm sort of regains its feeling and things like that,
Speaker 1: and It's not like a concussion where you get one
Speaker 1: and then you're gonna miss a week or two, or
Speaker 1: you're gonna miss back. Then you miss you know how
Speaker 1: much time a very you know, a day or two
Speaker 1: or something like that. Sometimes less than that. But it
Speaker 1: was something where boom, you just got your nerve burner
Speaker 1: and then you just let that go and you go
Speaker 1: back out there. So that isn't something that you're gonna
Speaker 1: put on an injury report, right, do you think, Teddy,
Speaker 1: So you recognize that you had made significant progress thanks
Speaker 1: to sid Bopolini. New administration comes in, did they see
Speaker 1: that progress? Do you think it was evident to the
Speaker 1: new administration coming in Bill and his staff, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: this is a different guy than when we had him
Speaker 1: his rookie year. I think so. And I think they
Speaker 1: also saw that they had this linebacker by the name
Speaker 1: Andy Katson Moore. You're here. I mean, Pete drafted Andy
Speaker 1: because I was a free agent and I didn't know
Speaker 1: they wanted to sign me, but I didn't know if
Speaker 1: I wanted to come back, so I just signed a
Speaker 1: one year deal and ended up being a free agent.
Speaker 1: So Andy was there, and Andy started out gangbusters. I
Speaker 1: mean just six three two sixty. The boy could run.
Speaker 1: I mean, when you're playing that under defense that Pete
Speaker 1: ran and the will linebacker is behind a three technique
Speaker 1: and he's protected and could just go sideline a sideline.
Speaker 1: Andy was really close to beating me out, you know,
Speaker 1: So I held him off as long as I could.
Speaker 1: Pete gets fired, and now, of course me and Andy
Speaker 1: are still a competition, but there's no three technique in
Speaker 1: front of anymore. We're playing two gap three four, and
Speaker 1: there's a different deal in terms of taking on blocks
Speaker 1: and that's where Andy struggled, so and that's where I
Speaker 1: ended up figuring out how to do that. So almost
Speaker 1: like the change in scheme benefited me. I was used
Speaker 1: to wrestling with these offensive linemen ever since college, you know,
Speaker 1: and all that stuff, so I wasn't intimidated by them
Speaker 1: at all. But Andy was. He was bigger and stronger
Speaker 1: than me, but he's not just not used to man.
Speaker 1: This guy's on me. I mean, I'm he's gonna come
Speaker 1: get me. So that's how I think, you know, it
Speaker 1: helped progress my career by going into a two gap system.
Speaker 1: There's a positional change in the two thousand and one
Speaker 1: season that most Patriots fans are very familiar with. Maybe
Speaker 1: the positional change that doesn't get a lot of talked about.
Speaker 1: Here is what happened at linebacker because just a philosophical
Speaker 1: change here, and we might not be sitting here talking
Speaker 1: to this guy. It's basically, I mean, it shows you
Speaker 1: what the how, the little things and I'm not saying
Speaker 1: that that's a little thing, but how scheme, personnel, how
Speaker 1: they relate, and how that could really affect or change
Speaker 1: the course of a player's career. Yeah, and sometimes you know,
Speaker 1: injuries come into the come into it when you end
Speaker 1: up getting of course to two thousand and one. What
Speaker 1: you're talking about here is now the linebackers are Johnson,
Speaker 1: Cox and me, and both Ted and Cock go down
Speaker 1: and so here I am. Now I come in and start,
Speaker 1: and I end up starting. And we shifted our scheme
Speaker 1: now to more of a tilt front, which is now
Speaker 1: you know, we're putting Seymour up at the three technique
Speaker 1: opposite the linebacker and now you're backside. So that was
Speaker 1: the tilt front we ran in two thousand and one.
Speaker 1: Now a testament to Bill and what he always says
Speaker 1: is the player that's playing the best is going to
Speaker 1: stay in. So that position there I just excelled at
Speaker 1: and played very well at. Meanwhile, Cox and Johnson ended
Speaker 1: up getting healthier, but Bill kept me in. I just fought.
Speaker 1: I just didn't give him an excuse to take me out,
Speaker 1: so I stayed in. Ended up being the starting linebacker
Speaker 1: the rest of the year, you know. I mean, of
Speaker 1: course during that of course Tom comes in for Drew
Speaker 1: and all that stuff. But a lot of a lot
Speaker 1: of things were happening all over the place in terms
Speaker 1: of that two thousand and one team to come together
Speaker 1: and you could down obviously take on the greatest show
Speaker 1: on turf in the Super Bowl with a very physical
Speaker 1: defense that had almost that had competed well with the
Speaker 1: Rams earlier in the season but lost here at Foxboro Stadium.
Speaker 1: At the time, talk about that Super Bowl game plan
Speaker 1: and the execution of it, one guy was most important,
Speaker 1: and that was Marshall Falk and we wanted to hit
Speaker 1: him even when he didn't have the ball. And if
Speaker 1: we had to use our if we had to sacrifice
Speaker 1: pass rush for past route disruption, and that was something
Speaker 1: we had to do. I mean, so if if Willie
Speaker 1: was an edge rusher or someone else and Falk flared out.
Speaker 1: As I would go out there to cover him, they'd
Speaker 1: still get a shot on him. So just to make
Speaker 1: it a little bit easier on me, just to throw
Speaker 1: him off, because that's where Warner wanted half the time
Speaker 1: in the passing game, just those quick little screen passes
Speaker 1: or flare passes so he could go out there and
Speaker 1: do what he wanted. So to hit Marshall Falk as
Speaker 1: much as we could to, I mean, lining up receivers
Speaker 1: in practice one yard passed the ball, so we got
Speaker 1: used to the speed and jamming them off the line.
Speaker 1: It was all about throwing off their time and given
Speaker 1: our past, for us just a little bit more time
Speaker 1: to get to him. I just want to back up
Speaker 1: one second though, before the Super Bowl, Teddy, of all
Speaker 1: the tackles that you made that year, this tackle that
Speaker 1: I saw that not that wasn't on TV because it
Speaker 1: wasn't televised. It was after the game. Your tackle of
Speaker 1: Bledsoe in the ASC Championship game, after the games one
Speaker 1: of your best tackles ever. I mean, can you can
Speaker 1: you just can you talk about what that moment meant
Speaker 1: at the time, because for somebody was standing there on
Speaker 1: the field and seeing it, I mean, the emotion was
Speaker 1: just it was off the charts. Yeah, it was just
Speaker 1: it was just sort of proof to me how things
Speaker 1: come around to good people. And and I was a
Speaker 1: good friend with Drew and how man, that was a
Speaker 1: hard year for him, you know, and not only what
Speaker 1: happened to him medically, but seeing his job to be
Speaker 1: taken by Tom, and you know, just to still be
Speaker 1: a positive influence to Tom and try to be a
Speaker 1: good friend and a good backup quarterback. And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, there's your time. Tom goes down with the
Speaker 1: ankle injury. And then you know, Drew goes out and
Speaker 1: runs to the sideline again and he gets knocked on
Speaker 1: his ass again. I were on the sideline. It's like bam, like, oh,
Speaker 1: thank the defensive what are you doing? And the throws
Speaker 1: a touchdown past the patton and he you know, of course,
Speaker 1: he leads us to victory. We had a lot of
Speaker 1: everybody contributed in that game. The special teams, touchdowns, the
Speaker 1: blood soda patting. I mean, just just to tackle him
Speaker 1: and just just tell him. I was just so proud
Speaker 1: of the guy at that moment, and you know, that
Speaker 1: was a moment for me to realize just man, just
Speaker 1: you just need so many people to win football games,
Speaker 1: and that that backup quarterback is is so instrumental. And
Speaker 1: not only that, but like having the backup quarterback who
Speaker 1: was once the franchise and still be humble enough to
Speaker 1: do that. It was it was special and he was
Speaker 1: very emotional. Yeah, I mean he was crying right humping
Speaker 1: with the trophy. I remember him like just pumping the
Speaker 1: AFC Championship trophy Teddy. I don't know if you rank them,
Speaker 1: but now maybe with the perspective of time, as you
Speaker 1: look back at your career, it was two thousand and
Speaker 1: one maybe the most was that the most special season
Speaker 1: that you had as a player. Uh, if as you
Speaker 1: look back on it, I would say, yes, I would
Speaker 1: say two thousand and one, and even I'd say after that,
Speaker 1: two thousand and seven was special two in terms of
Speaker 1: what we were trying to accomplish. Of course they have
Speaker 1: different results, but I mean it's it's it's just a
Speaker 1: special feeling when you're on the team that breaks through
Speaker 1: that change change the way people think. I mean, I
Speaker 1: remember a girl coming up to me after we won
Speaker 1: the championship and oh one and thanking me for her grandfather,
Speaker 1: and she said, because my grandfather says, now he can
Speaker 1: die a happy man. And that's when I started to
Speaker 1: realize the passion of the New England people and how
Speaker 1: much it meant to them, and how it was just
Speaker 1: so starred for a winner of the football team of
Speaker 1: the Patriots. So having everything that happened that year is
Speaker 1: the nine to eleven year. It's sort of, you know,
Speaker 1: just just selflessly myself, the development of me as a
Speaker 1: player to finally be able to contribute in a starting
Speaker 1: role and win a world championship with something I didn't know,
Speaker 1: I mean all the way back from ninety six and
Speaker 1: not knowing where the hook was. You know, that was
Speaker 1: a long process for me to finally get there and
Speaker 1: how to transform myself as a football player from every
Speaker 1: down defensive lineman handing the dirt to off the ball, linebacker.
Speaker 1: It was an incredible process to go through and then
Speaker 1: have everything, you know, go through the way it did.
Speaker 1: I mean, so many special things had to happen that year.
Speaker 1: It was I mean, defensive touchdown, special teams touchdowns, the
Speaker 1: tuck rule that happened when you think it's over but
Speaker 1: it's not, and it gets overturned. It's like a dead
Speaker 1: ball ruling buffalo. And David Patton, he's halfway out of bound.
Speaker 1: You know so many things. That's I would say definitely
Speaker 1: two thousand one year. That's the ring I wear the most.
Speaker 1: Is the first one to deliver a region. Their first
Speaker 1: is something you know you just never forget. Well, we
Speaker 1: are just scratching the surface with Patriots Hall of Fame
Speaker 1: linebacker Teddy Rusky. That's going to wrap up part one
Speaker 1: of our Paths from the Past podcast with Teddy. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned for part two. Thank you for downloading this podcast,
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