WEBVTT - Pats from the Past, Episode 38: Mike Reiss 0:00:07.600 --> 0:00:09.640 It's time now for another episode of Pats from the 0:00:09.640 --> 0:00:13.320 Past podcast, Matt Smith alongside with Paul Barlow. Paul, I 0:00:13.360 --> 0:00:15.600 think this is a we're gonna break the mold here 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:18.000 a little bit because the guy we're gonna speak with 0:00:18.120 --> 0:00:20.560 I don't think had any tackles. True false. 0:00:21.160 --> 0:00:24.320 Yeah, as far as my stats show nothing, no catches. 0:00:24.440 --> 0:00:27.320 It's kind of like lawyer Maloyan oh one oh zero 0:00:27.600 --> 0:00:29.120 zero zero yeah zero. 0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:33.000 Wow. However, we say that not to denigrate Oh Too, 0:00:33.000 --> 0:00:36.440 I guess it was, but to but to celebrate the 0:00:36.680 --> 0:00:43.040 og writer for Patriots dot Com and Patriots Football Weekly. 0:00:43.320 --> 0:00:44.280 Yeah, you know. 0:00:44.479 --> 0:00:47.720 Now, as part of the worldwide Leader in Sports ESPN, 0:00:48.200 --> 0:00:51.120 Mike Reese joins us, ladies and gentlemen, and we are 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.400 so happy to have your Mike. Thank you for joining us. 0:00:53.440 --> 0:00:55.280 It's great to be here. We've come a long way 0:00:55.440 --> 0:00:59.680 from the coat closet at Foxboro Stadium where which was 0:00:59.680 --> 0:01:00.720 my first office. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.880 So serious question, Mike, and you have a large following. 0:01:03.920 --> 0:01:06.440 People respect your work and everything like that. How many 0:01:06.480 --> 0:01:08.120 people do you think who follow you know where you 0:01:08.160 --> 0:01:10.520 actually started you have, I mean, you're trying to you 0:01:10.560 --> 0:01:12.920 don't hide from it, but you also not sitting there. 0:01:13.160 --> 0:01:14.560 You don't have a flag out in front of your 0:01:14.560 --> 0:01:17.000 house about it. Don't you think people would be surprised 0:01:17.040 --> 0:01:18.120 to know where you started? 0:01:18.200 --> 0:01:20.840 Yeah, maybe a little bit, just because it's so long ago, right, 0:01:20.840 --> 0:01:22.479 which is hard to believe. I mean, this goes back 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:26.600 to nineteen ninety seven. Was my first job out of college. 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:31.000 I had graduated from UMass Amherst and I actually, you're gonna. 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:31.319 Laugh at me, Pou. 0:01:31.360 --> 0:01:33.039 I know we're not on TV, but I brought this 0:01:33.120 --> 0:01:34.679 in for you to flip through. These are all my 0:01:34.760 --> 0:01:37.440 rejection letters that I got coming out of college. 0:01:37.560 --> 0:01:38.080 I really do. 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:40.560 I'm gonna look at this afterwards. You get a couple 0:01:40.560 --> 0:01:43.720 of minutes after. I'm interested in this because what do 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:43.920 you do? 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:45.480 I feel it. I feel the pain. 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:46.800 You're in college. 0:01:46.840 --> 0:01:49.240 You're like, I want to work in sports media. I'm 0:01:49.240 --> 0:01:51.840 gonna I want to be a newspaper reporter. So I 0:01:51.880 --> 0:01:55.960 sent out all my resumes to newspapers across the country. 0:01:56.320 --> 0:02:00.000 Maybe you'll call it two hundred resumes. Wow, two hundred rejections. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:02.240 Letters come back and I'm like, wow, how can this be? 0:02:02.440 --> 0:02:05.320 Like I've had good experience in college at UMass and 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.839 even before that at my local newspaper. And then, as 0:02:08.840 --> 0:02:13.480 it turned out, my brother has a friend who I 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:17.000 knew through my brother, Dougie Fresh, Yes, Dougie Reese who 0:02:17.200 --> 0:02:21.120 and the friend Neil Cohen who went to summer camp 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.480 with Fred Kersh. And he said, well, yeah, I. 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:27.680 Heard your brother's looking for a job, you know, graduating, 0:02:28.000 --> 0:02:30.480 he should reach out to Fred Kersh. He's looking for 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:35.120 a entry level writer for Patriots Football Weekly. It's like 0:02:35.160 --> 0:02:37.040 a team newspaper that they have over. 0:02:36.919 --> 0:02:40.200 At the Patriots. So I said, I'll reach out. I'll 0:02:40.200 --> 0:02:44.680 reach out to Fred Kersh and guys. Honestly, every time 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.639 I see Fred, whether it's at a game or at 0:02:47.639 --> 0:02:49.920 the stadium, I wrap him up in a big hug 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:52.680 because he was the only person to offer me a 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:55.960 job coming out of college, and his decision as we 0:02:56.000 --> 0:02:58.000 sit here today, I mean, I can honestly tell you 0:02:58.280 --> 0:02:59.480 it changed my life. 0:03:00.160 --> 0:03:01.880 Serious is do you know what what we call we 0:03:02.000 --> 0:03:05.000 joke around, you know, Brian Morey, Andy Hart myself, you 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:09.480 know what we call Fred the King, the Kingmaker, the Kingmaker. 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.120 And it's not because he's trying to do anything special 0:03:13.120 --> 0:03:15.120 at fancy. He's not trying to perform some kind of 0:03:15.160 --> 0:03:19.880 social experiment. He just gives people opportunities, and if they 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.240 work hard and they and they earn it, they go places. 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:27.880 They've all gone places except for me, But everybody else 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.000 has really benefited from Fred. And I can voucher Mike 0:03:32.040 --> 0:03:36.280 because I've seen Mike greet Fred every time the same way. 0:03:36.360 --> 0:03:38.720 And the best part of this story is if we 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:42.840 fast forward from ninety seven to ninety nine, when Mike 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.119 decided he had gotten some experience here at the Patriots 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:49.800 moved on to his first job at a conventional newspaper, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.320 traditional newspaper which at the time I think was Metros 0:03:52.440 --> 0:03:57.640 Daily News. Okay, so who stepped into his shoes? 0:03:57.920 --> 0:04:00.120 How great is that? Oh? 0:04:00.160 --> 0:04:01.040 Gee, I love it. 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.280 Big shoes to me, big shoes to fill. So Mike, 0:04:04.320 --> 0:04:08.000 here you are. Green is grass? Right? Fred throws of 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:11.320 your lifeline. I'm gonna do this. What were you? What 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:13.920 was your thinking here? You know again? My guess is 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:17.080 fresh race kid out of college. I'm gonna change the world. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.440 I'm gonna win a Pulitzer Prize. I'm gonna do all 0:04:19.440 --> 0:04:21.719 these things. I'm working for the Patriots. What are we 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:24.600 doing here? Can I break the Pete Carroll story? Like? 0:04:24.839 --> 0:04:27.719 What can I do. What kind of eye opening experience 0:04:27.800 --> 0:04:28.279 was it for you. 0:04:28.760 --> 0:04:30.920 I'm gonna flip through the media guide to make sure 0:04:30.960 --> 0:04:34.200 that I'm telling you an accurate story. But our first trip, 0:04:34.400 --> 0:04:37.560 so we traveled with the team on the team plane 0:04:37.640 --> 0:04:40.800 and our first trip was to lambeau Field. Oh, a 0:04:40.839 --> 0:04:43.240 preseason game. I want to say, remember the game nineteen 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:47.240 ninety seven. So like right out of college, I think 0:04:47.240 --> 0:04:50.440 I had maybe taken one family vacation as a kid, 0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:54.400 you know, so I'm seeing a place, Hey, welcome to 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:56.960 your new job. Let's go to lambeau Field. Like what's 0:04:57.000 --> 0:04:57.560 not to love? 0:04:57.680 --> 0:04:58.440 Oh my god? 0:04:58.600 --> 0:05:02.640 And I'll never forget. This was the before iPhones. So 0:05:02.720 --> 0:05:06.479 we were just getting into video on the web. So 0:05:07.040 --> 0:05:10.039 Fred was with me at the end of the game 0:05:10.760 --> 0:05:13.080 and he had a little video camera and he goes, 0:05:13.440 --> 0:05:16.640 just get down on one knee and just say something 0:05:16.680 --> 0:05:19.240 about the game, and we'll post it on Patriots dot com. 0:05:19.279 --> 0:05:21.440 And you know, we're going to experiment with something called 0:05:21.520 --> 0:05:26.839 Patriots Cyber Sideline. And that's how we started. And like, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.359 you say, what did you expect? What was it feel like? 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.760 I'm at lambeau Field. You're paying me money to be here. 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:36.520 Did lambeau mean as much to you as a as 0:05:36.520 --> 0:05:38.200 a twenty four to twenty five year old kid, or 0:05:38.240 --> 0:05:40.800 was it or do you think do you wonder if 0:05:40.839 --> 0:05:43.320 you took it all in as a young fresh faced 0:05:43.360 --> 0:05:46.720 kid then as you know now today, Mike jenuflecked when 0:05:46.720 --> 0:05:48.120 he goes to lambeau Field. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:50.080 You probably could have put me in any stadium, and 0:05:50.120 --> 0:05:52.800 I would have felt that way. However, when you hear 0:05:52.880 --> 0:05:56.200 about Lambeau and you're in that environment, it's that much more. 0:05:56.240 --> 0:05:56.760 That's awesome. 0:05:56.839 --> 0:05:59.640 Yeah, yeah, I mean just thinking about some of those 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.000 early days and you know, so Mike and I had 0:06:03.160 --> 0:06:05.360 similar kinds of experiences, even though I was a couple 0:06:05.400 --> 0:06:08.360 of years after, you know, he had gone just how 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:11.800 many things And I'm not trying to like tell everybody like, oh, 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:14.719 how great the Patriots are and the Patriots media, but 0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:18.559 there were so many things that the Patriots here, between 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:21.640 Jonathan Kraft and Fred Kursh did first, you know, whether 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:26.400 it was the website, first team, website, first team video 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:30.599 show that Mike just talked about, Patriots cybersideline, first all 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:34.800 color team owned news, team owned and run newspaper. 0:06:34.839 --> 0:06:37.120 I mean, it's amazing how many things that they were. 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:38.440 At the form best show. 0:06:41.640 --> 0:06:47.000 I didn't say best, I said first. But yeah, and 0:06:47.240 --> 0:06:49.440 you know, people are going to be able to tell 0:06:49.480 --> 0:06:52.200 by the way Matt and I sound. We have a 0:06:52.200 --> 0:06:54.640 lot of affection for the guy that's that's joining us today, 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:57.440 and we have a lot of respect for the way 0:06:57.480 --> 0:06:59.359 he goes about doing the job as well. And I 0:06:59.360 --> 0:07:01.240 know Mike feels the same way about me. I'm not 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.640 trying to put words in his mouth. We're very good 0:07:03.640 --> 0:07:07.719 friends on and off the beat. And that's why I 0:07:07.720 --> 0:07:09.160 think when you said to me, what do you think 0:07:09.200 --> 0:07:11.600 about having Mic in? This is gonna be great. I 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:13.320 think we're gonna get a lot of good stories today. 0:07:13.400 --> 0:07:17.040 Yeah. So, Mike, what was the most intimidating thing when 0:07:17.040 --> 0:07:19.760 you first started lambeau Field. That's kind of intimidating, right, 0:07:20.120 --> 0:07:22.200 the house at Lombardi built and everything like that. That's 0:07:22.240 --> 0:07:26.320 pretty intimidating, you know when you're first going in there. Okay, 0:07:26.920 --> 0:07:30.920 this is this is them coming off of pretty Super 0:07:30.920 --> 0:07:34.400 Bowl loss and parcels and everything like that. What was 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:37.120 your welcome was it was going to lambeau You're in 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:39.320 the big League's moment or was there another moment in 0:07:39.360 --> 0:07:42.240 the locker room training camp? Or something like that, we said, Okay, 0:07:42.240 --> 0:07:42.920 this is for real. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.200 So one story that really stuck with me was that 0:07:47.280 --> 0:07:51.000 first year and we would pick who would win the 0:07:51.040 --> 0:07:54.160 games in the newspaper, and it's a team owned newspaper, 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.960 and you know, you didn't want to necessarily always pick 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.960 the Patriots because at that time the idea of uh Fred. 0:08:00.760 --> 0:08:01.320 Always. 0:08:02.760 --> 0:08:05.440 Fred, make sure that there's always one picking the Patriots. 0:08:05.240 --> 0:08:07.680 Sixteen and o season, right, you know, at that point 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.400 we hadn't lived through two thousand and seven, and and 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.520 I remember thinking to myself, like for us to be 0:08:13.680 --> 0:08:17.000 taken seriously like we we have to we have to 0:08:17.120 --> 0:08:20.000 go with the other team credibility. So we and so 0:08:20.200 --> 0:08:23.880 for me, I probably didn't pick the right game to 0:08:23.920 --> 0:08:26.200 pick against them for the first time, but I think 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.720 it was the game against the Jets when Bill Parcells 0:08:29.800 --> 0:08:33.120 was the coach, So that one hurts and it's the 0:08:33.120 --> 0:08:35.560 first road one, right, yeah, well first road one. 0:08:35.679 --> 0:08:37.000 You picked them again in the home game. 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:38.679 I think I did, Okay, do that sound I mean 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:38.960 you would. 0:08:39.480 --> 0:08:41.280 I think you've told me this story before, and I 0:08:41.360 --> 0:08:44.079 think I remember what happens and so priceless. 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.000 So so they that was the moment that where I 0:08:48.040 --> 0:08:50.640 actually started to question if I, if am I really 0:08:50.720 --> 0:08:54.360 cut out for this, because I remember, you know, at 0:08:54.360 --> 0:08:57.880 that time there was more of less of a wall 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.679 put up between the players and the state and the 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:04.120 people who work for the team, like myself, and they 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.600 used to bring the Patriots football weeklies down to the 0:09:06.600 --> 0:09:08.880 locker room and hand them out to the players. 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:11.320 Get your own coffee, and I could hear. 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:13.840 I could hear from up in my cubicle, which was 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:17.160 at that point like right outside ownership offices, because the 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:19.800 locker room was underneath us, Like I could hear like 0:09:20.520 --> 0:09:22.679 almost like the newspaper getting crumbled up. 0:09:22.640 --> 0:09:24.280 And oh, what is this? What is this? 0:09:24.840 --> 0:09:27.560 And they were like some players were upset that I 0:09:27.600 --> 0:09:29.839 had picked against them. And so when I went down 0:09:30.960 --> 0:09:34.840 for the lot, the access, like Jimmy Hitchcock I remember specifically, 0:09:35.440 --> 0:09:39.640 was like wouldn't answer my questions. And I think part 0:09:39.640 --> 0:09:42.920 of it was playful, but at the time, I'm twenty one, twenty. 0:09:42.600 --> 0:09:46.079 Two years old, and it felt heavy personal. 0:09:46.559 --> 0:09:48.559 I'm I don't know if personal, but it felt heavy 0:09:48.600 --> 0:09:51.319 almost like do I have what it takes to stand 0:09:51.400 --> 0:09:53.800 up here and back what I put into the paper? 0:09:53.840 --> 0:09:55.839 Because it in retrospect I'm not sure it was the 0:09:55.880 --> 0:09:59.440 best game to make my first pick against the Patriots, 0:09:59.480 --> 0:10:01.480 knowing the back story there, and by. 0:10:01.320 --> 0:10:06.480 The way, Mike was right, which made it probably worse 0:10:07.559 --> 0:10:09.960 and he ended up the Jets ended up beating the Patriots, 0:10:09.960 --> 0:10:12.640 and that I remember that in that game, and I 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:14.679 think there wasn't there one of the players that went 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.200 up to you, like really playfully said, I heard you 0:10:17.200 --> 0:10:18.360 did a bad thing, little man. 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:20.360 That's right, that's right, I'm gonna stuff you in my 0:10:20.400 --> 0:10:23.480 locker I think it was Ferrick Cohen's if I remember right. 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.640 You remember, of course scared the but Jesus out of 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:28.320 me one day for something totally different. 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:30.320 But see, and that's where I get nervous. I'm like, 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:32.760 was was it Ferrick? Because it's starting to be so 0:10:32.880 --> 0:10:34.480 long ago, guys that it's right. 0:10:34.520 --> 0:10:38.760 I was gonna give you. Maybe Henry Thomas could have 0:10:38.760 --> 0:10:39.440 been Henry Thomas. 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:42.160 Henry Thomas was great. I like you you mentioned a name, 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:44.800 and I think of a story. Henry Thomas. We used 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:46.640 to have a joke in the locker room, like I 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:48.760 think I'm gonna keep a whole tin of breath mints 0:10:48.800 --> 0:10:50.720 in here because whenever I talk to you guys. 0:10:51.520 --> 0:10:52.800 You know you need you. 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.240 Need some breathmans, you know. 0:10:54.360 --> 0:10:56.160 So it's like stuff like that, Matt like, and that's 0:10:56.200 --> 0:10:59.000 part of the fun plunging around a team for as 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:00.960 long as you're you say it and you think of 0:11:01.360 --> 0:11:03.320 something funny or a different story like that. 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:05.640 Right. So, Mike, I've been with you, I think at 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:13.160 owners meetings where in the format really hasn't changed. One day, Monday, say, 0:11:13.760 --> 0:11:16.559 the AFC coaches have a breakfast and a media availability, 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:20.920 and on Tuesday, the NFC has a availability and a 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:23.000 media breakfast. And I remember being with you at one 0:11:23.040 --> 0:11:25.199 of these ones, whether it's out in the West or 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:26.880 in Florida or something like that, and you had said 0:11:26.920 --> 0:11:29.160 to me, Mattam, I'm gonna stick around a little bit. 0:11:29.160 --> 0:11:30.640 I'm gonna I want to go over to the NFC. 0:11:30.720 --> 0:11:32.600 I want to say hi to Pete. And I'm sitting 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:33.880 there going you want to go over and say hi 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:38.439 to Pete. And this is thirty years later or something 0:11:38.520 --> 0:11:42.280 like that in Europe, and Pete carrolsees Mike Reese and 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:44.760 of course he goes up to when gravitates to him, 0:11:44.920 --> 0:11:47.560 because you remember some twenty one year old little snot 0:11:47.600 --> 0:11:50.839 nosed kid who's to cover him every single day when 0:11:50.840 --> 0:11:52.880 he was a coach of the Patriots. And that tells 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:57.280 me a little something about both people, and not just Mike, 0:11:57.800 --> 0:11:58.360 but Pete. 0:11:58.559 --> 0:12:01.120 When Mike had had said, you know, back then there 0:12:01.200 --> 0:12:04.840 was maybe less of a wall between the team personnel 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:09.000 and us. That's part of what I'm sort of remembering 0:12:09.040 --> 0:12:11.560 as well. And when I came in, you know, Brian, 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.080 Brian Moorey at the time, you know, he took me around, 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.320 introduced me to a lot of people, and he introduced 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:18.240 me to Pete Carroll And it was actually at training 0:12:18.280 --> 0:12:20.439 because I started kind of like hit the ground running. 0:12:20.480 --> 0:12:21.560 I started right as. 0:12:21.440 --> 0:12:24.679 Training camp was was getting ready to kick off, and 0:12:25.320 --> 0:12:27.880 he brought me over to Pete, you know, and Pete 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.640 asked me a bunch of questions about myself and where 0:12:30.640 --> 0:12:33.840 I came from, like stuff that you really couldn't imagine today. 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.400 And it's had nothing to do with Bill, but just 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:41.240 you wouldn't see that same kind of time given to 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:42.240 to get to know anybody. 0:12:42.280 --> 0:12:45.480 And Pete. What Pete said to me, he goes, so 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:46.520 you're going to replace Mike. 0:12:46.559 --> 0:12:48.520 He goes big shoes to fill is he goes, well, 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:51.880 actually little shoes to fill. But how great is it? 0:12:52.000 --> 0:12:53.920 But that's like he did. He was like big shoes 0:12:53.960 --> 0:12:56.200 to fill, and that's what he meant. That as a 0:12:56.240 --> 0:12:59.280 compliment to Mike's professionalism and work ethic. 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:01.560 For Patriots Football Weekly, we used to have we called 0:13:01.559 --> 0:13:05.600 it Carol's Corner, So Brian myself or Brian and Paul 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:08.360 right after that would go into his office and sit 0:13:08.440 --> 0:13:11.040 with him and you get whatever ten fifteen minutes, ask 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:12.640 him questions and we would run it as a Q 0:13:12.720 --> 0:13:15.360 and A and so one. I'm gonna guess it was 0:13:15.440 --> 0:13:18.320 ninety nine we were in there. It might have been March, 0:13:18.800 --> 0:13:21.320 and we're doing our off season Q and A for 0:13:21.400 --> 0:13:23.840 Carol's Corner and a knock on the door. 0:13:25.200 --> 0:13:25.560 Coach. 0:13:25.840 --> 0:13:27.920 I just wanted to say goodbye, you know, thanks for 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:30.360 spending time with me. It was great to be here. 0:13:30.800 --> 0:13:31.960 And Pete gets up. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:33.240 He goes, hey, that was great. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.560 You know, we'll be in touch. And then Pete looks 0:13:35.600 --> 0:13:38.840 at Brian myself and he goes, do you guys know 0:13:38.840 --> 0:13:42.240 who that is? And he said, I have no idea. 0:13:42.760 --> 0:13:45.960 He goes, that's Kevin Falk. You should get to know 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.000 his name. And it was like those stories like that, fun. Right, 0:13:50.040 --> 0:13:52.000 So they end up drafting him the next month. I 0:13:52.040 --> 0:13:53.880 believe in the second round if I have it right. 0:13:54.320 --> 0:13:55.640 And so those were the moments. 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:58.640 Those are behind the scenes fun things like you mentioned 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:01.120 a name, Matt Paul, Like, those are the things that 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:02.360 start racing through my head. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:05.480 So here he is, he cuts his teeth at Patriots 0:14:05.559 --> 0:14:09.880 dot Com Patriots Football Weekly. What, Mike, what was the 0:14:09.920 --> 0:14:13.760 motivating factor for you to say, Okay, I gotta move away, 0:14:14.160 --> 0:14:16.160 I gotta move on. What was going through your mind? 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:18.160 And then where did you go? And let's tell the 0:14:18.200 --> 0:14:21.040 listeners and the fans about how you got to the 0:14:21.040 --> 0:14:21.760 worldwide leader. 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:22.240 Definitely. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:25.920 So it was always my dream to be like Will McDonough, 0:14:26.360 --> 0:14:31.640 the late Boston Globe sports columnist. I just i admired him, 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.960 and I had reached out to the Boston Globe and said, like, 0:14:36.000 --> 0:14:40.680 am I on the right path to possibly following that path? 0:14:40.760 --> 0:14:41.720 You know, to be like that? 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.280 And the sports editor at the time, his name was 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:47.600 Don squar He said, you're getting great experience. He said, 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:49.800 one thing we'd be looking for if we were to 0:14:49.880 --> 0:14:54.480 hire you is a little more independence, So to not 0:14:54.640 --> 0:14:57.240 be employed by the team writing on them, but to 0:14:57.360 --> 0:15:00.120 show us that you could write on them at an 0:15:00.240 --> 0:15:01.360 independent outlet. 0:15:01.480 --> 0:15:03.720 I'm surprised the Globe would look down at at a 0:15:03.800 --> 0:15:05.880 team site or her team team meeting. 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.320 But you know what's funny about that is, you know, 0:15:08.640 --> 0:15:11.520 let's get back to Will for a second. You won't 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.320 find a better champion of Patriots Football Weekly than Will 0:15:14.360 --> 0:15:14.920 McDonald was. 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:15.680 That's interesting. 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:19.240 He was fantastic with us. He used to cite our 0:15:19.320 --> 0:15:21.720 work on occasion in his Sunday notes. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:24.920 Made me feel like you arrived, right, Paul. 0:15:25.120 --> 0:15:27.240 You know that because that was my big fear, And 0:15:27.680 --> 0:15:29.680 you know I did it the opposite of Mike. I 0:15:29.720 --> 0:15:33.720 spent eleven years at the Herald, and I wasn't really 0:15:33.760 --> 0:15:37.480 getting the beat or the assignments that I necessarily wanted. 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:39.560 And then when this opportunity came, so I went the 0:15:40.000 --> 0:15:45.080 backwards path. I went from conventional mainstream media to team owned. 0:15:44.920 --> 0:15:46.000 And operated media. 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:50.520 And my one fear was that not to be taken seriously. 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.840 And when I get you know, when I tell you, 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:57.640 like Nickofardo at the time, another late great you know 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:02.600 Boston Boston Globe writer Having mannis from the Herald, Ronnie Borges, 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:06.840 Will McDonough. These guys were wonderful with the team, and 0:16:06.960 --> 0:16:09.560 they never never looked down their nose at us at all. 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:12.800 And I think it's changed now, Paul, like I think 0:16:13.040 --> 0:16:15.520 it was, Oh yeah, more it wouldn't be viewed the 0:16:15.560 --> 0:16:18.320 same way by newspapers. I think times have changed, but 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:20.440 that's what it was at that time. And so I 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.800 went back to my hometown newspaper in framing him Massachusetts 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.040 called the metrost Daily News, and I was covering the team, 0:16:28.200 --> 0:16:31.880 but not as closely because unlike Patriots Football Weekly, where 0:16:31.920 --> 0:16:34.720 I was here every day, he didn't travel. No, didn't 0:16:34.760 --> 0:16:37.680 travel initially, right, And there were times where I remember 0:16:38.080 --> 0:16:42.400 I was covering like a local flag football game, you know, 0:16:42.560 --> 0:16:44.680 on a Sunday when the Patriots might have been on 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:47.760 the road, and my friends would say to me, what 0:16:47.920 --> 0:16:51.920 happened to those trips to lambeau Field. And so in 0:16:51.960 --> 0:16:53.680 a way it was like, well, I'm still doing it, 0:16:53.720 --> 0:16:55.760 but it was in a different form. 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:59.000 And so was there a crisis of confidence there? Mike. 0:16:59.080 --> 0:17:00.720 You know, here's a you know, your first jobs at 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.800 lambeau Field, you're working, You're covering this team, the team 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.360 that you grew up with. I'm going to stretch myself 0:17:06.480 --> 0:17:08.520 because of the advice that I got. I'm gonna work 0:17:08.520 --> 0:17:11.719 at my local newspaper and now I'm doing flag football games. 0:17:12.119 --> 0:17:15.800 Did I make the right you know, what was going 0:17:15.840 --> 0:17:16.720 through your mind at this time? 0:17:16.880 --> 0:17:18.800 Definite crisis at confidence, Paul. 0:17:18.800 --> 0:17:22.880 I would say maybe about two or three years after 0:17:22.920 --> 0:17:26.320 I made the decision, where I was like, nothing's really happening. 0:17:26.480 --> 0:17:30.000 There's no advancement. I hadn't you know. 0:17:30.359 --> 0:17:33.119 All I was doing was working, hadn't met my white 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:34.920 mic now wife at the time, and I was. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:36.239 Sort of like, is this a hole worth it? 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:39.440 No Bruce shows, no Brue shows, although I think I 0:17:39.520 --> 0:17:41.160 had been going to some Bruce shows at that time. 0:17:41.200 --> 0:17:43.240 You too do that on your own podcast, all right. 0:17:43.320 --> 0:17:47.000 But I remember I actually said, I think the life 0:17:47.000 --> 0:17:50.439 of a teacher would be a great lifestyle and I 0:17:50.440 --> 0:17:52.520 would enjoy doing that. And I actually this was a 0:17:52.560 --> 0:17:57.080 time when the state was offering signing Paul, you remember this. 0:17:58.119 --> 0:17:59.160 I almost did the same thing. 0:17:59.520 --> 0:18:00.679 This is unbelievable. 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:05.800 They were offering signing bonus like incentives to professionals who 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:08.320 had been in the field for you know what, however 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:10.800 many years to get into teaching. Because I think there 0:18:10.840 --> 0:18:12.120 was a teaching shortage. 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:13.360 If I remember especially. 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.080 From male teachers at like the elementary school level and 0:18:16.119 --> 0:18:19.840 things like this, and there was just you know, it 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.639 was you started thinking, I like doing this, this is 0:18:23.680 --> 0:18:25.399 what I always wanted to do. How long can I 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:30.000 go and make this little money and substantiate it? You know, 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.600 something's got to start happening. So I know exactly what 0:18:32.640 --> 0:18:35.280 Mike is talking about. You have these sort of inner 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:37.600 dialogues and trying to figure out what's best, what's the 0:18:37.600 --> 0:18:38.120 next move? 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:42.600 Took the test, failed the test, which I say, thankfully 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.760 stuck with it, and what changed for me was the 0:18:46.800 --> 0:18:50.880 web and blogging two thousand and two, two thousand and three, 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:54.840 two thousand and four pieces. That was what changed it 0:18:54.880 --> 0:18:58.240 for me and ultimately got me to from Metros Daily 0:18:58.280 --> 0:19:01.439 News nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and five to 0:19:01.520 --> 0:19:05.280