Speaker 1: It's time now for another episode of Pats from the
Speaker 1: Past podcast, Matt Smith alongside with Paul Barlow. Paul, I
Speaker 1: think this is a we're gonna break the mold here
Speaker 1: a little bit because the guy we're gonna speak with
Speaker 1: I don't think had any tackles. True false.
Speaker 2: Yeah, as far as my stats show nothing, no catches.
Speaker 2: It's kind of like lawyer Maloyan oh one oh zero
Speaker 2: zero zero yeah zero.
Speaker 1: Wow. However, we say that not to denigrate Oh Too,
Speaker 1: I guess it was, but to but to celebrate the
Speaker 1: og writer for Patriots dot Com and Patriots Football Weekly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know.
Speaker 1: Now, as part of the worldwide Leader in Sports ESPN,
Speaker 1: Mike Reese joins us, ladies and gentlemen, and we are
Speaker 1: so happy to have your Mike. Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 4: It's great to be here. We've come a long way
Speaker 4: from the coat closet at Foxboro Stadium where which was
Speaker 4: my first office.
Speaker 1: So serious question, Mike, and you have a large following.
Speaker 1: People respect your work and everything like that. How many
Speaker 1: people do you think who follow you know where you
Speaker 1: actually started you have, I mean, you're trying to you
Speaker 1: don't hide from it, but you also not sitting there.
Speaker 1: You don't have a flag out in front of your
Speaker 1: house about it. Don't you think people would be surprised
Speaker 1: to know where you started?
Speaker 4: Yeah, maybe a little bit, just because it's so long ago, right,
Speaker 4: which is hard to believe. I mean, this goes back
Speaker 4: to nineteen ninety seven. Was my first job out of college.
Speaker 4: I had graduated from UMass Amherst and I actually, you're gonna.
Speaker 5: Laugh at me, Pou.
Speaker 4: I know we're not on TV, but I brought this
Speaker 4: in for you to flip through. These are all my
Speaker 4: rejection letters that I got coming out of college.
Speaker 3: I really do.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna look at this afterwards. You get a couple
Speaker 2: of minutes after. I'm interested in this because what do
Speaker 2: you do?
Speaker 3: I feel it. I feel the pain.
Speaker 5: You're in college.
Speaker 4: You're like, I want to work in sports media. I'm
Speaker 4: gonna I want to be a newspaper reporter. So I
Speaker 4: sent out all my resumes to newspapers across the country.
Speaker 4: Maybe you'll call it two hundred resumes. Wow, two hundred rejections.
Speaker 4: Letters come back and I'm like, wow, how can this be?
Speaker 4: Like I've had good experience in college at UMass and
Speaker 4: even before that at my local newspaper. And then, as
Speaker 4: it turned out, my brother has a friend who I
Speaker 4: knew through my brother, Dougie Fresh, Yes, Dougie Reese who
Speaker 4: and the friend Neil Cohen who went to summer camp
Speaker 4: with Fred Kersh. And he said, well, yeah, I.
Speaker 6: Heard your brother's looking for a job, you know, graduating,
Speaker 6: he should reach out to Fred Kersh. He's looking for
Speaker 6: a entry level writer for Patriots Football Weekly. It's like
Speaker 6: a team newspaper that they have over.
Speaker 4: At the Patriots. So I said, I'll reach out. I'll
Speaker 4: reach out to Fred Kersh and guys. Honestly, every time
Speaker 4: I see Fred, whether it's at a game or at
Speaker 4: the stadium, I wrap him up in a big hug
Speaker 4: because he was the only person to offer me a
Speaker 4: job coming out of college, and his decision as we
Speaker 4: sit here today, I mean, I can honestly tell you
Speaker 4: it changed my life.
Speaker 2: Serious is do you know what what we call we
Speaker 2: joke around, you know, Brian Morey, Andy Hart myself, you
Speaker 2: know what we call Fred the King, the Kingmaker, the Kingmaker.
Speaker 2: And it's not because he's trying to do anything special
Speaker 2: at fancy. He's not trying to perform some kind of
Speaker 2: social experiment. He just gives people opportunities, and if they
Speaker 2: work hard and they and they earn it, they go places.
Speaker 2: They've all gone places except for me, But everybody else
Speaker 2: has really benefited from Fred. And I can voucher Mike
Speaker 2: because I've seen Mike greet Fred every time the same way.
Speaker 2: And the best part of this story is if we
Speaker 2: fast forward from ninety seven to ninety nine, when Mike
Speaker 2: decided he had gotten some experience here at the Patriots
Speaker 2: moved on to his first job at a conventional newspaper,
Speaker 2: traditional newspaper which at the time I think was Metros
Speaker 2: Daily News. Okay, so who stepped into his shoes?
Speaker 5: How great is that? Oh?
Speaker 3: Gee, I love it.
Speaker 1: Big shoes to me, big shoes to fill. So Mike,
Speaker 1: here you are. Green is grass? Right? Fred throws of
Speaker 1: your lifeline. I'm gonna do this. What were you? What
Speaker 1: was your thinking here? You know again? My guess is
Speaker 1: fresh race kid out of college. I'm gonna change the world.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna win a Pulitzer Prize. I'm gonna do all
Speaker 1: these things. I'm working for the Patriots. What are we
Speaker 1: doing here? Can I break the Pete Carroll story? Like?
Speaker 1: What can I do. What kind of eye opening experience
Speaker 1: was it for you.
Speaker 4: I'm gonna flip through the media guide to make sure
Speaker 4: that I'm telling you an accurate story. But our first trip,
Speaker 4: so we traveled with the team on the team plane
Speaker 4: and our first trip was to lambeau Field. Oh, a
Speaker 4: preseason game. I want to say, remember the game nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety seven. So like right out of college, I think
Speaker 4: I had maybe taken one family vacation as a kid,
Speaker 4: you know, so I'm seeing a place, Hey, welcome to
Speaker 4: your new job. Let's go to lambeau Field. Like what's
Speaker 4: not to love?
Speaker 1: Oh my god?
Speaker 4: And I'll never forget. This was the before iPhones. So
Speaker 4: we were just getting into video on the web. So
Speaker 4: Fred was with me at the end of the game
Speaker 4: and he had a little video camera and he goes,
Speaker 4: just get down on one knee and just say something
Speaker 4: about the game, and we'll post it on Patriots dot com.
Speaker 4: And you know, we're going to experiment with something called
Speaker 4: Patriots Cyber Sideline. And that's how we started. And like,
Speaker 4: you say, what did you expect? What was it feel like?
Speaker 5: I'm at lambeau Field. You're paying me money to be here.
Speaker 1: Did lambeau mean as much to you as a as
Speaker 1: a twenty four to twenty five year old kid, or
Speaker 1: was it or do you think do you wonder if
Speaker 1: you took it all in as a young fresh faced
Speaker 1: kid then as you know now today, Mike jenuflecked when
Speaker 1: he goes to lambeau Field.
Speaker 4: You probably could have put me in any stadium, and
Speaker 4: I would have felt that way. However, when you hear
Speaker 4: about Lambeau and you're in that environment, it's that much more.
Speaker 1: That's awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I mean just thinking about some of those
Speaker 2: early days and you know, so Mike and I had
Speaker 2: similar kinds of experiences, even though I was a couple
Speaker 2: of years after, you know, he had gone just how
Speaker 2: many things And I'm not trying to like tell everybody like, oh,
Speaker 2: how great the Patriots are and the Patriots media, but
Speaker 2: there were so many things that the Patriots here, between
Speaker 2: Jonathan Kraft and Fred Kursh did first, you know, whether
Speaker 2: it was the website, first team, website, first team video
Speaker 2: show that Mike just talked about, Patriots cybersideline, first all
Speaker 2: color team owned news, team owned and run newspaper.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's amazing how many things that they were.
Speaker 1: At the form best show.
Speaker 2: I didn't say best, I said first. But yeah, and
Speaker 2: you know, people are going to be able to tell
Speaker 2: by the way Matt and I sound. We have a
Speaker 2: lot of affection for the guy that's that's joining us today,
Speaker 2: and we have a lot of respect for the way
Speaker 2: he goes about doing the job as well. And I
Speaker 2: know Mike feels the same way about me. I'm not
Speaker 2: trying to put words in his mouth. We're very good
Speaker 2: friends on and off the beat. And that's why I
Speaker 2: think when you said to me, what do you think
Speaker 2: about having Mic in? This is gonna be great. I
Speaker 2: think we're gonna get a lot of good stories today.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So, Mike, what was the most intimidating thing when
Speaker 1: you first started lambeau Field. That's kind of intimidating, right,
Speaker 1: the house at Lombardi built and everything like that. That's
Speaker 1: pretty intimidating, you know when you're first going in there. Okay,
Speaker 1: this is this is them coming off of pretty Super
Speaker 1: Bowl loss and parcels and everything like that. What was
Speaker 1: your welcome was it was going to lambeau You're in
Speaker 1: the big League's moment or was there another moment in
Speaker 1: the locker room training camp? Or something like that, we said, Okay,
Speaker 1: this is for real.
Speaker 4: So one story that really stuck with me was that
Speaker 4: first year and we would pick who would win the
Speaker 4: games in the newspaper, and it's a team owned newspaper,
Speaker 4: and you know, you didn't want to necessarily always pick
Speaker 4: the Patriots because at that time the idea of uh Fred.
Speaker 1: Always.
Speaker 3: Fred, make sure that there's always one picking the Patriots.
Speaker 4: Sixteen and o season, right, you know, at that point
Speaker 4: we hadn't lived through two thousand and seven, and and
Speaker 4: I remember thinking to myself, like for us to be
Speaker 4: taken seriously like we we have to we have to
Speaker 4: go with the other team credibility. So we and so
Speaker 4: for me, I probably didn't pick the right game to
Speaker 4: pick against them for the first time, but I think
Speaker 4: it was the game against the Jets when Bill Parcells
Speaker 4: was the coach, So that one hurts and it's the
Speaker 4: first road one, right, yeah, well first road one.
Speaker 1: You picked them again in the home game.
Speaker 4: I think I did, Okay, do that sound I mean
Speaker 4: you would.
Speaker 2: I think you've told me this story before, and I
Speaker 2: think I remember what happens and so priceless.
Speaker 4: So so they that was the moment that where I
Speaker 4: actually started to question if I, if am I really
Speaker 4: cut out for this, because I remember, you know, at
Speaker 4: that time there was more of less of a wall
Speaker 4: put up between the players and the state and the
Speaker 4: people who work for the team, like myself, and they
Speaker 4: used to bring the Patriots football weeklies down to the
Speaker 4: locker room and hand them out to the players.
Speaker 1: Get your own coffee, and I could hear.
Speaker 4: I could hear from up in my cubicle, which was
Speaker 4: at that point like right outside ownership offices, because the
Speaker 4: locker room was underneath us, Like I could hear like
Speaker 4: almost like the newspaper getting crumbled up.
Speaker 5: And oh, what is this? What is this?
Speaker 4: And they were like some players were upset that I
Speaker 4: had picked against them. And so when I went down
Speaker 4: for the lot, the access, like Jimmy Hitchcock I remember specifically,
Speaker 4: was like wouldn't answer my questions. And I think part
Speaker 4: of it was playful, but at the time, I'm twenty one, twenty.
Speaker 5: Two years old, and it felt heavy personal.
Speaker 4: I'm I don't know if personal, but it felt heavy
Speaker 4: almost like do I have what it takes to stand
Speaker 4: up here and back what I put into the paper?
Speaker 4: Because it in retrospect I'm not sure it was the
Speaker 4: best game to make my first pick against the Patriots,
Speaker 4: knowing the back story there, and by.
Speaker 2: The way, Mike was right, which made it probably worse
Speaker 2: and he ended up the Jets ended up beating the Patriots,
Speaker 2: and that I remember that in that game, and I
Speaker 2: think there wasn't there one of the players that went
Speaker 2: up to you, like really playfully said, I heard you
Speaker 2: did a bad thing, little man.
Speaker 4: That's right, that's right, I'm gonna stuff you in my
Speaker 4: locker I think it was Ferrick Cohen's if I remember right.
Speaker 2: You remember, of course scared the but Jesus out of
Speaker 2: me one day for something totally different.
Speaker 4: But see, and that's where I get nervous. I'm like,
Speaker 4: was was it Ferrick? Because it's starting to be so
Speaker 4: long ago, guys that it's right.
Speaker 1: I was gonna give you. Maybe Henry Thomas could have
Speaker 1: been Henry Thomas.
Speaker 4: Henry Thomas was great. I like you you mentioned a name,
Speaker 4: and I think of a story. Henry Thomas. We used
Speaker 4: to have a joke in the locker room, like I
Speaker 4: think I'm gonna keep a whole tin of breath mints
Speaker 4: in here because whenever I talk to you guys.
Speaker 1: You know you need you.
Speaker 5: Need some breathmans, you know.
Speaker 4: So it's like stuff like that, Matt like, and that's
Speaker 4: part of the fun plunging around a team for as
Speaker 4: long as you're you say it and you think of
Speaker 4: something funny or a different story like that.
Speaker 1: Right. So, Mike, I've been with you, I think at
Speaker 1: owners meetings where in the format really hasn't changed. One day, Monday, say,
Speaker 1: the AFC coaches have a breakfast and a media availability,
Speaker 1: and on Tuesday, the NFC has a availability and a
Speaker 1: media breakfast. And I remember being with you at one
Speaker 1: of these ones, whether it's out in the West or
Speaker 1: in Florida or something like that, and you had said
Speaker 1: to me, Mattam, I'm gonna stick around a little bit.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I want to go over to the NFC.
Speaker 1: I want to say hi to Pete. And I'm sitting
Speaker 1: there going you want to go over and say hi
Speaker 1: to Pete. And this is thirty years later or something
Speaker 1: like that in Europe, and Pete carrolsees Mike Reese and
Speaker 1: of course he goes up to when gravitates to him,
Speaker 1: because you remember some twenty one year old little snot
Speaker 1: nosed kid who's to cover him every single day when
Speaker 1: he was a coach of the Patriots. And that tells
Speaker 1: me a little something about both people, and not just Mike,
Speaker 1: but Pete.
Speaker 2: When Mike had had said, you know, back then there
Speaker 2: was maybe less of a wall between the team personnel
Speaker 2: and us. That's part of what I'm sort of remembering
Speaker 2: as well. And when I came in, you know, Brian,
Speaker 2: Brian Moorey at the time, you know, he took me around,
Speaker 2: introduced me to a lot of people, and he introduced
Speaker 2: me to Pete Carroll And it was actually at training
Speaker 2: because I started kind of like hit the ground running.
Speaker 3: I started right as.
Speaker 2: Training camp was was getting ready to kick off, and
Speaker 2: he brought me over to Pete, you know, and Pete
Speaker 2: asked me a bunch of questions about myself and where
Speaker 2: I came from, like stuff that you really couldn't imagine today.
Speaker 2: And it's had nothing to do with Bill, but just
Speaker 2: you wouldn't see that same kind of time given to
Speaker 2: to get to know anybody.
Speaker 3: And Pete. What Pete said to me, he goes, so
Speaker 3: you're going to replace Mike.
Speaker 2: He goes big shoes to fill is he goes, well,
Speaker 2: actually little shoes to fill. But how great is it?
Speaker 2: But that's like he did. He was like big shoes
Speaker 2: to fill, and that's what he meant. That as a
Speaker 2: compliment to Mike's professionalism and work ethic.
Speaker 4: For Patriots Football Weekly, we used to have we called
Speaker 4: it Carol's Corner, So Brian myself or Brian and Paul
Speaker 4: right after that would go into his office and sit
Speaker 4: with him and you get whatever ten fifteen minutes, ask
Speaker 4: him questions and we would run it as a Q
Speaker 4: and A and so one. I'm gonna guess it was
Speaker 4: ninety nine we were in there. It might have been March,
Speaker 4: and we're doing our off season Q and A for
Speaker 4: Carol's Corner and a knock on the door.
Speaker 5: Coach.
Speaker 4: I just wanted to say goodbye, you know, thanks for
Speaker 4: spending time with me. It was great to be here.
Speaker 4: And Pete gets up.
Speaker 1: He goes, hey, that was great.
Speaker 4: You know, we'll be in touch. And then Pete looks
Speaker 4: at Brian myself and he goes, do you guys know
Speaker 4: who that is? And he said, I have no idea.
Speaker 4: He goes, that's Kevin Falk. You should get to know
Speaker 4: his name. And it was like those stories like that, fun. Right,
Speaker 4: So they end up drafting him the next month. I
Speaker 4: believe in the second round if I have it right.
Speaker 5: And so those were the moments.
Speaker 4: Those are behind the scenes fun things like you mentioned
Speaker 4: a name, Matt Paul, Like, those are the things that
Speaker 4: start racing through my head.
Speaker 1: So here he is, he cuts his teeth at Patriots
Speaker 1: dot Com Patriots Football Weekly. What, Mike, what was the
Speaker 1: motivating factor for you to say, Okay, I gotta move away,
Speaker 1: I gotta move on. What was going through your mind?
Speaker 1: And then where did you go? And let's tell the
Speaker 1: listeners and the fans about how you got to the
Speaker 1: worldwide leader.
Speaker 5: Definitely.
Speaker 4: So it was always my dream to be like Will McDonough,
Speaker 4: the late Boston Globe sports columnist. I just i admired him,
Speaker 4: and I had reached out to the Boston Globe and said, like,
Speaker 4: am I on the right path to possibly following that path?
Speaker 5: You know, to be like that?
Speaker 4: And the sports editor at the time, his name was
Speaker 4: Don squar He said, you're getting great experience. He said,
Speaker 4: one thing we'd be looking for if we were to
Speaker 4: hire you is a little more independence, So to not
Speaker 4: be employed by the team writing on them, but to
Speaker 4: show us that you could write on them at an
Speaker 4: independent outlet.
Speaker 1: I'm surprised the Globe would look down at at a
Speaker 1: team site or her team team meeting.
Speaker 2: But you know what's funny about that is, you know,
Speaker 2: let's get back to Will for a second. You won't
Speaker 2: find a better champion of Patriots Football Weekly than Will
Speaker 2: McDonald was.
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
Speaker 2: He was fantastic with us. He used to cite our
Speaker 2: work on occasion in his Sunday notes.
Speaker 5: Made me feel like you arrived, right, Paul.
Speaker 2: You know that because that was my big fear, And
Speaker 2: you know I did it the opposite of Mike. I
Speaker 2: spent eleven years at the Herald, and I wasn't really
Speaker 2: getting the beat or the assignments that I necessarily wanted.
Speaker 2: And then when this opportunity came, so I went the
Speaker 2: backwards path. I went from conventional mainstream media to team owned.
Speaker 3: And operated media.
Speaker 2: And my one fear was that not to be taken seriously.
Speaker 2: And when I get you know, when I tell you,
Speaker 2: like Nickofardo at the time, another late great you know
Speaker 2: Boston Boston Globe writer Having mannis from the Herald, Ronnie Borges,
Speaker 2: Will McDonough. These guys were wonderful with the team, and
Speaker 2: they never never looked down their nose at us at all.
Speaker 4: And I think it's changed now, Paul, like I think
Speaker 4: it was, Oh yeah, more it wouldn't be viewed the
Speaker 4: same way by newspapers. I think times have changed, but
Speaker 4: that's what it was at that time. And so I
Speaker 4: went back to my hometown newspaper in framing him Massachusetts
Speaker 4: called the metrost Daily News, and I was covering the team,
Speaker 4: but not as closely because unlike Patriots Football Weekly, where
Speaker 4: I was here every day, he didn't travel. No, didn't
Speaker 4: travel initially, right, And there were times where I remember
Speaker 4: I was covering like a local flag football game, you know,
Speaker 4: on a Sunday when the Patriots might have been on
Speaker 4: the road, and my friends would say to me, what
Speaker 4: happened to those trips to lambeau Field. And so in
Speaker 4: a way it was like, well, I'm still doing it,
Speaker 4: but it was in a different form.
Speaker 1: And so was there a crisis of confidence there? Mike.
Speaker 1: You know, here's a you know, your first jobs at
Speaker 1: lambeau Field, you're working, You're covering this team, the team
Speaker 1: that you grew up with. I'm going to stretch myself
Speaker 1: because of the advice that I got. I'm gonna work
Speaker 1: at my local newspaper and now I'm doing flag football games.
Speaker 1: Did I make the right you know, what was going
Speaker 1: through your mind at this time?
Speaker 5: Definite crisis at confidence, Paul.
Speaker 4: I would say maybe about two or three years after
Speaker 4: I made the decision, where I was like, nothing's really happening.
Speaker 5: There's no advancement. I hadn't you know.
Speaker 4: All I was doing was working, hadn't met my white
Speaker 4: mic now wife at the time, and I was.
Speaker 5: Sort of like, is this a hole worth it?
Speaker 4: No Bruce shows, no Brue shows, although I think I
Speaker 4: had been going to some Bruce shows at that time.
Speaker 3: You too do that on your own podcast, all right.
Speaker 4: But I remember I actually said, I think the life
Speaker 4: of a teacher would be a great lifestyle and I
Speaker 4: would enjoy doing that. And I actually this was a
Speaker 4: time when the state was offering signing Paul, you remember this.
Speaker 3: I almost did the same thing.
Speaker 5: This is unbelievable.
Speaker 4: They were offering signing bonus like incentives to professionals who
Speaker 4: had been in the field for you know what, however
Speaker 4: many years to get into teaching. Because I think there
Speaker 4: was a teaching shortage.
Speaker 5: If I remember especially.
Speaker 2: From male teachers at like the elementary school level and
Speaker 2: things like this, and there was just you know, it
Speaker 2: was you started thinking, I like doing this, this is
Speaker 2: what I always wanted to do. How long can I
Speaker 2: go and make this little money and substantiate it? You know,
Speaker 2: something's got to start happening. So I know exactly what
Speaker 2: Mike is talking about. You have these sort of inner
Speaker 2: dialogues and trying to figure out what's best, what's the
Speaker 2: next move?
Speaker 4: Took the test, failed the test, which I say, thankfully
Speaker 4: stuck with it, and what changed for me was the
Speaker 4: web and blogging two thousand and two, two thousand and three,
Speaker 4: two thousand and four pieces. That was what changed it
Speaker 4: for me and ultimately got me to from Metros Daily
Speaker 4: News nineteen ninety nine to two thousand and five to
Speaker 4: the Boston dot Com Boston Globe two thousand and five
Speaker 4: to two thousand and nine, and then ESPN started up
Speaker 4: ESPN Boston in two thousand and nine, and it was
Speaker 4: a good time to go only because the Globe was
Speaker 4: up for sale. We didn't know what was happening, and
Speaker 4: it's been a great place to be.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's a really good story for any young person
Speaker 1: who it wants to get into this business, but in
Speaker 1: any business of like when do you make the decision?
Speaker 1: How long are you gonna stick with this? I got
Speaker 1: bills to pay? How long can I keep on going
Speaker 1: here and following your heart, following your passion knows to
Speaker 1: the grindstone, all of those good things, and it's gonna
Speaker 1: work out if you believe and work hard enough. Is
Speaker 1: that what you're gonna tell your kids? I think, Mike,
Speaker 1: you know, when they come to you looking for advice.
Speaker 4: I would tell them that map. But I think sometimes
Speaker 4: it's luck to sure you know sure? And I think
Speaker 4: I mean without getting too personal, I mean at that
Speaker 4: time in my life, like I was lonely.
Speaker 5: Like that's one I don't know if you.
Speaker 4: Read Adam Schefter's book, which I really admire him for,
Speaker 4: Like he talked about being lonely and am I ever
Speaker 4: going to meet someone?
Speaker 5: I'm a very personal stuff.
Speaker 4: From him and for me, like I was sort of
Speaker 4: balancing the career stuff but also like what's happening, Like
Speaker 4: I've got to be the work working all the time, right,
Speaker 4: And that was where the whole teacher thing was appealing
Speaker 4: to me. Interesting, So I miss my you know, like, think.
Speaker 5: About what we do.
Speaker 4: I mean a lot of well, our jobs are fun,
Speaker 4: we love them. We are working when most people are playing.
Speaker 1: Correct.
Speaker 2: I always say that like the sports journalism business, it
Speaker 2: never closes. It's it's nights, it's weekends, it's holidays, you know,
Speaker 2: And just look just just this past year, we played
Speaker 2: the Patriots, played on every holiday, imaginable. But you know,
Speaker 2: so you just played on Thanksgiving. You know, we just
Speaker 2: went to Minnesota and played on Thanksgiving. They play at
Speaker 2: Dallas next year. Correct, there's a chance you're gonna play
Speaker 2: on Thanksgiving again next year. And I know a lot
Speaker 2: of people look at this. Listen to this jerk, you know,
Speaker 2: he's complaining about having to cover the Patriots were a
Speaker 2: living I'm not complaining about it.
Speaker 3: It's what I chose to do.
Speaker 2: But there are different sides of it some people. You know,
Speaker 2: when Mike is talking about that teacher thing, and this
Speaker 2: is Mike's podcast, so.
Speaker 3: I don't need to interject.
Speaker 2: Love how I come in on all of this, But
Speaker 2: I know I was working at the Herald, and this
Speaker 2: is when I was sort of coming to these crossroads
Speaker 2: in my mind because I loved working at the Herald.
Speaker 2: I loved the people I worked with, and there are
Speaker 2: a lot of people that you guys know and maybe
Speaker 2: don't love so much. Today I'm looking at a couple
Speaker 2: of them on a monitor, Mike Felger and Tony maz
Speaker 2: That's why I get along so well with them doing
Speaker 2: the stuff on the Sports up. But we were all
Speaker 2: three of us kind of in the same kind of boat,
Speaker 2: and you just wonder, how am I, to Mike's point,
Speaker 2: how am I ever going to meet somebody when I
Speaker 2: work Thursday, Friday and Saturday night from five pm to
Speaker 2: one am or seven pm to three am, doing racing
Speaker 2: or agate work in the sports department, hoping that someday
Speaker 2: I can be Will McDonough. Well, no one's gonna come
Speaker 2: down with a magic wand and say, iw you the
Speaker 2: next Will mcdonne.
Speaker 3: Like, it's so.
Speaker 2: Like there's so much fortune and fate that gets you know,
Speaker 2: this guy happened to be in the right place at
Speaker 2: the right time, got an opportunity, and then you know,
Speaker 2: I always tell the story about Bill Simmons, who was
Speaker 2: with us at the time, Yeah, doing the same kind
Speaker 2: of stuff. Obviously an incredibly talented guy, but it wasn't
Speaker 2: happening for him at the Herald, So we left. You know,
Speaker 2: it's there's a lot of different paths. It's a lot
Speaker 2: of ways to get to grandma's house.
Speaker 5: Yeah, can I tell a story.
Speaker 4: I love stories like Pats from the past, Like I
Speaker 4: think I was thinking about this coming down here, like
Speaker 4: shining a light on Pats from the past, even more
Speaker 4: than even just the players. So along this whole topic.
Speaker 4: When that first year I was working for the team
Speaker 4: nineteen ninety seven, we would travel and we would get
Speaker 4: on the buses go to the airport and they had
Speaker 4: an athletic trainer team at an athletic trainer Ron O'Neil
Speaker 4: assaulted the Earth guy. Now to your point, Matt, you
Speaker 4: had asked me before, like what was it like for you?
Speaker 4: Like were you intimidated? Like I was very impressionable was
Speaker 4: my first year out of school.
Speaker 1: Sure, he was like.
Speaker 4: A father figure to me and we I would always
Speaker 4: try to sit next to him on the bus and
Speaker 4: we would Paul, I can't help it. And we would
Speaker 4: talk and and I'd say, what did you do last night?
Speaker 4: I took my wife out to dinner? And he would
Speaker 4: tell and he gave me advice that I still remember
Speaker 4: to this day, he said, once a month, every week
Speaker 4: we have date night. And I'm gonna give you some advice,
Speaker 4: young Mike Greece. You're you're a young guy here. It's
Speaker 4: just you right now, and you're gonna move on in
Speaker 4: your life, hopefully of a successful career, and you might
Speaker 4: meet someone.
Speaker 5: And when you meet someone, it's gonna.
Speaker 4: Be probably pretty easy because it's gonna be you and
Speaker 4: that person. Now, you and that person might get together,
Speaker 4: you might try to have a life together, and then
Speaker 4: it's gonna be you, and maybe there might be some
Speaker 4: kids in then it's no longer you in that person,
Speaker 4: and then it's you your job, the kids never stop
Speaker 4: dating your wife.
Speaker 1: Wow.
Speaker 4: And I'm never, I never, and I just but so
Speaker 4: I tell the story. One, I remember it like it
Speaker 4: was yesterday. And two, like being around the team. You're
Speaker 4: around great people, players, coaches that are at highest level
Speaker 4: NFL right that if you're around it, you can't help.
Speaker 4: But some of that rubs off on you if you're
Speaker 4: paying attention, you know. And I love like I think
Speaker 4: pats from the past, like ron O'Neil, great Shina light,
Speaker 4: great story.
Speaker 2: Well that's more I'm interested in those kinds of things like,
Speaker 2: so Ron O'Neil obviously made a huge impression on you.
Speaker 3: What are some of the other people?
Speaker 2: I mean, I know there's so many because you know
Speaker 2: got twenty some odd you twenty five years of this. Yes,
Speaker 2: Like who was some of the other people that really
Speaker 2: stood out to you? It's made such an impression.
Speaker 4: I do have to give Bill Belichick credit because I
Speaker 4: think in general, Paul he brings in people that.
Speaker 5: Are pretty impressive.
Speaker 4: Not you never hit one hundred, right or never about
Speaker 4: one hundred, you know, but to me, like the Nate Soldiers,
Speaker 4: those are like personal to me because when he's going
Speaker 4: through the testicular cancer and to see him fight through
Speaker 4: that and share that, you know, And.
Speaker 5: So that's what like.
Speaker 4: Current day, you know, the Matthew Slaters and the Devin McCarty's,
Speaker 4: like you learn a lot from from being around them,
Speaker 4: and hopefully maybe they even learn something from talking to you.
Speaker 4: I'd like to think that it's two way street.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: Devin McCarty's definitely in my top five twenty three whatever years.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Mike, you mentioned Schefter and you're talking about his
Speaker 1: book and Patriot fans know you now as Mike RECESPN
Speaker 1: it's a big company, hard to make your mark, maybe
Speaker 1: pressure to do something to make that mark, as you
Speaker 1: can come from T Mowne Media to a small suburban
Speaker 1: newspaper to now I've said it a couple times here
Speaker 1: in this conversation, the worldwide leader, and I don't say
Speaker 1: that they are. They're all about that. What have you
Speaker 1: learned there? And what are some of the lessons that
Speaker 1: you've learned you know that you've taken with you, maybe
Speaker 1: from Patriots Football Weekly that you use today at ESPN.
Speaker 5: So another story.
Speaker 4: When we were at Patriots Football Weekly, the Crafts who
Speaker 4: wanted us to be great, hired people to work with us,
Speaker 4: and one of them was John Dennis. Do you remember
Speaker 4: he had a company called Media Wise Idea Wise. I
Speaker 4: should have brought that packet in, Paul, I'll bring it
Speaker 4: into I still have the literature.
Speaker 1: And who used to work with your dad on television.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about a small It's unbelievable.
Speaker 4: It is, and he would come in and work with
Speaker 4: us and Matt. What I took from that experience was
Speaker 4: John Dennis said, look at your little press pass right here.
Speaker 4: Think of how many people would want to have that
Speaker 4: press pass. You have a privilege with this press pass,
Speaker 4: but also an obligation. You get to ask questions that
Speaker 4: the person at home wants to ask but can't. So
Speaker 4: you need to serve that audience. And that's the part
Speaker 4: that I learned from him from Patriots Football Weekly, from
Speaker 4: one of my first days on the job, that I
Speaker 4: take I try to I take that seriously. And I
Speaker 4: think you and me, Matt, we've talked off air, you
Speaker 4: know that sometimes like I feel an obligation to be
Speaker 4: in a certain situation to say, like, if.
Speaker 5: We don't ask this, we're not doing.
Speaker 4: Our job, Like what's our purpose here? To serve the fans?
Speaker 1: And Mike, you've talked about and this isn't a new role, okay,
Speaker 1: and it's one that maybe fans don't understand a lot.
Speaker 1: The fans will watch fifth quarter or they'll watch Patriots
Speaker 1: dot Com and they'll listen to Bill Belichick after the game.
Speaker 1: And after the game, a reporter asks Bill Belichick, coach
Speaker 1: Hunter Henry Minnesota catch no catch? Well, you know, how
Speaker 1: did you see it? And Bill's never going to take
Speaker 1: the cheese as far as that's concerned. But the first
Speaker 1: thing out of his mouth is pool reporter, Yeah, Mike Reese.
Speaker 1: Maybe the fans don't know this holds that role as
Speaker 1: the pool reporter. Mike, you talk about how serious you
Speaker 1: take the nature of your job. We're not saving lives,
Speaker 1: and I know you know that, Yeah, but you also
Speaker 1: take this seriously and you feel a responsibility maybe educate
Speaker 1: the fans a little bit about what that is like
Speaker 1: to be the pool reporter and have to go ask
Speaker 1: Carl Scheffer's or whoever the call Scheffers was in Minnesota,
Speaker 1: those kinds of questions.
Speaker 4: Yes, So every beat core around the NFL, so thirty
Speaker 4: two teams, they designate one or two poor reporters that
Speaker 4: if there's ever a question about the interpretation of a rule,
Speaker 4: that reporter asks on behalf of all the reporters to
Speaker 4: hopefully provide a better understanding to everyone as to why
Speaker 4: that call was made. And so you have to be
Speaker 4: at the games. So I think by default, and you've
Speaker 4: both probably noticed this, the traveling media is much less
Speaker 4: than it used to be. Thankfully, ESPN still sends me to.
Speaker 5: All the games. I hope that continues.
Speaker 4: So that puts me among a very small group that's
Speaker 4: eligible to be the pool reporter and so play like
Speaker 4: Hunter Henry and Minnesota happens inevitably. Everyone just looks down
Speaker 4: and says.
Speaker 5: Can we have a pool report?
Speaker 4: Or I might look and say do we agree we
Speaker 4: want a pool report? And I might say to everyone,
Speaker 4: can you send me what you want me to ask?
Speaker 1: That happens organically, Mike usually okay, Usually that's pretty interesting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, And we had a few dishes like the
Speaker 2: Minnesota one was just just what you had. The one
Speaker 2: in the Raiders I think right with the disputed touchdown
Speaker 2: for Keel and cole yes, was that the only two?
Speaker 4: And then we did one? And I'm curious, did this Cincinnati.
Speaker 2: Progress on vermondre Stevenson's fumbles one year?
Speaker 1: That's a heavy lift, and I relatively, you know what
Speaker 1: I'm saying, I do well.
Speaker 4: The only reason that's heavy mat is you can't be
Speaker 4: in two places at once. If you're doing that, that
Speaker 4: means you're not in with Bill Belichick. And then Paul mentioned,
Speaker 4: you know, like Felger and maz like, what's changed in
Speaker 4: our business is now everyone's not just listening to the answers.
Speaker 4: There's an accountability to your question. And if oh, they
Speaker 4: might say on the you know, most listened to talk
Speaker 4: radio station. How come no one in the media asked this,
Speaker 4: which might be a fair criticism, but it also might
Speaker 4: be because I wasn't in the room or I just
Speaker 4: messed up, you know.
Speaker 1: So, Mike, you're sitting there and you're talking about you
Speaker 1: know that the Pool No pun intended here, because we're
Speaker 1: talking about Pool reporter has shifted and changed a little
Speaker 1: bit from travel. Yet this is my perception as I
Speaker 1: look at the people who cover the Patriots on a
Speaker 1: local level, if you compare that group to what other
Speaker 1: teams do, I have to believe that outside of the
Speaker 1: Dallas Cowboys, you're looking at the largest media contingency to
Speaker 1: cover a team. Is that a fair statement to make?
Speaker 4: It seems pretty high. It's big, Yeah, it's big, but
Speaker 4: it depends on where. So Like, it's big on a
Speaker 4: daily basis, right, because you're pulling in all the TV
Speaker 4: stations from around Rhode Island, Boston, sometimes New Hampshire will
Speaker 4: come down Maine, and then the smaller local papers. But
Speaker 4: then you go on the road and you really start
Speaker 4: to see it dwindled down.
Speaker 2: But in terms of a day to day I think
Speaker 2: Matt is probably I mean, I think the New York's
Speaker 2: are probably comparable Philly.
Speaker 5: Maybe you think Philly, yeah.
Speaker 2: Maybe yeah, But like there's some that have like a
Speaker 2: handful of people that are there on a Wednesday, right,
Speaker 2: So Mike, that to me not necessarily makes it has
Speaker 2: to happen.
Speaker 1: But if you're covering this team, you want your voice heard,
Speaker 1: whether that's in print, whether that's on the radio, whether
Speaker 1: that's on TV. And it's hard to do that on
Speaker 1: this beat. Okay, you've covered Bill Belichick since he's been here,
Speaker 1: since he was hired in two thousand. There's been a
Speaker 1: lot of noise in twenty something years about geez, you know,
Speaker 1: why would I go to a Bill Belichick press conference.
Speaker 1: He's not gonna say anything. You've made a life twenty
Speaker 1: something years of going to Bill Belichick press conferences. And
Speaker 1: one of the things that I admire about you is
Speaker 1: when one of the many things is when there's a pandemic,
Speaker 1: you can't go to the press conference. But if there's
Speaker 1: a virtual availability, you're there. If there's an in person availability,
Speaker 1: you're there. Why is that important to you?
Speaker 4: So I feel like we have that responsibility to the fans,
Speaker 4: and how bad would it look if Okay, Bill Belichick,
Speaker 4: it's seven thirty for his day after game Zoom and
Speaker 4: Stacy James does a great job with the media relations
Speaker 4: calls out, all right, where coach Belichick is here?
Speaker 5: Do we have any questions?
Speaker 4: And if no one is there to ask or no
Speaker 4: one raises their hand, I feel like that would shine
Speaker 4: a very bad light on like what are we even
Speaker 4: doing here?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 5: And so I.
Speaker 4: Don't want to say that I hold that up, but
Speaker 4: like that's why I make it a point Matt to
Speaker 4: be there, because if he's going to have an availability,
Speaker 4: I feel like we should be there to make it
Speaker 4: what it's meant to be, which is an availability to
Speaker 4: further educate, inform the fans. And well, we can't control
Speaker 4: his answers. We can control, hopefully the quality of our questions.
Speaker 1: And his answers can be very maddening to people, both
Speaker 1: the fans and to the media who are the conduit
Speaker 1: to the fans who just want to be able to
Speaker 1: why did this happen? Why is he playing? Why is
Speaker 1: he not playing? All the different things that the media asks.
Speaker 1: I don't think you feel that way. I'm sure you've
Speaker 1: been frustrated. Sometimes you get singled out unfairly.
Speaker 5: People will talk to or fairly or fairly or.
Speaker 1: But people go, geez, why why did he have it
Speaker 1: in for Reese today? You know, but you've been doing it,
Speaker 1: like for twenty three years. What have you learned about
Speaker 1: covering Bill Belichick that has helped you as a reporter
Speaker 1: and maybe help make you a better writer, more informed reporter.
Speaker 4: So so I do disagree with and Paul, I think
Speaker 4: you're gonna disagree with me, but that's okay. I do
Speaker 4: disagree with those who say he doesn't say anything because
Speaker 4: I do think there's times that he does say stuff. Now,
Speaker 4: it might not be in black and white, and it
Speaker 4: might you might have to interpret it or yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Know, I think sometimes there's there's things there, and I
Speaker 2: think it's more by omission, but I think there's sometimes
Speaker 2: that it's that there's stuff there.
Speaker 4: So I think that's that's my thing. What I've learned
Speaker 4: is just always show up, Always try to be prepared
Speaker 4: to ask questions. And and Matt you said, like, sometimes
Speaker 4: you get you know, singled out unfairly or honestly, Matt,
Speaker 4: sometimes fairly because you know what we're not We're not
Speaker 4: that way, and we're not because we're not perfect. Yeah,
Speaker 4: sometimes sometimes I will ask a question everybody, and I'll
Speaker 4: be like, oh, oh my god, what like one that
Speaker 4: didn't come out the way I intended it to, And like,
Speaker 4: what was I thinking in that moment?
Speaker 5: Which reminds me of a story. Can I do you?
Speaker 1: Okay? That's why you're here?
Speaker 5: The first time.
Speaker 4: I ever asked a question that Bill Belichick, how nervous
Speaker 4: I was, and I remember the question and my so
Speaker 4: I would This was going back to early two thousands
Speaker 4: and so I remember I wasn't working for the team.
Speaker 4: I was at a small local paper, so I wasn't
Speaker 4: traveling with the team at that time. But I was
Speaker 4: showing up on a you know, mostly a daily basis,
Speaker 4: or Tom Curran was doing it.
Speaker 5: So maybe I was showing up every now and then.
Speaker 5: I don't remember.
Speaker 4: Were sitting in the front road back wasn't in the
Speaker 4: front road back then, I was. I was scoping it out,
Speaker 4: and I think I finally got the courage.
Speaker 5: To ask a question because I wasn't.
Speaker 4: I mean, I'm always impressed with the young reporters to
Speaker 4: come in and just let it rip right away, Like
Speaker 4: I was really nervous to ask a question to coach Belichick,
Speaker 4: And so I finally got the courage, and I can
Speaker 4: just image and how it came out, and it was,
Speaker 4: you have a defensive back named Leonard Myers.
Speaker 5: Out of them of.
Speaker 4: Miami, what what do you think he might be able.
Speaker 5: To contribute to this?
Speaker 3: It didn't sound like that.
Speaker 4: My heart beating through my chick, That's what I remember.
Speaker 3: I'm sure it didn't sound like that.
Speaker 4: But but I like, I do tell the story because
Speaker 4: I think it's important for people to.
Speaker 5: Know like I was, and I actually still do.
Speaker 4: We'll get nervous sometimes going on TV or like this
Speaker 4: is very comfortable because we know each other, but like
Speaker 4: sometimes you're on ESPN and they're coming to you and
Speaker 4: you're like, am I prepared?
Speaker 1: Am I health?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 5: Am I in a good place right now? Like? And
Speaker 5: the heart will start beating.
Speaker 1: Like right, And so I'll give fans listeners a little
Speaker 1: bit of uh, maybe peel back a little bit behind
Speaker 1: the curtain where I've been with Mike, and I'll again,
Speaker 1: I'll repeat this at the owner's meetings or the league meetings,
Speaker 1: of the annual meetings, whatever they want to call them.
Speaker 1: And that's where the coaches and coach Belichick at breakfast
Speaker 1: eight thirty in the morning, whatever it's whether it's Pacific
Speaker 1: Coast time or Eastern Standard time. And here comes Bill Belichick.
Speaker 1: And we've seen the famous memes with the orange juice
Speaker 1: and all different things like that, and Michael spend the
Speaker 1: night before that or times before that, and he comes
Speaker 1: in with his notebook and he's got forty to sixty questions,
Speaker 1: and he'll sit there and he'll go, Matt, what do
Speaker 1: you think about this? Do you think I'm covered here?
Speaker 1: And I just think it's a great lesson for any reporter.
Speaker 2: You have a forty to sixty questions before a press conference.
Speaker 2: Maybe I couldn't up with forty questions. If you said
Speaker 2: you can have a million dollars if you can write
Speaker 2: down forty questions. This is still Belichick. I'm not sure
Speaker 2: I could do it.
Speaker 1: Hasn't talk since the end of the year, so you're
Speaker 1: looking at a two and a half three month period
Speaker 1: where they've signed somebody, somebody's lost, this coach left, this
Speaker 1: coach is coming. There's been a period of time. So
Speaker 1: it's not Wednesday before the Packers game.
Speaker 3: Let's know, fake you you said that owners.
Speaker 1: Meetings forty to sixty questions.
Speaker 3: That's impressible.
Speaker 1: And it's impressive, and I would want to sit there
Speaker 1: and say that's the way to do the job, like
Speaker 1: that's somebody who's really putting in the time to do it.
Speaker 1: And I say that with so much respect, Mike, but
Speaker 1: I think that that's how you feel like you've got
Speaker 1: to You've got to cover that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think we're going back to coach Belichick
Speaker 4: like knowing that a lot of those questions aren't going
Speaker 4: to get answered because he might not want to answer him.
Speaker 4: But I feel like if we're not asking him, like
Speaker 4: what's our what are we doing right? Like, it's not
Speaker 4: like we have to do it because he might what's
Speaker 4: the the chance he might answer it? And then look,
Speaker 4: you have that information to pass along because ultimately, I
Speaker 4: do believe, going back to the John Dennis media wise
Speaker 4: first year at Patriots Football Weekly Patriots dot Com, we
Speaker 4: are there to be that in between conduit to the
Speaker 4: fans of the team that are investing their time, their money,
Speaker 4: their passion to know and if we're not, we're I
Speaker 4: don't want to let them down.
Speaker 5: That's sort of the way I look at it.
Speaker 1: So you've had some interesting stories here, Mike. You mentioned
Speaker 1: the question and you're well prepared. Is there a question
Speaker 1: that you remember asking and you're saying to yourself, there's
Speaker 1: no way in hell he's going to answer this, And
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, it's like a huge bit of
Speaker 1: cold water splashes uniface. You go, oh my goodness, he
Speaker 1: actually answered that. Do you Is there an incident that
Speaker 1: you can think of that that maybe that happened.
Speaker 4: I have to think a little more on coach Belichick.
Speaker 4: But I did have one other story I was going
Speaker 4: to tell you about a question where I was like,
Speaker 4: what was I thinking? Great, So I want to say
Speaker 4: two thousand and six Patriots are going to play the Vikings.
Speaker 4: I want to say, yeah, Monday night, Monday night, Yeah, preparing.
Speaker 4: I believe it was majorly hyped game because it was.
Speaker 4: I think they were really good.
Speaker 1: Can't run against the Vikings defense.
Speaker 4: I think that the Kevin Williams and the Pat Williams
Speaker 4: maybe that I love that matter right on it.
Speaker 1: No, No, I there I have another story that I
Speaker 1: won't bore people with. But like it was the old
Speaker 1: adage of so you're gonna run it into a wall,
Speaker 1: and didn't.
Speaker 2: They play chuck and die like they ran it on
Speaker 2: first down right for nothing. Correct, and I believe they
Speaker 2: ran the ball fewer than ten times in the games.
Speaker 3: Correct, it out all over.
Speaker 4: The Doug Gabriel, Troy Brown, and Jay Chad Jacks. So
Speaker 4: we're preparing for the loud Monday night environment. Minnesota can't
Speaker 4: wait for this, you know, Patriots coming in three times
Speaker 4: Super Bowl champion, and how are you gonna prepare for
Speaker 4: the noise?
Speaker 5: So we're all gathered around.
Speaker 4: This was Teddy Bruski, not Bill Belichick. And I don't
Speaker 4: know what I was thinking, but total brain fart where
Speaker 4: I said, Teddy, how you preparing for the noise in Minnesota?
Speaker 4: And you know how Teddy would have the look. Guys
Speaker 4: sort of looked at me like I had five heads.
Speaker 4: And I said to myself, why is he looking at
Speaker 4: me like that? Like this is where everyone's talking about
Speaker 4: the noise? He goes, Dude, I play on defense. That
Speaker 4: place is gonna be quiet when I'm out on the field.
Speaker 2: That's Bruskie. That's the brusky face. Now, because it was Mike,
Speaker 2: he answered it. If it was someone someone else, it
Speaker 2: wouldn't have been so nice.
Speaker 4: Right, I'm gonna come back to you on the Belichick
Speaker 4: when I can't off the top of my head won
Speaker 4: that I was surprised.
Speaker 2: So I would just say, as my is trying to
Speaker 2: come up with, you know, an anecdote for that with Bill,
Speaker 2: but I would just say, you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: people ask me it's probably the question I get the
Speaker 2: most out of any question, what is it like, you know?
Speaker 3: With with Bill?
Speaker 2: And I would say I find him easy to cover
Speaker 2: for one reason, and I think and the answer to
Speaker 2: that is, I think he's extremely consistent, insistent. You generally
Speaker 2: know what you're gonna get. And when I you know,
Speaker 2: and I know Mike said that I would disagree with him,
Speaker 2: and I probably do slightly disagree. I think like more
Speaker 2: often than not, you don't get much. But what I've
Speaker 2: always felt that he does a good job. It's not personal,
Speaker 2: and I've never taken it personal. And believe me, he's
Speaker 2: been upset with me at various times in the past.
Speaker 2: I've never taken it personally. Now where I and I
Speaker 2: know that Mike will disagree with me on this, and
Speaker 2: this is where I know Mike and Tony come to
Speaker 2: you a defense a lot when they're dealing with the
Speaker 2: press conferences and picking apart every thing that that Bill says,
Speaker 2: and why does he have to do that. I kind
Speaker 2: of think there are times where I think he should
Speaker 2: be a little bit different with various members of the
Speaker 2: media that are that that to me, have proven, like Mike,
Speaker 2: that they're more prepared, more professional, and they deserve more.
Speaker 2: And I think sometimes I get frustrated with Bill when
Speaker 2: he gives Mike a hard time. It's not often, and
Speaker 2: Mike always says, no, No, I didn't take it that way
Speaker 2: because that's Mike.
Speaker 3: That's Mike.
Speaker 2: He's just always professional and he's always prepared, so you
Speaker 2: don't take it that way. But I think I do
Speaker 2: sometimes on your behalf and I'm like, he doesn't have
Speaker 2: to answer that question all snarky like that for Mike.
Speaker 2: That's Mike, right, It's not the guy who's been on
Speaker 2: the beat for three minutes who asked a dumb question.
Speaker 2: Mike didn't ask a dumb question. He asked a fair
Speaker 2: it's a fair question and it deserved a better response.
Speaker 3: That's where I sort of probably disagree with Mike.
Speaker 7: A little bit.
Speaker 4: And I could be wrong on this and it would
Speaker 4: have to go back and check my accuracy. But one
Speaker 4: thing I would be surprised that it would be like
Speaker 4: anytime he would would answer about an injured player. So
Speaker 4: if I remember Gerard Mayo with a knee injury one time,
Speaker 4: he might have been asked, you know, what's it look
Speaker 4: like for Girrod? You know, gonna be tough to see
Speaker 4: him back this season. And I remember maybe falling off
Speaker 4: my chair at the time to say when, when has
Speaker 4: he ever confirmed an injury? So something that's interesting, something
Speaker 4: like that would be one. And that's why those injury
Speaker 4: questions are tough guys, because I do I do remember
Speaker 4: times where he's actually given it up, but it's probably
Speaker 4: such a low percentage of a time.
Speaker 1: That you don't know whether it's worth it to ask.
Speaker 2: But that's one of those John Dennis's like the conduit
Speaker 2: for the fans questions. And I know people all the
Speaker 2: time like, why do these media guys have to waste
Speaker 2: Bill's time by asking about an injury when you know
Speaker 2: he's not going to answer it. And I'll ever know,
Speaker 2: but I'll even I'll even submit, Yeah, he's never gonna
Speaker 2: answer it, even though there are examples right when he
Speaker 2: has I'll say, it doesn't matter, right, it doesn't matter
Speaker 2: if mac Jones has a high ankle sprain. I need
Speaker 2: to ask Bill his thoughts about mac Jones is high
Speaker 2: ankle spring I have to do that. If I don't,
Speaker 2: then I'm depriving the fans of an opportunity to find
Speaker 2: out when Mac Jones might be no question. That's that's
Speaker 2: the bottom line. And a lot of times, you know, like,
Speaker 2: that's a dumb question. Why why do they ask those questions?
Speaker 2: We do ask a lot of mundane questions, but a
Speaker 2: lot of them are questions that you have to ask,
Speaker 2: Like you can't go a press conference and not ask
Speaker 2: about the quarterback sure health when when it's in question.
Speaker 1: So, Mike, maybe this is a dumb question. What's your
Speaker 1: most enjoyable moment covering the team? It's a softball. I
Speaker 1: don't know if it's a dumb question.
Speaker 4: So the moments that I find most enjoyable are when
Speaker 4: you have a breakthrough with a player that you've built
Speaker 4: a relationship with in the locker room. Now I never
Speaker 4: would have gone And because to me, so much of
Speaker 4: this is relational, Matt, like I love I love covering
Speaker 4: one team because you go from the start of this season,
Speaker 4: and you start from point A and you see the team,
Speaker 4: you know grow over time and you get to know
Speaker 4: the players to a small percentage. But to me, that's
Speaker 4: much more enjoyable than trying to cover all thirty two
Speaker 4: because I think it's hard to cover just one. Sure,
Speaker 4: So like I'll here's another story. Matt Light left Tackle
Speaker 4: two thousand and one to twenty eleven second round pick
Speaker 4: out of Purdue in two thousand and one. I think
Speaker 4: I had learned toward the end of his career that
Speaker 4: he had been playing through Crohn's disease. And I went
Speaker 4: up to him and in the locker room, and I said,
Speaker 4: you know, I don't want to impose on you. I
Speaker 4: don't want to overstep my bounds, but it came to
Speaker 4: my attention that you might have an inspiring story to
Speaker 4: tell over something you're dealing with. And you know, Matt,
Speaker 4: you can just imagine what his response was, Boss, I
Speaker 4: don't know what you're talking about, but you know, maybe
Speaker 4: I'll get back to you on that, you know, And
Speaker 4: then he retired and the and it was it was
Speaker 4: like this covered him for his whole career, correct, And
Speaker 4: I was in I remember I was in the basement
Speaker 4: of my house. The phone rang and it was like
Speaker 4: three one seven or you know, because I think he's
Speaker 4: from Indianapolis and you always wonder, oh, maybe this is
Speaker 4: one of those like telemarketing calls or whatever, and and
Speaker 4: he it was on the other end of the line.
Speaker 4: He goes, Hey, boss, it's Matt Light. What's going on, Matt?
Speaker 5: What are you doing?
Speaker 4: Like you've never called me before? He goes, Remember that
Speaker 4: time you came up to me in the locker room
Speaker 4: and we're talking to me, He goes, I think I'm
Speaker 4: ready to talk about it now. And no, to me
Speaker 4: like that, those are the type of things that that
Speaker 4: not that you do it for that, but like it.
Speaker 4: It meant a lot to me because I had no idea.
Speaker 4: I mean, I wasn't expecting it, but there was a
Speaker 4: time and a place, and I had been conflicted on
Speaker 4: that as a reporter, whether I had an.
Speaker 5: Obligation to really reveal it before that.
Speaker 4: My instinct told me no, you know, like that, that's
Speaker 4: someone's personal information. But you could make the case that
Speaker 4: maybe I didn't do a great job on that. But
Speaker 4: to me, those type of moments are the ones that
Speaker 4: stand out. And of course, man like the Super Bowls and.
Speaker 1: I figured I was I was throwing him a lollypop
Speaker 1: and he was gonna give me Super Bowl thirty six.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean on field.
Speaker 2: I think Mike and I would be lockstep on that
Speaker 2: when when Adam's kick went through. But I agree with
Speaker 2: his mindset, and I don't have anywhere near the amount
Speaker 2: of those kinds of stories that Mike has, because when
Speaker 2: you cover the team, you know, working for the team,
Speaker 2: it's a little bit of a different question. You're not
Speaker 2: necessarily scouring, but you're not scouring for news. You're more
Speaker 2: analytical with the team personnel stuff like that, trying to
Speaker 2: figure out what they're going to do. But a very
Speaker 2: similar kind of thing when Rodney Harrison came here is
Speaker 2: why I would put Rodney Harrison in that group with mccordy,
Speaker 2: you know.
Speaker 3: Top five of all time.
Speaker 2: I wanted to sit down and do a big feature
Speaker 2: for the newspaper and you know, just kind of a
Speaker 2: you know, a background, career retrospective kind of thing. And
Speaker 2: how we ended up here, we all know the free
Speaker 2: agent story that was part of it. And I got
Speaker 2: some time with him in the locker room and he
Speaker 2: was working out by the time I ended up starting
Speaker 2: to talk.
Speaker 3: And this is a feature. So I want you.
Speaker 2: Know, ten minutes, fifteen minutes to talk to him, not
Speaker 2: you know, two or three questions and move on to
Speaker 2: the next guy.
Speaker 3: So it was really quick. It was rushed at the.
Speaker 2: End of the the you know, the the open locker
Speaker 2: room period, and I figured I could probably write it
Speaker 2: next week. I'll get him another time and ask more questions, so,
Speaker 2: you know whatever. I thanked him for his time, and
Speaker 2: locker room ended. That night, I get home and I
Speaker 2: get a call from Rodney Harrison.
Speaker 5: How great is that?
Speaker 2: Who had asked Stacy who I was? Didn't really even
Speaker 2: know he knew my name because I introduced myself. Didn't
Speaker 2: even know who I was. He said, I was talking
Speaker 2: to the kid that works for the team newspaper today
Speaker 2: and I didn't get a chance to finish, and I
Speaker 2: know he had more questions to ask me. I was
Speaker 2: on the phone with them for an hour, talking about
Speaker 2: my kids, talking about my wife, talking about his kids.
Speaker 2: I think it was shortly after Christian was born. I
Speaker 2: know you'll know that Rodney has a son named Christian.
Speaker 5: Awesome.
Speaker 2: It was probably one of the most memorable interviews I
Speaker 2: ever had. And that's the kind of stuff that you remember.
Speaker 2: I don't have any of those anymore because I'm not
Speaker 2: in the locker room every day. And when COVID, like
Speaker 2: once COVID happened and we went those two years without
Speaker 2: really being in the locker room. These guys that are
Speaker 2: on the team now I don't know them. And that's
Speaker 2: what you miss, Those personal relationships what you miss. And
Speaker 2: that's why the one time I went in the locker
Speaker 2: room all year was the day after the season, just
Speaker 2: so I could talk to Devin mccordy and just, you know,
Speaker 2: not that he needed to hear from me. I wanted
Speaker 2: to say goodbye to him, just in case he decides
Speaker 2: to retire.
Speaker 1: Has Mike has that made as the COVID and no access,
Speaker 1: no personal access, did you find it harder to do
Speaker 1: your job? And when things started to it was kind
Speaker 1: of layered, you know how that opened back up. You
Speaker 1: must have been very thankful that Andrews was still on
Speaker 1: the team, that mccordy's still on the team, that Slater's
Speaker 1: still on the team as you're trying to cultivate and.
Speaker 4: Begin new relationships, Matt, I was so appreciative that the
Speaker 4: locker room opened back up, because I really thought once
Speaker 4: we went all zoom with COVID that we were never
Speaker 4: getting back in there. And I just think to me
Speaker 4: that the coverage I never felt like it was as
Speaker 4: good because you couldn't develop the relationships. And so that
Speaker 4: was huge to me that that happened. And I think
Speaker 4: back to Will McDonough. We mentioned his name earlier, and
Speaker 4: he had always said, just always show up, even if
Speaker 4: you're not going to write anything or say anything like
Speaker 4: community event, if you can, like just let them know
Speaker 4: that you're that you're there, you know, And so you
Speaker 4: can't do that in a COVID world. It's all through
Speaker 4: the screen. So how do you connect with someone through
Speaker 4: a screen?
Speaker 3: You know?
Speaker 4: To me, like where the three of us are sitting
Speaker 4: here right now, we can look in each other's eyes,
Speaker 4: we can see body language, right, we can play off
Speaker 4: each other, like you you can't do that through a screen.
Speaker 1: You're so right. We're gonna wrap things up here in
Speaker 1: a second. We've taken up enough of your time. But
Speaker 1: just another behind the scenes story that I think fans
Speaker 1: would find interesting about Mike and I would see it
Speaker 1: here on the home games and it was every week
Speaker 1: in this digital age where everybody's got to have a
Speaker 1: photo everybody's got to have a tweet, everybody's got to
Speaker 1: post something, and it's got to be instant, and you're
Speaker 1: competing with an awful lot of other people out there.
Speaker 1: The sight of seeing Mike grease and he started it,
Speaker 1: I think, and then others sort of followed suit. But
Speaker 1: Mike was always at the garage door, right by the
Speaker 1: South end zone, and he would always get there an
Speaker 1: hour or so beforehand, and you waiting in the tunnel
Speaker 1: for the guy with the glasses and the best dressed
Speaker 1: guy in the stadium to come walking in every single Sunday.
Speaker 1: And he made it a point he got to show up.
Speaker 1: He was there, and Tom knew every week that Mike
Speaker 1: was going to be there, and Mike had a shot
Speaker 1: or a video of Brady walking in every single week.
Speaker 1: And you made it a point to do that, didn't you.
Speaker 4: I enjoyed it, and I think it goes back to
Speaker 4: our whole thing that we're serving the fans. You're taking
Speaker 4: him to a place where they can't their lives be,
Speaker 4: and that goes back to to bring this whole thing
Speaker 4: full circle. And Patriots Football Weekly Patriots dot Com write
Speaker 4: what I learned from John Dennis from the crafts, Robert
Speaker 4: and Jonathan because you made the point, Paul, like a
Speaker 4: lot of the web stuff was Jonathan, and so to
Speaker 4: carry that on, like, I am super proud of that.
Speaker 4: I'm super proud of where I started here. And I
Speaker 4: will just tell you I think about Patriots all the time,
Speaker 4: you know, like family, work, live shows that we talk about.
Speaker 5: It's been a.
Speaker 4: Huge impact on my life and so I'm just so
Speaker 4: thankful and appreciative of that.
Speaker 1: All right, Mike, And what people don't Mike's a big muckraker.
Speaker 1: He loves to rumor monger. Yeah, that's where he goes.
Speaker 3: Every once in a while he gets one.
Speaker 1: Right, Sure, Mike, we're gonna put you on the hot
Speaker 1: spot here as we're entering into the beginning of maybe
Speaker 1: it's already begun the silly season. How much cap room
Speaker 1: do they have? Who's coming, who's going? Give Patriot fans
Speaker 1: an idea of maybe what they should be looking for.
Speaker 1: I'm not going to sit here and ask you who
Speaker 1: are they going to sign, Who's coming, who's going? But
Speaker 1: you have an informed opinion. You know, you've covered the
Speaker 1: team for a long time. Let a Patriot fans know
Speaker 1: what Mike Reese is going to be looking for and
Speaker 1: maybe they should be looking forward in the upcoming six
Speaker 1: weeks or so as we get ready to hit free
Speaker 1: agency before the draft.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the one that interests me the most is Jacoby
Speaker 4: Myers because he I think he's their top free agent.
Speaker 4: And what is his market financially? You know, ten million
Speaker 4: a year, twelve million million a year, fourteen million a year.
Speaker 4: You've developed him, he's come up through your program, you
Speaker 4: know him. And to me, the most successful teams are
Speaker 4: the ones that re sign those guys as long as
Speaker 4: it all works out. But if you do that, it's
Speaker 4: gonna take you away from going to someone else. And
Speaker 4: is he enough of a difference maker to warrant that
Speaker 4: significant investment? And so to me, when I think about ranking, Okay,
Speaker 4: if you had to say, what's the first thing you're
Speaker 4: looking for? Second, third, fourth, Like, Jacoby is my number
Speaker 4: one because I think he's I think he's been great,
Speaker 4: and I think he really deserves whatever's coming to him.
Speaker 1: I never I never would have guessed that that would
Speaker 1: have been his number one. I never would have guessed that.
Speaker 2: Paul, Yeah, I mean I think that's huge. I think
Speaker 2: you would have talked about it.
Speaker 3: A lot.
Speaker 2: You know, I know we disagree on it a little bit,
Speaker 2: but just in general, Mike, I mean this is kind
Speaker 2: of open any question, just like how far away do
Speaker 2: you think the team And I'm not telling you in
Speaker 2: three years they can do X, but you know, how
Speaker 2: many holes do you think that they can realistically fill
Speaker 2: this offseason? Because I think people think magically, you know,
Speaker 2: you sign a tackle or you draft a tackle in
Speaker 2: the first round, you re sign Myers and maybe make
Speaker 2: a trade for a number one receiver and boom you're back.
Speaker 3: Like we all know, it's not that easy.
Speaker 4: So I sort of look at AFC as you know,
Speaker 4: the tiers, right and you get the Chiefs Bengals, and
Speaker 4: I think i'd probably put the Bills maybe a little
Speaker 4: right up there, maybe a little behind. You're not in
Speaker 4: that tier, not yet, And and I think to think
Speaker 4: you're going to get into that tier this year is
Speaker 4: probably I would say longer odds right, It might take
Speaker 4: two years to get there. Paul, I think that the
Speaker 4: whole coaching thing is what's hard for me to project,
Speaker 4: Like how much of a difference will that make? Like
Speaker 4: I believe we're going to see it totally different. Mac
Speaker 4: Jones this year. But that might be optimistic. But I
Speaker 4: do think, like Bill O'Brien and this whole coaching thing
Speaker 4: is gonna make the product that we saw last year look.
Speaker 4: I mean, it wasn't great, right what we saw last year.
Speaker 4: Calling it what it is, I think it's gonna look
Speaker 4: much better. So it's hard, you know what I mean.
Speaker 4: It's a little hard to look into the crystal ball.
Speaker 4: But I think I would say not far away, but
Speaker 4: to me, to get to that top tier we're talking about,
Speaker 4: you're probably looking at multiple years.
Speaker 1: His name is Mike Reese. When we kicked this conversation off,
Speaker 1: we talked about his roots as the original member for
Speaker 1: Patriots Football Weekly. Now every Sunday when you wake up,
Speaker 1: don't take my word for it, take somebody's word for
Speaker 1: like Mike Lombardi or Adam Schefter who says you must
Speaker 1: read Mike g Reese's notes every Sunday. That's how you
Speaker 1: got to kick.
Speaker 5: Off your day.
Speaker 1: Mike, great stories, great stuff. Really appreciate the tiber you talk.
Speaker 5: You love being with you guys.
Speaker 4: You guys are great friends. Thanks for the compliments. Let's
Speaker 4: do it again sometimes.
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