Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Pats from the Past podcast Matt
Speaker 1: Smith alongside with Brian Moorriy, it's time for part two
Speaker 1: of our conversation with Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker Teddy Bruski. So,
Speaker 1: does two thousand and one feel better than two thousand
Speaker 1: and seven?
Speaker 2: Hurts? Does it? Does?
Speaker 1: That's great?
Speaker 2: You know what, Matt, that's a great question, because then
Speaker 2: that hurts that two thousand and seven season. But that
Speaker 2: feeling of joy and accomplishment for two thousand and one
Speaker 2: is just off the charts that it can't compare to it.
Speaker 2: But I still remember the one that got away, you know,
Speaker 2: And I remember being in captains meetings here and it
Speaker 2: was me and Brady and Say and a lot of
Speaker 2: the captains were in there talking about, you know, don't
Speaker 2: take us out. Don't take us out, because we're not
Speaker 2: just trying to win the Super Bowl. We're trying to
Speaker 2: win the Super Bowl, the one that would trump them all.
Speaker 2: I mean, this is week week fifteen, Week sixteen, week seventeen.
Speaker 2: You know what we're trying to accomplish. And it was
Speaker 2: never said that we're trying to go undefeated. But we
Speaker 2: all look around thinking, we know what we want to do, guys,
Speaker 2: and making sure Bill knew what we want to do too.
Speaker 2: And I'm just proud of that team for trying to
Speaker 2: do something that had never been done before. And that's
Speaker 2: why I'm so proud of that team. And then you
Speaker 2: see a couple of years later when the Colts turned
Speaker 2: it down when they're fourteen, you zero, and they're pulling
Speaker 2: all these starters out when they're playing the Jets, and
Speaker 2: I'm in my kitchen going, I can't believe what I'm seeing.
Speaker 2: How can you turn it down? How can you turn
Speaker 2: it down and not try to do that?
Speaker 1: That's the respect, Teddy, as you're talking about. Don't take
Speaker 1: us out of the game. We got something here. There's
Speaker 1: a Karen in front of a heck of a lot
Speaker 1: bigger than a Karen. We got something here to try
Speaker 1: to shoot for, and we're going to shoot for it.
Speaker 2: And that's why I respect every one of those players
Speaker 2: on that seven team. And I know Moss was there
Speaker 2: and Wilker was there, and a lot of those guys
Speaker 2: and me and Randy talk about it off and that's
Speaker 2: I mean for Junior. We wanted to get it for
Speaker 2: Junior too. You know, there was so many multiple special
Speaker 2: layers that was that was going on that year. But
Speaker 2: you know that's but I would say the O one
Speaker 2: joy still still can overwhelm that feeling of loss.
Speaker 3: Do you remember where you were watching the game winning
Speaker 3: kick watching the.
Speaker 2: Game in two thousand and one, Yeah, yeah, I mean
Speaker 2: which one? I mean? I mean I remember the one
Speaker 2: I was in the snow. I remember the one, you
Speaker 2: know for Adam Vini, Terry and Larry Ezo jumping on
Speaker 2: my back and me just calling out, Mama, we did it, mama,
Speaker 2: you know to my mom in the in the in
Speaker 2: the stands, who was over there with my wife and everyone.
Speaker 2: But yeah, I remember going through and I thought to myself,
Speaker 2: seven seconds is a long time. I wonder if there'll
Speaker 2: be one second left. But they just ran it all off,
Speaker 2: and yeah, they changed the role.
Speaker 1: Teddy, where did the origin, if you will, of how
Speaker 1: do we feel? When did that?
Speaker 2: Like?
Speaker 1: When did you decide or who decided? And how did
Speaker 1: that come about? As you were talking about your leadership
Speaker 1: maybe developing throughout your career.
Speaker 2: I think Guy in the training camp year of two thousand,
Speaker 2: I think that was two thousand and three, two thousand
Speaker 2: and three, we played the Eagles the first game another Bills,
Speaker 2: the Bills, the Bills, the Bill. That was our three
Speaker 2: that was a three season, right, yeah, okay, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2: And in the stretch line in training camp, I would
Speaker 2: just we'd all be hooping and hollering and I'd break
Speaker 2: out and oh yeah that was nice or something like that.
Speaker 2: And Antoine smith liked that. Antoine smith are running back
Speaker 2: back then, big back, I used to call him. And
Speaker 2: then we of course get beat by the Bills thirty
Speaker 2: one to zero. And then we come back and we
Speaker 2: beat the beat the Philadelphia Eagles the next night and
Speaker 2: the next week, and then we're in the locker room
Speaker 2: and and Antoine Smithy says, hey, bru brew brew do that?
Speaker 2: Do that? Yeah yeah, let's do the oh yeah thing.
Speaker 2: I'm like, what, let's do? All yeah. So immediately I'm thinking, man,
Speaker 2: how can I get these guys to say oh yeah?
Speaker 2: And then I'm like, well, it's got to be a
Speaker 2: response to a question or something, and I'm like, all right.
Speaker 2: The first time, I think, all right, how do we
Speaker 2: feel about a victory? And then everybody just said oh yeah.
Speaker 2: And then so that was sort of the start of it,
Speaker 2: you know, just sort of an organic expression that we
Speaker 2: did in the locker room. Then from there the questions
Speaker 2: just became more elaborate in terms of wind streaks and
Speaker 2: winning and back then San Diego and turning out the
Speaker 2: lights on the San Diego Superchargers, you know, and making
Speaker 2: an NFL history, and how do we feel about Bill
Speaker 2: Belichick as our coach when he was going through a
Speaker 2: tough time and and all of that stuff, you know,
Speaker 2: at all it took a lot of creativity because there
Speaker 2: were times I was on the sideline thinking to myself, Okay,
Speaker 2: how am I going to break it down? Fourth quarter,
Speaker 2: five minutes left. I know we're only up by seven,
Speaker 2: but I'm going to break it down.
Speaker 1: That's what does Once in a while, he learned preparation
Speaker 1: under coach Belichick.
Speaker 2: Once in a while. I'll text later too during the
Speaker 2: game and I'll be like, hey, text, I mean he's late.
Speaker 2: Today was the old man's three hundredth Make sure you
Speaker 2: get that in. I know, slates all over it. I just,
Speaker 2: you know, just but I know he does a great
Speaker 2: job with it. He's got his own a worthy success,
Speaker 2: a worthy success. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Speaker 1: Does it surprise you that, seventeen years later, if you're
Speaker 1: telling us it started in O three, that there are
Speaker 1: fans Teddy that remember it and remember you as the
Speaker 1: innovator and the originator of that, and there are fans
Speaker 1: that post things social media wise about it, and it's
Speaker 1: it has endured and really gotten even bigger and better
Speaker 1: in over seventeen years. Does that surprised you? Oh?
Speaker 2: It has? It has? I mean, I mean it's just
Speaker 2: the expression, I guess, just just just an expression of
Speaker 2: joy really, And you know, I think over the course
Speaker 2: of social media, I think everyone just when it's good,
Speaker 2: it's it's it's it's more receptive, you know, and just
Speaker 2: to express yourself after something good has happened. And you
Speaker 2: and you won. The guys like it too, because you
Speaker 2: only play one game every week, you know, and if
Speaker 2: you get that win, just to be able to let
Speaker 2: it out like that, it's almost like there it is,
Speaker 2: do the ah, yeah, and then now it can calm down. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I enjoy it.
Speaker 1: You're the you're a member of the last team to
Speaker 1: ever went back to back championships. You win in Jacksonville,
Speaker 1: I think you know, people remember you pregame with your
Speaker 1: sons on the field, and what a great moment that was,
Speaker 1: and then you got elected to Was that your first
Speaker 1: Pro Bowl?
Speaker 2: That was my first Pro Bowl? Yeah? What did that?
Speaker 2: You know?
Speaker 1: You talk about your evolution as a player, and she's, well,
Speaker 1: I don't know what a hook is. You know, I
Speaker 1: don't know what this is. Yeah, and I know around
Speaker 1: here pro bowls don't mean anything, you know, and it's
Speaker 1: about championships here. What did that mean to you to
Speaker 1: finally receive that recognition, Teddy?
Speaker 2: Yeah? It was. It was incredibly hard to make because
Speaker 2: I mean, ray Lewis was a linebacker and Zach Thomas
Speaker 2: was a linebacker, and they're incredibly good AFC linebackers, so
Speaker 2: many of them were there, and so for me to
Speaker 2: finally get there was an incredible sense of, you know,
Speaker 2: the individual accomplishment. I guess something and I never was
Speaker 2: you know too, you know, to focus to get but
Speaker 2: still to get the nod a little bit. It was.
Speaker 2: It was fulfilling. I remember when Bill announced it in
Speaker 2: the team meeting and everybody just exploded because I remember
Speaker 2: coming in after making the interception versus the Dolphins in
Speaker 2: the snow and Hewart telling me he's like, hey, Damon, Hewart,
Speaker 2: our backup quarterback. If you don't make the Pro Bowl
Speaker 2: this year. Something's wrong, and I was like, whoa, this
Speaker 2: is actually possible, you know. I mean, the only thing
Speaker 2: I had ever thought about through the course of my
Speaker 2: NFL career was learning a play linebacker and then being
Speaker 2: an every down starter, staying healthy for all sixteen helping
Speaker 2: us win a championship. So that was my process. So
Speaker 2: this was an accomplishment for me. I didn't consider it
Speaker 2: a huge accomplishment, but it was nice to say that
Speaker 2: you've done it.
Speaker 4: And before we get to what happened after that, it
Speaker 4: was actually O two and I remember you telling this
Speaker 4: story Thanksgiving.
Speaker 2: O two.
Speaker 4: You guys have a blitz called in Detroit where both
Speaker 4: linebackers are going to come, which have a way the
Speaker 4: protection slides that linebacker pulls out.
Speaker 2: That was the origination Boo the Boogeyman thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you pull out Red Joey Harrington make the interception
Speaker 4: pick six. And you've described that play as that was
Speaker 4: kind of the day you knew you had it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was why I made it play really because
Speaker 2: that involved everything that I was trying to learn over
Speaker 2: the course of all those years learning to play linebacker,
Speaker 2: from putting my hand down to being up. Now I thought, okay,
Speaker 2: I got it, because firstly it was for you call
Speaker 2: the defense, and then it's formation recognition, and that came
Speaker 2: out in an empty set, which means there's no backs
Speaker 2: in the backfield. So now you have to adjust the
Speaker 2: defense that was just called to what the adjustment is.
Speaker 2: So there's the linebacker knowing formations and having to make
Speaker 2: the adjustment. So I line up on the inside receiver,
Speaker 2: the number three receiver, counting from the outside end one two, three,
Speaker 2: you got to line up on this side. So what
Speaker 2: my new responsibility is is to blitz. But as you blitz,
Speaker 2: you have to read the protection. So there it is
Speaker 2: post snap while the play is going on, recognizing what's happening,
Speaker 2: and then going to another adjustment. So the guard actually
Speaker 2: kicks out to me to block me. And if that happens,
Speaker 2: now you drop back to the center of the field,
Speaker 2: get your eyes back, and now you have to pattern read.
Speaker 2: If there's a slant coming, you have to go step
Speaker 2: in front of that slant. So recognizing the pass, the
Speaker 2: pattern and then recognizing what you have to do and
Speaker 2: then dropping back. So now I'm dropping back as a
Speaker 2: linebacker because I recognize something else so I did that.
Speaker 2: Now get your eyes back to the quarterback. Now read
Speaker 2: the quarterback, which is something I had never done before,
Speaker 2: because now you're reading his eyes and his intentions. Here
Speaker 2: comes the ball. Now catch it, which is something I
Speaker 2: didn't do at all in college. So the ball was
Speaker 2: there after all those adjustments, he puts it up, caught
Speaker 2: the football. All right, I've caught interceptions before. Now score.
Speaker 2: So taking that to the house, reading the block, getting
Speaker 2: to the sideline. All of that happened within one play.
Speaker 2: And all of that is what I was trying to learn,
Speaker 2: and to have it all sort of happened in that
Speaker 2: one play. It sort of encapsulated my entire progression to
Speaker 2: where that's probably the play that told me I could.
Speaker 1: Do it as a teachable moment again with your kids,
Speaker 1: you know, oh Dad, I got this, I got this.
Speaker 1: Can you then tell them, hey, look, at this point
Speaker 1: my professional career, I'm at the highest level that you
Speaker 1: could be at. Don't necessarily tell me that you have it,
Speaker 1: because it took me six years before I knew that.
Speaker 1: Maybe I had You know, I could play in this,
Speaker 1: not that you couldn't play, But now I have it.
Speaker 1: That's something that you can certainly pass along to your kids,
Speaker 1: Isn't it?
Speaker 2: The lesson to everyone, even even like the young football
Speaker 2: players that are trying to find their way, is you've
Speaker 2: got a long term goal, but in the meantime, what
Speaker 2: can you do while you're learning it? That was like
Speaker 2: that was the extra layer of it. Yeah, I want
Speaker 2: to play linebacker. I have to learn to play outside
Speaker 2: the off the ball linebacker. But they're just going to
Speaker 2: let me sit there and learn and do nothing. You
Speaker 2: still have to prove your worth to whatever team you're with.
Speaker 2: So special team's situational pass rusher. That's what I was.
Speaker 2: That's the cactus package. So I got that and I
Speaker 2: got it. But still the other layer is still learning
Speaker 2: to progress at that other goal that you have, but
Speaker 2: still proving my worth in the immediate time.
Speaker 1: Great lesson, great lesson. So go ahead, go ahead.
Speaker 5: So after you reach that Pro Bowl level individual high again,
Speaker 5: he said, he said, I don't want to make too
Speaker 5: big of a deal because he knows that they're a
Speaker 5: bigger fish to fry in this town. But your career
Speaker 5: has dealt a setback, and your personal life obviously a
Speaker 5: huge scare.
Speaker 2: Yeah my stroke, yes, yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I mean, what are you thinking at that point,
Speaker 4: is are you thinking it's over?
Speaker 2: Immediately thought it was over. I mean when when my
Speaker 2: doctor put his hand on my shoulder and told me
Speaker 2: I've had a stroke, was like, what are you talking about?
Speaker 2: The only time I've heard the word stroke is on
Speaker 2: a golf course. You know how many strokes you're going
Speaker 2: to give me? Any handicap and things like that, you know,
Speaker 2: So it was it was sort of crazy. But waking
Speaker 2: up in the middle of the night on February fifteenth,
Speaker 2: and you know, you know, I ended up in the
Speaker 2: morning sort of loss of vision, loss of left field
Speaker 2: division in both my eyes, numbness down the left side
Speaker 2: of my body. I didn't even know I was having
Speaker 2: a stroke, you know, so calling the trainers, you know
Speaker 2: what should we do? Them immediately telling me to call
Speaker 2: nine one one. Get to make sure you get the
Speaker 2: mass General because that's where the Patriots wanted, you know,
Speaker 2: everything to happen. So getting down there, you have the stroke,
Speaker 2: you realize I have the hole in my heart, I
Speaker 2: got to have surgery, all of this stuff, and it's like, well,
Speaker 2: my football career is over, and you know, I just
Speaker 2: thought that, you know that it was just not possible
Speaker 2: to ever be done because no one had ever done
Speaker 2: that before. So I thought my career was over.
Speaker 1: Would you have been okay with that, Teddy?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I would have been okay. I mean, I mean,
Speaker 2: guse she accomplished a lot up in that until that point,
Speaker 2: and you it'd be easy to say, you know, God
Speaker 2: just telling you that's enough and you got to move on,
Speaker 2: and this was this is just the hand you've been dealt.
Speaker 2: It would have been incredibly sad, but I think I
Speaker 2: would have been able to accept it. At that point.
Speaker 2: I couldn't see, I couldn't walk right, they wouldn't let
Speaker 2: me drive. Still had to have the procedure to close
Speaker 2: the hole in my heart. I had a lot of
Speaker 2: things to happen, so I knew I was pretty messed up.
Speaker 2: And even in my mind, I thought something was wrong
Speaker 2: with me medically, like like, what's wrong with you? Your
Speaker 2: short circuit in up there in your brain. This shouldn't
Speaker 2: be happening. You got problems, So yeah, you need to
Speaker 2: stop playing football. So I think I would have been fine.
Speaker 1: Then what then? What motivates you at that point in time?
Speaker 1: Young family, young wife. You've had some success, you know,
Speaker 1: at least you know, from a team standpoint and everything,
Speaker 1: what pushes you at that point in time to say, Nope,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna I'm gonna try.
Speaker 2: To do this. Well, it's just, man, if it was possible,
Speaker 2: I wanted to give it a shot, and you know,
Speaker 2: there were times where it just was not possible because
Speaker 2: I couldn't. And if you can't see to your left,
Speaker 2: you're just gonna get laid out on the football field.
Speaker 2: Then you're a danger to yourself. So, I mean, the
Speaker 2: time was twelve twenty three, you know, and I remember
Speaker 2: that time vividly and seeing a digital clock at twelve
Speaker 2: twenty three, because what I saw when I looked at
Speaker 2: digital clocks usually was like two twenty three. I couldn't
Speaker 2: really see. I'd have to turn my head to get
Speaker 2: the right look on a clock to tell the time.
Speaker 2: But slowly, you know, that little digital clock, and they
Speaker 2: have little pieces of the number, like a bottom of
Speaker 2: the one and the top of the one. It was
Speaker 2: weird because the bottom of the one started to show
Speaker 2: up a little bit, and then and then the top
Speaker 2: of the one started to show and then that little
Speaker 2: battery symbol that says, you know, you need to put
Speaker 2: a nine volte battery in your in your clock, you
Speaker 2: know what I mean? That little symbol right there. We
Speaker 2: had a digital clock up top on a dresser because
Speaker 2: my wife was breastfeeding Dante or son, who had just
Speaker 2: been born, and I could. I woke up one night
Speaker 2: and I saw the whole clock and I saw the
Speaker 2: little battery symbol, and I'm like, WHOA, I can see
Speaker 2: maybe this is possible.
Speaker 1: Literally the light shines, yeah, a nine vote battery.
Speaker 2: Luck.
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Speaker 3: So it's funny because I go on outside the lines.
Speaker 4: I'm on outside lines of Jackie mcmullon right and with
Speaker 4: this is when you were coming back, and she's arguing
Speaker 4: that you shouldn't come back, and I'm arguing that you
Speaker 4: should come back if you know, if the doctors are
Speaker 4: clearing you and you think you can do it. And
Speaker 4: I remember a buddy calling me, and he goes, man,
Speaker 4: you just got slapped around on ESPN by Jackie McMullen.
Speaker 4: He was like, no, I mean, but but I figured,
Speaker 4: you know you were you had to know the risks
Speaker 4: what they were, and if you were willing to do
Speaker 4: it with a family and the doctor saying you could
Speaker 4: do it, then you could do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Almost I related to this. I read it this
Speaker 2: a couple of weeks ago when I was on NFL
Speaker 2: Live when they were talking about Alex Smith and how
Speaker 2: his injury and he developed sepsist and the infection and
Speaker 2: they almost had to take his leg and he I
Speaker 2: mean life threatening type of stuff, and he wanted to
Speaker 2: search around and see who was who he could call
Speaker 2: and talk to, who had done this before. Yeah, And
Speaker 2: the doctors are like, yeah, man, there's nobody. Nobody's come
Speaker 2: back from this. And that's what it was like for me,
Speaker 2: because I remember the conversation with my doctor and I
Speaker 2: was like, give me the phone number of the guy
Speaker 2: that's done this before, so I can ask him all
Speaker 2: the hundred questions, one hundred questions that I have. Is
Speaker 2: my brain going to explode? Is the device in my
Speaker 2: heart going to get moved? Is it gonna move if
Speaker 2: I get hit or something like that. And he said, yeah, Teddy, yeah,
Speaker 2: you'd be the first. I said, I'll call you back.
Speaker 2: It's like, bro, I mean, you don't know if you
Speaker 2: want to be that guy. Oh yeah, quotation marks here
Speaker 2: for you listening data free zone. And that's what they
Speaker 2: told me that I'd be in a data free zone
Speaker 2: to where every two weeks, Teddy, when you come back
Speaker 2: to Massachusetts General Hospital during the football season and we
Speaker 2: do the bubble test to see if the device still works,
Speaker 2: we'll be taking all that data for the next guy.
Speaker 2: So I was like, okay, so you got to play
Speaker 2: that guinea pig role. But for me, this is what
Speaker 2: I knew. Guys, I mean, if I didn't give it
Speaker 2: a shot five years, ten years down the road, I'd
Speaker 2: regret it. And if they were telling me it's possible,
Speaker 2: and they were, But doctors, everyone out there, you know
Speaker 2: what doctor do. It's never black and white. It's like gray,
Speaker 2: chances are slim or it shouldn't and all of those words,
Speaker 2: just like, hey, can I get like a definitive answer here?
Speaker 2: But you don't have those moving forward, And those are
Speaker 2: the things emotionally you just have to deal with.
Speaker 1: So it's a trailblazer, Teddy. My word's not yours, but
Speaker 1: your trailblazer here, you know. And now today you're working
Speaker 1: with stroke victims and people can see you, and those
Speaker 1: that get to meet you in person can actually maybe
Speaker 1: physically touch you, and you can be the symbol for
Speaker 1: you know what I did it don't give up and
Speaker 1: don't give up.
Speaker 2: And a lot of them tell me, well, I'm not
Speaker 2: even going to try and come back to play in
Speaker 2: the NFL. Right, All I got to do is get
Speaker 2: back to picking up my kids and having a healthy
Speaker 2: lifestyle and getting back to my desk job and doing
Speaker 2: what I do. So I appreciate you setting the example
Speaker 2: that it's possible. And of course, I mean even since
Speaker 2: my recent episode, I had another stroke, a mini stroke,
Speaker 2: a TIA, a transit schemic attack last July fourth, and
Speaker 2: you know, I mean I lost my left face, it
Speaker 2: all drooped and my speech was slurred, and you know,
Speaker 2: I had a lot of other symptoms that ended up
Speaker 2: ended up getting better after my second stroke. But people
Speaker 2: just constantly, you know, want to talk to me about it.
Speaker 2: And I talked to a lot of stroke survivors and
Speaker 2: you know, that's what Teddy's team does. It's my foundation,
Speaker 2: and we raise awareness for stroke. I mean the war
Speaker 2: signs of stroke, the balance issues I had, the loss
Speaker 2: of eyesight, the facial droop, the arm weakness, the speech,
Speaker 2: the slurred speech, you know, time to call nine to
Speaker 2: one one. You know, that's just the thing that I
Speaker 2: try to preach over and over again. Be fast is
Speaker 2: the acronym. And if I'm that guy that everybody looks too,
Speaker 2: and the other people that have to get the same
Speaker 2: procedure that I got in my heart. And I've heard
Speaker 2: so many times. My doctor said I got to get
Speaker 2: the Bruski and they tell them the story. I'm proud
Speaker 2: of that. I'm proud of that. And things are going
Speaker 2: well for me now and Teddy's team is doing well
Speaker 2: and it's changing a lot of lives.
Speaker 4: So, Teddy, were they able to I mean, obviously the
Speaker 4: whole in the heart contributed to the first stroke, Yes.
Speaker 3: What about the most recent one?
Speaker 2: That's the thing going forward. After the first stroke, they
Speaker 2: closed the hole in my heart, They put me on
Speaker 2: a baby aspirin and thought that, you know, things would
Speaker 2: go well. And it did for fourteen years, you know,
Speaker 2: And so I had the episode again on July fourth,
Speaker 2: and it once again it was a schemic they believe
Speaker 2: in terms of the schemic means sort of a clotting issue.
Speaker 2: So they put me on a stronger blood thinner where
Speaker 2: I can still be active and live a healthy lifestyle,
Speaker 2: which I'm very fortunate of. But that was the adjustment then,
Speaker 2: because they thought, Okay, the aspirin was fine, but ah,
Speaker 2: just to be safe, let's go this route. And you know,
Speaker 2: that's that's where I am now.
Speaker 1: So I asked you, you know, if it had if
Speaker 1: you never played again, would you been all right? And
Speaker 1: you said no, but that you're seeing the Yeah, I
Speaker 1: would have been fine.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but you you see the light on the digital
Speaker 1: battery and you don't have to change it. And so
Speaker 1: now you say, I'm going to try and do this.
Speaker 1: Was it a difficult decision to try to do that? Teddy?
Speaker 1: Brian talked about when you got beat up on ESPN
Speaker 1: or whatever it was. How difficult was that for you
Speaker 1: and your wife?
Speaker 2: Yeah? A lot of people disagree with my decision, you know,
Speaker 2: and they thought, why did I have to do it?
Speaker 2: I mean, you'll get you'll get questions. I got questions
Speaker 2: from the closest of people in my life telling me
Speaker 2: why are you doing this? I mean, you've played nine years,
Speaker 2: you've been in the Pro Bowl, you've made plenty of money,
Speaker 2: you've won championship hips. You're fine, but that's not living life.
Speaker 2: You know. This was a challenge for me, and it
Speaker 2: was something that I need to do just to prove
Speaker 2: to myself that no, I'm not going to just live
Speaker 2: in hiding, you know, because I've had a stroke and
Speaker 2: it was something at first I was ashamed of. And
Speaker 2: it took me a little while mentally to heal longer
Speaker 2: than it did physically, mentally and emotionally to get to
Speaker 2: the point where, you know what, I'm proud to be
Speaker 2: a stroke survivor, you know, because that's that's just sort
Speaker 2: of the process that people go through. But imagine telling
Speaker 2: your wife too, and I want to play football again,
Speaker 2: and she's like, what you are my husband and the
Speaker 2: father of my three children. We need to talk because
Speaker 2: I don't know if this is a good I'm not
Speaker 2: a supportive partner. Yes, I'm very Supportiveti well, and if
Speaker 2: I'm not mistaken, I think Bill Belichick broke down the
Speaker 2: uh oh, yeah, that's my favorite one. I was about
Speaker 2: to break it down. He's like, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 2: I got this. I want to know how we feel
Speaker 2: about having Teddy Bruski back. And then the oh yeah
Speaker 2: it could it could have been a little more rhythmic.
Speaker 1: But that was That was thirteen weeks. Am I right
Speaker 1: about that? Since a stroke? When you come back against Buffalo,
Speaker 1: that's not I mean, that's remarkable. And when you're being
Speaker 1: introduced and they don't introduce individuals around here, they you know,
Speaker 1: mentioned starting lives or everything. But I remember vividly coming
Speaker 1: out of the tunnel and your name being introduced. What
Speaker 1: did that mean to you?
Speaker 2: It was chilling, really to and scary. I mean I
Speaker 2: didn't know how it was going to go, you know,
Speaker 2: I'd say that first I came off of pup ended
Speaker 2: up playing the last part of the season, and I
Speaker 2: didn't know if I was making the right decision to
Speaker 2: tell you the truth because there was all that gray
Speaker 2: The doctors would tell me. But that reception in Jillette
Speaker 2: Stadium that that night was something I'd never forget, and
Speaker 2: you know, people still talk to me about it today.
Speaker 2: I was I was there at that Buffalo Bills game,
Speaker 2: you know, and I remember you making that tackle on
Speaker 2: the first and second play and and all that stuff,
Speaker 2: and it was it was it was this one of
Speaker 2: the most special pregame moments I've ever had my career.
Speaker 2: Definitely the most special. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So, now that you look back on it, are you
Speaker 1: happy and do you feel like it was a difficult decision.
Speaker 1: I'm really happy and I'm proud of myself for doing
Speaker 1: this because nobody said you broke the mold here, You're
Speaker 1: the first one to do it. Do you feel good
Speaker 1: about yourself at that point in time that you got
Speaker 1: to play an additional what do we talk about all
Speaker 1: four four.
Speaker 2: Years ago years? Yeah? I do. I look at stroke
Speaker 2: survivors today, and I mean anybody out there that are
Speaker 2: survivors of adversity, cancer, losing a loved one, anything, and
Speaker 2: coming back from the most difficult adversity you have in
Speaker 2: your life. I mean, it's it's your own little comeback,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, it's it's it's it's it's it's huge.
Speaker 2: You know, there's a huge magnitude of it that in
Speaker 2: your life. It's the most difficult thing that you're going through.
Speaker 2: So it equals to what I went through. I mean
Speaker 2: even though I went back to play professional football, put
Speaker 2: on a helmet, started button heads again with the very
Speaker 2: brain that I had a brain injury too. That's different.
Speaker 2: That was mine. I mean, yours to come back for
Speaker 2: your comeback. All the stroke survivors I work with, I
Speaker 2: believe it that their comeback is just as special as mine,
Speaker 2: and they have the same feeling I felt that night
Speaker 2: in their heart. But it's a different It's it's done
Speaker 2: a different scale in terms of attention and things, but
Speaker 2: it's still just as special.
Speaker 1: What does the backer brotherhood?
Speaker 2: Is it?
Speaker 1: Backer brotherhood?
Speaker 2: Backerhood?
Speaker 1: Backerhood?
Speaker 2: Backerhood?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that fraternity like I think.
Speaker 2: Each I mean, I know what High Tower's going through,
Speaker 2: Van Oyay's going through, Landing Roberts, you know what their grind,
Speaker 2: you know they call it, you know, all the way
Speaker 2: back to McGuinness and Slade and everyone. Then Tippet. Tippett
Speaker 2: knows about the backerhood too. I mean, I mean he
Speaker 2: started it. And then just a brotherhood that all of
Speaker 2: us have in terms of you know, we know what
Speaker 2: it takes to play the position, the commitment you have
Speaker 2: to make and when we see I mean even even
Speaker 2: guys like you know Luke Keikley have to retire, you know,
Speaker 2: and but him have the success that he had all
Speaker 2: the way to High Tower, and and everyone that Jamie
Speaker 2: Collins different teams. I mean it almost it just spreads
Speaker 2: in terms of that linebacker position. I mean, the quarterbacks
Speaker 2: don't have their only thing. No, it's not just the quarterbacks.
Speaker 2: You know, every position you know has a mutual respect
Speaker 2: amongst players. But it's even more special when you're wearing
Speaker 2: a uniform that you know, that that we have worn
Speaker 2: in the past and we see you, you know, upholding
Speaker 2: the standard that we've tried to set and just an
Speaker 2: incredible sense of pride when I think of the linebackers
Speaker 2: here today and what they did. That's that special little
Speaker 2: thing with the Boogeyman. They put a nice little name
Speaker 2: on it last year, and that little player we talked
Speaker 2: about in Detroit, for me, was a form of that
Speaker 2: Boogeyman defense that they have, you know, not knowing who's rushing,
Speaker 2: who's dropping out to confuse the quarterback, get the interceptions,
Speaker 2: those type of things. So they're still doing the same stuff,
Speaker 2: but they're doing it just as well. And that's why
Speaker 2: the pride that guys like you know, McGinnis and I,
Speaker 2: who are in the media and played that linebacker position,
Speaker 2: really respect the guys that are in this locker room.
Speaker 3: And you have a rocking chair with all the numbers
Speaker 3: carved into ye tell us the rocking chair story.
Speaker 2: So I think he was I don't know what that was.
Speaker 2: That might have been six or something like that, when
Speaker 2: all the linebackers that were left were over thirty years old,
Speaker 2: and Belichick called it, I don't know, old man's club,
Speaker 2: club mean something. I don't know to where he was
Speaker 2: joking about it with us. And we walked into our
Speaker 2: meeting room and all the comfortable chairs had been taken
Speaker 2: out and they've been replaced with rocking chairs. So and
Speaker 2: we had to use them the entire year. So we
Speaker 2: had to buy our own cushions to put on there.
Speaker 2: I'm buying Temper Peter Kush to put on my rocking
Speaker 2: chair and all that stuff, and I'm sitting there rocking,
Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna personalize this thing.
Speaker 2: And so I would carve in the initials of every
Speaker 2: coach that was there since my rookie year, and then
Speaker 2: I'd carve in all the numbers of all the guys
Speaker 2: all the way back to you know Slade, and there
Speaker 2: are multiple numbers, you know, like that have been used.
Speaker 2: But I put stickers on mine. I mean it was
Speaker 2: it was like elaborate. Everybody knew who my chair was.
Speaker 2: And I still have it to this day. Actually, yes,
Speaker 2: I still have it.
Speaker 1: And do you have the cover of Sports Illustrated maybe
Speaker 1: hanging over because there's probably not a lot of Sports
Speaker 1: Illustrated covers that have the linebackers on it. You remember
Speaker 1: the I remember the photo shoot No. Seven you Rosie
Speaker 1: j all of a cover?
Speaker 2: Still have that? Yes, still smiling. I think the headline
Speaker 2: was when we were still undefeated that point, and it
Speaker 2: was a good group. I really love playing with Junior Seu.
Speaker 2: That was I mean even when I was when I
Speaker 2: was a younger linebacker learning, I mean I was watching,
Speaker 2: we'd watch opposing offensive, but when Junior was playing with him,
Speaker 2: I just watched Junior, you know, because he had that
Speaker 2: type of impact coming off the film. But yeah, the
Speaker 2: the Sports Illustrated something is covered is special.
Speaker 1: So when Teddy, when you made the decision to retire
Speaker 1: with you at peace, did you come to Peace?
Speaker 2: I was, I was, because it's different. It was different
Speaker 2: for me, and that's why I understand everyone that wants
Speaker 2: to still move on and play. But that was my
Speaker 2: fourth year after a stroke, and you know, I don't
Speaker 2: count a lot of tackles my career tackles, but I
Speaker 2: made three hundred and sixty six tackles as a stroke survivor,
Speaker 2: and I was proud of that, you know. So we
Speaker 2: were still trying to win that championship in O seven,
Speaker 2: you know, and that didn't happen, and I got to
Speaker 2: playing good football again, leading the team in tackles, I think.
Speaker 2: But still I knew when the time came, I mean
Speaker 2: the time came, I wasn't going to try to play
Speaker 2: for any organization. The extra attachment of how mister Craft
Speaker 2: and the organization even embraced me during my stroke, and
Speaker 2: mister Kraft sending me to wild Cornell Medical Center in
Speaker 2: New York to get another opinion, that's not that's just
Speaker 2: that's not an organization, that's a family, you know. So
Speaker 2: I knew I was playing for the best coach, you know,
Speaker 2: in the history of the game, all right, And when
Speaker 2: he told me it was time, it was going to
Speaker 2: be time. And so we had that meeting and Bill
Speaker 2: thought that you know you play, we think it's time
Speaker 2: to move on. And I was like, you know what,
Speaker 2: I agree, I'll go home and talk to Heidi and
Speaker 2: it's time. I think so too, coach. So next day,
Speaker 2: of course, we had the press conference.
Speaker 3: It's going to be a hard conversation.
Speaker 2: It is, and I think I knew it was coming.
Speaker 2: I knew it was coming. You know those points where
Speaker 2: you see yourself on film and they splice in the
Speaker 2: same defense of like seven years ago, and there was
Speaker 2: me seven years ago, and then there was me the
Speaker 2: other day. In practice, it's like, ooh, I used to
Speaker 2: be fat.
Speaker 3: The film doesn't lie.
Speaker 2: So don't worry. I try to talk to talk him
Speaker 2: out of it for a little bit, but then it
Speaker 2: was I just knew. I agreed it was. It was
Speaker 2: time for me to move on.
Speaker 1: Were you blown away when he referenced you at that
Speaker 1: press conference as the perfect patriot?
Speaker 2: I was like, who is this guy? Yeah?
Speaker 1: You didn't hear that in earlier? Yeah, on the low lights.
Speaker 2: I think I think Bill, and I'm having perspective of it,
Speaker 2: of being ten years out now. I think Bill keeps
Speaker 2: it so business like for his players while they're here
Speaker 2: that because he knows eventually there's a tough decision he
Speaker 2: has to make, and that tough decision is that meeting
Speaker 2: I had with him when he said, you know, we
Speaker 2: think it's time, Teddy. So him keeping that little emotional
Speaker 2: attachment separate is easier for him. And I understand that
Speaker 2: now because my relationship with coach Belichick, with Bill post retirement,
Speaker 2: it's different, you know. I mean, I mean I got
Speaker 2: a text and I'm like, what the heck? Who is
Speaker 2: this guy? I mean, where did this come from? You know?
Speaker 2: And but it never was that during your playing days,
Speaker 2: you know, so and it's you just know it's coming eventually.
Speaker 2: But when he said that perfect player thing in the
Speaker 2: press conference, that's when I started to did he just
Speaker 2: say what I think he said? And it was extremely flattering,
Speaker 2: and I think he just referenced what it was for
Speaker 2: me from the beginning to the end in certain terms
Speaker 2: of the work that I put in the transformation. I
Speaker 2: had to go through, the changes I had to make.
Speaker 2: And that's all he's always talking about, is developing your
Speaker 2: game to end up, to change it to each offense,
Speaker 2: to each to each defense. What player are you this week?
Speaker 2: Can you do that type of thing? Can you pass
Speaker 2: rush for us? Yeah? Can you play linebacker for us?
Speaker 2: Can you play special teams? I don't know if there
Speaker 2: was a role I didn't complete for him that he
Speaker 2: wanted me to do. I could always do what he
Speaker 2: wanted me to do. And you know, when he said
Speaker 2: that that perfect player, you know, it sort of just
Speaker 2: put a cherry on top end. I knew it was
Speaker 2: time to go.
Speaker 1: And you only played in one uniform and that doesn't
Speaker 1: happen a lot incive professional sports now. Yeah, and maybe
Speaker 1: that helps explain part of it, Teddy, is because you
Speaker 1: talked about a family, you know, and this is a
Speaker 1: different place and everything like that, that all had to
Speaker 1: be part of that decision, like this is where I
Speaker 1: want to stay. And how proud of you that there's
Speaker 1: only one helmet that you ever wore in the National
Speaker 1: Football League.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm guys, I'm extremely proud of that. I just
Speaker 2: I don't want to know what it was like anywhere else, because,
Speaker 2: you know, unfortunately for me, this ended up becoming the
Speaker 2: standard on what everyone looks to. I like to think
Speaker 2: that I, you know, somewhat mold that standard into what
Speaker 2: it is. And then and then again, there was a
Speaker 2: point where I was a free agent, and I did
Speaker 2: trip to Cleveland, I did trip to Green Bay, I
Speaker 2: did trip to Seattle. I talked to the coaches and
Speaker 2: all of that stuff, but it just wasn't right, and
Speaker 2: I just wanted to go back. I mean, I remember
Speaker 2: walking into the Green Bay facility and that in the
Speaker 2: in their four year was the super Bowl trophy that
Speaker 2: they beat us in ninety six, and I'm like, I'm
Speaker 2: not coming here. There's no way I'm coming here. Forget
Speaker 2: that actually put me on a plane right now, you know,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Just that sense of loyalty that I
Speaker 2: have for the organization is very high, and I'm glad
Speaker 2: and only that Patriot logo I wore.
Speaker 4: And it's not for everybody, Like you mentioned how hard
Speaker 4: it is to play here, yet you want it to
Speaker 4: be here, but it's not for everybody.
Speaker 2: It isn't. And Bill Parcells lay in my football foundation helped,
Speaker 2: you know, getting used to the no nonsense business, pressurized
Speaker 2: work environment by that coach Belichick puts on these players
Speaker 2: every single day. I mean, it's it's football, guys. I
Speaker 2: mean it's if you don't believe that, you know you
Speaker 2: can lose. I mean it's that type of that type
Speaker 2: of it's not fear, but that type of pressure that's
Speaker 2: created if you make this mistake, this can happen. This
Speaker 2: is what you have to do to prevent that. It's
Speaker 2: it's a pressure cooker, and you have to be able
Speaker 2: to have that type of mental fortitude and mental toughness, which,
Speaker 2: as they say all the time, to deal with it
Speaker 2: every single day. You know, that's why I respect Tom.
Speaker 2: He's dealt with it with twenty years. I mean, to
Speaker 2: deal with that type of pressure for twenty years at
Speaker 2: the position that he plays too, It's it's you can't
Speaker 2: compare it. I mean, he's not playing for someone that
Speaker 2: has a you know a relationship with them and they're
Speaker 2: so close and they go out and have pizza and beer.
Speaker 2: It's someone that's always looking for him to do better.
Speaker 2: And that's hard, and that's hard. It was hard for
Speaker 2: me for all the years I spent with him, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's it's hard for every player, but it's
Speaker 2: something you got to have a special type of mentality.
Speaker 1: Do you think Teddy as only playing for one organization?
Speaker 2: Did that.
Speaker 1: Influence you and your wife's decision to you know what,
Speaker 1: let's put roots. We've got roots already here. Let's stay here,
Speaker 1: let's raise our family here.
Speaker 2: Well, what happened was I got I ended up getting
Speaker 2: hired by another New England company, and that.
Speaker 1: Knows who knows if that doesn't happen.
Speaker 2: Right, if I wasn't a Patriot, you know. So I
Speaker 2: mean when I asked them how far is it? I mean,
Speaker 2: they called me and they said, do you want a
Speaker 2: job as an analyst? I hadn't even been there ever,
Speaker 2: and they offered me a job over the phone, a
Speaker 2: three year deal over the phone. And I'm like, okay,
Speaker 2: two hour drive, I can do it. And so I mean,
Speaker 2: it's not like an everyday thing. So many Allen's analysts.
Speaker 2: You're in and out throughout the course of you know,
Speaker 2: the month. But I'm been at ESPN for eleven years now.
Speaker 2: I'm almost as much as playing for the Patriots. And
Speaker 2: with that, I live in the same home that I
Speaker 2: lived in when I played here. I've raised three New
Speaker 2: Englanders and I'm proud of that. You know. I'm from California,
Speaker 2: my wife's from Arizona. We retire, it's like, all right,
Speaker 2: well think about where we're gonna move. Okay, what do
Speaker 2: you want to do boom phone rings. I guess we're
Speaker 2: staying in New England and so but I got three
Speaker 2: kids that love it here. We've earned We've learned to
Speaker 2: love it. I've loved it for a long time. And
Speaker 2: now I got a senior. I got a senior at
Speaker 2: in high school, a freshman in high school, I got
Speaker 2: a freshman in college, and things are just going great.
Speaker 2: We we love New England.
Speaker 1: If I told Teddy Bruski, your rookie back in nineteen
Speaker 1: ninety six, one day you'd run a marathon, what would
Speaker 1: that kill? What would that.
Speaker 3: Kid help me?
Speaker 2: You are crazy? Because preparing for that marathon, I only
Speaker 2: I had only run one mile, was the farthest I
Speaker 2: had ever run. Because of football, you just won hundreds,
Speaker 2: one hundreds, or forties or fifties or twenties or something
Speaker 2: like that. So I started Teddy's team after my stroke
Speaker 2: in two thousand and five, and our first marathon team
Speaker 2: was two thousand and six. But two thousand and six,
Speaker 2: two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, I was
Speaker 2: still playing in the league. So all the runners were like, Teddy,
Speaker 2: when are you gonna do it? When are you gonna
Speaker 2: do it? I'm like, shoot, I'm trained for eight second bursts. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I don't do that. So that's some peer pressure. Yeah.
Speaker 2: I ended up taking on finally in twenty twelve and
Speaker 2: twenty twelve I ran it, and jeez, everybody remembers a member.
Speaker 2: I mean that ran the twenty twelve marathon. It was
Speaker 2: like ninety degrees on the pavement and I ran it
Speaker 2: in like five thirty or something like that, five hours
Speaker 2: and thirty minutes. Hidi. I ran it together and it
Speaker 2: was just an ordeal. I was like, I'll never run
Speaker 2: it again. So I just headed up the team in
Speaker 2: twenty thirteen and the bombs went off and the incredible
Speaker 2: sense of you know, community that was there and my
Speaker 2: runners and it was like, boom, I'm going to run
Speaker 2: it with you again. And so I ran it again
Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen. That day was so memory by the way,
Speaker 2: and with all of the you know, remembering what had
Speaker 2: happened in the bombs and just the overall feeling of
Speaker 2: community and philanthropy over the course of that race was
Speaker 2: it was a special day. And then I started to
Speaker 2: figure things out. I kept running, and then last year
Speaker 2: I decided to run it again and I ended up
Speaker 2: running like a four to twenty five. So I've taken
Speaker 2: like an hour off the first time, and it just
Speaker 2: I guess I just sort of turned into a runner now.
Speaker 2: I don't know. I sort of enjoy it and my
Speaker 2: runners are very inspirational and how can you not.
Speaker 3: So I got a great picture of him running the
Speaker 3: Falmath foradvice last yeh.
Speaker 2: Ran flm if you were there, I'll run that again
Speaker 2: this year, run ten miles the other day. I'm not
Speaker 2: running the marathon this year. Man, that's just hard to
Speaker 2: take on every year. But an exciting news for Teddy's team.
Speaker 2: We just got into the New York City Marathon. And
Speaker 2: my foundation just continues to do things for stroking heart disease,
Speaker 2: something I'm very proud of. We also have something called
Speaker 2: the Comeback Assistance Program we started up where you know,
Speaker 2: we seek out people who are on their way for
Speaker 2: their their form of their comeback after their stroke and
Speaker 2: we try to assist them to achieve it. So very
Speaker 2: good things.
Speaker 1: The public sees you on television on ESPN, and they
Speaker 1: might not see all this other stuff that you're doing
Speaker 1: for stroke awareness and things like that. That must give
Speaker 1: you a real purpose in life where sure, it's great
Speaker 1: to go down to Bristol and do the show, and
Speaker 1: it's a very public, forward facing thing. But the reward
Speaker 1: that you get out of this other that must make
Speaker 1: you feel good at nice.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just I have the advantage of hearing from
Speaker 2: a lot of people when they see me out or
Speaker 2: through social media or whatever it may be, but that
Speaker 2: my runners don't, and that I've had a lot of
Speaker 2: people come up and say that I recognize my dad
Speaker 2: was having a stroke because of your awareness campaigns and
Speaker 2: you're teaching people about this warning signs of stroke and
Speaker 2: I got him to the hospital and it saved his life.
Speaker 2: And those multiple examples that I keep getting just give
Speaker 2: me inspiration to keep doing it. And I just remember
Speaker 2: how I was when I was having my stroke and
Speaker 2: I just didn't know I was having a stroke. So
Speaker 2: it's just like boom light went off. This is how
Speaker 2: I can help people. And so sometimes you hit over
Speaker 2: the head with something you know that you need to
Speaker 2: make a difference with in the world. And this has
Speaker 2: been it for me, And I mean, this is something
Speaker 2: that I'll be doing for a while.
Speaker 1: We got him from the State of California via the
Speaker 1: University of Arizona and now he is a true New
Speaker 1: Englander with a red jacket and all right, right, teddy.
Speaker 1: Thanks for taking the time to spend some time with
Speaker 1: us today.
Speaker 2: Appreciate Thank you so much, my pleasure. Thank you for
Speaker 2: downloading this podcast.
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