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Speaker 1: Pats from the Past.

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Speaker 2: Tune in is Matt Smith and Paul Perillo offer in

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Speaker 2: depth interviews with some of the greatest players and coaches

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Speaker 2: in New England Patriots history.

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Speaker 3: Joined by the newth member of the Patriots Hall Fame,

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Speaker 3: Mike Raybold.

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Speaker 2: Find out what led to some of the greatest moments

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Speaker 2: in franchise history and unique behind the scenes insight.

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Speaker 4: And please to be joined by former Patriot quarterback Brian Koyer.

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Speaker 5: Joined by number thirty seven on your scorecard, but number

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Speaker 5: one in our hearts at least, Rodney Harrison.

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Speaker 6: Good to be home, Good to see you, guys.

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Speaker 2: Search for Pats in the Past anywhere you get your podcast.

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Speaker 6: I'm going to be very brief here and say this

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Speaker 6: whole situation is on me. I feel terrible for Girrod

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Speaker 6: because I put him in an untenable situation. I know

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Speaker 6: that he has all the tools as a head coach

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Speaker 6: to be successful in this league. He just needed more

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Speaker 6: time before taking the job. In the end, I'm a

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Speaker 6: fan of this team first, and now I have to

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Speaker 6: go out and find a coach who can guess get

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Speaker 6: us back to the playoffs and hopefully championships. We're open

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Speaker 6: for questions.

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Speaker 7: Robert, just when was the decision made in your mind?

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Speaker 7: When was it that you felt you needed to let

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Speaker 7: him go?

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Speaker 6: This whole situation evolved, but I'd say over the last month,

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Speaker 6: I went back and forth, and I don't know. In

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Speaker 6: my life and my business, I make certain decisions. I

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Speaker 6: know when it's right. And it just happened, and it

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Speaker 6: was very hard because the personal relationship I bil for

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Speaker 6: gerad and and the human being he is, and I

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Speaker 6: felt guilty I put him in that position. But we're

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Speaker 6: moving on.

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Speaker 8: Hey, Robert, what will happen with, for instance, the personnel department,

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Speaker 8: what decisions he made with whoever the next coach is

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Speaker 8: having the latitude to bring in his own players, his

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Speaker 8: own Skelly staff, his own coaches.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, well, we'll wait till we bring that coach in.

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Speaker 6: And he's obviously he's going to have big input on

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Speaker 6: who the players are and who the coaches are. It

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Speaker 6: will be his decisions.

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Speaker 9: So at this juncture would be status quo for everybody

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Speaker 9: on the staff until an individual time.

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Speaker 6: Yes, well, let look, we move fast and we're gonna

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Speaker 6: let him make those decisions.

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Speaker 10: Robert, I know that you don't make snap decisions. So

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Speaker 10: I was wondering at what point during the season did

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Speaker 10: you say something was not right and if you could

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Speaker 10: expand on that, what caught your attention that something wasn't right.

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Speaker 6: Well, in the important decisions in my life, I've always

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Speaker 6: said I measured nine times and cut once, and this

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Speaker 6: was one of those situations. I guess the main thing

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Speaker 6: for me is I felt we regressed. The high point

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Speaker 6: of everything for me was winning in the Cincinnati game,

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Speaker 6: and then in mid mid season, I just think we

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Speaker 6: started to regress.

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Speaker 7: Don't heard, Robert, how significantly has fan reaction to the

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Speaker 7: product on the field into drugs specifically played into your decision.

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Speaker 6: Well, I'm the biggest fan, so I understand, and you know,

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Speaker 6: i've all since the day we bought this team, and

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Speaker 6: I realized what a privilege it was and how lucky

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Speaker 6: we were as a family that this is the only

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Speaker 6: business we're involved in where I see ourselves. We don't

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Speaker 6: own this team. It's owned by the fans of this region,

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Speaker 6: and we're custodians of a very special asset of the community.

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Speaker 6: And that's why that helps me try to make decisions

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Speaker 6: that if it was just personal, it would be different.

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Speaker 11: Robert, Aside from yourself and Jonathan who will be involved

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Speaker 11: in the head coaching interviews and what traits are you

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Speaker 11: looking for?

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Speaker 6: Well, well, we'll have Alonso high Smith and Elliott will

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Speaker 6: be involved and we're gonna try to understand who can

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Speaker 6: help us best get back to the playoffs.

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Speaker 12: Robert, does that mean Elliott and his staff are going

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Speaker 12: to continue on or where the coaching hire also impact

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Speaker 12: your front office?

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Speaker 6: We are are looking for people working together and they

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Speaker 6: will be staying on.

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Speaker 13: Yea of Robert.

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Speaker 14: When you say that the situation was untenable, what about

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Speaker 14: it specifically did you find untenable and how will that

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Speaker 14: influence how you approach this search.

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Speaker 6: I don't like losing. I don't like losing the way

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Speaker 6: we lost, and I just just things we're not developing

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Speaker 6: the way we would have liked and it was time

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Speaker 6: to move on.

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Speaker 1: Robert, How big of a search do you plan on

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Speaker 1: conduct How big of a coaching search do you plan

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Speaker 1: on conducting?

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Speaker 6: Well, we want to interview as many people as we

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Speaker 6: can that we think can help us get to that

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Speaker 6: position that we want to be in. So we have

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Speaker 6: put out and requests and Stacy will be filling you

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Speaker 6: in on that. Robert.

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Speaker 1: Thank you for taking our questions. Appreciate it is Mike

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Speaker 1: Vrabel at or near the top of your list.

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Speaker 7: It seems to be the talk.

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Speaker 6: We Before I make a comment like that, I'd like

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Speaker 6: I don't know all the people involved, and there are

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Speaker 6: some wonderful people that we've heard about, so I'd rather

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Speaker 6: respond to that after I've seen everyone.

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Speaker 15: Robert, can you speak a bit more to the timing

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Speaker 15: of this? Did Gerard know before the game?

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Speaker 4: I'm right over here.

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Speaker 15: Sorry, sorry, thank you. I was wondering if you could

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Speaker 15: speak a bit more to the timing of this. Did

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Speaker 15: Gerard know before the game that this would be his

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Speaker 15: last game coaching?

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Speaker 16: No, I know this was very difficult. You sit down

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Speaker 16: with him, How did he take it? How did he respond?

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Speaker 16: Was he shocked by the news?

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Speaker 6: He was a man. Look, it was one of the

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Speaker 6: more difficult things I've had to do in my life

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Speaker 6: because I had such affection for him, and I believe

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Speaker 6: in him, and I really do believe he will go

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Speaker 6: on and as he gets more experience, will be successful.

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Speaker 6: It was not easy. He was a gentleman and accepted

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Speaker 6: it that way.

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Speaker 11: Robert, this is going to be very expensive buying out

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Speaker 11: a coaching staff, bringing in on new coaching staff. Perhaps

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Speaker 11: it goes to the personnel department. You also have one

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Speaker 11: hundred and twenty million dollars in cap space this year,

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Speaker 11: the most in the league. Well, what you spend on

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Speaker 11: this transition affect anything that you spend on players this offseason.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, i'd the answer is no, we will. We've always

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Speaker 6: had a situation where we spend to the cap and

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Speaker 6: if we go over the We have never told any

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Speaker 6: coach or limited the spending. The only thing we've said

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Speaker 6: is if you exceed the cap, we like to see

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Speaker 6: it leveled out over three years and you know so

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Speaker 6: that we never get way out of hand. But spending

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Speaker 6: to the cap or above the cap is not. We

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Speaker 6: want to win. That's our priority. First.

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Speaker 3: Hi, Robert back here, how are you You guys were

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Speaker 3: told this was a multi year build, that it wasn't

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Speaker 3: going to turn around in one year. You said, you

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Speaker 3: believe in Gerad, you think he'll be better with more experience,

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Speaker 3: so why not let him get that experience here? Knowing

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Speaker 3: going in this was a multi year process.

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Speaker 6: Yeah, from my point of view, I just thought we

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Speaker 6: were we had a rough year last year, not twenty four,

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Speaker 6: twenty three, and going through two years like that and

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Speaker 6: then seeing where we were this year, especially the second

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Speaker 6: half of the year, just told me, just made me

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Speaker 6: feel we weren't going in the direction, in the right direction,

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Speaker 6: and I can't. I don't want to go through this

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Speaker 6: next year, and we're going to do what we got

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Speaker 6: to do to fix it, which very bad. Robert.

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Speaker 5: Is there one quality when you go through this search

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Speaker 5: with a new coach that you'll be looking for over

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Speaker 5: everything else? Is there one quality in your opinion that

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Speaker 5: will help lead to you getting back to being a

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Speaker 5: contender and playing for championships.

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Speaker 6: No, it's really a composite. I mean, your name someone

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Speaker 6: who players can relate to and respond to. But they

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Speaker 6: need to have a team around them that has product

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Speaker 6: knowledge in game adjustments, knowing what their system is. Just

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Speaker 6: a lot of things coming together, Robert.

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Speaker 4: We saw Jonathan very animated during the Cardinals game on television.

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Speaker 4: How much was he involved in this decision and how

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Speaker 4: is he going to be involved in this decision about

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Speaker 4: who your next coach will be?

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Speaker 6: Well, for over thirty years he's been with me, and

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Speaker 6: most decisions I've made in my life, surely business ones

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Speaker 6: that are important. So he will continue to be involved

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Speaker 6: with me.

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Speaker 13: Hi, Robert, thank you for taking the time. I was

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Speaker 13: just curious. We know that you addressed the team this morning.

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Speaker 13: We know that you addressed the team this morning, and

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Speaker 13: a lot of the players were very on board with Jirod.

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Speaker 13: They really liked him. What was kind of the reaction

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Speaker 13: from the players in terms of this decision?

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Speaker 6: Well, I didn't get a chance to really interact. We've

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Speaker 6: believed it or not. We had some very important outside

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Speaker 6: people coming here today on something unrelated to the Patriots.

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Speaker 6: That's why we scheduled it this day a while back,

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Speaker 6: and I spoke to them about how I felt about

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Speaker 6: Girard and what I tried to convey here today.

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Speaker 17: Earlier, Robert, did you have any input with the coaching

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Speaker 17: staff about how to handle the final game of the

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Speaker 17: season with the number one overall picket stake? Did you

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Speaker 17: have any input did you talk to the coaching staff

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Speaker 17: about how to handle the game?

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Speaker 6: Now?

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Speaker 9: Conker, this is the last one, Hey, Robert, I get

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Speaker 9: number two. The personnel department this past year, and free

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Speaker 9: agency didn't really have a banner year, and also in

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Speaker 9: the draft and Elliott and some of the other individuals there,

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Speaker 9: Mac grow have been part of the personnel department for

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Speaker 9: a number of years. What is it that stands out

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Speaker 9: to you about them that they should continue forward in

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Speaker 9: the team building when the roster is not great.

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Speaker 6: Yeah. I think that the department evolved a lot and

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Speaker 6: a lot of things were changed. We changed our grading

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Speaker 6: system this year and have done things. Our drafts have

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Speaker 6: not been good for a while, and that's not if

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Speaker 6: you want. If you want to compete long term and

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Speaker 6: be good in this league, you gotta have good drafts

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Speaker 6: because those rookie contracts allow you to go out and

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Speaker 6: get the people you need to surround people. For what

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Speaker 6: we looks like we locked out. We maybe have two quarterbacks,

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Speaker 6: but I think we'll hopefully see a big improvement this year.

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Speaker 6: Thank you very much. I appreciate you all giving us

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Speaker 6: the time.

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Speaker 2: Patriots Playbook join John Brook as he brings you all

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Speaker 2: the latest Patriots tongue, an expert commentary direct for Patriots HQ.

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Speaker 2: The show features interviews with New England and Opponent Beat

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Speaker 2: writers that bring you a unique media view of this

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Speaker 2: data the.

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Speaker 1: Team for where the Patriots are concerned. Let's just get

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Speaker 1: one thing done, and let's get it done right, and

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Speaker 1: then we can worry about versatility. Am I lying to

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Speaker 1: anybody here? Let's just get one thing done. Let's get

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Speaker 1: one thing done right, and then we can move along.

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Speaker 1: That's kind of my biggest thing.

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