Speaker 1: It's time now for another edition of Pats from the
Speaker 1: Past podcast. Matt Smith, Paul Prolo and please to be
Speaker 1: joined by former Patriot quarterback Brian hoy Or.
Speaker 2: Brian.
Speaker 1: Thanks for coming by, man, Thanks appreciate you on guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we asked this of everybody. So I think people who
Speaker 1: are football fans, Patriot fans know, is Brian gonna play?
Speaker 1: Is Brian not gonna play? What's what's going on with
Speaker 1: Brian Hoyr these days?
Speaker 3: Man, I don't know. I think it would take a
Speaker 3: great opportunity to come along for me to do that. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I was in Las Vegas last year. I know I
Speaker 3: can still play because I beat the Patriots last year,
Speaker 3: one of the most tooche, one of the most It's
Speaker 3: on my list, Brian, one of the Twitter sweet moments
Speaker 3: of my career. So we'll talk about that later. But
Speaker 3: you know, so I know I can still physically do it.
Speaker 3: But at thirty eight years old, my kids are getting older.
Speaker 3: You know, I think it would take a really great
Speaker 3: opportunity for me, you know, to come along, for me
Speaker 3: to to kind of look and see. But so I
Speaker 3: know I can still do it. Body feels relatively healthy,
Speaker 3: and you know, so we'll see. It's always open. People
Speaker 3: always say, you know, if someone's offering you an opportunity
Speaker 3: to play and you feel like you could do it,
Speaker 3: you know, you know, I remember a former teammate saying,
Speaker 3: play till they tell you you can't. So definitely capable
Speaker 3: of it. It's just got to be I think, the
Speaker 3: right opportunity at this point.
Speaker 1: You know, idiots like us sit there and oh, you know,
Speaker 1: you can play, or it's time to go, and everything
Speaker 1: like that. But I don't think the lay people realize
Speaker 1: what's it like to make that decision as a family.
Speaker 2: Yeah, when you have a.
Speaker 1: Wife who's supported you cross country trips, taking kids back
Speaker 1: and forth, at some point in time, her decision or
Speaker 1: her opinion, while always valued, you got to really listen to.
Speaker 1: That's got to be hard, like from a as a
Speaker 1: family standpoint, like at what point time do I need
Speaker 1: to devote my time to them?
Speaker 2: Right?
Speaker 3: And that's a huge part of the decision making. So
Speaker 3: that's why I said, like, it have to be the
Speaker 3: right opportunity and all those things, because you know, deciding
Speaker 3: to go to play in Las Vegas last year, it
Speaker 3: was not an easy choice. It was an easy choice
Speaker 3: because it was Josh in my relationship with him. But
Speaker 3: it wasn't an easy choice in the regards of what
Speaker 3: does this mean for my family? And thankfully we had
Speaker 3: a great school here that allowed our kids to kind
Speaker 3: of virtual school with the help of a tutor out there.
Speaker 3: But it was rough. It was it was a rough
Speaker 3: transition and they were all happy to come back once
Speaker 3: the season was over. And so now my son, he's
Speaker 3: going into seventh grade. He got accepted as Avarian brother.
Speaker 3: So you know, those are all things that you have
Speaker 3: to take into account, Like I want to watch him
Speaker 3: play football at of course he's watched me play for
Speaker 3: a long time. So maybe it's times, you know, for
Speaker 3: a role.
Speaker 4: Reverse when you have when you came out of Michigan State,
Speaker 4: I mean, you didn't get drafted, yep, And I don't
Speaker 4: know what your expectations were heading in, but to then
Speaker 4: have what a fifteen year career off of that, what
Speaker 4: were your expectations sort of when you arrived here in
Speaker 4: two thousand and nine, what were you hoping for.
Speaker 3: I was just talking about this with my son the
Speaker 3: other day and I said, listen, when I didn't get drafted,
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of thought Okay, the Patriots are
Speaker 3: going to sign me. I'll learn for Tom Brady. Obviously,
Speaker 3: I grew up I watched Bill coach in Cleveland, so
Speaker 3: I always kind of had an affinity to him, and
Speaker 3: obviously him being a great coach, I thought it was
Speaker 3: a great opportunity to go learn. And I thought, you know,
Speaker 3: maybe i'll make the practice squad if I get released.
Speaker 3: At least I'll learn from these guys. And then sure enough,
Speaker 3: I kind of worked my way up the ranks, ended
Speaker 3: up being Tom's backup my rookie year. And you know,
Speaker 3: the things that I learned in those first four years
Speaker 3: were so invaluable to me that when I finally got
Speaker 3: some opportunities to play, you know, you put those in
Speaker 3: motion and then you just keep stack in years, stack
Speaker 3: in years, and and you know the thing about the
Speaker 3: quarterback position is if you're relatively competent and you're a
Speaker 3: good guy, and you make some connections, you know, you
Speaker 3: just extend your career, extend your career. That's I mean,
Speaker 3: when I look at last year, if if Josh isn't
Speaker 3: the head coach in Las Vegas last year, then you know,
Speaker 3: maybe my my my career ends there. But you know.
Speaker 3: Luckily for me, I've met a lot of great coaches,
Speaker 3: played with a lot of great players, and made a
Speaker 3: lot of great connections which allowed me to do that.
Speaker 1: That's a little bit unorthodox Brian as a rookie, Now
Speaker 1: you're back up Brady, who's, by the way, is coming
Speaker 1: off a knee surgery at that point, Tom, and you're
Speaker 1: the only backup quarterback your rookie year. That was the
Speaker 1: same way in twenty ten, you're the only backup court. Like,
Speaker 1: not a lot of teams did that. Well, how did that?
Speaker 1: What was your thought process in that? Like you want
Speaker 1: to talk about literally next man up into your one
Speaker 1: pitch away, Yeah, you're one pitch away at that point.
Speaker 3: I think I was too naive to even understand that
Speaker 3: at that point. You know, now looking back, when you realize,
Speaker 3: like Tom's coming off of major knee reconstruction, had you know,
Speaker 3: some hiccups along the way. Man if I had had
Speaker 3: to play that year, I don't know how ready I
Speaker 3: would have been. Obviously, Bill believed in me, and Bill
Speaker 3: O'Brien believed to me, and and so I'm sure it
Speaker 3: would have you know, worked itself out. We had a
Speaker 3: really good team. So I think I would have relied
Speaker 3: on those guys around me, But you know, at that point,
Speaker 3: you're just I was just thrilled to be an NFL
Speaker 3: football player, and now I'm going to a meeting room
Speaker 3: every day with Tom Brady and soaking up what I
Speaker 3: can I can learn from him. And then you know,
Speaker 3: that went for four years and then until I got
Speaker 3: released in twenty twelve. So I mean, those years, like you,
Speaker 3: those are kind of like, you know, the years you're
Speaker 3: building your foundation of your career, and I couldn't have
Speaker 3: done it in a better place.
Speaker 4: So I wanted to ask you a little bit about
Speaker 4: that rookie season. You were part of some really good teams,
Speaker 4: and you know, ultimately you were part of a champion
Speaker 4: in eighteen, but you know, you had that great year
Speaker 4: in twenty ten, twenty eleven, you go to the super
Speaker 4: Bowl in two thousand and nine. You probably didn't recognize
Speaker 4: it at the time, it's your rookie year, but do
Speaker 4: you kind of look back and say, there was a
Speaker 4: little bit of something amiss in two thousand and nine.
Speaker 4: That's sort of the way it's kind of viewed here.
Speaker 4: That was kind of a reset year, and we're very
Speaker 4: spoiled because we've been right of a lot of when
Speaker 4: I didn't know any better TENNISI is going to the
Speaker 4: playoffs and all that stuff is not.
Speaker 2: I thought it was great. I'm like, man, I'm a
Speaker 2: great But did you.
Speaker 4: Did you sense any like sort of dysfunction at the time,
Speaker 4: or you know, maybe looking back at it, do you
Speaker 4: feel like that wasn't the same as some of the
Speaker 4: better teams that you were on.
Speaker 3: Definitely wasn't the same. I think looking back now, knowing
Speaker 3: what I know and being on some great teams, it wasn't.
Speaker 3: There was definitely some learning curve, There was some adjusting
Speaker 3: to new I mean, that was Bill O'Brien's first year
Speaker 3: as a coordinator here, you know, so now I know
Speaker 3: how important that is, you know, being a quarterback. When
Speaker 3: you're learning, even if you're keeping somewhat of the system intact,
Speaker 3: you're working with someone new and and that was you know,
Speaker 3: so those were kind of I guess you call growing pains.
Speaker 3: But I thought, like, man, we're going to the playoffs,
Speaker 3: like we're this is I'm on the Patriots. This is
Speaker 3: like a Super Bowl organization. Like okay, one year, you know,
Speaker 3: we didn't win the Super Bowl and I'm like, oh,
Speaker 3: we'll win it next year. I mean, I think that
Speaker 3: that's kind of the expectation you have when you come
Speaker 3: into that organization. And I've always said this, I've always
Speaker 3: looked at it. When Tom Brady was the quarterback, I
Speaker 3: never went into a game thinking we're not gonna win. Ever,
Speaker 3: there was never And when I've been on other teams,
Speaker 3: whether I was the quarterback or someone else is the quarterback,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, man, I don't know how much a
Speaker 3: chance we have this Sunday. And I can honestly say
Speaker 3: every game that I ever played here backing Tom up,
Speaker 3: that there was I never had that feeling. And obviously
Speaker 3: a lot of other players around that. But you know,
Speaker 3: when I talk with a lot of my old teammates,
Speaker 3: I think that that feeling was very you know, similar.
Speaker 4: Bring it up because it's again that's why I preface
Speaker 4: it by saying we're spoiled. You know, when that's considered
Speaker 4: a quote unquote down here. But you know, Bill infamously
Speaker 4: said on that documentary, I just can't get these guys.
Speaker 2: To play there.
Speaker 3: I was playing in that game at the time, Tom
Speaker 3: standing I'll get rushed by New Orleans Lewins, and I
Speaker 3: think I remember thinking to myself, like, wow, I'm playing
Speaker 3: in a Monday night football game. You know, like, okay,
Speaker 3: one back game, we got crushed, but I'm playing in
Speaker 3: a Monday night football game. That's pretty cool. And you know,
Speaker 3: you see that and you really and then having been
Speaker 3: on champion, champion team and teams that went to Super Bowls,
Speaker 3: you realize like, we probably didn't have a chance to
Speaker 3: go to the super Bowl that year.
Speaker 4: Right, And then you have that off season, which I
Speaker 4: think is a very sort of important offseason. Ye kind
Speaker 4: of springboards the second run of the Dynasty. You get Devine,
Speaker 4: you get Gronk, you get Adan Hernandez. Did you sort
Speaker 4: of sense like, wow, we're going to be a lot
Speaker 4: better you sort of get into training camp in twenty ten.
Speaker 3: I think what I realized, you know, going into my
Speaker 3: second year is Aro is like, wow, we added these
Speaker 3: two tight ends. You add Devin who you know clearly
Speaker 3: was a great player run off the batom, he's returning
Speaker 3: kickoffs for touchdowns. You know, a first round pick like
Speaker 3: you added, and those are you know, I'm just as
Speaker 3: young as them. So it's kind of like, wow, we
Speaker 3: got like some really good players. We had Chung the
Speaker 3: year that I came. Yep, Julian was coming, you know,
Speaker 3: kind of creating his way. And I mean, look, I
Speaker 3: whether it was night being naive or I thought I
Speaker 3: was on the greatest team with the greatest quarterback and
Speaker 3: the greatest coach, I'm like you were, and I was
Speaker 3: you were looking back. I understand like you guys say,
Speaker 3: you're spoiled, But there was kind of a lull in
Speaker 3: the action and having watching the Dynasty myself, you know,
Speaker 3: I didn't do a ton of research on the Patriots
Speaker 3: like what was before I came, But it was kind
Speaker 3: of cool for me to see like what happened, you know,
Speaker 3: prior to when I was here, and then kind of
Speaker 3: see the years that I was here, my first stint
Speaker 3: and then it kind of ends with my second stint
Speaker 3: here as kind of the end of that show. But
Speaker 3: it was kind of cool to see some of the
Speaker 3: stuff that I didn't experience, to see you know, tie
Speaker 3: log and interviewed and kind of making fun of Tom
Speaker 3: and and you know, see these guys and like NuGen
Speaker 3: and stuff, and and so for me that was kind
Speaker 3: of cool to kind of see the part that I
Speaker 3: didn't really live right.
Speaker 1: You were fourteen and two your second year, Tom was
Speaker 1: the MVP. The backup quarterback's job is to always be
Speaker 1: ready because you're one snap away, one play away. And
Speaker 1: I assume, but I want to ask you you prepared
Speaker 1: as such? I need to be I need to be
Speaker 1: ready to go. Was there ever anything in your mind?
Speaker 1: And I understand he's coming off major surgery, need reconstruction.
Speaker 1: Was there every time you go? This guy's not missing
Speaker 1: any snaps? You know what, They're gonna have to drag
Speaker 1: like the bone's gonna have to be visible in order
Speaker 1: for me to get in unless there's a blog because
Speaker 1: he's not missing snaps.
Speaker 3: Yeah, there was a There was a game my rookie
Speaker 3: year down in Miami and on Friday, probably I'll never
Speaker 3: forget this. On Friday practice, we're kind of just we're
Speaker 3: winding down like there might be one offensive period left
Speaker 3: in practice, and Isaiah Standback was playing scout team gunner
Speaker 3: and he's coming down the sideline and he was a
Speaker 3: kind of a quarterback slash receiver and Tom's kind of
Speaker 3: messing around, goes to grab him. His finger gets caught
Speaker 3: in his jersey and he breaks his middle finger on
Speaker 3: Friday with one period to go in practice, and I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh God, like, I'm gonna play this. I'm gonna I
Speaker 3: haven't practiced all week.
Speaker 2: This is just throw.
Speaker 3: This is throwing him, and I'm gonna have to play
Speaker 3: in this game. He broke his middle finger and so
Speaker 3: of course he goes and he sees Alex, and Alex
Speaker 3: is working his magic and and he gets a I'm
Speaker 3: pretty sure he got like a a block, you know,
Speaker 3: like a injection to block so he wouldn't feel it.
Speaker 3: He's like, if I don't feel it, my body will
Speaker 3: just naturally do what it does. And he throws for
Speaker 3: like three hundred and forty yards and I was like
Speaker 3: everyone knew because he had to be added to the
Speaker 3: injurroom sure, and people are like, oh, what is it? What?
Speaker 3: His middle finger was broken? Right, And as a rookie like,
Speaker 3: I'm you know, I'm nervous because I haven't. It'd be
Speaker 3: one thing if you get a whole week of practice
Speaker 3: and you know you're gonna play. It's literally like I
Speaker 3: got like the last drive of practice on Friday, and
Speaker 3: then it was like a constant monitoring process of like
Speaker 3: where's he at? Where's he at? And we'd be doing
Speaker 3: I was at BC the other day with Bill O'Brien
Speaker 3: watching practice and we were talking about this story. I'm like,
Speaker 3: he's like, remember we were going over to call sheet
Speaker 3: and Alex is just like working on his finger, working
Speaker 3: on his finger. And I mean that was the point
Speaker 3: I realized, like, this guy is. I mean, for all
Speaker 3: we know about him as a great player, the toughness factor,
Speaker 3: I mean, the things that you saw that I saw
Speaker 3: him play through and the toughness was I mean, it's incredible.
Speaker 3: You could do a whole documentary on that.
Speaker 2: Well, talk about like Paul saying, what were spoiled?
Speaker 1: I think one of the things that we, you know,
Speaker 1: loosely associated with the organization and fans take for granted
Speaker 1: is it's the line about availability, right, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know better than anybody, you know, if you're available
Speaker 1: to play, you play. If you can't, you're sort of discarded. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and you're out of sight, out of mind. And I
Speaker 1: think the fact that he told the line every single week,
Speaker 1: regardless of what's going on. Great player and everything like that,
Speaker 1: But I think that that gets overlooked a lot of
Speaker 1: times when you talk about him. Yeah, he stepped up.
Speaker 1: He was there, ready to go.
Speaker 3: In all the years that I backed him up, I
Speaker 3: never had to enter a game for his injury, which
Speaker 3: I mean, that's amazing. I've had to do it multiple
Speaker 3: times other places, oddly enough for two other Patriots guys,
Speaker 3: Jacoby and Jimmy this past year. But in all the
Speaker 3: years that I backed him up, all the big hits
Speaker 3: that I saw, I remember, I remember him taking a
Speaker 3: hit my rookie year or second year by Elvis Dumerville.
Speaker 3: There's a great clip where he's exactly and I'm like,
Speaker 3: my chinstr I mean, he got up, and you know,
Speaker 3: he talks about it. He's like, I took pride in
Speaker 3: showing people that they weren't going to hurt me. And
Speaker 3: I mean, you go to the AFC Championship game in
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen when his thumb gets all, you know, messed up.
Speaker 3: I'm like, I'm playing this game. There's no way. I
Speaker 3: just saw like his hands split open. There's no way
Speaker 3: he's playing. And sure enough he you know, he wears
Speaker 3: his red gloves out there and we kind of messed
Speaker 3: with the media a little bit, but you know, he
Speaker 3: through the work and commitments he had to play. He played,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: But you mentioned it, so let's bring that up right
Speaker 1: there at that point in time that was Was that
Speaker 1: Wednesday of the week or Thursday of the week, was it?
Speaker 3: I mean it was Wednesday because I end up practicing
Speaker 3: all day Thursday Friday.
Speaker 1: You're talking about not getting any reps. You had reps
Speaker 1: at least mentally at that point time. You wouldn't have
Speaker 1: been surprised if if Josh comes up to and goes
Speaker 1: by the way you're up.
Speaker 3: I fully expected to play until I would say Sunday morning,
Speaker 3: you know. And that was the I had just gotten
Speaker 3: back like seven weeks prior to that, you know. And
Speaker 3: I remember thinking to myself, well, you were the starting
Speaker 3: quarterback in San Francisco at the beginning the year. This is
Speaker 3: where you wanted to be. You're a starting quarterback in
Speaker 3: the NFL, Like this was your goal anyway. So and
Speaker 3: I'll never forget like that happening, and everybody kind of
Speaker 3: just standing around, and i''m like, all right, come on,
Speaker 3: like we gotta we gotta move on, like we got
Speaker 3: to I gotta practice. And I was the only quarterback,
Speaker 3: so I had to do every rep on offense and
Speaker 3: every rep on scout team the remainder of the week,
Speaker 3: and you know, I just remember having so much confidence
Speaker 3: in the guys around me that I was like, I
Speaker 3: feel good, I know, plan really well, and I'll be
Speaker 3: ready to go if need be. But sure enough, Sunday
Speaker 3: morning rolls around and he puts some you know, Canisio
Speaker 3: tape on it, and I think the biggest thing was
Speaker 3: could he take a snap? And once he figured out that,
Speaker 3: he was going to, you know, power through that. I mean,
Speaker 3: some of the plays he made in that game were incredible.
Speaker 2: How winning to the.
Speaker 3: One to Amandola down the middle of the field. I
Speaker 3: mean to throw that with the injury that he had
Speaker 3: in his thumb, I don't even know how you physically
Speaker 3: do that.
Speaker 1: How about the game winner on the back of the
Speaker 1: line that there's only one place to balkns right, So
Speaker 1: in that situation, Brian, like, at that point time you've
Speaker 1: seen him do all these different things. The Miami gave
Speaker 1: me a rookie year, Are you beyond to mazed at
Speaker 1: that point or he just goes, oh yeah, yeah, that's Tom.
Speaker 3: I mean, there was there was really three times in
Speaker 3: my career where I felt like that was going to
Speaker 3: be the case. So we talked about the two and
Speaker 3: then the one. I think it was in twenty eighteen
Speaker 3: after we lost to Tennessee. He hurt his knee at
Speaker 3: the end of that game, and I didn't really know
Speaker 3: the extent. It was the week of Thanksgiving, and I
Speaker 3: think we had like a longer for whatever reason, we
Speaker 3: had Thanksgiving off, But we practiced on Wednesday, and he
Speaker 3: practiced the whole day Wednesday, and so I'm like, all right,
Speaker 3: he's good. And then I'll never forget, like cooking my
Speaker 3: turkey outside. I had like a big green egg. I'm
Speaker 3: smoking the turkey for the first time. He calls me like, hey, babe,
Speaker 3: I don't think I'm gona able to I don't think
Speaker 3: I'm gonna be able to place on him. Like what
Speaker 3: are you talking about. You just practiced the whole day.
Speaker 3: He's like, yeah, this nee really like swoll up on me.
Speaker 3: And you know, I'm gonna see what Alex can do.
Speaker 3: But you know, he's like it just he's like I'm
Speaker 3: as a friend, like I'm just telling you be ready
Speaker 3: to go.
Speaker 2: It's interesting.
Speaker 3: So I remember being like, all right, where's the playbook?
Speaker 3: Like we got to put the extra time in and
Speaker 3: that was a Sunday morning where me, Josh and Bill
Speaker 3: are all waiting for Tom to come down to be
Speaker 3: like are you are you gonna go?
Speaker 2: What is it?
Speaker 3: And in my in my mind, I'm like, if he's
Speaker 3: walking down here, he's gonna say I'm gonna play. But
Speaker 3: it's just there was really three times in my career
Speaker 3: where I was like, all right, you're probably gonna have
Speaker 3: to play, and then sure enough, you know, it came
Speaker 3: to the time for him to play, and he was
Speaker 3: good to go.
Speaker 2: Do you have up the turkey?
Speaker 3: It got a probably a little overcooked.
Speaker 4: Oh oh yeah, A look, so how about some of
Speaker 4: the times that you did you did get to play
Speaker 4: some of the memories of that.
Speaker 2: Do you remember the first game? I mean, I'm sure
Speaker 2: you do. Yeah, first time you got in.
Speaker 3: Well, that was the snow game in October against you know,
Speaker 3: the Titans, which they had the oilers uniforms.
Speaker 1: I mean, that was one that was one of the
Speaker 1: great UNI games of all time.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and I had just gotten engaged to my wife
Speaker 3: that week and my birthday. It was a few weeks.
Speaker 3: It was a great October was a great month my
Speaker 3: rookie year, and you know, so we were killing those
Speaker 3: guys and I got to go in and it was
Speaker 3: in the snow. And you know that's for me growing
Speaker 3: up in the in the north, like in Cleveland, when
Speaker 3: it snowed, you went outside to play football in the
Speaker 3: backyard because you can get tackled, it's not going to hurt.
Speaker 3: And so to me, that was kind of like the
Speaker 3: welcome to the NFL moment, Like here I am, I'm
Speaker 3: playing a game, it's snowing. I scored a touchdown on
Speaker 3: a quarterback sneak and you know, so I'll never forget that.
Speaker 3: And then really, the next time I really played like
Speaker 3: an extending amount of time was the following year. I
Speaker 3: think it was the last game the year against Miami,
Speaker 3: who touchdown past Brandon Tate there you go, yeah, and
Speaker 3: got crushed. It was it was I got crushed on
Speaker 3: the play. They actually called it rough in the passer play,
Speaker 3: but I was kind of happy. My first touchdown was
Speaker 3: like a bomb, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: Do you show that one to your kids to say, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: why don't you look at dad stay in the pocket
Speaker 1: here and get his head kicked in the touchdown pass.
Speaker 3: That was one of the routes that we called the
Speaker 3: pistol route that they talked about in The Dynasty with Randy.
Speaker 3: When Randy came, he's like, listen, I'm just gonna go
Speaker 3: where the open places. And so you know, I got
Speaker 3: to go in and they call a pistol route, and
Speaker 3: it's like you can go either way and you're only
Speaker 3: supposed to make like one cut and then go the opposite.
Speaker 3: And Brandon's like boom boom. So I'm like and then
Speaker 3: finally I see which way he's going, and I just
Speaker 3: I launched it. And you know, that was a pretty
Speaker 3: good feeling to throw, you know, fifty yard touchdown pass
Speaker 3: for your first touchdown pass.
Speaker 1: In eleven I think you attempted one pass.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Gronk's record.
Speaker 2: What's the go.
Speaker 1: So let's let the fans know about what the story
Speaker 1: because I don't I don't necessarily remember that. Maybe that's
Speaker 1: just because I'm old and the passage of time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but I don't have to go with the CT no no.
Speaker 1: But but like that was a at the time, that
Speaker 1: was a big deal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so it was that was the last game of
Speaker 3: the season. It was Gronk and Jimmy Graham. I think
Speaker 3: we're kind of battling like for the yardage record right
Speaker 3: for tight ends for a season, I think, and they
Speaker 3: were kind of going back and forth and their game ended,
Speaker 3: and and I think we realized on the sideline that
Speaker 3: Jimmy Graham had like four yards more than Rob. So
Speaker 3: we go in and I just so I remember going in,
Speaker 3: we were just gonna run the clock out, and then
Speaker 3: Bill Grass me He's like, look, Kronk needs like five
Speaker 3: yards to break the records. So like we'll just put
Speaker 3: him outside and throw a hitch. Well, like a hitch
Speaker 3: is like a five six yard route. Catch the ball,
Speaker 3: but we have a conversion if they press you. So
Speaker 3: like if the guy comes up and pressed, you really
Speaker 3: can't run a hitch. So he runs a fade and
Speaker 3: and to be honestly, I kind of forgot that because
Speaker 3: I was like, all right, I'm gonna take three step drop,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna throw a five yard hitch. I don't even
Speaker 3: know if I looked out there and I dropped back
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh my god, he's running a go route.
Speaker 3: And so I remember lofting the ball up to him.
Speaker 3: He gets the record, and then it was kind of
Speaker 3: questionable whether his feet were inbound so we had to
Speaker 3: run like a quick play to make sure that it's
Speaker 3: it's sat. So that was a pretty cool memory too.
Speaker 4: I love those kinds of things, though, because they're always
Speaker 4: telling us like, oh, that's.
Speaker 2: A great well that game.
Speaker 3: You know, that game was in the bag, and I
Speaker 3: think that mental he obviously Rob, but also to Bill, like,
Speaker 3: that's a huge record to break, and Rob will always
Speaker 3: joke you know, I threw him that pass to break
Speaker 3: that record, but I also threw him his first touchdown pass,
Speaker 3: although it was in a preseason game in Atlanta that year.
Speaker 2: Remember, so yeah, you know he yeah, that's pretty impressive.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I do remember, because I mean, like I
Speaker 1: can only imagine what you guys thought on the field.
Speaker 2: Talked about this.
Speaker 1: A little bits, no, no, but no, but the fact,
Speaker 1: like all of a sudden, these new weapons come in,
Speaker 1: we've got to revitalize the offense. We need to do more.
Speaker 1: I mean, you guys must have like, oh, my goodness,
Speaker 1: they're rookies, they're green and everything like that. But the
Speaker 1: ability to see what these guys could do in the field, yeah,
Speaker 1: was certainly eye open.
Speaker 3: Funny.
Speaker 4: I do remember dragging some guys against the Rams. I think, yeah,
Speaker 4: that was here yep into the end, and I remember
Speaker 4: thinking that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2: I don't remember.
Speaker 3: I think we all I think we all noticed. I
Speaker 3: think we all realized like, oh my god, these guys.
Speaker 3: I mean, he had never really seen a pair like
Speaker 3: this before. And I think Tom realized that early. And
Speaker 3: I know Rob jokes like he thought Tom hated him.
Speaker 3: But Tom Tom would have those guys stay after practice
Speaker 3: and we would throw to him, and we would have
Speaker 3: Dane Fletcher I don't know if you guys, and like, hey, Dane,
Speaker 3: can you come cover these guys because we only just
Speaker 3: want to throw routes on air, I mean, and we'd
Speaker 3: be like, all right, Dane, play uh play cover five,
Speaker 3: which is like inside leverage two man, and then we
Speaker 3: just run outbreaking routes to teach them like when you
Speaker 3: get this coverage, you got to win your leverage and
Speaker 3: and so poor. You know, Dane was like a little
Speaker 3: puppy dog. He'd be like, all right, we want to
Speaker 3: cover again, and he'd be covering both guys back to back.
Speaker 3: But you know, those were you know, moments where I
Speaker 3: looked at like Tom was building chemistry with these young guys.
Speaker 3: And then the season rolled around in it, I think
Speaker 3: it showed like I don't think anybody in the league expected,
Speaker 3: you know, this matchup nightmare because the reality was and
Speaker 3: looking back, I know more now, but as a second
Speaker 3: year player, you don't understand like the matchups that it
Speaker 3: created on teams. It was, you know, usually you put
Speaker 3: two tight ends in a game, the defense is gonna
Speaker 3: put three linebackers in the game and four dbs. Well,
Speaker 3: once they realized we were thrown with these guys. Now
Speaker 3: they're putting two linebackers in the game and five dbs,
Speaker 3: and we were like, well, screw it. If they do that,
Speaker 3: we're just gonna run the ball because both of them
Speaker 3: were great blockers. And it was this constant mismatch, like, okay,
Speaker 3: we put that. We called it Detroit personnel. Two tight ends,
Speaker 3: two receivers, and a half back. You put that person
Speaker 3: on the field and you just wait to see what
Speaker 3: the defense does. All right, did they put regular defense,
Speaker 3: which is like the four down lineman, the three linebackers
Speaker 3: and the four dbs. All right, well, now we're gonna
Speaker 3: spread them out. We're gonna throw it because one of
Speaker 3: those linebackers is gonna have to cover one of these
Speaker 3: tight ends. And so we'd put you know, Rob on
Speaker 3: these seam routes, Aaron would be on these little routes underneath,
Speaker 3: and it became a mismatched nightmare. And then immediately when
Speaker 3: they would sub in the nickel defense, they take a
Speaker 3: linebacker out. Now we would just put them down and
Speaker 3: run we called outside zone, you know, with the full
Speaker 3: back slash tight end blocking the extra linebacker which is
Speaker 3: now a dB, and they would just block till the
Speaker 3: cows came home. And I think that was the unique
Speaker 3: part of it was they were both great pass catchers,
Speaker 3: but they both could block, I mean, just as well
Speaker 3: as you know, any other tight end in the league.
Speaker 1: Paul, you've historically always talked about the games that the
Speaker 1: Patriot should win that they weren't in. But one of
Speaker 1: the great what ifs that I don't think it's a
Speaker 1: lot of attention here in New England is on that
Speaker 1: eleven team, what if Gronkowski doesn't get hurt in the
Speaker 1: AFC Championship game. You know, look, I'm surprised because I
Speaker 1: don't think that was no disrespect to great Patriots team,
Speaker 1: which stunned that they were actually favored against the Giants
Speaker 1: who beat you in Foxborough that year. But a healthy Gronk,
Speaker 1: with a healthy Welker and a healthy Hernandez that that
Speaker 1: game was so close that a healthy Gronk I think,
Speaker 1: don't you think?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I totally do.
Speaker 4: And to you a point, like all the stuff that
Speaker 4: Brian's talking about, offensively was why that team was in
Speaker 4: the correct The Super Bowl was one of the weaker
Speaker 4: Patriots defenses, yes, certainly of any of the Super Bowl era, right,
Speaker 4: And you have to think if if you have Gronk
Speaker 4: and it took the Giants a little while to figure
Speaker 4: out he wasn't himself, right, you know, I think you
Speaker 4: even hear that in one of the one of the
Speaker 4: micd ups. You know, he's just a decoy out there.
Speaker 4: If Rob is healthy, you know, how does that? How
Speaker 4: how different does that?
Speaker 3: I mean I look at Rob as clearly you know,
Speaker 3: to me, having played with them, maybe I'm a little biased,
Speaker 3: but the greatest tight end of all time, not only
Speaker 3: because of his size, speed and when you think of
Speaker 3: tight end's ability to run routes and catch, but because
Speaker 3: he was such a great blocker. The teams had to
Speaker 3: honor that. And I think that's what made him so dynamic.
Speaker 3: Was you know, we look at Travis Kelcey today, phenomenal
Speaker 3: tight end, but clearly Travis isn't blocking anything. Rob would
Speaker 3: blow like he was the right tackle, and so that
Speaker 3: allowed you to do so many things that you could
Speaker 3: put eleven personnel in the game, but really it was like,
Speaker 3: you know, and eleven personnel is one tight end through
Speaker 3: receivers and a half back, but really you're still kind
Speaker 3: of in you know, a full back mentality, tight end
Speaker 3: mentality blocking and you could run which a lot of
Speaker 3: back then a lot of teams weren't running the ball
Speaker 3: from those formations. And so Rob, I mean really changed
Speaker 3: the game in that matter because he was aligneman who
Speaker 3: was the premier pass catcher at the same time. So
Speaker 3: you know, him being healthy in that game and being
Speaker 3: able to threaten their defense with the vertical passing game,
Speaker 3: you know, probably would have helped. I never liked to
Speaker 3: look back and say what if, because there's you know,
Speaker 3: so many plays in a game, so many players playing,
Speaker 3: but Rob obviously was you know, a critical part of
Speaker 3: that team.
Speaker 2: Question.
Speaker 1: So you go to Cleveland in twelve, right, yep?
Speaker 3: Thirteen, Uh, okay, yep.
Speaker 1: At some point time as you're apprenticing under Tom, you're
Speaker 1: learning all this, it's got to be in your mind.
Speaker 1: It's time for me to see if I can start. Sure,
Speaker 1: here gets your opportunity to do that. We're talking about
Speaker 1: what is and should have and stuff like that, as
Speaker 1: far as we'll h in that Super Bowl? Do you
Speaker 1: think at all about what is and should is? You
Speaker 1: guys are rolling a little bit before the Pittsburgh game. Yep,
Speaker 1: you know, does that one come to you know, if
Speaker 1: I don't get hurt?
Speaker 2: Ye, I wonder if.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's probably when I look back at my
Speaker 3: career and even more so being a Cleveland kid who
Speaker 3: grew up and getting finally a chance, you know, like
Speaker 3: you said, back up, Tom for three years, go to
Speaker 3: a super Bowl, don't win the Super Bowl, you know,
Speaker 3: get released the next year, out of football for ten weeks,
Speaker 3: and then now here I am on my hometown team,
Speaker 3: get a chance to start, win two games. There's a
Speaker 3: night game, big game, you know, there's a lot of
Speaker 3: hype and tear my aco. I think that's probably if
Speaker 3: I look at back at like if I could say,
Speaker 3: there's one huge what if? Now, granted I end up
Speaker 3: rehabiting and coming back and being the starter again, there
Speaker 3: the next year, but you know, you just remember, like
Speaker 3: our coaches got fired after that year because we didn't
Speaker 3: win another game. And you know, so for me, that's
Speaker 3: probably like when I look back, like you know, we
Speaker 3: talk about like branch realities and multiverse and all that stuff,
Speaker 3: like maybe somewhere in some you know, reality, I didn't
Speaker 3: get hurt and end up staying there and maybe don't
Speaker 3: go to nine different teams. But you know, if everything
Speaker 3: works out for a reason, if I was still playing there,
Speaker 3: then I went and came back here in seventeen and
Speaker 3: won a Super Bowl.
Speaker 2: So what do you consider your best season?
Speaker 3: Oddly enough of me playing you know, when statistically looking
Speaker 3: you probably look at Houston as my best year. It
Speaker 3: was that I only ended up playing like nine full
Speaker 3: games due to injury and actually.
Speaker 2: Getting benched nineteen touchdowns.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and so that was great. But I look at
Speaker 3: the stretch I had in Chicago, and that was with
Speaker 3: a guy offensive coordinator, Dallala Loggins, who had a little
Speaker 3: influence from this tree, the Patriots tree, but also he
Speaker 3: was with me in Cleveland with Kyle Shannan, and he
Speaker 3: kind of melded those two systems together. And I think
Speaker 3: I had four or five games in a row, three
Speaker 3: hundred yards passing at least two touchdowns in every game,
Speaker 3: and then of course again of what if break break
Speaker 3: my forum on a Thursday night game. Those those Thursday
Speaker 3: night games weren't very very.
Speaker 2: There's no injury problem here. We're going to change the kickoff, Matt.
Speaker 3: So you know, that was probably my best stretch, I
Speaker 3: think statistically. You know, Houston was a crazy year because
Speaker 3: I start Week one and then somehow after, you know,
Speaker 3: battling for the job on hard knocks, you know, I
Speaker 3: get bench for a Ryan Mallet and then it doesn't
Speaker 3: work out with him. I come back in, we go
Speaker 3: to the playoffs and then self admittedly play like the
Speaker 3: worst game in my entire athletic career, going back to
Speaker 3: like first grade. You know, it was just one of
Speaker 3: those days things weren't working and then that was it.
Speaker 3: And I think that's the reality of like a guy
Speaker 3: like me in the NFL. You come in undrafted, you
Speaker 3: don't have a lot of hype behind you, and anytime
Speaker 3: you falter, they're like, well that's why, that's why. And
Speaker 3: so I'm thankful that I was able to have the
Speaker 3: career I have, But you know, if you're a first
Speaker 3: round pick, you're gonna get multip opportunities because that's why
Speaker 3: you were a first round pick. So I mean, that's
Speaker 3: just the way the cookie crumbles and you learn how
Speaker 3: to work the business side of it. But yeah, probably
Speaker 3: Houston was probably my best year, which that was reuniting
Speaker 3: with Bill O'Brien in this system and knowing you know,
Speaker 3: kind of that.
Speaker 1: Brian you talk about you talked earlier about parent your
Speaker 1: son's in seventh grade, you know, maybe has a little
Speaker 1: bit more of a realization about what it was that
Speaker 1: you were doing, what you were going through, just from
Speaker 1: a parenting and a teaching standpoint, the fact that you
Speaker 1: were in Pittsburgh, Arizona, San Francisco, Chicago, three tours with
Speaker 1: New England, Like, is that a good teachable moment for
Speaker 1: your kids? Like, who knows what they're gonna do, But
Speaker 1: you know what that'd be resilient in.
Speaker 2: Life, Babe, Yeah, I know.
Speaker 3: That's the thing. Is what I try to relate to
Speaker 3: them is you know, you said resiliency, you know, dealing
Speaker 3: with adversity, and look, I know I'm talking about playing
Speaker 3: in the NFL. I know that people have a lot
Speaker 3: of different you know, things that they deal with, but
Speaker 3: those are Mary Pratz, right, those are yeah, but my kids,
Speaker 3: I mean they've lived in the military, right, so but
Speaker 3: I think, you know, it teaches you that, you know,
Speaker 3: things aren't always going to go your way in life,
Speaker 3: and you have to figure out how to you know,
Speaker 3: work your way through those times. And you know, I
Speaker 3: was always grateful that I always had the opportunity to
Speaker 3: come back here because after being in all those places,
Speaker 3: I craved the culture of New England. I craved the
Speaker 3: tough we're gonna make We're gonna do everything we can
Speaker 3: to win. And sure were there days that were miserable
Speaker 3: that we all kind of came in after practice and
Speaker 3: was like like I don't want to go to this meeting. Yeah,
Speaker 3: But I also after being on teams that you know,
Speaker 3: it was fun on Wednesday, it was fun on Thursday,
Speaker 3: it was fun on Friday, but Sunday rolled around and
Speaker 3: you got your butt kicked. Like I was thankful to
Speaker 3: come back to this culture and be around guys that
Speaker 3: you know, I kind of started my career with, and
Speaker 3: now they had become like the leaders of the team,
Speaker 3: like the mccordy's. Obviously Tom was still here, but you know,
Speaker 3: Julian high Tower, you know, guys like that, David Andrews,
Speaker 3: you know the guys who you know, they got it
Speaker 3: and it was I was excited to be back. So
Speaker 3: you know, you never know what path you're going to take.
Speaker 3: And you know, everyone always jokes like success is kind
Speaker 3: of like always upward. It's it's up and it's down,
Speaker 3: and you know, so just like my career, there's highs
Speaker 3: and lows, and you know, I wouldn't change a thing.
Speaker 3: I think along the way. I always tell my agent this, Like,
Speaker 3: you know, at every fork in the road, I always
Speaker 3: felt like we made the right decision.
Speaker 2: That's great.
Speaker 1: I hope I am not screwing this up. One more
Speaker 1: kid question. When you were traded back here was that Halloween?
Speaker 3: It was Halloween night. I remember being there.
Speaker 1: You got this isn't I mean? We want to talk
Speaker 1: about we're dad's you know, you remember going out trick
Speaker 1: or treating with your kids. Okay, he's in the NFL.
Speaker 1: It's a little bit different, but at the end of
Speaker 1: the day, still a dad. You're traded back to Hey,
Speaker 1: we're going back to New England.
Speaker 2: This is great. Tell us a story.
Speaker 3: So I remember leaving the facilities in San Francisco that
Speaker 3: day and I was like, all right, see tomorrow, Kyle,
Speaker 3: See tomorrow. And I think might have been the day
Speaker 3: before Halloween because we had to go get the costume.
Speaker 3: And so I got home, took my son to like
Speaker 3: the Spear Halloween store, get his costume, get to the
Speaker 3: checkout line, get to the car, and Kyle calls me
Speaker 3: back and he's like, Hey, we're going to trade you
Speaker 3: back to New England. And I was like what He's like, Yeah,
Speaker 3: they offered to trade us, Jimmy, and as part of
Speaker 3: the deal, like they need a backup quarterback, so like,
Speaker 3: you know, we're going to trade you back to New England.
Speaker 3: And I just remember being in shock because you know,
Speaker 3: I thought i'd seen it all at that point, but
Speaker 3: I'd never been a part of a trade. And the
Speaker 3: way it worked out, it wasn't like they agreed to
Speaker 3: release me and I could sign here and because of
Speaker 3: comp picks and things like that. But I remember having
Speaker 3: to like go home and like break that to my
Speaker 3: wife because we had moved, but we had never moved
Speaker 3: in the middle of this season, and I was like,
Speaker 3: all right, so I'm gonna have to go to New
Speaker 3: England on Tuesday night, and then I remember it was
Speaker 3: the bye week here, so I practiced, stayed an extra day,
Speaker 3: met with Jerry Schaplinsky, who was the quarterback coach, met
Speaker 3: with Josh a little bit. All the players went to
Speaker 3: their you know whatever they were doing for the bye week.
Speaker 3: I flew back to California. We got the biggest suitcase
Speaker 3: I because, by the way, Bill's like, hey, We're playing
Speaker 3: in Mexico City in two weeks, so I hope you
Speaker 3: have a passport, and did you Yeah? I did, And
Speaker 3: so I packed as much stuff as I could, took
Speaker 3: the red Is on Saturday night, came home or came
Speaker 3: here Sunday, landed Sunday morning, went and saw three different houses,
Speaker 3: picked one, went to her to school and being the
Speaker 3: school that my kids still go to this day. And
Speaker 3: you know, it was a whirlwind, you know week. But
Speaker 3: that's I mean, look, like I said, I know that
Speaker 3: we're privileged. This is the NFL, so not comparing it
Speaker 3: to other people's situations, but that was a week that
Speaker 3: took a huge toll in my family and my wife
Speaker 3: and and you know, I couldn't have done the career
Speaker 3: that I had without her and her support, and thankfully
Speaker 3: we were you know, we met when we were in
Speaker 3: high school, so we had a strong foundation and and
Speaker 3: you know, but in a way it made our kids,
Speaker 3: you know, kind of mature and deal. And so my
Speaker 3: son we went out to Vegas last year and he
Speaker 3: goes to baseball practice with a bunch of kids that
Speaker 3: he doesn't know, and by the end they're all laughing
Speaker 3: and he's he's immediately so he knows how to adapt.
Speaker 3: And so there's positives andatives to all sides of it.
Speaker 2: Did you get to trick or treat?
Speaker 4: No? No.
Speaker 3: Well, I remember being like waiting for the deal to
Speaker 3: be worked out and Bill calls me. He's like, look,
Speaker 3: are are you gonna get here or what. I'm like, Bill,
Speaker 3: I'm just waiting for like the airline ticket. I got
Speaker 3: a bagpock in my car. I was at the kids
Speaker 3: like Halloween party at school, and I'm like, I'm just
Speaker 3: waiting for like the ticket.
Speaker 4: That's so I'm not going to ask you the question
Speaker 4: about the Eagles Super Bowl in seventeen.
Speaker 3: We'll gloss over that not only anyone knows anyways.
Speaker 4: Okay, so in twenty eighteen, obviously you're part of your
Speaker 4: championship season. For you, I want to go before that
Speaker 4: to the Kansas City game in the AFC Championship game
Speaker 4: and just what it was like. Because for Matt and I,
Speaker 4: you know, again there's you know, that same theme of
Speaker 4: us being around. Sure, we've both been around for all
Speaker 4: of these Super Bowls, so we've gotten a chance. That
Speaker 4: one stands out for us. That Kansas City AFC Championship
Speaker 4: game was one of the greatest games that I've seen,
Speaker 4: and I just want to know what it was like
Speaker 4: from your perspective watching that overtime drive.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean me, I think that's my favorite game
Speaker 3: as a Patriot ever. Love to hear that because in
Speaker 3: a way, looking back, that really was the Super Bowl
Speaker 3: in my in my opinion, I know, we had to
Speaker 3: go the next week and beat the Rams, and the
Speaker 3: defense played an incredible game, but to go into Kansas City,
Speaker 3: it's like, you know, minus five degrees, no one's given
Speaker 3: us a chance to win. And the effort that everybody
Speaker 3: put in that week to that game to then get,
Speaker 3: like you said, get to this overtime win, I think,
Speaker 3: and you see it on our faces running on the field.
Speaker 3: I think it was kind of a true, Like we're
Speaker 3: getting goosebumps talking about it like a true like us
Speaker 3: against the world moment. No one was there to support
Speaker 3: us other than the guys on that sideline. No one
Speaker 3: in this everyone in the stands, you know, wanted us
Speaker 3: to lose. Really, everybody kind of wanted this changing of
Speaker 3: the guard. Here's Mahomes, you know they're going to beat
Speaker 3: the Patriots, and it was kind of like against all
Speaker 3: odds type thing, and so fittingly comes down to this
Speaker 3: two minute drive where here's Tom and the famous you
Speaker 3: know Julian quote or too old at his age, and
Speaker 3: you know, methodically drives us down and win with a touchdown.
Speaker 3: I mean, it's to me, it was like the ultimate
Speaker 3: team win. And when I always think of my time
Speaker 3: with the Patriots, it was always the best teams that
Speaker 3: I've been on. And I'm not just saying because we
Speaker 3: were the most talented or had the best coaching staff.
Speaker 3: I'm talking about the group of men that were in
Speaker 3: the room, and we were so close knit as a team.
Speaker 3: And like I said, I think you see that when
Speaker 3: you see on the field, and I think it's I'm
Speaker 3: right behind Kyle van Noy and Tom's jumping into Kyle's arms,
Speaker 3: and it was like it was like this moment, like
Speaker 3: this is this is we have to go win the
Speaker 3: next week because this game was so important and so
Speaker 3: critical to that and the belief that it gave I
Speaker 3: think everybody in that team and.
Speaker 1: Look fortunately for the rules and everything like that coin toss.
Speaker 1: You win, you know you're getting the ball as you're
Speaker 1: sitting there and you're seeing you know, the personnel, everything
Speaker 1: like that, Is there any doubt in your mind? You
Speaker 1: guys are going down and scoring.
Speaker 3: At that point in time, it was kind of like
Speaker 3: a member. It was kind of like a back and forth.
Speaker 3: You were just hoping you got the ball. And I
Speaker 3: think at that point it was like the thing that
Speaker 3: always I always looked back was they I couldn't imagine.
Speaker 3: I couldn't believe that they couldn't cover Julian because really
Speaker 3: we ran the same play from both sides and we
Speaker 3: had this little motion and kind of and you were
Speaker 3: like when they when he hit those two plays, you're like, man,
Speaker 3: we're in the driver's seat. We just got to go
Speaker 3: and not make any mistakes. And you know we had
Speaker 3: I think we had running with Rex.
Speaker 2: Ye a touchdown, so but three third and tens right, and.
Speaker 3: You know it was a play called China, and it
Speaker 3: meant like a shoot and an inn the ch for
Speaker 3: shooting and in and and I'm like, all right, well
Speaker 3: it worked once and usually sometimes as a quarterback you
Speaker 3: kind of like get to the point where like, all right,
Speaker 3: we just ran that play like there's no way it's
Speaker 3: going to work again. And you know that was just
Speaker 3: Tom basically, you know, dropping back seeing the coverage and
Speaker 3: here comes Julian. You know, several times I think, I
Speaker 3: don't know if Hogan had a great catch on that drive,
Speaker 3: but had right regulation, Yeah, it was kind of a
Speaker 3: similar play. But clearly, you know, this is the greatness
Speaker 3: of Tom and Josh and all those guys working together.
Speaker 3: They were having trouble cover in the middle of the
Speaker 3: field and so just continue to expose it until they
Speaker 3: fix it. And you know they didn't fix it in time,
Speaker 3: and luckily for us, you know, I was able to
Speaker 3: take us down and win that game.
Speaker 1: So Paul brings up and I think a lot of
Speaker 1: Patriot fans would agree, spoiled, Yes, first world problems.
Speaker 2: What's the best game?
Speaker 1: Interesting to hear that you say that, but you got
Speaker 1: to go when you got to beat the Rams in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: and I'm not sure that fans quite know the role
Speaker 1: that you played that week and your experience with McVeigh
Speaker 1: and that system. Talk a little bit about what how
Speaker 1: you saw your role that week as getting ready to
Speaker 1: play the Rams.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean as a backup quarterback, you always prepare
Speaker 3: to play. We talked about that earlier. But the reality is, like,
Speaker 3: you know, Tom's healthy. I mean, could something happen in
Speaker 3: the game, yes, But you know, for me, I always
Speaker 3: think like how can I you know, especially at this this,
Speaker 3: you know, the last game of the year of the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl, Like what am I going to do to
Speaker 3: contribute to the team to help them win? And because
Speaker 3: I was a veteran guy as a backup and had
Speaker 3: played in a lot of places, I always had great
Speaker 3: conversations with Devin and Jason and high Tower and Gilmore,
Speaker 3: And you know, when I would we would play a
Speaker 3: team that maybe it was a system that I was
Speaker 3: in and I'm running the scout team, I'm like, hey, listen,
Speaker 3: this is how they're teaching these quarterbacks, this is what
Speaker 3: they're looking at. And I'll never forget, like get into
Speaker 3: the hotel in Atlanta and you know, you practice a
Speaker 3: week before you travel, and I'm like, all right, some
Speaker 3: of these plays are similar to what I ran with Kyle,
Speaker 3: who obviously influenced Sean. And I remember, you know, being
Speaker 3: in the hotel room. I'm like, cause you have to
Speaker 3: have an off day, even though you're traveling there for
Speaker 3: the super Bowl, it's an off day and you know
Speaker 3: your family's not there yet, and so you kind of
Speaker 3: hunkered out in the hotel. And I saw a thing
Speaker 3: on like Yahoo. It's like here's and it's like kind
Speaker 3: of they did like a hard Knock show, but it
Speaker 3: was on Amazon, and here's like some clips from the
Speaker 3: year that the Rams did, you know, miked up and
Speaker 3: and I'm listening to like the play call that they
Speaker 3: have on these clips from training camp, and I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: I know that play. I run that play before. And
Speaker 3: as the week went on, I kept watching more and
Speaker 3: more of their film and being like, I know the
Speaker 3: offense that they're gonna run and having meetings with Bill
Speaker 3: and Map and was Matt still there or was it
Speaker 3: Flow Flow Yeah, and being like listen, I know, you know,
Speaker 3: they don't really have an answer for this. They don't
Speaker 3: really have you know, if you bring this pressure. You know,
Speaker 3: they have to throw hot things like that, and you know,
Speaker 3: so I took a lot of pride in that. And
Speaker 3: one of the like my prodest moments was after the
Speaker 3: Super Bowl Devin and Jason kind of talking that to
Speaker 3: the media and being like we were on it. We
Speaker 3: we had a great feeling because Brian gave us a
Speaker 3: great look. He sat there and talked about, you know,
Speaker 3: their their offensive system, and you know, that was a
Speaker 3: way for me to feel like I actually contributed in
Speaker 3: some way because I never stepped on the field, but
Speaker 3: you know, you got to do whatever you can to
Speaker 3: help the team win. So, you know, something that I
Speaker 3: was proud of and fortunate of having been in those systems.
Speaker 3: I could relate that to those guys.
Speaker 1: So when you show your kids your Super Bowl ring, Yeah,
Speaker 1: any kid goes, oh, that's a nice RNK deb But
Speaker 1: you didn't play. Well, hold on for a second, you're right,
Speaker 1: I didn't play.
Speaker 2: That's the one I came up with a defensive game plan.
Speaker 1: However, however, and like that's that's the power of team, right,
Speaker 1: isn't it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's what I would always say about the Patriots.
Speaker 3: We always had the best team, and I'm talking about
Speaker 3: the relationships closeness. There's nothing ever been comparable to the
Speaker 3: locker room that I had, especially as I got older.
Speaker 3: I mean it was great as a young guy, but
Speaker 3: as an older player, you appreciated even more. And you know,
Speaker 3: they did a great job. In seventeen eighteen nineteen, we
Speaker 3: did these things in the offseason called like the team
Speaker 3: of Teams, and it was a way for you to
Speaker 3: bond with other players on the team. And so there'd
Speaker 3: be like two offensive players, two defensive players, maybe a
Speaker 3: special teams player, a coach, a trainer, a football ops guy.
Speaker 3: And we did these like challenges. So like we'd have
Speaker 3: field day out on the out on the field and
Speaker 3: be like the egg toss or the frisbee throw or
Speaker 3: you know, a sack race, or one day we went
Speaker 3: down to Fenway. I remember we did this great like
Speaker 3: baseball challenge and one day we'd paintballing And it was
Speaker 3: a way for you to connect with guys that you're
Speaker 3: not always sitting there every day with in the meetings.
Speaker 3: And that's where I felt like you had this closeness.
Speaker 3: You know, I go in and sit with the DBS
Speaker 3: at lunch one day, and the next day I'd sit
Speaker 3: with the linemen, and you had these relationships with guys
Speaker 3: where in all, honestly, it was almost closer than some
Speaker 3: of the college's college teams, where you're spending all this
Speaker 3: time with these guys because we all go home to
Speaker 3: our families, but when you came in here, it was
Speaker 3: like your second family in true you know, And I'm
Speaker 3: not just saying that like as clichey.
Speaker 2: See he glossed over that. Do you see what he
Speaker 2: did there before? The whole thing. Bill doesn't deserve the credit.
Speaker 4: For that, right right, right right that he gets right right,
Speaker 4: this guy right right When you came back again third
Speaker 4: time in twenty twenty, was there a hint of disappointment
Speaker 4: when they end up signing Cam, Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, that whole scenario is so in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 3: you know, Bill comes to me obviously that was Sidham's
Speaker 3: rookie year, and he says, look like, we got to
Speaker 3: manage this roster.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 3: Are you okay with like kind of waiting you know,
Speaker 3: we'll let you go and we'll resign you after the
Speaker 3: first week. And I was like, sure, like you know,
Speaker 3: I love you know, being a part of this organization
Speaker 3: and and all of a sudden, my agent calls me.
Speaker 3: He's like, hey, Indianapolis is offering you a great deal.
Speaker 3: And I was like, I felt torn, but it was
Speaker 3: an opportunity that I looked at like.
Speaker 2: In the long run, this will pretty good money.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, great, it was a great deal. And so
Speaker 3: in a way, I kind of thought like I never
Speaker 3: really left, you know, so like Thirdston, I was gone
Speaker 3: for four months and then I was right back, and
Speaker 3: with Tom moving on, I'm like, wow, this is my opportunity.
Speaker 3: And so I remember training like the hardest, and this
Speaker 3: was during COVID and and trying to train on your
Speaker 3: own and trying to be as prepared as I could.
Speaker 3: And you know, so obviously I was disappointed when they
Speaker 3: signed Cam because that was like something I had always
Speaker 3: dreamt of. You know, I had started for all these
Speaker 3: other teams, but I had never really played for the Patriots,
Speaker 3: the one team that I kind of considered myself that
Speaker 3: was the team that was my team. So it was
Speaker 3: it was disappointing, but like I said, you know, it's
Speaker 3: not something that I had never lived through before, and
Speaker 3: you try to navigate it the best you can.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously people will look at when Tom left
Speaker 1: and there's clearly a void on the field. You saw
Speaker 1: some of the ups and downs that happened after that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't just on the field where that void was felt.
Speaker 1: I assume that that was felt in the locker room,
Speaker 1: and it probably was difficult and challenging for someone like you.
Speaker 1: By Paul mentioned this earlier, you saw when things were
Speaker 1: going really well, so a Devin, So it Matt. People
Speaker 1: like that when things aren't going well and you guys
Speaker 1: are some of the leaders and everything, like how do
Speaker 1: you try to sit there and recapture what you know is.
Speaker 2: The right way to do things?
Speaker 1: You know what winning football is, and yet that's not
Speaker 1: happening on the field. Yeah, that had to be just
Speaker 1: tremendously frustrating.
Speaker 3: It was, And I think twenty twenty was such a
Speaker 3: unique situation because of the COVID year, because of like
Speaker 3: what you were allowed to do. Obviously, you know, cam
Speaker 3: in late and there's no real training camp, and it
Speaker 3: was just it was a it was an odd year
Speaker 3: all the way around. And so you know, next year
Speaker 3: it was like, Okay, we're getting back to like what
Speaker 3: you know, at least to me, felt similar to what
Speaker 3: it was obviously was different with our team routine routine,
Speaker 3: and and then Matt comes in and I remember thinking, like, God,
Speaker 3: they have to be like telling the guy, like where
Speaker 3: what to do out here a practice because he was
Speaker 3: learning so quickly that I was like, I've never seen
Speaker 3: a rookie pick up a system like this. And it
Speaker 3: became pretty apparent that he was going to be the starter.
Speaker 3: And I truly, you know, my time with Cam was
Speaker 3: was great. I came to you know, really know him
Speaker 3: and appreciate him for what he was, and he was
Speaker 3: hilarious and he was great in meetings and and so
Speaker 3: I know like his time here was kind of you know,
Speaker 3: looked at like it wasn't really you know, a success,
Speaker 3: but he he impacted a lot of guys and we
Speaker 3: would there was things that Cam did and sayings that
Speaker 3: he would say that carried with us after even he
Speaker 3: was not here anymore. And so, you know, I really
Speaker 3: enjoyed and I've had a lot of experiences like that,
Speaker 3: like kind of these polarizing figures, you know, Cam Newton,
Speaker 3: or when I was in Chicago with Jay Cutler, people
Speaker 3: were always like, well, what was that like? And I
Speaker 3: was like I really enjoyed it because you got to
Speaker 3: see a personality of someone who from Afar you don't
Speaker 3: really know, like what's the deal. And so being in
Speaker 3: a room with Cam for a year and a half
Speaker 3: really it was always made me smile. So it was
Speaker 3: it was that was kind of cool opportunity about that.
Speaker 3: But you know, you get to twenty twenty one where
Speaker 3: you know, Mac ends up winning the job and and
Speaker 3: you kind of get back to like what I thought
Speaker 3: was really, you know what we had always done the
Speaker 3: Patriot way, and I mean, for lack of a better term,
Speaker 3: but but there was also a new energy with some
Speaker 3: of the newer guys like Kendrick Bourne, Judaon Mills, Hunter
Speaker 3: Henry and so it kind of was a new flavor.
Speaker 3: And really that was one of my more enjoyable years
Speaker 3: playing here because it was kind of like in a
Speaker 3: sense of changing of the guard, but we were still
Speaker 3: playing good football.
Speaker 2: So Cam was great with us, by the way, Yeah
Speaker 2: he was.
Speaker 4: Also he was it was you know, on field obviously
Speaker 4: probably not up to you know what he had become
Speaker 4: accustomed to.
Speaker 1: It seemed like a good teammate.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well he was great.
Speaker 3: Gat It was great to deal with and we all
Speaker 3: joke about like the nicknames and stuff, and like some
Speaker 3: of those nicknames lasted with guys well passed fantastic when
Speaker 3: Cam was gone. He was a great to night and
Speaker 3: a great, a great guy.
Speaker 4: So you got a chance to play again the following year.
Speaker 4: I was at twenty two when I got twenty against
Speaker 4: So again it's like this kind of blessing curse at
Speaker 4: the same time, great career and every time you sort
Speaker 4: of get a chance to get it in the spotlight,
Speaker 4: something happens.
Speaker 2: It just has to be we did.
Speaker 3: That was rushed. I mean I remember being emotional about
Speaker 3: that one because it was like, you know, I got
Speaker 3: to play, a chance to play in twenty twenty, but
Speaker 3: that was the whole.
Speaker 1: Like co COVID, that was a mess.
Speaker 3: We found out on Saturday, then the game got plays
Speaker 3: flew in on the day of and not making excuses,
Speaker 3: it was just it was odd. It was one of
Speaker 3: the most odd experiences I ever had. And so this
Speaker 3: time in twenty twenty two, you know, here it is
Speaker 3: like Max Hurt. You're gonna play, full week of practice,
Speaker 3: have a really good drive to start the game, things
Speaker 3: going well, and then boom, you're out and that was
Speaker 3: to me was like, man, that was probably my last
Speaker 3: chance to really play for the team that I love,
Speaker 3: and so that was that was a a tough.
Speaker 1: One, last one for me here, Brian. Is I hear
Speaker 1: you say that the team that I love, and we
Speaker 1: talked about, you know a little bit about some of
Speaker 1: the other places you want and everything like that. We
Speaker 1: call this the Patch from the Past podcast. Do you
Speaker 1: identify as a Patriot?
Speaker 3: Yeah, one hundred percent. I was kind of thinking, I
Speaker 3: figured you'd ask me this on and so I was thinking,
Speaker 3: you know, I was here some former fashion ten years
Speaker 3: out of my fifteen, which is kind of crazy to
Speaker 3: think when you hear like, oh he was on this
Speaker 3: many teams, but you know, nine to twelve and a
Speaker 3: training camp and then seventeen eighteen, nineteen, twenty, twenty one,
Speaker 3: twenty two. I mean, so my kids are from here.
Speaker 3: You know, we've kind of made this our home. And
Speaker 3: you know, when I look at my career, although I
Speaker 3: played the least on this team, I also kind of
Speaker 3: look at myself like this is that's who I am.
Speaker 3: And I had a lot of great memories other places,
Speaker 3: but I've had the best memories here.
Speaker 4: So I do want to ask you about coming off
Speaker 4: the bench last year, you know, in Vegas, and what
Speaker 4: that was like too. So to rally the troops after
Speaker 4: Jimmy went down.
Speaker 3: Yeah, that was a I'm thinking to myself, of all
Speaker 3: the times to get thrust into a game, this is
Speaker 3: the one. And and Jimmy got hurt, like right before
Speaker 3: halftime and kind of toughed it out a little bit,
Speaker 3: and I'm like, oh, kind of similar, like he got hurt,
Speaker 3: but then he went back out. He played a few
Speaker 3: snaps like oh, he's probably okay, and then they take
Speaker 3: him in They're like, listen, we got to tame him
Speaker 3: the hospital. I'm like, all right, here we go. And
Speaker 3: and you know, of all teams to go against, I'm like, well,
Speaker 3: I know this team, I know this defense, and I
Speaker 3: know our offense really well.
Speaker 2: And so I was like, all right, I'm just gonna
Speaker 2: go out there and I'm throwing a bomb.
Speaker 3: Well, that play we developed against our defense in training
Speaker 3: camp a few years because there was a lot of
Speaker 3: times where we call play and Devin had seen it
Speaker 3: so many times that they would teach him to rob
Speaker 3: the guy who which was Julian at the time, our
Speaker 3: number three receiver, running a speedo and so I'm like,
Speaker 3: oh God, here we go. This is the play. And
Speaker 3: we made adjustment to put the outside guy on a
Speaker 3: deep route in case they did that. So I remember
Speaker 3: getting the snap. I kind of knew that down a
Speaker 3: distance it could be that defense, and all I watched
Speaker 3: was Peppers, and as soon as he went down, I
Speaker 3: don't even know if I looked to Trey, who I
Speaker 3: was throwing the ball to, I'm like, I know that
Speaker 3: area of the field is exposed, and sure enough, that
Speaker 3: kind of got the jitters out, and then you just
Speaker 3: go play football. And then you know, as the game's
Speaker 3: going on, I'm realizing, like, just don't screw it up,
Speaker 3: you know. I mean, we're winning, we're kicking some field goals,
Speaker 3: that our defense is doing pretty well. But I remember
Speaker 3: the feeling I had after that game of like just
Speaker 3: bittersweet because I remember going up to my team and
Speaker 3: the guys that I love, the guys that I consider brothers,
Speaker 3: and I could just see how dejected they were. I know,
Speaker 3: I knew, you know, based on staying in touch with them,
Speaker 3: how tough of a year it was. And so I
Speaker 3: was elated because it was kind of vindication for me
Speaker 3: to come back and beat the team after being told
Speaker 3: basically to go retire, and I felt great, but I
Speaker 3: also it hurt my heart to see these like I'll
Speaker 3: never forget David Andrews just being like exhausted and you know,
Speaker 3: beaten down or Slater and and all those guys, and
Speaker 3: so it was kind of like a mix of mixed
Speaker 3: emotions and looking back, I should have just you know,
Speaker 3: been done after that game and been like, all right,
Speaker 3: you know, I did my part, you know, because the
Speaker 3: rest of the year for us was it was downhill.
Speaker 3: But it's something that you know, it goes down as
Speaker 3: like a as a great memory, but also like a
Speaker 3: bittersweet one too.
Speaker 1: I mean, he said it. We're professional athletes. I'm not
Speaker 1: looking for anything specially anything like that. But let's not
Speaker 1: forget they're.
Speaker 2: Human beings too. Yeah, they're human beings, and.
Speaker 1: To and to hear like, wow, this is great for
Speaker 1: me individually. Oh shoot, you know, these are my guys
Speaker 1: and they're going through a tough time and I just
Speaker 1: helped extend that tough time.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: Really interesting.
Speaker 1: Fran, Thanks for the time.
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