Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules - Untold Stories from Patriots Coaches

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Ernie Adams, Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, and Bill O'Brien share some of their best stories from their time coaching with the New England PatriotsSupport the show: https://hoo.be/dudesondudesSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You want to start with the first pleasure for the Big Ten coach of the year? Oh, whatever. Would you like to? Yeah, you're a Spartan. Is that what I'm getting? Exactly. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the real. Talk on what's happening during the tournament.

Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search Playground and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill. And listen now. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. Welcome to Games with Names. I'm Julian Edelman, and we got a brand new compilation highlight reel starting now. Now, Bill O'Brien, on the funniest stories from the Patriots Coaching Office. Any fun Patriot coach stories we had Mickey D's in here last.

night and he was telling us that uh coach scar used to you know what is it nerkelapsia where you you fall asleep a little and then wakes up doing sit-ups in the middle of a coaching staff me well-arrested with a sick core bro but doing sick like what we already heard ives you know he falls asleep a lot what we got any inside fun stories any competitions with the coaches oh we got a lot of we got a lot of funny stories with the coaches um we would have like so our i can remember early on and your your guy chatty-o he loves this story. So we would come back in from practice in the regular season, and we would basically watch film with you guys.

And then we would go immediately, when we were done with you guys, we would go watch with Bill. Yeah. And we would watch both sides. We'd watch everything, special teams, the whole thing. So by the time that was done, it was probably 7 o'clock. So then we'd go eat dinner. So we'd go in there and grab dinner.

And then we'd come back into the staff room and we'd listen to or get ready for or third down or red area, whatever day it was, right? And Ernie, whose office, I know you and Ernie are close. I love Ernie too. And he would go into his office, which was right across in the staff room, and he would call his wife and describe what he just had for dinner. So every night he would say they had, you know, they had turkey, they had mashed potatoes, there was some broccoli.

And then we had apple pie a la mode for dessert. And so we would sit there every night and listen to Ernie talk about what he had for dinner. Ernie Bourdain, it was clockwork. It was clockwork. And Chattie O started to call our offensive staff room the general store. So we put the general store up on the door there. Now, we had a lot of, there's a lot of good coach stories. I mean, I have many.

So I can remember, like, the quarterback meetings when I first got there. So that was Tom, Matt Castle, who you know is one of the funniest human beings of all time. Up there with Matt Light, who, Rich Ornberger, like, those three guys. Outrage. You. I was never funny. You're funny. They're funny.

These are very funny guys. They're funny guys. Great senses of humor. And so we would meet, as you know, Bill would come in later in the week, meet with the quarterbacks and early in the week, go over the DBs. I think this was an early of the week meeting. And Bill would take his shoes off and, as you know, Bill didn't wear socks. Yeah.

So at that time, before the new offices were set up, the quarterback meeting room was pretty small. So Bill, I would sit in the corner. I'd be like stuffed in the corner. Josh was in the back and Bill was running the clicker and Tom was over here and Matt was there. Matt Gutierrez. Remember those guys? Guant, Kevin O'Connell. And so I remember this one meeting and Matt Castle was like, what is that smell?

Like, what is that smell? And like nobody says anything and we're all like, Matt Castle. He was the very, he was the very funny guy who didn't care about making anyone uncomfortable. Oh my gosh. You know what I mean? He looked for it. He looked at it. He loved it.

He loved making you. And so he was like, no, no, seriously. Like, what is that? Bill, is that your feet? And Bill, I never forget this Bill looked at him and goes, Castle, just shut the fuck up. And I was like, we've all had it. I was like, it was like my first year there.

And I'm like, I cannot believe I'm witnessing this right now. But as time went on, you could believe it because, you know, you spent, you know, the thing is I tell everybody because people love my Patriot stories. sure they love yours, but you spend so much time together in pro-foot, especially in New England. Yeah. You're always together. I mean, it's rare, especially like pre-2011, you know, before the new CBA, you guys, double-d-d-d-you know, all those things, training camp, the seasons long, you're a good team,

you're going to the Super Bowl, you're going on the play. You know, so like you, there's, it's not all just like, hey, on this play, you're doing this. It's a lot of like, you've got to have humor. And if you don't have humor and you don't, you don't have an ability to laugh. of yourself. You'll never make it. I've pitched it around so many times the the community, like an office style show for like the equipment room or like an NFL football team. You know what I mean? The equipment room guys, the training room guys, the coaches. There's these little communities. And like he said, like Billy O said, we're always together for so long. You have to find the funny

moments to, you know, help you get through the process because it's fucking long. But there's so many funny things and the camaraderie that you get to go. And when at Brady's retirement, Tom's retirement thing that, you know, everybody was at, you guys were there. You know, the thing that that I was reminded of there, and I tell this to people at BC all the time now, it was really, look, you know, we had Tom, we had Julian, we had Moss, we had, you know, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrable, all these great players, Willfort, you could name them all, right? You know, all these unbelievable players, but they were, they were also like great people. It's about the people and the work ethic and the intelligence and the ability to be a great teammate and the humor.

And that included the video staff and the training staff, the equipment staff. It was just. Teddy Jared, shout out. And Bill put all those people together. He really did. He put all those people together during those years. And I'm just a firm believer in that. If you get the right people together, you got a chance to win.

That was a fun reminder, the Tom event. You know, just seeing everyone. Because you see guys, and you'll see, I'll come back and see, you know, Teddy, Jared, Jimmy, and everyone in the building. But to see everyone in the same area, you haven't done that in a very long time. And it felt like home again and it felt comfortable. And it was all, you know, it was fun to celebrate Tom. Now, Matt Patricia on the Patriots defensive room. Pizza Fridays.

Who's some of your favorite comedians? That's a great question. I got really into Sebastian Manuscalco. He's funny. With the hand movements and Italian, Italian, they love Italians. But you know who the best guy that got me into all that stuff, though?

Who? You're going to have to guess this. One of my favorite all-time people to be around. Is he a coach? No, he was a special team's linebacker. Special teams, Dane Fletcher. I love Dane Fletcher. I just talked to me the other day.

Love Dane. Same time. Dane Fletcher and this guy. Nico Cudavides. Vico Cudis. Hey, the Lavantzier. So we had tradition in the defensive room. It was, you know, so Pizza Friday.

Pizza Friday was a big thing. That was a big Dante thing when I was on offense. And Pizza Friday, the whole idea and why Ted struggled with this, right? And you remember Ted's first shot, I'll tell the Ted story too. Ted is the nutritionist. He came in, right? So that was our third, that was our fourth, right? So Joanne was first.

Then we had a guy that was there for a cup of coffee. And then Joel took over for him. Joel. And then Ted. But we always had Pizza Friday. And the idea with pizza Friday was this. It wasn't about the pizza. It was about the mentality, right?

So when you were in school and you went to school, you had pizza on Friday. Yeah. Right? Well, okay, Friday's going to be a good day. Because you went in, it was actually the only meal that was actually- Pizza party, you're always excited. It's only good meal, school meal that you actually buy and eat because of Pizza Friday. But the idea for us was, and again, this back in the day four, it got crazy.

Like, it got crazy in New England, but literally, because I had to do the practice schedules. So I remember people were amazed. I figured out how to paste, like, it was Domino's and KFC. Like, that's what we had. It was Domino's and KFC. And I paced him on the practice guys, I was like, oh, it's Pizza Friday, thank God. But it was, all, right, the work week is, we're coming to the end. Yeah.

It's all positive. Let's not be yelling and screaming today. Let's go out, have a good practice. Good mental day. Let's feel, yeah, let's be able to sleep on Saturday. Let's have a good. Like, it's pizza Friday. Everybody be good.

Now, Scar, if you remember, he'd be like, don't ruin pizza Friday. Don't make, because Scar had the other side. That could come out real quick. And he'd be like, don't ruin pizza Friday. I'm not yelling today. Don't get me. So in the defensive side of the ball, not only pizza Friday, but we used to have videos on Friday.

Funny videos. Funny videos. So originally started out as like highlights. We started off with like high school highlights. You know, it'd be good because you had some legit dudes that had a legit high school film. And then you'd have like, you know, whatever, Rob Ryan's highlight of his highlight. Yeah, yeah. So funny stuff.

But then it turned into like, okay, hey, we need some comedy. And it was always usually. the QC's job to get a tape. Quality control. Quality control, young coach. And it better be funny. Because these guys, we've been yelling and screaming all week. We need something funny before we go out on the field. And Vince was the best because Vince

wouldn't leave. I love Vince, right? So Vince wouldn't leave until we showed the video. Even though Scott E.O. had a meeting coming in. Vince was like, it didn't matter. And like, Vince wasn't leaving. No. That next meeting wasn't starting. No. So, and he wanted something funny. Well, Nico Cudavides finally comes and Nico is one of the funniest, best, great, heart human being.

What do they call it? Who is the, what do they call it in the Italian world, LaVantier or something? Consolierry? Coensile. Okay, killing me right now. You always go on LaVantier, though. Yeah, I call him that. So Nico would bring in the videos and he, like.

He take Thai. This was like the one, like, I don't think he knew any of the defensive assignments, but he nailed Friday. We would be laughing so hard. Got a curate, baby. He had me dying. He loves it. Because that's kind of Nico's humor too.

Well, because, you know, Chicago Italian. Yeah. Nico was great. Next, Josh McDaniels on what really happened with Julian's touchdown pass against the Eagles. After we scored that touchdown, I remember that's when you came up to me. I did. I said, do you need any lead time for the double pass? And you said, what?

And I said, do I have to tell you that it's coming? Meaning like, do you need to take your red gloves off or whatever? It's exactly that way. You're cutters or whatever they are. Like, what do you do I need to tell you that this is coming? Like, fuck no. Five minutes in advance, you're like, no, no, no. Yeah, that's what you said.

Just throw it. Just call it whenever you want. And I'm like, okay. You know, so we, so we did. Yeah, that was the first touchdown was the one we actually did the Raven, Baltimore formation the first time. First time. We were down by 14.

And then when we scored one, that's when we went with the double pass. A double pass. Speaking of double pass. Which we had actually called earlier. in the season. Against the Chiefs. Against the Chiefs. That's right. We just didn't, we just didn't throw it over there. We called it and, you know, it was

Dola gonna throw it, wasn't it? Was it you or Dola? I don't remember. I watched this morning it was gonna be you. Okay. But Dola was like saying he was made a man coverage. Made a man coverage. Like we couldn't do it. Dole was trying to call you off when you were in motion. Can we go into the second time I threw the football?

Oh, oh! 2019 in Philly? Yeah, we can do that. That was a great story. So, Jules is told his side. I've told my side plenty. I'd love to hear your side.

I want to know if my memory's really fucked up. No, you got it right. The night before the game. Yeah. This is the story. Yeah. So we,

well, this wasn't the same play. No, it was a different play. Throw it here, throw it back, set up the catch and run. And in the,

we always did like a little ballroom, which always felt like you guys loved that. I loved it too. Just to reiterate. It was almost. like a very comforting feeling when you walked out of there like we all we all got it yeah we all got it and it was loose and yeah and so but it wasn't always loose depending on like the games sometimes we go in there running hard and so no but that was that was that was but i don't think we

ever went in there like it wasn't like a big like it wasn't like a big like teaching session at all it was i was i would call the play you guys would get on you would do it and walk through it and that was it but if you had like a new player coming in that had a big role that was different you know like He was nervous. And we were all kind of watching them too as well. And Julian, well, I'll tell him to tell two stories quickly. When he came back in 2018, 18, 18. Okay.

So the walkthrough, because we played on a Thursday night, so we didn't have practice. We didn't have any practice that week because it's just walkthroughs. I had no live. He does the hotel like walkthrough and he's soaked. because he's like running routes in the ballroom like but Tom's with me throwing him nobody else and Tom always had like a little lacrosse ball and he would bounce it to you to like show you

and Julian is literally like you could see everything like he was just drenched and I remember the other guys were like looking at him like what is going on with this guy I'm like yeah he's a little he's he's obsessive compulsive right now I think he needs to play a game is what I need to do play game. Oh my gosh. We dialed up a wheel for you on the first possession.

Hey, walk through like you play, baby. So, so anyway, the Philly game was the second throw. That night in the hotel, the night before the game, we walked through it. Tom dribble, bounces the ball to Julian. Julian gets the ball, and then he looks, he looks and throws it to Phil. Phil's just, it's a real thing out. Phil's just wandering up the field trying to get at the defense to come this way. And Philly catches it, and I look at it.

and I'm like, don't you fucking. Don't you fucking do that. Just throw the ball over there. Just throw the ball. And I think we actually did it again. Just so he would like do it right. You know what I mean?

And then we get in the game and he gets the ball and he looks down the field and Philly's open. And then he lets it go and I'm just like, and then he caught it. And I'm like, I don't know. Those are the ones as coaches where you're just like, that's a hell of a play. The thing is if I would have flipped my hips guy was in my face. I would have got. You got drilled. I got drilled.

He got drilled. Drilled. I come running off. When I come running off, you go, you're fucking dangerous. You are dangerous. I did. You're dangerous.

But that was all. I remember, because you were the only one that threw a touchdown pass that game. Oh, yeah. So I remember, like, and then he would come in the next day and he would put ice.

He would have a shoulder wrapped in ice in the TV room. And he would sit in the front, you know, but like, yeah, I got to, you know,

I'd always come in, like, the last person to come in to come in. Always. And Brady was his, I'm like, coach, you got the door, don't worry. Jim, you got that ice. Take care of that.

Sometimes I have the trainees staff come by ice me in front of everyone. Looking like you just threw a complete game shut out, bro. Yeah, literally. Like it's Randy Johnson after a nine inning. Now, Ernie Adams on why joint practices were so important for the Patriots. We had the joint practices. Yeah, I remember. Now, those were incredibly productive.

Can you explain to the listener why a joint practice is incredibly productive? Okay. Because there's been a lot of talk because now, I mean, we're seeing fights every freaking weekend with these dumb idiots right now. So here's the key to doing that. And you know what? We, as I mentioned to you, I just spent a few days out of the football camp for Phillips Academy. There were four schools there. But what you do?

And we had a joint practice yesterday morning with another school. Just, just shorts and T-shirts. We went seven-on-seven. But you get both teams together and you tell them, look, any B. yes, you're being thrown out of practice. And, like, if we were practicing with the Patriots, Sean Payton can throw out a Patriots player if he's being a jerk, and Bill can throw out a Saints player if he's being a jerk.

We're just not going to put up with that, period, end of story. And that, you probably remember. We were always pretty productive. We were totally, but part of it was, look, you just both, you get both teams together to hear from both coaches. If there's, you know, we're not, we're here to practice. you know, we're not fighting. And if there's any problem, you are out.

And, you know, it's, listen, if you really want to fight, we will buy you a pair of boxing gloves. We will set up a ring and go to it. Yeah. And, you know, and we never, now, the big thing is, what we found was you can have two really productive practices. Trying a third is pushing it. Pushing it.

So, our first time we did, we were at the Cleveland. So this is like 92 or 93. We went up to Platteville, Wisconsin, with the Bears, and they got a real problem player and the third practice was, we needed to kind of just stop it before. It was going to get out of control. But you just, hey, the whole thing is,

the biggest thing, you got to make sure, everybody, get all the players, just to explain what the ground rules are going to be, and you will get thrown out of practice if there's a problem. So just that's it, period. And it's useful, why? It's useful because you're going, you know, you go training camp, you're going against the same guys every day, the same office, the same defense.

If the defensive players are actually smart, they can listen to the quarterback's cadence, they can learn things. If a receiver is right, you can listen to the league. You can listen to the defense's back going, Linda, Linda, Linda, Linda. Okay, I know it's a zone coming down to my left. It's like playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. Great defense. Over 20 years, like Tom would say,

hey, look, I hear him going Buster, buster, buster. It's the same cover two check they've had for 20 years. Like, I'm not stupid. I know it's going to be cover two. You know, there's stuff like I'm sitting, I'm going to say, like two years,

2023 season, I'm watching the, the game at home on TV. And it's a Thursday night game, the Patriots playing the Steelers. And, you know, they always get an offensive line and Mike Dow. So you can hear, that's how you hear, you know,

the quarterback's, but I'm listening to these guys. Wait a minute. They're doing their line calls, Colin Blockin. Orange, orange, yellow, yellow. I know what these. So I'm sitting there, I'm just sitting in my liberal. Hmm, I know what this place is going to be north of me. I mean, you know, it's.

And so joint practices, you get to use your terminology. Well, it's like the COVID year. Yeah. You could actually hear during a game. It was gnarly. You could hear the other coaches from the other sides. It was like a scrimmage in high school.

You can hear the personnel groups. Everyone, we can look and see. They're looking and watching us. It was fucking right there. Senior night at Ken State. It was senior night at Ken State. Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode

and every Sunday for another games with names highlight. Ready for a different take on form. Formula One, look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F-1, including the astrology of the current grid, the story of the sports most consequential driver strike, and plenty of other mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent gumster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. You know Roll Doll. He thought up Willie Wonka and the BFG.

But did you know he was a spy? In the new podcast, The Secret World of Roll Doll, I'll tell you that story, and much, much more. What? You probably won't believe it either. Was this before he wrote his stories? It must have been. Okay, I don't think that's true. I'm telling you.

I was a spy. Listen to The Secret World of Roll Doll on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. In 2020, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins, but the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test ones.

It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg Gillespie and Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police.

As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I became a millionaire overnight and lost everything that actually mattered. Hold on, Sophia. Did you just say they lost everything after becoming a millionaire? That's right. And it gets worse. It's inheriting too much drama week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, I just inherited a fortune after losing my mom. and now my girlfriend's entire family is coming out of nowhere with her hands out. And my girlfriend is already giving my money away.

So the girl he wants to marry is already sending money out the door. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You want to start with the first special for the Big Ten coach of the year? Oh, whatever. Would you like to?

Yeah, she doesn't. So you're a Spartan. Is that what I'm getting? Exactly. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the real talk on what's happening during the tournament, open your free IHeart radio app, search Playgrin and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill. And listen now. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports.