Games with Names - 1998 Pop Warner National Championship with Frank Edelman | Redwood City vs. Naperville

Episode Date: June 11, 2024

Frank Edelman is in studio! That's right, the man, the myth, the legend, Jules' dad, Frank Edelman is in studio to relive one of the greatest games of Julian Edelman's Pop Warner career: the 1998 Pop Warner Pee Wee National Championship Semifinal. Frank joins us on the couch (1:55). We go back to December of 1998 (33:51). We get into these Naperville and Redwood City rosters as best we can (44:48). We breakdown the game (1:07:42). We score it (1:39:35). We wrap it up by hitting the hotline with Frank (1:44:01). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life, because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. History is filled with unexpected stories, and I'd like to tell you about them. I'm Aaron Manke, and for the past six years, I've been sharing history's most curious tales

on my podcast, Cabinet of Curiosities, such as the surprising country that invented the croissant and the wrestling champ who invented the croissant and the wrestling champ who won the White House. And now these amazing stories and many more have been compiled into my new book. Curious to know more? Pre-order Cabinet of Curiosities, available November 12th, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Learn more over at GrimAndMild.com slash curiosities. What happens when a professional football player's career ends and the applause fades and the screaming fans move on?

I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. For some former NFL players, a new faith provides answers. You mix homesteading with guns and church. Voila! You got straightway. He tried to save everybody. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. December 9th, 1998. Walt Disney Worldwide World of Sports, Orlando, Florida.

Led by a 12-year-old Julian Edelman, the Redwood City 49ers are on the cusp of immortality. Ha ha ha ha. Okay, Dad. This is the 1998 Pop Warner National Championship Semifinals. Welcome to Games of Names. Today we have a very special guest. We have my father, Coach Frank Edelman,

or as he likes to say, Baby Belichick. What do you call yourself? Baby Belichick, yeah, that works. And today we are looking at the 1998 Pee Wee Pop Warner National Championship semifinal between our Redwood City 49ers against the Naperville R-Words. You can't say that.

You can't say that anymore. They're now the Chargers. Huh? They're now the Chargers. They're now the Chargers. They're the Chargers now? Naperville is, yes. They changed from our words to Chargers? Yep, adopted another NFL team's identity. I know, but I don't

think that that really fits with the area. Is there a lot of lightning storms there? Maybe actually it gets pretty crazy over in chicago it could be it's i mean it's tough if you're not even i don't even the bears come on now yeah all right let's get back to coach coach dad coach dad why did you pick this game this was a this was a real exciting moment for us but i gotta say one thing you guys

these podcasts with all the swearing that you guys do and this is going to be a g-rated podcast we're going to call this the ue lewis podcast that means this is a no square zone and it's hip to be square so anybody who swears in this podcast is going to get a hundred dollar fine and it's going to go to rich eisen and the thomas family for i think it's saint jude's so that's my request i like that well i wish i would have requested this in 1998 when this football game was going because i specifically remember you motherfucking me well ding ding ding ding or any other child with a huge chewing tobacco lip and i i would go back home and i just hear at random bar stories hey your dad used to yell at me and i had a piece

of chew in my face i've heard that probably 15 16 times so i'm glad that you thought over your little uh this is for saint jude's i wanted to donate $100, so that's why I said that. St. Jude's Charitable Foundation because of Rich Eisen, because of the 98. Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas, that girl. Yeah, I just think, you know, we could do that. And what I was is not what I am. Things change.

You age, and you become better. That's what we do as humans we we we did what we did and we do what we do and now we're better people so there son thanks dad now is this the greatest game of all time dad oh we didn't answer the question why this game why this game this game first off for for a Pop Warner team, this is back when there was just one group of teams that go. And I don't mean that. I like now that we have participation awards.

We have A, B, and C teams. More teams can go to Florida and play. But it was absolutely spectacular. So why this game, though? Because this game against Naperville, this guy ran. This was our toughest game. At the Super Bowl, we played Texas, and the Texas R's. Also the R's.

Yeah, also the R word. But this team was just a battle. I mean, it was just a great battle. It was our first taste of competition in, in the national championship game. And, and we won, I mean, geez, everybody wants to go, but winning is just awesome icing on the cake. So that's why I picked this game. Okay. okay. Is this the greatest game of all time? Well, it's tough. The problem with when you have a son or a child

that plays Pop Warner and then plays high school and then plays junior college and then plays college and then goes to the pros, I mean, Julian never quit playing football. So parents that have children that play in professional sports, it's like, whoa, you know, they just keep playing and keep playing and keep playing. So I would say this is the best Pop Warner game ever for us,

but we've played a lot of games since. Now, is this the most memorable game of Pop Warner? Like, when you think back on our Pop Warner career, I mean, you were in 10 years before me because of my brother, and you stuck around until I got there. Was this the most memorable game for you, and why? Or is there another one? You know, this was the toughest game for us by far,

the toughest game that we played. But every game was memorable. I don't have one specific game that is, you know, memorable. I do remember, you know, the game that you fumbled four times and I remember the game that you dropped two touchdown passes. But those aren't very memorable to me, but I do remember them. But in this case, I would say this is probably the most

memorable game we've played. I think it's complete bullshit. I've never fumbled four times. Wait a minute. Ding, ding, ding, ding. That's $200. That's $200 to you, Rich. I got the running tracker going over here so we'll tally those up at the end. I also think, like, I know you got your NFL film shirt on. I think you're

giving us some NFL films answers here. This isn't Rich Eisen interview. This isn't a Tom Curran thing. This is your son's living room on his podcast. Yeah, but I tell you guys, the problem is it's just been 27 years since I

played this game. And, you guys, the problem is, is, is it's just been 27 years since I played this game. And, um, you know, you kind of, what do you mean 27 years since you played this game? I coach this game since you've played this game. So I, you know, I, you know, it's tough, tough to say we've played a lot of football and I don't mean to be, I will say I, I, i probably would have been put in jail for child abuse child abuse when i was a coach because that was a different time and you know nowadays you got to give them cotton candy you know when they score a touchdown or when they do something wrong i'm teasing but you know it's it's a different time so i tried to adapt to the times how does it how does this feel like kyler said you're in our living room

and you're making your podcast debut. This is your podcast debut. How do you feel, Pops? You know, this kind of reminds me of, you know, the old, you know, who would be, who's the gunslinger back in the day? Give me a gunslinger's name. Jesse James?

Jesse James. I mean, by the time 2024 jesse killed 275 never lost a fight so the legend has been built i am really nothing but a little pop warner little league coach with a son that continued to play and i have great people around me as in Kyler and Jack, I appreciate my son said, you know, building me up. I'll keep building you up. The,

the, the response in the Twitter world was resounding when we put out a little breadcrumb that you might be coming on. Well, I appreciate clamoring. Well, I tell you one thing. We love Boston.

Yeah. New England. And I don't know if we should be living in California. We're more New Englanders than we are Californians. I like that. But I appreciate it. Frank, you've got a saying. When you're green, you grow.

You're ripe, you're ripe. And I'll tell you what. That continues for everything we do. I don't care if you're the best chess player. I don't care if you mow lawns for a living. If you're going to do it, keep learning. Keep getting better at it. No sniveling.

You know, you're in coach mode. Yeah, getting there. In mentor mode. Yeah. How can we make this show better? I think you guys continue to grow and continue to evolve. And I think you will find your way. That's what I think.

Awesome. Thanks, Coach. You're Awesome. Thanks, Coach. You're welcome. Thanks, Pops. Frank, I got to say, you used to call me every Wednesday after a show would come out and give me the high level,

I think Jules is doing good, I think this is this, I think we could do better here. Come on, we can't get better with platitudes. Just getting better. What makes you better? Yeah. There's only one thing that makes you better, and that's hard work.

It's cop out. No, it's true. I'll tell you what, you guys. You guys, I don't want to. But for improvement. My influence has to be encouragement and being honest with you. But I don't want to influence the 1980s on you guys. Oh, did you guys see?

I watched something last night that was so awesome. I watched, what's the big band? I forget the name. You know, I tell you. I watched the Bon Jovi show last night. Four episode show. Bon Jovi is an absolute stud. You know, I tell you what. Awesome. Bon Jovi, this one stud You know I tell you what

Awesome Bon Jovi this one's for you What a great show That guy worked hard He did everything that we discussed He never stopped believing He never stopped believing Never stopped believing

Well Frank you're a bit of a musician yourself Can you tell us about some of your Japan tour days Yeah I play a little piano I used to anyway. I got to continue to practice. Actually, I don't play the piano. I practice the piano.

No, we had a good time. We were a good little band. What was the band name? The band name was The Kids. How'd you get into the band? What made you join this band? What year was this? I think it was 1980, 1979. 1979 i know why i can't speak

people yeah my dad doesn't speak well no no no no we don't there's no chance that's what but i'll tell you back then in the 80s there wasn't a lot of piano players there was more drummers guitar players rhythm lead and drummers and there wasn't a lot of piano players so um i you know i wasn't the greatest piano player i had a great teacher lewis biancanello fabulous he taught me how to cheat made me sound better than i really was and then uh i met a guy named mansueto lynchie great drummer and he worked worked with Mladen Vukic, great lead singer. And the leader of the band was a guy named Mark Adams. And this guy was a fabulous musician.

Fabulous. And he taught me a lot. And, you know, they hired me. Really because I look good. I look the part more than I played the part. But, you know, we were good. We were like, we opened for Huey Lewis. We opened for Journey.

We opened for the Tubes. We opened for Steppenwolf. I mean, we played all the big clubs in the Bay Area, and we went to Japan, and we did a little, we played at one place called the Bottom Line, but we were there for 45 days. It was absolutely awesome. But, you know know like there's an

old saying nothing good happens after 12 o'clock at night so i had to get back to mechanicing like you know like we always say the fruit don't fall too far from the tree right jules but uh here we here we go you know and so I went back into being a small businessman in an automotive shop and coached my kids, and here we are today. See, this is a podcast where we get the deep dive on, like, locker room talk. We gronk, talking about pulling his dick out and shit like that, Dad. Yeah, I get it. What kind of tour stories are there?

Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are we counting those? Are we counting those? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Are we counting those? Are we counting those? Wait a minute, wait a minute. Okay, Richard. Dick is fine. No, no, that's okay. I'll give you that one.

We got $200 so far for St. Jude's. What are the tour stories, Dad? The tour stories? Well, I was in love with your mom. And so I really, and I had to practice a a lot so i always had to go out and practice i do i i i do do what i say i'm i preach you know i don't know the proper terminology for that practice what you preach i practice what i preach i had to practice a lot and so while the boys were out having fun i was practicing actually i think i almost got in a

fight with my maladdin i think i was to beat him up because he was doing something, and I put my fist through a wall. And after that, we came back, and we broke up. I had to leave. But, you know, it was an awesome experience. You know, it was great. You're kids. You're 19 years old, 18, 20 years old.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was 20, it was great. You're kids. You're 19 years old, 18, 20 years old. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I was 20, 21, 20. I think I left the band in 81. But that was great. It was awesome. Frank, did you ever get to meet like Steve Perry or Huey backstage? No. You know, again, I was more of a higher on, you know.

And so I kind of stayed away. And I still had, you know, I had to get ready to play. So I was like in a focus mode, just like when I, you know, I'm a Little League dad, right? So all Little League dads never sit in the bleachers with mom and dad. They're the weirdos out in the very back with a big mouth, you know, yapping and yapping. That was me.

So that's what I did. What was life like for that's the same way what was life like for that omen household back in 98 oh it was uh you know day to day give us a day to day day to day i get up early 5 30 go to work look at my jordans on those i know get up early go to work mom would make the kids breakfast. Take the kids to school. Mom always stayed home. Took care of the family, my wife Ange.

And I'd go to work. I'd yap and yell at everybody. I was a hard worker. I pushed and pushed. And I was a real good mechanic. And I knew the game in automotive. And so I'd come home, 5.30. I'd grab Julian.

Jules, let's go practice. If it was football season, we'd be practicing whatever position he was playing at the time. If it was basketball, I'd go rent a gym. If it was baseball, which was our worst sport. Baseball was definitely our worst sport. I'd pitch him 100 balls. And I'd be pitching him bbs and we'd

fight but jules would argue a lot and i'd have to like do things that are uncommon for dads to do maybe not back then but nowadays you know like throw the ball at him ground him, you know, like throw the ball at him, ground him for, you know, going one for three, things like that. You know, if a ball went underneath his glove, you know, we'd go out after the game and I'd probably hit him 50 grounders, make sure his head was down. And by the way, I couldn't catch – I couldn't even play shortstop. Jules played short. I had to play third because I was a reaction guy

because I wasn't good enough to play short. So it was just horrible. I was horrible. But you know what? I tell you, the bad news bears were horrible. So you could call us the bad news Edelmans. At least it worked. We are what we are.

So you're Billy Bob Thornton? I'm Billy Bob Thornton, 100%. Walter Matthau? Billy Bob Edelman. But it is what it is. We were what we were. All right, that's the average weekday. What's the average weekend look like?

Weekend. Weekend was get up in the morning, the boys wash the car. I used to remember Jason, Joel's on top of the car, his brother spraying him with water, making him cry, wouldn't let him get it down. We'd wash the cars, and then we would do the lawns, and then we went to our little secret place, A&W. That was after baseball. Isn't there games on the city?

Yeah, that's right. Then we'd do the car wash. We'd do either a game or practice, and then we'd go to A&W and get a Papa Burger and a Coney Dog and a root beer float. Remember that? Yeah. And,

um, and then on Sunday we were probably playing baseball. I don't even remember. It's been a long time. You're probably playing a sport. It depends if it was a season, if it was football season, we're playing.

So if it was football season, I'm out scouting. I'd run all over the Bay area to scout every team. And I got to say one thing, anybody who doesn't film the other coaches and the other team is full of BS. Because everybody does. Okay? And I'll tell you something else.

One of the best things we did, I lowered the ball pressure on every ball so my little 12-year-old could hold the ball. So all that stuff you're hearing is a bunch of mumbo jumbo picking on the Patriots for being great. FYI. So that's where I'm going with that. And if it was baseball season, we'd be out, you know, play a game, and then we'd probably go out and, you know, hit 300 balls

and shag 300 grounders. And when his arm would get sore, I wouldn't let him throw to first. Basketball, we'd shoot 100 free throws. Dribble with right hand, I'd tape up his right hand, and he'd dribble with his left hand. That's what we did. All right. Frank, so a lot of people come in here,

they talk about how great Jules is, and he was awesome at football, but you said he's not so good at baseball. Can you give us some more details on why he was not a great baseball player? Actually, Jules, when he was little, 12, he was a really good shortstop. He was really good, actually. And literally, he was good. As we moved up, he had a tough time hitting a curveball. So Jules liked to hit the ball hard.

But the curveball was the death of baseball for us and then the other problem is joel's just quick grown so he went into high school you know at 5 11 4 11 or something but he was still a stud i mean really i mean when you when you got, you know, gorillas running around in high school and you got this little, you know, monkey or Chihuahua that was Jules, he still competed. And we, those were the toughest years when he'd come into the room and say, dad, when am I going to grow? Yeah. But I was that way, you know, I was that way. So I knew it was going to happen it was just a matter of time and then finally his end of his junior year he grew and then we won the ccs

championship and jules was back where's this where's what's the question um i think kyler was just trying to am i rambling i'm sorry what made you bad at baseball? To wrap it up. We shifted over. No curveball. Got it. Trouble with the curve. Curveball was out. So was football, basketball, baseball was the top three kind of? No, it was football, baseball, basketball. He was good at basketball.

But I'll tell you guys, this was a great story. He played basketball his freshman year. And Jules was real fast, even though he was small, but he was real quick. He had great skills. And the coaching in basketball back at that time, the school we went to, it was all manipulated. So the coaches had their AAU basketball team come in

and play basketball. The majority of the players were the AAU players. And Jules smoked these guys but jules knew nothing about basketball but jules would steal the ball run down score i mean jules was scoring 20 points and they benched him because he didn't know how to play basketball because the other au players do you remember that yeah i mean in in like i was like the bet i was like the best basketball one of the best basketball players in our little conference in the private school.

Yes. But when you got to high school, you were all over the place. Yeah, but I didn't know basketball. But you didn't know basketball. That was my point. Those guys were playing year-round. I never had an eye or a feel for the game. No, you didn't.

And I agree to that. Because we didn't really practice. We would shoot, but you didn't know basketball. No, but I won hunch when I was in fourth grade. I won hunch when I was in eighth grade, too. What's hunch? Hunch. They used to have these tournaments.

It was three on three. It's like hoop it up. It was like hoop it up. Yeah, it was the earlier hunch. But I was like you. I was little, but I was like, you know. I didn't know basketball. No, you didn't.

I didn't know team basketball until I got older and played with the 40-year-olds, and I started figuring out how to play basketball a little bit as a team player. But it was crazy because we played. I played AAU for two years because they saw. Your athleticism. Yeah. And then I played in the public school league

with Jeff Lanscoff's team. So I was playing in two leagues. Remember, I was playing in Mount Carmel, and then I would play for Jeff Lanskoff's team. Yep. Because the private schools didn't play those. And I would always be able to ball in there. And then once I got to high school, it just –

They were all – you were small too. Yeah. We had that other fellow, that little point guard that was good. Humphrey. Humph was good he knew humphrey humphrey yeah humphrey could shoot yeah he could he's like six six now yeah but he grew he he couldn't catch you no i was faster and quick remember little aaron mate face that dude was a badass aaron three hundred dollars but you remember a little face that little dude he was on a varsity no i don't remember him.

He was really good. I forgot his name. Jules, what's Frank's fit in 98? Huh? What's Frank's fit in 98? Always shorts. He always had shorts or sweats. Shirt tucked in, fanny pack.

The football is life hat on. Whistle, croaky, sunglasses. that's it right there the one with the guy filming me yeah that was my look right there what's in that fanny pack you know at that time there was always a pack of cigarettes oh my god had to have my stogies there probably a pack of cigarettes a dip probably a tenant to copagen, wallet, a little coin pouch. Always had to have my coins. I think that was about it. Keys?

Keys, yeah, keys. What are you using coins for? Parking? Back then, you used coins for parking. I still have my fanny pack now with coins in it when I go to park, but they never take coins anymore, so it's a problem. But I do like to... What about that one time? I'll tell you what I do like to do is when I'm in a line at the store and everybody's in a hurry and they go, it's $30.27,

and I pull out my coin pack and I pull out the 27 cents and then I give them seven pennies instead of a coin. And they're all like, hey, hey, you know, I count penn pennies jules yells at me all the time i count pennies he counts dollars that's a what about the one time where i saw you put a blue pill in your fanny pack i didn't remember you came back as you get older you guys are going to learn what blue pills are now we really can't talk about those, but they are an enhancement in kind of a way. You juicing? No, you just take them.

It works well when you have a couple cocktails and a blue pill, you're ready to roll. All right, Coach, let's get back to football. Football Frank, football Frank. Don Juanito Frank, we'll put that in the back burner. What was your approach to coaching? What was your coaching style? Fundamentals.

Everything had to be fundamentally sound. And like your brother said, I would run one play, 36 power, 45 power, we would run that 40 times. And 39 times it was wrong, and we'd get it until we got it right. And you know that. And we would go that 40 times and 39 times it was wrong and we'd get it till we got it right and you know that and you know we would go strength on strength if we had if we had we'd have 30 35 guys was the max on a roster so we'd have 30 31 guys i would do everything in my power to make every kid quit but i'll tell you what what that did is that little tub-tub kid that would come in that never played a game of football. You know, mom and dad wanted him to play football

to be the next Joe Montana or something. And this kid has no concept. This isn't a flag football. Flag football is great, but tackle football is a whole different thing. And even at that level, these guys are lethal. And so I would, some of these kids would come into practice the first day in August, and they couldn't even do a push-up. Didn't even know how to do a jumping jack.

I'd put all our new kids and our heavyweights and, you know, lamos. But I don't mean that in a bad way. Inexperienced players. I'd put them in the front of the pack, and then I'd have my studs in the back of the pack, and we'd run around the field or run around the track. And that way, the rookies or the heavyweights or the inexperienced players wouldn't be able to fall behind.

So my team would always stay as a team. And the guys in the back, like yourself, Jules, would push those big guys when they'd start crying and sniveling. They'd push them, and we'd stay. I'd slow it down. So it's all about being a team. What about the kid? You talk about the kid that is inexperienced.

Where is this story going well what i where the story is going is when that kid came to me he had no clue if that kid hung on and most of them did by the end of that season that kid would do 20 push-ups jumping jacks he he would learn what football's about he would be a better man he'd be a confident kid he'd be a confident kid and he would be strong and he accomplished something sense of accomplishment is real important and it can start at a low young level and that's what we would do how was jules as a uh 10 year old peewee football player well Well, I used to listen to, like McCourty said, McCourty said, I couldn't stand Julian at practice,

but I surely respected him. And then he won Super Bowls. Julian was that way. At practice, he played full speed. He didn't, everyone hated him. But everyone loved him because he'd make everybody play hard. Back then, I used to have to go to different areas. I'd go down to east palo alto

um where the black community was and i'd recruit because there wasn't a pop warner team there at that time i'd go to east menlo park where the tongans and the samoans were and i'd recruit then i'd go to redwood city was kind of known as the tough white boy we had samoans and tongans too yeah but it was east redwood city menlolo Park. It was way over in the east. That was Redwood City. I get it. But back then, it was more over there. I'd go over to the other side of the, you know,

on the border of Palo Alto or Menlo Park and Palo Alto, and I'd put on little clinics. And those kids would come out, and we would give them scholarships because most of them didn't have, you know, money. And so we wanted to make sure that these kids would play and get an opportunity. out and we would give them scholarships because most of them didn't have you know money and so we wanted to make sure that these kids would play and get an opportunity i i was also president for three years uh and so you know we were building our program and so if you at least in football you know if you get a good mix of demographics where's this rambling what is the question i was is how is

jules as a youth player and so we would get all these different kids this is why we used to fight when i was like 10 years old he'd be rambling on me i'm hanging on every word over here jesus what i was getting at is jules this little white boy would get in fights with these big tongans and i'd let him fight for like a minute, and Jules would be getting his rear end beat on, and I'd be over there giggling because he was the loud mouth of the team. Yelling at her.

But I love that little yelling. I could imagine Belichick sitting over there going, oh my Christ, that guy yelling at those guys. You have no clue. I have no clue. No clue. But anyway, I can only imagine. God.

He was a pain. To answer your question. Yeah. Answer the question. All you got to do is answer the question. Hold on. I got another follow-up question to this one. Frank, you hear the horror stories of the Pop Warner parents.

We got a sense of how you deal with the team and the kids. How do you deal with Pop Warner parents? Oh, they let me do anything I wanted. No, it was horrible. It was really bad. I mean, the biggest thing about Pop Warner back in those days, I don't know what it is now. It was all about weight.

So anytime you're dealing with weight, wrestling Pop Warner, and our weight was 105 for a heavyweight, and it was like 85 for a older lighter 75 i can't remember jules so we always had to make weight but we got a pound a week once the season started so the first game was 105 second game was 106 so these kids would come in camp at like 125 my linemen i'd be recruiting these big boys and they'd come in heavy. And so then we would run them till they died. Death. Run, run, run. And then the parents, we'd have meetings. I'd have a scale there before practice. We'd run them. I'd have a scale after practice. Okay, you drop three pounds. Mom and

dads with all the heavyweights would come in. I go, this kid can't eat. This kid can't eat. And I swear there was this one kid. I't know if mr you were awesome he was a veterinarian and this kid had to drive he wasn't he didn't have a lot of weight to lose and he had to drop like 20 pounds and he was trying to be an older lighter kid you know he said he didn't have a lot of weight to lose he didn't have a lot of weight to lose oh okay yeah he didn't have a lot of weight to lose right and i i am convinced on onamboree Day, which was your final weigh-in day, he could barely walk. He was yellow.

I think he was given some sort of dietary pill from dogs or animals because this kid, he was a mess. But the answer to your question is these parents let me do anything they want, and they were all a part of it because they just wanted their kid to play football. And I'll be honest, we had a great time. It was awesome. I'm embellishing a little bit, but not really.

Frank, do you think your coaching style would translate well to 2024? No, I'd be put in jail. No, 100%. You know? And, you know, like I've said this in the past, you know, swearing is so easy now, you know, like I've said this in the past, you know, swearing is so easy now.

You know, it's so cool. It ain't cool. You're just old now. You used to swear more than anyone I know. I know, but I would swear in the huddle, and those little 12-year-olds and 11-year-olds loved it, and I would do it in a timely manner. Timely manner. And they'd look at me and go, cool, coach.

Question for you jules so obviously your experience with him as a coach is biased how do you think the other players viewed your dad as a coach i already said you know i go to local bars and anytime i go back from college or early in my career and i'd always have a bunch of guys that would come up to me and you know talk about how yeah your dad was so hard on me he made me want to quit but I never quit and I made me a better I've heard that a few times you know and it's always cool you know my dad did a lot for the community a lot of the kids I mean he was around for a long time he was like the president of Pop Warner and you know a lot of times i don't necessarily you know he he didn't come from a family he didn't have that and a lot of these kids that he would

help out didn't have families so like i don't know if that was a connection or he just wanted to win but it was probably a mixture of both yeah Yeah. Well said, buddy. There's nothing wrong with teaching kids to give their best effort and go out of their box and apply themselves. And those are, I see it every day now. I mean, all parents have gotten it. The secret is be with your kids. There's no secret.

What's the secret? The secret is pay attention to your kids. Be involved with your kids. Don't drop them off and say, see you later, coach. Don't drop them off to a teacher and say, okay, it's your responsibility, teacher. Do your job. Be a parent.

You've been watching way too many fucking Patriot documentaries. Dude, my son played for the Patriots for 12 years. Jesus Christ. Do you know who he may be? This guy. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Let's go back to. We're at 400.

Let's go back. This is a segment where we go back in time around the game. This just so happened to take place around December 9th, 1998. Number one movie, A Bug's Life I actually remember this because there was a Bug's Life ride or something at the Disney World I think they were pressing it real hard

at Disney World during this game so I think we even got something my dad won't remember that but I remember that wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal that, but I remember that. I could be complete. That's Patrick Claibor game, every single week, but I can't do it alone, so I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Claiborne, Steve Weiss, Nick Shook, Jordan Rodrigue from The Athletic,

and of course, Colleen Wolfe. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why would they trade him away? Because he would be a pivotal part of them winning that Super Bowl. I don't know why, Colleen. Catch the podcast, the NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal every day.

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Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off. And I have my friends who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league.

And you know we'll have fun doing it. Ha! Yeah! Oh, and I'll have a special guest each month join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than... Psyche! You'll have to tune guest each month. Join me to mix it up a little bit. Who is it? None other than... Psych! You'll have to tune in to find out. So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan's podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football.

Listen on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Mike Wright from the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast. You heard that right. The Fantasy Footballers have officially entered the Dynasty space. Every week we bring you the same in-depth analysis and entertainment you've come to expect from the Fantasy Footballers, only now from a Dynasty perspective. Maybe you've been living in the Dynasty Fantasy Football space for a while. Well, we're here to take your game to the next level. Maybe you love fantasy football and you've been feeling that itch to jump into the Dynasty format, but it feels a little bit intimidating.

No matter where you're coming from, the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty Podcast has something for you, and you're going to have a great time listening, I promise. Join me and the rest of the crew every Wednesday for a new episode. Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'll do a little digging on that, but I like the sound of that. Do you remember that movie, Dad Bugs Life? Don't remember that movie at all.

What about R. Kelly and celine dion's i'm your angel um yeah celine dion i mean oh my gosh you kidding me she's awesome um i would be more water boy was awesome i love i still watch water boy today still holds up titanic titanic was great it was love titanic love titanic private ryan i mean are you kidding me something about mary it's so funny i didn't watch that one that much you know that was more of my that was more kid that was more you weren't you didn't like funny humor like that no no i was rambo all the way and armageddon you know that i was over there bruce willis this is a great movie here armageddon was a good movie too also big lebowski was also just a great movie here Yeah, Marmageddon was a good movie too Also Big Lebowski Big Lebowski was also Just a great movie

Yeah, I didn't watch that one that much, yeah What about Big Songs? You're still the one by Shania Twain Love Shania Twain She was beautiful Yeah, she was great Yeah, that's a great song Are you kidding me?

It pops Yeah Oh, my belly, Sean? Yeah My wife would get mad at me How's my turkey neck look, Max? Strong jawline. Oh, man.

Big songs. Getting jiggy with it with Will Smith. You know what? Will Smith was great. Boy, he put himself in a pickle, huh? But I was always a fan of him, but I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. How do I live? Leanne Rimes. Remember her? Yeah, but I don't know. Yeah, I'm not sure about that. How do I live?

Leanne Rimes. Remember her? Yeah, yeah. She was good. I wasn't really a country fan, but yeah. But Shania's country, but she was like. She crossed over. She crossed over.

But so did Leanne Rimes. Leanne Rimes did too. Yeah, I'll go with that. Frank, when we're on the way to practice back in the 90s, what are we bumping in the car, tune-wise? No, no, there was no music. No, it was serious. No, the 90s, what are we bumping in the car, tune-wise? No, no, there was no music. No, it was serious. What are you bumping in your car?

What are you bumping? That is bullshit. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, crap. No, no. Going there, I was in a hurry to get to practice. I rush home, get the gear set up, put that. You know, I spent more time at practice than I did at work.

I had to put together a practice schedule. I thought you worked from 5 to 5 and then, I mean, these numbers. No, but I still, well, the nice thing about Pop Warner was I, it didn't start until 5. 30. Yeah, it was like 5.30, 7.30. Right, but we were supposed to be done by 7, but I practiced till 8. 7 we didn't.

No, I was kidding. I'd go to 7.15, 7.20, though I was kidding. I'm about. I'd go to 715, 720 though. All right. Did you watch Seinfeld at all? No. You never watched it? No. You didn't watch TV sitcoms?

When I was little. When I was younger, it was with work, you, Mickey. You didn't watch TV? I didn't watch TV back then. This is the final year of Seinfeld. Now I watch TV. Yeah. And this was the year where that little blue pill got approved by the FDA.

Yeah. Right on. Thank you. In the sports world in 1998, NCAA national champions were Tennessee. I think I remember that. They won after Peyton left, right? Was that the year after Peyton? Yeah, this is the first BCSton? Yeah, I can't remember.

This is the first BCS championship, too. I do remember Ricky Williams, though. Ricky was awesome. Heisman Trophy winner, Ricky Williams. I mean, he was a monster. Yeah, monster. Super Bowl champion was Denver Broncos. NFL MVP, Terrell Davis.

Yeah. This is when they finally got over the hump. This was in their back-to-back. This was just Shanahan years. First one. Who was 97? Was this their second one? I think this might have been the second.

Because 99 was the Rams-Titans, yeah? 97 was Packers. This was Elway. Yeah, Packers. Yeah, but the season, not the year. I hate those. I hate the worst. So the Broncos won January 25th, 1998.

That was Super Bowl 32. They beat the Packers. So this is the first. That's the first one because Packers were trying to go back to back. The year before the Packers won, yes. Okay, I'm not going to be biased. Be biased. Oh, you want me to be biased no

well let's hear it okay well tyrell davis is in the hall of tyrell davis is in the hall of fame there's some things his numbers are a little low huh he's an nfl he was yeah he was the mvp of the whole league his thing is he had that's right he's like three or four seasons were like some of the best running back seasons ever in the history of the game yeah yeah you won three super bowls in six years yeah okay you told me a little sad little league dad i'm a little league dad abc and espn negotiate a 1.15 billion per season contract to keep monday night football i'll tell you what there was nothing better than Monday Night Football. Oh, back then.

The big Dennis Miller guy? And I'll tell you what, I used to love the Steelers and Terry Bradshaw and Len Swan. I loved that group. You probably saw a lot of the Steelers. Steelers were on all the time because they were the champs. They weren't on Monday Night Football. Monday Night Football was the 90s.

That was the 70s. That was 20 years prior. Weren't they on then? No. No, I think they got the contract. They weren't on Monday Night Football. Monday Night Football was in the 90s. That was the 70s. That was 20 years prior. Weren't they on that? No. No, I think they got the contract. They didn't? No. I think they still had the contract back in.

That was probably CBS. Let me double check the Monday Night Football history. In the 70s, there was two networks. ESPN wasn't around yet. No. They came in 79. So I think what this is saying here is that ESPN got a part of when ABC and ESPN kind of bought each other,

whatever, keeping the Monday night football on ABC. Who's your favorite Monday night football announcer or who's your late night? Like Howard Cosell, John Madden. Yeah, it was,

it was, it was John Madden for me. Cosell was great. Uh, awesome. But I, I would say it was John Madden. I love the turducken and how he'd do his little thing.

Not Boogerman Farland? Yeah, it was. Boogerman Beal? Yeah, no, it was all the way. And what was that? Peyton Manning. Peyton Manning. God, I love Peyton.

Selected number one overall. Peyton Manning is like the man. Besides Tom Brady. I mean, Tom Brady's obviously number one and Joe Montana obviously is number two. And Peyton Manning is obviously number three. All right. All right. Final NFL season for John Elway and Barry Sanders.

So this was their second one. The 98 season is John Elway's final. I hate. Yeah, it's the fucking worst. Well, we're in the 98. The game's in December of 98, so we're dealing with the 98 season. Yes. Yeah. They were awesome.

Yeah, but that Super Bowl is in January 98. What do you remember about Barry Sanders? No. January of 99. January of 99. For the 98 season. The second one. Yeah.

I tell you, Barry ran the ball like no tomorrow, but I just couldn't figure out why they didn't win. I mean, what is the objective of football? Winning. Yeah, they didn't have a quarterback. Winning. What does that have to do with anything? You asked me the question.

I said Barry Sanders was great, one of the best running backs in the world. Who's your best running back of all time? God, this guy's getting – You said who's my best running back. Who's your best running back of all time? We're going to watch his game a little later. Frank, you know what Barry Sanders' dad thinks is the top three running backs of all time?

What? Barry Sanders' dad says the number one best running back of all time. Jim Brown. Yeah, that's typical. The number two is himself. Yeah. And the number three is Barry Sanders. Yeah, you know.

Jim Brown, I mean, what do you say about Jim Brown? I say one thing about Jim Brown. That was one of my favorite movies ever, The Dirty Dozen, when he ran, when they were bombing the Germans, and he had the grenades, when he ran, when they were bombing the Germans and he had the grenades and he ran and was dropping the grenades down the chute. Belichick thinks Jim Brown is the best running back of all time. I've heard him say that. He said he was a man-child.

Yeah, yeah, he was a man-child. Best lacrosse player of all time, too, people say. Yeah, best lacrosse. I think that's why he loved him, too, because of his lax. Those Thompson brothers. There's just too many good players. I don't know how you can, you know, it's hard to rate them. I can't believe you just tried to correlate winning with a running back like Barry Sanders.

I think you asked me the question. He's literally on the worst franchise in the history of the NFL game. You think it's his fault, and the guy still had 2 000 yards he plays on concrete like you're out of your like come on yeah i agree you're right you asked me though frank who's a better quarterback joe montana or steve young oh my gosh you know i tell you what we love joe montana and when joe left we hated Steve Young. It was pure hate, hating him. I like Steve Young like 10 years after.

Steve was a fabulous player. I mean, his throwing percentage was off the charts. I think he's number one. He was great. But no, Joe Montana was our guy. We loved Joe Montana. What did you love about Joe? Everything. Yeah, Joe was was just i don't know

what it was it was just besides four championships winner winning does matter i mean that is our main goal in this sport winning you know there's a lot of good players that play out there yeah but what what is it about what is your agenda what that? Your whole narrative of this thing. No, but what is about... Who were you talking to before you came into here? What is it about winning? Why do some players win and some players don't? I don't know.

It's a team game. Not one player is going to make a whole team win. I don't know. Not one. I don't know. Not one. I'm just telling you the way it is little league dad total little league dad let's talk let's talk about these dudes who's your favorite 49er you have a mic so i can drop it

bang four super bowl three super bowls hey well you know what frank i think i know what you're doing keep it up because we just learned that not to put it out there but certain people that get elected to a certain place in ohio they get lifetime membership to top golf so we're really trying to who is your favorite niner of all time i don't even know what top golf is i got a softball swing who is my you know who my favorite 49er is joe it's just joe everything's joe why was your number 44 then why was everyone's number 44 because when my brother played my brother's deaf and he played at the berkeley school of the deaf back in the 60s and he was number 44 so my brother taught me how to play football taught me how to catch a hand position yeah i love my brother so that was at 44 that that was kind of our number.

You know, that's kind of where that came from. All right, let's get into this. Let's get into this game. Jackie, can you set the stage for these Naperville R-Words? The Naperville R-Words here. Because this is a Pee-Wee game, this is Pop Warner, we're going to do our team section a little different today. We're going to put a little twist on Warner. We're going to do our team section a little different today. We're going to put a little twist on

it. We're going to profile the area since we don't know a ton about these kids. This is 98. We were watching the game. We've seen the whole game. 98 these rosters. It's a fool's errand trying to find this. There's nothing on the internet. We scoured high, low, everything. We're just going off

the announcer on the game that we heard. These huge kids. I mean this, I want to check the birth on the game that we heard these huge kids. I mean, I want to check the birth certificates, but we'll get to that later. So Naperville, Illinois here. We'll do a quick little rundown of the area itself, some of its notable native sons. Population, 149,540 as of the 2020 census, 28 miles west of Chicago. So it's in the greater Chicagoland area, as they call it,

right on the DuPage River, the state's fourth most populous city. And it was the home of the OfficeMax headquarters up until 2013. That's a tough loss for the community. And some notable natives, as we're calling them, Chris Redd, comic. I remember him on SNL. Bob Odenkirk, Sean Payton, Cameron Brate. Remember him down in Tampa with Tom? Yeah.

Owen Daniels, another NFL. Yep, Harvard guy. Candice Parker, she just retired. What a great WNBA career she had. Andrew Santino. Santino's from Naperville? Yeah, they claim him on Wikipedia. What do you think about that?

I knew it was Chicago. Chicago land guy. That's Chicago. Yep, yep. So yeah, kind of your classic Midwest suburb city. And they played some good Pop Warner football back in the day. Owen Daniels is close to age to be a part of this Naperville organization, Pop Warner organization. Owen Daniels. He might have been slightly

younger or older than you, but he's in the ballpark. How old is he? He was drafted in 05. He is 41. You may remember he had a fourth round pick out of Wisconsin. Played from 06 to 2015. Texans, Ravens, Broncos.

He won a Super Bowl, Super Bowl 50 with the Broncos and made two Pro Bowls. He made a double move on Jamie Collins. He was a tight end, right? Yep. Or he did that double move? I don't remember that one. Damn. So that's a little high level on our opponents today in Naperville.

All right, Pops, what was the scouting report of this team? None. We couldn't find anything. You know, we're from Redwood team? None. We couldn't find anything. You know, we were from Redwood City, California, and we tried our best. Scouting is really important. But we couldn't find anything on this thing,

so we had to just wait to see, try to make our in-game adjustments. And I think I was peeking around when I got there to go find their practice field so I could watch them. I'd probably film them or something, you know what I mean? While they're practicing. Normal. But, you know. Are you insinuating that? He's not Baby Bill.

He's Baby Ernie. Yeah, I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you. I don't know what I'm trying to tell you. You didn't do that. I did do that. No, you didn't. You trying to tell me i didn't film everything all right i don't get this you're putting on a show right now for the cameras bro no you're putting on a show no no

you're putting on a show you told kyler told me he said i want you to tell the truth and be football frank and i said okay and i'm telling you we would try to find every bit of information i would run around all weekend filming every team am i wrong you didn't film the team's coaches you feel you filmed just that what the what they were playing well a little bit embellishing, but not too much. Just a bit. How do we, what did they do? What kind of offense did they run? Well, they ran the wing tee, and they ran it real well.

They, you know, and the biggest problem we had, the wing tee was definitely, we didn't know much about the wing tee in Redwood City. And I learned a lot more about it when I went to the Super Bowl because a lot of teams ran that wing tee. The biggest hurdle we had is we ran five fronts where we were from, California. And they ran six fronts.

So, you know, they were running that 6-2. And so we had a tough time at first figuring out how to block it. Jack, why don't you break down the Redwood City 49ers? The Redwood City 49ers. We'll do a quick overview of Redwood City, the municipality. As it's, okay. Population, 84,292 as of the most recent census. The 100 largest municipality in California.

What does that mean? 100th largest city, town, incorporated area in the state of California. Okay. It's 100. Okay. A lot of cities, big state. Sounds about right. It's in the Bay Area.

Yeah. 27 miles south of San Francisco. 24 miles northwest of San Jose. Right in the middle. That's always the hub. You know, it's funny you say that, Jack. I never knew the mileage because Redwood City is always known to be in the middle. Oh, it is?

Okay. Right before Silicon or... Yeah, the harbor. Yeah, Pete's Harbor was where the boats would come in. It's a tech hub, as Frank alluded to there. Oracle Electronic Arts, they make madden ea sports uh they're uh in redwood city also shout out to the redwood shores pullman hotel the best night of sleep i've ever had in my entire life

redwood shores shout out same fire department with different city isn't it what was that redwood shores it's like Redwood City. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Foster City is considered Redwood City too. Are they used the same? I don't know much about it. I can tell you one thing. Those guys are going to be underwater here soon, brain cells. At places, it's all landfill.

Like, do not buy in Redwood Shores. They're putting the letters. Pro tip, pro tip. Isn't Redwood City also where the 49ers practice facility is? Yeah, right across the street where me and Jules used to go over there. Oh, heck yeah. Hence the name, the Redwood City 49ers. And some notable natives.

We've got to run through these real quick. Of course, the man right here in front of us, Julian Edelman. Devontae Adams. They claim him on Wikipedia. They claim Redwood City. Roy Williams, Reagan Smith, an Olympic swimmer. Greg Camarillo. And, of course, our friend, Kurt De La Rosa. Kurt De La.

Casa De La Rosa. That's right. Wow, I didn't realize we had so many great guys from Redwood City. Yeah, Devante. I think Devante was born there and then he moved to Palo Alto. Yeah, so there's a little... You claim him, you not, but we'll claim him. We'll claim him for this episode. And since we are talking to a former member of the Redwood City 49ers,

the former head coach, we got a little intel on this roster. So we can go through these guys, the coaching staff, some notable names. We got them up here on the screen. 82 Moreno, 49 Alapate. Spence Garrison, 32. Shout out, Spence. Who's Jeff Langscoff? Oh, man. Number 27.

EJ Sal. It's S-O-A. Oh, jeez. That's how you spell it. He was 33. He was our fullback. He was huge. Yeah, he was big.

He was like our big boy. PJ Pignotti was 16. He was huge. Yeah, he was big. He was like our big boy. PJ Pignotti was 16. He was our quarterback. Chris Reese was our kicker. I think guard. 44. Koji Yamagata, number 80. Lived in Foster City.

Steven Aros, one of my bash pros for a long time. Number 20. Tony Barnes. Played with him for years. He's one of our linemen. 55. Taffa Papunu. Number 27.

You got to add a couple more coaches up there, though. We had Mike Flynn. We had also Billy Ring was on that team. Billy Ring. You got to add Billy Ring. His dad was a 49er. Yeah. This is off dome.

Yeah, this is off dome. Like, this is. With the coaches, we got to put Mike Flint up there. He's my buddy. Shout out, Mike. Shout out, Mike. And Matt Flint was out there. How did you get into coaching?

Oh, your brother started. You know, I never really. I played one year of football half a year you know it was weird i had a weird upbringing and i played at sequoia um my freshman year until my mom moved away and then i moved away i was in redwood city and then we moved to sunnyvale and i uh when i moved to sunnyvale and And I was like, yeah, I was little. But I was pretty good. But I don't know what it was. I always loved football. I loved Roman Gabriel.

I loved Slater. I loved the Rams. And gosh, you're catching me off. So it inspired you to coach because you love the Rams. I just love football. My brother played football and I love football and I just never really had a real opportunity to play. I was really good at flag, but flag, you know, flag is not the same as tackle football.

All you flag players. It's cool. It's fun, but it ain't the big boys. So anyway, I just loved it. And so when Jason, your brother, joined Pop Warner, I just became involved. And I started working as the equipment manager. And I just, then I met Guida.

You know, Guida family was like the godfathers of Pop Warner and Aria. Coach Guida. Coach Guida. Ed Guida, Frank Guida, Bob Guida. Yeah, the Guida boys, the Guida men. I just got involved in 86, and I started going to coaching clinics, and I started being an assistant coach, and then moved kind of moved up the ladder swag what was his name Steve swag swag yeah he was great guy owned copy man he did he was a president before

me when he left I became president he was actually a great president he's a great man he's a good man I learned a lot from Steve smart what. What made this team so special? Well, one of your goals in Pop Warner at that time, we wanted to boost up. When Steve left, I think, I can't remember where it was then, but we had to go to five football teams. So if you have two junior peewee teams of 35 on each roster and you're moving into the next level which is our level peewee my level

and you would go from 70 kids to 35 kids and then you would have more better players you'd have bigger rosters with better farm system bigger farm system exactly so we were able to put that together and then it comes down to recruiting so if you go out and recruit if you're just waiting for your players to show up like some of these cities did you know not everybody would play but if you go out and who'd you recruit i told you i went down to the east side you ask your mother ask anybody i'd go down there i forget the name of the park yeah i'd go to the i'd go to the east side and i'd put up little 49er sign up signs and we'd go push it i used to put out all the plaques go to the east side and i'd put up little 49ers sign up signs and we'd go push it

i used to put out all the plaques all over the east side and we'd get the phone calls and that's how we would get you know better players and more players and you know so once we went to 10 teams which was five five and we had five cheerleaders teams so i mean back then when you're president it's different you're looking at cheer and football and so we were able to go from eight teams to ten teams um more farming system more farming special team all why is this team special because we had more kids i was able to i did a lot of recruiting, and we were able to put together a lot of good players on one team. It wasn't just they didn't show up. We worked. Your dad worked for that.

All right. All right. What are some of the coaching techniques that you help with these kids? Did you do anything special for linemen techniques or anything? How did you get a 12-year-old to execute at a high level? First thing you got to do is you got to get steroids.

So once... Once you get them... Dog diuretics. You got to get them... You got to make sure they can take a shot and everything's good. He's joking, by the way. I'm just joking.

That's for dummies. Frank, I've heard about these legendary songs. They used to get these kids to learn these lineman techniques. Yeah, you know, I'll tell you what. The number one thing in youth sports is fundamentals. We'd spend a lot of time on set positions. We'd spend a lot of time on how to get off the ball. What about the gaps?

Okay, then... The line... Then we would have to create... We created songs, so especially for the offensive line, and we would... What was our song again? Head Up to Playside.

Head Up to Playside. If you're in the gap, we block that gap unless it's a trap. So the number one thing is understanding who to block, understanding the game. So we would spend a lot of time on our offensive line knowing if we have a guy head up to play side, that's who you would block.

Unless we're trapping, we would take the down block. And then on the defensive side, we ran the numbers game. 90% of the time we're in a 31 position. Our inside guy would take the guard, would be one. His inside shoulder would be one, and the head would be two, and his outside shoulder would be three, and then the tackle, four, five, six. But anyway, songs, fundamentals, and doing the play 40 times until you get it right. That's perfect.

We got to get this thing going. All right. Let's get into this game. Let's get into this game. Let's get into the lead up of this game. Let's set the stage. We are down at the Wide World of Sports, Orlando, Florida, Disney World Resort.

Only a year old at this point. Started in 97. We're in 98. So this thing is brand new. Brand new. The Redwood City 49ers, not only were they undefeated this season, hadn't let up a single point all year. This is true.

True. That's incredible. Insane. And then just a little foreshadowing here on the rules. I got to say one thing, but our defensive coach was great. Was that you? It was me. Hey, our offensive coach was great, too.

That was me. Yeah. Full size, baby. So no one helped you with anything? Not when it comes to offense and defense. I had position coaches. They didn't help with anything? You sound like an eye guy.

No, it was we. You sound like an eye guy. No, it was we. You sound like an eye guy. No, it was we. But I had lines. I had Eric. Eric helped my offensive line. Matt helped. Everyone helped.

Matt, you know, but I still ran. I was a coordinator on both sides. I made the calls. I love that. Oh, my gosh. Little league dad. Totally. Can you place us?

So you've won a few games to get to here. We're now in Orlando. There's still one more game after this. If you win this game, you go to the Super Bowl. Just give us a couple game placement of where we are in the season for this. Yeah, so we went undefeated, I think, 10-0. Then you play a playoff game. Two playoff games.

I thought no. It was North Section. Well, then you go to the regionals. We had to win four to get to Florida, didn't we? I think we had to play Sunnyvale. That wasn't the first one. That was our second game. Oh, that's right.

The first one was, was that the mud game, Mountain View? That was. At Bay Cities? Maybe. No, that was Coyote Creek the year before. I think we played three games. Do we play three games? You play a game, then you go to North Section, and we played Sunnyote Creek the year before. I think we played three games. Do we play three games?

You play a game, then you go to North Sectional. We played Sunnyvale. We beat them. And then we played Oak Grove. Then we played Oak Grove. For the championship. And then we went to Nevada and played a Nevada team. Yeah. And then we came to Florida.

So this was our 15th game. How many, was it 15th game? I got a story. We were 16-0? I got a story for you. You think I'm a whack job. And, you know, it's okay. So we were up in Reno, right?

And Joe Tobia was our commissioner. And we were playing that Nevada squad. And they were kind of good. Yeah, they had that tough white boy running back 32. Yeah, they were kind of good. He had that they had tough white boy running back 32 yeah they were kind of good he's big but it was only him and i think we only beat him 28 to nothing and i think we beat him 33 we had a three in the middle and like at halftime joe comes and goes why aren't you whooping her but what's going on what's are they that good why aren't you whooping him i was going i had to get my four players done i can't remember but it's like so i'm not the only whack job our commissioner was

saying i want you to whoop these guys joe love joe yeah he ran that thing r.i.p joe i'll tell you another story so you want me to tell you the story? Yes please. So back then Jamboree was your final weigh in date. So you had to suck these kids down. I'd always come in with heavy weights and older lighters. Older lighters they were tough. Guys like Jules and Aros you had to make sure they

were 12 and under like 85 pounds. That was always tough but those were your bucks then you had your linemen 105 or the heavyweights so jamboree day they start august 1st when you get down there on the 31st is your last day and you have to make sure your kids are all making this is the first way this is the like official way this is the official final weigh-in to make the team so it's like a big thing it's like an event it's a big event it's it's there's no game but all the teams are there to have weigh-ins right and so when when that happens

you know you you have to make sure like we'd get up in the morning everybody would take a big poop i'd have all the you remember i used to have the guys with me um like reese the big heavyweights i'd have them spend the night and we'd make sure they go poop in the morning before we go down and then we would go meet at the gym remember the gym and they'd be spitting the whole time spitting and we'd go we'd go meet we'd go meet at jim west there used to be a gym down there and we'd go, oh my gosh, you know, we, we needed a real official scale and he'd be like three pounds over. So we,

there was this really foggy room there, you know, it was like kind of hot inside and we would put those kids in that little foggy room. Right. And, um, and how long up until they turned into raisins.

And we put them in that room, you know, because we had to like, maybe we had to drop two or three pounds and we had to be official, you know. And so we would do that, right? And so then we go to Jamboree. We were the only guys that did that. Nobody else would do that. We were the only ones. And we won the Super Bowl and we won the super bowl we won the championship and so after the super bowl joe toby calls me he goes hey what it was frank i go what he goes i got film of you at jim west

sucking down players i go no really and i go where'd you get that? He goes, Hetherington. Bob. I go, the coach I fired from the midgets that used to wrap his kids in plastic bags and have them run? And he goes, yeah. I go, what do we do? He goes, nothing. I'll take care of it. So, Joe, thank you.

I don't know if you can use that. He mangenied you. He mangenied you. You know what I mean? He mangenied you. He mangenied you. He man genied you. You know what I mean? He man genied you. He man genied me. He man genied me. Exactly.

But anyway, that was the story. And Joe let it go? Joe let it go. Joe let it go. Because you know why? Because I was the only guy that did that. All right, let's get into this game. Let's run through this game.

I was not at this game.. I was not at this game. Kyler was not at this game. We have two primary sources with us here today. Yeah. And we had this game on DVD. We watched this thing from kickoff to the final whistle before we started this episode. It was awesome.

Let's run back through it. To set the stage, it's December 9th, 1998. We're in December, Orlando. It's 83 degrees today was it 83 i was looking it up they have that on file yeah i felt like it was so much hotter because it was humid oh yeah the humidity was through the roof that day and we didn't know humidity bright sunny not a cloud in the sky it's insane but i i just remember the the football fields like where you know in the 90s there wasn't the turf fields.

There wasn't turf fields yet. So you'd go to high schools and they were dog shit. There'd be fucking dirt passages in the middle and stuff. And I remember when we walked on this field, we felt like pros. Remember that? I do. That's kind of when soccer started getting in, girls sports started getting in, and all the fields were ruined.

Yeah. That was a big thing. You know, when I was, when we were running the, you know, when I was president and we had to keep the fields clean and we had to start rotating. And then, you know, prior to that, it was only football and baseball. That was all there was. Yeah. And then all of a sudden soccer came in

and then girls sports all good stuff for good reasons but it would abuse the fields and then the fields were just turned into mud pits and then that's when this astro turf and you know the different turf started coming in which was right it's an anti-turf podcast but yeah yes back to the game at hand here today tangent big big size Big, big size disparity. I mean, these kids, if we could go back and look at birth certificates. No, just one guy. 35.

One guy for sure. 35. He's so big, it felt like it was 10 guys, though. He looked like Spike. Spike, dominating. Full Danielle Monte, running back.

They were lining up. What was his name again? Oh, man. Anthony, was it Petronelli Anthony Petronelli. Petronelli or something. Penzilli. Penzilli.

I don't know his name. If anybody knows Naperville. Naperville 98 team call in. We want to comment because we want to see his goddamn bursary. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, crap. $600? $600, Rich.

Hold on. Anyone actually who was a part of this game and has any more information, please call our tip line. Yes. Yeah, please call the tip line. Seriously. So to start this thing off, we're struggling to move the rock. The Redwood City 49, we can't get anything going.

No, I think first drive, we fumbled. Or no, they fumbled. Yes, first drive, we got gashed. The big boy fumbled. 35 gashes us on a draw play up the middle. Yeah. Second play, force a fumble. We're hype us on a draw play up the middle. Yeah. Second play, force a fumble.

We're hype. Can't do anything with it. But that leads us to the other story of the first half, which is Steven Arrows. Punting. I mean, he's like Johnny Hecker out there. Steven Arrows, by far, was the MVP of this game. Insane. I mean, not only just in the punt game, but we'll get into later.

He had the screen for a touchdown on defense like he had great plays because this was a tricky tricky like wing t defense yes go ahead the first time seeing the wing t offense that year as we mentioned earlier that bare front like we had our hands full and then you you look at the the difference in the game and it comes down to special teams and flipping the field we're flipping the field every which way sure we got a punt i think it was six punts in the first half oh i mean we're flipping the field and frank talked about it when we were watching the importance of it's a hidden a hidden weapon in uh pop warner is having a good punt game. Punt game is important. Very important.

Special teams. FYI. That's why they call him Baby Belichick. This is our first time punting. Yeah. But not only. No, we had a good punt team. We barely punted.

That's true, but we still had a good punt team. In the second quarter, Stephen Arrows doing more great Stephen Arrows things. Picks up a first down on a fake punt. I don't think it was a fake punt. I think he was about to get blocked and he pulled it down. That was no fake punt. It worked. That was a better move. I didn't do that.

No fake punt. But in the second quarter, the Levy finally broke this little play-action, counter-waggle seam pass that Naperville was loving to 35. It was working, it was working, and then it finally got him loving to 35. Yeah. It was working. It was working. And then it finally got them down to the goal line.

They ran the same thing, punched it in, number 35. In the air. In the air. In the air. But they missed the PAT, so we're down 6-0 at the half. But real quick, just because rules pop Warner at this level, a PAT kick is worth two points, and a two-point conversion or run the ball in is only worth one point.

Foreshadowing. That'll come in handy. Also, this was the first time you guys were scored on all year. First time scored on all year. Who almost cried? What was going on there? I was almost crying. I was devastated. Fucking terrible loser. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, jeez. 700 bucks.

St. Jude's. We're building a whole new wing on that thing after this episode. But halft Oh, geez. 700 bucks. St. Jude's. We're building a whole new wing on that thing after this episode. But halftime, down six, nothing. A lot of oranges consumed. We're getting our vitamin C. We're getting our hydration back. Frank, do you remember any of the messaging or any of the speeches going on at halftime in this one?

Yeah, it was just we had to play physical. Yep. You know, that waggle, we had to hit that quarterback to make sure that he knew what was going on when he'd come out of that waggle on the backside. And we had to stop that big boy. Oh, my God. I know.

So the message was gang tackling, hit him. Hit him, hit him, hit him. Sorry. We remain scoreless for most of the third quarter. Finally, down in the waning minutes of the third quarter, we had a drive going. Hold on, I'm sorry. I want to go back on one more thing.

Sorry, Jack. You had a quarterback, PJ, broke his wrist a game prior to this? Our starter. Can we talk about him for a second? Our starter, we go and we played Oak Grove, and he was a great little quarterback. In Pop Warner, he'd throw the ball maybe four or five times a game, maybe three.

And P.J. would be able to dot it. You know what I mean? He'd always hit either Koji, or we had these little running back release plays. And in, like, garbage time, after blowing out Oak Grove to go – was it Oak Grove or was it in the – I can't remember. I think it was Oak Grove. I think it's Oak Grove to go. Was it Oak Grove or was it in the? I can't remember. I think it was Oak Grove.

I think it's Oak Grove. I think it's commented on the DVD. He broke his arm and Talfa Papuno had to come in. And Talfa Papuno only had one game under his belt, and that was in Reno when we played against the Nevada team. So, like, this was a big game for Talfa. I mean, backup quarterback comes in, and just, like, for 12-year-olds,

being able to get a play communicated, running an offense. I mean, there was a couple fumble snaps here and there. But, I mean, the kid hadn't played all year. It's like losing your best pitcher when you go into the Williamsport. Yeah. I mean, it was devastating. So we didn't run the ball a lot. The backup started this game here.

Backup started this game. But P.J. got in the game in the second quarter. P.J. came in. What's the coaching decision on that one? Now, if I remember right, P.J. was our quarterback, and we went to the championship, the national championship in Disneyland. And P.J. was our quarterback, and we went to the championship, the national championship in Disneyland. And P.J. wanted to play.

So we rigged it up that his cast, he would have a free hand. He broke his wrist. That's a common break in Pop Warner for kids. And he just wanted to play. And so we made it happen that he would be able to play in the big games. Making dreams come true. But I think he played what? He probably played eight plays.

He came in a series, and I think he hit it or something. He didn't play quarterback. He may have got hurt again or something. But he had a little spark. I think he had one run reception. Shout out to PJ. Shout out to PJ and Talfa Papuno. Papuno and PJ.

Love you guys. Great guys. They really Brady blood-soaked that thing. Late in the third quarter, we're driving. Earlier in the game, we tried the middle screen a few times. Wasn't quite there, but it was showing signs of maybe this could work. Maybe this is something we can exploit. 25 yards, I believe, to Steven Arrows.

No, I think it was like 65. It was a long. I mean, it was like he busted through. No, I think it was like 65. It was a long... I mean, it was like... He busted through that thing. I think it was like 60, 75. It was like a 65-yard screen. Screen. Was it...

The yard marks weren't super clear on those hard... It was a screen. We'll go with 65 yards. Yeah. How far was it? It was like a 50-yarder. We were at midfield.

Yeah, we were like... Maybe even on... Maybe even on the 40. Frank dialed it up perfectly. So a 50-yarder. We were at midfield. Yeah, we were like, yeah. Maybe even on the 40. Frank dialed it up perfectly. So a minute 14 left in the third. Tied this thing up 6-6. Can't move the ball on the ground. Coach, coach, walk us through the screen play.

Yes. Why did you call that play at that time? No tangenting or just do you want the whole? I want the answer. We don't want to know about fundamental why did you call this play because these guys were running that sixth front they were hitting every gap and they were coming across the line of scrimmage linebackers were coming forward so when we ran that middle screen i noticed that these guys i ran it in the third in the second

quarter and i go oh my god we just we just didn't execute the play and And I said, okay, I got to hold this. We had to get through NPR, get all the other players played. And that left us with three DBs. You know, they were playing a cover three. So once they continued to just come through every gap and then we just held it for the right time. And when we ran that screen, they were all, they didn didn't hold up they were coming across that line of scrimmage so we caught him great play by talfa to get it off yes because he got tipped a couple times i believe this one even got tipped in another great catch by steven aros to catch the

deflected ball yeah he had a great cutback it was a great run yeah he skinnied up a guy meaning he attacked him gave himself a two-way go and then cut back on a guy it was a it was a great run. He skinnied up a guy, meaning he attacked him, gave himself a two-way go, and then cut back on a guy. It was a really great play. Steven played, too, at Menlo. He went and played. Steven was a great ball player, great kid. Heck of a play here by Steve to tie this thing up. And it's, as we mentioned earlier, the rules with extra points

and point after attempts. Couldn't run the ball very well on these guys. Couldn't throw the ball very well. We got a back up. So Frank elects to kick the extra point, which is worth two points. Two points. Walk us through this

two-point kick. So I'll tell you guys, we weren't running the ball well, so we said, okay, we had Reese, Christopher Reese. He would run full speed and kick the ball with his we said okay reese we had reese christopher reese he would like run a full speed and kick the ball with his toe full speed it was like but he he did it like seven out of ten times i mean he did it it was ugly but it worked and my mother died in july jules's grandmother

and so the reason i bring that up is weird things happen you know like brett farve the 90 through five touchdown passes against the raider you know how weird things happen you know how the patriots came back and one is all the moons align that weird stuff that happens in sports i'm telling you it happens and we went to elect to kick the ball. That ball hit the upright, the right upright, and dinged in. And I swear to this day, it was my mom saying, honey, you're going to win. And knocked that ball in. But that's what happened.

And we scored. Up 8-6. The score would stay that way until the very final whistle of this game. But it was saved by a Jules one-handed interception with five minutes left in the game. After that, we ran the clock out.

The defense made a great stand, and this thing ends 8-6, and we go on to beat the Oak Cliff, our words, in the Super Bowl. Oh, yeah. Naperville. We beat Naperville here and then on the Super Bowl. Yeah, we played two hard words. Yeah, yeah, we played two hard words. Do you remember that interception?

I didn't remember it until I saw it. Neither did I. No, but then I kind of remembered it when I saw it. You jogged your memory. Because then I remember I didn't really play a great game. They were pretty all over us in the run game. But then I clicked that I remember after the game, like, a lot of guys made good plays in certain situations.

Like, Eric Moreno had a big tackle on a punt that got him all the way back. Steven had, like, insane punts, big play. I remember EJ Sal had a, he had an interception. Didn't EJ have an interception? No. He had, like, a big play. Big plays. Didn't EJ have an interception? No. He had a, he had like a big play. Big plays.

I, you know, I know I'm a homer. I know I'm a dad. Full. Full on dad, right? But I got to tell you something. Every athlete has a big play moment. And some guys make that big play in the big game in the big moment and other guys don't make that big play now you now you see why we used to fight because you used to try to do

this shit to me all the time right and i would just say like can you get to the point like let's go well again you made the big interception two minutes minutes left in the game. They were down inside our 20, weren't they? Yeah, but this is a team sport. It is a team sport, but somebody's got to make the big play. Stephen Aros did when he made a touchdown 65-yarder. Championship teams have more than one. All right. All right.

Little league dad. Okay. Over. I know you like to downplay yourself, but my job as a parent is to upplay you. You know? That's it. So it's wrapped up, Jack said.

Eight to six, final score. And then you went on to go to the Super Bowl, which you won. This is very similar to the Miracle on Ice, where you had to beat the Russians in the semifinal game to get to the gold medal game. Yeah, and the team we played, they were a Texas team. They were fast, and they were really big. They were good.

Fortunately, maybe they were just a little undisciplined, and we beat them 22 to nothing. The aftermath of this game, Pops, we go on and we beat Naperville 8-6. RC, our team, goes on to win the Pee Wee Super Bowl championship, Super Bowl against the Oak Cliff R-Words Texas team. We beat them 22-0. How did we celebrate this game? Do you remember? No, you know, yeah, if you remember, it was like we were up in the hotel room,

and do you remember what's Tupelo to? Sony's dad, Pakalani. Pakalani. And he was out front having a couple cocktails, and all you heard was him going, ah! Remember how he used to laugh? Ah! So the Tongans were up there having fun.

And Samoans. Yeah, and Samoans. Yeah, the Tongans and Samoans were having all the fun, and we just enjoyed watching them. So that was pretty much it. It was great. I mean, it was just awesome. Didn't we go on like a,

we went to a water park afterwards or something? Oh, that's right. You are right. We went to um we went to uh new york epcot thing the epcot new york city and it was snowing they had the snow going you remember that i don't they had great food it was like we were in the downtown new york and we got to uh walk down that street. It was awesome. Yeah, that's right.

You celebrated by going to Epcot? Well, we did go to Epcot, but there's a place in Disney World where they do filming. You know, it's kind of like Hollywood. And so they have streets of New York or streets of Chicago. They shut out the thing for us? The whole Pop Warner? Yeah, the whole Pop Warner was shut off, and we were all in there, and there was food up and down the streets.

They had it snowing. It was really amazing, actually. It was so fun. Yeah. You know what I mean? Imagine being with all your friends when you're 12 years old, missing a week of school. Going to Disneyland. Playing a couple.

Disney World. Play a couple football games. And you got Christmas break coming up. And we got Christmas break coming up. We are living. Yeah. You guys got a week off of school for this? Well, we didn't. We took a week off.

One. Yeah. Got to get the body ready. Got to get down there. Walk throughs. Everything. Need a week off. What do you say when you win a Super Bowl, but you already had Disney World?

We're going to, we're staying at Disney World. We won Disney World. Now, if you would have had the film of Naperville, what coaching change would you have made? What adjustment would you have adjusted? Well, I would have definitely, you know, familiarized our team with that six front. I'm not really sure.

I'd have to watch it on film. I never really played a lot of six fronts. You know, everyone down in our area was all pretty much five fronts or four fours, but those outside men were off the ball. Or they'd widen them up and we'd have big, you know, four gaps, big three gaps, three holes and four holes. But I don't know, I'd have to study it. What was the score of the Super Bowl, the actual game against Oak Cliff?

22-0. 22-0. So this was the Super Bowl of Naperville. Yeah, it kind of was, yeah. It's like when the Patriots used to play the Colts in the AFC championship game. Yeah, kind of like when the Patriots played the Kansas City Chiefs, you know. But still, it was a close game. It'd probably be the other way around because Naperville had already been there.

We weren't the Patriots. We were the Chiefs. Yeah. And then finally they came over. We only did it once. You guys never went back? This was the one year? Yeah.

Yeah. I moved up with Jules. When Jules went up, I went up and coached the junior midgets with Coach Guida, and then I became the head coach of the midgets, and we got knocked out by Oak Grove. We got to the final game again with our team, with this team. He was way better. Who's he?

Tyrell. Tyrell. Tyrell was like he had like three or four national championships. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee.

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Can't stop it. You know what's going to happen. Can't stop it. That's right. Catch new episodes every Wednesday, all season long. That's what you look for in year 14, to do more. No days off! And I'll have my friends, who happen to be some of the NFL's biggest stars, join me on the pod. We'll give you a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moments from around the league. And you know we'll have fun doing it. Ha! Yeah!

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unusual, and unexpected stories. Stories about people who have accomplished extraordinary things. Pets that have gone above and beyond. Events that have defied explanation. And I'd like to tell you about them. I'm Aaron Manke,

and for the past six years, I've been sharing the most curious tales in history with millions of listeners around the world on my hit podcast, Cabinet of Curiosities. Thank you. by, and the wrestling champ who went on to win the White House. And now, finally, nearly 200 of these amazing stories from the podcast have been gathered into one book. Curious to know more? Pre-order Cabinet of Curiosities, available November 12th, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Learn more over at GrimAndMild.com slash curiosities. The midget level. Midget level's tough. That's 13, 14. But remember when you played them?

Yeah, they whooped us. They whooped us. They had like eight older lighters. 14. They had guys driving to it. Yeah, I mean, they were 14, but they had hair on their face. No, you could be 15 in midget. No, it was 14. 15.

13, 14. 13, 14? Yeah, 13, 14. Did you end up playing with, I know we talked about Spence, but anyone else from this Redmond City team that you played high school with or played, like, further along? A lot of the midget players came, went to Woodside. I don't remember the midget team much.

Yeah, I kind of. A lot of guys went to Sequoia, too. Yeah. I remember Zatarain went to Sequoia. Yeah, who was on the. Sam Alapate. Sam. Shout out, Sam.

Alapate. Sam who whooped my ass in high school and when we were 12 and when we were 8. Yeah. I'm sure it had nothing to do with your mouth. Frank, where does this game rank among your favorite games of all time? I would say Naperville. Our favorite game of all time was would say naperville by our favorite game of all time was was when i finally beat sunnyville you know that was that was our biggest game what was that coach dolph dolph for sunnyville he was a great coach they they

the sunnyville rockets were that was the black knights and peewee that's right the black knights rockets were the midget yeah Yeah, junior midgets. I don't know what they call it anymore. Junior midgets, yeah. No, it took me like four years to beat him. He beat me every year in the playoffs. I had to coach the Ting Boys. Yeah, the two Tings.

They were twins. At USC. And they went to USC. Oh, that's right. They were like the baddest little dudes. They were, and he was a quarterback. We used to throw the ball a lot with him. Brandon and Ryan? Brandon and Ryan. They were like the baddest little dudes. They were. And he was a quarterback. We used to throw the ball a lot with him. Brandon and Ryan?

Brandon and Ryan. They were little studs. Yeah, they were studs. We shucks. We used to throw the ball, I'd say, 12, 13 times. I'd always hit my backs. Those guys were good. They were real good and real smart.

They were quick. Yeah. And they were athletic as hell. Yeah, they were ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. What is that, Jack? Oh, that is another one. That's eight. Put it in the pot.

800 bucks. 800 bucks. 800 bucks. Rich Eisen for you. Shout out, Rich, baby. What's the fun for? St. Jude's. Marlo Thomas, Danny Thomas.

It's for St. Jude's. St. Jude's. Yeah, that's. Love Rich, no the integrity score we just had an integrity episode the score kind of got me with the i'm glad frank said something i'm so numb toward at this point i didn't even hear the i didn't my my alarm bells didn't even go off that should be a thing coast for for uh rich every time somebody swears on this podcast we should donate money to saint jude i like that what a what a great why you've been

trying to get a seat left? You know what? No, it's on my reminders. I wanted it... You know, I just... When I see that commercial, I just cry. Literally, you know? And the things... We have so many good people in this world. And that's just a wonderful place

if your child was sick. It's just, you know, it's just awesome. St. Jude's is awesome. I'm with you. Where is that? They're everywhere. Everywhere? The big one's in Memphis, I believe.

Kind of St. Jude's and Shriners. I think there's more Shriners in San Francisco, but similar, I think. Dang, dang. Man, I'm about to tear up just thinking about it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's the importance of youth sports for kids and the generations and the youth? What do you think kids get out of youth sports for kids and the generations and the youth what do you think what do you think kids get out of youth sports you know i always thought a a bored mind was a wandering mind and i think it's important to keep your kids active and involved whether it be

sports whether it be dancing whether it be, whether it be booger picking. I don't really care what you're going to do. Whatever you do, do it well, practice it, and get good at it, and involve yourself. That's what I think is important. Youth sports, we were a competitive group. We played like the higher levels. It's not for everybody, but as long're we're moving our body we're being active

we're thinking we're learning competition i think competition you got to have a loser in a competition so you know there's really no loser right why do you have to have a loser in competition because you got to have a winner why would be it's just the way it is no it's because you got to teach kids the failures of the future that they're going to have that it's okay to fail. That's very well said. Thank you, son. Yes. It's okay to fail, and you're going to fail,

but you need to know that you're going to fail. Right. Well said. I just think it's important, you know, and I don't think as long as you're applying yourself and you're doing something, even if you do lose, you're still a winner. You're still competing.

So I think those are important things for children and everybody. Losing is only a failure if you don't learn from it. Yeah. Wise, wise. Well said. And then, so I've always, I played youth football around this time. I've always been adamant about youth football because it taught me shit.

God damn it taught me things i never was able to learn at school like so can you as someone who's been around a lot of young men and women learning and playing football like what things do football how does football and youth football specifically help make better people wow well we coach, we coached Jules. I coached Little League and I coached football. Football was our main sport. But, you know, football, it's man on man or human on human, you know. And you really learn if you're mono on mono and you apply yourself with every ounce of your energy

fighting for that one yard you really learn what hard work is you really learn what achievement is by utilizing your body your mind to achieve that goal that you know football it was just like i mean every 10 yards is not a lot but it really is in football to try to pick up that first down. You know, that was always the great thing about football for me, just the effort you have to put in to gain that inch. And if you do gain it, you know, you learn something from it. So that makes better young men? i think it what it makes is

they understand how far they can apply themselves working together working together setting goals sacrificing learning accountability each other like those are the things you learn yeah yeah i got one more sap being yelled at i get yeah you make me tear up over here so i got another sap for you so in this episode we saw how much time and energy and importance you put on youth sports you were president of a youth football program and your son obviously went on to have a great football career not everyone gets to do that not every kid in that program what was it like for you uh as a parent to you know put all this time and energy with your kids and your family and see you know your son go off and do this do what he

aspired to do how did that come from your perspective how did that make you feel it's tough you know it's uh the hard work they put in you know you obviously you always want to win right and we just talked about winning and losing but you learn you know you learn uh about winning and losing but when it's your own child and the media and you know when everybody's watching and they start criticizing your your child or if your child gets nicked up or if your child fails or makes a mistake it hurts i mean there was times in julian's career where his mother and his sister would shut the drapes on game day we wouldn't let anybody over because it was always like you know it first started out as a party everybody was coming over and you're having a good time not me but and then you know once jules would get dinged up it's like okay you guys all gotta go out gone see you later bye and so that was like

game one and then you know as he grew up in the professional level we stopped having friends over because it's just complete anguish you know and and i thought we were weird until i went to my first game in new england they put us in where the parent section is and i was with my oldest son jason and mom and i can't remember if nick was there and we thought we were weird because me and my wife would not sit together she'd sit over there i'd sit over there because we'd just fight uh and um and so when we got in the stands everybody was the same every parent it was like we were like i don't want to be that guy he better not make a mistake oh god i hope he doesn't get hurt. Oh, my God. We're like, hey, we're normal. Every parent thinks the same way.

And if you don't have a kid playing pro ball, you just don't know. And shut up. Shame on you. Mom and dad, brother and sister, family members, they go, it is hard. And it's heartbreaking. And it's jubilation. I was fortunate. We won three Super Bowls.

We played with Brady, Gronk, all those guys. I mean, it's more than you can imagine. And then, you know, Jules turning his career into what it was. Unbelievable. Any leftover questions, Jack? Man, based on that one, picking up where Frank left off there. Frank, I've seen the BTS footage here, so I have a little bit of an idea. But to piggyback off that last point,

what was that feeling like running down from the stands, down through the tunnel at Mercedes-Benz Stadium there in Atlanta, once you had just found out Jules won MVP, and you're running out on it? After he ran into Urban Meyer. I did. I ran into Urban Meyer. I was running down.

I think I was hobbling. Did I have my hip done after that? Yeah, I think my hip was messed up. I couldn't barely walk let alone run and we were running down and i'm i i was always an urban meyer fan i i really liked him when he was at bowling green because we were in the mac and that kind of you know you didn't recruit me no i get it i get it but the ultimate mac daddy uh he just asked me to come he asked me to come talk to the team i go why would i come talk to your Ohio State team?

I didn't go to Ohio State. We went to Kent State. Yeah, I went to Kent State, bro. You had five racks of Ohio State, one little spot for Cleveland, and there was one jersey over there at Kent State. I always remember that going to Cleveland. What? When you were playing at Kent,

when you walk into a store to see memorabilia of the Cincinnati Bengals or the Cleveland Browns, you couldn't find it. There was one little spot. The whole shelves were all full of Ohio State. Ohio State. We've never seen that. Yeah, I've never seen it. In Redwood City, it's like 49ers everywhere.

We're a pro-town area. Yeah, yeah. We had Cal Stanford, which you go down to yeah we had cal stanford which yeah you go down to the south you go to ohio you go to michigan and those people love tuscaloosa yeah they love it i was like ohio state so when uh down in the bowels of the stadium getting on the field yeah we were driving i go urban you're feeling yeah i was driving i was running down and uh i go urban meyer how you doing i'm edelman's dad he goes oh great player you know we shook hands that's the only way you can get

in with these guys if you if i popped you know jules's name and then they're always cool um i'll tell you it's not it wasn't unexpected jules has always you know i'm I know I'm his dad, and I've been heckling you about all this stuff, but the truth is he always seemed to come through in the biggest moments and the biggest games. He's just, that's just the way it was. I love that. Yeah. Oh, man, I love it.

And one last leftover question that we didn't get to. We touched on one of the great Frank isms at the beginning of this show. When you're green, you grow, when you're ripe, you're right. Are there any other great Frank isms that come to mind that we need? Well, you know, I'm guilty. That was, I'm guilty of 27 years ago when Jules was playing, when he was a little feller, I would always try to be a step ahead of him. So I would, I would, you know, I i would study isms i would look for something to

say i always had to have something ready because jules was kind of a rascal and so i always had to be an inch ahead of him and i'll tell you one of i always hated this we almost had a shot to go to the bowl game at uh kent and coach mart Martin let Jules come home. We had a two week break before the bowl game or a four week break. Yeah. And Jules coach let Jules come home for a week, you know, cause they had this great season winning six games at Kent was like unbelievable.

Right. And so, and when he came home, him and Kurt were downstairs, you know, and there was a lot, you know, like I said earlier, nothing good happens after 12. Well, you know, it's my boy. And I said, Jules, you do realize that drinking on Thursdays causes flub snaps on Saturdays. So, remember that one, Jules? Yeah. causes flub snaps on Saturdays.

Remember that one, Jules? Yeah. I like that one. I always had to come up with little isms. And the reason was is to try to keep my boy head straight. One step ahead of the rest. Try to be ahead of him. Jules, do you have a favorite one? When we were, like, real young, like 10,

I just remember my dad saying, adjust, adapt, or die. That one survives. Not overcome, or die. What's the birdcage? Oh. Yesterday's news is in the bottom of a birdcage. What do you do with it? You throw it away.

No, you put it on the bottom of a birdcage so it gets shit on. Yeah, yeah. You think that's good? That was yesterday. It's like old newspaper. You put it on the bottom of the birdcage and it gets shit on. I love it. Yeah, no doubt.

Heck yeah. Jack, did we miss anything? We were pretty darn good. Had to get those in. Shout out to Oak Grove. Oak Cliff. oak cliff oak cliff texas yes home of our former guest kenyon martin just had to give him a little shout out there big football guy too big football guy big football guy a lot of oaks in this episode got me confused with that um but yeah great episode it was really really really darn cool to finally get Frank in here. I think the name's got to be...

I think it's got to be... It has to do with Redwood City. Yeah, it's got to be Simply the Best Game or something. That was our song, yeah. My dad used to throw that on after wins. Tina Turney, Simply the Best. You're simply the best. Better than all the rest.

And then the champions. Whenever we won the champion, we'd play the Queen song. Yeah. and then the champions whenever we won the champion we'd play the queen song we are the champions simply the best game I love that this one's no no that has nothing to do with me these guys did it all

it was awesome simply the best game the simply the best game simply the best game simply the best game. The simply the best game. Simply the best game. Simply the best game. Simply the best game.

Yeah, take the the out of there. Okay. So we got the new scoring system. We let the guests give their scores. Let's score the game. Is this the greatest game of all time? Let's score it. Pops, zero to ten. Decimals okay zero being terrible ten being perfect

i'll go seven five what are the stakes of this game oh oh okay the stakes the stakes of this game were high you know the stakes of the game was the super bowl i mean i don't know if you can get much higher than that so i i gotta go go at 10. You know what I mean, right? 10? Well, you lose, you go home. You win, you go to the Super Bowl. It's NFC AFC Championship game. 10?

Yeah. It's not the Super Bowl. It's not the Super Bowl, but for us it was. Okay. Jules, you still have to score two. For me, I got to give it a nine flat. Nine flat. Star power, Dad.

Zero to ten. Well, we got one NFL player in there. Yeah. You know? So I'll go star power. We'll go seven-five. Seven-five. Higher than hockey games?

Okay. Professional hockey games? All right. Jules, you got to do star power, too. Oh, star power? Yeah. Yeah, it's probably like a three, Dad. Professional hockey games, all right. Jules, you've got to do star power, too. Oh, star power. Yeah, that's probably like a three, Dad. It's two.

I'm only worth two points. Okay. Two. Give me a two. Yeah, you're probably right on that. A lot of Robert City legends, but, I mean, we've had Super Bowls. You want a two? We had ten Hall of Famers on a field.

Pro Bowl. Pro Bowl. Gameplay, Dad, zero to ten ten i'll go seven five seven five yeah it was a defensive battle but there was good interceptions good special teams you know a doink kick the doink yes the single doink the single the single doink game could have been. I'll go 7.3. The name of the game, Simply the Best. Oh, so I have to. Yeah, I'll go.

That's a great name. Simply the Best. Game. Right? Simply the Best game. I'll go 7.5. I'll go 7.5 too, Dad. 5.7.

That's still respectable. It's a Pop Warner game. Pop Warner game. We're respectable. We're right in there. Respectable. What does that put us? We're above 500.

5.7. That puts us just ahead of the 2014 TBT final. Team Barstool versus the Notre Dame alums. That is it. Okay. That's where we should be. Yeah. And then the right.

And then the right. We'll get bumped down. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. 29. Thanks for the question. 2014 NLDS game two Giants versus Nationals. It's okay. That feels right. That feels right. Yeah. We should be a Barstool. Yeah, yeah, yeah. 29th. Thanks for the question. 2014 NLDS Game 2 Giants versus Nationals.

That feels right. That feels right. We should be a bar stool. I mean, the alum. The scoring system is working. Big belly players, whatever they are. Big cat in the starfish jersey. Yeah, exactly.

We miss anything, Pops? Yeah, we did miss one thing. Do you remember when we went out and practiced after the Naperville game? We went out and practiced after the Naperville game? We went out and practiced in the parking lot. We did a walk through in the parking lot for like three hours. The Walt Disney World parking lot. We're going to do this over and over again.

I think I may have got something on the Texas team. I was out there. We were trying to get you guys up to par. What's his name? Probably gave you the you the commish probably gave you some intel yeah i probably got some intel you want to plug anything podcast plug anything pops no i think we've been plugging wait how's retirement going you retired yeah you know not real i i don't really know what you keep me busy so you know your businesses keep me busy i appreciate you

letting me work with you and um uh no serious you know but closing a1 you know put that shirt down that little little belly showing what do they call it a dick do dick do okay that's not a bad word that's a richard do we're safe we're safe. We're safe. No, you know, I, you know, it's funny.

It's been in my, my reminders, St. Jude's. And it really had nothing to do with the rich eyes and thing. It really had to do with those commercials and, you know, Marlo Thomas and her dad,

it would, you know, that's just stuck in my head when you're our age. Uh, but, uh, so I think we've plugged that pretty good. We,

how much money did we make them? We made the St. Jude's children's hospital, $1,100. $1,100. Let's go, baby. Let's go.

Good job guys. Pays to swear. All right. All right. We're, we're done with the show, dad, but we usually don't do this.

We usually don't keep, you know, the guest on when we do post-segment shows, but since you're pops and you're staying at the house, I mean, I can't kick you out. Okay, gotcha. So why don't you stick around? We're going to hit the hotline together. Okay.

This is fans that call in. And remember, fans, call the number 424-291-2290. Let's get into it. Hey, Julian. A while ago on the Gangs of Names podcast, you said for people to leave questions and things for Frank. But I'd like to leave something for both your father and your mother um i would like to thank them both for raising the family that they did because not only did they change one life

but they changed many so please thank them both for me thanks bye is that is that a question just a hard we thank you that was awful nice we thank you we hope we i can't talk either i hope we've done well for you hi this is nikki uh my question is for when you have frank on i was just wondering either what moment or what part of julian's career is dad's most proud of uh great episodes lately. Look forward to them each week. Thanks, guys. You know, it's a funny thing. When your child becomes a professional athlete, you have moment after moment after moment.

I don't mean to say it, but it's a repeatable statement to say. I mean, there's just been so many of them. What's one moment that makes you proud, dad? One moment. Just answer the question. I would say. I mean, there's just been so many of them. What's one moment that makes you proud, Dad? One moment. Just answer the question. I would say. Super 49. No, no.

I'll be honest with you. I would say his first game against the Philadelphia Eagles when he ran his touchdown back. And the punt return. The Wally Pipkis. I'll tear up. So. You'll make me cry.

So there you go. You know. This message is for Frank. Back in 2012. When Julian did the speaker series at the Patriots Hall of Fame, that was the very first time I heard, when you're green you grow and when you're ripe you rot. And so I just wanted to thank you for that quote.

Bye. Whose quote was that? You're very welcome. That quote was given to me by one of our assistant coaches, Carl Austin. Carl, shout out to you, buddy. I appreciate it. Actually, he was the head coach, and then I took the team after Carl did. Coach Carl Austin.

Coach Carl Austin. Great guy. He was like a general manager at a bunch of McDonald's. Yeah. I'd roll up there and like, yo, is Carl there? He'd always give me some burger bucks. He was tight. Shout out to Crazy Carl.

Yeah. Hey, it's Shane from New York. Originally from New Hampshire, big Patriots fan. Just wanted to call and ask Frank what the hardest part and the easiest part was of raising an elite athlete obviously specifically julian thank you yeah this part the hardest part um you know there it was just trying to keep his mind focused but he with that said he always had his mind focused julian knew what he wanted to be so um they're really just keeping him on the straight and narrow was really the hardest thing keeping his grades up um jesus i had 3.5 yeah i mean that

it really was that's the hardest thing yeah no yeah like watching your son get hit or like watching me go through acl surgery or watching me having a concussion it's trying to keep me on the straight and narrow well it kind of what's on your mind I took it more as getting there not being there well just in general what's the question well all those things were horrible that was the you know injuries I didn't want to bring that up, okay? I don't want to discourage things. Injuries are the worst. They're horrible.

And what's the best? Winning. Anytime you win, it's awesome. What's up, Frank and Jules? So we heard the story about Julian charging the mound before a game. How did that leave you feeling, Frank? What were the emotions like? Yeah, how did you deal with your son being a little hot and charging the mound on you?

Peace out. I felt horrible. Because we were bantering back and forth. And I threw the ball inside. We were in the Babe Ruth just before a game. We were going to have batting practice, and he had braces on. He says I hit him. I didn't hit him.

He's embellishing. So when I threw the ball on the inside of the plate, and he was dropping his shoulder, he was slapping it. He was being a rascal and so we got into some bannering and he finally charged him out and i grabbed his arms and he was brocking his head back and forth and he bit himself with those place braces and blood was all over his no way yeah blood was all over his shirt so i did not and i when he went to the i just felt horrible but i'll be honest

that's what we did i mean the bad news edelman's that's that's everybody i wasn't hiding from it people would drive by where we would go look for fields to practice and uh that's just what we do drive by and what they look at and they'd call, Frank, you're throwing that ball awful hard to that little guy. And I'd say, yeah, I know. But that's probably why he couldn't hit a curveball. I was pinching him too much heat. So, Frank, so during this quote-unquote banter that led to a charging of the mound incident,

how much money do you have to have donated to St. Jude's? Well, yeah, it was pretty bad. Well, we were all kind of bad all the coaches out there at that time it was kind of like kind of like okay but i would try to do it you really try to do it in a huddle when the guys because the kids liked it but you couldn't do it really as being angry. You had to do it more of a joke angry. You know what I mean? Like you little rascals, but you wouldn't use that word. You say little fuckers? Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

1,200, 1,200. Times have changed. Times have changed. But I'll be honest with you. I promise you, anybody out there that is competing at the higher levels at youth sports, I promise you they're saying the same thing. Don't be that naive. Hi. I was so happy to see on the Games with Names storyline that Frank is going to be making a debut. All this time, ever since you guys started this,

I always wanted to ask him if he were to pick his favorite game out of Julian's career, the best game, which one would it be? He's the best. Thanks. Bye. Favorite game. Yeah, I got to go the Seattle Super Bowl. Yeah, that was the first one in.

That was kind of like Jules' breakthrough game for me. There was a couple games before that. But that was a touchdown pass catch in the Super Bowl was big. And, you know, we all knew what we signed up for. And we knew what Jules had to do. And Jules knew what he had to do. And that catch with Cam Chancellor over the middle of the third and 14, that's my favorite catch and that's my favorite game.

Well, there you go. Can't argue with that. That's the fans. Well, that was fun. What a game. What an experience. Thanks again to my dad, Francis Joseph Edelman. That's been another episode of Games With Names.

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