Games with Names - Dudes on Fred Warner

Episode Date: June 6, 2026

We're covering San Francisco 49ers Linebacker, Fred Warner! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what makes Fred Warner so great and some of their favorite stories.Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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On to Cincinnati. On to our next guy. All right. Here we go. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, children of all ages, please put your hands together for a warm welcome to our next dudes and dudes. Dude that we will be talking about. Fred Warner, ladies.

Fred Warner, Friderico, Anthony Warner, Panamanian, Mexican. All right, here we go. He's a fucking dog. Just go. Synopsis. Go. My synopsis right here.

That's a big word. And let me tell you, I just hit a synopsis on Fred Warner. Here we go. What's AI say, Robbie? Fred Warner is a standout linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers, known for his exceptional tackling and leadership on the field. Off the field, he is admired for his dedication of, hold on.

Off the field, he is admired for his dedication and humility, often crediting his single mother for his success. Warner's journey from Mission Hills High School to the end of is inspiring, showcasing his hard work and perseverance. Man. Man. Dude. Federico Anthony Warner.

What AI do we use? I feel like we use like weak AI. Like this AI is like I mean it's the broken like the electronics are sparking like type of AI because like last week week. When I had the AI printed out, let me tell you for our first couple episodes, that was a description. We need, we need, we got to work on AI. Yeah. Because AI didn't, didn't come close to describing what this guy is on the field. You know, I love the story about, you know, come where he came from.

And you could, you could see with that passion, how he plays on the field. I remember watching him. I went to that, that Raiders 49ers training camp last year. They had a joint practice. And I was out there real early. I was visiting the Raiders when McDaniels was over there. Don't like let's not get in the comment section about that and I yeah. Yeah, no, no, the comment section is right here.

I thought you're a patriot for life and then you're all over with the Raiders. No, I was just saying, there's more of the hate for Josh. I was talking like, all right, we don't need to hear that right now. All right, all right. But I look, I go out to practice early and there's one guy out there at the very beginning. It's Fred Warner and there's the two fields and he's over on the far field. I don't know what he was doing I think he was smelling the grass

doing some kind of weird war dance or something but whatever he did he let you know the first play of that practice he set a tempo man and that's the kind of guy he was like I was like this dude's doing some like predator shit that's fucking fire I like this guy more than anything

I found out he's Mexican he plays from my old team that I love like I love this guy and then I've met him a couple times he's just a fucking like the AI said. He's a stand-up dude that's very, got a lot of humility, but he's also an assassin on that field, man. He sideline to sideline. You played against him a bunch.

How was he? Actually, I never actually played against the San Francisco 49ers in my life. I was hurt the two or three times when we did play the 49ers, which was a disappointment. I mean, I wish I truly played against every team in the NFL. I wanted to play in every stadium in the NFL as well. He played him in bucks with the bucks, no? No, we never played the 49ers.

Mm-mm, man. So I think that's the only team in the NFL I never played. So, but let me tell you, I was just covering him. It's the only team that I didn't get scored on by Grunk. I was covering him this week. And let me tell you, I had to cover Fred Warner because he made a couple plays. And they had a couple turnovers. And he had the biggest play of the game on the defensive side of the ball.

Oh, shit. Jumped up in the air and had that interception versus Jacoby. And it literally just showed like his freak athletic. on that play because he had a jump in the air like a wide receiver. He was about, you know, a couple like 30 inches off the ground, solid vertical jump. And then he had a, he landed on his back. And then he popped up immediately.

Like, his awareness is a 10 out of 10 to be a defensive player and they have hands like that. And then to have the awareness to get up in that the play is still like. There's wide receivers in the game that catch the ball and fall to the ground and still think it's college and it plays over and then they drop it on the ground and then it's a fumble. Not Fred Rico. Not, no. Not Fred Rico, ladies and gentlemen, he popped right back up and let me tell you, if I had

to catch a ball and fell on the ground right now, it would take me like 20 seconds to pop right up right up. What do you do? He said it on air. He popped right up in literally a half a second, juke some guys and ran it back for a pick six. Pick six. It was kind of the nail in the coffin at the beginning of the game where you knew it was going. And that's, and that's, he makes those plays all the time.

Now, you know, he's been a very durable player and he may got a little banged up on the sideline, but he looked like he was all right. But I remember, I, I was watching you do the highlights on Fox half time show. And I was like, thinking like, he did fucking just catch that ball and get up and go and was instinctive. And like, when defensive guys get their, their ball, their hands on the ball. Sometimes you see him carrying the ball like. a loaf of bread. He looked like a big ass running back. And then he got that Pop Warner. He got that

Pop Warner arch in his back. You know, when you get tired at the end and then he jumped it. You get to that Pop Warner arch when you got the kid who's running away. You got the Pop Warner arch. Talking about that, you know, Pop Warner, he had to play offense at some point in his life. To be able to catch a ball like that and then to be able to run like that after the catch. I mean, he had to play like running back, freaking slot receiver, something growing up. And he played at BYU, actually, you know, a star right there from the very beginning. And my first game ever.

That overlooked to it. Yes, yes, he did. And my first game ever was actually versus BYU. That was just a fun fact I was throwing out there. We actually won. They were number, I think, 20 in the country when we beat him. And I beat BYU and a bowl game as well, the first bowl game for Arizona. Zero touchdowns, but my brother had one.

It was my last game actually at the University of Arizona. And it was the first bowl game in 10 years for the University of Arizona. It was the Vegas Bowl. We won there. What was most important was I was in Vegas. At 19, 20 years old. Was it fun? Yeah, it was fun. It was really fun. I was the first time. I was still too young, though, so I didn't really get to experience Vegas like that. I was trying to. You know I was trying to. No, what was in that gift bag? The gift bag? The gift bag? I don't know. That was like 15 years ago. I never went to a bowl game and I always wanted to know. I always

You want to know because you'd hear about like guys go to the bull games and get like an Xbox. PlayStation. We got a PlayStation. And I actually sold it. What was that website? Craigslist. My friend sold it for me. No, it was Nintendo Wii.

My friend sold it to me because I had no money. I was like, yo, I don't really play video games. We actually had one system already. We played Halo 24-7 on Xbox. I was like, I don't need this Nintendo Wii. He sold it for me on Craigslist for the amount that it goes for in stores. I threw him like 50 bucks and I had like another $200 to. to buy people beer.

You know what? I bet you if the NCAA knew about that, he would have got fucking fined. No, you would have been, you would, or not fine. It was a gift. You're allowed to sell a gift. Are you?

But that's how crazy. I mean, I stole it like two months after. You're out here selling wheeze, and you go to a college player's fucking the players lot now. All you see is Lamborghinies, these little fucking college kids. It's crazy. Rob's over here trying to get $50 from a Craigslist,

all of his... All I needed was 15 bucks a week. And I was satisfied. It got the job done. What did it get you? It got me a 30 pack. And it got me lunch. That's all I needed. That's all I needed, folks.

Protein shake in 30 packs. Protein shakes and beers. No, did you just get the protein shakes back at the facility? Well, actually, yeah, yeah, I got the protein shakes at the facility and a dinner, which I would bring back as well. We would like stack up the to-goes. So then we would have kind of like an actual lunch. dinner that night the next night as well just in case if we need some backup food beers and and

the food but dang i forgot oh oh now i know why i had no money that that's where i was going i had no money in college because my brother and i we put all our money together i was left in our bank account we bought a hot tub the first three weeks here at the university of iraqa literally we drained our bank accounts they were at zero dollars yep yeah that's us yeah the guy i mean back to Fred Warner. I mean, the guy, 2021, he had a record breaking contract. Five years, $95 million. He reset the linebacker markets.

All you other linebackers out there, thank Fred Warner, $40.5 million guaranteed. I mean, the guy was a super store. What was his first purchase? I'm not sure. I feel like he's a reserved, you know, guy and people should be looking up to him for sure,

off the field and on the field. You don't even see no blame. What was my first purchase? That's a good question. When you got your first paid or when you got drafted, what was your first purchase? My first purchase, I've always wanted an escalate. So I actually bought a used 2008 escalate. And it had 30,000 miles on it. And it was the red, the red one. And I just thought I was so freaking cool, man. It had the rims. I had everything. It was the best car of all time I've ever had. So I got to get an escalate again, man. It's been a while. That was my only escalate I've ever owned. I had it for about four years. And then I gave it to my mom.

because I'm a good guy like that, you know. But great car, man. That was my first purchase. How about you, Jules? What was yours? I bought a laptop. Laptop. My signing bonus was 485, bro.

I didn't think I was going to make the team. I bought a fucking Apple laptop, like one of the new Macs. I still have it. You were getting ready for your next job, actually, when you bought it. You were like, I'm not going to make this team. I didn't know. I mean, maybe I'll be an accountant. Randy Moss, Wes Welker, Joey Galloway,

trading for Greg Lewis. You divide the odds, Jules. Just get a laptop. You defied the odds. All right. He's only missed one game in his six-year career. Terrible, reliable. That's crazy for the middle linebacker.

It is. It's like some London Fletcher. Started every game as a rookie. You know how hard that is to do? That is. Did you start every game as a rookie? No. Did you even play as a rookie, really?

Yes. West Torres ACL. Oh, well. And then I, that's not the reason I was looking for, Julius. That's sad. Well, yeah. I didn't start as a rookie.

Not until like week 10 because I didn't know the playbook. I started week two at the old giant stadium. We lost, but I had like nine catches in 109 yards. Well, that's more important then. It was like my first time ever. I was like,

holy shit. Wes was out. And then Wes came back and bawled out. And then I didn't play for a long time. Well, we're at 11 minutes now. These guys are just so great. We can talk about them for 30 minutes, 45 minutes an hour, but where does he rank an all-time

Niners on the defensive side of the ball? On the defensive side of the ball. Patrick Willis. They always have insane. Patrick Willis is a Hall of Famer now. He went into Hall of Fame. I think this year. Am I right?

Last couple of years. Last year. Yeah. He's in the Hall of Fame, though. So you got Patrick Willis. Ken Norton. I believe if the San Francisco 49ers can finally win a Super Bowl. I mean, they got a stacked team.

They're going to obviously be having a chance to win one. I think he's going to be right up there in top three on the defensive side of the ball. Bryant, Young. Oh, you're going old school. You're going old school now. You're the Niners fan, so you grew up in the Bay Area. So you can, you can name everyone on the defense. As much as the Niners, as much as the Niners.

Ronnie Lott, Ronnie Lott, even right. Or no, that was Eric Wright's son. I used to run track against him. All right. I would say he's a, he's a top five defensive players. Of all time. Of all time. How about you?

What would you think? He's on his way to be. He's on his way. He's got about another five years minimum left. Yeah. He's on his way. Those, I mean, there's. He's on his way.

If he plays five more years and wins a Super Bowl, he's easily, he, they win a Super Bowl. He's, he's, he's in there. He gets in there. But the thing is, the Niners get this big rap about how sexy their offense is. They've had some dog-ass fucking defensive players. you said Ronnie Lott, Dana Stelfield, Bryant Young,

Ken Norton, he used to fucking Merton Hanks. Like, they used to have some dogs over there, bro. Like, oh my God. You can't forget about the Bosa.

Bosa. The Bosa guy. They have so many, they still have crazy guys on their own team. Dion Sanders was there, but he was there for a year. I didn't even know Dion Sanders

played for the Niners. Yeah, he won a Super Bowl at them. That's a fun fact I just learned. He won a Super Bowl with them. He won a Super Bowl with them. He won a Super Bowl. Super Bowl with the Niners, Deon Sanders?

And then he went to Dallas next year and a Super Bowl. I mean, I was young, man. I was a young boy. I don't think you were. What year was this? 94, 95. I mean, I was five years old. That's why.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, we got to get into the categories. What kind of dude is he? Fred Warner is. Is he a stud, which is athleticism, football IQ, pedigree of a being a stud, or is he a freak, which counts as, you know, unparalleled physical ability, one-on-one, instead.

I mean, or is he a dog, which is relentless, motivating, all that good stuff, physical and mental toughness, or is he a whiz kid? Does he know the game, intellect of the game, the innovation of the game? Is he clutch or is he a dude, dude, dude? What's a dude's dude? A dude's dude is positive attitude, locker room guy, guy that you hang out with on the field, off the field at dinner, family guy, just everything overall, calm, cool, collective. That's a dude, dude. So I think what,

what categories do you think he's in? I think he's definitely, what are the, what are the, like, for, for his athletic ability, um, I'm going to go either on the side of being a stud or a freak. Studder or a freak. Mm-hmm.

I was thinking stutter dog. I think he's just a stud because he's, And if you said stud or dog and I said stutter free, what does that have in common, Joos? Well, if it was a Venn diagram, I think stud would be in the middle part. Yes, it would be. So I think he's a stud. You go to those two circles and the ones that overlap.

Mm-hmm. I heard that recently. Probably back to eighth grade. Is there any numbers in that Venn diagram that I can calculate? Well, if there was like six numbers in this one and three and four were over in this side, and then it went over to three and four when there was six numbers this and the three and four over and they both inter, it would be those the three and the four. All right.

I think he's a stud. Yeah, he's a stud. I don't know what the heck you were just drawing up. I don't know what your imagination was thinking. Then diagram. But all I know is that Fred Warner is an absolute stud of a linebacker in the NFL. Stud pedigree of the middle linebacker right now and the, the NFL. It was like, it used to be like Luke Keeckley, Erlacker. Right now, Fred Warner's up there.

And there's a bunch of other guys that are in that category. We'll get into him this year, but he's definitely in that category. He's a stud. And what's crazy about it too is that he's kind of like the new era Mike linebacker as well, because all these, all these offenses were turning the passing offenses. So you need a guy that could be able to cover and also stuff the run. So you kind of needed a more athletic linebacker, and that's what he represents. And that's why he got paid the way he got paid. And that's why everyone looks up to him at the linebacker position,

especially the Mike, because back in the day, you had Mike linebackers, and they were, you know, 250 pounds, 260 pounds, 270 pounds that can just stuff the hole and stop the run. But they can never really cover that well. I mean, in zone defenses, yes, they can fill the hole, you know,

and make a couple plays. But this guy can come. as well. Side line to sideline fast, but he also doesn't lack in the lower end department. He still brings the wood, the heat. Yes.

So he's just a fucking stud. And he's the first one to do that in the new era when the passing offenses just kept growing and growing. Patrick Willis was like that a little bit too, though. Like, I think it's just Niners. These Niners know how to get that damn linebacker. They sure do.

Ravens. Ravens do too. Patrick McQueen and shit. But they let him go. Hey guys. It's us. The Jonas Brothers, I'm Joe. I'm Kevin.

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Search Body by Jake Radio and stream it for free. Have a great day. I heart radio. What's up, fam? Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. It's our favorite time of the year on our podcast, Point Game, the playoffs. We're digging into the biggest surprises of the season.

And I'm looking back on some of my greatest playoff moments. If we didn't talk ever again, I was part of it. You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Marquis come in to you, he's like, you know I love you, dog. You know, it's all love. This was just playoffs.

This was just basketball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? And it's beautiful. The guys are young and cute and fit. It's not just a game.

It's your culture. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.