Games with Names - Dudes on Matthew Slater

Episode Date: June 20, 2026

We're covering Patriots Legend Matthew Slater, with Slate in studio! Gronk and Julian Edelman discuss what makes Matthew Slater so great and some of their favorite stories.Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You have the desire to help to make a real difference? The College of the City you offer the program Dependance and Scenti Mental. Acqueray the competences essential for accompanying and support the

people confronted to the difficulties of health and dependance. Construise a career enriching to service of the community francophone of all the country.

Donnay of quality in French, it's possible with the CET. Visit Collage LaC.A. right now. An initiative of the Consortium

National of Formation in Santee in Santé Sancta. 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 Fernando Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about

soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots. Listen to American Football on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential and it's also elusive, but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats. Open your free IHeart Radio app. Joy 101 and listen now.

Joy 101 with Hoda Cotfi is presented by CVS. All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here. Our podcast is called Hey Jonas. We're here since everyone has a podcast, we want it to as well. And we've had some incredible guests so far. And now our good friend, Nile Horn, is joining the show. How's it going, boys?

Hey, Niall. It's the same thing with Slow Hands. Slow Hands is not about anything else, really, is it? You know, or taste so good can't be about food. You do the same, Nick, with some of the stuff that you've done. You too, Joe. Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.

We're going to sit and ask Slate some questions, and we're going to determine what kind of dude Slate is. Off of the questions that we're going to ask you. This is our very first time having a guest on the show, so we appreciate you coming here. Slate is a bad. Being patient with us, just going along with us, your two favorite teammates that you've ever had in the locker room.

and being another great teammate once again, but this time in the Nut House locker room here at the dude's house. We appreciate you, man. And we want to figure out what kind of dude you are with the questions that we're going to ask you. Let's see. All right. All right. Let's do this.

Let's do this. First off, you got your notepad? Oh, yes, I do. I'm taking notes. There we go. Yeah. And he's going to probably, you know, spit some facts out there that we should probably listen to in life as well. Because this is Slater.

Let's start off. This is Slater. Let's start off with a hard one. What kind of dude do you think you are? Oh, that is tough. Because you want to be humble. Yeah. Or you don't.

What kind of dude do you want to be? Yeah. I like to think the team dude. What was the description? A dudes dude. I like to be a dudes dude. Bring the vibe up for everybody. Put that down, dudes, dude.

I see that. Positive influence on the guy. Positive influence? I never really seen you as a negative influence. I never. I mean, Jules did a lot of negative things when you were his roommate. So what were you doing inside that house? What was going on?

Was he a negative influence behind the scenes? He made it out on skate. He was not your roommate. Hey, we don't know. You would be on the Giants. We would be on the Giants. I'd be on the Giants. You got him to the house.

There it is. I'm going to take all the credit. You should. All right. So dude, dude, that's what he thinks. All right. Well, Slate, did you wear flip flops in the shower? You have to wear flip flops in the shower.

You have to. You have to. You have to. Well, why's that? Why do you have to? Because I've seen some of them feet in there. I got some of them. Can't do it.

I got some bad feet. We're in a lot of route. See my own feet. Yeah, we've got to have. All right. So, half two dudes. All right. Who's the most famous person in your phone?

Most famous person in my phone. Yeah, most famous. I mean, I would say one of you guys, but TV, probably. TV. TV. Pretty famous. All right. TV.

I would say he's up there. He's up there. I mean, who's more famous in TB anyways? He's got the most famous person. I mean, this guy. This guy.

Yeah. We wish we had his number. Yeah. You guys probably got all, all five of his cell phone. No. Slate bringing the phone. All five.

All five. Yeah. He gets new cell phones like socks. Go on. Give me some numbers on that one. That was good. That was good. So TB.

Okay. All right. What was your college GPA? 3.1. Ooh, three. Ooh. Yeah. Oh, low.

Oh, I thought it was going to be way higher. Slacking a little bit. That's why you didn't make it into the Ivy League. Makes sense now. I was just, I'm disappointed with that one. 3-1. Your GPA in the special teams world, I would say at least at 3.8. I appreciate that.

Extra curriculars. Too many video games. A lot of extracurriculars. Too many video games. What video game did you play? Oh, we're playing NCAA football. Okay, okay. Just making sure.

So you were a crazy maniac in college. Yeah, we had an issue with the video game. Okay. We should play as a team. we played each other had a pot circulating some of those guys may be watching they know who the best was

and it was me Slate you're the best one had a 3.1 and I was played for you the best one Did you play who'd you play with What was your team on NC2A? I would go Ohio State

Was what year was this? Ted Ginn Ted Ginn Oh! We go another special teamer We go four wide spread it out and then you had

Troy Smith, running quarterback. See, I can still remember my roster. We were good. We had that thing rolling. He's hitting four verticals looking off safety. Get it up. Get it up. User coming in. Run with Troy Smith.

Get the edge. I get it. All right. So NC2A played that. Okay. What was the song on your college highlight film? Ooh. Hmm.

I cannot recall. Ooh, you can't recall. I can't recall. It's right. Play too much football. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I've been hitting the head. I've been hitting the head. No recall. Let me put that on the notes. That's not good. Oh, that could hurt you. How many college offers did you get out of high school? Ooh.

I'm going to say like 15 maybe. Ooh. What were you? A three star? I was a three star. Oh, okay. I was not Rob coming out. 15.

And funny enough, I. It was just a four star. I had a 15. I committed to go to Dartmouth out of high school. I was going to go the Ivy League route when I was taking my study. seriously in high school. And, you know, I chose to stay at home and go to E.S.A. and play at home.

Play D1, obviously. I mean, UCLA still. That was a great choice. UCLA. It worked out. It worked out. It worked out right. Top five.

Number one. Top five. Number one. Top five. All those cow bears out there. Berkeley. I mean, Berkeley. Oh, it's us.

No. The Arizona. Wildcat. Look at the latest. Same division. Same conference. Number one. Cal, you're number two.

All right. Slate. Let's get back into this. determine what kind of guy you are. What was your first car? My first actual car was a Lexus GX, 460. Fancy. And I got that in my third year, then Lee.

Third year, you go. Before that, I was right in my dad's car. First ever car. What was your first ever? It was my dad's Lexus. He loved me. He loved me working around. Lexus family.

Toyota makes a good product. They make a good product. Okay, what do you drive now? Right now, I'm in an Audi. Audi. Electric E-Tron? Ooh, E-Tron. One of the people for the Earth.

Yeah. I like that. You see? Taking notes. Taking notes. This is really going to determine. No, no. I'm really going to determine what kind of duty is.

All right. This is good. Wait, I got to put in parentheses, electric. Electric. Put that in parentheses. Slate. What was your first endorsement deal? My first endorsement deal.

Rebock. Rebo. Team Reebok. You told Mike to kick rocks. Before Reebok cut me loose. Reebok cut me loose. They cut you loose. They cut me loose after my third year.

Well, I think they cut out one loose. They went on to 10 pro bowls in Nike. Yeah, take that Reebok. Thanks, Reebok. Oh, oh. Yeah, never mind. You told Reebok to kick rocks. Rebock kicked me in the curb.

But I think Reebok kicked everyone to the curb. They left the NFL. Yeah, they did. Well, they had JJ. JJ was still wearing Reebok. Jay J.J. Watt. He was still wearing Reebok.

Was he where? He had his own line of shoe, which I probably would have chosen JJ over me as well. Oh, JJ. Okay. Rebock. Let me see that. Rebuck. All right.

Kind of like a throwback type of guy. You know pumps? You don't know how pump plates? I remember the pumps. I was being rebocs with pumps. That's why you were so fast. I don't know I feel you're pumping up those shoes.

Good old Jim well and you walk in the training room. Coach, I'm hurting. Just pump your shoes. Just pump them up. Get out of here. Pump those shoes. I need to stay out of there with Jimbo early. All right.

What, um, what's a square. root of 144. Oh, I know, but I can't give him the answer. 144. Can I phone a friend on this? That's easy, Slate. Come on, man. You're committed to the Dartmouth. It's all right. We got it. It's not. 72. You're just, you're just messing with us. 12. 144. I don't know. I thought we'd see. I'm not a math guy. Didn't know. Edit that out. Wait, you really? You really don't know that? You really don't know that?

It's 12. Oh, okay. I was going to say. Didn't know. It's TV 12. No. Fast. Not fast enough. Describe your locker. Was it messy? It was messy. It was messy. Okay. Yeah, it was bad.

Ben. When you're there for so long, it's hard. Yeah, I mean, I got all this stuff in there. I got 16 years worth of stuff. Stuff. So many accolades. Yeah. Bibles and stuff to slate.

I mean, trophies, game balls, jerseys, rovac, uniform. Box to Nike. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of stuff. There's a lot of stuff. 16 years in one spot. A lot of stuff.

There's a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff. All right. I got one. If you weren't a pro athlete, who would you work for? Or what would you do? Well, you know, I've always had a passion for ministry. So I think, you know, my plan before I got drafted was become a youth pastor.

So that would have been the road I would have taken. Pastor. I'll put that down. That's P-S-A-T-O-R. As a pastor. now and a fight breaks out at practice. What do you do? Fellas, we got to, I'm going to do

the same thing I did when Rob fought Michael Bennett at the end of the Seattle game. Explain that. Stop, fellas, stop. You know, like, I don't, you know, I don't want guys fighting out there. But, you know, that's part of the deal sometimes. It's football. Like, this is a

gladiator sport, so it happens. All right. You have the desire to help, to make a real difference. The College, La Cite, you offer the program Dependance and Scenta Mental. Acquare the competences essential

for accompany and support the people confronted to the difficulties of health and dependance. Construise a career enriching to

service of the community francophone of all the country. Don't know the quality in French,

it's possible with the city. Visit Collage LaC.a right now. An initiative

of the Consortium National of Formation in Santee Sautonu by Santee

Canada. I love the sounds, the buzzing from the stadium, the chanting from the fans, the announcers calling the place, soccer, football, it's home. Why do I watch the World Cup? That's like asking me, why do I breed? I inherited that fandom from my mom. I like watching it with my dad. It's a connecting force. From Futuro Studios, I'm Fernanda and Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the year. U.S. and its underdog roots.

We go beyond the game to the people and the stories that make it great. A soccer game is a festival. It's not just a game. It's your culture. I took an elbow to my head, which cracked my skull. It is an American game. The Brazilians don't like hearing that, though. Are they the only ones that don't like that?

Nobody likes that. As we get ready for the Men's World Cup this summer, listen to American Football as part of the My Culturah Podcast Network. available on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Hoda Kotby, host of the podcast, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby. Together, we're going to have meaningful conversations with the world's most fascinating people, like when actress Olivia Munn shared how she overcame fierce health challenges. I've gone through breast cancer and then helped my mother through breast cancer,

and that was more difficult. There's a lot of people who understand postpartner depression. I was not prepared for postpartum anxiety. Listen to Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here. Our podcast is called Hey Jonas. We're here, since everyone has a podcast, we want it to as well.

And we've had some incredible guests so far. And now our good friend, Nile Horn, is joining the show. How's it going, boys? Hey, Niall. It's the same thing with Slow Hands. Slow Hands is not about anything else, really, is it? You know, or taste so good can't be about food. You do the same, Nick, with some of the stuff that you've done.

You too, Joe. Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey Jonas on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcasts. What's the most you've ever bench pressed? I don't know. You know. You were in that room a lot. 375?

375. Oh, that was three. That was maybe pre the four shoulder surgeries. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So acted like he didn't know but knew. Mm-hmm. 375. That explains a lot what type of guy he is.

Oh, man. A trickster. All right. Trickster. Have you ever been fined and for how much? I have been fine. Ooh. From Face Mask?

From the NFL or from Coach? From the NFL. Oh. Face Mask, my rookie year, right? In the preseason. I go my entire career. Don't get fined again. My last year, I get fined twice for, you know,

illegal crackback blocks because I'm trying to hustle and block for the returner. He didn't save it. No, I didn't save it. I went head hunting. Forearm shiverer up high. No, James Thrash.

I'm just kidding. James Strass. I'm just kidding. I was not head hunting. I'm just, that was, no, illegal crackback blocks. So you're just running towards the other side of line. Yeah, I'm just trying to finish my block. Which is completely understandable for a guy that played in the era where it was okay to do that.

That's right. hard for him to change his mindset in the latter part of his career. Yeah. Well, you change your mindset once you get fined. He doesn't really settle. But I'm kind of taking it. He's kind of a dirty player, dude. Yeah.

Face masks? Like he's freaking. Playing hard. Nah. He's masking? Playing hard. Whistle to whistle. Rob.

Getting fined twice. That's not that much. Yeah, I know. I'm just messing. What's your fastest 40 time? Ooh. I mean, now, we all know how this goes, right? You're fast.

Man, I one time ran when I was training. I ran this. Yeah, that's the one. I ran 428. 428. Oh, woo. And we can't argue that. When I was training.

I was trying. I had a second on. What was your fastest 100 meter? What was your high school time? High school I ran 10-6-2. 10-6-2. 17. Now, how fast do you think you could have got that if you were training as a man?

If you put the same amount of man hours. I mean, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't, I don't like to talk about what I could have done and this, but... Are you breaking 10? When I ran in high school, I did not live weights. No, I didn't live any weights in high school. Oh, you're going to have been so much faster. I was 17 in my senior year.

So I think I could have, you know, I think I could have touched a 10-3, 10-2. 10-3, 10-2? I mean, I ran over 23 miles an hour with pads. With pads. Oh, my gosh. So fast. Yeah. Was that your last year as well?

Oh, I wouldn't run no 23 last year. Okay. And then last... 21-8, 21-9. 21-8? I was like 15-6. It was bad. You got up and got up.

He had it. He got up and got it. Wait, last speed question. Could you beat Randy Moss in a 200? Now, we had this debate. Oh, I know. We had this debate. We argued this.

I mean, look, in my prime... In Randy's prime. I could have been 10 meters behind him in my prime. Shadow Shea. Shadow Shea took sleep. I ain't going up against Randy Moss's speed, man. That's an all-time speed. All right.

So he says, Randy, what was Randy's 40? He ran like a 4-1, didn't he? No, he ran 4-2. I don't know if he ran, but he was bad. We used to mess with Randy. He floats. He does float. It's crazy.

Because Randy was, what, like 32, 33. We were spry. And Chad O'Shea used to mess with Randy all the time. Slate can beat you. Slay can beat you. Randy didn't like that. He didn't like that. He didn't like that.

He didn't like that. But that was fun. He'd be like, Oh, chatty-yo. Even. Hell no, chatty-o. All right. When was the last time you cried?

Oh. Besides when you heard you were coming out of this episode. Last time I cried. You know what? I was at a funeral for Don Hasselbeck. Don Hassel. A couple weeks ago. Funeral.

Great man. Great mentor for my wife and I. And, yeah. Great football family. They really are. They're great people. They're great people. Whenever I see Hasselback, just always a great deal.

Always. They're tremendous family. Really good on TV, too. Yeah, they are. Very knowledgeable. Sharp guys. Sharp men. What's a first date with you look like?

First date? First date? I like to go somewhere quiet where we can actually, where we can talk. Walks and talks. Yeah. You know, you go to a movie. You're not really talking. You know, dinner's a time.

toss up, you know, maybe you just go hang out at the park or my wife and our first date was the cheesecake factory. Oh, beautiful. With Gary Gaiton. Gary. He was third willing it. He was third willing it. But, you know, it gave us an opportunity to talk. You got to talk on a day. You got to get to know one another. Now, oh, really important question

to follow up on that. What cheesecake did you guys order? Oreo cheesecake. Of course. Come on. Oh, so good. The best. Orio. A quick story about Gary Gai and he was, when I was a rookie, he was the linebacker here for Patriots and he made me feel like I couldn't play, you know, at this level in the NFL because he jammed me on my very first route. And I didn't get off the line of scrimmage for about

five seconds. And then he finally backed up and the ball was already thrown. I was one yard off the line of scrimmage when Tom threw that ball. So Gary, you made me feel really uncomfortable out. I think it worked out all right. It did. You need that. You need that. You need that. You need that. It woke me up. That's right. I got a I got to really focus on. this line of scrimmage. That's right. In the light of where we're at, some would call that an NFL baptism. Some would.

We got to wrap this up. Okay. A little longer than we anticipated. What you didn't do with your four kids? What's that? He said, we got to wrap it up. I said, what you didn't do with your four kids. It's getting a little out of control.

Get them. Yes. There we go. That's what you shall do. That's it. What's doing my job. I'm asking you questions about it at the beginning. I shall do my job.

That's it. What's the last book we read? Last book, The Psychology of Money. That's a lot to you. It talks about, you know, how our perspective sometimes shift once we start making money and how greed really plays a huge factor in a lot of people experiencing financial ruin. And I think, you know, that is very true, especially in America. I got to read that.

What is it called? The Psychology of America. That's P-Y? Okay, just making sure. Wow, Slate. Two morning. I told you. Your last one.

I told you Slite's going to be a great gas, man. He's going to keep us, you know, straight edge. That's what he's doing. We're learning from him. That's what we do is. We're learning a lot from him. And we already knew a lot about him. We knew everything about him, but now we're learning more.

Yeah. Let you got one more question and I'll go one more question. All right. All right. This is a good one. Okay. good one because we really haven't talked about this category with you yeah how did you prepare your steak yeah who were you like an absolute dog animal out there just a wild one i'm going rare now here here's a

here's an inside track for you guys if you ask 10 black folks how they prepare their estate seven of them are going to say well done okay are you and i came up a well done guy and then i started hanging out with My brother is from the other. And I realized that medium, maybe medium rare is the way to go. Slade. I'm a medium guy. Medium guy.

Medium guy. Yeah. Like the blue of a lot, man. Converted me. And then lastly, how do you eat that steak? Depends on who's around. By yourself. I have to go hands.

Oh. I'm going to my hands. Ain't going on. Fork knife. Fork knife. No, no. You're by yourself. I like that.

I mean, when you get down to the bone. Do you pick up the ball? You got to go hand. You pick it up with your hand. You got to go hands when you're with the rest. And if you're my sons. On that bone? Me and my sons,

we're going bone. Okay. You got to teach you. I'm using, I got to use the fork. You're teaching the boys that you got to get all the meat. You got to get all. No meat left behind.

That meat close to the bone is some of the best meat on that, on that state. Well, I think we got all our stuff. Let's one sec. Yeah. Let's go review this. Ernie. Shall we go to the booth? We're going to the booth.

We're going to the booth. Ernie said we shall. We got to look this over. You see, yeah, he thinks he's a dude. He's 3.1. I thought he was going to be hired. Me too. So he's really not a whiz.

Fortune, though, back. That's freaky. That's freaky. Academic, read about money. Oh. Acadette. And he likes his steak medium. And he also eats it with the hands when no one's around.

But he preferably uses a fork in front. Okay. All right. You know that I got you. Yes, yes, definitely. On three, what do we think he is? One, two, three. Whiz?

Yeah, we think you're whiz. As we kept on saying throughout this interview, we kept on learning about new stuff. I learned that greed is the route to people losing their money. I learned that if you're six foot five and a dog, you could play special teams for 12 years. I learned so much about Osgood. I mean, yes, I mean,

I was a little disappointed with your GPA, but there's a lot of factors that were into that. You were committed to Dartmouth because you were actually that smart. He got into Dartmouth. You were doing so many other things as well, like being an all-star in the video game world and being a brainiac there. And that was helping you out on the field. And you knew that was your real master of your life was football.

I'm going to wipe that later. Still at 3.1, you got by and you didn't even care about what was going on in the school world. You still got a 3.1, but you were a master with a 4.0 on the field and then video games that made a lot of money doing that to take care of your family. There it is. You know what?

And also, you have to be a wizard to be a teamer for 16 years in this fucking league. It's real, like that's what people don't understand for you to constantly innovate yourself each year to bring value to a team

where they're literally giving up a roster spot for you to just play special teams. That's unheard of. 16 years. Pro bowler 13 years. All pro 11 years. Whatever. That's a wizard.

That's a wizard. It's like some Harry Potter shit, Slate. I know you're religious and you don't read that stuff. But it's like Harry Potter's magic. I'll take you. I appreciate you. I appreciate you coming on the show being our first guest here on dudes on dudes. We weren't really sure how I was going to go.

But I can tell you this. You took it to a whole other level. with us, man. We felt really comfortable with you. And not just on top of it that you're a whiz, man. You're a dude's dude as well. You bring the team together. You're a dog. You're a dude. You're a stud. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. But the main aspect of your life is that you are a wizard, man. So that's why you are a whiz. Can I just say something? Yeah, go ahead. Let me just say one thing. I am very proud of the two of you guys for how you've transitioned out of the game and how successful this next chapter is for both you guys. Keep

killing it. Thanks, man. Thank you. I mean, I'm going to shed a single tear. Me too. I'll shed a tear. I feel like this is egg knock time back in 2010. You know something? Your stud is well now. That was studdly what you just said. I appreciate it. It's that time to put on your jersey and wave your flag, whoever you root for. Why do I watch the walk up? 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 Fernando Chavari, and this is American Football, a show about soccer culture in the U.S. and its underdog roots.

Listen to American Football on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Joy is essential, and it's also elusive. but now there's a new and exciting way to start your journey toward a more joyful existence. Joy 101. It's a new podcast hosted by me, Hoda Kotby. If you're craving inspiration to maximize your joy, tune into these candid, uplifting, and moving on-air chats.

Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search Joy 101 and listen now. Joy 101 with Hoda Kotby is presented by CVS. All right, listen up. The Jonas Brothers here. Our podcast is called Hey Jono. But here, since everyone has a podcast, we wanted to as well. And we've had some incredible guests so far.

And now our good friend, Nile Horn, is joining the show. How's it going, boys? Hey, Niall. It's the same thing with Slow Hands. Slow Hands is not about anything else, really, is it? You know, or taste so good can't be about food. You do the same, Nick, with some of the stuff that you've done. You too, Joe.

Drop what you're doing and listen to Hey, Jonas, on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your podcast. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano. 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 crying.

You just understood. That's how personal it got. Wow. Then after that game seven, Mark keep coming 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.