Games with Names - Highlight Reel: Patriots Storytime

Episode Date: June 1, 2025

In our very first edition of Games with Names: Highlight Reel, we've pulled a selection of some of the best Patriots stories from the show...so far. From Matt Light's pranks to Ty Law's contract negotiations and everything in between, we've got it all. Enjoy some of the best stories from Foxboro ever told in The Nuthouse!Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters. I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to deep cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Made for This Mountain podcast exists to empower listeners to rise above their inner

struggles and face the mountain in front of them. So during Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional wellbeing, and then climb that mountain. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify, the thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Have you ever thought about going voice over I'm hope Woodard a comedian creator and seeker of mail validation. I'm also the girl behind voice over the movement that

exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy but to me voice over is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.

No. Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor stories of courage

You'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us about the nature of bravery Listen to Medal of Honor on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcast Welcome to games with names We've got a brand new compilation on some of our favorite moments from the show. Let's go. I will tell you this, one of the favorite lines I ever heard Vrable say that was directed towards me is we had a stag night to raise money

for the Light Foundation in my hometown, right? And we stopped doing it because I thought, man, there's gonna be a lot of kids born in my little hometown that don't belong to these daddies. And so I was like, we're gonna, and I'm telling you, it became a little crazy, but Vrabel would come in town with all these other guys. We had AJ Hawk when he was at Ohio State

and Younger Cats too, right? And the mayor of my little town, now you gotta think Mayberry, right? And he gets up and he has this proclamation where he's gonna make it Matt Light Day, right? And he stumbles on some words. An hour later, Vrabel gets up and we're having an auction and he's like, hey, hey, hey.

And you know, when he gets the mic, man, it's gonna be profound and it's gonna be hilarious. He stops everything and he goes, listen, I'll give anybody $1,000 right now if they can get the mayor to spell matriculate because he tried using that in a sentence and he stumbled over it. And in real time, man, it was really uncomfortable,

but nobody said nothing. An hour later, Vrabel has it up there on the auction block. I'll give you a thousand if you can get the Mayor Greenville spell matriculate. And we lost it. But that's our boy, man. That's a funny, very funny man. We went to the Derby for two days,

and then the day of the race, we saw like the start of the race, and then Tom rallied everybody up. We went to the Derby for two days and then the day of the race we saw like the start of the race and then Tom rallied everybody up. We went and got on some on some planes and then we we flew to the Manny. I was still wearing my smelly ass Kentucky Derby suit. Was that the wedding through it in Las Vegas casino? We all were. I know. How many times do you think we fought? How many times will we fought at the Derby?

We fought in Vegas. Didn't we fight on this Vegas trip in the middle of the street? I'm bringing you fish hooked me Yeah, you bit my you bit my pinky You gotta fish you gotta bite we were in the van I'm in the back of the van in the back of a rallied out Yeah, and then we got it we hopped out of the van is like as if nothing happened just walked into the room Yeah, we literally were we're fighting in the car.

What sparks a fight between you guys? Anything anything? I don't know. We were just we were riled up. We let's just say we had been drinking for as well. We boys were 18 straight hours, teams, straight hours. We get out, we start fighting or like pushing each other. And then like the door opens, we're literally in the middle of strip fighting he gives me a fish hook with my pinky and he bites my pinky I almost bit it off I had to almost bite bit that thing off and we fought on it like with the sunset oh

it was the most beautiful fight I've ever been it was so beautiful we'll have to get the picture of that picture and show the people. I have a still frame of that. We are literally I don't know why why were we drinking that day or fighting that day? We were drinking because we were drinking yeah We're out of the city limits in Mississippi as long as you're out of the city limits you can blaze like freaking You're sick of the Sam. I mean, it's like whatever you want to do. But we have the Target set up, and of course Moose is filming and catching this because me and my partner are sitting there side by side,

earmuffs on, shooting at Target, and I put a Rick Ross song, because I've been playing with the social media way too long, long enough to get me in trouble, but I put a Rick Ross song behind the black coffins. And the name of the song it, Black Coffins. And the name of the song was 100 Black Coffins. And it's by Rick Ross, and I put it in black and white.

So it was like in this slow mo, and you just see me and my buddy up here shooting these targets, and I literally just unloaded. Pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow, pow. And probably missed a target every time, but I caught the video, and I posted it on my social media. No big deal until Bears rings my damn phone and I'm like, this has never happened before

and why is he calling me? So Bears calls me and says. Is it, you have him saved in the phone or is it just random? Bears Nigerian, I don't know if I pronounced that the right way, Bill's secretary is where it was in my phone. It's still in there right now. So when I saw this name come across my phone,

my heart just hit my stomach and I'm like, this ain't good. How long after the post? 30 minutes. It was like no time. Like I said, hey, the page got like the FBI, bro. They don't miss nothing, okay? So he called me and I tell them, hey, the page got like the FBI, bro. They don't miss nothing, okay? So he called me and I answered phone like, hello?

He said, Ridd. I said, what's up, Beers? He says, Coach wants to speak with you. Like, all right? So I sat on the phone, Bill gets on the phone and I guess he hops on, I was like, hello? And Coach says, Ridd. I say, I'm gonna have to edit this,

because my mom's gonna punch me in the face for using this language, but you know Bill loved them F-bombs. Coach goes, Ridd, just what the fuck are you doing? And I'm like, what you mean coach? The freaking post that you just put up there, really think about it, man. You're unloading a freaking pistol on a video, on your socials.

I mean, we just had a guy arrested, give me a fucking break, I said. damn, Coach, like I wasn't even thinking about it that way, you know? I'm just back home chilling with the boys, shooting targets, better yet, just don't even bring your ass back up here. I was like, whoa, did I just get cut? Like, how does this go down?

So I looked at my boy and I'm like, oh, I don't know if I got fired or not, like what's going on? So Bill hung up the phone or we kind of had some choice where no, before he hung up the phone, we're gonna cut this part but I got a cadet story so y'all just choose if y'all wanna say it or not. But when he told me, he's like,

just don't even bring your ass back up here. I'm like, oh wow, so automatically I went into, coach, I have the utmost respect for you, I did not know that I had messed up that bad. I said, there's targets in the background, we weren't doing anything wrong. I said, you're comparing me to a murderer

because I'm shooting targets in the backyard. I said, but either way, I hear you, I will not be back there. And I'm gonna let you know this, my faith is in God and upstairs. I said, this is not, I hear you. I will not be back there. And I'm gonna let you know this. My faith is in God and upstairs. I said, this is not the end of my career. If I am cut, I hung up the phone. It was probably a dumb move to do that.

But I hung up, bro. Because I was like, I was blown away. Like you just called me a freaking murderer because I'm shooting at targets in the backyard. This is what we do on a regular, bro. Like this is life. So I hung up and probably wasn't the smartest thing to do. And within like, I would say 30 to an hour,

I got another phone call and it was Bill. And he says, you know what, better yet, when you come here, do not even stop at my office. He says, you go straight upstairs and see Robert. I'm like, Robert, Robert, Mr. Krabs? I'm like, oh my God, bro. I'm like, I don't know how this goes, because Bill, whether y'all know it or not,

Bill moves the needle on everything around there. He's making all the calls. So him to push me to the big dog, I'm like, bro, I'll just stay in Mississippi. Brady, we'll talk about Brady's deal, because I didn't get to do your deals. So Brady's first deal was the rookie contract, and I'll say this, unfortunately,

we were doing business at that point in time, not thinking long term and relationships. It was a very bottom line way of doing things and it was something Bill and I weren't comfortable with. And we, so Tommy's first deal, he got less than he should have for his slot. There wasn't slotting back then, but everyone knew what the slot was,

it wasn't called the slot. And we broke his shoes a little bit. Unfortunately, the people that were doing the contracts at that time. And then when it came time for Tommy's next deal, I was doing the next deal and then the next deal. And I'll never forget, we were at this one point in time, I think it was maybe Tommy's third deal, it might have been. And Don and I weren't making progress.

And we were trying to keep the team together, right? That was part of our thing. We didn't expect people to take home team discounts. We were hopeful that people would want to spread it and keep the winning because we felt, you know, high tides raise all boats and the more that we won, there was all these other opportunities, marketing, et cetera, et cetera.

And I'll never forget, Don and I couldn't get anywhere, and Tommy was getting annoyed because he was getting distracted, not annoyed with anyone, he just wanted to think about ball. And I'll never forget, one morning he comes up to my office and he knocks and he comes in and he closes the door and he says, hey, can we talk about this contract? I'm like, Tommy, we can't have a negotiation,

that's against the rules, we're not allowed. He goes, listen, we got to talk, but he and I had a really good and close relationship. And he said, where are you guys at? So I told him where we were at, told him where you guys are at, and he says, what's the drop dead number? I'm like, Tommy, we can't have this conversation. I got to talk to Don about this.

And I'll never forget, it was the deal he signed, it was the, I want to say it was the six year, 10 million a year deal. Think about that. Six years, 60 million, it was like, and I'll never forget, I said, that's probably our choke point, but we're playing this game, Don and I,

it's not a game, I shouldn't call it that. We're having this negotiation where one team's low, one side's low, one team's high, and you're trying to find the middle spot. And I'll never forget, Tommy looks at me, shakes his head, looks away, goes, if I can't live the rest of my life off of $60 million and my family, he says, I've got problems.

He's like, get Don on the phone. I'm like, Tommy, we can't do this. He's like, get him on the phone. We got on the phone and I'm like, Tom, we can't, we can't do this. He says, get him on the phone. We got on the phone and put it on speaker and Tommy goes, Hey Don, it's Tom. He goes, Hey, how you doing today? He goes, and you know, Don's all upbeat. He goes, I got you on speaker phone.

I'm in Scott's office. Dead silence, dead silence. He goes, and Don's like, what are you doing there? He's like, Don, listen, man, this is ridiculous. He said, I'm talking to Scott, and I'm like sweating because it wasn't a negotiation. He was just asking. And anyway, Tommy's like, listen,

you guys just get this done. And I'm bringing this story up because I go back to Don. Don and Steve could have made so much more money if they didn't do what their client wanted. Don and Steve have left money on the table year after year after year after year by doing what their clients wanted and maybe not trying to talk their clients

into something that would pay them greater, 3%. Anyway, I don't mean to make that a long story, but it's just, I think the world to Don Yee. Yeah, Don Yee's, we call him the dragon, bro. He's just calm, cool, and collected. I always wanted to spike the ball in high school and college, but it was always a 15 yard penalty, so I never did it.

And then my rookie year, I got to the NFL, and I never even grung spiked my rookie year. I don't think I did even one my rookie year. Yeah, you did in the pre-season? No, I don't think I grog spiked at all. Maybe one time, but I really can't recall it. But the grog spike picked up my second year when I started just scoring touchdowns like a machine

week in and week out. And I started grog spiking it and I don't know exactly what spike caught on. But I remember I finally did it. I was like, oh, I finally got the spike, the ball. And then it just became like a meme and I couldn't tell you exactly what spike it was. But then everyone's like, you got to keep spiking the ball. And it was just going all over the internet.

Fans were loving it. And I can't tell you exactly. I can't pinpoint exactly when it truly caught on. Do you remember? I don't remember which spike it was, but I just remember like the first one that you did spike. He scored a touchdown. It was an insane touchdown and he threw it

and he threw it down so hard. The ball went like 45 yards in the air. And that's why it became the Gronk spike because people were like, oh my God, he just break the fucking football. September 26, 2010 is what ESPN credits as the debut of the Gronk spike. That was your second ever NFL touchdown.

How come we ran extra Hills? Did you guys know this was going to be a 120 play fucking game? You know, because we are sitting or we practiced over at Houston university. I remember. And we're sitting in the locker room and Bill said, you know what, we really need to be ready

with these two point plays. So that's what, that was, you know, he had, you know, he had a sense we need to be ready for him. No guarantee that it's going to happen, but we need, you know, we need to be ready for this. And that was, and you know, the running, the running the hills, you know, the running, the running the hills, you know.

Put it in the bank. Put it in the bank. But you know, one of the great moments to me was, you know, you go on some teams and say, we're going to run hills in December, you'd have a rebellion. Okay. And we had one game,

probably around 2016, practice was over, Bill didn't say a word. The whole team just went over to the hill. Because you know what we're gonna do. That turned you on, Ernie. That turned me, yeah. And I said, hey, you know what? This team totally gets it.

Champions. They champion, they don't need to be told. They know that, and they know this is going to pay off in a big way because one of the great quotes was after Super Bowl 51, Dan Quinn, the head coach of the Falcons, you remember what he said? What'd he say? We ran out of gas.

And you know what? The New England Patriots did not run What'd he say? We ran out of gas. And you know what? The New England Patriots did not run out of gas. We never ran out of gas. Meanwhile at halftime, Jules is saying, gotta believe. It's another good quote. It's gonna be a hell of a story. There it is. It's gonna be a hell of a story.

But can you walk us through beat for beat the pick six? You said it's an easy one. No, that was one of the easiest picks, because I always give credit to Vrabel. Vrabel made him an Aaron Thowe. It was one of those things where he did the same thing that Indy used to do and start putting Marvin in motion. So they put Isaac in motion,

so I couldn't get him at the line of scrimmage. And it was one of those places you had to back off, you go into motion, and you just seen it, you're coming. Vrabel got through so clean that, okay, now I'm just reading him. And then it was an errant throw, so I said, I'm gonna be hesitant in case Isaac,

because Isaac can route. He will route the hell out of you. So it's like, okay, you playing for the double move, it might be, because I didn't know, because he wasn't going in motion like that until then. So I was kind of trying to feel it out. So what type of game is it gonna be? And V be and variable came in there and he wind back the thought I'm like you bullshit He threw come on man. Come on Kurt, you know, I mean and it was coming like it was slow motion

I was like, oh, this is the Super Bowl That's the kind of shit you drop because it's so easy So easy is so easy you would drop it But you know once I got it man, all you seen was flashes and it was like everything went blank. And it's like you hear the screens and it just went silent. And I'm running down there and just flashes and knowing that this is it in the Super Bowl

and got that pick and the rest, we rode the hell out of it. You know what I mean? We rode the hell out of that thing, man. But that's about as brave as that. What was the hand that just like? I don. You know what I mean? We rode the hell out of that thing, man. But everybody's brave. What was the hand that just like? I don't even know what I was doing. You know, I just, I just. It looked cool though.

It looked cool. It looked cool. I just threw it up. You know what I mean? It's something that I've never done before on any of my picks or my pick sixes. I didn't throw it up. It was just something that just happened

and I threw it up there and it's been the iconic pitcher ever since. It feels like, you know, we're going to draft Edelman. I'm like, oh, and we're going to make him a receiver. So we're just going to keep him at receiver, teach him receiver, we're going to teach him how to return punts, be on special teams. And so he showed up and it was, it was,

I'll never forget this. And Tom was hard on rookies. And I was hard on rookies too. I mean, I really was, but like it was Welker in the, in like when you did routes on air, it would be Welker who was incredible Julian who was learning and then Buddy Farnham wasn't it Buddy Farnham or wasn't he the third guy, baby? I don't know but there was another guy in

buddies from my hometown Thick his name in there to get a get a handover mentioned a little yeah And so so Wes would run the route and Tom would throw Wes the ball. Yeah. And Jules, I mean, you'd step up and run the route basically the same exact way that Wes ran the route. Exactly. And Tommy would be like,

Jules, I mean, didn't you just see how Wes did it? And you'd say, Wes, I'm doing it the same way. I'm doing it the same way. But you know what? Over time, he stuck with it and stuck with it, and he got better and better, and then returned punts. And he was hurt a lot. He had injuries when I was there.

So he became Julian Edelman kind of like after I left. But I mean, in the 2009 wild card game, we got drilled. He was the best player on offense. I mean, he made a bunch of plays in that game. And we came in after that game and said like this guy's gonna be a great player for us. you you you you you I've seen a lot of stuff over 30 years, you know, some very despicable crime and things that are kind of tough to wrap your head around. And this ranks right up there in the pantheon of Rhode Island fraudsters.

I've always been told I'm a really good listener, right? And I maximized that while I was lying. Listen to deep cover The Truth About Sarah on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Made for This Mountain podcast exists to empower listeners to rise above their inner struggles and face the mountain in front of them. So during Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast, focus on your emotional wellbeing,

and then climb that mountain. You will never be able to change or grow through the thing that you refuse to identify, the thing that you refuse to say, hey, this is my mountain. This is the struggle. Listen to Made for This Mountain on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you ever thought about going voiceover?

I'm Hope Woodard, a comedian, creator, and seeker of male validation. I'm also the girl behind VoiceOver, the movement that exploded in 2024. You might hear that term and think it's about celibacy, but to me, VoiceOver is about understanding yourself outside of sex and relationships. It's flexible, it's customizable, and it's a personal process. Singleness is not a waiting room. You are actually at the party right now. Let me hear it.

Listen to voiceover on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the United States. Recipients have done the improbable, the unexpected, showing immense bravery and sacrifice in the name of something much bigger than themselves. This medal is for the men who went down that day. On Medal of Honor, Stories of Courage, you'll hear about these heroes and what their stories tell us

about the nature of bravery. Listen to Medal of Honor on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an iHeart Podcast.