Games with Names - Highlight Reels: Locker Room Stories

Episode Date: September 7, 2025

In this week's edition of Highlight Reels, we have athletes explain what it's really like to be in a professional locker room, and give some of their favorite locker room stories from their careers.Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Hey, this is Matt Jones. I'm Drew Franklin. And this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that?

Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get. Listen to NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Frank. On the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed.

There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal. Just a chaotic, chaotic scene. In its wake, a new kind of edict. Enemy emerged. Terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem. problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate.

Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Dan. He's Ty. Hello. And we're the solid verbal college football podcast. Tune in for previews, recaps, bits you won't hear anywhere else, and all the emotional support you need as a college football football football. Join us all season long as we ride the roller coaster of this ridiculous sport. Listen to the Solid Verbal College Football Podcasts on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. We don't just love college football tie. We live it. Welcome to games with names.

I'm Julian Edelman, and we got a brand new compilation highlight reel starting now. Now, Julian Edelman, on what it's actually like in an NFL locker room at halftime. Would there ever be a player that took a shower at halftime? Absolutely not. I used to think it was weird when guys would take their pads off. Some guys would take their pads off halftime. I like my stuff snug. You got the sweat.

Would you eat it half time? Yeah. Yeah. There's always like pickles for the salt. Okay. So you retain water. They always have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. That's a huge thing.

Yeah. You know, as Travis with the uncrustables. They'd have, sometimes they'd have chicken broth if it was like a cold game. Yeah. They have every kind of like power bar or protein bar or meal supplement bar. Yeah. Yeah.

Sometimes when it's like a, you know, a high play first half, guys are kind of drained, usually in the heat. Yeah, you've got to take in calories. Okay. Cool. Pre-game shower? Oh, I shower like five, six times before a game. Because you, you know, you wake up.

I like to wake up shower. I like hot water on my face that helps me wake up. Then you hit the tubs. You know, warm up, do another shower, and then, like, you go do ball drills, this, that. I don't like the sweat. And then I'll do, like, another shower. I'm a showerer. Yeah.

I like five, six showers a day. Also, day before the Super Bowl, you're not practicing, right? Friday's the last practice. Day before Super Bowl is usually a mental sharpening day. So it's kind of like your walkthrough, your dress rehearsal. Yeah. You know, each team, they're at a hotel. So they'll probably clear out the ballroom.

You have the whole hotel. And you'll go through the whole script. So you go through first and second down, all your first and second down plays. You'll go through all your third down plays. You'll go through all your red area plays. You'll go through your two-point menu. You go through got-a-habit plays just to get that mental rep. Yeah.

So when it's game time, the more you know the material, the more you can be spontaneous with your play. Yeah. You know what I mean? That's when like instinctively things happen. Yeah. Next, Matt Light confesses to the best. thing he ever stole from an NFL locker room what's your favorite thing you stole from another stadium like the listen is there statute of limitations i mean i'm not going to jail on your podcast

no i'm saying like double jeopardy bro it's gone that's a good point yeah yeah it can't be tried twice there's no way gosh man the best thing ever hey you know so some of my favorite stuff that i have hanging now we just moved down to chapatchett rhode island um and in the move I found some stuff that I had ganged from the Super Bowls. So, again, I was always the first guy out of the field, right? It was like my goal to get to the bar as quickly as possible. Bar-Louis, baby. And I would rip down all these banners.

I remember just jumping up and just running. Ting-ting, ding, ding, ding, ding. Wadden it up. Throwing, t-t-ting, ding, ding. And I have all these really awesome banners from the Super Bowl eras. Like the ones that hang in the hotel. Yeah. When we get to the hotel, I couldn't stop myself there either.

They'd be, like, hanging off like a big atrium. And I'd find my way up in there and like, sink, sink, sink, sink, sink. Can we just get it? What is your craziest prank that you did as a New England Patriot? Okay, so I would say probably the best one that I did on a team, I mean, the best one I've done, period, was having some guys pulled off their private jet. That was one of the greatest of all time, man. What do you mean? I mean, and by the way, I did have a guy, and you can look this one up.

just did a full video on it. I had a guy kill a turkey and he thought it was the world record albino Osceola. And Osceola is the only found in Florida. It's a version of a turkey, right? It's a subspecies. And he went hunting with me. But what he actually killed was a broad-breasted white turkey that was farm-raised. And like some, like literally, I get a double wide in some guy's backyard.

And I just put it out in the woods and he shot it. And he snuck up on it. I told him that if you squat down like a sumer wrestler and carry a face. turkey tail fan that you can walk right up on him but you cannot do that but he did it and he practiced it for a while and it's one of the funniest things ever i have it all on video like by way i was right next to him when he shot it but he had no idea it was in a full gilly suit in a pomeadow bush snake almost bit me and and when he sneaks up on it i swear to god when the turkey saw him it was like oh thank god there's a human i've been out here in a while like what the hell

like he came from like literally a guy's backyard and so he shoots and misses him and the bird He was so fat, he could barely walk, 44 pounds. Like, dude, that's twice as big as any bird. And he started walking my way. I'm like, this is how I die. Being a dumb ass. God. This is how I die.

And thank God he didn't shoot me. But anyway, my brother calls him as the head of Florida Game and Fish. I made up 200 copies of a magazine where he's on the cover. And he thought, like, I'm dead serious, dude. I mean, I put a lot of effort into this. A year later, he gets up on stage at the shootout, where we sold the hunt to begin with. And I said, Jamie, you got to come up here and help me sell this thing, man. I'm like, it's going to go for big money.

You just shot the... And so he gets up and he's talking about how he killed the Moby Dick of Turkey. He's the Tom Brady of Turkey Hunt. I got it all on video. I had my guys there wearing Florida Game and Fish

collared shirts that I had made up because they were there to get content for their website because they were getting ready to launch it. They brought 200 advanced copies of the magazine. He's signing the magazines for people at the event. Like, you can't make this stuff up, right?

He had it mounted. A farm-raised bird mounted. So up on stage, He's talking about all this stuff. I'm the Tom Brady of Turkey hunting. I killed the Moby Dick of Turkey. And then I said, well, you know what?

We actually have this on film. Why don't we roll it? And in front of 500 people a year later, he finds out it shows me getting the bird. And he's on the stage like, are you serious? Like all this realization, it's one of the greatest videos you'll ever watch, man. We laugh so hard. Now, Joe Missoula on what an NBA locker room is actually like at halftime. halftime. What's what's the lock room like under head coach? It depends. I think you're from

soon as that horn goes off, even during the first half, you're, I'm constantly saying, okay, what did we do well? What didn't we do well? What hurt us? And you try to anticipate on what's going to happen in the second. And then when the horn goes off, it's a, about a 45 second to a minute walk to the back. You're, you're kind of deciding about like, all right, like, what does the team need right now in this moment? And then, you know, what are we going to focus on? And so in that, game you're talking about the you know you follow three point shooter three times and you give them nine potential points out of that that you have to take that away and so I think you're just constantly and but it changes right sometimes you're in there and you show film you know sometimes you're in

there and like you don't show any film uh sometimes it's like okay who does an individual player need something or does the team need something and so you're just constantly diagnosing what needs what at that moment figuring out like okay where do we need to be be better that we can control where do we need to be better of the things that, you know, we sucked at. And then, you know, try to get ready for the second half there. Now, how long is the halftime? It's 15 minutes. By the time you get back to the locker room, it's like 13.30. And then you got three and a half minutes to look at the halftime edit to see what you want to show. And you try to show the halftime at like 10. So do you have, because like whenever our half time, it was, it was clockwork. We would come in for

half time. It was 13 minutes or 12 minutes. Coaches would have two minutes together while we were undrained. like let our emotions get down and then we break up into O&D offensive coach would have his four keys that we're going into defensive coach would have his four keys we'd have two minutes there then we'd have two minutes as a team

and then special teams would have one minute or like it was broken down like do you guys have a moment or it's different because you guys are so small yeah it's different so I think you're in the back as far as roster size no by the time we get to the team it's probably four clips offense

four clips defense or if one side of the ball is just so much more drastically impacting the game. You just focus on that. But it's like that in the staff. Like, you know, the offense team will give their insight. The defense team will give their insight. The coach doing the halftime at it kind of puts in

order of what's most important. And you're just, you know, so in that three and a half minutes, you're kind of deciding, okay, what's the most important? Is it are both important or are we focusing on one? Next up, Puka Nakua on the Rams Breakfast Club and the dynamic inside that locker room. You're like, holy cow, like I was right next to this guy.

was in the breakfast club with Matthew Stafford, Cooper Cup, and Coach McVeyum, like some of the best football minds currently right now in the NFL. And like to hang it, like to wear the, to wear the jersey with him. I'm like, I think about man, the Eagles game, his first game back. And we got to line up in a formation next to each other and being like, yo, like this is real. Like Cooper Cups out here. I'm playing football with Cooper Cup right now. And like what it felt like when I got called out before him. And then they called Cooper Cup number 10. He has a song play and the whole stadium's like coop and being like what it's happening like all through like training camp OTAs he got he got hurt during training camp by rookie year and like he came back and

it was like everybody you could feel like the leadership and then also like the football player of being like he controls he knows what's going on and made it made it so fun yeah he's a pro I remember him as a young buck we used to work out together at Golden West the hot spot I remember he was coming off an injury. I threw with Matthew a couple times. Oh, man. He could light it up. What do you got to do

to get in this goddamn breakfast club? I mean, the cool name, you got McVeigh, you got Whit, you got Stapford Cup, that's it. Exclusivity, Soho Home membership. How do you get in this thing? Hopefully I'm like, they didn't ask me for any membership fee.

But shoot, you got to get up there earlier. I'm like, that's one of the things I was like Yeah, that helped when I was watching Cooper, I changed my routine of like, man, during season, I'm normally in bed at least by 930. Like if I'm, if not like going to bed by 930, so I could wake up and be up at 530, 545 so I could get to the facility at 6 o'clock. And they've already, and I would be almost the last one there. They've already been there. Like they're up watching and they've probably gone through the last practice and now we're about to start watching the explosive from all the other teams across the league. And I'm like, so I come in for the back half and then we rerun the tape, me and Cooper would be like, all right, now we're going to watch the receivers at the.

end while either Matthew's going to grab coffee, they're grabbing breakfast, and then like, can we kind of sit there, yeah, watch all the tape, and I'll be like, all right, I keep them updated on like the newest slang terms, because I'm like, those two guys, I'm like, boomers. Yeah, one who probably never actually has gone on social media. And then

Matthew, I don't think he even knows he has an Instagram. Dang. He posted April Fool's yesterday that he has he's all tatted up. Do you see that? That's his staffer has a full sleeve. That was the news yesterday. That's April Fool.

I've ever seen him. That's a boom. That's such a dad joke right there. He is. Matt's cool. Now, Cooper Cup on what makes Sean McVeigh so special. What makes Sean McVeigh so special? He does, he commands the room better than anyone I've ever been around, right?

Like, comes in, his ability to communicate to people, get a message across is A1. I think for any coach, if you can't, if you're not good communicator, you're going to make everyone's life miserable. And so for him, as from the very top, you're getting clear, concise communication that trickles down through everything. When we had wit on, he said he walked in on McVeigh watching game tape of himself giving speeches to the team, trying to break down his own stuff. Why do he pause after he said he walked in on McVeigh? Dramatic effect.

I was like, doing what? How to let it linger for a second. Yeah, no, yeah, because I think that was a super important thing for him coming. He was, I mean, he was my age when he was head coach of the L.A. That's so weird to think about. As you're stepping in, you're my age going in, like, I can understand being critical and wanting to learn from all this. This is your first time leading team meeting.

As players, we get an opportunity to watch ourselves and learn. And, you know, I think he wanted to learn and be the best that he could be for us. You know, I think that's, he takes that mentality. He is very critical of himself and wants to be, he doesn't want to let people down. and that's kind of his heart for people and I think that's kind of what drives a lot of the things that he does. I love that.

He like just outside looking in and I mean I've gone to practice but I'm not there but you could just tell he's got just leadership qualities. He's a leader of men. Yep. And then the communication thing is so so important in this generation.

Yeah. Just you know what I mean? Yep. And he knows how to do it. He seems like he knows. how to be a chameleon with each guy to make them get their best. Yeah, exactly. Find ways to motivate people and connect with them.

I think he does a really good job of that. It seemed like coach was a little starstruck, though, with Belichick. I wasn't starstruck. I love coach. We played against each other in college. Like, I love Coach McVeigh. That's my dog. The Mac, baby.

Soho House, we've gone and got hammered together and stuff. But, you know, he wasn't star, he wasn't star struck. Little. No. I don't think that's what it was. He saw Darth Vader for the first time. He's like, oh, my. Next, Jim Craig takes us inside the locker room of that legendary 1980 Olympic team.

Now, when did you guys come together? Did you guys like Herb? To me, I always liked Herb. You know, I had just lost my mother to cancer, and I was there. It was like, it was a stepping stone to try to make it to the National Hockey League. You know, when Herb asked me to play in the world championships in Leningrad, Moscow. I couldn't, if somebody showed me in the lineup, I wouldn't even know what he looked like.

You know what I mean? It was just, you just played. So, um, I, to me, he always had my best interests in heart.

And working hard was just part of the deal. Yeah. But what about the boys? Like when you guys are in a locker room and coach ain't there, like when Belichick wasn't there, we're like, fuck this guy. This guy's making us run the goddamn hill.

It's week 18. We got no knees. What's going on here? Yeah. Put money in the bank. When did that camaraderie with the guys come together? It was his strategy. If they don't like me, maybe they'll like each other.

Because you guys were all from different places. Yeah. Some people coach, and they're not very good at preparing, but during the game they're really good at adjusting. Very few are great at preparing and adjusting. Yeah. And when you get somebody like that, then it's really special. Like, we'd see, you're wearing a Ocallahan's jersey, right?

Brooks would know when O'Callaghan was going to do something stupid and pull him off the ice. You know what I mean? Because he knew he'd be so excited he was going to get a penalty. So he had the ability like, Jack, get off, you know what I mean? And he was that in tuned on intimidation of the referee, intimidation of the other player, you know, so many of the other different things. Wow. Who's the team prankster? Davy Christian.

what is some of the shit he would do well rob mcclanahan was a perfectionist right and so you know christian brothers made the sticks so robbie would have eight or nine sticks taped up and they'd be absolutely perfect and right down by the blade there'd be a little red little sticker or your plastic covering right so davy would take that off take a hacksar and saw it so it wouldn't quite break if you leaned on it but if you went to shoot it it would break right and so Robbie was so particular about his thing so all of a sudden Robbie goes on it goes to shoot stick break pissed off and another one pissed off and then he finds out that Dave Dave had done that and so we're in Colorado Springs at the Broadmoor and you know our travels are tough we have tons of game and so all of a sudden you know Brooks is coming in a little bit late and Davy Christian and Pavlage find that the figure skaters have the two-toes, right? And so Davey Christian gets in this two-two, right, with Pavlige. And Herb was talking about forechecking, right? So Davey cut a Christian brother stick, taped it on another one, another one.

So he had a stick that reached from about here to the corner, right? So he's out there, and Herb comes out, and he just couldn't do anything but laugh. But that's kind of who Davey was. Gosh. You need a little of that, though. Especially with that environment, we always had our guy. the mat lights of the world that would do a fucking prank that all the boys could just laugh and you know your guys are getting yelled at you're sweating together you're bleeding together

man i did a prank on this one kid who would you know come in our day you'd you'd break in your goalie or your skates they were really hard to break in so you would you'd put steam in them and then you'd tie them up as tight as you could and there was nothing more painful than what we call a lace bite you know you all of a sudden you're tight a skate and you get lace bite it's like oh my god it was so painful so this this one kid uh rory and he was like helping the equipment manager and he was a real fan and i shouldn't have done this but i did uh he goes jimmy can't say anything i do for he said yeah i go rory i've got these new skates i need a bucket of steam he goes well where did i get that i go you ever see the zamboni when they come out all that steam

it comes up you get out of you capture that stuff you get out of you capture that steam and you bring it back so three hours later he's comes back i can't i can't get you a buck of this team i go rory i know i know oh rory thanks for listening remember to tune in every tuesday for a brand new episode and every sunday for another games with names highlight This thing is ancient. Still using yesterday's tech, upgrade to the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, ultra-light, ultra-powerful, and built for serious productivity. With Intel Core Ultra processors, blazing speed, and AI-powered performance,

it keeps up with your business, not the other way around. Whoa, this thing moves. Stop hitting snooze on new tech. Win the tech search at Lenovo.com. Unlock AI experiences with the ThinkPad X1 Carbon, powered by Intel Core Ultra processors, so you can work, create, and boost productivity all on one device. Hey, this is Matt Jones.

I'm Drew Franklin, and this is NFL Cover Zero. We're just here to try to give you an NFL perspective a little bit different. Did you see the Colts Pretzel? That was my other big takeaway from that game. What was that? Oh, my. We think NFL coverage should be informative and entertaining. And twice a week, that is exactly what you're going to get.

Listen NFL Cover Zero with Matt Jones and Drew Franklin on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. December 29th, 1975, LaGuardia Airport. The holiday rush, parents hauling luggage, kids gripping their new Christmas toys. Then everything changed. There's been a bombing at the TWA terminal, just a chaotic, chaos. scene. In its wake, a new kind of enemy emerged. Terrorism. Listen to the new season of Law and Order Criminal Justice System on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. My boyfriend's professor is way too friendly, and now I'm seriously

suspicious. Wait a minute, Sam. Maybe her boyfriend's just looking for extra credit. Well, Dakota, luckily, it's back to school week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, my boyfriend's been hanging out with his young professor a lot. He doesn't think it's a problem, but I don't trust her. Now he's insisting we get to know each other, but I just want her gone. Hold up. Isn't that against school policy? That seems inappropriate. Maybe find out how it ends by listening to the OK Storytime podcast and the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast.