Games with Names - Highlight Reels: Patriots Stories Pt. 2

Episode Date: July 20, 2025

Your favorite Patriots are back telling some of the best stories we've heard throughout the history of the show. From Rob Gronkowski Rich Ohrnberger to Bill O'Brien and Danny Amendola, we've got another batch of legendary stories from some legendary Patriots.  Tickets for the Live Show are ON SALE NOW! GRONK & JULES PRESENT WELCOME TO THE NUTHOUSE! August 28th at MGM Music Hall at Fenway in Boston. Get Tickets Here!Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart podcast. Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell and the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen. I was just like, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many cases. Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spayne in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's

Sports. With powerful interviews and insider analysis, our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports with powerful interviews and insider analysis. Our shows have connected fans with the heart of women's sports. In just one year, the network has launched 15 shows and built a community united by passion podcasts that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting I heart women's sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, capital one and Novartis. Just open the free I heart app and search. I heard women's sports to listen now. Hello, I'm John Lithgow. I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast about Buzz Aldrin,

one of the true pioneers of space. You're a great pilot, Buzz. That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't. Buds, starring me, John Lithgow. On the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me, carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling, the limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than

a bachelor's degree. It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersceiling.org, brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council. We're bringing you another compilation of some of my favorite stories from Games with Names. Let's go.

Now, Rob Gronkowski on the partying days while playing for the Patriots. We partied so hard back in the day though too. Like remember us on that golf cart in where, in Nantucket? Well, Fagawi. Fagawi weekend, oh my God. We got in so day, though, too. Like, remember us on that golf cart and where and then talk it with the gowee for gowee weekend. We got so much trouble, though, for that, because. Yes. Would you had a surgery? I think it was my forearm and no, was it?

And then I had a foot. We were both getting pulled. We were in the back of it. What was going on in the back of a golf cart and people were filming us. And then we waged so much. And I think the people in the front got off the golf cart. And when they got off the golf cart, the front two wheels went up in the air and we fell right onto the ground and like face planted.

And the crazy thing about it is we had no clue that we even did that until we saw the video on Barstool four days later. And the caption of Barstool was not really sure we want our star wide receiver and tight end acting like this and for Gowee. But we love them for it. And I was like, that's why I love Barstool. They're sticking up for us.

Well, you remember how mad Bill was? Oh, man. You fucking assholes. Can't like Jesus Christ. Can you guys just stay out of the headlines? You're still hurt. Lines. Yeah. Yeah. You guys aren't even in practicing right now. You can't even go on the field and you're acting like drunk idiots.

Effigy. Of course we are. We're young and dumb. I would not change a thing, bro. Imagine if we didn't do that now and we tried to do it and we tried to do it. Now it would be hard to do it now. We did it when we could. That's the best part about it, we did it when we could.

That was such a fun trip, Afogali trip. Next up, Matt Light's hilarious email from Bill Belichick. The most treasured thing that I own in my life is an email exchange between Bill Belichick and I. You ever get an email from Bill Belichick? Ever, in your history of your career? We got a text message. Okay, but never an email.

No. I've never spoken to anybody that I've ever played with or came after me or before me that's ever received an email. Like, Bill doesn't do human stuff, right? No, no. That's like a human thing to do, like send an email. Yeah. I got an email.

What does his email say? So I was a rep, right? And I was in Hawaii. By the way, let me paint the picture for everyone out there. Light was a rep, a union rep, and Bill took everything out on the reps And Bill took everything out on the reps because they represented the union and he hated the time limits. You guys figure it out.

This fucking shit. And he couldn't do anything to us because he had Vrebl on myself. But I get home from Hawaii, long ass flight, Hawaii. Are you in Hawaii, Pro Bowl? It was the union meetings were there. Oh. And so when I went, I was the guy

that literally got him changed. I passed the resolution saying, if I want to go to Hawaii, I'll go to Hawaii. I don't want to fly all the way to Hawaii. Why don't we do this in the States? We got all these, you know, and dude, I think half the island wanted to kill me. Cause that was like big revenue.

But anyway, now that you're there, I get home and this is like way before, you know, we live in this crazy time now where like we think it's always been the way it is. I mean back up ten years ago man, I wasn't checking emails from my cell phone. Still don't. I had... Of course you don't. Makes sense. Yeah, but you've got somebody that will. I never know what she's doing back there. What is she doing? What does she do? I don't know. So I get home. I'm a protege. I've got whatever it is like Microsoft whatever and I get on my thing and I'm checking my emails and there's an email in my inbox

Belichick comma Bill and I'm thinking to myself you know what I thought immediately thank God finally one of my offensive linemen is busting my balls All the stuff I've done and nobody's really come at me and then when I read it I was like coping you son of a gun Because he's the only one smart enough at the time that would have done this So I spend all night like I got home like let's say 1030 and and I I missed the whole first week of the offseason program because because I was at the meetings I had to go so the next the next day was Monday so I'm gonna be jumping in a week late and I'm staying up to like 1 30 in the morning and I

finally find a service where I can send an email and make it look like it came from someone else and I know this is how Copen did it so I I write one to Copen he spent six hours trying to... Forever dude. Forever. But by the way, you know how it is man. You find one and it says it works and you test it and it doesn't work. You gotta pay for something. I'm like this is stupid. Anyway, found one, sent Copen an email, walk in the next morning and I'm ready to go toe to toe. But you know, I'm never gonna admit to shit. So when I walk past Copen, immediately he's like, you sent me an email, didn't you? I'm like, did you send me an email? I'm like, what the shit so when I walk past cope and immediately he's like you sent me an email didn't you I'm

Like did you send me an email? I'm like what are you talking about? And he's like, you know what I'm talking about I'm like, no, I don't know what you're talking about cuz I he has to admit first what he did Yeah, okay. Let's talk about it cuz that was pretty good cope. That's pretty good We go in we get our workout done He doesn't bring it up anymore and then he comes back to me right when we get done working out and he's like Hey, you did send me an email. I'm like, no I didn't send you an email. He's like, well that's great because somebody sent me an email and it looks like something you would do. And I'm like, all right well if I get an email that

looks like something you would do I'll let you know, right? And now as I'm walking out we get done running right and I'm walking out for the day. I can't shake it. I'm like, he's not messing around. So I see Bears and I walk in his office and I'm like, hey man, because if it wasn't coping, there's no one else smart enough. Bears must have sent it from Bill's email on behalf of someone else. And the minute I say something to Bears, he's like, I don't know, Bill sent you an email. I'm like, come on, man.

Not my first rodeo, right? He literally gets up, goes into Bill's office, He's in a staff meeting Gets his computer to fire up and shows me in his outlook on the scent box The email to me and it's the it's the email and I'm like like immediately I'm like, oh man damn like that goes up a notch, right? What email say I'll read it for you It's literally my prized possession. Yeah, like so I get this and now I'm like oh this is legit. So I take like four or five days because I you know me I can't like not acknowledge this. I have to have some kind of a response so I send my response and immediately I get one back and the essence of what he sent

back was we're never gonna do this again number one because in the in the subject heading it was concluding remarks right no joke no joke concluding remarks and and and to this day and what he wrote in there I'm telling you this I could lose everything every Super Bowl ring I could care less man possessions like that mean nothing to me this is hair the email is you got to read it. You gotta read it. I'm getting there man. It takes me... I got big fat fingers. So, we've never had a conversation. Bill Belichick and I have never once spoken about this ever.

So, by the way, I never break this out. It's one of these things that... It kind of has to be in person, right? Okay, so here we go. Here we go. Alright, so just so you can see this. Saturday, April 7th, so here. We go here. We go all right, so just so you can see this Saturday April 7th 2007 at 2 34 p.m.. Okay, so this is in undefeated season Yeah, go go going into it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, let's hear yeah greet in the subject heading greetings from the NEP offseason program

exclamation point All right. Oh, okay okay here we go in quotes this is how it starts not like hey Matt or just wanted to touch base with you sir it's a chance for us all to bond and start putting the wheels in motion for the following season left tackle Matt light said in a recent interview the foundation is put in place at this time of year what you do in March April May and June what you do in that mini camp in the passing camp it has a direct effect on the beginning of your season and you have to come out of

the gate swinging pretty hard that's what we've been able to do around here in the quote. Not bad. I mean that's cool eh? It's a good quote. Yeah no kidding. Yeah. I got asked by a reporter in Hawaii about whatever and I gave the typical you know do-your-job speech right? Hey Matt just read this quote from you dot dot dot what the fuck? Question mark. And by the way, so you see, when I see this, that's gotta be Copen. They're messing with me. That's not real.

And Bill doesn't send emails. We have over 50 guys here working out today and the one who isn't here does all the talking about how important the off season is. Figures. A lot of your teammates were concerned about you and asked why you weren't here but don't worry we let them all know that you're in Hawaii for a week. If you want to get something productive done out there why don't you have them move this meeting to the week before all in caps teams start their offseason programs?

Question mark. Very respectfully yours, Bill Belichick, head coach New England Patriots. Okay so like when you got that if you got that, you know, that's not it's a bill Belichick Alright, so we've been through this you guys got the background it took me days and and I did elicit a little bit of help from a family member who's far smarter than me and I Send him this now and again, I will say my wife from day one always told me you're gonna get he's gonna fire you like please don't do that Matt please don't leave here with that device don't put that on anyone's you know whatever don't shock don't do what you're thinking about doing every single day because that will get you fired this one I did kind of think they was gonna get fired coach B

I thought that was awesome that's a way to go right first of all allow me to apologize for not responding earlier to your prior email. It has been my experience, limited as it may be, that a reflexive response does not serve anyone well. Thus, I felt it necessary to permit time to militate a more measured, philosophic response. As you are certainly better aware than anyone, we as human beings are not automatons. Rather, we stand as a compilation of free-willed, rational beings. Given this, it becomes critical to impose a measure of collectivism for the benefit of the order.

I realize that the concept of collectivism strikes a measure of aberrance in our rugged individualistic society, but it is such a collective good that allows us all to benefit. It does not require a study of the incunabulum to realize that both coaches and players gain from a measured collective relationship with the financial bully pulpit held by the owners. Given this, and despite my commitment to the off-season programs, I felt compelled to move forward the collective good of the players through attendance at the PA meetings. In the long run, it is generally for the benefit of all. My commitment to this end is in no way a negative reflection on my dedication and commitment

to optimizing my personal performance to the greatest advantage of the team, your humble free-willed left tackle, Matt Light." Now that said, I figured I covered all bases, right? That's an even basis, and I'm good, and I kind of got off my chest why I felt like I needed to be in attendance, right? Like it didn't seem like that big of a deal. I had no idea that this would be the response to that gibberish, and I gotta tell you, this is one of my favorite things in life. Again, April 11th, 2007, 12.45 PM, it's like a midday email. Midday.

Weird. Concluding remarks. You're gonna love this. Matt, I need some time to let this one settle, but I'll start with this. Why don't you consider dedicating yourself to having fewer mistakes and not leading the team in, once again, being the most penalized player on offense. Your numerous false start penalties, in evidence again at the Pro Bowl, and other transgressions like taunting continue to make me think that your distractions off the field affect your

concentration on the field. My advice, if you have an interest in improving your performance, would be to minimize your distractions and focus on maximizing your physical development and technique in the offseason program. That one week really killed him. I continue to feel that you were totally out of line commenting on the importance of the program when you were not in attendance with the rest of the team. Now this is what it gets great. Finally Matt, there is no need to use multisyllable words in your email that neither you nor I know. I am unimpressed. This will conclude my email exchange and I will return to my efforts to try to do a better

job in coaching this football team. As for the PA meetings, don't worry about helping me. As I have said many times and I remind myself, the best thing we can do for ourselves and our families is win, all in caps. Try to keep that in your mind for you in your quest for world peace. Sincerely respect for yours, Bill Belichick, head coach of the American Billy Oh. Can we get into that? What happened there? No, hold on now. I mean, this fight, Taekwon Underwood. You were at practice. You know how practices are. Once again, going back to, you're really like brothers. Yeah.

You really are, with your assistant coaches. Sometimes you just want to slap the shit out of your brother. Exactly. So like, you know, you can remember practices like, when Bill would, you know, make us use the headsets or whatever, or we wanted to use the headsets to practice for the game.

And so I'd be pressing the button and it wouldn't beep, like it would be screwed up. And maybe I'd be yelling at Donnie Brochure and Tom would be out on the field like, you gotta press the button, you're not pressing the button, you're not pressing the button. I took the whole thing and like, remember that day? And threw it at him.

I'm like, you've pressed the button, I'm pressing the button, the thing's broken, you know? So these little fights. Then they went to the intercom, remember? Then they went to the walkie talkie. To the walkie talkie. But I mean, these little things would come up. And so in that game, we, Dion had gotten hurt.

And like leading up to that game late in the week. And we signed Taekwon Underwood, who now is like the receiver, or works with the receivers now. We signed him late in the week, and we were driving the ball and somebody else got hurt. So Taekwon had to go in, and we ran Branch. And he had the end cut, he was the X.

And he didn't run a great end cut, he kind of faded. And Josh, what's his name, the corner for the Redskins undercut it, Tom kind of looped it in there. So we come over to the sideline and Tom's ripping Taekwon. Oh yeah. And I can remember Wes like, all right, man, let's move on. Basically, we all just got to move on.

We were frustrated because we weren't moving the ball that game. There's a lot of shit that goes happening on the sideline. So then it just became, I don't want to get into all that was said but like hey Tom like basically like you need to shut the F up We got to move on now because Grossman's driving the ball We're gonna possibly go to overtime and you remember who intercepted the pass to end the game was Gerard Mayo. Yeah The guy I was playing defense He won the guy I was playing defense

So but anyway, so he said you want me to shut you shut and then it was just like to to 15 year olders like Just yelling shut the f up back and forth to each other came over. I'll tell you right now That was the brilliance of Billy Oh because he he liked to fire guys up and we all knew Tom liked to be fired up because we all know Tom plays better pissed off. That's the truth. There's a lot of those Jedi mind tricks that I think that happened over there to piss him off because he played better pissed off. Now Danny A. Mandola on the origins of his friendship with Jules. Can you talk about the origin of our friendship?

The origin of our friendship, well, it all started way back in sunny Los Angeles. Los Angeles. We were training at the same place and the first couple of days we looked at each other and were like, who is this guy coming in here picking up my ping pong paddle, thinking he's the shit in Armand.

And it took us like two days to kind of warm up to each other. I said, Hey Julian, how you doing? Nice to meet you. I've seen a lot of your film. You know, you're a great player. We should hang out sometime. And then he's like, where do you live?

And I'm like, I'm in Venice. Where do you live? He's like, I'm in Venice. And then I'll see you later at three on the beach. And then the rest is history. The rest is history Favorite story of our time in New England What's your favorite story of our time that my favorite story of our time? Probably when we bought those two dirt bikes and we were crushing Foxboro

In our free time running from police. I remember one time I was sitting on my couch It was snow is probably 10 degrees outside, and you took one of the bikes out for a spin, and then you came back in and your hands were like really frozen, and you're like, I just had to run from the cops. I'm like, dude, what are you doing running from the police on a Thursday afternoon in our own city?

Every off season we would always find find we would always buy something, some activity, some toy. One year it was like remote control cars. We broke them the first day. Next year, it was like little mini bikes. We rode them for like two months. Yeah. We had we went through a drone stage, one of the little inside drones in the houses. Yeah. Drone. And we played ping pong every day, probably every day,

probably 20 games of ping pong until one of us was muddy and bleeding, muddy and or bleeding spit everywhere. Water bottles everywhere. We played in Danny's old little. He had a basement that was unfinished at the house he was staying at. And it was like cement and we just be spitting, hitting balls. He beat me with an iPhone Get an iPhone once I didn't play ping-pong growing up. This guy was like

Like one of those world-class like dudes that you see in China force gum. This guy was forced gum. That's hand-eye coordination. He beat me with the fucking iPhone. Next up, we got Matt Patricia on signing Danny Amedola to the Patriots. I was so blessed to be around great guys. I mean, so many, but it was like, it was unreal. I mean, obviously, I mean, my favorite Amedola, I got to bring him up. Of course, Italians love Italians.

The same thing I had with Welker, it was like, I said to Bill, I was like, we played Welker one year at Miami, and Alen Omari, who played at Syracuse, pulls his calf and warm up. So I'm like, Orlando just pulled his calf. And then I'm looking, I'm like, Wes Welker is kicking. Wes Welker kicked off, kicked field goals, extra points,

caught like 130 yards on me. I was like, we got done with the game, I was like, hey Bill, can we trade for this guy? Because I don't think I want to cover this guy anymore. This guy is Bruce. So we traded. So the same thing we're getting, Amandola, I was like, I don't, I want to game plan you man. Like, can we just get you over here on this side and like, let's just go. Look at that. Oh, they, they all went out car shopping. They had the car in the garage already. So we had, we had a good bottle of tequila.

They had the real car in the garage though already. They said, and we're just, we just trying to get as many as possible. As many as possible. So yeah, so Amandola and I, that was, I loved that. I wanted to kill you all when you signed Amandola. You know how much of a better player you are. I know, but I still wanted to murder you. Good.

You should. I think that's what Bill liked too. Bill used to sign me these contracts where he knew it was enough to make me satisfied, but also enough to piss me off. Listen, to sign me these contracts where he knew it was enough to make me satisfied but also enough to piss me off. Listen, you and me both. He did that with all of us. You know what it's like trying to negotiate a coaching contract in there? Hey Bill, I don't think I should, don't you think we should do a little bit more here? He's like, yeah no. I'm just gonna keep drawing plays. The Gannos are real. Yeah.

Yeah. Now, Rich Ornberger on how Tom Brady defeated Father Time. Explain Tom Brady. I mean, explain how he did it for as long as he did. I don't get it. I think it's a product of the perfect storm. It's a, his health and wellness lifestyle. Yeah, that's real. Yeah, that shit's real.

Like the guy, you know, he wouldn't put anything in his body that he didn't think that was fucking great. Whatever Alex said, he did that. If Alex said, eat a turd, this will make you fucking heal faster. I'm going to be honest with you, when I was in New England, if Alex Perreira asked me to eat a turd, I would have done it. I mean, you know, like I would have to. too. I would have been like, I would have too. I mean, if one's good, two's better, right?

I mean. I would, I did select this shit. I ain't doing that. But then also, I think a lot of it has to do with the rule changes as well. Yeah. You know, he's the first quarterback that went from the medieval time football

to what it is now. That's true. Where the quarterback is so protected. So these guys and he, and his, his build has always been in the pocket. So he hasn't had to be, you know, rad explosive to get outside the pocket or this. He could work everything he had to work for,

until he was 45. And that's a testament to his hard work and his lifestyle but it's also a testament to, you know, you watch some of these quarterbacks that got hit back in the day or even earlier in his career when his helmet got took off. You know what I mean? These guys were getting hit and then we look at Trevor Lawrence who goes down and doesn't think

he should even be touched. Like this is a national football. These are fucking animals. You gotta protect yourself at all goddamn time. It doesn't matter if it's a free player, you can't get hit. You know what I mean? So like, I think it's the perfect storm. It really is probably accurate. Like there's always an intersection of- And he's just great, touched by God. Yeah, touched by God. Right. So there's some of that luck factor, whatever it is, I mean, met with the most I've ever seen anybody work on his body, on his diet, nutrition, health, physical fitness, body work.

He hired a guy to literally keep an eye on it so he didn't have to. Every single aspect of his life was encompassing or was circled around being the best he could possibly be today and that level of sacrifice it's so rare and so unique. And it's also it's he's got like he's got an extraordinary ability to compartmentalize. That is extraordinary. You know what I mean? Like it didn't matter what was going on in his life. Yep.

Tom Brady was the same guy every day at work. Yeah. Like almost the nerd guy that was in there at first with his book, taking notes, hand up. Fucking heroically unflappable. Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode and every Sunday for another Games with Names highlight.

Every case that is a cold case that has DNA right now in a backlog will be identified in our lifetime. On the new podcast, America's Crime Lab, every case has a story to tell and the DNA holds the truth. He never thought he was going to get caught. And I just looked at my computer screen and I was just like, gotcha. This technology is already solving so many cases.

Listen to America's Crime Lab on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Join iHeartRadio and Sarah Spayne in celebrating the one year anniversary of iHeart Women's or wherever you get your podcasts. that amplify the voices of women in sports. Thank you for supporting I Heart Women's Sports and our founding sponsors, Elf Beauty, Capital One, and Novartis. Just open the free iHeart app and search iHeart Women's Sports to listen now. Hello, I'm John Lithgow.

We choose to go to the moon. I want to tell you about my new fiction podcast. That's one small step for man. About Buzz Aldrin, one of the true pioneers of space. You're a great pilot, Buzz. That's the story you think you know. This is the story you don't. Buzz, starring me, John Lithgow.

On the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I always had to be so good no one could ignore me. Carve my path with data and drive. But some people only see who I am on paper. The paper ceiling. The limitations from degree screens to stereotypes that are holding back over 70 million stars. Workers skilled through alternative routes rather than a bachelor's degree.

It's time for skills to speak for themselves. Find resources for breaking through barriers at tearthepapersilling.org brought to you by Opportunity at Work and the Ad Council.