Games with Names - The Tuna Bowl with Berj Najarian | Jets vs. Patriots

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Berj Najarian is in studio! The former Patriots Director of Football/Head Coach Administration and current Chief of Staff for Boston College Football is with us in our Nuthouse East studio and we're revisiting one of the most drama filled installments of the Patriots and Jets rivalry. Berj joins us in studio (3:40). We go back to September of 1997 (55:12). We dive into these rosters (1:16:57). We get into the game (1:24:54). We score it (1:48:59). We wrap it up by hitting the ol' hotline (1:57:38). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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History is filled with unexpected stories, and I'd like to tell you about them. I'm Aaron Manke, and for the past six years, I've been sharing history's most curious tales on my podcast, Cabinet of Curiosities, such as the surprising country that invented the croissant and the wrestling champ who won the White House. And now these amazing stories and many more have been compiled into my new book. Curious to know more? Pre-order Cabinet of Curiosities,

available November 12th, wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Learn more over at grimandmild.com slash curiosities. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs? Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast, Hungry for History, is back.

And this season, we're taking an even bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piña coladas from Puerto Rico. Listen to Hungry for History on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Like, who is more mysterious, you or Ernie Adams?

I don't know. You don't know? Ask Bill. You can't give me the patriot technique. You can't just lean on, ask coach. I can't do that? This is something we used to get taught all the time. If you got flustered with the question with the media,

Bill would always say, just bring it back to me. Just tell them to ask me. Because they've already asked already. They've already asked already. Today, we have a very special guest. Bill Belichick's right-hand man. He's Bill Belichick's right-hand man. Man of mystery.

Anyone who played for the Patriots knew Baer. He knows where the bodies are buried. The guy who knows where everything is, everything's up to. But you don't know who he is by design. No, by design. Everything to do with any kind of operation, Baer was there. Former Patriots director of football ops slash head coach administration, Baer's Nigerian.

The coaches I've worked under, Pat Riley, Bill Parcells, Jeff Van Gundy, Bill Belichick, Bill O'Brien, like, I'm doing all right. So are you the coach whisperer? Are you the coach whisperer, Bears? Now we are going over the tunable Jets versus Patriots week three, 1997. And this one has massive storylines. The year before, Patriots Super Bowl loser. And this game was just off the charts hype

due to a lot of circumstances centering around the man they called Tuna. So what's the misconception of Bill? You know, with Bill... Games with Names is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to Games with Names. I'm Julian Edelman. They're Jack and Kyler. And we are on a mission to find the greatest game of all time.

This is another Games with Names Boston Edition episode. Feels great to be back in the town. Back, baby. It's always great to be back in this town. Back like the bay. Back bay, baby. We're here. Anytime I come back here, I live in LA now. And when I go on a trip or something, I go back to LA. It's starting to feel home, you know, with my new routine and everything.

But anytime I come back to Boston and I go to my condo or my place, this feels like home. It's home. So many great memories, so many unbelievable people that I've met that have been pivotal parts of my life and career. 97 season with former Patriots director of football ops slash head coach administration slash Instagram, uh, sifting and current chief of staff for Boston college football, bears, Nigerian man of mystery,

man of mystery. But we all, anyone who played for the Patriots knew bears. He was like, he was kind of like, who's the sidekick to the principal? Assistant principal. He's kind of an assistant principal. Not really, because he didn't have that much.

When people ask him, I've been saying, he knows where the bodies are buried. He's the guy who knows where everything is, everything's up to. That's him. He's plugged in. But you don't know who he is by design. No, by design. He's a big get. He's a buffer. He's plugged in. But you don't know who he is by design. No, by design. He's a big get.

He's a buffer. He's the buffer. He's seen a lot of stuff go down. Seen a lot of great football. Been part of a lot of great football. Built dynasties with Bill. Asaf just texted me that he's Smithers. I was just going to say, is it a Mr. Burns Smithers type deal? Yeah, but he's cooler than Smithers.

Could be. That's a good that's a good little uh cross the the way from old soft swiss so soft don't miss baby yeah great interview that's great interview yeah this is an insane interview we get into talking about being bill belichick's right hand man still is i think still is kind of feels like it, even though he works for Billy O and he's Billy O's right hand man at Boston college, the drama between Parcells and the Patriots back in the day, a lot of drama, a lot of drama,

jumping ship, bad blood, rematch, revenge, Patriots, jets, Patriots, jets,

soap opera, and all the behind the scenes things it took to build a dynasty. A lot of hard work. A lot of hard work and a lot of people. Not just the team. Not just the coaches. But the people. Like the people like Bears.

And then we get into wrapping it up with the old hotline. Love it. Got some good calls this week. Let's go get in. Come on. September 14th, 1997. Foxborough Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts.

Bill Parcells returns to New England for the first time after leading them to a Super Bowl. But this Sunday night, soap opera won't be settled in regulation. This is the Tunable. Yeah, baby.

That was awesome. Welcome to Games with Names. And today we have a very special guest. We have Berj Najarian joining us here in the nut house boston version boston version welcome to the studio there's great to be here jules great to be here yeah unbelievable is it unbelievable yeah it is i mean we're together hours and hours and years in like a hallway or an office or a locker room or a field. Now we're sitting here in your studio on your set. This is my house.

This isn't a studio or a set. This is this. We do this in the real places that we live because we want real conversations. And I just hope that the world gets a real conversation from the bearish, the myth, the man, the legend. Now we are going over the tunable jets versus the patriots week 3 1997 why this game bears this is a big game man for so many reasons it's a huge game um you know this game this is one of the most hype games ever ever regular season games i swear like regular season games to that point it's one of the most hype games ever. Ever. Regular season games. I swear. Like regular season games, to that point, it's one of the most hype games ever.

And I was actually part of it. I think most people by this point might think of me as a patriot, as they should. 24 years. As Robert Kraft said, we are all patriots. We are, for sure. But before I was a patriot, I was a Jet. And I was actually a Jet week three, 1997, for the Tuna Bowl. And this game was just off the charts hype due to a lot of circumstances

centering around the man they called Tuna, Bill Parcells. There are numerous players, great players, Patriot hall of famers pro football hall of famers in this game there was this there was a lot of emotion going into this game and during this game before a lot of other things happened in the years to come but this is really a milestone event before social media nowadays social media is what hypes games right twitter instagram all these things are social media and it's off the charts but then there was no social media there was barely an internet it's barely on the internet in 1997 so games were hyped by splashy headlines and newspapers and sports talk radio which were live and humming in New York and Boston at the time.

Humming. Yeah. Is this the greatest game of all time, Bears? No, it's not the greatest game of all time. I can't say that. All right. I can't say it. I'm just saying.

We asked all our guests. We asked all our guests. Yeah. I mean, I can't sit here and break down a bunch of plays and do X's and O's. You could. But I can do themes and storylines. And this one has massive storylines.

The year before, Patriots, Super Bowl loser. Is Tuna in? Is he out? He's out. He's out. And there's a lot of fallout that came with that, as people know. The man's beloved in New York. He was beloved here as know as patriots coach

went to the super bowl but then he leaves and it's not all good there's some venom toward him there's a lot of hype in the in the media and week three here we are the next season the very next season coming off a super bowl year the jets are coming off of a 1-15 season, but there's a lot of excitement, optimism, with the arrival of Bill Parcells and his staff. And the people in Foxborough, man, you know, they were ready for this game. It was a night game. There weren't that many night games in Foxborough leading up to that.

I don't know how many, but I don't think there were a lot of night games even in that stadium. And the fans were ready to go. Ready to that. I don't know how many, but I don't think there were a lot of night games even in that stadium. Yeah. And the fans were ready to go. Ready to go. Fueled up. Egging buses. Like, not one or two.

I mean, like, egging buses. This is back when fans could be fans. Yeah. This is back when fans could be fans, Jack. Eggs on the bus. This isn't Gillette either. This isn't Gillette. This is the old Foxborough stadium. 60,000 plus.

60,000 plus. Right? I'm going back and watching this tape. There is a world. It felt like a bizarro world where the NFL Sunday night football was on TNT. TNT. And Craig Sager was on the sidelines of a football game. And Vern Lundquist was up in the booth for TNT with Mark May.

It was wild. It was a wild day. 1997 football. I love it. 1990. This is when football was football. All right. We'll dive into that.

We'll get back to the game. But it's a cool game. Oh, it's amazing. We're going to get to the game. OK. We're going to get to the game. Because that's kind of why we're here, right? We're here to talk about this game.

All the reason why we're here, Bearish. All the reason. But what's life looking like for you right now? Good. It's going great. You know, at Boston College, been there like four months now. It's very interesting. I'd say some things are very similar, you know, like football is football.

And if you walk into a Bill O'Brien team meeting or Bill O'Brien staff meeting, you're hearing a lot of Bill Belichick themes, philosophies. But with a different twist. They have very different personalities, for sure. But at its core, there's some similarities there. But BC is a great place. He knows what he's doing. And it's good to be at a place with an identity

BC has an identity, knows what it is that education and building the whole person and playing good football, giving to the community and that's what he's about, it's a great fit with him it's a great fit with me to be with him because I know the guy so well just think about this

we can go back to it but the coaches I've worked under we can go back to the next pat riley bill parcells well jeff fun jeff van gundy at the next bill parcells bill belichick bill o'brien like i'm doing all right so you are you the coach whisperer are you the coach whisperer No, no, I wouldn't say that. I'm just trying to help out, man. Like, who is more mysterious, you or Ernie Adams? I don't know. I don't know.

You don't know? Ask Bill. Or Bill. Oh, you can't give me the Patriot technique. You can't just lean on ask Coach. I can't do that? This is something we used to get taught all the time. If you got flustered with the question with the media, Bill would always say, just bring it back to me.

Just tell them to ask me. Because they've already asked already. They've already asked already. I don't know. I mean, maybe I am a little bit. I don't go out there, I mean, maybe other than now, and talk about myself and what I do, the people I work with. No one knows, and that's why we wanted to bring you on here,

because it's because of people like you that people outside the building don't really realize how much of a team sport winning in an organization is. It's not just about the players and the coaches. It's about the operations people. It's about the facility people. It's about the equipment staff. Equipment, for sure.

It's about the training staff. Yeah. And that's what we want to have you on here can you tell the people what your role was with the patriots i mean there are a lot of specific what was the actual title and then we can get into what your role is uh kind of lengthy director of football slash head coach administration okay't know what that means. It means that I help him. What it doesn't mean is I don't coach players. You know that. I never coached you.

I never talked to you about your technique or route or whatever, defense. So I don't do that. We can eliminate that. I don't do treatments on players. Mental treatment? You gave me mental treatment when I needed it sometimes. I appreciate that. Keep going. But, you know, he is responsible for a lot of stuff.

A lot. Like, honestly, I think about it sometimes. Like, who in the NFL, other than maybe the commissioner, like, handled more than him? You know, every contract, every play, every hire, every whatever, dealing with lots of things. So when he was at Cleveland, I think he took all that on himself, like everything.

And then when he realized the second time around, he doesn't need to do all that. Give a lot of that to somebody else to handle all the other shit, as he put it. So stuff that's important handle all the other shit as he put it um so stuff that's important you know all the operational things like you know making sure travel is right the way he wants it making sure you know everybody's on the same page with whatever the schedule or how we're going to handle some event that's coming up or what's really important at the Patriots organization is as good as it is on the field it's very sophisticated and accomplished off the field with business things and sponsorships

and PR and and all those things like it's elite so the football team has a part in that so I was kind of the go-between and a lot of those things, like fulfill an obligation to a corporate partner, and we need players. You've been in a lot of those things. A lot of that would go through me, and he didn't want to really deal with that stuff, but we've got to make it happen. We've got to make it work.

Pick an event that you did through the club, and I was probably involved with it somewhere along the line. A lot of the things with access to the team, which is very important, showing behind-the-scenes things, which we didn't do every day but we did a fair amount over the years like we did like that's got to go through somebody between me and stacy james and you know we'd get in there we'd see the footage and let's use this that looks good whatever and like that's like a weekly basis during the season um so you you you feel you had a lot of hats yeah you had a lot of hats yeah which is well it's

a blessing for me because it allowed me to interact with a lot of people a lot i mean i wasn't like just doing sitting at my desk doing one thing i was working with everybody yeah he and he was bears was with everyone he was in every meeting he was the first person you saw when you walked through the door because his office was at the entrance and you know you would see bears he probably just came in from his 17 mile run in the morning always running the guy's in elite shape uh and then he'd be handing out red sketch like everything to do with any kind of operation bears was there now can you what was like the most taxing day for you for work yeah what was it like because you know like tuesday's players day off our thursday was always an elite tax day for the

player because it was third down it was our last day of practice fast friday's the next next day you travel on saturday what was your most taxing day that you like had to use all that brain power uh definitely monday and tuesdays um during the, for sure. Probably Monday because you come in and I like to watch the game, the TV copy of the game. By the end of Monday, I'd like to have watched that just to kind of see what the world is seeing, what's being said. Was that assigned or you did that on personal? With Bill, over the years, there were a lot of things that were assigned and he

expected and he asked for but there were also things that i just kind of did that and gave you worked proactively not reactively a lot of times i did and sam you hear that sam see you around corners, Sam. You know what I mean? So I would, you know, out of watching the game, maybe I would say, hey, Bill, or write it down and give it to him. A few things that came out of that.

Okay, that's good for him to know that he wouldn't have otherwise known. Like what? Here's something the announcers said that their coaches said about us you know you need to run the football look you say something the media will fucking tell you the game plan you know what sometimes they do sometimes they do they or if you build it over the course of a whole season going back to training to training camp, a lot of guys are open. So it's not like the entire game plan and one comment,

but over the course of 10 games, you might get some themes. Which everything's logged. Yeah, sure. If we won a ball game, which we won a lot of ball games, there are going to be game ball winners. There are going to be quotes on the wall. Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't know. You gave game balls? I take that no. I didn't

say I gave game balls. But game ball winners get pictures on a wall. You gave pictures. It's not all me, but it starts with the photographers, Dave Silverman and those guys. Dwight Derren, they take thousands of photos during a game.

Well, those kind of get filtered down. You filter them. You go through every photo. And on our staff, I might go through like 60 to get to the 22 or so that we put up. You know what I mean? And sometimes there was some backlash on that. Like, where's my picture?

I used to get pissed all the time. For the listener, you know you'd walk in every week after a victory and we'd have highlighted pictures throughout the facility of that week's game a big play moment a big block a big touchdown uh the lineman celebrating in the end zone something that you know basically showed what we did in that week's game and you know you walk in and we all knew bears picked the photos we all knew bears picked the photos bears there's there's a line of guys but bears was a lead and sometimes you know you go in there like for us players to have your picture on the wall at least for me i loved it like you wanted to go in that means they recognized you or what

you did in the game as something of some importance and that's all we were fucking trying to do there is just try to get a little something nice out of you know coach you know because he was very stickler he was hard on you but he needed that but that was his way of showing appreciation so bears was at the the forefront of that so if you know you go in after a game and you look at i'd walk through all every hall i'd walk through every hall i'd see i bet bears where the fuck's my photo right did you have were there any other guys like that or yeah a lot of times it was uh what do you get it from andrew sometimes o-lineman you know they get forgotten but a lot of times you know you, you think that O'Lyman,

like they don't really want that, right? But, you know, some of them did. But it wasn't just the photos too. We had an award called Patriot of the Week, which wasn't necessarily the guy who scored a winning touchdown or made, you know, interceptions or whatever. It was a guy who overcame some adversity or did something extra, like more of a, you know, great teammate type of an award. and there would be a little comment or a little blurb on you know what

it was he dealt with an injury or he played like six positions and you know in the game or it was ready to go or had you know some family situation and so that would be a decision there's also like that that big portrait on the wall that um there would be the score of the game the opponent and then a little a little one-liner there on it might follow up something that he talked about during the week are you coming up with all those ones are you are you i would well in the end in the end he would look at it but i would like that would be part of monday think about all right what are we going to do and you know give it to. And most of the time, I'm like, yeah, that's good. Or sometimes, well, I'll say this too. As a press conference, there's a team meeting.

I would, a lot of times, give him some thoughts on things to say to the team. Something was handled well, or here's something we talked about last week, and maybe he doesn't remember exactly what it was, but here are the three things we said. All right, here they were. We talked about this, it happened. Talked happened talk about this didn't happen you know wow how many hours do you think

you put in a week uh i don't know man i don't know um you know early in my career i've i was uh i was kind of paranoid about leaving like you, you don't want to leave. You don't want to leave. But later on, I got kids and whatever. I would leave. I mean, I don't know. Like, so it's by the day. Like, every morning I'm in by whatever, 6 or something like that. Go for a run and then whenever that, then we go. Mondays leave around 8.30.

Tuesdays leave around 8.30, 9. Wednesdays, 8.30, Thursdayursdays somewhere in there then by friday it's like five or so so total out of whatever that is i don't know it's a lot of hours a lot of hours tell you what though there wasn't a day not one day 24 years driving up to that place was and i thought no i don't want to be here today that never happened jesus i used to think that every after we doubt that after week i doubt that well after week eight you fake it well it hurts i'm sitting there what the fuck am i thinking about you're still the first guy in somehow so scarnecchio was i tried to beat him rookie my rookie year i beat him once he's like 345 i just wanted to see if i could beat

scarnecchio in your face probably he was probably got it at 340 didn't he get in like four or something he's probably sick that day bears what was your most obscure task my most obscure task um i mean bill had some needs on the road now like he wants his office like it's not like on the road like we don't just go to a hotel i think some teams like they go on the road they show up wants his office. On the road, we don't just go to a hotel. I think some teams, they go on the road, they show up,

they might meet, they might not, they go out to dinner, go to bed, get up and go play. It's not like that at the Patriots. You get there and then we're scrambling at the hotel

to recreate our offices at Gillette Stadium. Especially if it's not a one-night stay. If it's a two-night stay or a week-long stay, like you're in your office, like you have a ballroom where it's chopped up and then there are different spots in the hotel that you turn into an office. So Bill's office has got to be detailed. Obviously the workspace, the screen, the treadmill, the place to hang clothes the

iced tea the so bill's not a coffee guy he's an iced tea guy right bill's not a coffee guy yeah he doesn't have coffee at all drinks iced tea yeah sweet um it's unsweetened with a lemon you know so you're telling me bill is not just sitting in the corner at the little desk with the Bible and the little pad doing his work there? No. Not at all? No, no, no. He might not even get to that. He might not even get to that room until four hours after we arrive.

After going, meeting with the media, meeting with the staff, meeting with the coaches, and meeting with the sc after that and then and then eventually get to the room yeah like people don't like we'd all have like a two hour like an hour break before meetings started or your treatment started when you get to the the hotel of the away game and you know we'd have some time downtime where we can go change get out of the suit because you had to wear a suit during travel bill would be in that goddamn suit until about 1030 at night. Oh, boy. Loose tie and all. Whew. Talk about a long day.

You know his feet had to hurt. Had to be. Them dogs were barking. Oh, come on, man. Didn't you guys used to have weight challenges? We did. That was pretty good. That was at the Jets.

That started at the Jets, at least. Yeah, everybody had a goal. This was serious too there was a contracts involved there were there were sabotage there was sabotage there would be like and bill did this uh he would put it was like maybe six or seven of us like you know trying to lose different amounts of weight like i wasn't trying to lose that much but whatever but i was in it but he would, he would put like a slice of pizza in someone's desk drawer

or some cookies in there. So, you know, when the weigh-ins were about to come up and there were penalties about if you try to tamper with a scale,

which that happened. Oh my God. Who tampered the scale? Dayball? This is pre-dayball. This is pre-dayball. This was, this was Mike Tanamom, Scott Pioli, Charlie Weiss, Eric Mangini.

And Charlie Weiss, actually, he had a serious, I don't know actually how serious a condition it was, but he had a really uncontrollable nosebleed one day, like right before a weigh-in. And they wouldn't let him out of the bet. They would not let him out, man. Contracts and contracts. Right.

I've heard that. It turned into a big deal. How do you get Paul Tagliabuello? But it works, man. It works. Yeah. Don't get a first-round pick. Yeah.

It worked, man. Everyone made their weights. Wow. I mean, not very healthy, but. Healthy competition. Can you take us through a game day what do you what's your what's your process what are you thinking what are you doing on game day are you going there to the facility to check the game clocks and report to to bill like hey bill

the wins this or are you just straight getting the team right and what are you doing on game day yeah it varies um different things like i i would always i would be the one to to submit the inactive form you know like the player and you know a lot of weeks there's like so they're just six or seven depending on what it is now like six or seven players who are on the active roster who are not active for the game so that's that has to get submitted to the league and there's some other information you got to put on there too but the inactive form is important and a lot of times it comes down the last second like is this guy healthy enough to play is he not he's going through a workout and it could go up to like 10 minutes left i remember

i'm sure do you remember do you remember the when i had a broken when i broke my arm yeah and it was my rookie year and i was like i got a surgery and i was like maybe 14 days out of the surgery and i'm leaving on friday to go to my house because i just started practicing in that second week yeah and as i'm leaving bears was the guy that would stop you hey um coach wants to talk to you what do you mean coach wants to talk to me yeah am i going he going? You might have to go get your suit. Remember that? Yeah. I had to go get my suit.

He goes, I think Bill wants you to travel because it'll be good for just match-up looks, people just to see you travel. I'm like, all right, cool. Awesome. All right, I'll go get my suit, travel. And then I did the game day workout. Yeah. And on game day, I'm sitting there the night before.

Me and Slate actually, we shared a room on the road early in our career. I'm sitting there like, I don't know if I could do this, Slate. I don't know if I could do this. This is fucking terrible. It's Sunday night football. Was it Sunday night or Monday night? I think it was Sunday. Sunday night, yeah, Sunday.

So I go to bed terrified. Wake up the next morning. I wake up, Slate. I'm like, it's Sunday night football. I'm going So I go to bed terrified. Wake up the next morning. I wake up, Slade. I'm like, it's Sunday night football. I'm going. I'm going to go. So I do my workout. I mean, I just broke my arm.

And I'm doing a workout before the thing. I'm like, yeah, coach, I think it's going to be all right. He's like, all right. Puts me in. First touchdown. You were the first one to let me know. There you go. See?

I got more fun facts for you tonight, too'll get to what do you got i got a fun fact for you um which does relate to game day so you asked with you know one of the things i do i talk about access right like so every every team has people that work with NFL films. And NFL films has the right to mic players up. That's some good ones here, don't we? We sure do. So that goes through Stacey James. It goes through me.

Who are we going to mic up? Here's who we want. The team has a little bit of influence on who it can be. And maybe we should stay away. Some guys don't like to be mic'd and then afterward you know there's a process of whatever whatever they put out there whatever footage they have well in the history of the national football league someone has the most post-season mic'd up games. The most postseason mic'd up games in the history of the National Football League. Tom Brady, Mahomes, Kelsey. I'm into this stuff.

And I happen to be involved. 11, for number 11. How about that? Drew Bledsoe? Good guess. It is not Drew Bledsoe. Let's go. This guy right here. Let's go. This guy right here.

Let's go. Whose house I'm sitting in has more postseason wires than anyone else in the history of the National Football League. How about that? Hell yes. Now, why? That's a good question. Well, you know, like I said, there's a process. We were undefeated for a while.

We were. Until the last one. We were undefeated for a while. We were. Until the last one. We were. Not that we're overly superstitious, but it's going pretty good there for a while. Did it. Performed. A lot of great plays in there. Game-winning plays.

Entertainment value. They wouldn't keep asking unless it was good material. Some good material on there. So they kept asking, and we kept saying yes that's awesome some incredible quotes too in there appreciate you bearish incredible now bears you had to sift through all the the footage like i love you bill i love you bill on the part of that there on the stage yeah you're too old there's a couple of them i do love bill i got it so we're i caught it we're huge fans of nfl films here what is the process like after the fact so are you reviewing the footage they send

it all the mic'd up how does that i mean there's a there's a great trust with those guys um like they're not out to ever make anyone look bad so pretty much what they what they want is what it is there but there are times like there's something going on that maybe you don't know about that Pretty much what they want is what it is. There are times where there's something going on that maybe you don't know about that maybe we would rather not have in there. So they'll generally work with us on that. I mean, I don't know if you've ever, in all those 11 wires, it's a lot of footage.

Has there ever been anything that you were like, maybe there's something, I don't know. But nothing that we thought was so egregious that we demanded nothing that was public but i remember one of the super bowl parties okay remember we they had like the there's a pg version and then there's like a rated r version okay remember one of the super bowl parties we had like the rated r shit of yes yeah yeah yeah that was there's some stuff there that I was like, I wouldn't have gone well if it went public.

Well, it didn't, so it took care of you. So, hey, see? Another one. We're connected. We are connected, man. Connected. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden.

We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice.

And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Sanner. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit,

where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the biscuits. It's right here in black and white in the prints. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch.

As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. Segregation academies. When civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. We're looking at a whole new series of episodes this season to understand why and how our lives look the way they do. Why does your memory drift so much? Why is it so hard to keep a secret? When should you not trust your intuition? Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories? I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives.

Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Now, what's the biggest misconception of Bill Belichick? Well. See how I butter you up, butter you up.

Yeah, I know. Eventually we're going to get to the sign on the door, you know. Yeah. Do your job. Speak for yourself. Speak for yourself. It's on the way out, you know. Can you?

My last day there, when I left, my last day there, I saw it on the door. Speak for yourself. I'm going to remember that today for the rest of this conversation., I saw it on the door. Speak for yourself. I'm going to remember that today for the rest of this conversation. But anyway. Ignore the noise. Don't believe the hype. Manage expectations. Speak for yourself.

That's on the way out. What's on the way in? Do your job. Work hard. Be attentive. And put the team first. Put the team first. There it is.

What am I talking about? Come on, man. This is a way of life, man. This isn't like mottos and slogans. It's not. So what's the misconception of building? How many times he said, F in Foxborough, hi.

I mean, I was in every meeting for 20 years. For 20 years. Maybe he said it every day on the field or in private league i wasn't there so i didn't hear it like the amount of times i hear you know i could get someone from foxborough hey he didn't say it that many times he did not say it that many times it happened twice a year if it happened maybe maybe twice a year okay out of a hundred meetings some guy some guy making eight ten fifteen million dollars sitting there watching film, and he hears that, he's going to remember that.

So it may have only been twice a year. But if you were on the team for six years, I'm not a math guy, but that's 12 times. But not all directed at you. No, but you hear Foxborough High, it's going to stick out. Because they can't execute a snap. It wasn't because, you know, couldn't make a play in triple coverage. You couldn't do a snap or drop a two-yard pass.

So that's the biggest misconception is Foxborough High. That's the biggest misconception. That's a misconception. Everyone here, guys, Foxborough High never happened because Barry Sander. No, no, no, no, no. Didn't say never. I'd say not as much as people think yeah um i don't know what else about bill he's funny i mean i think that's starting to come out a very funny guy

sometimes like he's not trying and you you know you try to suppress the laughter but he can be very funny well his his way of getting at you is through statistics and numbers and his knowledge of the game. He'll sit there and he'll prove a point by bringing back an all-time great that he coached, and he'll give out the actual number of snaps, the number of plays that you've done. This is what this did. That's his way of getting it. But it's kind of like you're sitting there you're like that's kind of funny and another one i'd say

you know and not that he doesn't get after players he gets after players and stuff for sure there's you know there's yelling but it's not like it's not all the time in your face to me it's not that you're trying to avoid that you're trying to avoid the like the most slight expression like you screwed something up and you're gonna get like that's all did you see that i don't know if you even noticed i saw that one you know it's not like it's not in your face like that's a parcel it's fear like you that could happen but with bills more of those types of things that you're trying to avoid it's kind of like disappointing your father yeah you don't want to disappoint the guy he is like he didn't have to say anything is or the way he hit the remember he hit the podium so hard yeah he hit that podium hard

because i was right there yeah i always guys got some calloused hands he gets did you watch the roast how's that the roast oh yeah you were there yeah i did this is for our audience oh yeah sorry yeah i was i was there that was uh that was something else that's the whole thing man went with billy oh we had we were actually out there we were out there because there are some boston college um alumni events we were out there for which is awesome and it just so happened to coincide so we went the whole thing just walking in the forum starting with that like that's pretty cool just knowing the history and all the stars and everything just shoot all the photos on the

walls and stuff and then you go in and it's like this you know high end you know extravagant event and then like okay this is nice lots of people around and and here we go lots of laughs did it feel weird going to the patriot roast the tom brady roast whatever the roast was with billio as a bc guy uh well did you guys you guys were both in it so you guys felt yeah um yeah we were close enough to it that i didn't i didn't i felt you know more inside than outside on that just because all the people and you know you know but a lot of laughs and a lot of moments like i did that like several times there's all has our table i don't know how this came about it was me billy Crabtree and Charles Woodson and one of their guys like that's our table

and then at the next table Kim Kardashian and her crew you probably know you probably knew the whole crew Bears right next to Kimmy Kim look at Bears

I love it baby Armenian band come on that's right that's Armenian that's the Armenian posse right there Armenian

did you say what's up did you say what's up to her you say what's up I didn't I was going to after but she went the other way you know whatever i mean you guys had a connection i know well who knows next time next time i went and saw andrew schultz instead he was fun nicky glazer was very funny really good no it was just like professional athletes you know people think oh i could do that did that in high school i could you know i could have done that

these comedians and you can't do that you're not a profession you can't do that these comedians like they they're awesome that's their that's their environment that's their mojo yeah but after seeing bill for all these years and knowing bill for all these years, how do you think Bill did up there? Great. I mean, I was happy that people got to see that. Oh, yeah. Because we see that and we know that. I mean, I was happy he got out basically alive.

You know? Took some shots. He took some shots. But, you know, he survived. It was like a big therapy session. I was wondering like i was wondering as like hopefully this stuff isn't going to carry over like that was what happened at the roast days at the roast and now we move on like or is the bar it changed is the standard

changed oh what do you think 2024 it's fucking there is no bar no bar no bar bears i like bars before we move on from the roast you just mentioned earlier that some of belichick's humor was in like stats he gave amandola one at the roast that was good well you know a little back and forth there there is there's some back and forth so so which which maybe goes back to something that you know about i don't know you just said back and forth so what is back and forth so when when someone goes and says something about bill who's the person that brings the information to bill that someone said something about bill listen i'm not i don't know what happens outside of me sometimes it's me sometimes probably other people sometimes

like you know i keep them informed even now i might shoot them an Sometimes, like, you know, I keep them informed. Even now, I might shoot them an email, but I just, you know. Just let you know. You know, it's ingrained in me. Yeah, you got to kiss the rings. That's a godfather. It's a relationship. Now, we'll segue to, you dipped into it. Being, it's a way of life.

A patriot. It's a way of life. What does the patriot way mean to you, Bearish? This is a hard big j journalism i know it's not it's not a term you know it's not really a term that was used in the building no right yeah um for me it's like never thinking that you're there never thinking you're even good enough you always do more like you could be there however long you want and had a good day but there's well i can do all these other things you know and we'll get to that the next day always chasing something i don't i can't really name any of the real champion true

patriots that cared about credit you know yeah it was not only just things about like we have to do this this and this but it's also like well we don't need to do all these other things you know like let's focus on what matters you know what i mean yeah i always tell everyone that you know like what everyone always asks and i go i don't know like it was accountability dependability it was almost being afraid to be the guy totally yeah that fucks up yeah because you didn't want to a let your teammates down your coaches down b be embarrassed about it right because everyone's putting in the effort you know and and i always tell everyone also you know bill had a template and he had his rules and he didn't really necessarily enforce them it was the leaders on the team that enforced the laws so like he was congress and the leaders were fucking the sheriffs

out there we don't make the laws yeah we enforce them enforce them so who would bears be in this in this analogy i think bears would probably i don't know government terms very well but where would you be bearish i'd probably help make some laws for him and his team and lobbyist not really that's not that's not my nature anyway i'd make a suggestion and back it up with something they Bill will always listen to anything. Have it backed up with something. I tell that to everyone, too. Everyone thinks this whole collaborative narrative. Bill will take information from anyone.

But if you give him information that's fucked up information, you're probably going to be in the goddamn doghouse. You don't want to be in that goddamn doghouse. That doghouse is about 17 miles away. I help pass some legislation. I also help enforce it with support staff. Because all the things you just said about don't want to be the one, don't want to be the weak link, don't want to be the one to say,

I fucked that up, which everybody says sometimes, that applies to the support staff too. Because we're all in it together. Yeah, it's a massive organization, big billion dollar business. But in the end, everyone's on top of each other all the time. Like it's very close. You know everybody. So you see what they do.

There's no hiding. Yeah. Especially in a football locker room, man. You guys can sense things quickly. What do you mean? Like what? Like no one who's legit. no one who we can count on you have any stories of any guys coming up to you saying suggesting or seeing one of these scenarios

of being in the locker room where guys can just sniff the fear out of someone right um no i don't have a specific story on that i just know that that you guys are very in tune to just human nature and people. We're also in tune. You can tell through the sense of humor, too. Like, it comes out. You know what we're in tune to? We're in tune to knowing that anytime we posted anything on the internet, that we could be getting a call or a knock or a,

hey, coach wants to see you, or hey, why don't you come over here? Okay, that's true now can you take that's true can you take us through the the social media scanning process that we we had in the well i didn't get onto social media until like recently last couple years i started instagram so i wasn't like i'm not that i'm not out there like scanning the internet yeah i can do that but that. But I'm not scanning Twitter. Other people are well-versed in that. So it comes to us. Bill is famous for saying, I could just be sitting at my office, minding my own business, and stuff comes to me.

That happened a lot of times with social media stuff, too, where it would just come to me. Because everyone knows we want to know. So if they see it, it comes comes let me ask you this though like how many times did you not post something that you wanted to post why don't you ask these guys constantly okay this is my team yeah okay we lived in fear for 10 years about okay can we do this let's word this this way let's do this you never want to get jules to get the knock because if he got the knock we got the knock. Okay. So how did it all turn out? We did okay. Could have been better.

Could it? We're always chasing man. So that's what the next chapter is for. In talking about this like scanning for social media and what players can and can't do was there a level of like earning it too? Because we noticed as Jules kind of got along the leash

got a little bit longer. For jules for devin you know for rob uh did rob post a lot yeah he did post a lot maybe his last year or so um but posted about a lot right that's different man that's like you know you're doing it right control what what you can control. Yeah, some guys did get more leash, but most, no. You remember the post that we, because guys were talking about it when I told the story about Bill being in the hot tub? Oh, yeah. Did he ever come up to you? Did he hear this story ever?

Has Bill heard of any of our stories? I mean, I i can't remember that exact reaction i'm sure it went something like what the fuck yes there's no way he absolutely knows that story right no question that one didn't slip through come on what are we doing what are we doing there's a fucking rule we can't go bare knuckle berry in the goddamn hot tub i don't care if no one's in there yeah well i don't disagree how has that changed over time though like has he got he's clearly gotten a little looser right with the whole maybe shouldn't have snap face you. You know, Bill's, you know, I bet you never thought you'd see Bill in the media, right?

No, he definitely knew it. Wouldn't it be great if he got on social media at some point? Wouldn't that be great? Is that a tease? Do you know something? Snap face? I'm just asking. Eyeball emoji?

Is he signing a deal with Snapchat? I don't know. Snap face. Snap face. He's launching a snap face. Yeah, Is he signing a deal with Snapchat? I don't know. Snap face? He's launching a snap face. Yeah, right. Right. No, no. He's going to own it.

He's going to own it. Bill Belichick from Bears is joining OnlyFans for exclusive content. Exclusive coaching technique content with his toes dangling out. Stop it. dangling out. Stop it. Cut that out. Serious note, by the way, OnlyFans has one part of it, but also has other stuff.

If Bill went on OnlyFans and just posted old game plans of old games, it would blow up everything. It would be incredible. Just purely for the football junkies. I'm just asking the question. You've got to show a little skin. You've got to show a little skin.

A little skin, a little bit. Where were we? The threshold of showing real stuff. No, no. It was the threshold of him loosening up, which I think he did. Yeah.

Maybe we shouldn't have. Was there one specific time anyone did something super crazy on social that you could specifically remember him, Bill? Like, what the fuck are we doing here? Bears, can you go get me? I don't even remember him. Remember this?

Do I remember Steve? Yeah, I know. He's a great guy. Great guy. Fun guy. You know, good player. Well, it was offseason, of course, because most things

happen in the off season he uh he posted him shooting shooting guns in the backyard like the backyard not a range or like the backyard just there's a target there and like you know that's that's not what we're looking for buddy about matt lane the coin of phrase like it's not what we're looking for, buddy. What about Matt Lane? The coin of phrase. It's not what we're looking for. But he didn't. Only Matt posted that. No. This is like, you said this is a good idea to post. That one didn't go well.

That was a letter on a conduct detrimental. Conduct detrimental. You know what conduct detrimental is? That's the more serious offense. That's a serious offense. You define that. So there are different types of categories of discipline. There's being late to a meeting, missing a meeting, losing a playbook,

being overweight, and things like that. That's one category. And those have specific fines associated with them that are collectively bargained, and they go up year by year. Then there's another category called conduct detrimental, which there's no set fine amount. It's up to one week's game check. And that could be things like disobeying coaches,

being disruptive within the team, firing guns and posting, anything that casts the organization in a negative light such as that. There's a long list. Speeding in the parking lot. Speeding in the parking lot. Burning something in a hotel room.

I don't care. Not a candle. Incense. Incense. Anything. If it burns, leave it the fuck out. And you're a noted candlesman. You love your candles.

I love a good candle. All right, man. You have to do that somewhere else, not in your hotel room. You can't do it in the hotel room. Conduct detrimental is more serious than that has to go to the NFL. That fine that has to go to the NFL. That fine letter has to go to the NFL,

has to go to the Players Association. And you guys determine the fine amount? Yeah. There's an up to. Oh, up to. Now, how many times did you have to talk Bill off the ledge of conduct detrimentally fining Matt Light? like talk bill off the ledge of conduct detrimentally finding matt light

um not that many i don't think see matt that's smart dude matt knows how to take it to the edge you know and it's hard to really go after him i don't know that matt ever got it was bill scared to go at matt light because of the pranks that matt light would do to him no no i scared did you did you hear the email exchange oh i heard i heard he still think matt doesn't believe me but i didn't have anything to do with that i really didn't i remember that i remember the mouse i mean that's pretty good pretty good we've got a hundred other ones in a locker room that i'm sure i don't know about was there any of those on that episode the matt light episode everyone you guys gotta listen to that we're tremendous i i heard it was there any any jokes or pranks that he left out that you

remember well there's not with matt there's there is one drew drew was. Drew was the godfather of it. I think that's probably where Matt got it from, is Drew Bledsoe. He was legendary for doing stuff. Quarterbacks. He used to tell those stories, like filling Tom's car up with peanuts. I'm not a big practical joke guy, man. I'm just there to work. I'm with you.

He's just a patriot. Bear's just the patriot way. He's just there. Proud of it with you. Bear's the patriot way. He's just there. Proud of it, baby. To work. Come on. Whoopie cushions over here. Come on.

We got work to do. Grab ass. What's going on in staff meeting when Matt Light pulls this shit? What is Skarnakio saying during this whole? Because you're in those. No, I wasn't in a lot. I mean, i was in the saturday night night before the game staff meetings and some off-season ones not the everyday ones

where they're talking about practice film and again you know game plans and stuff they don't need me for those man you got other stuff to do yeah what kind of action will get a not not good not good not what we're looking for so matt Matt told a story where it was about the email thing where he said something over the buzzer, and he said specifically that you said the first thing that walked in was not good. So what kind of thing will elicit a not good from you? There's a term, Bill, you used a term,

in football and elsewhere, it's below the line. If something's below the line, then we just can't have it. Jumping offside, shocking a damn coach at his desk. That's below the line. He gets me every time. To have the balls and the audacity to fucking, A, sneak into the head coach's office. Let's paint the picture this isn't an office that we all just like hey coach no how are you doing coach we don't do that i went

in that office maybe three times four times in my career i was there for 12 years and three of them were like over contract stuff and after that one was i got suspended like There you go. That covers it. That covers it. And so for Batlite to go in there and have a full beanie, a break in an entry, and it was... You know what? I look at it this way. It's a grind. What you guys do is a grind.

And very few people can or would even have the mental toughness to go through it. Everybody's got their way of getting through it. You know what? And that's probably his way. It is, and I think Bill appreciated guys that did that kind of shit. He may not have showed it and he may have yelled, but he knew how big of a grind it was for us.

And it was because of guys like Matt Light and the Rich Ornbergers and the guys that brought some light. Right, Vrabel. Vrabel. See, I wasn't wrong. You got any good Vrabel stories? Yeah, man, I'm going to hold off. We'll do that one.

It's probably been told. All right. You know what there's too there's too much there's too much uh and you know during rookie skits and other joke times where like we don't need to get into like male you know sexual conversation like it's too much like guys i don't understand why you guys did you use that humor the the variable thing kind of goes down that pass but i'm going to leave that out what was the best rookie skit that you ever remember what was your favorite uh wow there's so many good ones i mean there was a guy going way back he's an offensive lineman he did he did a pretty good charlie weiss impersonation really good name

was i think it was dan stevenson from Notre Dame, but probably never played. But he could eat butter. He could eat butter. No, but back to what you were saying about Bill, I totally agree. He knows that you need more than just robotic activity all day long. Yeah. But he also knows who he is and what his game is and isn't. So he's not like he's not gonna

go do that but if someone else is gonna do it then now we have it yeah doesn't need to come from him comes from light or grable or you know dan stevenson dan stevenson all right was it rookies actually uh no it wasn't a rookie skit because bill was in it it was just uh it was kind of like just a team building thing that we broke the team up and the coaches and everybody had a role in it and uh they they enacted a reenacted a like a broadway musical and bill actually sang in this i remember the ocean number nine he sang in front of the team. That was a memorable one. Not a rookie skip, but it was kind of like talent show-ish event. So Bill's got – what year was this?

It was probably around 20, 2020, 21 maybe. This is when – was this the – Right before. I think it was probably right before COVID. Was this the Jack Easterby thing where instead of doing rookie skits, we all had to do team things? It could have been in there. Yeah, I remember that.

Where is that footage? Wow. I don't know. Some things. Wow. Access. Oliver's Twist starring Bill Belichick. It is Broadway debut.

We'll be right back after this quick break. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week, we answer your unfiltered work

questions. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do. Like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career. Without sacrificing your sanity or sleep.

Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Thank you. intuition. Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories? I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit,

where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team?

I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. On segregation academies, when civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that. Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, all right, all right. Let's get back.

Yeah, we're going to be talking about New York. Yeah, let's go back to 1997. Oh, wow. September 14th. This is a segment we like to go over pop culture things around the time the game took place. Number one movie was The Game. You remember this movie? I remember it.

I didn't see this movie. It's a great movie. Great San Francisco movie, too. Great San Francisco movie. Honey by Mariah Carey was the number one song. We all remember. A Julian favorite? Huh?

A Julian favorite? Yes. I do love Mariah Carey the real heads know your love for Mariah Long Island baby wait wait speaking of music you used to pick the practice music

didn't you yeah I am a music guy I'll say that I enjoyed that although it's hard it's hard to please a football team

because you got a lot of where do you even start there's only so many times you can listen here's where you start I'll tell you where it actually started.

It started with, for crowd noise, to simulate crowd noise at practice. We just played, this is way before you, just noise, static. Yeah, like that was our noise. And it was brutal, brutal. So then we went to music. And it was probably like, Oh, I don't know,

maybe Oh one Oh two. And I'm playing, I'm playing some hip hop song with, you know, regular lyrics, the lyrics and, uh, not clean,

not clean. And, and I'd been doing this. And then one day, uh, Anthony pleasant, who was a veteran defensive lineman, kind of like i mean not

quite matt slater but along those lines of matt slater of the team at that time and he went to bill and he said like seriously i do not want to hear some of these words of course bill doesn't say anything to me so play it again middle of practice but it comes over what the f are you playing those songs you know you can't play the clean lyric okay so from then on it was all clean lyrics um hip-hop rock bon jovi and springsteen that's where you start yeah baby bon jovi and springsteen that's where you start until you know that gets old isish. Bon Jovi never gets old. So then we added in country, whatever. Who is the number one guy to come up to request music?

Let me paint the picture for you guys. Bears would be out there like Diplo. I was into it, man. He had two big ass speakers and he had a turntable and you'd see him there with his iPod and shit. We're in the middle of a practice. Yeah. A star a day.

What is Rainy Moss? His song was always Friday practice. Every day a star is born. It was Jay-Z. Every time Bears would throw that on, Rainy would look at me and go, this is what they played on my birthday. The Moss Man.

Love him. Love that guy. What do you got? Any Moss stories? I got some Moss stories. But you know what? Who was it? Steve Gascalsi.

He was adamant about some songs now. Christmas, specific Christmas songs. Wait, while we're on music, can I butt in here real quick? Bears, I was creeping on your Instagram before this just to do my due diligence and prep. How the heck was the dead at the Sphere? I was so jealous, man.

Might have been the best show I've ever seen. And I mean show. I've been a dead fan a long time. I love their music. I mean, it just works for me. All of it. It just works. So I saw them here at Fenway last year.

I thought it was great. And that was the last tour. That was it. And then here they are. Residency at the Sphere. And I was like, I got to do it. So just it really, no dates work. So I just made the date work.

Memorial Day. I was going alone. But then a guy came with me. We went. And it was just incredible just it's like an imax you've been in imax theater but it's that times a hundred yeah it's it's crazy it looked incredible and and it's mayor i mean that guy john mayors he's the best one of the magician all right let's jump into the game jack can you set the stage for the New York football Jets? Got to start out with the Jets. This is the first year of the Big Tuna era.

Big Tuna. Which is pretty crazy. And the first year of the Bears era. And the first year of the Bears era, right? Well, actually, no. I started at the Jets mid-season in 95. Okay, I knew I was in that window. I was before this actual regime

came in which is great for me it was awesome because to go back one step further I started at the Knicks as an intern total slap in the 94 season in

media relations as a media relations intern and it was awesome I i'm from new york okay i'm in indiana i mean i'm bostonian now but in my heart i'm a new yorker and new york the new york sports scene is where this all started for me and when the knicks are going like they were going pretty good this year like there's nothing like it in new york city so i was with the knicks when they were going pat riley patrick ewing all these guys that they show now john star i mean i could name the whole team so anyway i started then i was at the knicks for a couple years and that's when van gundy but

i wasn't full-time that led to a job at the jets in media relations because the organizations knew each other whatever one thing led to another. Now I'm at the Jets, but I continued working at the Knicks just on game days. And it was amazing. I sat there at the door where the celebrities and the media came in

and handed out credentials and tickets to whoever it was. And just like now, there were some notable people coming through there. Spike. Actually, Spike, he was a season ticket holder, so he had his tickets, but it was the people that would come just for the game and you know need their ticket rules you know like steven a smith when he was a writer a basketball writer at the

philadelphia inquire you know like a lot of people that you know kind of moved up like all of us you know they were something else in the mid 90s so the knicks is and the knicks were very corporate the very corporate organization owned by um viacom and now cable vision and it was an office building in new york city it was amazing i took the training from long island every day and um so now i'm at the jets and it's very different the jets were a um owned by a family, Leon Hess of Hess Oil. And it was a family, not even a family-run organization because he wasn't around that much. He was around a couple times a year.

So it was really kind of like a mom-and-pop type organization. And I'll jump ahead now. The Patriots are a mix of both. Run like a business, no question, and killing it as a business but family run thin at the top so my first two jobs was kind of like both ends of that and then the patriots kind of mixed it all together but i started at the jets midway through the 95 season team was horrendous as much good fortune as i've had in football, it didn't start that way. 1-15, right?

3-13 my first year. 1-15 the second year. So 4-28 is the first two years. This is not what I remember at the Knicks. And then here comes the new regime. Now Bill Parcells from New Jersey, a New York guy, like all the way. Baseball fan, like New York Giants, like baseball fan.

Knicks fans, we had a little connection on that. Won Super Bowls with the Giants and just a New York guy. So he was like welcomed, beloved in New York. And you could tell right away, like, this is going to be a totally different deal. Like, if things's a if things are a little loose well we're going opposite you know that's just him hard nose tough in your face like no bs guy like bill belichick pat riley bill o'brien and so that that was the new kind of vibe

around the team and there were some good players it was kind of like i mean not quite as good but it's a little bit like the patriots when bill belichick got there where they're great players in place but just you know hadn't quite gotten to where they were a few years before jets had some good players now yeah to me like i think about this stuff like the history of rivalries like i grew up in new york and the Yankees and the Red Sox, in the old days, the 70s and the 80s, when they were brawling, legit brawls in games, Thurman Munson, Carlton Fisk, Bruins Rangers fighting fans in the stands.

There were some serious rivalries going on, but this one took it to a different level because it wasn't as much on the field. It was like the off-the-field the off field drama with coaches and front office and players switching teams and the whole New York-Boston rivalry. And even at that time, and I know this because I was one of them, I grew up in New York, went to school in Boston, college in Boston. There was a lot of that going on in that 80s, 90s,

where there was an influx of young people from New York going to college in Boston. That brought a whole new kind of aspect to it of the rivalry. And then this game kind of took it to the next level. It's like I was trying to think of how to equate it to a modern sort of rivalry. You just can't. With the coaching changes, the players changes, the back and forth.

You're like Andy Reid going to the Raiders. It's just... Right. And being messy on his way out of the Chiefs. Yeah. And then the best player, then Mahomes having... Just a quick little... This is one thing with Curtis Martin.

He's on the Patriots. He's like had three years or two or three years, you know, good player, very productive player, had some injuries. You know, there was a contract aspect going on. Were the Patriots going to sign him? Were they not going to sign him? So Parcells loved Curtis Martin from his time at the Patriots. So he signs Curtis. He was a restricted free agent. He signs him to an offer sheet to time at the Patriots. So he signs Curtis.

He was a restricted free agent. He signs him to an offer sheet to come to the Jets. In this offer sheet, it says that Curtis Martin has to be the highest paid player on a team. Can't do this now. And the Patriots couldn't match that because Bledsoe was there. And the Patriots didn't have an established quarterback. It was Neil o'donnell

the old from the old regime is glenn foley boston college bc bc bc um so they could do that that is since that's also one of the many rules that have come up probably out of this rivalry as well is that that poison pill for in the contract you can't do that anymore. So he went, so Curtis Martin ended up going to the Jets, having a Hall of Fame career. Jesus. That's just one thing. This game that we're covering is his highest rushing. 199.

199, a touchdown. Right, I think he had like seven carries on the game-winning drive in overtime. And this game, the Patriots had a really good team. I'll give you one more. Who's on the sideline in this game for the Patriots? Pete Carroll is the head coach.

Turned out to be quite a... I mean, that's good higher than. And he's national championship at college, Super Bowl. So a great coach who a few years before, head coach of the Jets for one year. They fired him after one year. So Pete Carroll was the head coach of the Jets. People don't really talk about that as much in this game,

but there's another one. So I'd love your, because I didn't realize that you were in the Jets organization before Parcells came in. What was the vibe, the buzz, what was going on from the Jets perspective when Parcells started the rumblings of potentially joining the Jets

while he was under contract with the Patriots? From what I recall, it was, if you can get Parcells, you get Parcells. Now remember, the team is 4-28. So if it wasn't Parcells, it could have been somebody else coming in as a new head coach anyway. But if you get Parcells,

you get instant credibility right away. Whatever he wants, he gets, and he's going to do, and you're going to get better. The team was in the NFC Championship game the next year, 12-4 season. But, yeah, that game, the Patriots were good. The Jets were not good. So the pressure was all on the Patriots.

You've got to win this game. You can't let this guy leave the way he left and come back week three, national TV, Patriots are 2-0 and win. That would have been disastrous. So the Patriots had to win that game and barely did. I mean, they were the better team, but it took a lot of body blows on the way.

It was like Rocky won. Rocky won. Rocky won. Apollo won. Rocky won. Apollo wins, but it took a lot. Was that week of practice and prep, how was that week? In New York, it wasn't nearly what it was. I think up here, because all the information was there, like newspaper and the radio, that was it.

You could tell up here it meant everything down there was like the team's just kind of getting started yeah try and try not to piss him off i personally because i was into this stuff like i wanted to win i wanted to win it for him because i knew it was a big deal for that but within the team i think they could sense it you know once the the buses are getting pelted like the jets buses didn't get pelted very much at 1 and 15 like 1 and 15 buses don't get pelted 9 and 7 you're getting pelted though 9 and 7 this year this year big what a turnaround i mean incredible turnaround in one year go to 1 and 15 at 9 and 7 it's just nuts yeah and right on the edge like you know right on the edge of the playoffs also something that kind of gets lost here a little bit

because there's a couple times with coaching intrigue back and forth between the Jets and the Patriots is during this time here, Coach Belichick was named head coach for like six days. Right. And Coach Parcells was coaching consultant. Even that was, you know, during those times, the policies and the rules, it was a lot different than it is now. There were a lot of loopholes and gray areas,

and, you know, they were operated in. But even that one was too far, and the league stepped in and had to broker a deal. They couldn't just, you know, let him be there as a consultant. But in that week, the staff started getting built. Like, Bill Belichick was the head coach and scott peely was hired and mike tannenbaum and things were kind of like set up how much bill parcells was you know involved i'm not really sure but the fact the fact that scott peely was

brought in and he was a bill belichick guy means that bill belichick was making some decisions scott didn't have any connection to Parcells. Who brought in Charlie? He came. That's a good question. I don't remember the timing of that because he was on Parcells' staff. He was never on Bill's. They were friends and they were close. It was probably Parcells.

Yeah. A little bit of the Patriots dynasty brain trust inner circle was developed on this Jets team. Can you speak a little bit to that you mentioned pioli mangini yourself can you just talk about how that kind of happened in new york right well scott with scott pioli in particular he goes back to cleveland for several years with bill belichick so they had already like they had already been involved with building a team together and mike tannenbaum came kind of on the tail end of that so they they already had a um a working relationship they had already done it at

an organization and then they took that to the jets and then add parcels and it kind and it went from there um so a lot of this actually goes back to cle, too, with Bill Belichick and Scott and Mike and Eric, too. He's definitely a part of this. And what was your process to kind of, because you were with the just before to kind of get inside of there. So like I said, I was in media relations. And if you're in media relations and in the department of five, you're five, you don't have natural crossover with the defensive coordinator assistant head coach bill belichick like that something has to happen what happened was and it's actually a story that i tell people and my kids about you never know so when i was at the jets in the previous regime

one of my jobs was to work with the radio broadcast crew during the game yeah and write down stats like things that happen like they didn't have all these great instantaneous things you have to maybe for tv but not for radio so i did a lot of things by hand and i would like give notes to the announcers one of the announcers the the analyst was dave jennings guy by the name of dave jennings he's a great guy passed away way too early he was a great punter for the New York Giants in the late 70s early 80s yeah like Giants weren't very good he was at times he was the best player in a team but he was a pro ball punter and Bill coached him when he was he coached special teams at the Giants. I don't know this. I don't know Bill Belichick.

But Dave was a radio analyst, like Scott Zolak of the Jets. And he was a giant. And in New York, people are very passionate about their sports. Just like Boston, very passionate. But in New York, there's two teams for every sport. So yeah, you've got rivalries. You've got Yankees, Red Sox. But you've also got Yankees, Mets. There's a lot for every sport. So yeah, you've got rivalries. You've got Yankees, Red Sox, but you've also got Yankees, Mets.

There's a lot of tension there. Subway tension. Absolutely. So the Giants and the Jets, they're enemies. And they went up at that time. I don't know what it's like now, but at that time, it was a front office thing too. The Jet people didn't really like the Giant people.

So here's Dave Jennings, known as a giant's player even though he played jets a couple years at the end of his career but he was a giant and he but he's a jet color guy on the radio and he was blunt he would tell it like it is he didn't sugarcoat anything he would hammer the team you'd hammer the team when he went on the radio just as a guest and they didn't like him very much but what do i know like i'm 20-something years old. I'm there. I'm at practice. I'm talking to him. I like the guy.

So we became friends. Well, a few years later, in comes a new regime. In comes Bill Belichick as part of the new regime. Dave Jennings introduces me to Bill Belichick because they're friends from the back of the Giants. And that's kind of where it got started. And I was kind of in that little circle of bill scott pioli mike tannenbaum eric mangini and that was kind of so that's how

it kind of got started so the relationships which you know all about do i. So was that like, were they a close-knit group, that whole little eventual patriot coaching staff, like in the cafeteria where those guys always sit next to each other, like talking, and was that their rat pack? Absolutely. It would be, yeah, go out. I don't do that so much anymore, but it would be like go out somewhere. don't do that so much anymore but it would be like go out somewhere we went to the belmont together yeah it was the end of mel it was the end of minicamp

it's pretty funny it's the end of minicamp it's the last practice and then we get in the car and go to the belmont fill up the trunk with some beverages yeah get there bill's driving bill's driving we pull in and it's a mess. Like, we don't have passes. We're just kind of driving, and we get stopped there. We're just trying to park, and the guy's like, you can't go here, and Bill points over. He goes, that's Eric Mangini. Let us in.

He's like, nobody. The guy doesn't know who's Mangini. Who says Bill's not funny? We also, there was a very limited media on you when we were doing some research, but we found an article from 2000 and whatnot. Drove up. Skip ahead a little bit.

When Bill moved to the Patriots, you guys all drove together from New Jersey to Foxborough? Yeah. It was Bill driving, me, and Eric. That was the group that came up. What kind of car? Probably a station wagon. I bet it was a Bill station wagon.

I think that's what it was. Bill did have that station wagon that he was driving in that 95 Browns footage. Was it a station wagon? Station wagon guy. I love it. What's the conversation like that? It's like, oh, we want to do this. Is it already in work mode, thinking about what to do when you get to New England?

Or is it just like, hey, we should stop at this last deli. That's the last New York deli. It's probably some of that. It was probably just how's this day going to go with the press conference and just what's happening in the next immediate hours and day. That was 2000. You know the three people who started the Patriots in 2000? Three people.

I mean, there's more than three people. The what? In the year 2000 was Bill's first year. It was Tom's first year. And my first year, man. That's a pretty good company. Talk about a trio. You know what I'm saying?

I kid. I kid. Come on, man. Ernie too? Ernie? Ernie came back. Ernie did too. Yeah.

After killing it out there in a business world. We won't get into that. We're going to get stock ticks out of him one of these days. Yeah. We're getting those tips. Good luck. Good luck. Let's do the Jets real quick.

Let's do Pats real quick. Yeah. Run through these Jets real quick. As we said, 9-7 narrowly missed the playoffs. Huge turnaround from the year before, 1-15. Mo Lewis, we all know Mo Lewisis the lone pro bowler this season this is the first winning season for the jets since 88 so uh i mean bill parcells came in and made that immediate one year one year the tuna knew how to turn things around and we did the same thing with the patriots too took him to the super like that this was one year it was one year after kishan was drafted number

one overall in the 96 draft. Good friend. Great guy. Good friend of mine. Didn't you work with him? Yeah. He was the first pick in a draft, and he came in 96, and the first thing he did was come to my office,

and we just kind of hit it off right away. L.A. guy. Had some Armenian friends. Heck, yeah. He had a great catch in this game, too. He did. He had a great touchdown. And Mo Lewis had a touchdown in the camp.

A forgotten Mo Lewis patriot moment. It was a key interception for a touchdown. It's crazy. To which he outran Sean Jefferson. Mo had the wheels, baby. Mo had the wheels. And we're talking this Jets roster. We've mentioned these names.

We've mentioned the Neil O'Donnells. We got Adrian Murrell. I mean, he carried the ball 300 times this year. Wayne Corbett, baby. Wayne Corbett, the godfather. You took the words right out of my mouth. Him and Jules have a similar play style, I've been told. Yeah, we're both white.

More than that. And ferocious. Go look up the photo of you and Danny. What are the similarities of our game? Get open and catch the ball. Simple as that. Get open and catch the ball. Simple as that. Get open and catch the ball. Simple as that.

Should we roll on? Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week,

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Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. We're looking at a whole new series of episodes this season to understand why and how our lives look the way they do. Why does your memory drift so much? Why is it so hard to keep a secret? When should you not trust your intuition? Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories?

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How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits.

It's right here in black and white in print. A lion. An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch. As a leader, you choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. On the segregation academies, when civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that.

Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. That's real quick. This was a 10-6 Patriots team. Pretty loaded roster on both sides

of the ball. We mentioned it before. Then there are even some names that carried over into the Belichick era that you guys would know. The Willie McGinnis, the Ty Laws, the Lawyer Malloys of the world. Scott Zolak was backing up Bledsoe this year. It was the first Troy Brown. First year of the – Scott Zolak was at the team of the Jets.

God, love Zolak. Love Zolak. You know Zolak has a fake eye? Is that the rumor? I think they're – I don't know exactly what's going on. I think he's got a fake eye i don't know exactly what's going on you gotta ask him yeah he's always got all right i don't know he's had incredible touchdown in this it'd be pretty incredible if he was a nfl quarterback

with one eye that depth perception you can't go ahead i'm sorry uh this was the first year of the pete carroll era as we mentioned uh this was Bledsoe's fifth year in the NFL So already pretty established in there Played under Parcells all those years And they kind of butted heads a little bit Is that right, Burge? Bill, him, and Bledsoe I wasn't here

I've heard, yeah But he does that with all his careers Same thing with Phil Simms Oh, Phil was on here telling the stories. The plane ticket is in the drawer. Did he say that too? Did he say that? I think just audience, I think the big takeaway from this Patriots team is that talking about this Parcells, Belichick, Jets, Patriots kind of back and forth, that this Patriots team,

the core, was really kind of a Parcells leftover that became the Belichick pickup for the early part of the dynasty, the Patriots organization. And this was... Fair to say? Yeah, for sure. And two more points we got to hit before we move on. Coming off a loss in Super Bowl XXXI, we lost to the Packers. Terry Glenn's second year in the NFL, too,

and lost in the divisional round at Pittsburgh. To another coach with another good name, the chin, baby, Bill Coward. Bill Coward. We kind of already covered the Parcells exit already, so we can kind of – we did some research on the compensation for the draft picks back and forth. No one really of note to really mention, so just kind of that league stepped in. There was some back and forth.

Parcells was pretty much out the door while the Patriots were playing in the Super Bowl. Some intrigue, some back and forth. We mentioneds was pretty much out the door while the Patriots were playing in the Super Bowl. Some intrigue, some back and forth. We mentioned the consultant, the head coach, Belichick, and then led us into this game. Now memory's coming back on Parcells. So what is the first thing? What's that first memory of Coach Parcells

after working with him for your five games in? No, this is my first memory of him, period, my interaction with him was maybe like, I don't know, probably a couple months into his time at the Jets. I don't really have anything to do with him. We had a head of media relations and someone else. But I get called up to his

office. The coach wants to see you. Okay. I go up there and walk in and he goes i think he said something about the knicks because he like you know he's always had his lesson that's one of the things about parcells he has something with everybody like a little connection to kind of break the ice or have a little personal rapport so that was that was it with me but then he said you see this he takes out this laminated piece of paper the nfl schedule for next season had just come out so all the games are listed for each week but on paper so we had this one sheet and on one side it was week one week two week

three and then on the top it was all the teams atl arz car you know all the way down and then in each box and there's a grid of 256 games who's playing who the time of the game and where it was and the day like if it was not a sunday if it was monday you put mon if it's a thursday thg so can you do this okay i'll do it walk out and there's a lot of information but so and i'm about to and i'll leave his office and he goes hey just remember this one wrong all wrong okay. Not like I do a good job with this. Thanks a lot. One wrong, all wrong. And that means like center it properly.

And it's a lot of information. It's not hard, but it's details. So I'm like, I can't F this up. Was he a guy of just a million sayings? Yes. He had a lot. Yes. He had a lot of sayings.

I mean, if they don't bite as puppies, they're not going to bite as a dog. Meaning if a rookie isn't tough when you get them, they ain't going to get tough. Can't buy toughness. So I stayed up all night. I had my mom double-checking it. Did Jules bite as a puppy?

Absolutely. Absolutely. Has anyone talked about the playoff game? I mean, it was a horrible game. you know did Jules bite as a puppy? absolutely absolutely has anyone talked about the playoff game? I mean it was a horrible game playoff game in 2009 his rookie year lose to the Ray

it's the Ray Rice first play it's come up a few times but we've never dedicated an episode just the hit I mean Bill has talked about like numerous times

with the team like the best player on the field in that game for us coming out party we had some good players on the team but like the best player on the field in that game for us. Coming out party. We had some good players on the team, but not that day. This was in 09? Other than him.

This was 09, Ravens. So then what happened between 09 and when he really kind of like stuck on? Well, he didn't say that at the time. He said that later. Well, you couldn't say that at the time. A couple Super Bowls later. All right, Jack, let's do this game. This was actually, sometimes these old games aren't really interesting.

Maybe the storyline or the themes are more interesting than the actual gameplay itself. This was a great game with an overtime. Adam Vinatieri felt like, Jack, why don't you hit us up on. Hold on. Before I get into that, I got to give my guy some shine. Back to that 0-9 playoff game against the Ravens. Six catches, 44 44 yards two touchdowns

let's not forget catches 44 yards hey two thuddies two thuds let's not forget i would have guessed more than that i know i had a good turn too good punt return but let's go like the point i remember bill put the punt return on the highlights out of our exit that's the one we how involved were you with bill tube and the cut-ups? That was all film. Yeah, I didn't really watch the game film. I watched a lot of TV copies, our games and other games. Because a lot of times you get better shots, you get good replays,

you get officials or announcers saying things that help make whatever point it is. Because they interviewed the staff beforehand. Yeah. Or they just explain what's going on um especially officiating so we had a lot of those teaching tapes or you know situations to learn from the weird things that happen once in a while that bill likes to talk about so this was a sloppy game this was a wild one intense from the jump foxborough stadium is rocking rocking we got the old starter jerseys on we got the baggy polos. We got the pleated khakis.

This was, I mean, this is peak 90s football. As you said, sloppy game a little bit. Six turnovers. Six turnovers. A little bit sloppy, but still exciting. Two block kicks. Two block kicks. Lead changes or ties seven times.

It's back and forth all night. The Patriots get out, start early with a crazy 63 yard kick return sets up a quick strike to ben coats pats go up seven nothing neil o'donnell not a not a known runner runs one in to tie it up then when patriots knock again come back curtis martin punches one in go up 14 to 7 to in the first quarter then the second quarter the jets not gonna field goal we're at 14 10 at the half then in the third mo le the Jets knock in a field goal. We're at 14-10 at the half. Then in the third, Mo Lewis once again, I mean, just killing blood. So any chance he gets this time. Freezing.

A pick. No, I'm sorry. Sorry. Too soon? Still too soon, maybe? 43-yard pick six. The Jets are up 17-14. Oh, Lewis, own them.

And it's getting tight. It's getting tight. The air gets sucked out of that building, I hear. What do you mean it's getting tight, Berge? The Patriots had to win this game. They had to win this game. There's no alternative. Had to win this game.

And it starts going. And actually, it's going the other way now. Now it's like, oh, crap. They got the lead. Expectations for this Jets team were still pretty low after a 1-15 season. It's almost like not even, well, we're going to win. It's just we got to embarrass the guy. We got to embarrass it.

Winning is, that's happening. How bad is it going to be? Yeah, like crazy. Now the back and forth really starts. Adam Vinatieri, Mr. Clutch. This is before the snow kicks. This is before all that. Ties it up, 17-17.

Patriots get a stop. Come back. Lovett Purnell is filling in for Ben Coates. Knocked out at this point. Ben Coates gets knocked out of the game. Go up 24-17. Late. Then, as we alluded to... First catch of the game. Not a household name.

No shade to Lovett, but not a household name. Then we come back. We alluded to this one earlier. Keyshawn Johnson, an incredible back of the end zone, 24-yarder from O'Donnell. The 1-9. With time waiting. Oh, my God. How much time left was it?

We got like 29 seconds left. In the game. 24-24 kickoff. Wait. You know what's going to happen on this ensuing kickoff? The fumble. Okay. I'm sorry, Derek.

Derek Cullors, I'm sorry, brother. Let's talk through that because I think that was a – well, let's talk about how do you remember the Keyshawn Johnson touchdown or that drive? Do you remember anything? First thing, it was a while ago, but 31 seconds left. Keyshawn and I are friends, and we were very close then, and the fact that he made that catch.

Oh, man. That guy's a competitor. Parcells loved him because he blocked. He worked tough, had some personality to him. They really clicked from the beginning. And I was happy for him that he made that play. I mean, I don't know if a game gets tied without that play. Were you in the press box for this one?

I was. I was jotting down notes to Dave Jennings and the radio guys. Because the commentary from the broadcast was that Johnson was a little bit kind of where was he when we need him the most for the Jets in the fourth quarter. Wasn't a lot of plays. They weren't really going to him. So this big play at the end was kind of like, oh, here he is. Big moment, big play.

Shows up, great catch in the corner. Ties the game, right? I mean, who's his quarterback? Exactly. Come on, guys. All right, take us through. What do the announcers know? So you remember what happened after that, right?

Can you walk us through that? Yeah. Keyshawn scores. Keyshawn scores. Okay, so now there's, what, 30-something seconds left. Game's going gonna go to overtime most likely right right right but no no i mean how often does a kickoff return get fumbled not very often not very often at all buffalo 2009 opener right remember scareweather knocked him

yeah i do i do keep going absolutely the same situation, too. At the end, you need to score, right? Well, this was tied. So now he fumbles. Jets recover. And now the Jets are going to win, like somehow. Because the Patriots have been in control most of the way, and there's kind of wacky plays here and there. Now the Jets are going to win.

Just run it down. Line up for a short field goal. Easy. Routine. And this is going to be a catastrophe in New England. So line up for the field goal. It gets blocked. Oh, rookie John Hall. Rookie John Hall.

29 yarders, all he needs. Right. They came in. How pissed is Parcells after that? I don't know. I don't think he showed it. But I think after Keyshawn, you saw him after that, after he scored a touchdown,

I think he thought we might steal this game. And it was there to be stolen. So now we go to overtime. And you know what happens here? Curtis? No, yes. Before that, before that, Patriots getots get the ball okay move it a little bit interception otis smith otis future patriot yeah and super bowl contributor otis smith

intercepts the ball who tackles him by the way after he intercepts the pass troy brown makes the tackle i think he might have had some room to run but troy tackles him by the way after he intercepts the pass troy brown makes the tackle i think he might have had some room to run but troy tackled him and always troy never gives up on a play he played san diego game that san diego troy um talked about it yesterday with him it's the balls at midfield so again another chance but nothing happens there is sack or penalty whatever so now punt it back to new england and then curtis martin all the way down all the way down 42 yards adam vinitieri lines up what's the flight home you guys lose heartbreak overtime should have won that game that game for the jets is just um unfortunate because of what it could have been but it wasn't what it would have been if you were the Patriots and lost.

I was disappointed. You had those games. It would have been nice. It's unfortunate. It's a shame. It's a shame it didn't happen off on the Jets side for Parcells and all that and getting the program going, but it was a different level than the New England side.

Are you in the locker room at the end of the game when Parcells is addressing the team? No, I wasn't really in there. It's probably still coming down. What about Monday? The Monday, were you there? Were you in a team meeting? I wasn't really in the team meetings at that stage. At that stage of your career?

Yeah. I started that in 2000. To put a bow on this game, as we just said, Adam Vinatieri knocks one home after an incredible drive led by Curtis Martin in overtime after the Patriots got the ball back. 62 yards and nine plays. 42 of those yards were just Curtis Martin rushes. Patriots win 27-24. Curtis Martin ran the ball 40 times 40 carries what i per 199 yards one touchdown go ahead guys i pine for this era of football just like i'm just gonna give it to

my back and we're just gonna go down the field we're gonna punch it in you're just not gonna do anything about it oh i missed that no sorry to tell you yeah not 13 seconds left oh we can get two scores here yeah we'll see i like my back's wearing big elbow pads yeah big out you know i mean one of the best most exciting week three games we've ever even mentioned on this show or ever incredible however much it could get ramped up, that's what it was. It was like, I mean, different, because everyone, you know, obviously the biggest comeback game, come home game is Tom, you know, came back with Tampa, and that was massive. But it was a different vibe.

It was love for Tom. It was different sort of methods of promotion and hype. You know, this was kind of old school. This was old school. I hate you. Old school bad blood. Vitriol. That's a high syllable word that me and you do not know.

What did Bill say? I'm unimpressed. Unimpressed. Yeah, I'm just trying to follow Matt Light's footsteps here. And the storylines continue after the game new england would get out to a five and one start finish 10 and six losing the divisional round at pittsburgh um the jets would beat the patriots 24 19 get a little revenge in the week eight matchup in the meadowlands jets would ultimately finish nine and seven third in the afc east and just narrowly missed the playoffs

but it doesn't end there a A couple of years down the road. There's more, but wait, there's more. Paul Tagliabue was earning his money between this rivalry. I mean, he's got to be sitting at his desk. Like these guys again,

these guys again, a couple of years later, back in 99, Bill Paul ourselves steps down as the head coach of the jets. And then there's the plan in place for Bill to succeed him, right? Right. Then Pete Carroll also fired in New England in 99. So the New England job's open.

Then we infamously get the Bill Belichick spending one day as head coach of the Jets. The napkin. Before we do that. I don't think it was a napkin, by the way. Is that real? Whoa, whoa, whoa. It's no napkin. Huh? No napkin before we do that i don't think it was a napkin by the way is that what's no napkin huh no napkin what was it there's a piece of paper okay okay piece of paper we're talking legal pat what are we saying i have a notebook and who does he give this to my understanding is he gave it to the team president steve gutman this was at the press conference like

at the no this was this I think, the day before. Okay. Maybe the morning of. I can't remember. So before we get to the actual resignation in the Patriots, I just watched the two Bills documentary, NFL Films, last night. Ken Rogers, shout out NFL Films.

We love you. Love you. There was supposedly a fax that came through from the Patriots organization to the Jets organization saying they wanted to interview Coach Belichick to potentially be their head coach. There is some intrigue. There is some stuff.

Do you have any insight on what happened there? I think it was taken and balled up and thrown out. That's what I heard. And that led to Parcells resigning to kind of trigger? Like, this doesn't mean anything. I think that the intent was, this doesn't mean that i think that it was the intent was this doesn't mean anything because other contractual things are in the works underway so it was invalid the uh the processes of requesting permission and all that like it's come a long way it's come a long

way do you your inner circle with coach belichick at this time do you have any conversations about this going on or is he operating on his own with this all this information and wanting to move some stuff how does bill get you to we got napkin gate whatever this that not a napkin it's a piece of paper it's out there how does bill ask you to come hey bears are you come with me how does he ask you bears i know you know you've worked really hard i know you know you're a new york guy well like what you like i mean i don't i can't i don't think there was ever one like specific conversation on this like bill got bill was interviewed for a job the previous year the raiders and you know how it is like we started we formed a relationship and

you know we talked about things, whatever. It wasn't specifically like, all right, I'm getting this job. This is your job. Let's go do it. You just kind of get a vibe like, you know, it feels like we might have a future together. But it wasn't a specific moment in time. Never. He always keeps you in that gray.

He always keeps you in that gray. Is that his Jedi mind trick? I don't think so. I think that's an overrated thing, too, about how calculating he is on every last thing. Because he is calculating on a lot of things when it comes to football, but not every last thing. So many press conferences that he was late for.

He was coming from a meeting where he was locked in on whatever that was, and 30 seconds later, he's in a press conference. He wasn't just going over every last thing he was going to say and message to put out there. He's not that smart. Oh, he's smart. And he probably did do that sometimes, but he's just a little bit urban legend.

Oh, yeah, for sure. I mean, he wasn't saying Foxborough High every minute like everyone says. Oh, and sometimes the myth. I mean, he wasn't saying Foxborough High every minute like everyone says. Oh. He wasn't writing on napkins. Napkin game. See, this is bullshit. He's a mean three-ring notepad. Yes, like a gentleman.

A napkin's over here. Like a gentleman. Like some number at a bar. Come on, man. We're dispelling rumors I like. We're debunking over here today. Mythbusters, Games with Names edition. I like it. But just to wrap this today. Mythbusters games with names edition. I like it, but,

but just to, to wrap this up and put a neat bow on it bears. Could you help us since you live through this and you were on the ground, boots on the ground in the building, kind of the timeline of events of, of bill getting hired by the jets, Parcells resigning, and then making the jump to New York,

like how that played out um just kind of the timeline of events so was it napkin and then you guys just got in the station wagon and just said fuck we're going to Foxborough this was some these are like 10 these are tense times here right tense time I'm not like and again I'm not in the Parcells like Jets uh executive circles all the time I'm not like meandering in and out of these conversations yeah you are that's just a humble that's a different bear you know a different me that was the that was the old me hey there was a slap me there was a line in the new york times where it says where you position yourself on every press conferences out of sight but with an earshot

that's very deliberate i tried i was actually in that press conference i'll never forget where i was like right in the jets auditorium i was like halfway up on the left side just watching like one thing media doesn't like especially like new york media or boston they don't like things that take them completely by surprise they don't really like that especially if they don't have like they didn't see a comment they don't have a great explanation that's that's not a great scenario it's like a movie like Bill's just going up there and then he announces

he's not going like oh my god what's going on he like winks to the camera and then that's the end of the season flashbulb next season

Patriots like a smirk like a season succession season 2 ending I still remember those Jets Cadillac step and repeats that were always behind the podium next season. Patriots. Like a smirk, like a succession season two ending. I still remember those Jets Cadillac step and repeats that were always behind the podium. You know who had the Cadillac deal? Bill Parcells.

Oh! Oh yeah, he drew up that was his car, a Cadillac. I think he drove it like to Florida. He didn't like to fly. I think he drove it when he went down there in the winter. Right after the season until whenever he came back he drove that thing. That's a new new england or northeastern like new jersey kind of like going to florida move just take the load up the cadillac we're going to florida

to kind of wrap up this thing maybe the borrow face for you what's the theme of this coach belichick jets to patriots transition transfer that happens. What is the theme? Drama. Drama. And that's all we're just trying. We're trying to eliminate distractions. Well, that was the wrong place for you because that's a lot of drama.

I mean, that's the Patriot Jet theme. Drama. Yeah. Just drama. It never stopped. Never stopped. The music never stopped dead reference baby and we keep on and it never stopped that you know what you know it's crazy a little car ride in that station wagon little did we know about six seven years later when the old man Jeannie

takes jet job I thought we'd all just be in the car. I thought we'd all be in the car just listening to Dead, Bruce Springsteen, Bon Jovi and then, you know, all of a sudden, man genie. Again, drama. Drama. And that's the theme. Drama. I don't know

what you're talking about. Two blinks for yeah. Drama. Cabilla built... you're talking about two blinks for yeah drama could bill have built the success that the patriots had with the jets if he were to be the jets head coach right now i don't think he could i think the jets are just not right let's go sorry to reframe alternate reality coach belichick was named head coach for that day. Had things worked out and he stayed, do you think he could have built what was built in New England in that organization with what was the pieces that were there?

Well, I know that Bill already knew how to build a team. He built one in Cleveland. You can go. There have been documentaries about the 1995 cleveland browns and what that eventually became so he knew how to build a team it would be a reach for me to say it would have been six super bowls and all that because as you know and i feel i get the question you get the question bill or tom whatever it's everybody man it whatever. It's everybody, man. It's everybody. It's everybody. It helps to have the best at the two most important positions,

head coach and quarterback. It helps to have that. I was going to say three best positions. Football ops, quarterback, head coach. Keep going. Being honest, if you got everybody else, because

it doesn't just happen. It takes people. Did he ever talk about what he learned in his time in Cleveland, Belichick? Yeah. Like the mistakes, like on the car ride up with you and Mangini. Was he sitting there like, all right, guys, I'm probably not going to do this one. We're not going to do the PB&J live TV.

I don't think he mentioned that, but he, form of team building and football standpoint, no, he didn't, not with me so much. I'm sure he had those conversations with Scott, Pioli, and Ernie, because those were the guys that really kind of set the tone to building the team. But from my standpoint, kind of off the field, it was, yeah, he was too much in the weeds and the details on everything,

even things that are important but someone else can handle, you know, see the big picture more, which he definitely said that. Even though he probably still feels like he's in the weeds and a lot of stuff, but maybe not as much as it was in Cleveland. So delegation and, like and building an organization team that you can trust to handle those kind of things? Yeah, he definitely said that. How do you sum up Parcells Jets era?

It was becoming more professional outfit. Yeah. There were good players there when he got there. Yeah. And then he added some more, but it was about running a professional program, which you know what that is. It's details.

It's work. It's like not losing a game. Not losing a game. Seriously. Not losing a practice. Yeah. No question. Every day matters, Bear.

Shaming guys out of the training room. What is that? That means that if you can be out there practicing, then be out there practicing. Like, Vrabel would do this. You wouldn't see it, but there'd be some young guys in a training room. You'd get them out of there.

You can't make the club in the tub. Facts. You can't make the old club in the tub, Bears. You have to wear a bathing suit in the tub. Yes. I mean, we have gray shorts. Oh my goodness. Communal shorts.

You don't want to just be sitting in the hot tub and all of a sudden night out. Unless your name is Bill Belichick. Unless your name is Bill Belichick. Right. Any leftover questions, Jackie? I got a bunch. What do we got? Did we miss anything? I got a million, but I'll settle on one. We got to get another plug for BC. Oh, heck yeah. All right. I got a bunch. What do we got? Did we miss anything? I got a million, but I'll settle on one. We got to get another plug for BC.

All right, I'll hurry up. We got the whole thing. We got to get Billy Owen, too. He talked about you all night, Jack. I still don't believe it. I still don't believe it. Where's Jack? I want to believe it.

I love Billy. Oh, my gosh. I almost said hey, but we were in line for the bathroom and it was awkward. I was next to him. I want to believe. I love Bill. Oh, my gosh. What did we miss, Jack? I almost said hey, but we were in line for the bathroom, and it was awkward. Too scared. It was a long coffee break that I just took. All right, all right. Last one. Bill Belichick has become sort of infamous for the post-game press

conferences, the on to Cincinnati's, all of these sound bites that have taken on lives of their own. Is it true that from Cleveland and over the years, you were sort of the Belichick whisperer of how to craft the news conference and to soften some of those edges that may have been there in Cleveland? Probably, yeah. Probably some of that, but not all. Bill is Bill. We didn't rehearse.

I didn't know if there were any coaching points um on the media yeah there were some coaching points on you know delivery listen bill is bill on the end um but i think if you watch the cleveland version the new england version probably looks a little different so what's he gonna look like in the next version oh i don't know what do you know what do you know i don't know but what i do know what do i what i want i want to know yeah what do you want to know let's just do a little let's just do a little what you can control let's do a little what ifs i know we don't have a big in the what-if game. No, hypotheticals. What if the Dallas Cowboys go 11-6, losing the first round, fire the coaching staff, bring in Belichick, bring in Josh McDaniels, bring in Scott Pioli, and they have one guy that they're calling.

Hey, Bears, are you going to come join us? Are you going to circle up with the wagon and go? Go Eagles. Listen, in January, Bears, are you going to come join us? Are you going to circle up with the wagon and go? Go Eagles. Listen, in January, okay, it looked like there was a decent chance he was going to Atlanta, like some legitimate interviews, right? And then he didn't go to Atlanta. Billy O'Brien was the offensive coordinator at Ohio State,

and now he's at BC. You don't know how it's going to go. Stay tuned. Go Eagles. Stay tuned. Go Eagles. Oh, so if Sirianni goes 11-6 and they fire him after a first-round exit. Go Boston College Eagles.

Oh, Boston College. You see that? Go Eagles. Right on your chest. Boston College. What's the fight song? Do we have a fight song? There is a fight song.

Billy loves to play at a practice. Oh, my God. I haven't learned the whole thing yet, so. I'm new. Just trying to learn, man. Jack, where did we go? We missed anything? Did we clean up?

We were pretty darn clean this episode, thankfully. Charlie Wise did indeed get his start in the Parcells regime with the Jets back as a coaching assistant. Coaching assistant. Charlie's office. Yep. We used to have an office dedicated to Charlie. People had no idea.

People had no idea. Huh? People had no idea. It was just referred to as Charlie's office. That's awesome. They had no clues. He had never coached before because it was years after he was gone. I wanted to go meet in Charlie's office. Billy O had

Charlie's office. He did. For a while. When I was there. Joe said he had his own office where he would blast John Mayer out of after a hard practice. Can you confirm that? I had a couple offices. Bears knows. Love John Mayer. We love Mayer. We'll be right

back after this quick break. Hey, I'm Gianna Pradente. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline, a new podcast from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts. When you're just starting out in your career, you have a lot of questions. Like, how do I speak up when I'm feeling overwhelmed? Or, can I negotiate a higher salary if this is my first real job? Girl, yes. Each week we answer your unfiltered work questions.

Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in experts who do, like resume specialist Morgan Santer. The only difference between the person who doesn't get the job and the person who gets the job is usually who applies. Yeah, I think a lot about that quote. What is it like you miss 100% of the shots you never take? Yeah, rejection is scary, but it's better than you rejecting yourself. Together, we'll share what it really takes to thrive in the early years of your career without sacrificing your sanity or sleep. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm David Eagleman from the podcast Inner Cosmos, which recently hit the number one science podcast in America. I'm a neuroscientist at Stanford, and I've spent my career exploring the three-pound universe in our heads. We're looking at a whole new series of episodes this season to understand why and how our lives look the way they do. Why does your memory drift so much? Why is it so hard to keep a secret?

When should you not trust your intuition? Why do brains so easily fall for magic tricks? And why do they love conspiracy theories? I'm hitting these questions and hundreds more because the more we know about what's running under the hood, the better we can steer our lives. Join me weekly to explore the relationship between your brain and your life

by digging into unexpected questions. Listen to Inner Cosmos with David Eagleman on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels, into something everyone in the South loves, the Biscuits.

I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? The Boone County Rebels will stay the Boone County Rebels with the image of the Biscuits. It's right here in black and white in the prints. They lion.

An individual that came to the school saying that God sent him to talk to me about the mascot switch is a leader. You choose hills that you want to die on. Why would we want to be the losing team? I'd just take all the other stuff out of it. On segregation academies, when civil rights said that we need to integrate public schools, these charter schools were exempt from that.

Bigger than a flag or mascot. You have to be ready for serious backlash. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, let's name the game. This is a segment where we score the game, we name the game, and you're the guest. What are we doing here?

The name of the game, we have the Tuna Bowl. We have the Tuna Meltdown. The return of the tuna, Bill McGeddon. Or the Spicy Tuna Bowl. Or anything that you can think of. What is the name of this game? Week three, 97, Jets-Pats. Name of the game, Bears.

The Tuna Bowl. Tuna Bowl. There it Name of the game, Bears. The Tuna Bowl. Tuna Bowl. There it is. The Tuna Bowl. The Tuna Bowl. Great name. Coach is coming back and playing against his former team. Let's score the game.

Is this the greatest game of all time? Let's score it. Stakes, one to ten decimals okay, Bears. The stakes of a week three game. Stakes. Because there are lots ofals okay, Bears. Stakes of a week three game. Stakes. Because there are lots of different stakes. There's standings. I'd say, oof.

What's my scoring system? One to ten decimals okay. Decimals okay. There's some high stakes in this game. Ten mean high. One mean terrible. Yeah, I'm going nine. A nine stakes. Stakes were high. One mean terrible. Yeah, I'm going nine. A nine stakes.

Regular season. Stakes were high. Regular. I'm on here. But teams, very high. And then also the rule changes because of all the contract tamperings and this and that. And can they go?

Is he the head coach? Is he not? I mean, this is a lot of stakes. Star power. Jules had a 6.9. Jack had a 7.3. I had a 6.9 as well. Okay. Star power. Jules had a 6.9. Jack had a 7.3. I had a 6.9 as well. Okay.

Star power. Okay. Hall of Fame coaches everywhere. Coaches. Players. It would be a maximum. Hall of Fame players. Curtis Martin, Ty Law, Adam to be.

Quarterback, Drew, Patriot Hall of Famer. Other tons of Patriots. I'm going to go 9 as well. 9? Yeah. Jules, you had a 7.8. Jack had a 6. Other tons of Patriots. I'm going to go nine as well. Nine. Yeah. Jules, you had a 7.8. Jack, you had a 6.2. Oh, wow.

7.6. No, those are hard graders. We just did a game with, what, 22 Hall of Famers? Super Bowl IX. Really? Seniors versus Vikings. Gameplay of the game. A little sloppy.

Six turnovers. But it was, for the viewer, kind of fun. Yeah. Especially 90s. Very fun. I'll go lower on that, for the viewer, kind of fun. Yeah. Especially 90s. Very fun. I'll go lower on that one. Let's go six. Six.

Yeah. Jules had a 7.7. Jack had a 7.9. I had a 7.6. And the name of the game, the Tuna Bowl. That's a classic, classic name. Because you know it's a good name when they actually have sequels. Tuna 2, Tuna 3. They had other ones. So I'll go 8.5 on this one. good name when there's they actually name you know have sequels tuna two two and three like

they had other ones so i'll go uh eight and a half on this one eight and a half yeah he's jewels with an eight oh yeah see jack with an 8.9 and myself we're in line we're in line a 771 where's that stand in our games that puts us okay top 20 Jets-Patriots game, the Can't Wait game. Can't fucking wait. Rich Eisen, he requested that game, Bears. That's a bad game. Yeah, he's a Jet fan.

Because of that, I had to tell his sweet, beautiful wife that I will not come over for Shabbat dinner because he requested this dinner. We don't forget. Or this game. We don't forget. It's also just behind, only a one-hundredth of a point behind the Super Bowl XXI Giants versus Broncos.

Bears, did we miss anything? I think you covered it pretty good. Did we cover it pretty good, or is there something else just sticking in that sponge of a brain you have? No, we plugged. I don't know. Maybe I'll be back. You never know.

Nope. You're coming back? I don't know. If you'll have me. We got something to plug other than Boston. One more thing because we're talking about Boston College. I'm a big Virginia Tech guy. Is the ACC going to make it? What's happening?

Yeah, ACC will make it. Look, ACC and no, it's still football. Revenue? Whatever. It's 80% or more. Okay, I'm just testing your knowledge. ACC is, in terms of revenues and all that, is third of like 30 conferences. It's behind a big 10 in the ACC with a longer TV contract.

So ACC is not going anywhere. I don't think. I don't, obviously. We hope not. There's a lot still to be ironed out here, but I think they're on the right track. Charlie Baker, baby. Charlie Baker. It's an ACC still to be ironed out here, but I think they're on the right track. Charlie Baker, baby. Charlie Baker.

It's an ACC podcast, I'm going to say. Charlie Baker. Jack disagrees. Okay. BC. What else? There's a lot of good things going on there. A lot of great things at Boston College.

Yeah. Come on out. And what else? We got some Armenia updates. We want to go there. Yeah, I'm going. It'll be powerful. It'll be very powerful yeah it's a

lot of a lot of unfortunate things happen over there a lot of like it that don't get the publicity that other crises get it's too bad it is a bigger fish to fry in this world at times but armenians are very resilient but we are recognizing that here on Games with Names. Thank you. We are recognizing that. Really. We love you, Bears. Love you, too.

And I appreciate you coming on. It's been awesome to pick your brain in a different way than I usually do, just walking by your office and drawing a little picture on your your whiteboard or something yeah he did he did you know what my favorite one there's a whiteboard in the hallway for whatever announcements or whatever and it's usually like official things okay except for no one touched it except for this guy i would put other things like there was a time when everybody was moaning about like publicly media you know things are too hard at the Patriots, no one has fun, blah, blah, blah.

One day, what's the message? Winning is fun. Winning is fun. Put that on a T-shirt. Winning is fun. Amen. Makes everything else worth it. And then I went away for my four-game vacation, and I came back.

It was still there, and it stayed on that board all year long. We went and won a Super Bowl. That was fun. Parades are fun. Hell yeah. Right out here. Right out here.

Awesome. All right, thanks, bro. Appreciate you, Bears. Love you. Thanks, guys. Talk about a mythical character. Oh, Bears. Bears.

What a guy. What a Bear. What a guy. What a guy. What a guy. He's one of those guys you only hear about, and he's referencing stories, and we've heard about him a lot in our Patriots episodes this season, and now putting a face to the name and a name to the Lord. That was awesome.

What a treat. It was awesome to get him to come in here, and I know he was pretty excited about this. He always talks. He always DMs me on Instagram and stuff. Like the guy who used to pretty much watch all of Instagram. To have him actually comment on something good about our Instagram. Pretty cool.

I like that. Or TikTok or whatever it is. Social. But it was pretty cool. And I actually got a chance to go talk to the BC football team with Billy O'Brien and Bears there and then talk to their whole football team. And it was pretty cool.

A bunch of hungry guys and get to tell them some of the stories and some of the things that helped me along my football career. Anytime you get to do that to a younger group, future generation, it makes you feel young. How are they looking? I didn't get to watch practice, but there are some big guys in there. We didn't have an Applewood situation, did we? No, not Applewood situation.

I know Billy O. Thanks, Coach O'Brien. Coach O'Brien. They're going to do good. You know, Billy O is a smart football coach. He's passionate. And from just seeing the looks in these guys' eyes, you can always kind of tell who's looking at the guy.

You know, i've been a couple places all right this guy what are we even here for you know they were all pretty dialed and glued you know so it was cool to see them it was awesome to campus is beautiful there it's beautiful campus just not hill baby i'm excited to see what billio does there me too billio bears that was uh that was a fun day i think they're turning us into BC fans. We've got to come back when they're playing. I'm down. I know.

That'd be so sweet. Those are two guys. Those guys are guys you want to root for. 100%. Granted, we're Patriots homers, but Bears and Billy O., just awesome dudes. Awesome dudes. Awesome guys.

I love Billy O.'s huge part of me being in the league and having the success that I had. Him and Chatty O'Shea were the first people that Bill laid some tape on the desk and said, give me a write-up on this kid. He reminded me today that it wasn't for being a quarterback. He reminded me. Man, it was so cool to get to see Billy O. at Brady Night, too. He's just – He's a fan.

He's a great... I loved Billy. He came up to me and was like, I love the show. It's on everything. I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I was even listening to Baron Davis. He was trying to say how much of a head he was. He was like, when am I going to be on the show?

So we'll have to find a time. We'll get him on the show. Got to, man. I would do anything for Billy on the show. He had such kind words to say to us. I was tickled to get to hear how much of a fan he was. And it was really cool. Embarrassed. A guy you look up to saying he's a fan of us.

Yeah. What did you say about Bears? Sorry. And this was a great episode. Yeah, Bears was great. I love that he gave us some stuff, but he didn't give us everything. You know, he still was buttoned up. He told some stories here that you probably wouldn't have got

when he was still with the Patriots, but he didn't tell everything. I like that. And then I got a quick Jack correction from this episode. I believe I failed to mention a big part of this game. Hugh Douglas, the Jets' best pass rusher, was out this game with a groin injury. So that was a big storyline. I forgot to touch on that.

Oh, God. Thank God we cleared that up. Hey, Hugh Douglas had a Central State, maybe Division II guy. Great pass rusher. I failed to mention that that. Oh, God. Thank God we cleared that up. Hey, Hugh Douglas out of Central State, baby. Division II guy. Great pass rusher. I failed to mention that in the lead up, and it's been eating at me ever since. Well, we're happy you got it cleared up, Jeff.

Thank you. Thank you. Man, it's so nostalgic for this era of football. Starter polo shirts, pleated khakis, guys, coaches with big personalities. A lot of history in this game. It was great. What a great choice by by bears that was that was awesome it was awesome but now let's hit the old hotline and remember

and remember that number is 424-291-2290 hit the old hotline let's see what we got. Yo, Jules, what's up? Buffalo Blue right here. Big 716, yeah. Honestly, even though you're a Patriots player, I got to say I love the podcast. I love listening to the stories that you guys talk about on there. If I had one person I request you have on there, please have Freddie Fred or try to get Freddie Fred on there. Big 22. I grew up watching that, man. I feel like you two will be able to talk about all of the nice Bill games,

Bill Patriot games y'all had back then. Y'all playing at Orchard Park. Especially he can talk about some of the Miami games. I mean, y'all can probably talk about that too because Miami in that division too. All right, Jules, keep it up, though. Appreciate it. Is this a Bills Mafia fan calling in?

I think so. We're even converting Bills Mafia to be Games with Names heads. I like that. I always loved the Bills Mafia. And any time I go anywhere, if I'm at like a sporting event thing, I end up hanging – a Buffalo fan is always like hanging, heckling me, but honestly, awesome dudes or ladies. You know, there's a guy with his wife.

We were at something for the win, and like we were sitting next to each other, and I feel like it's either a boss. There's always either non-Boston fans that like hang out or have like Bills Mafia, and there's always like a Philly person. I don't know why. Randomly.

I was skiing somewhere or snowboarding somewhere, and I ended up hanging out with this Philly guy. Hated me for the first two seconds, but then opens up like the greatest dude ever. You know? But we got to get Freddie Fred. Is he talking about Fred Jackson? I think so. That took me a second, but yes.

Fred Jackson, I mean, he was a really good football player, running back. He tore us up. Remember Bill always giving them great highlights. Like he'd give, Bill would always give like a 12, 13 play cut up on the running backs for the Buffalo Bills. How they didn't always get the highest recognition, but they were always just the toughest, toughest guys. We've got to do a Bills game where they win.

We've done a couple of them where they've lost. We've definitely got to get a Bills. We've got to get some wins. Man, Fred Jackson out of Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. I love that. Yeah. D3. We've also got to get Fred Taylor, speaking of Freddie Freds.

That's where I thought Fred Taylor. Then I put the context clues of Buffalo. We'll have to get them on. I'm down. We appreciate the call, Blu-ray Buffalo. Buffalo Blu-ray. Not to be confused with DVD player, Buffalo. Hey, guys.

Luke here from California. I just want to say it's been a very good podcast for these last few episodes. Bangers. One game I would like you guys to go over is the bills versus the cheese, the digital round game and 2022. That must be the greatest playoff game I have ever seen. What do you guys think?

Very high game of points. Very good back and forth versus the great josh allen and the great patrick mahomes i think it'll be a very good episode to hear on either the bill side or from the chief side all in all a very good game appreciate it thank you guys luke you're 100 correct that's an that's a phenomenal game that game revolutionized you know a lot of what the league's gone into. That was the game where 13 or whatever, how many seconds, you know, how explosive the league has gotten. And that's because of Patrick Mahomes, guys like Patrick Mahomes and guys like Josh Allen who just, they're never out of it.

That is going to be on the show. We just got to dial out who we're gonna put up on there i think this is our one of our most requested games outside of the usc texas game i think this is maybe the second most requested game i i that game is it still just baffles me that we had a game that good that was incredible incredible i know that like i'm like a wet blanket guy it's my whole thing. I hated this game. I hated that it was just like basketball at the end.

It was just like, oh, whoever's going to have the ball last is just going to score all offense, defense, and not even play. So I know I'm like the wet blanket annoying guy here, and I'd love to do this game because it's fun to talk about, but I personally don't love this game. That's even such a good game we might have to get a guy from each side on. If we could. If we could, somehow. That game, it's even such a good game we might have to get the guy from each side on. If we could. If we could.

Somehow. That game, it's a must do. We got to do it. I would love to hear their perspective of going into those last drives and just what were the coaches saying? Also, the balls on Mahomes at 13 seconds. I was like, nah, I got this. We got this.

We got this. Yeah. And it didn't turn out good for them. As we just went from one. We got to get We got this. Yeah. And it didn't turn out good for them. As we just went from one. Yeah. We got to get it. We got to get some more wins for the bill. That's the bills.

Like, honey, right there. The next one we got. Nice tea up, Kai. Oh, sorry.

I didn't realize when I put them in that order. Jack, Lord have mercy. Jackson, these, I'm just twisting the knife for Buffalo. I'm sorry, guys.

The boys, um, down in Texas, actually driving to a rodeo. I appreciate y'all. show, passing my time in the truck and getting horses ready on a daily basis. It's awesome to listen to out here everyone. NFR, which is the National Finals Rodeo. On the pod, you've got guys like Cody Oll, who he needed a good run to win the world title. Goes 6-4, breaks the world record, fastest tie-down

rope ever to happen, wins the world title. I mean, there's so many stories in the NFR and rodeo that you could come up with names for so many big times where guys stepped up and did their thing. So I think that's another option to go and branch out and see more athletes, man.

I appreciate the show, guys. Thank you. Texas call. I love this. We got to get a rodeo. Giddy up, baby. Got to. Yeah, I remember once Scott – who was it?

Scott Eastwood. We were talking about something. He's like, yeah, bro, you got to come out to the PBR. I'm like, what the fuck's PBR? Isn't Scott Eastwood we were talking about something he's like yeah bro you got to come out to the PBR I'm like what the fuck's PBR Clint Eastwood's son yeah Clint Eastwood's son I guess he's a big rodeo guy that's the that's the league name PBR I believe so not to be confused with Pabst Blue Ribbon

yeah or is it PBR he said other stuff I didn't understand I couldn't yeah but no we got to definitely get it would be so cool to get a rodeo guy in here. I mean, I watch it here and there on like some of the sport networks. Oh yeah. I watch Yellowstone. I mean, on Yellowstone, they show a little, they got, you know, they're doing a little

bit of that. Those, those guys are not certifiable. Real men. Tough guys. You know, we could go back to our origins where you get like the competitors and we get a guy in a bowl would you sit a bull in here dude how how long how long do you think either you could realistically last on a bull a real bull i'm not no mechanical joint i don't know man i probably not long i'm not getting on it in the first place. I'm probably not either.

I'm opposed now. You ever heard of mutton busting? Yeah, oh yeah. Mutton busting? Little guys on the little sheep? It's like bull riding for kids, except for they just grab onto sheep, and they just see how long they can hang onto sheep.

I bet I could try that. You'd be great at mutton busting. I'd be pretty good at it. I literally just saw a crazy... There's a good Cleveland show episode about that. Who was it recently? Someone jumped on I'd be pretty good at it. I literally just saw a crazy... There's a good Cleveland show episode about that. Who was it recently? Someone jumped on a bull and, like, did some crazy... Like, barebacked it.

It was some dude. Looked like he was hammered. Did you see that video? Didn't I send it to the group or something? Oh, I don't look... I don't know. Well, you know what? Oh, man, come on.

I don't know if I remember that one, but did you see the one where the bull got out and was, like, out by the concession stand? Bucking dudes, like... And then they just kept going on with the rodeo. He got loose from the out and was out by the concession stand, bucking dudes? And then they just kept going on with the rodeo. He got loose from the ring and was out by the concessions. Sent a couple dudes to the hospital. When you buy a ticket to one of those, I bet you it's in the small print.

You get bucked by a bull at the concessions. I will not sue. I will not sue. Get gored, you're good. I may get a free Coke. Free Coke with each goring. I would say I would like to go to a rodeo and maybe steal a little rodeo valor.

Get the belt buckle out. Nice big old 12-gallon hat. I would love to go to it. We should go to a rodeo. I'm down. We got to experience it before I bring a guy on. Yes, yes. We got to go see it.

We can't just have some stud rodeo guy. I mean gotta experience it before i bring a guy on yes yes we gotta go rodeo guy probably i mean this guy's dropping names this guy broke a world record can't have this guy on without experiencing right we gotta see if i've never been to one in in person have you guys i've been to something when i was a kid there used to be a fourth of july rodeo in woodside california i think i went to that. There's like a little horse community up. Oh, tight. Not like, I don't know. But yeah, we got to.

Maybe take friend of the show, Dola. You think Dola? Oh, Dola's been to a rodeo. Maybe Dola can show us around. Yeah, I think Dola has like three or four friends that just like are in rodeos. Maybe that's the, yeah. Scott Eastwood, we love you, but maybe Dola can like three or four friends that just like are in rodeos. Maybe that's the, yeah. Scott Eastwood,

we love you, but maybe Dola can. Or our friend here with his horses. Dude, I like this guy. He's just about to load some horses, listening to games with names, listening to Jack glaze up some horses right now.

We had a post guest segment at one point that was going to be coolest horse names for the Kentucky Derby. I think it got cut. Oh, that was a good one. Yeah, we'll have to wait until next time. Oh, man, I do like that. I like romanticizing this guy's life of the son sitting out in Texas and he's loading up the trailer and Games with Names is cranked up on the big Ford F-350.

It's Dooley. I like that. That's a cool life. And as he goes to press play on the big ford f-350 his dually i like that that's a cool life and as he goes to press play on the old tape set he reaches in his back pocket pulls out a little uh as we like to call it god's dirt that's right we'll drop a factor to ride it in his lip gets on with his day while he listens to games with names in the background hell yeah boys This week they got Bears and Jerry Y'all boys hear that new one

How about that sarsaparilla I don't know why Anytime I drink everyone thinks I'm from Texas Do they really I didn't know that A little Popeye See you on the dusty trail Texas. Do they really? Yeah. I didn't know that. Get a little Popeye. Get a little bit of that. See you on the dusty trail.

I'm like, no, I'm from San Francisco. Bay Area. I go, are you from Texas? I go, no. I'm over here in Silicon Valley. Yeah. Little place where the horses go wild. This place called Mountain View.

Right next to Hewlett Packard. All right, last one. What's up, Jules? Sean here. Hey, I'll be at the live broadcasting of Games with Names at the end of August in Boston. I have a proposition for you. If you get the legendary Randy Moss on before then, I will come on stage and let you punch me in the face.

Would love to hear what you think. Thanks, Jules. I don't know if I can get that done. It's worth trying. I like this proposition. Yeah, dude, I'll let you punch me in the face. In front of the entire Wilbur crowd. A sold-out Wilbur.

Just committing assault. He'll sign a release. He'll sign a release. Can he sign? You think we give him headgear or no headgear? I don't want to break my hand. No, I think Jack has to punch him. 12-ounce glove.

One or two boxing classes with jewels down in Santa Monica, I could throw a little weight into it. I still need a lot more. I don't know. The tone of this guy, of Sean, was very ominous. I'll be at the live show in Boston. It was ominous and a little threatening. I kind of like it.

A little Joker-ish. But what if we don't get Randy? He has to punch. We didn't really tell him. but what if we don't get Randy I don't see much we didn't really tell us we don't get Randy I guess it just makes the show worse our producer Leah was getting buddy buddy with Randy's wife at the celebration

I'm telling you for us to get Randy we have to cause he only travels just to do probably the show. I think he's on ESPN. Yeah. Other than that, I think Randy literally just fishes all day. So we have to do games with names on like a fishing boat.

And I'm talking like lake fishing, so it's going to be very tight. I'm down for that. We'll get practice when we do Bill in Nantucket on a fishing boat. Are we doing Bill in Nantucket in a fishing boat? We're just going to try. We're going to try to do it anywhere. Every time I ask Bill, he just keeps on giving me some... He keeps on asking how much money. I go, Bill, this isn't how podcasting works.

It's literally like friendy friend. All right, Johnny Manziel doing the freaking money man. He's giving me money signs. Like Johnny Manziel. I'm like, Bill. You think he just beat Alabama over there? I go, all the years that I took those shitty fucking contracts where you bullied me into taking,

how about you take that money and just keep it in your head and say, oh, this is what I'm going on to Games of Names for. We offer prove-it deals over here. How about that? Yeah, we offer a proof. This is a prove it deal. League minimum. You're getting league minimum 2013.

No, but I, I tell Bill all the time, like, he's like, are we good now? I'm like, when have we ever been bad?

And as I'm walking away, I go, Bill, you can't pick your family. You can't pick your family. You can't pick your family. He's just like, oh, my God. Speaking of Randy, did you guys get to share an embrace at the Brady night? Yeah, we went pre-stage.

That's right. We were just talking shit about. We were all just talking about what we would probably get into. I love that. We took a picture. I almost cried when they gave Randy that standing ovation. Yeah. I mean, it was deserved.

He's an all-time great. Not just for the Patriots, for the world. Yeah. All right, to wrap this up, we'll clip this, put it on social media. Everyone tag Randy Moss. We'll figure it out. Yeah, everyone's got to tag Randy. Straight cash. No, straight tag homie. Everyone tag Randy Moss. We'll figure it out. Yeah, everyone's got to tag Randy. Straight cash.

No, straight tag homie. Straight tag homie. Well, what a game. What an episode. Thanks again to Bears. That's been another episode of Games with Names. Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Comment a game you want us to do. And remember, rate and review. Remember to follow Games with Names on YouTube, Instagram, X, TikTok, and Snapchat. Leave a message on the hotline at 424-291-2290. We'll see you guys next week. Later. Games with Names is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, We'll see you guys next week. Later. I'm Gianna Pradenti. And I'm Jemay Jackson-Gadsden. We're the hosts of Let's Talk Offline from LinkedIn News and iHeart Podcasts.

There's a lot to figure out when you're just starting your career. That's where we come in. Think of us as your work besties you can turn to for advice. And if we don't know the answer, we bring in people who do, like negotiation expert Maury Tahiripour. If you start thinking about negotiations as just a conversation, then I think it sort of eases us a little bit. Listen to Let's Talk Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down in history. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's sports. Listen to the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Presented by Elf Beauty, founding partner of iHeart Women's Sports. I'm Keri Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Kaitlyn Clark versus Angel Reese. People are talking about women's basketball just because of one single game. Clark and Reese have changed the way we consume women's basketball.

And on this new season, we'll cover all things sports and culture. Listen to Naked Sports on the Black Effect Podcast Network, iHeart Radio apps, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Black Effect Podcast Network is sponsored by Diet Coke. History is filled with unexpected stories, and I'd like to tell you about them. I'm Aaron Manke, and for the past six years, I've been sharing history's most curious tales on my podcast, Cabinet of Curiosities, such as the surprising country that invented the croissant and the wrestling champ who won the White House. And now these amazing stories and many more have

been compiled into my new book. Curious to know more? Pre-order Cabinet of Curiosities, available November 12th wherever books and audiobooks are sold. Learn more over at GrimAndMild.com slash curiosities. In California during the summer of 1975, within the span of 17 days and less than 90 miles, two women did something no other woman had done before, try to assassinate the president of the United States. One was the protege of Charles Manson, 26-year-old Lynette Fromm, nicknamed Squeaky. The other, a middle-aged housewife working undercover for the FBI, identified by police as Sarah Jean Moore. The story of one strange and violent summer,

this season on the new podcast, Rip Current. Hear episodes of Rip Current early and completely ad-free and receive exclusive bonus content by subscribing to iHeart True Crime Plus, only on Apple Podcasts.