Games with Names - Untold Stories from Patriots Coaches

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Ernie Adams, Josh McDaniels, Matt Patricia, and Bill O'Brien share some of their best stories from their time coaching with the New England PatriotsSupport the show: http://www.gameswithnames.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice in so much, correct? I doctored the test ones. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. Greg, a lesbian, Michael Mancini. My mind was blown.

I'm Stephanie Young. This is love trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One? Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend,

the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of Missing. have scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered

on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You want to start with the first pleasure for the Big Ten coach of the year? Oh, whatever. Would you like to? You're a Spartan, is that what I'm getting? Exactly. So whether your bracket is busted

or you just want the real talk on what's happening during the tournament, Open your free IHeart Radio app. Search Playground and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill. And listen now. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports. I became a millionaire overnight and lost everything that actually mattered. Hold on, Sophia.

Did you just say they lost everything after becoming a millionaire? That's right. And it gets worse. It's narrating too much drama week on the OK Storytime podcast, so we'll find out soon. This person writes, I just inherited a fortune after losing my mom. And now my girlfriend's entire family is coming out of. nowhere with her hands out. And my girlfriend is already giving my money away.

So the girl he wants to marry is already sending money out the door. Find out how it ends. Listen to the OK Storytime podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. 10, 10 shots five, City Hall building. How could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder. This is one of the most dramatic events that really ever happened in New York City politics. scream, get down, get down. Those are shots. A tragedy that's now forgotten and a mystery that may or may not have been political,

that may have been about sex. Listen to Rorschach, murder at City Hall on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to games with names. I'm Julian Edelman, and we got a brand new compilation highlight reel starting now. Now, Bill O'Brien, on the funniest stories from the Patriots coaching office. Any fun Patriot coach stories? We had Mickey D's in here last night. And he was telling us that Coach Scar used to, you know, what is it, narcolepsia where you fall asleep a little and then wakes up doing sit-ups in the

middle of a coaching staff. Well-arrested with a sick core, bro. But doing sick, like, we already heard Ives, you know, he falls asleep a lot. What do we got in the inside fun stories? Any competitions with the coaches? Oh, we got a lot of funny stories with the coaches. we would have like so our i can remember early on and your your guy chatty oh he loves this story so we would come back in from practice in the regular season and we would basically watch film with you guys

and then we would go immediately when you get we were done with you guys we would go watch with bill yeah and we would watch both sides we'd watch everything special teams the whole thing so by the time that was done it was probably seven o'clock so then we'd go eat dinner so we'd go and in there and grab dinner and then we come back into the staff room and we listen to or get ready for or third down or red area whatever day it was right and ernie who's whose office i know you and ernie are close i love ernie too and he would go into his office which was right across in the staff room and he would call his wife and describe what he just had for dinner so every day every night he would say they had you know they had turkey they had mashed potatoes uh there was some broccoli

and then we had apple pie a la mode for dessert. And so we would sit there every night and listen to Ernie talk about what he had for dinner. Ernie Bourdain, it was clockwork. And Chaddy O started to call our offensive staff room the general store. So we put the general store up on the door there. Now we had a lot of, there's a lot of good coach stories. I mean, I have many. So I can remember like the quarterback meetings when I first got there.

So that was Tom, Matt Castle, who you know is one of the funniest human beings of all time. Up there with Matt Light, who, Rich Ornberger, like those three guys. Outrage. You. I was never funny. You're funny. They're funny. These are very funny guys.

They're funny guys. Great senses of humor. And so we would meet, as you know, Bill would come in later in the week, meet with the quarterbacks and early in the week. Go over the D.Bs. I think this was an early of the week meeting. And Bill would take his shoes off and, as you know, Bill didn't wear socks. Yeah.

And at that time, before the new offices were set up, the quarterback meeting room was pretty small. So Bill, I would sit in the corner. I'd be like stuffed in the corner. Josh was in the back and Bill was running the clicker and Tom was over here and Matt was there. Matt Gutierrez, remember those guys? Guet, Kevin O'Connell. And so I remember this one meeting and Matt Castle was like, what is that smell? Like, what is that smell?

And like nobody says anything and we're all like, Matt Castle. Big of you go. He was the very, he was the very funny guy who didn't care about making anyone uncomfortable. Oh my gosh. You know what I mean?

Like, he looked for it. He looked at me. He loved it. He loved making you. And so he was like, no, no,

seriously like, what is that? Bill, is that your feet? And Bill, I never forget this Bill looked at him and goes, Castle,

just shut the fuck up. I was like, we all had it. I was like, I was like, it was like my first year there. And I'm like, I cannot believe

I'm, witnessing this right now, but as time went on, you could believe it because, you know, you know, the thing is I tell everybody because people love my Patriot stories and I'm sure they love yours, but you spend so much time together in pro-file, especially in New England. Yeah. You're always together. I mean, there's very, it's rare, especially like pre-2011, you know, before the new CBA, you guys double, you know, all those things, training camp, the seasons long, you're a good team, you're going to the Super Bowl, you're going to the play. You know, so like you, there's, it's not all, just like, hey, on this play, you're doing this.

It's a lot of like, you've got to have humor. And if you don't have humor and you don't have the ability to laugh at yourself, you'll never make it. I've pitched it around so many times the community, like an office style show for like the equipment room or like an NFL football team. You know what I mean? The equipment room guys, the training room guys, the coaches. There's these little communities.

And like he said, we're, like Billy O said, we're always together for so long. to find the funny moments to, you know, help you get through the process because it's fucking long, but there's so many funny things and the camaraderie that you get to go. And when at Brady's retirement, Tom's retirement thing that, you know, everybody was at, you guys were there. You know, the thing that I was reminded of there, and I tell this to people at BC all the time now, it was really, look, you know, we had Tom, we had Julian, we had Moss, we had, you know, Rodney Harrison, Mike Vrable, all these great players.

Will for it. You can name them all, right? You know, all these unbelievable players, but they were, they were also like great people. It's about the people and, and the work ethic and the, the intelligence and the, the ability to be a great teammate and the humor. And, you know, it was just, it was a, and that included the video staff and the training staff. Everyone. Equipment staff. Teddy Jared. Shut out. And Bill put, put all those people together. He really did. He put all those people together during those years. And I'm just. a firm believer in that. If you can, if you get the right people together, you got a chance to win. That was a, that, that was a fun reminder. Yeah. The Tom event. You know, just seeing everyone,

because we, you see guys and you'll see, I'll come back and see, you know, Teddy, Jared, Jimmy and everyone in the building, but to see everyone in the same area, you haven't done that in a very long time. And it was, it felt like home again and it felt comfortable. And it was all, you know, it was fun to celebrate Tom. Now, Matt Patricia on the Patriots defensive rooms, Pizza Fridays. Who's some of your favorite comedians? Yeah, that's a great question. I got really into Sebastian Manuscocoe.

He's funny. With the hand movements and Italian, Italian, who love Italians. But you know who the best guy that got me into all that stuff, though? Who? You're going to have to guess this. One of my favorite all-time people to be around. Is he a coach? No, he was a special team's linebacker.

Special teams, Dane Fletcher. I love Dane Fletcher. I just talked to me the other day. I love Dane. Same time, Dane Fletcher and this guy. Nico Cudovides. Hey, the Lavantier.

So we had tradition in the defensive room. It was, you know, so Pizza Friday. Pizza Friday was a big thing. That was a big Dante thing when I was on offense. And Pizza Friday, the whole idea and why Ted struggled with this, right? And you remember Ted's first shot, I'll tell the Ted story too. Ted is the nutritionist. He came in, right?

So that was our third, that was our fourth, right? So Joanne was first. Then we had a guy that was there for a cup of coffee. and then Joel took over for him. Joel. Ted, right? So, but we always said pizza Friday. And the idea with pizza Friday was this.

It wasn't about the pizza. It was about the mentality, right? So when you were in school and you went to school, you had pizza on Friday. Yeah. Right? Well, okay, Friday's gonna be a good day. Because you went in, it was actually,

it was the only meal that was actually- Pizza party, you're always excited. It was really good meal, school meal that you actually buy and eat pizza Friday. But the idea for us was, and again, this back in the day four, it got crazy. Like, it got crazy in New England,

but literally because I had to do the practice schedules. So I remember people were amazed. I figured out how to paste like it was Domino's and KFC. Like that's what we had. It was Domino's and KFC. And it paced them on the practice schedules, I'd be like, oh, it's Pizza Friday, thank God. But it was, the work week is, we're coming to the end.

Yeah. It's all positive. Let's not be yelling and screaming today. Let's go out, have a good practice. Good mental day. Yeah, let's feel, yeah, let's be able to sleep on Saturday. Let's have a good mental day. Like it's pizza Friday.

Everybody be good. Now, Scar, if you remember, he'd be like, don't ruin. pizza Friday. Don't make, because Scar had the other side. That could come out real quick. And he'd be like, don't ruin pizza Friday. I'm not yelling today. Don't get me. So in the defensive side of the ball, not only pizza Friday, but we used to have videos on Friday. Funny videos. Funny videos. So originally started out as like highlights. We started off with like high school highlights. You know, it'd be good because you had some legit dudes that had a legit high school film.

And then you'd have like, you know, whatever, Rob Ryan's highlight of his highlight. So funny stuff. But then it turns out of. into like, okay, hey, we need some comedy. And it was always, usually the QC's job to get a tape. Quality control. Quality control, young coach. And it better be funny. Because these guys, we've been yelling and screaming all week.

We need something funny before we go out on the field. And Vince was the best because Vince wouldn't leave. I love Vince, right? So Vince wouldn't leave until we showed the video. Even though Scott E.O. had a meeting coming in, Vince is like, it didn't matter. And I'm like, Vince wasn't leaving. No. That next meeting wasn't starting.

No. So, and he wanted something funny. Well, Nico Cudavides finally comes in. And Nico is one of the funniest best, great heart team being. What did they call it? Who is the, what do they call it in the, in the Italian world? LaVantier or something. Concilier.

Okay, killing me right now. So. You always go on LaVantier, though. Yeah, I call him that. So Nico would bring in the videos and he like. He take Thai. This was like the one, like I don't think he knew any of the defensive assignments. But he nailed Friday.

We would be laughing so hard. Got a curate, baby. He had me dying. He loves it. Because that's kind of Nico's humor too. Well, because, you know, Chicago Italian. Yeah. Nico was great.

Next, Josh McDaniels on what really happened with Julian's touchdown pass against the Eagles. After we scored that touchdown, I remember that's when you came up to me. I did. I said, do you need any lead time for the double pass? And you said, what? And I said, do I have to tell you that it's coming? Meaning like, do you need to take your red gloves off or whatever, you know, your cutters or whatever they are? Like, what do you do I need to tell you that this is coming?

Like, fuck no. Five minutes in advance, you're like, no, no, no. Yeah, that's what you said. Just throw it. Just call it whenever you want. And I'm like, okay. You know, so we, so we did. Yeah, that was the first touchdown was the one we actually did the Raven Baltimore formation the first time.

First time. We were down by 14. and then when we scored one, that's when we went with the double pass. The double pass. Speaking of double pass. Which we had actually called earlier in the season. Against the Chiefs.

That's right. We just didn't throw it over there. We called it and, you know. It was Dola going to throw it, wasn't it? Was it you or Dola? I don't remember. I watched this morning. It was going to be you.

Okay. But Dola was like saying he was made-in-man coverage. Made-in-man coverage. Like we couldn't do it. Dole was trying to call you off when you were in motion. Yeah. Can we go into the second time? through the football.

Oh, 2019 in Philly? Yeah, we can do that. That was a great story. Jules' story. Jules has told his side. Jules just told his side plenty.

I'd love to hear your side. I don't know if my memory's really fucked up. No, you got it right. The night before the game. Yeah. This is the story. Yeah.

So we, well, this wasn't the same play. No, it was a different play. Throw it here, throw it back, set up the catch and run.

And in the, we always did like a little ballroom, which always felt like you guys loved that. I loved it too. Just to reiterate. It was almost like a very comforting feeling when you walked out of there. Like we all, we all got it. Yeah, we all got it. And it was loose.

And it was loose. Depending on like the games. Sometimes we go in there running hard and stuff. No, but that was that was, but I don't think we ever went in there like, it wasn't like a big like, it wasn't like a big like teaching session at all. It was. I would call the play. You guys would get on. You would do it and walk through it and that was it.

But if you had like a new player coming in that had a big role. That was different. You know, like if he was nervous. And we were all kind of watching them too as well. And Julian, Julian, well, I'll tell him to tell two stories quickly. The, the, when he came back in 2018, 18, 18. Okay. So the walkthrough, because we played on a Thursday night.

So we didn't have practice. We didn't have any practice that week because it was just walkthrough. I had no live. He does the hotel like walk through and he's soaked because he's like running routes in the ballroom. But Tom's with me throwing him. Nobody else. And Tom always had like a little lacrosse ball.

And he would bounce it to you to like show you. And Julian is literally like you could see everything. Like he was just drenched. And I remember the other guys were like looking at him like, what is going on with this guy? I'm like, yeah. He's a little, he's obsessive, compulsive right now. I think he needs to play a game.

I need to do. I need to play a game. Oh my gosh. He dialed up a wheel for you on the first position. Hey, walk through like you play, baby. So, so anyway, the Philly game was the second throw. That night in the hotel, the night before the game, we go, walk through it. Tom dribble, bounces the ball to Julian.

Julian gets the ball, and then he looks, he looks and throws it to Phil. Phil's just, it's a rough the guy out. Phil's just wandering up the field trying to get at the defense to come this way and Philly catches it and I look at him and I'm like, don't you fucking do that. Just throw the ball over there. Just throw the ball.

And I think we actually did it again just so he would like do it right. You know what I mean? And then we get in the game and he gets the ball and he looks down the field and Phillies open and then he lets it go

and I'm just like and then he caught it. And I'm like, I don't know. Those are the ones as coaches where he just like, that's a hell of a play. The thing is, if I would have flipped my hips guy, I was in my face. I would have got, you did get drilled.

I got drilled. You got drilled. Drilled. I come running off. When I come running off, you go, you're fucking dangerous, man. You are dangerous. I did. You're dangerous.

But that was all. I remember, because you were the only one that threw a touchdown pass that game. Oh, yeah. So I remember, like, and he would come in the next day and he would put ice. He would have a shoulder wrapped in ice in the teaming room. And he would sit in the front, you know, by, but like, yeah, I got. I got to, you know, I'd always come in, like,

the last person to come in, too. Always. And Brady would just be like. I'm like, Coach, you got the door, don't worry. Jam, you got that ice. Take care of that. Sometimes I have the trainees staff

called me to front of everyone. Looking like you just threw a complete game shut out, bro. Yeah, literally. Like it's Randy Johnson after a nine inning. Now, Ernie Adams on why joint practices were so important for the Patriots. We had the joint practices.

Yeah, I remember. Now, those were, those who are incredibly productive. Can you explain to the listener why a joint practice is incredibly productive? Okay. Because there's been a lot of talk because now, I mean, we're seeing fights every freaking weekend with these dumb idiots right now.

So here's the key to doing that. And you know what? As I mentioned to you, I just spent a few days out of football camp for Phillips Academy. There were four schools there. But what you do, and we had a joint practice yesterday morning with another school, just teach shorts and tight. t-shirts. We went seven on seven, but you get both teams together and you tell them, look, any BS you're being thrown out of practice. And, like, we, if we were practicing with the Patriots,

Sean Payton can throw out a Patriots player if he's being a jerk and Bill can throw out a Saints player if he's being a jerk. We're just not going to put up with that, period, end of story. And that, you probably remember. We were always pretty productive. We were totally, but part of it was, look, you just both, you get both teams together, they hear from both coaches. If there's, you know, we are not, we're here to practice, you know, we're not fighting.

And if there's any problem, you are out. And, you know, it's, listen, if you really want to fight, we will buy you a pair of boxing gloves. We will set up a ring and go to it. Yeah. And, you know, and we never, now the big thing is,

what we found was you can have two really productive practices. trying a third is pushing it pushing it so we were our first time we did we were at the Cleveland so this is like 93 93 93 we went up to Platteville Wisconsin have with the bears and they got you know our real problem player and the third practice was we needed to kind to just stop it before it was going to get out of control but you just the whole thing is the biggest thing, you've got to make sure, everybody, get all the players, just explain what the ground rules are going to be,

and you will get thrown out of practice if there's a problem. So just, that's it, period. And it's useful, why? It's useful, because you go, you know, you go training camp, you're going against the same guys every day, the same office, the same defense. If the defensive players are actually smart, they can listen to the quarterback's cadence,

they can learn things. If a receiver's are smart, You can listen to the defense before it was coming, your technique. You can listen to the defensive basketball and Linda, Linda, Linda. Okay, I know it's a zone coming down to my left. It's like playing the Pittsburgh Steelers. Great defense. You know, over 20 years, like Tom would say, hey, look, I hear him going buster, buster, buster.

It's the same cover two check they've had for 20 years. Okay. Like, I'm not stupid. I know it's going to be covered two. You know, there's stuff. like I'm sitting, I'm going to say like two years, 2000, 23 season, I'm watching the game at home on TV. And it's a Thursday night game, the Patriots play in the Steelers.

And, you know, they always get an offensive line on mic down. So you can hear, that's how you hear, you know, the quarterback. But I'm listening to these guys, wait a minute, they're doing their line calls, column blocking, orange, orange, yellow, yellow. I know what these, I'm just sitting there, I'm just sitting in my liberal. I know what this place can be. I mean, you know, it's... And so joint practices, you get to use your terminology.

Well, it's like the COVID year. Yeah. You could actually hear during a game. It was gnarly. You could hear the other coaches from the other sides. It was like a scrimmage in high school. You can hear the personnel groups. Everyone, we can look and see.

They're looking and watching us. It was fucking right there. Senior night at Ken State. It was senior night at Ken State. Thanks for listening. Remember to tune in every Tuesday for a brand new episode and every Sunday for another games with names highlight. In 2023, Bachelor star Clayton Eckerd was accused of fathering twins. But the pregnancy appeared to be a hoax. You doctored this particular test twice, Ms. Selle is correct? I doctored the test once. It took an army of internet detectives to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing.

Greg, a lesbian, Michael Mancini. My mind was blown. I'm Stephanie Young. This is Love Trapped. Laura, Scottsdale Police. As the season continues, Laura Owens finally faces consequences. Listen to Love Trapped podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Ready for a different take on Formula One?

Look no further than No Grip, a new podcast tackling the culture of motor racing's most coveted series. Join me, Lily Herman, as we dive into the under-explored pockets of F1, including the story of the woman who last participated in a Formula One race weekend, the recent uptick in F1 romance novels, and plenty of mishap scandals and sagas that have made Formula One a delightful, decadent, dumpster fire for more than 75 years. Listen to No Grip on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're trying to keep up with everything happening on and off the court, we've got you covered on the podcast, flagrant and funny. You want to start with the first pleasure for the Big Ten Coach of the Year? Oh, whatever.

Would you like to? Yeah, she doesn't know. So you're a Spartan, is that what I'm getting? Exactly. So whether your bracket is busted or you just want the real talk on what's happening during the tournament, open your free IHart Radio app, search Plagrin and Funny with Carrie Champion and Jamel Hill. And listen now. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHart Women's Sports.

I'm Lori Siegel. And on my new podcast, mostly human, I'll take you to some wild corners of the tech world. I'm about to go on a date with an AI companion at a real. World Cafe right here in New York City. There's no playbook for what to do when an AI model hallucinates a story about you. Mostly Human is your playbook for how tech can work for you. Anyone can now be an entrepreneur. Anyone can build an app.

And it's very empowering. Listen to Mostly Human on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Could this have happened in City Hall? Somebody tell me that. A shocking public murder. This is one of the most dramatic events that really is. ever happened in New York City politics. I screamed. Get down. Get down. Those are shots.

A tragedy that's now forgotten. End of mystery. That may or may not have been political. That may have been about sex. Listen to Roershack. Murder at City Hall on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.