The Bobby Bones Show - Lots to Say: First Golf Outing, Sportswriter Tom E. Curran, NFL Top 100 Players

Episode Date: July 8, 2026

Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel recap their first golf outing together.  Who had the longest drive and who won?  After some life advice questions and answers, Sports Journalist Tom E. Curran drops by to discuss the Patriots and his history with Matt.  What does adding AJ Brown to the team mean for the Pats season?  Bobby asks about the Mac Jones era and what happened with the QB.  Tom explains the growth and development of Drake Maye. Plus, the latest NFL Top 100 Players is being released! Lots to Say with Bobby Bones and Matt Cassel is part of the NFL Podcast Network See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and IHart podcast. We got lots to say. Welcome to the show. It's Matt Castle. It's kick off Kevin. That's Brandon Ray.

I'm Bobby Bones. What's up? Matt Castle. What's up, brother? So to you two knuckleheads who sit behind the desk over there, Matt and I have been trying to play golf forever. finally played golf together. What?

Yes, we did. He has five kids. I have five jobs, so it's hard for us to just get the hour right. Like, we have available hours that they never match. Ever. And so I was off last week completely, and I text Castle. I said, hey, I'm free Wednesday through Sunday from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. I gave him a wide open window.

That's a lot. Yeah. And nothing going on. Nothing. And so I said, let's do it. Let's go play golf. And so I'd set a time at my club, but the best I could get for the next couple of days is at like 11 p.m., which is brutal because it's 500 degrees here.

Because you got an app. And Castle hits the back and goes, hey, I got on. It was a lot earlier, which was nice. It was like 10 a.m. So we go to Matt's Club, which is very nice, nicer than mine, obviously, and former NFL quarterback. Oh, stop. You just were asking me to sponsor you to get a second golf club membership. Is it nicer?

Of course it's nicer. It's far nicer. It's premier. It's plush. Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't say it's a very nice golf club. Yes. I'm not shaming you. But it's also not probably the top here in Nashville by any means.

Have you ever played here in Nashville? Belmead Catcher Club? Yes. Okay, so I've never even been on that course. It's tough to get on. Yeah, because they locked that one down. It's like, yes, blue bloods. Yes.

I heard the application process. Yes. You have to have 50 sponsors. 50. What's that course on? I don't even know that many people. Is it nice? Or is it cool because you can't get on?

It's a nice course, but it's very lanksy, right? It's kind of more target golf. It's not very, it's not spread out wide open. You can kind of hit across to another fairway, but there doesn't have, there's not a lot of up and down or different shots. I mean, some dog legs here and there, but it's a nice course. That one is probably cool because you can't get in. It's very exclusive. So my funny story about that

before I give you the castle and Bobby story is I heard a rumor that Belmead would not let Jim Nance into their club. You know what? I think Jim Nance told me that. He said...

Oh, from the horse's mouth? I believe so. So I've spent a little time with Jim Nance. Not enough to call him a friend. If I saw him, I'd hug him. He'd hug me. We like each other.

I thought you don't hug anybody, dude. I try to hug you when you come in. I hug you every day. You hug me every day. Jim Nance. Come here, buddy. I do have his cell phone number, but we're not. I would say we're friends, but we're friendly.

It sounds pretty friendly. Yeah, it was awesome. Jim, you ever met him? Yes. He's the greatest. He's awesome. Yes. And so he lives in Nashville part-time.

And he had said he tried to get into Belmead and they, you know, are like, yeah, well, look at your resume and your application. And so I get on my show and I'm going, you're not letting Mr. Masters, the voice of the Masters, immediately jumped the line. and be at your club. And I made the analogy of that's like Kobe showing up to play pickup ball at the Y and them going, no, wait in line. Like put your quarter down and wait in line. I said, no, you let Kobe play immediately when he shows up. So that clip, somebody heard it and sent it back to Jim Nance.

And Jim Nance, he goes, that's the funniest thing I ever heard. And so then the clip started spreading around. And then somehow, not saying that I'm the reason, but I could possibly be a factor. He got in very soon after that. That's shocking. Yeah. I mean, when that gets out and the word gets out that you've denied Jim Nance, the greatest announcer of all time, who could potentially sit there at a member of guest and just introduce

one person? Do you know what that would do for your club alone? Oh, my gosh. It's life experiences here, people. And he's a great guy, like the loveliest. So it wasn't Belmead, but Matt has a really nice club. And so we go and gets around 930. or something. It's a hot day for sure. And the heat indexed that day was like 104, 105.

Yes, they said it was going to get to 109. So one of those days. And it's the hottest day. It's crazy humidity. It's hot. And so I almost parked, because I don't know his club. I almost parked back where they valet cars like over the hill. It was like way up. Dude, he didn't even come up to the clubhouse. He was way. I was kind of intimidating. I don't even know who parks down there. driveway. I think it's people that are going to work there all day long. I think so. I was like, I don't want to do the wrong thing. I'm kind of intimidated by this. So, and I haven't had money that long to know what I'm supposed to do. And so I was like, I'm just going to park here. And then I see Castle. And I'm like, okay, let me just drive up and ask him. And he goes, were you going to park back there? I was like, yeah. I didn't know where to park. And so there's a much

closer parking spot behind the club. And we go, we get in the car, and we get up and we're hitting on the range. And you can tell then that the club is starting to slip out of our hands, just from sweat, just from hitting balls on the range. Bobby had a purple shirt on, and I'm not kidding you. His whole entire back was dark purple. His stomach started to be dark purple. I wore white on purpose, but I looked like I was in a wet t-shirt contest. It was brutal.

Before Bobby even shows up there, I'm checking the tea time, what time we're going out, and three people that are sitting around here that I'm playing with Bobby, he's like, Mr. Castro here with Bobby Bones today? He's like, the Bobby Bones? And then this other guy comes up and goes, you play with Bobby? I've known Bobby for 30 years. I was like, okay, everybody knows Bobby Bones here. Okay, whatever. That's awesome. Nice to meet you guys for the first time as well, but Bobby is coming. He'll talk to you all momentarily. We hit some balls and what I noticed immediately, like you can take the guy out of the league, but you can't take the league out of the guy.

Like everything about him, his body, the fluidity of his golf swing. He's shaking his head because he's Mr. Humble. I could tell immediately, all right. And he said he had to play. in a while, so maybe I knew he might be a little rusty, but this guy can do some hand-eye. And so he's cranking him. He's in his irons. So, and me, I'm like, clonk. I'm like taking up divvets so large. I'm embarrassed.

I'm thinking I'm going to get charged, like, invoiced for the divots on the driving range. And so we get in the car, and it's freaking hot, wasn't it? It was really hot. And I am okay with hot, but after a lot of being okay, I start to get not okay. So there was nobody ahead of us either because it was so hot that nobody was on the course in the middle of the day. And Matt's good, and he probably was a little rusty

because he hadn't played once or twice this year. He hits the out of the ball. Who had the longest drive of the day? I hit the car pad. It doesn't count. It was a car pat. If you had a car path and it rolls down there, that doesn't count.

It was a par four. Okay, and it's probably, I don't know, 390, something like that, maybe a little bit, but it was straight downhill, once you get past this point. I thought he hit a tree and just kind of came over, but he must have just missed that.

And then there are a cart pass there, and then it's a straight downhill. We're looking all over in this one area. We can't find it. And finally, I was like, dude, just take a free drop. It was around here somewhere. And I looked down as I'm walking over to my ball. Bobby's is, I'm not kidding you, 10 feet from the green.

370-yard drive. It must have. It's cart-pads. I'm telling you, it was a decent shot, but it car paths all the way down. It wasn't 370. 70 yards, but it was unbelievable. Doesn't matter how it gets there.

So, and it's so hot that when Castle's hitting drives, you can see the club slipping out of his hand, because he swings really hard, and it's just getting miserable. And I'm thinking, all right, am I the one to say, we're only playing nine?

Am I going to be the one to say, hey, let's just play nine? And I was like, I think we should just play nine. I said, it's so hot. And he was like, yeah, yeah, I feel you. So Castle's a way better golfer than I am, but we had a good time. Bobby beat me. No.

By one stroke. Yes, it was. That's not true. At one point, I hit a ball so far to the left. He goes, I just take another free shot. That alone makes me lose the round. He's such a nice guy. He counts me winning, even though he gave me a free mulligan.

I'm like, I don't want to take a mall again. I'll play my own. So don't listen to him. He won. He won by a stroke. It's not true. But we did play. I wish we could have played 18 because I was having a really good time,

except for it was just so hot. It was miserable. Yes, it was absolutely miserable. I'm really happy that you said something because I would have manned up and been like, dude, I told you we're going to golf. We're going to play 18. We're going to do this. And we didn't.

But we did it. We found time. I gave them three full days of 20-hour windows each day. And yeah, dang it, do we not find a day to go play golf? And I said, you want to go play again tomorrow? And you said, hell no, it's way too hot. It's way too hot. We were going to play, so we were going to jump on with two other people.

And he said, hey, Ryan Hurd and his brother were playing, we're going to play with them. And I'm great friends with Ryan Hurd, the songwriter, the artist. And so I wasn't going to say anything to Ryan. I was just going to show up him and play with them and be like, hey, what? And I know Ryan really well. And so as I'm driving up, I get a text from Ryan going, are you playing in my club? And I was like, yeah, I'm going, no, man, I'm in Chicago. go, we just did that in case we wanted to play.

I'm going to sing the seventh inning stretch at Wrigley. And I was like, dang, I wanted to see you in two. That's so fortunate. That's probably the only reason he showed up to play with me. He's like, oh, well, Ryan Hurd's going? Oh, he's my boy. Did you guys ride in one car or two? One.

Okay. Yeah. Dude, the thing about where we're at, it was basically cart path only, what, 75% of the holes? Yeah, because it's so dry. Oh. And usually it's the opposite, because if it's so wet, they don't want you tearing up the grounds. but it was so dry because of the heat. Wow.

Yeah, it's crazy. I don't think I've ever seen that or played on a course like that. You ended up playing a course like that. We walked a lot more. We walked a lot more. This guy here's got a course, you know what I'm saying? You don't go play. You'll be friends of Matt Castle, you go playing a nice place.

I'm still waiting for my invite. There's a lot of members there, guys. A lot of members. I'm not the only one here. But when I was driving up here, I was leaving the other studio to come here. And as I was at my other studio, my wife calls. And I'm in the middle of a segment,

so I don't answer. her, but I noticed it's kind of weird that she called. It was after the show, so if she calls during a show, I know something's wrong. It was after the show. She's finished some recording. She calls. It goes to the voicemail. She calls again. I'm like, oh, well, this is something. Yep. So I get off,

I get off the air. And I call her back. I'm like, what's up? She goes, cars broke down. And I was like, really? Where? And she tells me where part of town? I said, who are you with? She goes, I got the baby. Oh. And I said, oh, no. Do you want me to come? She goes, well, there's like three people from the store that are out here trying to jump the car. And she's like, we're having no luck.

So I think we're just going to Uber back to the house. And then just, so is it in a parking spot in the place? Because she's like, I don't want to just leave the car here. She said, okay, but is it in a parking spot? She said, yeah, you're good. If it's in a parking spot, who knows the difference? You're just parked somewhere. Yeah, you're fine.

And so she, her and the baby, go home. Car still sitting there. So I got to go now when I leave here. here, I guess and jump it? Are you sure it's a dead battery? No, I'm not, because I haven't been there. She says it is, but

she's like me. We don't know anything about cars. I know a little more because I had some old pieces when I was younger and had to learn how to just get by by fixing them. So I'm going to go and I, we don't have AAA, I thought we did. So I called this company, I said, hey, if we need to tow

the car, because if it's not a junk, can you come? And they're like, yeah, but what's your experience with towing? I always feel like when somebody tows a car, it never really is the same. Like, it always drives it a little different. Well, usually you get a car towed in the first place because it's either wrecked or something really bad has happened to it. Parked wrong. Right.

It's usually not a dead battery. I mean, maybe every now and then. Well, the transmission could have gone out. Who knows? But I'm saying, like, anytime, hopefully they don't put the hook. They don't do the hook toe, right? Do they even do that anymore? I don't know.

They probably put the car in neutral and try to back it up, but then that might not work if you've got a dead battery. I want them to do. What I needed to do is. I wanted to bring a helicopter and lift it. Lay it on a bed. No, please. Please don't hurt it.

And then just slowly drive off. So I'm going to go do that today. Are you a car guy at all? No, no. I know enough to jump a car, put some washer fluid in. And that's, I can change a tire. for sure, but I'm not like a car guy by any means. I do remember though one time my wife called AAA to our house because my truck wasn't starting.

And I was like, gosh, that's weird because it was fine yesterday. The guy gets there. And sometimes when I pull up to my driveway, I just quickly turn off the car and forget that the car's still on drive. She called the AAA because she thought the car was like busted. The battery needed to be your place. He comes in and he goes, well, here's your problem right here. And I look in and he's like, and he looked at me like, you.

A little bit. And I didn't even check it. That's on you a little bit. I didn't check it, right. I was gone for a second run in Aaron. And she's like, yeah, the car's not working. I'm going to call AAA. And then I got home as the guy got there and just was like, boom.

And then I pushed the, he pushed the ignition. Oh, you put it in Park. It wasn't him. At least you did it. No, it was him. Because he looked at in the car to see. He thought it was you. Because it was in drive.

So, well, automatically start unless the cars are parked so he's just like boop you should be good gosh that's uh for car people that know cars it's always embarrassing when you're so ignorant and it's probably just as such a simple fix it's the same thing when you have a handyman or somebody come over to fix something at the house and they come in and they immediately go do do do do and it's fixed and you didn't really need to call him at all chat gpti has really helped with those oh man me too it's unbelievable we had a fireplace at our house in Fayetteville that I could not get to work. It was one of those who go,

tick, tick, tick, right? And so I had to get, I took a picture of it and I said, here's what I'm doing. And it gave me seven steps. I fixed the whole thing because Chad GGBT told me exactly what was wrong. That I also fixed a garage door that wouldn't come all the way down flush.

And it was like, you probably need to take the poll. I did it. I felt like Bob Vila. Did you get the reference? Yes, 100%. Okay. Do you get the reference? I didn't know if you know what Bob Vila was.

But yeah, Chad, JBTBT's, If you just take a picture of something. Yeah. One, I'm so stupid on this one. So, one, I didn't know that when you had a swimming pool, you filled it up with a water hose. What, do you think that a natural stream would somehow come down or just rain often? A swim and pool truck or something? I don't know.

I was stupid. I was stupid. And the first time. Yes, is this the fire department? Could you come over and fill up my pool? Yes. Anything. Anything.

I never had a pool. And so the first time, they're like, yeah, you just need to run your hose for three days. In what? the pool. That's the pool I've never swam the same because I realized I was swimming in a water hose water so but we have this hose that we

had to put in the pool they were like hey run your hose this point I know how to do it but it's a weird water hose it's not the one that you like turn the nozzle have you guys seen this new type where it's like a flip switch or something no hold on come it will say that again I don't even know it's not the same on the wall it comes out

of the wall and you plug a hose in and then you like turn something and it comes on i've never i can't even describe it because it's only fancy i didn't fancy can't hide money baby even a pool i didn't know how to work the water hose thing so took a chat gpt picture and it told me in it kind of treated me stupid it was like hey idiot what you do is this is still a hose yes so yeah that that's weird anyway i have to do that with the car today which i'm i'm glad she didn't get stuck no that would be with the baby and she was in a parking place and it's hot outside it's brutal yeah And everybody was so nice to her at the store.

Like three people, like come out to help her. That's really nice. It's really nice. Really nice. You're going to probably invest in that store, though. You know what's funny? So I had a guy asked me this question. I know where I was.

About, oh, I got, I said. So we went to dinner with my wife's best friend and her new husband. And they don't live here. They live in California. They came to town for a couple days. And he said, hey, so you bought businesses based on their trash, huh? And I thought, what's it? Oh, so in my second book, it's called Fail Until You Don't,

I talked about I would go to this boxing gym, this title boxing gym, it's a franchise, but I would go to this one specific one, and I really liked how it was run. And so I just started paying attention to the small things, and I was writing this book at the time, and I said, what I would really pay attention to is the trash. No, what was in it, but is it taken out? Is it, how consistent are they with making sure the small details are taken care of?

because if you don't do the little things right, I don't trust you to do the big things right. That's right. And so I talked about how I watched their trash cans for like two weeks, outside trash, inside trash. And they did such a great job at making sure it wasn't over flooded. It was taken out. It was that I ended up buying like three gyms. Because you're of the trash being taken out? Yeah, well, yeah.

So I partnered with. It didn't matter about the trainers and work. No, it did. But I'd already worked out there. No, I've worked out. I just want to watch your trash. Your trash service looks amazing. I'd already worked out there for like six months, enjoyed it, but I watched how they handled something that was so small, which was their trash.

And because of that, I said, okay, they do the little things right. I'm going to trust that they do the big things, right? And so, yeah, I went halves into three different gyms. Have you gone to the other gyms now and watched them take out trash? No, I haven't. We sold them pretty recently. Yeah, because they weren't as efficient as you thought. kept over flooding.

One trash can after another. Okay. Raps are everywhere. We're here. Let's do situational awareness. Situational awareness. Give it to me. Your best player gets suspended for a playoff game,

but the president of the United States calls and gets them reinstated. How do you handle it as starting quarterback? I want to thank you, President, for stepping in on this manner. Obviously, you read the evidence. You understand what took place, and I'm just very fortunate to have him back. And at the end of the day, go whatever team I'm on. Yeah. Oh, yeah.

What else are you going to say? I mean, if the president steps in and overruns the NFL. Of America. Of America. That's what I'm saying. Of the United States. Of the United States America. It doesn't need to be getting involved in the NFL.

You know what? I'd probably be told by the PR team to go a different direction. But, you know, I'm staying out of it. It's a situation that's out of my hands. The league's handling it. Obviously, the president of the United States is involved as well. but it's not my decision. Do I hope he's there? Of course I do. Good answer. That's good. That's training. That's training. That's training. That's training. That's training right there. That is training. That is training right there. That is training. That's right. You know. That is training. That's right. Maybe you're doing crazy. Sometimes I hear phantom dings because you're always getting dinged by your kids on your watch. Hey, what's it? Where are you, dad? When you come to pick me up, kid, what are we doing for dinner? They'll ask a question like that all the time. They'll be like,

They'll just get done with lunch. It won't be more than 30 minutes out. Big lunch. Hey, Dad, what are we doing for dinner? I was like, I have no idea. I just fed you your second meal of the day. Like, sit there, be patient, and we'll figure it out.

Be full. Sit there and be full. All right, you're up. All right. A friend asks for honest feedback on their podcast idea, but it's terrible. What advice do you give them? Hmm. A real friend?

Because a real friend, I would say this. That's a bad idea. If it's a real, real friend that I can be really, it's a bad idea. No one's going to listen to it. I tighten it up. I need you to find a better niche. If it's a mid-friend, like somebody I work with, who I need to be a little more sensitive with.

Like Jim Nance. Oh. Jim. Jim, you don't do anything wrong. I think I would figure out why it's bad. And let's just say it's a podcast that everybody does. I'll give you an example. everybody wants to do a podcast interviewing people.

Right. We have those. Unless you're famous wildly or you're going to be able to have extremely famous guests, it's going to be so hard to get people to pay attention to it because it's in such a fractured world. So if it's a bad interview podcast, I'm going to go, hey, look, you're not really going to build this. It's going to be very hard because people want to come at first for one or two reasons. you have nailed, nailed guests, or you're the person they want to come and talk to, I would say, I think you need to identify a better niche, like specifically find something like

the Simpsons, like Abraham Lincoln, and really dive into something so specific that people looking for that, and then you can branch out. I'd probably give them a couple ideas on what to do, not instead, but to modify what there's a, this has to happen to me so many times. I was going to say, you probably get approached all the time. So many times. The two, the two things that people do most. One, I got a podcast where I just want to have real talk with people. Real talk.

What is real talk? What do you think everybody else thinks they're doing? Right. Everybody thinks they're having a real talk with. No, no, no. But I'm talking. We get down to it. Okay.

But not all your guests want to get down to it. But also, is everybody else going, I'm going to do an interview, but today I don't feel like getting down to it. No, everybody tries to get down to it. Like Pac-Man Jones got down to it. What an interview. What an interview.

And the other one is when they go something like, no one's ever going to have heard honesty like this before. Yeah, they have. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Most great podcasters have a vulnerability to them that allows people to grow close to them. But I get that a lot.

It's an interview podcast where I'm going to talk to every once in a while. I get a great idea throwing at me that's so good. I had one, and I don't mind saying who she is because she's not doing the interview. She's not doing the podcast anymore like that. but she came to me and she said, I want to do this podcast

where I just interview the wives of country stars. And this is like four or five years ago because people do this now in a way. There's like a wax podcast for athletes

and their wives and girlfriends. And four or five years ago, she said, so I'm going to get like, Caroline Bryan, I'm going to get Brittany Aldeen, these are country music wives and talk to them.

I was like, that's a home run. Right. Now, it's not for me, but it's not supposed to be for me. That's a home run idea. You're talking

to all of the, and she does it, and it's great. And then she gets bored with it in about a year and a half, and it's like, I'm going to change it up. And so she has a still a good podcast. She's on my podcast network. Her name's Caroline Hobby. And sometimes she brings on the wives still. But like she had that idea and was doing it before any of these podcasts that do that

now do it. And then she just got bored. And I was just like, don't get bored. Don't get bored. It's such a good idea. You've got that whole demographic of moms that sit there and watch housewives is the one that are in LA and Atlanta and everybody. Everybody wants a piece of that show.

And it's so hard to have something that is even quasi original in podcasting these days. So that's my answer to that. If it was my close friend, I would be like, that is not good. That is not going to work. If it were Jim Nance, I'd say, let me give you some ideas on how to modify that. Let's work together on this. Next up, your wife wants to leave a party right when you are finally having fun. Do you negotiate or do you pack it up?

Pack it up. Pack it up, boys. I've tried to stay longer than I should, and it usually backfires and doesn't work out well for me. So when the wife is ready, I'll be ready to roll. I got a funny... And I always have fun. Like, I'm not just starting to have fun. If I go to a party, the reason I went to that party is because my intentions are to have fun.

Fair? Unless you have to go, because it's a party that maybe your wife wants to go to and you're just... I'm still going to make it fun. So on that note, I got an Instagram story sent to me from a friend that also knows. knows you and loves you and I love you for the record. So I want to say this, I don't want you take this the wrong way because this is actually a good thing. No, no. This is a good build up, knock down. You know that? That's a method of psychology. Okay. I love you. He loves you, but we both talked. We did not talk bad about you at all.

So you are a very warm and loving person generally. You meet you. People are drawn to you because you have such a smile on your face. You are a hugger. I mean, every day. I'm a dapper. I'm a hugger. All that. And so he sent me this.

Let's see if I can find it. And the whole joke is when you have that one friend who's a little too physical when he's affectionate. And it's like people hugging it. It's like hurting him because he's hugging him so much. That is definitely. Yeah. Let me see if I can find this one. Oh, get to know you, buddy.

Okay, okay, okay. It says that one friend who gets. mad physical every time he sees you and likes you. And he said it's you. We both said it's you. He's like, what's up? He's like hugging. He's slapping to the headlock.

That is. That's you. It's all out of love. I do have reminence of that. But you're also big and strong. And maybe sometimes you don't realize your largeness and strength. Yeah. You know what?

My love language is being touchy feet. For sure. Just got to let you know that I'm coming in for the real thing, for sure. For sure. That is funny. That is funny. Who is the friend? No.

You're not even going to tell me? No, but we both love you. Why would you not tell me? No. All right. I'm going to find out. I'm going to hit him so hard the next time I see him. Your wife asks if you noticed her haircut.

You did not. Do you fake it? No, no, no. Here's the thing that happens with my wife a lot. You guys get the same. a haircut at the same time. That's a good one. She will get her hair colored, and I don't notice.

And I'm colorblind, like, pretty, pretty significantly. But are we talking, like, root showing, and you shouldn't notice? It doesn't matter. I'm colorblind. So you don't even know what color hair your wife has? I probably do. But I know I do. I'm colorblind.

You can use that for sure. Oh, oh. That's an ace in the pocket, bro. Oh, you got your hair colored? You know, I'm colorblind. I bet it's great. But I can tell. Did they layer it too?

No, they didn't layer anything. I'm layerblind. I didn't know if it was. I would know if she cuts her hair because she doesn't often. And when she does, it's mostly dramatic. And also, I know that she's going if she's going to go. Because it's like a two-hour or a deal. Yeah, she's gone for a long time.

They're really gone for a long period. Where I get, though, that question, if you would have said, once you call it to her hair and you don't notice, because sometimes I don't, I just go, oh, I didn't notice. I have a disability. It works well in that circumstance. Yeah, yeah. Okay.

You beat your son in the game of basketball. He starts crying. What do you do? Man, I'll tell you, I had a few instances when they're a little bit younger that they just, they're very competitive. They want to win. and if at some point I'm winning, they get so frustrated that they're slamming a ball.

And then my best response, honestly, is I'll miss the next shot and I'll get the rebound and I'll slam the ball. And I'll just, I'll act exactly like they do to give them a visible understanding of what they look like and how they're acting. And then they start laughing. And then it kind of changes the environment of what's going on. Because, again, when you're playing against your younger sons

that aren't very big and physical. Like, I'm swat their ball every now and then, but for the most part, I'm not trying to dominate them in basketball. So, but I will, they definitely have started crying a few times, especially when they're younger, that I just kind of play that role.

I acted out. You fight fire with fire? 100%. All right. 100%. Last one. Your friend asked him to help move. He doesn't have any boxes packed up when you show up.

Are you still helping? Well, before that, when a friend asked me to move, I'm going to say, hey, you're one of my closest friends. How much can I pay? I'm going to pay a moving company to come and do this free. And that's why they ask you to help them. Yeah, so that's what I'm going. Hey, would you help me move? Yeah, how much you got?

If it's this little, no problem. I don't have a truck. I got an SUV. I don't have a truck. It's not your close friend. It's Jim Nance. If it's Jim Nance. You get there.

You thought for sure this guy is going to have a moving company. Good point. Good point. first of all if it's not someone super close I ain't going over to his house to help move up the answer is going to be probably not

can I help I'm busy I'm hanging out on Matt Castle playing nine holes sweat yep if it's a close friend dude why you let me just hire a moving company it's the least I can do

and then I let them do it well that's one way to do it yeah just get out of get out of hard labor yeah and then it's my treat yeah my treat to myself and you feel good and you feel good about it for sure

coming up Tom E. Curran. All right, let's welcome in. Tom E. Curran, longtime Patriots insider for NBC Sports Boston. He has covered the Patriots through the Brady Belichick Dynasty, the post-Bradie reset, and now the Drake May, Mike Vrable area. So one of the most trusted voices when it comes to the Patriots. And this is your boy, huh? This is my boy.

Tom E. Curran. We used to work together at NBC Sports Boston. He really helped raise me in this industry. and I will be forever grateful. How the heck are you doing, buddy? You can trust me. I can trust you. I'm a trusted voice.

Come to me for the straight shooting. I am great, and I'm so happy to have anything to do with your current career because we had so much fun. And I'm telling you folks, Matt Castle, Kevin, you know this. One of the funniest people and absolutely revered by all. Funniest? I don't know. Revereid, awesome, lovely, absolutely.

Funny. Have a hard time with funniest? Do you know? There's a lot of funny people out there. I mean, he's in the same room with me. You know, it's kind of hard. But yes, beloved by all for sure. Is you funny, Kevin?

I'm Bobby. Oh, well, it's just Kevin O'Connell under your name. Yeah, sometimes I just go by, I go by that when I check into hotel rooms, so people don't stall. That's funny. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, yeah, I guess you are. Yeah.

All right, so you guys had a pretty big off-season, obviously, the acquisition, A.J. Brown. Does that immediately raise the ceiling for the Patriots of season, Tom? I'm pausing in case you guys want to start again because I fucking Bobby's name. No, are you kidding? It's hilarious. Yes. We're funny, too. We're not starting over.

Are you kidding? That would probably be the best part of the interview. You can be bad in two if you want. Yeah, we will. He's like, no, edit that. No, we don't edit anything. Yeah, no ego here. Yeah.

How does A.J. Brown impact the Patriots and the immediate? Was that the question? Yes, yes. The ceiling of this offense does it immediately go up. Yes, it does because they haven't had an ex, Matt, since you were there, for God's sake. They haven't. They haven't had a lead ex. Put it that way. They had Granc, they've had Welkard. Neither of whom would qualify his exes. They've had James White. They've had Kevin Falk. The exes that they've had had had been Brandon Cooks, Brandon LaFell, you know, Antonio Brown for 15 seconds, but really nobody who qualifies as a boundary receiver

who can do the things that A.J. Brown can do. Now, the Eagles made him exclusively that. He doesn't work in the middle for the Eagles. He will work in the middle more for the Patriots. But I think you could probably point out all the reasons that a big 6-2-225-pound receiver with the build of A.J. Brown is going to make this offense that much more difficult to deal with. will it be the same?

And I don't want to prattle on too long here, but Drake May last year on 3rd and 11 to 15 had a completion rate of like 50%, and then the teams, or even higher. And I could look it up, and his conversion rate on those was the same as it would be on 3rd and 1 or 2. That can't continue.

Or could it? Because their offensive weaponry is that much better. But it's really amazing when you look at those outlier numbers that Drake. maybe he was responsible for last year. And the teams they played might have sucked, but the defenses didn't suck. That's an interesting qualifier.

So it should impact things significantly. Sorry, Bob. No, indulge me here, Tom. So whenever Tom Brady gets hurt, and you're like, oh, my God, this Cassell guy's going in? Like, what gave me the Cassell? What was that like in New England,

like week one, week two, week three of that? situation. Well, he played so bad in the preseason. It was limited action. Be that it to admit. In 2007, when Bill said, go ahead in there and go get him, we're kicking the dolphins. He immediately threw it to the wrong team. Jason Taylor, literally, they put me in, we're winning like 40-something to nothing. It's mop-up duty. What game is this, this preseason? No, this is a regular season game. No, this is before Brady got hurt. This is before Brady.

This is the year before Brady got hurt. Got it. We're drumming the Miami Dolphins down in Miami. Bill puts me in late in the fourth quarter. Call Z return, X stop, something like that. Well, Welker's hot. They're bringing too strong. And Welker kind of, he stops there, but then he keeps going.

I throw the ball trying to anticipate, because I got to get the ball in my hands. Jason Taylor, defensive end, stands up because he's responsible for hot. comes over, I hit him directly in the numbers, and takes it into the touchdown for like 20-yard return. Talk about feeling pretty small. Yeah, so that was part of my journey. That was the year before. That was the year before. It was like 45-21.

It was early in the season. Matt came in. That happened. And then it hadn't yet, or 42-21. Anyway, it turned to a 14-point game. So after the game, everybody was already up in arms about the Patriots rubbing teams' faces in it. and they brought Brady back in. You never see that.

Starry came back in. And I remember Southam Antonio in the post game's like, well, didn't you, hadn't you already made your point? You bring Tom Brady back in after that pick six? I mean, it's a 14-point game at this point. So you can only imagine, and Matt, I'm not bringing it up to highlight something. I'm just saying that when Brady got hurt, nobody was expecting double-digit wins.

and the level of the capability that Matt had throughout that season. And he actually, Matt was unbelievably physically tough and athletic in a way that Brady wasn't. I mean, I think that Matt, had he come into the league and had probably more college experience, had he come into the league in 16, 17, 18, or 19, he'd have been a lot different player. in terms of the way he was viewed and used because Bobby, you've seen him run around, right? Yeah, he's a large Adonis type figure that's also good looking in extreme.

He was fast. He ran people over, so that's good. Did you feel his celebrity rising locally, though, after a few wins? Like, could you feel it was, man, this might be our guide, not forever, but this season and we're getting behind him? Oh, yeah. I think that there was definitely a groundswell,

but it still came with a large dose of skepticism because he hadn't really played a snap since high school. So I don't think the people were all in, you know, a way that they would have been if Matt had had the same background as Jimmy Garoppolo and, you know, was anointed. I think he had a lot to overcome. And Matt, if I'm not mistaken,

that was a tough year for you personally, right? You're dad. Yes, he passed away in between the Seattle game and the Raiders game. Yeah, this is something, Bob. If you want to get serious, I don't know how long we're here, but he was a real champion, Matt, was during that year, because he's extremely close to his dad, and I think he was sudden. Yes. Am I mistaken? Yes, it was sudden.

Well, let me tell you. But we didn't know about it. We didn't talk about it. We didn't cover it with the same intensity. Matt was incredibly for his beautiful sparkling eyes and smile. really a stoic and admirable. Not admirable. You don't know what I'm saying.

Had to handle some stuff. But that's what this game kind of brings to you, the adversity and everything else. I was going to ask you, were you actually surprised that Belichick franchised me after that season? I mean, I never saw that come in in a million years. Oh, my God, you did that.

Yeah. Yeah. A lot of people do. They're like, wait, how did you end up in Kansas City? I was like, I got traded there. And they're like, I thought you were a free agent. I was like, nope. New England franchise me.

That's about gaming. See, that's why people hated the Patriots. There's so many things that they've done that were within the rules but against the spirit of the rules that you forget. Hey, we have Tom Brady, the greatest quarterback of all time. He threw 50 touchdowns two years ago. That's our franchise quarterback. Matt Castle is. I was not surprised because it was inevitable.

I mean, he was going to do whatever he could to get an angle. and compensation. So they would use whatever was at their disposal. So it didn't surprise me. But I was extremely happy for his success when he went to Kansas City. Would you have 27 and 7 touchdowns to pick? Yes, sir.

He was good player, man. Good part of now. So from all the years that you've covered the Patriots, one of the times that I think about is after Belichick left and Mac Jones was the quarterback and for a second, Mac Jones was hot. And then he was not. And there was all the drama.

you know, second string, third string. Now he's kind of bounced back and he's a great backup. Did you think Mac Jones was going to be a good quarterback, was just in the wrong situation with that era of Bell? What did you think of Mac Jones when he was drafted and was playing with New England early? I thought he was pretty good. I thought he had a great understanding of what he wanted to do with the ball,

and that's why he took the job from Cam Newton within about 11 seconds of trading camp starting. Cam, obviously, superior physical player, had an MVP, great leader, but they would put him in Red Zone, which training camp always started with Red Zone stuff, Bobby. And Kim would be patting, padding, padding, deciding, deciding, he'd be throwing, you know, completely wide open to the end zone, horrible mechanics. And Mac Jones was just doy-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-toe right when he got there. So it was pretty clear he was going to win the job. So he had the accuracy. He had the understanding of what to do in the offense.

He didn't have great arm strength, but he had great anticipation to mitigate that. And he actually was physically tough, even though sometimes you saw pictures of him like after he got hit. He did take some thrashing. So he should have been a good player, but he ended up getting sent a time. out because when he and Hoyer, Matt can tell you about Brian Hoyer, who he's friends with as well,

when they made Matt Patricia and Joe Judge the OC and quarterbacks coach and offensive line coach and tried to give them every job on offense when they weren't really prepared for it, Brian Hoyer would say to Mac, this is a little, and Mac goes, yeah, I thought so. Then he'd pick up the phone and call somebody. And the Belichick caught wind that he was going outside the building. to try and figure out what in God's name he should be doing. And then Bill said, okay, I'm done with you. Basically wasn't talking to a starting quarterback by the end of that.

So that's why I didn't surprise me when he came in for San Francisco last year and played with some capability. Am I talking too long? No. No, we love this. You're holding court. We love it. I was curious about the post Brady-Belichick years that got lean.

And I think about Mack Jones being there and being the guy, but then Bailey Zappy being the guy. And then there was no consistency. But now I like to see the Mack Jones kind of redemption arc. Not that he's a starting quarterback, but he played really well last year. And I think now he'll be able to eventually have a starting job somewhere else. I just wondered if you had seen that in him early on. Oh, yeah.

I said when he got traded, replaced, benched by Belichick for Bailey Zappy at the end of that room. And at the end of that season, I said, Mac Jones will start and win a playoff game in this league. He absolutely will. And I believe that. He is a high-level backup who's the kind of guy who win. Inevitably, somebody gets hurt in week 14, and he has to play it into the postseason. He's the kind of guy who you can say, oh, wow, he went 18 for 22 for 171 yards and two touchdowns. I guess that was a pretty good performance.

That's the kind of guy. That's the kind of guy. Let's talk about Drake May. So he comes in his rookie year, and you can see flashes. The physical ability was there, but it wasn't always a consistency. see, a lot of that had to do with the personnel around him. But then last year, coming into that season, there was higher expectations because of the arrival of Josh McDaniels coming back.

How pivotal was that having Josh McDaniels there in the building with Drake May helping his development? It was massive, but I will say this. One really cool thing that Alex Van Pelt did during May's rookie year is he took him back to fundamentals 101 and improved a guy who was very scattershot, very disorganized and robotic as they tried to work on some of his drops and stuff and turned him into a guy who was much more accurate by the end of that 2024 training camp, really accurate and was ready to become the leader. And I think that that shouldn't be overlooked because his drastic improvement began when he was

drafted. Minicamp, he looked. It was weird. Well, boy, it's going to take a minute. And everybody said that. Belichick said that the night he was drafted, famously. It's going to take some time. He's a great improver.

And then when McDaniels came in, he played to his strengths. And Matt, again, I don't want to, I don't know. Drake May is probably faster, probably a little bit stronger and probably has a little bit more explosive arm. So he's better in every category. He's better in every category. Yeah, I think Matt Castle's 74% Drake May. But, you know, McDaniel.

He's really good. Well, McDaniels couldn't, like, exploit the things that Matt did that May can do. I'm not going to build the offense around Matt Castle, but he could build it around the mobility of May. And because players and the systems are, so changed and there's more acceptability to allow Drake made a playoff script. McDaniels allowed him to do that. So I think that that was something that really was strong. They wanted May to be a better leader. They wanted him to play from a pocket, not get jumpy, but be decisive. And I think one great

thing about Meneas as a quarterback is he's unbelievably decisive. When he says it's time to go, it's time to go. And he doesn't do it too early. When you look at last, Season's Patriots record. Do you see a team that had an easy schedule and a fortunate playoff game against an injured quarterback, or do you see a team that was actually really good? Let's see, a team that the former, it was an easy schedule, but they took advantage and they played with, you know, a really good spirit. they didn't just take advantage, though, of Jared Stiddle.

They took advantage of the San Diego. Las Angeles Chargers off the line, which was in utter disarray. They exploited them, turned it into hell for Justin Herbert. Then C.J. Straub was coming off one of the worst playoff games anyone had ever seen in the wild card round. They get him in the divisional round, and he plays an even worse game somehow. And then Bo Nix gets hurt in garbage time, and they get Jared Stittle. So there are teams that we've seen over the course of our sports viewing careers that end up in final games that aren't prepared. Like, remember the night, I'm going to wait too far back, but I don't remember.

You won't probably. Remember the 94 Chargers? The 94 Chargers? Yeah, Stan Humphreys, right off. Yeah. In Humphreys, they played the Niners, and it was an absolute blitzing. I think that Steve Young threw for six touchdowns. I was like 49 to like seven.

Yeah, it was chaos. 55 to 10, I think. Okay. Not good. No, I think you might be right, 49 because it was, they covered like a 20-point spread. But the Patriots were kind of like that. They had no shot against Seattle. Despite the fact that we thought going into that game that they might,

they just get overpowered by that front, which so often happens in the Super Bowl, where front four can, just take over a game and wreck it. And that's what happened with Seattle. So the Patriots were a good team and improving team, but they were not nearly ready for prime time. When you look at this year's Patriots team, where are the places that they've improved the most and the places that you think they're most vulnerable or need more help at? I think wide receivers drastic improvement with Romeo Dobbs in and AJ Brown in. That's a layup.

offensive line massive massive improvement especially if everything works out with Elijah Vera Tucker who was a Jets first rounder and when you watch

clips of him from when he's healthy he's just a rototiller that should improve as well with Jared Wilson moving to center away from guard where he was a pro football

focus flop even though he was pretty good but at guard he was not as good as you hope that he would be at center if you're a Patriots fan Will Campbell should be stronger, fully healthy. I worry about his confidence because I think he's a very confident kid,

but he also seems to have rabbit ears. And he hurt every bit of criticism. And sometimes when you hear all that criticism, you might say it doesn't bother you, but you're obviously going to operate with the criticism in your mind. And he's out there. He is remarkably narrow-shouldered for a left tackle in the NFL. And you can see him when we're in many camps or trading camp and you're close to him relative to the guys who were standing across from. He's obviously big, a large human, but he's just differently shaped. So he's going to have to continue to get by on that. But those are places they're better.

Tight end, unfortunately, not that Hunter Henry's not good, but they moved on from Austin Hooper and they replaced him with a kid named Julian Hill from Miami, who's already lost for the season. And then they drafted this kid Eli Raritan from Notre Dame. who did not impress me in terms of saying, oh, wow, she's kind of there during the mini-camps. So maybe he'll be better. So that's a disappointment in defensive end edge and the defensive interior line is a problem. Then was Kyris Tonga, who was a really good player, went to the chiefs, just like Matt Castle did once upon a time.

And they also did just not good enough on the edge. They moved on from Anthony Jennings. they brought in Draymont Jones. What the hell else happened there? It's July. I have to reboot soon. They're not good enough on the edge to insert pressure. But with the interior of this defense,

you got Milton Williams, Christian Barmore is a guy that was... I mean, those are two dudes, though. If Christian Barmore, what about Christian Barmore right now? He just needs to be more consistent. If he's able to do that, though, I think most of those worries that you're talking about are probably going to go away, don't you think?

I do, but you still need to. They generated so much pressure, Matt. My estimation was scheme and exploiting teams and sending the fifth guy and twists and great pursuit by Caleb Chase on who went to the commanders. They're putting a lot on Harold Landry and hoping Harold Landry plays well. Oh, they drafted Gabe Akis and hoped that he would be a guy who could play kind of immediately and he still hasn't. He didn't show up for training camp or anything like that.

excuse me, mini camp, because he's got some contract strife. So, issue. You've been giving us the gold, Tom. Gold, baby. Tom Curran's Patriots talk podcast. You guys can follow Tom at Tom E. Curran. We really appreciate it. Thanks for the insight on my friend here, Matt Castle, who, you know, his version of the story is completely different.

If you ask him how it all went down. Which story? Well, all of them that he told that, you know, he said as soon as he went in, everybody knew. that he was the man. You got to hear him talk about it. Oh, man, I said, I got a standing ovation. They were like, Rudy. They were like, Castle.

Castle. I sued it. Yeah, so it sounds like that wasn't true, Tom. I don't know. I don't even remember it. Hey, look at this. Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt, Matt. What are you at?

Oh, Edgewood, Tahoe. He went out there to Tahoe last week, you said. You took the family out and went off the golf course. Avid golfer here. Avid golfer. Well, good for you. To play golf where it's not 500 degrees. Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much. And hopefully we'll talk to you again when the season's going.

I would like that. All right. Thanks, Tom. Thanks, Tom. All right, final story from each of us, the NFL top 100, the players vote. And so with this, they haven't released a whole list yet. Am I right? Is it one of those where they just release like a few at a time to keep you going? Yeah, each day. Because I thought it was a weird story because they didn't put number one on there. They only had like number 38. So, AJ Brown, new Patriots receiver at number 80, which dropped some 51 spots. Travis Kelsey came in at 79, which dropped in 42 spots. And so more so about their position, did you ever vote in the top 100? Was that a thing when you were playing? It was.

And I believe there was a year I was in the top 100, but maybe you should check that. You were not. I already looked earlier. Yes, I was. You were in like a bleachers. reports. Kevin Kane in the top 100, 2010 and 11. He didn't even say I couldn't, I didn't look.

He just said, no, you weren't. Wasn't I there? Yeah, he didn't look. I'll check that out. Do players look at this? Do they care? I don't think players care as much as they do about pro bowl honors, all pro honors, all those things that are voted on, obviously by the players themselves.

They probably do to a certain extent, and it is an honor to be on the top 100, because I do think the players vote for the top 100. So they go to each position group, make their rankings, and then they tally up votes, and that's how it decides who's in the top 100. Now, I don't know how they do the draft specific order of 100 down to 1. But when you usually look at those top 10, top 20 players, everybody in the league can agree they were pretty much deserving of that on that given year. What's your story? What's your story? This is a wild story. Sean Payton attempted to have Bill Belichick take his head coaching job.

to break Don Shula's win record. He was like going to step down for a minute, right? And let him coach him. He was going to, yeah, just so he could get it and then regain that position as the head coach. I just think it's fascinating that to imagine Sean Payton voluntarily stepping down, even if it's just temporary for anyone, because he's got a pretty big ego. And he's at the same time a Super Bowl winning coach. So, but to do that, and I didn't know he had that type of relationship with Belichick as well to say,

hey, I really want you to get this honor take over for Don Shula. How do you feel if you're done like Don Shula and that on that side of the fence going, wait, you're going to hire this guy just to come break my record? Wait, Don Chula did? Yeah, he died in 2020.

So I feel pretty good if I'm Don Chula. I'm not really concerned about it. I'm saying if you're making that argument on his behalf for him as the winningest coach of all time for... Like Mike Shula, let's say. How does Mike Shula feel? Right. That's one of the biggest people.

is a history in our game to be the winningest coach of all time. And then for somebody to come in and Sean Payton because of his relationship with Belichick to step down and allow him to coach just to get Don Chula's record without really truly being the head coach of a team. Feels a bit like if the president calls a company and goes, hey, can we over turn that red card? And let's cheat a little bit. I mean, yeah, not exactly fair. So, yeah, that's all I'm saying.

Did you watch you that game? Of course I watched. It was terrible. It was terrible. But did you hear, was it the coach for, Belgium after or one of the players, the interview, where they just absolutely went after the U.S. I would have too if I were now.

This is the first time you guys faced any competition. This is real competition. They were like overturned this. They started yelling overturn this. Overturn this. We cheated and still lost. Now, the call was bad during the game. I was going to say, did you see that call?

It's not about the call. The call was bad, but it was over. It's like a targeting penalty, and somebody has to miss the next game, and the governor of Alabama calls and goes, hey, I think this crimson died player, they got the targeting, and I missed the first half. I think we should re-review that. So then they go, oh, okay, they go back in the SEC offices in Alabama. And they read, yeah, I think we're going to remove that targeting call because we got a call from the governor. That ain't. Is it the rarest of the rare to get a red card overturned after the fact? Two times ever in the world up. Oh, so it's

two times ever. Ever. This and in the 60s, I believe it happened. So some people, were arguing about Ronaldo, but his red card was before the tournament even started. And so he got to play and they were like, no, he revert, but it was a different tournament. That didn't happen here. And so also you can review, there are situations outside of this tournament that you can review a red card and they can overturn it. But this, there is no review process. Fifi even said after the game, we can't review it. It is a non-reviewable call. So, oh, wow. Once it's a call, it's a call. Right. And the game's over. And the next day they said, we can't review it. And then we have daddy call and go, I We need to review it.

Yeah, that's bad luck. And then we get beat four to one. I'd have been screaming to overturn this, overturn this. The one that got me was when the goalie came out of goal. Oh, my God. He blocked it, but then his foot hit the ground. Kind of like that field goal. Remember the field goal that we talked about when he kicked the ground?

And you're going, then he panics and kicks it right to the dude. And I was like, what's, oh my God. Yep. That was. And then the further insult to injury was at the end of the game when they scored the fourth goal right before. I think there was 15 seconds left in the game. And then he was running, like the crowd, like, come on now.

Come on now. It was like wrestling. Yeah. It was physical too. USA, USA all the way. But yeah, no, we tried to cheat. No, we are allowed to cheat, it sounds like. We tried, we succeeded.

And cheating. And then we lost. But it was a backfucker. And we got crushed. That's it. That's Matt Castle. That's kickoff Kevin. That's Brandon Array on Bobby Bones.

We have had lots to say. We will see you guys next week. Lots to say with Bobby Bones and Matt Castle is a production of the NFL and IHeart Podcasts. For more podcasts from IHartRadio, visit the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.