WEEI Afternoons: Tom E. Curran joins the show

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00:00Is our good friend Tommy Curran who's brought to you by Flexcar save thousands with your flexible car lease at flexcar.com

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00:12They give a poop about your pipes Tommy Curran. How are we doing today my friend?

00:17Good good good. How my boys doing? All right. Oh, we're doing great. It's good to talk with you Tommy as always

00:23I don't know if you heard it yesterday, but we were playing some sound of you from

00:27Quicksilence, and I believe it's how you open the show talking about a big mea culpa when it comes to Drake May you familiar with

00:33What I'm talking about here

00:36Yeah, I'm catching what you're putting down

00:38Okay

00:39So the reason why I wanted to bring this up is because I like you Tommy in the in the offseason

00:44Was hesitant to want to draft a quarterback and it was partially because I didn't think Drake May would be as good as he is

00:51And I know that that was part of what your mea culpa was about but the other part of it

00:54Which I still feel justified in is that I didn't think this was a good environment to drop a rookie quarterback into and I thought

00:59I remember you saying that too. And so to hear you sort of go back on it

01:03I wonder do you have you changed your mind about the environment and the things surrounding Drake May and in it being a good environment

01:09For a rookie quarterback to try and succeed in because I I feel like all of my fears in the preseason

01:15With that or I've all been justified like a hundred percent

01:21Well

01:22That's never going to you're never going to have that position rectified

01:28100% I think

01:29You know with the wave of a magic wand which you needed to have

01:33However, and I wrote this in April did a long story on Drake May

01:37about his resilience and his football character and

01:41His physical toughness and I wrote and said to you guys many many times if you're going to take one of them

01:46he is the best fit in terms of

01:50football character

01:52Physical and mental toughness. I still cling to

01:56happily the belief

01:58That the best way to get better is to build your lives

02:01And I also cling to the history of the position which indicates that the third quarterback taken

02:08Is often taught or a top five quarterback taken generally speaking and with rare exceptions

02:14Hands out because he goes to a crap team

02:17But if they're going to take one quarterback, they fortunately took the most tough physically and mentally

02:23Among the group in my opinion and I wrote that at the time. He's better than I thought

02:27I thought the third best quarterback coming out of the draft

02:31I thought JJ McCarthy was a better quarterback more accurate

02:35tougher just as much arm strength

02:37Which I think people will see when he gets in there and he was playing phenomenally for for Minnesota during the preseason

02:42But they got a kid who they would be as I said

02:46Extremely downcast about if he was doing this for the Giants and they were running around

02:51it still probably

02:54three in ten

02:56Who I thought that was one of those pauses sorry now I'm ready

03:02Does that align any better no it does it aligns fine and I agree with you

03:07I he's better than I thought he was gonna be I thought his last year in North Carolina wasn't all that impressive and I thought

03:12Maybe they were reaching a little bit trying to put all this into and I was wrong about that

03:16I agree

03:16but I wasn't wrong and I don't think you were wrong either about this team this roster that he's being dropped into and the

03:22environment with all these new coaches who are all

03:25First-timers learning on the job and all of that and that being a conducive environment for a rookie QB to grow and progress in

03:33But if you're gonna take one

03:35You better take the one who's the smartest. Yeah, excuse me

03:38You better take the one who's the most physically and mentally resilient and they did that the kid has been

03:43Absolute aces that might be his best asset in some ways as I said at the time over the next few years his toughness

03:50I mean he could be standing up there moping at the podium and whining in front of the mic and rolling his eyes

03:57He was asked about the decision at the end of the game the other day to kick the field goal

04:01and he said it like you know a

04:05Private in the army, I'm just I'm just following whatever they want whatever support they need which is what they need

04:11Yeah

04:12I said all along not to pat ourselves back and forth on the back and everything we said and that was right and wrong and

04:17All this but this theory do it

04:19Yeah

04:19I mean

04:20You can't break a diamond like all these concerns about the line and the receivers in the coaching if he's a stud

04:27Quarterback, we've seen it a lot of levels for a lot of years a true stud quarterback changes everything

04:32It's like the the flowers just bloom a little brighter and the air is just a little friendlier

04:37And and he is that but I want to go in a different direction Tom

04:41You know, I'm not one to blow smoke up. Somebody's bum bum usually but I listened to your sit-down with Gerard Mayo and

04:49Yeah, I couldn't recommend it anymore for a just a nice

04:54comfortable

04:56light-hearted bi-week

04:57Conversation between the head coach and a guy he's comfortable talking with and I know you guys have the history from quicksands

05:03But I thought it was tremendous. So pulling something from that

05:07He said one of the keys to the next four weeks was making sure they hit the offseason

05:14Basically knowing what they have right finding out about the guys they have particularly young guys

05:19So I'm gonna ask you of the young players if you can only find out for certain

05:26About one of them, who would you pick? I think I know the answer but who would you pick?

05:30I think you're gonna be of the same mind Kaelin Polk. Yeah good answer

05:35You have to go back in and do it again. I mean is he Taekwon to

05:41Is he McKeel free or is he just is this just a complete aberration and he's going to be fine

05:48That's what they have to answer

05:49But there's so many offensive line questions

05:51They need to answer to about Leighton Robinson and and Caden Wallace and even to a degree City

05:55So why why is City so become a player they can't use?

05:59like literally

06:01From a guy who was able to start last year. Yep. Why do they have to flush players?

06:07Who were seemingly?

06:08Okay, even from last year and we could point to okay. The coaching is a good nothing

06:12That was something that I asked you around the interview

06:14Do you have to evaluate your coaching staff with the same hard eye in terms of who needs support?

06:21Who's coming back who is you know

06:24Who is going to improve radically?

06:26So to me, I think that to answer your question along roundabout way Kaelin Polk

06:31We're talking with Tommy Curran NBC Sports Boston Tom. You obviously have a long-standing

06:37Relationship with Gerard Mayo the sit-down was very good. I agree at this point through the season 13 weeks here at the bye week

06:43What would you say his identity as a coach is? Well, how would you how would you characterize it?

06:48Cautious

06:51Unfortunately, I think and I would say that to him

06:54caucus

06:56We're doing the wrong thing

06:59And I really I feel I feel he's been put into a tough situation. I don't think any of us would disagree with that

07:05I don't think that he would disagree

07:06with my saying that by appraisal he might disagree that it's a tough situation, but

07:11I think

07:14The way the season has played out

07:16The way his I

07:20Guess his podium

07:22demeanor

07:23Has been fleshed out and the number of times he said things glibly that he needed to take back

07:28He's just become more cautious

07:31And he doesn't want to screw it up. And I think that's the hardest thing and maybe you know Bill Parcells

07:37in his first iteration with Giants

07:40Went 3 and 11 in his first year and I remember he there's a quote from him when he was coming back for a second

07:45He goes this year. I'm gonna do it my way because if I'm gonna go down, I'm gonna go down on my terms

07:50And I wonder what?

07:53demeanor male will come back with

07:55Next year what he learned what he and how he will proceed

07:59Because I think he's you know, and it's on field too

08:03When he talks to the postgame

08:06Immediately about I know that there's going to be a lot of opinions

08:09That means it's foremost in his mind when he makes a decision that he knows the opinions are going to be

08:14Formulated and he's gonna have to defend them instead of just saying I don't care. I'm doing this

08:19I'm kicking the field goal because I don't know if we can hold up for six seconds to get guys down there

08:24So we got a better chance of throwing it kicking it than throwing it 60 yards or whatever

08:29So is the implication that he's not doing it his way like that?

08:31He's he's feeling pressure to do it a certain way. That's maybe not his way

08:35No, I don't think it's that. Okay, it's

08:38I

08:40Play a lot of golf. So I think about a lot

08:42I think about golf a lot when you start looking at the water or the woods with the out-of-bounds on the tee

08:49You're not going to take a free and effortless swinging. You know what? I'm thinking too much. Just do it. Just do it. I

08:56So I think that's it

08:58So I'm assuming because I know in the podcast you guys talked a little bit about a bunch of books and sort of I don't even

09:04Know what category they're in self-help and and motivational

09:09Yeah, so he clearly pulls from a lot of those we've heard a lot of slogans

09:14I know some people have painted it as like corporate corporate culture HR slogans, whatever a

09:19I assume you believe he truly believes in those but more importantly

09:24Do you think those resonate with his players now that we're three quarters of a way through a season?

09:28Do you think a process and progress in the North Star and and all these various things?

09:34he does

09:35Are they resonating with the players like he wants them to?

09:40Yeah, because they're still playing hard and I think that one thing that we've always realized about athletes when we talk to them

09:46That might be different from us is they're highly motivated

09:49they're in a window of opportunity in their lives that they've been in and not that we're not highly motivated, but they're a

09:56small window of opportunity in their

10:04But since they were 12 or 13

10:06they realize they might be professional athletes and they want to maximize that period of time by the time they're 30 and whatever a

10:12Trusted individual who has succeeded whether it be as a player as a coach who's talking to them if he says hey

10:19These are some tenets that I gathered from a book by Ryan holiday

10:24Who's somebody who you know, I talked to mail about and you could read his books and I'm sure many people have he's very well-respected

10:31In athletic, but anyway this mindset stuff players do gravitate to 100% of them. No

10:4075 80, you know, there was a there was a kicking coach to the Miami Dolphins

10:44His name escapes me and he was a wheelchair-bound

10:47fella and I remember saying people saying at the time well, how can someone in

10:53Wheelchair, who's never kicked to be a kicking coach and the response was he knows what he's talking about. He helps me get better

11:00So it doesn't matter what his physical

11:04Condition is does he help me get better do these tenets that Mayo relies on which then get co-opted?

11:11Or he actually heard through corporate speak

11:15Regardless of where they came from do they resonate and if they don't stop doing it

11:19are they authentically believed or are you just sitting out there saying North Star and

11:24In Red Star and you know few obstacles away if you're just spouting stuff and there's nothing behind it then

11:31It's not going to resonate. All right, Tommy current time for the flex of the game. There's no game

11:35So it's the flex of the bi-week I guess presented by flex car ditch the dealership and save thousands with flex car

11:40How about the flex of the last month of the season? What's that going to be?

11:44Flex for the last month of the season is nothing but

11:48but uphill trudging through the snow of

11:51Arizona

11:53Los Angeles Chargers and the Buffalo Bills two times. So I guess the flex of the final month is going to be

12:03Capturing the attention of your team to have it continue to plot along

12:08into the first week of January

12:10Knowing that the destination is going to end up far short of where you were and you're going to have motivated teams against you

12:16So flex up and find some motivation Tommy current NBC Sports Boston. Always a pleasure, sir

12:21Thank you guys have a great weekend, all right, that is the great Tommy current joining us here on WEEI afternoon

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