2x Super Bowl Champ Rob Ninkovich joins! What does Ninko think of the possibility of Mike Vrabel?

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2x Super Bowl Champ Rob Ninkovich joins! What does Ninko think of the possibility of Mike Vrabel? What did Ninko think about replacing Vrabel as a player?

Transcript

00:00And joining us right now the great Rob Minkovic former New England Patriot. Hello, Robert

00:07What's up, guys? Good morning

00:09Good morning. Were you surprised yesterday one hour after that game when?

00:15Gerard Mayo was informed that it was one and done

00:19Yeah, I was surprised. I didn't I didn't think that that was going to happen

00:25You know he's the rumblings of throughout the season there were moments and you know, I know the fan base they had there

00:33They were they were pretty upset and it just it just didn't feel like you would be a one-and-done type deal

00:41but then I guess at the end it came down to it and

00:46That was the case. That's what they did. They decided to do it. It's kind of sad, you know, it's definitely sad

00:51I mean, it's kind of crazy to think that you know ten years ago

00:58we were four days away from playing and a divisional playoff game and beating the Baltimore Ravens to going on to win a Super Bowl and

01:05Now we're at this point. We're

01:07Firing coaches after one season not even a full season, you know full season, but not even a full year calendar year

01:14Were you surprised with how quickly it happened that it was less than an hour after the game that it got announced

01:20Yeah, it just I mean you would think that there could have been more you know today seems like a

01:29Usually a time where people did make that decision. I know the Jacksonville just fired their coach. So

01:35Just coming out

01:37Not even an hour or two hours after the game just seems kind of kind of odd

01:44If if you were making the decision who would be the next head coaches football team

01:50I

01:51mean, I think

01:53variable being available is

01:56Probably the most glaring, you know option for them at the moment considering he has a history and

02:03had been here for so long and such a you know legend here in New England, so

02:09We'll see moving forward if that's the case, you know, I think that

02:14The one thing that I was I'd said throughout the whole season is is when you have a new coach come in

02:21usually

02:22Usually the way it goes is the coach comes in and they have their their whole they bring in

02:27Everybody and it was it was kind of odd the way that this this Mayo hiring

02:33He really didn't have that opportunity to bring in all his own people. There's a lot of

02:38holdovers from

02:39Bill and when he was here Mayo himself

02:43You know

02:44scouting

02:46the whole thing

02:50So it's it's now the question is

02:54Will the new head coach?

02:57Have the ability and I think that's the biggest question

03:02Can they bring in all their own people because if you look at every other co-head coach that was hired somewhere else

03:10They brought their whole

03:13Package with them and you know, is that going to be the case now?

03:17I would assume that whoever is going to be the new head coach. That would be something that they would have to demand

03:23Niko, I I agree with a lot of what you're saying. However, if

03:27Mayo had a 4 and 13 season and everything on the field was the same

03:32But he didn't say this is a soft team. We are a soft team. We're burning some cash. We're not burning some cash

03:39If he didn't have the missteps with the media, I think he still has a job today. Do you disagree with that?

03:48I mean, it's difficult. It's a difficult time to be in the spotlight now that everyone has the ability to

03:55Magnify anything that you say, you know if this was

03:5910 15 years ago and you say that you got to actually pick up a newspaper to read it, you know

04:03now it's just in your face instantly you say something it's in your face and then

04:08There's a million different

04:11Streams that grab it and they they put it in quotations and that's your I mean I shoot I deal with that myself

04:16I say one thing and it's you know, you know Nikovich claims assault. It's like what like is

04:24You know Nikovich wants to assault a player. It's like well, okay, but

04:28Well, it's it's that's just the world we live in now, but now I think that there are instances

04:34Where you have to learn and you have to grow and now

04:38Every first year head coach is going to have to learn on the job. It's like just part of it

04:43you know, I think back to when you're a rookie when I was a rookie in the NFL and you make a mistake and you

04:49Try to learn from it and you know, I think that that's part of the process and we're such we live in such a now

04:59Community like everybody is so into the now like hey we have to do this now

05:05You know, that's just our society our society is based on results and it has to be fast and it has to be instant

05:12Like you're blaming the times and social media and

05:17I'm not blaming. I'm not blaming that I would think that that is a part of you know being in

05:25It's a part of it. You have to deal with it now and

05:28some of those things

05:32Are

05:33Thrown into people's faces. So then they automatically jump on the okay. We need to move on, you know

05:38In your time here, which was

05:43unbelievable

05:44Yes

05:45Did you ever hear a player?

05:47go on the radio and

05:50Suggests that fans need to know their place because they're daring to boo at a football game

05:55And is that not a culture a giant culture problem that has never existed here before. I

06:02Think you're dealing with a younger

06:04generation of player that

06:06They're not, you know, I don't think if I knew when he was saying it that there would be such a

06:12Massive backlash on it, which now I mean listen when you everything that you say you have to understand

06:18that people are going to take it and digest it and then I think obviously if he had the opportunity to

06:24To not say those things he wouldn't have but he had the opportunity

06:27He had the opportunity to take him back after the game and he doubled down on it

06:31Which says to me not that one

06:33It's not that one thing the one thing that Joe Jelani to buy said on this show is to me

06:39indicative of a giant an overall giant culture issue on that football team of

06:45Which Gerard Mayo is in charge of and was going to change and he was theoretically supposed to be much better at it because he

06:52Had a connection to the players and he was connected to the social media generation in the way that his predecessor wasn't I?

06:58Would I would assume that it's very frustrating as a player to

07:02Put out the effort and and if you do have a relationship with a coach that you do

07:07Respect and you do enjoy working for even though the results weren't there

07:11It would be tough to go into the stadium. And you know, I think as a friend it's tough for me to

07:17Look at signs and you know the things that are out there about Gerard Mayo because the guy's a great dude

07:23You know, he's a smart football player

07:26I

07:27Don't know him as a coach because I never I was never a player for for him as a coach obviously

07:34but you know, I think it's tough when you do have a relationship with somebody and you're you know,

07:40You don't like to it's just like anything if it was a family member and somebody's saying something about that person

07:45It's hard to just listen to it without having a you know, a rebuttal to that, right?

07:50So I think it's hard for certain guys if they are close to a coach to just let

07:56The negativity and the you know, the stadium chanting and all that stuff. It's probably hard to just take that right?

08:03So, you know, I think there are some aspects of what's if I was saying in any took it personally, right?

08:10Because you do have relationship with relationships. You're with the coach is more than you are with your own family in a sense

08:17So, you know you do form

08:20Close relationships and you do take things personally, you know

08:24Yesterday, I'm watching Clare Campbell talked to the D coordinator from Miami the guys crying, you know, the D coordinators crying. So

08:32You have very close relationships with these coaches and that's why it's really difficult in

08:37These times right now because you have coaches that just moved here with their families that are

08:45One year where am I going now? What's my future look like like those are

08:50Those are tough

08:52situations to be in and

08:54Now, I think you're going to have a lot more

08:59uncertainty

09:00across every single department scouting upper office

09:05You know personnel

09:07coaching assistants

09:09everybody now is

09:11Potentially going to be replaced which is really really hard for people. I don't think the fan base

09:18Can put their mind in like

09:21Those assistant roles, you know, like where those guys are going to be and their families are going to be it's it

09:28Affects everybody and it's pretty tough for those families to be in that situation right now

09:35Rob just back to the culture thing because I agree with you

09:37I think it's a younger player mentality

09:39But even last year with with Bill Belichick, we heard a little bit about dysfunction behind the scenes

09:46But it was really at the end of the season after the season where maybe players were speaking to reporters like Karen Geregian

09:52But this year it seemed like every week there was a headline coming out of that locker room

09:56So what was it about Belichick that was he able to year after year keep things under wraps?

10:03Well, I think it was you come into a situation like I might like myself when I walked into the locker room

10:09I was a young kid that

10:11was always envious of

10:14Playing for a team like the Patriots

10:16So when you walk in the building, you just fall in line and you don't say anything like my first few years

10:22I didn't say anything and that's one aspect of I think fans when they look at

10:29a player for myself even for myself after I was done playing I think a lot of

10:35Fans and and my friends in general were like dude, you have a lot more personality. You never really said anything and

10:41That was just kind of though that you understood that right like I'm coming in just to do my job

10:47I don't want to make a story. I don't want to put myself in a bad spot

10:51I just want to produce at a high level and I want to help this team win and that was the culture so I

10:57Think that's one thing Vrabel

11:00Wouldn't would have and understand like this is the way it was

11:04This is how we're going to do things and if you don't want to do it this way

11:09We'll find people that do want to do it that way and is it harder to do that in 2025 than it was in

11:162004 I

11:17Think I think yes, because there is a difference in the player and the college level and you know

11:25You come into the NFL now

11:27You're more of the celebrity just with your own name as opposed to when you came in into the 2000s

11:33The team was the celebrity and you were just trying to help the team win

11:38Have you spoken to Mike Vrabel at all I?

11:42Talked to when his Hall of Fame induction. Yeah, I mean I congratulated him

11:46I think you know for myself. I was the guy that came in after a legend and

11:51You said it. I've said it before it's always hard to fill the shoes of a guy. That's the Hall of Fame player and

11:59when I walked into the building I

12:01Was yeah the the white 50 right like you're you're not Vrabel

12:07And I was I was told many times I'll never be Vrabel right and now I never tried to be Vrabel

12:14I always knew

12:15Vrabel was a great football player. I just want to try to

12:21Represent that position

12:23with

12:25production and I

12:27You do your best and yeah

12:29I've made my fair share of mistakes and I miss tackles and I miss sacks and all that stuff

12:33But I always tried to just produce at a high level

12:38consistency

12:40Reliability dependability like that's what that position and that number was about was about so you know

12:46you know it's crazy to think that there were two guys that were the same number for 16 years and

12:52Won a lot of football games right like that. It's not really the case anymore. It's really hard to do that and

12:59You know when I anytime I would meet Vrabel I just almost was like, you know a little bit

13:06intimidated by him because I

13:09was always trying to fill that void or fill that position out and

13:13You know until you never really know so I never knew him personally at all

13:18So I would always just imagine him as this like larger-than-life figure because of the things that the great things that he did here

13:26so that I think that that was a

13:28difficult thing for me

13:30but at the at at the same time I

13:34Knew after the eight years that I played here like I did the best I could that's all you can do right

13:40Should have 151 were you intimidated Niko when you first met Greg?

13:46No, I just wanted to clean his glasses

13:51We're at a high level on Greg's glasses we got to get him some dawn dish soap on them things

13:55It is always our pleasure to have you on and I thank you for sharing your thoughts this morning Rob Nikovich

14:02Thank you guys all the best in the new year and take care. We'll see what we'll see what happens moving forward and

14:10Have a great one

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