00:00All right, so, Ted, I'm going to play you a sound clip here that you are going to like,
00:04and it's not just because it stars Mike Giardi, who is, of course, a tall drink of water.
00:08It's because he is talking about a certain member of the Patriots
00:11and how he has been looking lately.
00:13Stiz, let it roll.
00:15Since the pads have come on, the best offensive player on the football team has been A.J. Brown.
00:21I think when, you know, maybe there's a ball here or there that you think,
00:24ah, in a game you want him to catch that, but we're not talking about drops.
00:28We're talking about the physical contested catch stuff.
00:31Most of the stuff, again, continues to be underneath.
00:33They have the slant down, May and Brown.
00:38And to me, some people will poo-poo that.
00:40I'm excited by that because I think that's in part where Brown shines
00:44because of the physicality, his ability to make tacklers miss and get yards after the catch.
00:50I think some of that yards after catch stuff was lost the last season or two
00:53with Jalen Hurts and some of the lack of accuracy
00:56and some of the unwillingness to throw the ball over the middle of the field
00:59and do that sorts of thing.
01:01May's not going to be shy about that, and I think Brown can eat off of that.
01:05Like, to me, I'm not going to be surprised when he turns a seven-yard slant
01:09into a 45-yard gain.
01:12You like that, Ted?
01:13From the beginning of the preseason, we weren't hearing much about A.J. Brown,
01:16and now once the pads come on, I guess the stars come out.
01:20A.J. Brown is killing it.
01:22You play football on pads, and I've always said a lot of guys that they do one-on-ones
01:27or they do seven-on-sevens without pads.
01:30It's like, yeah, that's not football, so this is the real football.
01:34And you know what?
01:36I get excited over slants because, you know what?
01:38On that fourth and one in that key situation where you've got to have it,
01:41and it's all about timing and subtleties, and it's a three-step boom,
01:46plant that back foot, throw.
01:47You want to make sure that, you know, that you are where you need to be
01:51if you're A.J. Brown.
01:52And so it doesn't – it might not seem like a – wow, they're complete in slants.
01:56Yeah, that shows that they're on the same page,
01:59and the timing is where it needs to be.
02:01And he's such a big body and strong at the point of attack
02:04that there's going to be a lot of first-down conversions off of a slant pass
02:08late in season one, and the season's on the line.
02:11And so that does get me excited.
02:13I'm not going to lie.
02:14And you know what?
02:14And, yeah, the pads are on.
02:15A.J.'s starting to show out.
02:18That speaks to the physical, you know, specimen and nature that he is.
02:22Can I complain about one thing?
02:24I know it's early, and, you know, we haven't seen any games or even, you know,
02:27Ted, you said that the practice next Tuesday is going to be maybe even more
02:30important than the first game.
02:32But Romeo Dobbs, they committed to, for four years, $80 million.
02:36We're hearing a lot about A.J. Brown.
02:37That's great.
02:38Hootie is apparently stealing the show.
02:41But you let Diggs go.
02:42He just signed today in Washington for one year, $12 million.
02:45He was your leader.
02:46That was the guy who was in the huddle bringing the team out.
02:49I know he had a lot of off-field stuff that maybe you were concerned about.
02:51But I have not heard Dobbs been talked about much.
02:54If he's like a bust or not as good as Diggs, aren't you going to regret not just
02:59keeping Diggs and getting A.J. Brown with him?
03:01Because that would have been a dynamite duo.
03:02Well, it's hard to sit there and say, well, I expect Romeo to pick up where Steph Diggs
03:07left off because Steph was your number one leading receiver.
03:09And Romeo is going to be expected to be your second leading receiver.
03:14And you know what?
03:15The off-the-field stuff that you just kind of casually step, you know.
03:21That witness was not – Rich, you remember that witness.
03:23He was not very –
03:25They don't need that.
03:26They don't need that on this team.
03:28And so that's – it's not as small of an issue.
03:30Coach had some issues too.
03:31So, you know, I mean, let's not – well, everybody, same standard here.
03:34It's a little different, the two situations.
03:37They're very different.
03:38But, you know, you need – you need – like, I don't think Steph Diggs was pulling
03:44coverage away from guys, A.J. Brown, Will, that should open up things more for Romeo
03:50Dobbs.
03:50And you know what?
03:51Just give me an under-the-radar, chill kind of receiver in Romeo Dobbs because you've
03:55got your alpha with A.J. Brown.
03:58So, you don't need him to be a Steph Diggs type.
04:01Okay.
04:01And I don't know if Steph Diggs and A.J. Brown would have worked well together.
04:04I don't know.
04:05You know?
04:05And I don't know if – because on the contract that Steph Diggs had with the Patriots was
04:11he was going to be owed $20 million.
04:13Right.
04:13I don't know if they felt comfortable going, hey, you know what?
04:16We want to chop $8 million off of it.
04:18And would you be okay with that?
04:20My guess is he probably wouldn't have been considering the impact he had on the team last
04:25year.
04:25And so, it's just easier to move on from him and to go get a guy like a Romeo Dobbs
04:31knowing
04:32that you're going to land the big fish in A.J. Brown.
04:35Was Ms. Adams a perfect witness?
04:37No.
04:39No.
04:39That was the best.
04:40She was – no, she was awful.
04:42Not very good at all.
04:43Ted, you were talking about how, like, when the pads come out, that's when the real football
04:46starts.
04:47You know what?
04:47You played in an era that is so different than what they do now at these practices.
04:51Like, when you were in the – like, when you played in the NFL, did you guys have Oklahoma
04:54drills still?
04:55Like, did you guys do Oklahoma drills?
04:58Man, no.
04:58No, but we had very physical practices.
05:01But the Oklahoma drill in the NFL, I'd be like, dude, what are we doing?
05:05Because there were teams who did that.
05:07That would be irresponsible.
05:08Wasn't there teams that did that during, like, when you played?
05:10Like, other teams that would do Oklahoma drills would seem wildly irresponsible?
05:13I would be shocked.
05:15But maybe – I mean, we did three-on-three drills, which are kind of like Oklahoma drills.
05:20But it's – you know, if you had a coach doing that, dude, then it's not a team with
05:25a lot of veterans.
05:26A lot of veterans would be like, no, we're not doing that.
05:29Are you kidding me?
05:30No.
05:31Yeah.
05:31I mean, but, dude, we had goal line period in our first practice of training camp.
05:37Like, it was a much more physical practice, even without the Oklahoma drills.
05:41You didn't need to have Oklahoma drills in the NFL to have a physical, demanding practice,
05:46you know?
05:47God, high school football was so irresponsible.
05:49Oh, so irresponsible.
05:51I mean, I just affected even the stuff that – listen, I was no star.
05:54I barely played.
05:55But, my God, they would have us – you know, not only would you do Oklahoma drills regularly,
06:00but then – do you remember, like, water breaks were few and far between?
06:04It was like you were a P-word if you, like, wanted water.
06:07Water break.
06:07And water used to be, like, a giant PVC pipe with holes in it that they would stick a hose
06:14into the end of, and you would stand over it and hope it would make it into your mouth,
06:18like – like, just sopping up this water that got shot up at you.
06:22The biggest difference is football – there used to be a time in which coaches would evaluate
06:29players based on who was still standing after five days.
06:33Yes.
06:34Like, literally, like, who was the tough – I want to see who my tough players are.
06:37Like, that was a Parcells thing.
06:39We were going to have two padded practices for the first four days.
06:42That's eight padded practices in a four-day span.
06:45And who's still standing, those are the guys I want to roll with.
06:49If you were injured, you were on a bike, you don't make the club in the tub,
06:53was a famous line from Phil Parcells.
06:54You would evaluate players on their toughness.
06:57That's why I love playing in the era I did because that was one of my better
07:01attributes was to – so you don't evaluate players on toughness anymore.
07:05You don't evaluate players on who's still standing after these long, arduous –
07:10it's, you know, guys don't pass their conditioning test.
07:13Oh, well.
07:14They go ride the bike, lose some weight, and then they get to run it again
07:17until they do pass it, which Parcells traded two – not traded,
07:21he cut two third-round draft picks in 1994 because they failed their conditioning test.
07:25Now, those – can you imagine a coach doing that?
07:28Those picks are too invaluable.
07:30They make too much money.
07:32They worry about injuries now.
07:34You know, I mean, we had four preseason games,
07:36and guys were playing into the fourth preseason game back when I played.
07:40So it's a completely different NFL than when I played.
07:44But you loved Parcells' approach, right?
07:46Like, so do you look back and think he was right to do that,
07:48or was he over the line?
07:50He was – for the time, he was fine.
07:52I thought it was – it was probably more than needed, I'll be honest with you.
07:56All right.
07:57And I compare him to – football coaches didn't want to change what they did.
08:03Everybody almost did the same thing until someone does it different
08:07and has success.
08:08And the coach that did do it different that had success was Bill Walsh.
08:12And Bill Walsh did not believe in let's beat the crap out of these guys
08:16until we see who's the toughest.
08:18It's like, no, we have a West Coast system.
08:20This is what we do.
08:21We're going to take the pads off, and it's not going to be as physical.
08:24We're going to save their – and then they started winning Super Bowls,
08:26and then coaches from the Bill Walsh tree, Ray Rhodes, Mike Holmgren, Pete Carroll,
08:32they started going and being head coaches,
08:34and they started bringing that attitude with them.
08:37And then slowly, surely, attitudes started changing around the NFL
08:42because they saw a different way of doing it and still having success
08:46as opposed to, you know, the old way, which was the beatings will continue
08:50until morale improves type of coaching.
08:52Ted, when you were coming up, did you ever –
08:55did your teams ever do Bull in the Ring by any chance?
08:58At the University of Colorado, yes.
09:00We did that.
09:00Oh, my God.
09:01Bull in the Ring.
09:02Ted, I'll let you describe it.
09:03Bull in the Ring was just the dumbest drill ever.
09:08Dumbest.
09:09But in college, you do – you know, you just play off a motion.
09:13You be in a circle.
09:14Everybody – the position groups, everyone's in a circle,
09:16and then one guy's in the middle, and we all start jumping in just in place,
09:21and the guy in the middle points somebody on the outside circle to come and ram them,
09:27and you just go hit each other, and then the guy that he picked,
09:31now he's the guy in the middle, and he jumps around, and he points to a guy,
09:34and then they go hit, and then the guy that got picked, he's now in the middle,
09:37and so on and so forth, and that's Bull in the Ring.
09:40Yeah, but it's funny.
09:42But you have a big collision, and when you point at each other,
09:45it's like, boom, that signals to go.
09:47Like a Gojira concert.
09:49There you go.
09:50Yeah.
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