Pats from the Past, Episode 7: Tedy Bruschi, Part I

I still have. I think I'd like to say that you could still come in off the edge and probably get a quarterback pressure, but I think at your current size you might you look more like a free safety at this point time. Speed rush, ye could speed rush, probably not bull rush, nothing physical, no counter moves or anything like that. But yeah, the counter with the spine

speed to spin, but no power. Yeah. Let's let's remind Patriots fans who really shouldn't need this reminder, but just let's give everybody an update on what you're doing these days. And so my recollection is you got bumped up a little bit. You're at the Worldwide Leader down in Bristol, but you're on Sunday NFL countdown this year, and I gotta tell you it was a tremendous boost of energy to have you on the show. I'm not sitting here

blowing smoke up your rear end things. But it was a great addition to that show that needed it, and I think you do a great job on that. So tell people what you're doing. Yeah, I mean I started out with ESPN as soon as I retired from here. I mean three days later after my retirement press conference, ESPN called and asked me to be an analyst. And I mean, I said, where is it. I didn't even know where they were. Do I have to take a

flight or anything. It's a two hour drive And I said okay, And so I started out on the weekly the weekly beat, I guess you call it of NFL Live Sports Center, you know, radio, those type of things. And I was just happy there for you know, for ten years I did it, and they had talked to me about Sundays, but it was never really in my plans because I valued my weekends with the kids when they were when they were young, you know, so in doing all the weekend sports with the kids and everything.

So it just worked out again where it came around, and you know, my boss asked me about Sundays again they moved on from Charles Woodson and they said they'd want me to, you know, take over the seat, and I said, sure, why not. And it's just been fun. It was so easy with Moss. I mean I knew Randy. I knew Randy, and you know, even Rex. You sort of know of Rex, you know, and I know his brother Rob, who was my linebacker coach for a few

years here when he was here. Um, you know, Hasselbs got the BC connection, the New England connection, his father playing here. So it was really easy for me to sit in and feel comfortable with them, and they were all so welcoming to me. And Sam Ponder was you know, I had to get to know Sam a little bit. I hadn't known her, only seen her on college game day, but I had seen her on Countdown. So once that all developed, the show really started to get better, especially

towards the end. And you know, the the reaction of it was positive from a lot of people. And then I think the network's happy about it. The chemistry between you and Randy is unmistakable. Well, I mean you can really tell you guys who were in the same walker room together. I think it really shows and it helps

to show out tremendously. Yeah, in terms of respect with Moss and I and I remember doing a Monday night game here and Randy coming up to me when he was still playing and you know, saying what's up on live TV and all that stuff. So you know, really always you know, respected each other, but knowing each other now on even on a more of a personal basis, you know, talking about our interests and spending a lot of time together, you know how you have to sort

of as a crew off camera. It's just really progressed and you know, hopefully, you know, it looks like the same CRUI is gonna be back next year for the show, so we're looking forward to that. Rex Ryan was always a good rival for us here at the Patriots. What's it like working with him and one of those conversations maybe like off the air, Uh, we talk a lot about a defensive football and we have a lot of the same perspective on things and how we see him

and in our overall philosophy of football. He's a little more aggress something me in terms of his personalities and how he comes out, and that's what you need from Rex. Though he's an emotional guy. He wears his heart on his sleeve. You gotta love it about him. I think is the minute I got on set, I was like, I like this guy. You know. It's just all the players that play for Rex, you know, they can you can you can tell how they just care about them. And so I mean my son, I have a son

named Rex, so he sort of had that. And it's funny because I would send text to my son and he and for me, he was always the only Rex that would pop up when I in the address books of Rex, and I'd be asking them questions about Okay, you gotta do the dishes or something like that, or when you come home, and and Rex Ryan with texting me saying, hey, bru, yeah, I think he just meant to go to your son. So I was texting Rex things about I was that I was asking my son too,

So that was that was sort of a joke. It happened probably three to four times over the course of the season, and I finally figured out. But now I have two Rexes in my phone. That's funny. So Teddy, when you're coming out of college and you're getting prepared for the draft and everything like that, I mean, tied for the all time lead in sacks. Maybe Patriot fans don't remember that two time All American, They might not

remember that. Were you surprised that you went in the third round or did you think you know, again, I'm maybe I'm harping on size a little bit. Did you think, geez, because of my size, that doesn't surprise me. Maybe that I'm going in the third round? Yeah, that's all it was. Really they you know, they saw six foot one, two hundred forty five pound defensive end. I mean, I knew collegiately. I was one of the three best defensive players in

the draft. I mean, my numbers couldn't couldn't really argue with anyone else. I had the fifty two sack mark and tied Derrek Thomas like you're saying, And it was something I was extremely proud of. But you gotta project where you're gonna go, you know, And a lot of a lot of teams. The Lions wanted me to play defensive tackle, and the coach told me he was going

to make me the next John Randall, you know. And then there was Polly and when he was with the Panthers wanted me to come in and play outside linebacker Greg Lloyd and Kevin Green and then the Patriots. Actually, you know, want of you had more visions of me added off the ball linebacker. But I started on the ball playing Sam and then went off the ball to play Mike and Will and everybody just sort of had an idea of what I was going to be. And when you have that sort of idea and you're not

sure that doesn't equal first round pick. You know, I understood that, and uh, you know I accepted that. But you know, coming in I got drafted by the Patriots, and luckily they moved up to get me in front of the Carolina Panthers and things worked out well. Teddy, how difficult is it for a guy to go playing with his hand down the ground to playing off the ball. Well, it took me three years to get to get used to it, Brian, because that says something. It's a different world, right,

is it like learning? Almost? Yea worse than that. Well, I mean, when you're down and you have your hand in the dirt, there's a certain vision that you have of what you see. And all I really had to see was the tight end that was in front of me, or the offensive tackles hip, you know. In college, that's all I had to do. It was very simple for me. But now I'm up and back and now my vision is so wide now and I'm seeing things that I have to decipher that I had. What does that mean?

You know, my very first meeting with Dante Scarnekia, who was an assistant linebacker coach at the time and now grow they said, okay, here we go. I'm the only one in the room and they're trying to explain cover two to me, and they say, okay, when you recognize past dropped to the hook and I raised my hand, I say, where's that. I had never taken a drop

in my life. I mean, I remember the Cincinnati Bengals coming to work me out and put me in some drops and all this stuff, and I fell down, actually dropping backwards, and I said, yeah, they're not going to pick me to myself as I done it myself off when I got up. But it is goodness for that. It's night and day. And it just took a little while to get used to it. But I had to find a role for me on the team that kept

a job until I learned how to play linebacker. Just special teams and you'll hear coaches Bill talks about it all the time. Well, these guys, they got to show me something on special teams before we can even introduce them to what's going on. So the positive in your rookie year, and there was a lot of positives. Larry Wigham twenty five. I always remember twenty five and your scoreboard number one in your heart walk punt down at Baltimore. Who was there to scoop and score? Yeah, my first

ever career touchdown I was against the Baltimore Ravens. See, playing special team does one thing and then also finding a role somehow to help the defense. I mean they saw I could rush the passer even still as a down lineman still, and so they tried to find a way to put me on the field. And al Girl made a package called Cactus because I went to the University of Arizona, so this called Cactus. I remember there was a package versus Buffalo when we got Rabel, we

called it Buckeye, but for me, it was Cactus. I'd come in and I played defensive tackle. I got two sacks in the Super Bowl from the defensive tackle position, I mean beating guards and spin moves and all of that stuff, you know. So ill so Special Teams also became somewhat of an adjustment to me. The past Russian

was natural. I remember Sweatman, who was the Special team's coach at that time, coming up to me in the hallways and telling me, a, you gotta start making some tackles, because it was three weeks and I hadn't made a tackle yet on kickoff team or punt team, and it was like, yeah, you gotta start showing us you can do some things, or we're gonna put somebody else in there. I went out the next game and had three Special

Teams tackles. I was like, you got to produce, even you know, if you're in that developmental role, but still what they put you in, you still have to show progress and produce and make, you know, make plays. So that dovetails into probably not a very forgettable moment for you. And so blame the passer if you want, But Denver at home, Denver was loaded. Denver's loaded. That's an infamous national guard. A national Guard were killing the patriots and you go for it on fourth down and two pers

throwing to number fifty four. Well, it wasn't supposed to go to me. The call was Brown, right, okay, And it was for Corwyn Brown. He was the personal protector. He was to release and then and and run a route that was deeper than mine and the out route, and I was the wing and I went out and there it was and the ball was there, and it was a perfect throw for a guy who's had so many interceptions interceptions for touchdowns, and like that's a different

to being a rookie problem. Not at that point, right, not, at that point. I was still a defensive lineman on the bo team right there, from the from the universe, Arizona. But it came, it was in my hands for a second and then boom just dropped it and it was that started the route, you know. And I remember walking by parcels like you gotta cash that, Bruce Key. I'm like, oh man, So that was like you know what I

did too. There was an article in the Globe, I think, after that, and there was a picture of me on the ground and I saved that article for a long time because I never wanted me to be that guy again. And sort of poetic justice in the AFC Championship game when I got that interception. Somebody might have just by a batted ball up in the air, a tip all up in the air, and I caught it, and I ran straight out of bounds and almost it was almost

in the same area where I dropped that pass. So that's a little bit of a little bit of redemption for me. But whenever I see someone have a moment like that, I always think of my moment and and that was my rookie year, and yeah, that was what I won't forget. So you mentioned parcels reaction. What was it liked to come in and play for Bill Parcels as a rookie. What were your first impressions of him. I had never been, you know, just a different type

of coach I had never experienced. Dick Tomy was my coaching in college. Parcels was much more aggressive, much more Jersey, you know, sort of like my father, you know, you know, really rough Italian man like my dad was. But I know Parcels not Italian or anything like that, but still, um that type of personality, aggressive, break you down, build

you up type of thing. Um excuse me. Just very fortunate that Bill was the one that laid my football foundation that I call it because you know she After Bill left, I mean, Carol came in and it was Pete Carroll came in and it was like night and day. But for Bill to teach me, you know, those type of lessons about you know, hard work and what it took to put into the game was something that was

special to me. I mean I started making plays my rookie year, even in practice, and they started to see progress. And this is this is Bill Parcels for you. He used to drive his Cadillac all the way to the to the to the bubble back then, and every it was like that El Dorado, he just get a different El Dorado. It is a different color whatever it was. And I had one good practice where I stepped in front of Degg Megat and I intercepted Bled. So when I took it back, I got a sack on Bled.

So something like that. And Parcels says, Bruce Ki, get in my car. And so he drove me back to practice and it was about a good that's getting called to the principles. Yes, yeah, oh shit, oh sorry, like what is this about? You know what I mean? So um, he drives me in the car and he talks to me about a few things and then only talks to me about for half the riot is getting an accountant. And I said, and he says to me, I've seen more guys go down to the irs than to drugs

or women or anything like that. Man, So go ahead and get your get your accountant and make sure things are in order. And I went home called my agent, said I need an accountant, and he said it's November. Man, you don't need an accountant right now. But I don't care get one anyway, because that was a that was like a moment for me, because there was Bill Parcel's telling me that I could I could be in this league for a long time, and you know, it was

just it was just a moment. I'll never forget that Cadillac ride in that El Dorado you talk about. You talked earlier about your kids. Here's one that's a teachable moment for your kids as a dad. The coach doesn't talk to the kid who he doesn't think has got really any future, you know. Yeah, he's on the kids who he sees something in maybe that he's not getting

anything out of. Or he talks to the kid that he needs a little bit something more out of that must have kind of blown your mind a little bit that you're getting called into the principal's office, Like I said, mobile style. But he showed you then that he cared. He did, and he cared in a way that I mean, even if guys had problems, Bill will try to help them fix their problems. I remember hearing the stories I mean about him just getting involved in guys' lives. But

for me, I didn't have problem. I had problem. I mean, it was more of I see a future for you. So this is a step where you can make that make sure that future is going to be a good one. And you know that was really positive for me. That's awesome. So then how are you affected by his departure after

your rookie season and this is the NFL. I mean, I remember seeing that article by Will McDonough and the you know, the headline and parcels to leave after the super Bowl and everything like that, and one year and you're done. You know, I valued my time with him so much, you know, But to see that he was leaving is I had no idea what to what to think. I mean, I'm a rookie. I don't know what's going on, Okay,

who's the next coach going to be coming in? I thought the coach was going to be Belichick, really because Parcels didn't take the plane ride back, but Bill was on that plane, and Bill was going around to certain specific players and having individual conversations, and I was wondering why he was doing that. And he remember him talking to me and saying, you did a great job. That's a good rookie year. You just got to keep working and improve, like he was talking about the future, like

the immediate future. And he walked away and I said, Okay, I guess he's going to be our next coach. And then of course that didn't work out, and then Pete Carroll came in. But you know, so everything's just like, I don't know who the coach is going to be. I just got to make year I keep my job somehow, someway, because that's how you that's how players, when you're going through all these problems and all these distractions and all these coaches changing, it's it's just about, Okay, well, how

can I keep my job? And that's what my thought process was at that point. You were listening to the Pats from the Past podcast brought to you by who but WB Mason. W B. Mason delivers all of your business essentials for free with no minimum order breaking furniture, facilities, maintenance, office applies, and so much more for the latist delivery of business products. Nobody does it better than who but

WB Mason. But is it intoxicating? Teddy? Your rookie year, you go to the Super Bowl and despite all this turmoil and everything, you know, what kind of a foundation that you have in a nucleus that you have with this team? Was there any part of it? Was there an assumption like we'll be back, Yeah, this is easy. You know, I did it my rookie year. We'll be back. This team's loaded. Do you make an assumption at that point in time? Or is there so much chaos going

on that you just got to worry about? Am I going to be here? Yeah? With all the change and the coaching change, I wasn't thinking anything about us being successful consistently down the line and going back to the Super Bowl. I was thinking about how do I continue to get better to be more of a part of the team. Because from those conversations I told you about with Sweatman and Parcels and you know, not knowing how

to play linebacker. I was like, if I don't learn to play this linebacker position, I'm not going to be around long anyway, so it won't matter. So after my first year, I just knew there was so much more work for me to do in terms of, you know, sort of establishing myself and formulating a career at the linebacker position. So Pete comes in in nineteen ninety seven.

You guys get off to a four and oh start, and I remember the conversations in the locker room, you know, guys like Lawyer talking about how you guys were much more aggressive under Pete and how it was kind of refreshing that he was letting you guys be yourselves almost And then some adversity hit and those conversations changed quickly to you know, maybe we needed that heavy hand. What do you remember most about that transition and how difficult

that was? Was that for a young football team because your nucleus of what ended up being Super Bowl champions was very young at that point. Yeah, it's man to give so much control to a young team like that. I'm looking back on it now. It was a mistake. I know, Pete Pete left here a better coach because what I know now is this Pete has something called tell the Truth Mondays. Like Pete would name all the days. It was competition Wednesday, turnover, Thursday, no repeat, Friday, those

type of themes for days. But for Monday, we come in after the game and just watch the film and then we'd start on the days on Wednesday. So we went to USC and he started tell the Truth Monday, which is you turned on a film and it's like you're gonna get it for the mistakes that you made. And that type of tone was never set when he was here, you know, it was it was more of him allowing the older players. I mean, I mean we still had I mean as we had Coats and Armstrong

and some of those guys that were the veterans. Henry Thomas came in a little later after the Super Bowl. Yeah yeah. So but that type of accountability piece I think he learned, and he ended up taking it to USC in Seattle, but it wasn't here, and I think that was something that he probably needed to help us. Interesting,

very interesting did he. But with that being said, Teddy and I think everybody here who remembers that era, maybe fans and media did they give Pete a bad rap because we've seen what he could do, and maybe if the structure was a little bit different here at that point in time and Pete had a little bit more experience under his belt, he's a good coach. I don't think there's any question about that from a football standpoint, right. Yeah, it's tough to follow up Bill Parcels. I think that's

just the basic thing. And like you say, a lot of us were young, and I mean a lot a lot of times. You know you're getting that, Um, I just don't think the leadership that ended up being here still was in development. I mean I was in I was in a small leadership position at that point. I'm still learning how to be a part of an every down defensive unit. So I mean, and Lawyer was young, I mean even Ty was young. Willy was still young.

Will Willie was still young too. So developing what type of leadership style that we each had, I think it got thwarted because you went from the Parcels type of leadership sort of theory to an easier, more expect you to get it done on your own type of thing with Pete Carroll and at that point maybe guys ended up their own interpretation of it was one that didn't help the team. So, you know, after those three years in Belichick came back, I think when it started. That's

of course, that's when it finally started to formulate. So when Bill came in, were you thumbs up on that? Because you had had worked with him during your rookie season, it was good to know that, you know, I knew the guy. Um, you know, I knew he would pretty much be like a lot a lot like parcels Um. Of course, you know he was. I remember the first time in ninety six, my experience with Belichick was I

didn't even know who he was, you know. I mean it was we're we're in a defensive meeting room and he starts cursing out at all our defensive backs in terms of talking about the offensive lineman and how they should never be able to cut you and all that stuff. And I look back and was like, oh, is that the Cleveland guy? You know, that's all I remembered him as, you know, yeah yeah, So I was like, okay, yeah, yeah,

that's what I'm starting to learn. The staff and everything like that, you know, as a rookie, but you know, and then coming back, of course, I remember seeing him in the hallway, and you know, he was happy to be here, like we had to give up a first round pick and all that stuff because that was the trade or whatever the deal was. But I was glad he was back because I just knew how much I

enjoyed my experience with Parcels. But I knew it was going to be hard, you know, because I remember that training camp with Bill Parcels that year was extremely hard, and so I knew the work was going to start to start again. Do you think you guys needed hard at that point in time? Teddy, Well, I think every football team needs hard. I mean the first element, it

has to be hard. It has to be tough. Don't show me love off the back, man, I don't even want it, you know, after everything that I've been through in thirteen years and looking back, I mean, you know, you start to develop a personal relationship with players, and I get that, but they got to respect you first, and you got to earn that respect, and it comes through coaches pushing players, because when it comes down to it, I think players should be pushed and they should be

pushed hard. To the point where even if you don't like your coach for a little bit, and that's okay, that's okay, But I don't need a best friend. I need a coach that's going to tell me how to win. So you guys, go five and eleven the first year here, yea, did you think the direction was going the right way at that point? I mean, what did you think? Uh? Man? I know that we're on a sort of a downward spiral.

That's all I knew, because I think Pete's first year was ten and six, then ninety seven, then eight and eighth, then five and eleven, and it was like, Pa, what are we doing? You know? But I just knew Bill was trying to establish who he was. I mean also I was trying to establish who I was as a player. So you can through all this stuff that's going on with Parcels and Carol when the losing and the difference of philosophies, then Belichick comes in, everybody's trying to figure

themselves out. And I am a prime example of that in terms of who I was and who I was trying to form to be. And no, the Pete Carroll years wasn't they were not successful. We did not win a championship, but that's where I initially started to learn linebacker. And that third year I started to play a lot more and feel more comfortable to where, all right, I think I got this down. I got it down to the point where I think I can do this for a long time. And then, of course Pete Lee's bow

Polini was the defense was a linebacker coach. There just a huge in terms of my development development at the linebacker. Steve Sidwell was a defensive coordinator, so I was almost in the development of phase for those three years until Bill came in and then you know, all of a sudden, you know, there I was ready to go for him. One of the things we talked about before we started this was the evolution as you're growing as a player your shoulder pads. In ninety seven and ninety eight, I

don't think Bruce Armstrong had as big as Nero. Look big I had. I had neck problems actually, which I needed that neck role. Um stingers I had a problem with and I was trying to find the neck role and they thought a bigger neck role would help and all that stuff, and yeah, it was cumbersome and the pads look big, and I get, I get, I get people to make fun of me about it when we watch old school pictures and all that stuff about those.

But it ended up, you know, streamlining down to the cowboy collar because I think I just learned to manage my neck in terms of strength and conditioning in the in the in the weight room and finding the right sort of combination of what what neck role to use, and then it started to stream down. But I remember having you know, Bill told me that we didn't know if your neck was gonna last, you know, because of the problems I was having. So you know, that was

something I overcame. Um, you know, the cowboy callar ended up working great towards the end of my career. I got thirteen thirteen years out of it, and uh, you know the next still doing all right now. So it all worked out. It all worked out. Something I never remember here, you having a problem with your neck. I know you had a problem in college publicly, right right right, Well, okay,

you get the stinger. You get the stinger and they just dissipate and then you go back out there after your arm sort of regains its feeling and things like that, and It's not like a concussion where you get one and then you're gonna miss a week or two, or you're gonna miss back. Then you miss you know how much time a very you know, a day or two or something like that. Sometimes less than that. But it was something where boom, you just got your nerve burner and then you just let that go and you go

back out there. So that isn't something that you're gonna put on an injury report, right, do you think, Teddy, So you recognize that you had made significant progress thanks to sid Bopolini. New administration comes in, did they see that progress? Do you think it was evident to the new administration coming in Bill and his staff, Oh yeah, this is a different guy than when we had him his rookie year. I think so. And I think they also saw that they had this linebacker by the name

Andy Katson Moore. You're here. I mean, Pete drafted Andy because I was a free agent and I didn't know they wanted to sign me, but I didn't know if I wanted to come back, so I just signed a one year deal and ended up being a free agent. So Andy was there, and Andy started out gangbusters. I mean just six three two sixty. The boy could run.

I mean, when you're playing that under defense that Pete ran and the will linebacker is behind a three technique and he's protected and could just go sideline a sideline. Andy was really close to beating me out, you know, So I held him off as long as I could. Pete gets fired, and now, of course me and Andy are still a competition, but there's no three technique in

front of anymore. We're playing two gap three four, and there's a different deal in terms of taking on blocks and that's where Andy struggled, so and that's where I ended up figuring out how to do that. So almost like the change in scheme benefited me. I was used to wrestling with these offensive linemen ever since college, you know, and all that stuff, so I wasn't intimidated by them at all. But Andy was. He was bigger and stronger than me, but he's not just not used to man.

This guy's on me. I mean, I'm he's gonna come get me. So that's how I think, you know, it helped progress my career by going into a two gap system. There's a positional change in the two thousand and one season that most Patriots fans are very familiar with. Maybe the positional change that doesn't get a lot of talked about. Here is what happened at linebacker because just a philosophical change here, and we might not be sitting here talking

to this guy. It's basically, I mean, it shows you what the how, the little things and I'm not saying that that's a little thing, but how scheme, personnel, how they relate, and how that could really affect or change the course of a player's career. Yeah, and sometimes you know, injuries come into the come into it when you end up getting of course to two thousand and one. What you're talking about here is now the linebackers are Johnson, Cox and me, and both Ted and Cock go down

and so here I am. Now I come in and start, and I end up starting. And we shifted our scheme now to more of a tilt front, which is now you know, we're putting Seymour up at the three technique opposite the linebacker and now you're backside. So that was the tilt front we ran in two thousand and one. Now a testament to Bill and what he always says is the player that's playing the best is going to stay in. So that position there I just excelled at

and played very well at. Meanwhile, Cox and Johnson ended up getting healthier, but Bill kept me in. I just fought. I just didn't give him an excuse to take me out, so I stayed in. Ended up being the starting linebacker the rest of the year, you know. I mean, of course during that of course Tom comes in for Drew

and all that stuff. But a lot of a lot of things were happening all over the place in terms of that two thousand and one team to come together and you could down obviously take on the greatest show on turf in the Super Bowl with a very physical defense that had almost that had competed well with the Rams earlier in the season but lost here at Foxboro Stadium.

At the time, talk about that Super Bowl game plan and the execution of it, one guy was most important, and that was Marshall Falk and we wanted to hit him even when he didn't have the ball. And if we had to use our if we had to sacrifice pass rush for past route disruption, and that was something we had to do. I mean, so if if Willie was an edge rusher or someone else and Falk flared out. As I would go out there to cover him, they'd

still get a shot on him. So just to make it a little bit easier on me, just to throw him off, because that's where Warner wanted half the time in the passing game, just those quick little screen passes or flare passes so he could go out there and do what he wanted. So to hit Marshall Falk as much as we could to, I mean, lining up receivers in practice one yard passed the ball, so we got used to the speed and jamming them off the line.

It was all about throwing off their time and given our past, for us just a little bit more time to get to him. I just want to back up one second though, before the Super Bowl, Teddy, of all the tackles that you made that year, this tackle that I saw that not that wasn't on TV because it wasn't televised. It was after the game. Your tackle of Bledsoe in the ASC Championship game, after the games one

of your best tackles ever. I mean, can you can you just can you talk about what that moment meant at the time, because for somebody was standing there on the field and seeing it, I mean, the emotion was just it was off the charts. Yeah, it was just it was just sort of proof to me how things

come around to good people. And and I was a good friend with Drew and how man, that was a hard year for him, you know, and not only what happened to him medically, but seeing his job to be taken by Tom, and you know, just to still be a positive influence to Tom and try to be a good friend and a good backup quarterback. And all of a sudden, there's your time. Tom goes down with the ankle injury. And then you know, Drew goes out and runs to the sideline again and he gets knocked on

his ass again. I were on the sideline. It's like bam, like, oh, thank the defensive what are you doing? And the throws a touchdown past the patton and he you know, of course, he leads us to victory. We had a lot of everybody contributed in that game. The special teams, touchdowns, the blood soda patting. I mean, just just to tackle him

and just just tell him. I was just so proud of the guy at that moment, and you know, that was a moment for me to realize just man, just you just need so many people to win football games, and that that backup quarterback is is so instrumental. And not only that, but like having the backup quarterback who was once the franchise and still be humble enough to do that. It was it was special and he was very emotional. Yeah, I mean he was crying right humping

with the trophy. I remember him like just pumping the AFC Championship trophy Teddy. I don't know if you rank them, but now maybe with the perspective of time, as you look back at your career, it was two thousand and one maybe the most was that the most special season that you had as a player. Uh, if as you look back on it, I would say, yes, I would say two thousand and one, and even I'd say after that, two thousand and seven was special two in terms of

what we were trying to accomplish. Of course they have different results, but I mean it's it's it's just a special feeling when you're on the team that breaks through that change change the way people think. I mean, I remember a girl coming up to me after we won the championship and oh one and thanking me for her grandfather, and she said, because my grandfather says, now he can

die a happy man. And that's when I started to realize the passion of the New England people and how much it meant to them, and how it was just so starred for a winner of the football team of the Patriots. So having everything that happened that year is

the nine to eleven year. It's sort of, you know, just just selflessly myself, the development of me as a player to finally be able to contribute in a starting role and win a world championship with something I didn't know, I mean all the way back from ninety six and not knowing where the hook was. You know, that was a long process for me to finally get there and how to transform myself as a football player from every down defensive lineman handing the dirt to off the ball, linebacker.

It was an incredible process to go through and then have everything, you know, go through the way it did. I mean, so many special things had to happen that year. It was I mean, defensive touchdown, special teams touchdowns, the tuck rule that happened when you think it's over but it's not, and it gets overturned. It's like a dead ball ruling buffalo. And David Patton, he's halfway out of bound. You know so many things. That's I would say definitely

two thousand one year. That's the ring I wear the most. Is the first one to deliver a region. Their first is something you know you just never forget. Well, we are just scratching the surface with Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker Teddy Rusky. That's going to wrap up part one of our Paths from the Past podcast with Teddy. Stay tuned for part two. Thank you for downloading this podcast, Subscribe on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen.

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