Welcome back to the Pats from the Past podcast Matt Smith alongside with Brian Moorriy, it's time for part two of our conversation with Patriots Hall of Fame linebacker Teddy Bruski. So, does two thousand and one feel better than two thousand and seven?
Hurts? Does it? Does?
That's great?
You know what, Matt, that's a great question, because then that hurts that two thousand and seven season. But that feeling of joy and accomplishment for two thousand and one is just off the charts that it can't compare to it. But I still remember the one that got away, you know, And I remember being in captains meetings here and it was me and Brady and Say and a lot of the captains were in there talking about, you know, don't take us out. Don't take us out, because we're not
just trying to win the Super Bowl. We're trying to win the Super Bowl, the one that would trump them all. I mean, this is week week fifteen, Week sixteen, week seventeen. You know what we're trying to accomplish. And it was never said that we're trying to go undefeated. But we all look around thinking, we know what we want to do, guys, and making sure Bill knew what we want to do too. And I'm just proud of that team for trying to do something that had never been done before. And that's
why I'm so proud of that team. And then you see a couple of years later when the Colts turned it down when they're fourteen, you zero, and they're pulling all these starters out when they're playing the Jets, and I'm in my kitchen going, I can't believe what I'm seeing. How can you turn it down? How can you turn it down and not try to do that?
That's the respect, Teddy, as you're talking about. Don't take us out of the game. We got something here. There's a Karen in front of a heck of a lot bigger than a Karen. We got something here to try to shoot for, and we're going to shoot for it.
And that's why I respect every one of those players on that seven team. And I know Moss was there and Wilker was there, and a lot of those guys and me and Randy talk about it off and that's I mean for Junior. We wanted to get it for Junior too. You know, there was so many multiple special layers that was that was going on that year. But you know that's but I would say the O one joy still still can overwhelm that feeling of loss.
Do you remember where you were watching the game winning kick watching the.
Game in two thousand and one, Yeah, yeah, I mean which one? I mean? I mean I remember the one I was in the snow. I remember the one, you know for Adam Vini, Terry and Larry Ezo jumping on my back and me just calling out, Mama, we did it, mama, you know to my mom in the in the in the stands, who was over there with my wife and everyone. But yeah, I remember going through and I thought to myself, seven seconds is a long time. I wonder if there'll
be one second left. But they just ran it all off, and yeah, they changed the role.
Teddy, where did the origin, if you will, of how do we feel? When did that?
Like?
When did you decide or who decided? And how did that come about? As you were talking about your leadership maybe developing throughout your career.
I think Guy in the training camp year of two thousand, I think that was two thousand and three, two thousand and three, we played the Eagles the first game another Bills, the Bills, the Bills, the Bill. That was our three that was a three season, right, yeah, okay, yeah yeah. And in the stretch line in training camp, I would just we'd all be hooping and hollering and I'd break out and oh yeah that was nice or something like that. And Antoine smith liked that. Antoine smith are running back
back then, big back, I used to call him. And then we of course get beat by the Bills thirty one to zero. And then we come back and we beat the beat the Philadelphia Eagles the next night and the next week, and then we're in the locker room and and Antoine Smithy says, hey, bru brew brew do that? Do that? Yeah yeah, let's do the oh yeah thing. I'm like, what, let's do? All yeah. So immediately I'm thinking, man, how can I get these guys to say oh yeah?
And then I'm like, well, it's got to be a response to a question or something, and I'm like, all right. The first time, I think, all right, how do we feel about a victory? And then everybody just said oh yeah. And then so that was sort of the start of it, you know, just sort of an organic expression that we
did in the locker room. Then from there the questions just became more elaborate in terms of wind streaks and winning and back then San Diego and turning out the lights on the San Diego Superchargers, you know, and making an NFL history, and how do we feel about Bill Belichick as our coach when he was going through a tough time and and all of that stuff, you know, at all it took a lot of creativity because there were times I was on the sideline thinking to myself, Okay,
how am I going to break it down? Fourth quarter, five minutes left. I know we're only up by seven, but I'm going to break it down.
That's what does Once in a while, he learned preparation under coach Belichick.
Once in a while. I'll text later too during the game and I'll be like, hey, text, I mean he's late. Today was the old man's three hundredth Make sure you get that in. I know, slates all over it. I just, you know, just but I know he does a great job with it. He's got his own a worthy success, a worthy success. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely yeah.
Does it surprise you that, seventeen years later, if you're telling us it started in O three, that there are fans Teddy that remember it and remember you as the innovator and the originator of that, and there are fans that post things social media wise about it, and it's it has endured and really gotten even bigger and better in over seventeen years. Does that surprised you? Oh?
It has? It has? I mean, I mean it's just the expression, I guess, just just just an expression of joy really, And you know, I think over the course of social media, I think everyone just when it's good, it's it's it's it's more receptive, you know, and just to express yourself after something good has happened. And you
and you won. The guys like it too, because you only play one game every week, you know, and if you get that win, just to be able to let it out like that, it's almost like there it is, do the ah, yeah, and then now it can calm down. Yeah, I enjoy it.
You're the you're a member of the last team to ever went back to back championships. You win in Jacksonville, I think you know, people remember you pregame with your sons on the field, and what a great moment that was, and then you got elected to Was that your first Pro Bowl?
That was my first Pro Bowl? Yeah? What did that? You know?
You talk about your evolution as a player, and she's, well, I don't know what a hook is. You know, I don't know what this is. Yeah, and I know around here pro bowls don't mean anything, you know, and it's about championships here. What did that mean to you to finally receive that recognition, Teddy?
Yeah? It was. It was incredibly hard to make because I mean, ray Lewis was a linebacker and Zach Thomas was a linebacker, and they're incredibly good AFC linebackers, so many of them were there, and so for me to finally get there was an incredible sense of, you know, the individual accomplishment. I guess something and I never was you know too, you know, to focus to get but still to get the nod a little bit. It was.
It was fulfilling. I remember when Bill announced it in the team meeting and everybody just exploded because I remember coming in after making the interception versus the Dolphins in the snow and Hewart telling me he's like, hey, Damon, Hewart, our backup quarterback. If you don't make the Pro Bowl this year. Something's wrong, and I was like, whoa, this
is actually possible, you know. I mean, the only thing I had ever thought about through the course of my NFL career was learning a play linebacker and then being an every down starter, staying healthy for all sixteen helping us win a championship. So that was my process. So this was an accomplishment for me. I didn't consider it a huge accomplishment, but it was nice to say that you've done it.
And before we get to what happened after that, it was actually O two and I remember you telling this story Thanksgiving.
O two.
You guys have a blitz called in Detroit where both linebackers are going to come, which have a way the protection slides that linebacker pulls out.
That was the origination Boo the Boogeyman thing.
Yeah, you pull out Red Joey Harrington make the interception pick six. And you've described that play as that was kind of the day you knew you had it.
Yeah, that was why I made it play really because that involved everything that I was trying to learn over the course of all those years learning to play linebacker, from putting my hand down to being up. Now I thought, okay, I got it, because firstly it was for you call the defense, and then it's formation recognition, and that came out in an empty set, which means there's no backs in the backfield. So now you have to adjust the defense that was just called to what the adjustment is.
So there's the linebacker knowing formations and having to make the adjustment. So I line up on the inside receiver, the number three receiver, counting from the outside end one two, three, you got to line up on this side. So what my new responsibility is is to blitz. But as you blitz, you have to read the protection. So there it is post snap while the play is going on, recognizing what's happening, and then going to another adjustment. So the guard actually
kicks out to me to block me. And if that happens, now you drop back to the center of the field, get your eyes back, and now you have to pattern read. If there's a slant coming, you have to go step in front of that slant. So recognizing the pass, the pattern and then recognizing what you have to do and then dropping back. So now I'm dropping back as a linebacker because I recognize something else so I did that.
Now get your eyes back to the quarterback. Now read the quarterback, which is something I had never done before, because now you're reading his eyes and his intentions. Here comes the ball. Now catch it, which is something I didn't do at all in college. So the ball was there after all those adjustments, he puts it up, caught the football. All right, I've caught interceptions before. Now score. So taking that to the house, reading the block, getting
to the sideline. All of that happened within one play. And all of that is what I was trying to learn, and to have it all sort of happened in that one play. It sort of encapsulated my entire progression to where that's probably the play that told me I could.
Do it as a teachable moment again with your kids, you know, oh Dad, I got this, I got this. Can you then tell them, hey, look, at this point my professional career, I'm at the highest level that you could be at. Don't necessarily tell me that you have it, because it took me six years before I knew that. Maybe I had You know, I could play in this, not that you couldn't play, But now I have it. That's something that you can certainly pass along to your kids, Isn't it?
The lesson to everyone, even even like the young football players that are trying to find their way, is you've got a long term goal, but in the meantime, what can you do while you're learning it? That was like that was the extra layer of it. Yeah, I want to play linebacker. I have to learn to play outside the off the ball linebacker. But they're just going to let me sit there and learn and do nothing. You still have to prove your worth to whatever team you're with.
So special team's situational pass rusher. That's what I was. That's the cactus package. So I got that and I got it. But still the other layer is still learning to progress at that other goal that you have, but still proving my worth in the immediate time.
Great lesson, great lesson. So go ahead, go ahead.
So after you reach that Pro Bowl level individual high again, he said, he said, I don't want to make too big of a deal because he knows that they're a bigger fish to fry in this town. But your career has dealt a setback, and your personal life obviously a huge scare.
Yeah my stroke, yes, yeah.
Well, I mean, what are you thinking at that point, is are you thinking it's over?
Immediately thought it was over. I mean when when my doctor put his hand on my shoulder and told me I've had a stroke, was like, what are you talking about? The only time I've heard the word stroke is on a golf course. You know how many strokes you're going to give me? Any handicap and things like that, you know,
So it was it was sort of crazy. But waking up in the middle of the night on February fifteenth, and you know, you know, I ended up in the morning sort of loss of vision, loss of left field division in both my eyes, numbness down the left side of my body. I didn't even know I was having a stroke, you know, so calling the trainers, you know what should we do? Them immediately telling me to call
nine one one. Get to make sure you get the mass General because that's where the Patriots wanted, you know, everything to happen. So getting down there, you have the stroke, you realize I have the hole in my heart, I got to have surgery, all of this stuff, and it's like, well, my football career is over, and you know, I just thought that, you know that it was just not possible to ever be done because no one had ever done that before. So I thought my career was over.
Would you have been okay with that, Teddy?
Yeah, I would have been okay. I mean, I mean, guse she accomplished a lot up in that until that point, and you it'd be easy to say, you know, God just telling you that's enough and you got to move on, and this was this is just the hand you've been dealt. It would have been incredibly sad, but I think I would have been able to accept it. At that point. I couldn't see, I couldn't walk right, they wouldn't let me drive. Still had to have the procedure to close
the hole in my heart. I had a lot of things to happen, so I knew I was pretty messed up. And even in my mind, I thought something was wrong with me medically, like like, what's wrong with you? Your short circuit in up there in your brain. This shouldn't be happening. You got problems, So yeah, you need to stop playing football. So I think I would have been fine.
Then what then? What motivates you at that point in time? Young family, young wife. You've had some success, you know, at least you know, from a team standpoint and everything, what pushes you at that point in time to say, Nope, I'm gonna I'm gonna try.
To do this. Well, it's just, man, if it was possible, I wanted to give it a shot, and you know, there were times where it just was not possible because I couldn't. And if you can't see to your left, you're just gonna get laid out on the football field. Then you're a danger to yourself. So, I mean, the time was twelve twenty three, you know, and I remember that time vividly and seeing a digital clock at twelve twenty three, because what I saw when I looked at
digital clocks usually was like two twenty three. I couldn't really see. I'd have to turn my head to get the right look on a clock to tell the time. But slowly, you know, that little digital clock, and they have little pieces of the number, like a bottom of
the one and the top of the one. It was weird because the bottom of the one started to show up a little bit, and then and then the top of the one started to show and then that little battery symbol that says, you know, you need to put a nine volte battery in your in your clock, you know what I mean? That little symbol right there. We had a digital clock up top on a dresser because my wife was breastfeeding Dante or son, who had just
been born, and I could. I woke up one night and I saw the whole clock and I saw the little battery symbol, and I'm like, WHOA, I can see maybe this is possible.
Literally the light shines, yeah, a nine vote battery.
Luck.
You were listening to the Pats from the Past podcast brought you by Who but W. B. Mason. W Mason delivers all of your business essentials for free with no minimum mortar, break furniture, facilities, maintenance, office supplies, and so much more for the latest delivery of business products. Nobody does it better than.
Who but W. B.
Mason.
So it's funny because I go on outside the lines.
I'm on outside lines of Jackie mcmullon right and with this is when you were coming back, and she's arguing that you shouldn't come back, and I'm arguing that you should come back if you know, if the doctors are clearing you and you think you can do it. And I remember a buddy calling me, and he goes, man, you just got slapped around on ESPN by Jackie McMullen.
He was like, no, I mean, but but I figured, you know you were you had to know the risks what they were, and if you were willing to do it with a family and the doctor saying you could do it, then you could do it.
Yeah. Almost I related to this. I read it this a couple of weeks ago when I was on NFL Live when they were talking about Alex Smith and how his injury and he developed sepsist and the infection and they almost had to take his leg and he I mean life threatening type of stuff, and he wanted to search around and see who was who he could call and talk to, who had done this before. Yeah, And the doctors are like, yeah, man, there's nobody. Nobody's come
back from this. And that's what it was like for me, because I remember the conversation with my doctor and I was like, give me the phone number of the guy that's done this before, so I can ask him all the hundred questions, one hundred questions that I have. Is my brain going to explode? Is the device in my heart going to get moved? Is it gonna move if I get hit or something like that. And he said, yeah, Teddy, yeah, you'd be the first. I said, I'll call you back.
It's like, bro, I mean, you don't know if you want to be that guy. Oh yeah, quotation marks here for you listening data free zone. And that's what they told me that I'd be in a data free zone to where every two weeks, Teddy, when you come back to Massachusetts General Hospital during the football season and we do the bubble test to see if the device still works, we'll be taking all that data for the next guy. So I was like, okay, so you got to play that guinea pig role. But for me, this is what
I knew. Guys, I mean, if I didn't give it a shot five years, ten years down the road, I'd regret it. And if they were telling me it's possible, and they were, But doctors, everyone out there, you know what doctor do. It's never black and white. It's like gray, chances are slim or it shouldn't and all of those words, just like, hey, can I get like a definitive answer here? But you don't have those moving forward, And those are the things emotionally you just have to deal with.
So it's a trailblazer, Teddy. My word's not yours, but your trailblazer here, you know. And now today you're working with stroke victims and people can see you, and those that get to meet you in person can actually maybe physically touch you, and you can be the symbol for you know what I did it don't give up and don't give up.
And a lot of them tell me, well, I'm not even going to try and come back to play in the NFL. Right, All I got to do is get back to picking up my kids and having a healthy lifestyle and getting back to my desk job and doing what I do. So I appreciate you setting the example
that it's possible. And of course, I mean even since my recent episode, I had another stroke, a mini stroke, a TIA, a transit schemic attack last July fourth, and you know, I mean I lost my left face, it all drooped and my speech was slurred, and you know, I had a lot of other symptoms that ended up ended up getting better after my second stroke. But people just constantly, you know, want to talk to me about it. And I talked to a lot of stroke survivors and
you know, that's what Teddy's team does. It's my foundation, and we raise awareness for stroke. I mean the war signs of stroke, the balance issues I had, the loss of eyesight, the facial droop, the arm weakness, the speech, the slurred speech, you know, time to call nine to one one. You know, that's just the thing that I try to preach over and over again. Be fast is the acronym. And if I'm that guy that everybody looks too, and the other people that have to get the same
procedure that I got in my heart. And I've heard so many times. My doctor said I got to get the Bruski and they tell them the story. I'm proud of that. I'm proud of that. And things are going well for me now and Teddy's team is doing well and it's changing a lot of lives.
So, Teddy, were they able to I mean, obviously the whole in the heart contributed to the first stroke, Yes.
What about the most recent one?
That's the thing going forward. After the first stroke, they closed the hole in my heart, They put me on a baby aspirin and thought that, you know, things would go well. And it did for fourteen years, you know, And so I had the episode again on July fourth, and it once again it was a schemic they believe in terms of the schemic means sort of a clotting issue. So they put me on a stronger blood thinner where I can still be active and live a healthy lifestyle,
which I'm very fortunate of. But that was the adjustment then, because they thought, Okay, the aspirin was fine, but ah, just to be safe, let's go this route. And you know, that's that's where I am now.
So I asked you, you know, if it had if you never played again, would you been all right? And you said no, but that you're seeing the Yeah, I would have been fine.
Yeah.
Yeah, but you you see the light on the digital battery and you don't have to change it. And so now you say, I'm going to try and do this. Was it a difficult decision to try to do that? Teddy? Brian talked about when you got beat up on ESPN or whatever it was. How difficult was that for you and your wife?
Yeah? A lot of people disagree with my decision, you know, and they thought, why did I have to do it? I mean, you'll get you'll get questions. I got questions from the closest of people in my life telling me why are you doing this? I mean, you've played nine years, you've been in the Pro Bowl, you've made plenty of money, you've won championship hips. You're fine, but that's not living life.
You know. This was a challenge for me, and it was something that I need to do just to prove to myself that no, I'm not going to just live in hiding, you know, because I've had a stroke and it was something at first I was ashamed of. And it took me a little while mentally to heal longer than it did physically, mentally and emotionally to get to the point where, you know what, I'm proud to be a stroke survivor, you know, because that's that's just sort
of the process that people go through. But imagine telling your wife too, and I want to play football again, and she's like, what you are my husband and the father of my three children. We need to talk because I don't know if this is a good I'm not a supportive partner. Yes, I'm very Supportiveti well, and if I'm not mistaken, I think Bill Belichick broke down the uh oh, yeah, that's my favorite one. I was about to break it down. He's like, no, no, no, no, I got this. I want to know how we feel
about having Teddy Bruski back. And then the oh yeah it could it could have been a little more rhythmic.
But that was That was thirteen weeks. Am I right about that? Since a stroke? When you come back against Buffalo, that's not I mean, that's remarkable. And when you're being introduced and they don't introduce individuals around here, they you know, mentioned starting lives or everything. But I remember vividly coming out of the tunnel and your name being introduced. What did that mean to you?
It was chilling, really to and scary. I mean I didn't know how it was going to go, you know, I'd say that first I came off of pup ended up playing the last part of the season, and I didn't know if I was making the right decision to tell you the truth because there was all that gray The doctors would tell me. But that reception in Jillette Stadium that that night was something I'd never forget, and you know, people still talk to me about it today.
I was I was there at that Buffalo Bills game, you know, and I remember you making that tackle on the first and second play and and all that stuff, and it was it was it was this one of the most special pregame moments I've ever had my career. Definitely the most special. Yeah.
So, now that you look back on it, are you happy and do you feel like it was a difficult decision. I'm really happy and I'm proud of myself for doing this because nobody said you broke the mold here, You're the first one to do it. Do you feel good about yourself at that point in time that you got to play an additional what do we talk about all four four.
Years ago years? Yeah? I do. I look at stroke survivors today, and I mean anybody out there that are survivors of adversity, cancer, losing a loved one, anything, and coming back from the most difficult adversity you have in your life. I mean, it's it's your own little comeback, you know. I mean, it's it's it's it's it's it's huge. You know, there's a huge magnitude of it that in your life. It's the most difficult thing that you're going through.
So it equals to what I went through. I mean even though I went back to play professional football, put on a helmet, started button heads again with the very brain that I had a brain injury too. That's different. That was mine. I mean, yours to come back for your comeback. All the stroke survivors I work with, I believe it that their comeback is just as special as mine, and they have the same feeling I felt that night
in their heart. But it's a different It's it's done a different scale in terms of attention and things, but it's still just as special.
What does the backer brotherhood?
Is it?
Backer brotherhood?
Backerhood?
Backerhood?
Backerhood?
Yeah, it's that fraternity like I think.
Each I mean, I know what High Tower's going through, Van Oyay's going through, Landing Roberts, you know what their grind, you know they call it, you know, all the way back to McGuinness and Slade and everyone. Then Tippet. Tippett knows about the backerhood too. I mean, I mean he
started it. And then just a brotherhood that all of us have in terms of you know, we know what it takes to play the position, the commitment you have to make and when we see I mean even even guys like you know Luke Keikley have to retire, you know, and but him have the success that he had all the way to High Tower, and and everyone that Jamie Collins different teams. I mean it almost it just spreads in terms of that linebacker position. I mean, the quarterbacks
don't have their only thing. No, it's not just the quarterbacks. You know, every position you know has a mutual respect amongst players. But it's even more special when you're wearing a uniform that you know, that that we have worn in the past and we see you, you know, upholding the standard that we've tried to set and just an incredible sense of pride when I think of the linebackers here today and what they did. That's that special little
thing with the Boogeyman. They put a nice little name on it last year, and that little player we talked about in Detroit, for me, was a form of that Boogeyman defense that they have, you know, not knowing who's rushing, who's dropping out to confuse the quarterback, get the interceptions, those type of things. So they're still doing the same stuff,
but they're doing it just as well. And that's why the pride that guys like you know, McGinnis and I, who are in the media and played that linebacker position, really respect the guys that are in this locker room.
And you have a rocking chair with all the numbers carved into ye tell us the rocking chair story.
So I think he was I don't know what that was. That might have been six or something like that, when all the linebackers that were left were over thirty years old, and Belichick called it, I don't know, old man's club, club mean something. I don't know to where he was joking about it with us. And we walked into our meeting room and all the comfortable chairs had been taken out and they've been replaced with rocking chairs. So and
we had to use them the entire year. So we had to buy our own cushions to put on there. I'm buying Temper Peter Kush to put on my rocking chair and all that stuff, and I'm sitting there rocking, and I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna personalize this thing.
And so I would carve in the initials of every coach that was there since my rookie year, and then I'd carve in all the numbers of all the guys all the way back to you know Slade, and there are multiple numbers, you know, like that have been used. But I put stickers on mine. I mean it was it was like elaborate. Everybody knew who my chair was. And I still have it to this day. Actually, yes, I still have it.
And do you have the cover of Sports Illustrated maybe hanging over because there's probably not a lot of Sports Illustrated covers that have the linebackers on it. You remember the I remember the photo shoot No. Seven you Rosie j all of a cover?
Still have that? Yes, still smiling. I think the headline was when we were still undefeated that point, and it was a good group. I really love playing with Junior Seu. That was I mean even when I was when I was a younger linebacker learning, I mean I was watching, we'd watch opposing offensive, but when Junior was playing with him, I just watched Junior, you know, because he had that type of impact coming off the film. But yeah, the the Sports Illustrated something is covered is special.
So when Teddy, when you made the decision to retire with you at peace, did you come to Peace?
I was, I was, because it's different. It was different for me, and that's why I understand everyone that wants to still move on and play. But that was my fourth year after a stroke, and you know, I don't count a lot of tackles my career tackles, but I made three hundred and sixty six tackles as a stroke survivor,
and I was proud of that, you know. So we were still trying to win that championship in O seven, you know, and that didn't happen, and I got to playing good football again, leading the team in tackles, I think. But still I knew when the time came, I mean the time came, I wasn't going to try to play
for any organization. The extra attachment of how mister Craft and the organization even embraced me during my stroke, and mister Kraft sending me to wild Cornell Medical Center in New York to get another opinion, that's not that's just that's not an organization, that's a family, you know. So I knew I was playing for the best coach, you know, in the history of the game, all right, And when he told me it was time, it was going to
be time. And so we had that meeting and Bill thought that you know you play, we think it's time to move on. And I was like, you know what, I agree, I'll go home and talk to Heidi and it's time. I think so too, coach. So next day, of course, we had the press conference.
It's going to be a hard conversation.
It is, and I think I knew it was coming. I knew it was coming. You know those points where you see yourself on film and they splice in the same defense of like seven years ago, and there was me seven years ago, and then there was me the other day. In practice, it's like, ooh, I used to be fat.
The film doesn't lie.
So don't worry. I try to talk to talk him out of it for a little bit, but then it was I just knew. I agreed it was. It was time for me to move on.
Were you blown away when he referenced you at that press conference as the perfect patriot?
I was like, who is this guy? Yeah?
You didn't hear that in earlier? Yeah, on the low lights.
I think I think Bill, and I'm having perspective of it, of being ten years out now. I think Bill keeps it so business like for his players while they're here that because he knows eventually there's a tough decision he has to make, and that tough decision is that meeting I had with him when he said, you know, we think it's time, Teddy. So him keeping that little emotional
attachment separate is easier for him. And I understand that now because my relationship with coach Belichick, with Bill post retirement, it's different, you know. I mean, I mean I got a text and I'm like, what the heck? Who is this guy? I mean, where did this come from? You know? And but it never was that during your playing days, you know, so and it's you just know it's coming eventually. But when he said that perfect player thing in the press conference, that's when I started to did he just
say what I think he said? And it was extremely flattering, and I think he just referenced what it was for me from the beginning to the end in certain terms of the work that I put in the transformation. I had to go through, the changes I had to make. And that's all he's always talking about, is developing your game to end up, to change it to each offense, to each to each defense. What player are you this week? Can you do that type of thing? Can you pass
rush for us? Yeah? Can you play linebacker for us? Can you play special teams? I don't know if there was a role I didn't complete for him that he wanted me to do. I could always do what he wanted me to do. And you know, when he said that that perfect player, you know, it sort of just put a cherry on top end. I knew it was time to go.
And you only played in one uniform and that doesn't happen a lot incive professional sports now. Yeah, and maybe that helps explain part of it, Teddy, is because you talked about a family, you know, and this is a different place and everything like that, that all had to be part of that decision, like this is where I want to stay. And how proud of you that there's only one helmet that you ever wore in the National Football League.
Yeah, I'm guys, I'm extremely proud of that. I just I don't want to know what it was like anywhere else, because, you know, unfortunately for me, this ended up becoming the standard on what everyone looks to. I like to think that I, you know, somewhat mold that standard into what it is. And then and then again, there was a point where I was a free agent, and I did trip to Cleveland, I did trip to Green Bay, I
did trip to Seattle. I talked to the coaches and all of that stuff, but it just wasn't right, and I just wanted to go back. I mean, I remember walking into the Green Bay facility and that in the in their four year was the super Bowl trophy that they beat us in ninety six, and I'm like, I'm not coming here. There's no way I'm coming here. Forget that actually put me on a plane right now, you know,
I don't know. Just that sense of loyalty that I have for the organization is very high, and I'm glad and only that Patriot logo I wore.
And it's not for everybody, Like you mentioned how hard it is to play here, yet you want it to be here, but it's not for everybody.
It isn't. And Bill Parcells lay in my football foundation helped, you know, getting used to the no nonsense business, pressurized work environment by that coach Belichick puts on these players every single day. I mean, it's it's football, guys. I mean it's if you don't believe that, you know you can lose. I mean it's that type of that type of it's not fear, but that type of pressure that's created if you make this mistake, this can happen. This
is what you have to do to prevent that. It's it's a pressure cooker, and you have to be able to have that type of mental fortitude and mental toughness, which, as they say all the time, to deal with it every single day. You know, that's why I respect Tom. He's dealt with it with twenty years. I mean, to deal with that type of pressure for twenty years at the position that he plays too, It's it's you can't
compare it. I mean, he's not playing for someone that has a you know a relationship with them and they're so close and they go out and have pizza and beer. It's someone that's always looking for him to do better. And that's hard, and that's hard. It was hard for me for all the years I spent with him, and I'm sure it's it's hard for every player, but it's something you got to have a special type of mentality.
Do you think Teddy as only playing for one organization?
Did that.
Influence you and your wife's decision to you know what, let's put roots. We've got roots already here. Let's stay here, let's raise our family here.
Well, what happened was I got I ended up getting hired by another New England company, and that.
Knows who knows if that doesn't happen.
Right, if I wasn't a Patriot, you know. So I mean when I asked them how far is it? I mean, they called me and they said, do you want a job as an analyst? I hadn't even been there ever, and they offered me a job over the phone, a three year deal over the phone. And I'm like, okay, two hour drive, I can do it. And so I mean, it's not like an everyday thing. So many Allen's analysts. You're in and out throughout the course of you know, the month. But I'm been at ESPN for eleven years now.
I'm almost as much as playing for the Patriots. And with that, I live in the same home that I lived in when I played here. I've raised three New Englanders and I'm proud of that. You know. I'm from California, my wife's from Arizona. We retire, it's like, all right, well think about where we're gonna move. Okay, what do you want to do boom phone rings. I guess we're staying in New England and so but I got three kids that love it here. We've earned We've learned to
love it. I've loved it for a long time. And now I got a senior. I got a senior at in high school, a freshman in high school, I got a freshman in college, and things are just going great. We we love New England.
If I told Teddy Bruski, your rookie back in nineteen ninety six, one day you'd run a marathon, what would that kill? What would that.
Kid help me?
You are crazy? Because preparing for that marathon, I only I had only run one mile, was the farthest I had ever run. Because of football, you just won hundreds, one hundreds, or forties or fifties or twenties or something like that. So I started Teddy's team after my stroke in two thousand and five, and our first marathon team was two thousand and six. But two thousand and six, two thousand and seven, two thousand and eight, I was still playing in the league. So all the runners were like, Teddy,
when are you gonna do it? When are you gonna do it? I'm like, shoot, I'm trained for eight second bursts. Yeah, I don't do that. So that's some peer pressure. Yeah. I ended up taking on finally in twenty twelve and twenty twelve I ran it, and jeez, everybody remembers a member. I mean that ran the twenty twelve marathon. It was like ninety degrees on the pavement and I ran it in like five thirty or something like that, five hours and thirty minutes. Hidi. I ran it together and it
was just an ordeal. I was like, I'll never run it again. So I just headed up the team in twenty thirteen and the bombs went off and the incredible sense of you know, community that was there and my runners and it was like, boom, I'm going to run it with you again. And so I ran it again
in twenty fourteen. That day was so memory by the way, and with all of the you know, remembering what had happened in the bombs and just the overall feeling of community and philanthropy over the course of that race was it was a special day. And then I started to figure things out. I kept running, and then last year I decided to run it again and I ended up
running like a four to twenty five. So I've taken like an hour off the first time, and it just I guess I just sort of turned into a runner now. I don't know. I sort of enjoy it and my runners are very inspirational and how can you not.
So I got a great picture of him running the Falmath foradvice last yeh.
Ran flm if you were there, I'll run that again this year, run ten miles the other day. I'm not running the marathon this year. Man, that's just hard to take on every year. But an exciting news for Teddy's team. We just got into the New York City Marathon. And my foundation just continues to do things for stroking heart disease,
something I'm very proud of. We also have something called the Comeback Assistance Program we started up where you know, we seek out people who are on their way for their their form of their comeback after their stroke and we try to assist them to achieve it. So very good things.
The public sees you on television on ESPN, and they might not see all this other stuff that you're doing for stroke awareness and things like that. That must give you a real purpose in life where sure, it's great to go down to Bristol and do the show, and it's a very public, forward facing thing. But the reward that you get out of this other that must make you feel good at nice.
Yeah, it's just I have the advantage of hearing from a lot of people when they see me out or through social media or whatever it may be, but that my runners don't, and that I've had a lot of people come up and say that I recognize my dad was having a stroke because of your awareness campaigns and you're teaching people about this warning signs of stroke and I got him to the hospital and it saved his life. And those multiple examples that I keep getting just give
me inspiration to keep doing it. And I just remember how I was when I was having my stroke and I just didn't know I was having a stroke. So it's just like boom light went off. This is how I can help people. And so sometimes you hit over the head with something you know that you need to make a difference with in the world. And this has been it for me, And I mean, this is something that I'll be doing for a while.
We got him from the State of California via the University of Arizona and now he is a true New Englander with a red jacket and all right, right, teddy. Thanks for taking the time to spend some time with us today.
Appreciate Thank you so much, my pleasure. Thank you for downloading this podcast.
Subscribe on Apple, google Play, and everywhere else you listen. Like the show, please rate and review us. Listener comments and ratings help keep us high in the podcast rankings so new listeners can find us. Be sure to check Patriots dot com, homeo news, and more podcasts.