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Hey, everybody, welcome to the Buck Sexton Show. On this episode, our friend Jake Beckett. He is a former NFL player, former Army ranger, also was a Senate candidate in Arkansas and now is the host of the Jake Peckett Beckett Podcast, which I think you should all check out. Jake, thanks for making the time man. Good to see you.
Hey, great to be on with you.
So you know, I.
Saw your governor, Governor Sanders Huckerbet Sanders not long ago, and we talked a little bit about what's going on in your state, because you would think that given that Arkansas is pretty darn red, that it'd be able to join in some of what we're seeing.
Obviously out of Florida.
I'm a little biased about the Florida thing these days, but you know, Texas is doing some good things a lot of states, Oklahoma.
Of what's happening in Florida, you should be proud of that.
Thank you.
I am now I'm a new Floridian, so I'm excited about it. How are you guys doing in Arkansas, like like bring people into whether you know, we've got this red state blue state phenomenon playing out in a way that we've never seen before. Right, people are fleeing going to red. Blue is getting blue, or red is getting redder. How's Arkansas looking. You get a lot of folks showing up from Los Angeles who are like, hey, let's just do the lib thing here.
I mean, I truly believe that we are in the midst of a massive self sorting that's going to happen within this country. I think COVID only accelerated a trend that was happening for a couple of decades prior to twenty twenty, twenty twenty one, but I think it's only going to continue and possibly accelerate as things further unravel in blue states and blue cities, you know, even within
red states. And you know, I'm glad you brought up red states because and look, I'm I'm from Arkansas, born and raised, I live in Arkansas, ran for state White office here in Arkansas, and unfortunately, you know, we are, uh, you know, a state that is you know, like many other red states, particularly in the South. You know, we're led by these just establishment rhino squishy hacks, and you know, that's probably the most charitable way to describe most of them.
You know, these are people who you know, a lot of the Republicans in these in these deep red Southern states, you know, they were they were a long time Democrats who just kind of like saw which way the wind was blowing and changed their party affiliation. Or they're just people who are you know, they they saw what was happening in twenty ten, the tea party wave, you know, and they came in and so we had this big changeover.
And you know, unlike these battleground states that have competitive primaries cycle in and cycle out, like Pennsylvania, like Arizona, like Florida. Florida's probably the best example, you know, where there's constant turnover and there's there's competitive primaries and the cream rises to the top. You know, we don't have
that in these deep red states. You know, we have these incumbents, you know, who have been in office for four, five, six, seven terms in the state legislature, in the House, and the US Senate, and they're you know, it's almost impossible to win a primary, you know, on the gup side these days. Trust me, I can tell you all about that.
So without this what without the this purple kind of competitive primary situation, you know, the the the political establishment just has the opportunity to ossify, to stabilize, and there's without the outside competitive influences, you know that we just kind of drift along. And so unfortunately with the influences of the media, these these giant corporations, big tech, you know, the culture, you know, the deterioration of of the church,
you know, all these factors. You know, these these squishy, spineless rhinos, they're not able to combat that.
So this is this crazy?
Can we just for a second, so I don't I've actually I've actually never been to Arkansas, Jake. So maybe we're gonna have to your Razorbacks. You know, my co host loves the big football games. Maybe we'll have to come down and check out the I'm just impressed with myself that I remember that they're called the Razorbacks, right, that's the name of it.
Oh, absolutely, yeah, you got it.
So because I'll see, for example, I have spent time out in Utah, great state. A lot of stuff about Utah that I totally love. The governor's like a communist. I mean, for a very red state, you get the governor of Utah is really bad on a whole.
Range of issues.
This is something that I feel like as we're seeing the sorting happening with people leaving blue going to red, red getting redder, and also the role of state governance post COVID, everyone realizes your state really does matter. I think there for a while we started to think, oh, it's the federal government, right, you're a state local. It's kind of your state government matters a whole heck of a lot. How is it that some of the red
est states give us some of the worst leadership? I mean, is it just that they have no fear of the Democrat side, so they get soft, lazy, and they start to dissemble.
They know they'll never lose a primary, and that really is the problem. You don't have any open seats. I mean, Arkansas has had the same congressional delegation, the same four members of the House, the same two US Senators for ten years now. I mean, it's amazing, like it's been It's been a whole decade and we've had zero turnover in our six member congressional delegation. But you are right, like like I think, by and large, you know the problems.
I mean, this is a pretty deeper discussion. We can have a you know, a podcast series on this, but you know, I think what's happening at the federal level that's going to be really tough to fix. To put it lightly, but where we actually have the opportunity to exercise power, you know, where are where the base the citizenry still actually believes what we believe and will grant Republicans the actual ability to exercise our influence are in
these red counties in red states. And that's why important for you know, states like Florida. You know, now it's you know it it was a purple state. You know, now due to you know, Governor Desants' influence, it's become a red state. You know in some of the other states. You know, it's it's getting better. You know. Governor de
Santis has really led the way. You know, it's it's you know, I I could go on forever about how important it's been to have him done in Florida, leading the way and setting the example because for so many years, I mean for people on the right, we don't even know what winning looks like. We have no idea what excellence, what greatness, what victory even looks like. And so we didn't really have a barometer. So we had Asa Hutchinson here in Arkansas, who was the governor for eight years.
He was terrible, you know, obviously the governor out in Utah. You know k Ivy, the governor of Alabama, she's terrible. Tate Reeves Mississippi. I mean, they're all they're all bad. But we didn't even know it until Ron DeSantis came in there and took a fifty to fifty red state and made it a sixty to forty red state simply because of the force of his policies and his leadership. Okay, like he showed that, hey, we can have good things. Okay, like we can we can take on these wok corporations
like Disney. You know, we can remove Soros DA's when they get out of line. We can take over higher education, you know, we can actually move the needle and show the rest of the country. And so, like just as any in business, in sports and whatever, competition is a
good thing. And so Governor DeSantis has moved every other red state governor to the right on the issues, simply because they've been humiliated by you know, the national news and people in these red states like Arkansas looking like, hey, like Asa Hutchinson, why aren't you doing what ron de Santis is doing in Florida? And so obviously, like you know,
people's discussed with Asa Hutchinson. You know, he was the guy who went on Tucker Carlson and was saying that, you know, Ronald Reagan and William F. Buckley would have agreed with, you know, transgender mutilation surgeries for children. Asa Hudchson actually vetoed a bill in Arkansas that would have made that illegal, and so and so we were fed up with him, and we moved on to someone who's definitely better than him, and Governor Sarah Sanders, and she's
implementing some good policies. But it really it started with Governor Ron Decantis in Florida. He has shown the way and I can't emphasize enough how important that has been to show the people on the right in this country that winning is possible.
I think technically we have to say he is presidential candidate Asa Hutchins, just to be clear. Just to be clear, I think if he breaks one percent of the national vote.
You know, Jake, I'll next time down.
I sincerely hope that he stays in the race through the Arkansas Super Tuesday primary in twenty twenty four. I'm genuinely curious to see what he will get in his own home state. There's no way he lasts that long. He'll probably drop out after I forgetting, you know, a fraction of one percent, but I mean in Arkansas, he wouldn't even get five percent of the vote in his own home state. That's how reviled he is.
I want to come back and talk to you a bit about, first of all, your story as it pertains to your service in the Army Rangers, and then talk a bit about Ukraine and some of what we've been hearing recently.
About us role there maybe a little.
More substantial than is officially talked about. I mean, I always assume that the role is I've thought that all along, but you know, secret squirrel stuff. We all know what goes on. But we'll come back here in just a second.
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policy Genius Right now, go check it out. Don't wait on this one, get it done today. Go to policygenius dot com. That's policy genius dot com and sign up today. All right, Jake, first off, tell everybody what ears, What years were you in I just wanted to talk a little bit about your military service where we talk about the national security side of things.
Right now.
When did you first get into the army?
So I joined the Army in the summer of twenty seventeen. You know, I played four years of professional football for the New England Patriots. You know, won a Super Bowl with those guys single handedly. You know, it wouldn't Brady, wouldn't Belichick. It was all me.
You know.
After I got done solidifying that dynasty, I went to law school. You know, my my my intention wasn't to practice law. You know, I was really hurt after I left the NFL, so I went to law school to get healthy. And when I was in d C in law school, I just I really, you know, my ultimate plan was was a serve in the military. And I didn't want to be a jag and I was getting close to the age limit, so you know, I just I decided it was the best thing to do. To to drop out of law school and join the army.
And that's what I did. I went through basic training Officer Canada school, you know, went through the Infantry officers course, I went through ranger school.
I have questions. I have questions.
Hold on, Yeah, Like, was there a point which you were you were in your let's say your first or second week of basic training or something, and you're a little bit did you ever have a thought You're like, maybe, I don't know about this decision. I'm just wondering. That's a big move to drop out of law school right to serve. I mean, I think it's very honorable decision.
It's great.
But did you did you know every day you were going through it that this is what was for you?
You know, I did. I mean, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna say it wasn't challenging, you know, but I
really I fully committed to making that decision. But yeah, I mean there were some moments, you know, you're you know, I went from having a really great apartment in downtown Boston playing for the Patriots, you know, part of a Super Bowl championship team, you know, to go into a great apartment in Washington d C. You know, go into Georgetown, a great law school, to you know, being in a in a sleeping bay of you know, sixty five eighteen
to twenty four year old Basic trainees. You know, just kind of looking around at mid nine, you know, man, like, you know.
Your social options definitely decreased. Your service to the country increased dramatically. Congratulations, But your social options from being a NFL player in Boston to being in Basic training, you know, not as many cheerleads.
But yeah, no, exactly, you know, but I was. I was fully committed to making that sacrifice. And you know, at the end of the day, I realized that it wasn't gonna be it was gonna be a temporary, you know, temporarily difficult situation to go through Basic and go through o CS and Ranger school. But you know, I never lost sight of that goal, which was to get my ranger tab and you know lead a rifle platoon, which I was very blessed to have the ability to do. And you know.
I was a heart What's the hardest part of Ranger school for you? For what? What did you find the most challenging part of it?
It was the starvation. I mean, like truly, Like there's I lost about forty pounds in Ranger School. I went in weighed about two hundred and forty pounds, got out weighing two hundred. I can show you some photos another time. I mean I was like a stick figure coming out of there. My mom cried once you saw me at Ranger School graduation. I was so thin. But you know, coming from a football background, you know, I like to eat,
so that was that was a huge challenge. But sleep deprivation and food deprivation is a huge part of the school. You know, you get pushed to your mental, physical, emotional, spiritual limits, you know, but that's that's how you forage great leaders, you know, over that sixty two day course, and you know, I was able to finish it in the in the shortest amount of time, thank goodness, and and get out of there, and it gets my platoon.
So yeah, I would say that the sleep depth, you know, forty five minutes of sleep per night for like ten straight nights, is not not ideal when it comes to you know, rest, recuperation and being in a prime mental state. But you know that's just part of the deal. Where do you end up deploying Iraq. So my my brigade combat team with one hundred and first Airborne we were stationed in uh northern Iraq, the Kurdistan region.
Oh, I aw, what where You're like in Suli or something. I know, I know that area of the world pretty well.
We were. We were between Mosul and Ourbiel.
Oh Moses that place back in the day, my time in mosil Man. That was a spicy location, let me tell you. But that was uh what what when were you there? If you don't mind.
About a deck about it?
I mean and I was in the region, I will say about a decade, about a decade before you I mean basically.
Before before twenty fifteen, because obviously that was the capital of the Califade. You know when when Isis had their had their brief run.
Yeah no, no, yeah, Well I was there again in the vicinity and that too specific. I was there in the vicinity, uh you know, doing my uh analyst uh you know, dressed as like a guy on a camping trip.
Thing.
Right after or pretty close to what happened was like they kicked all the bad guys, I mean not all of them, but they they cleared out Flujah Ramadi and that had been This is like oh six so seven period that you know, those had been and bar province was just the worst, right, the heaviest fighting. The Marines had to go in their house to house do all that stuff. But a lot of them, the suicide bomber rat lines and the bad stuff switched up north to Mosul coming in.
So that was yep.
So I remember I remember going spending some time with some of the SF teams out there and trying to see what could be done to Stuck because these guys were going into marketplaces with you know, suicide vest are actually car bombs all the time, just you know, blow up thirty fifty eighty people. Whatever it was. It was really really awful stuff. But so when you were there, it's fascinating actually because when I was there it was horrible, and then when you were there it was horrible. It
was like the main spots. So what were you doing?
So it was a really interesting mission set. You know, it was a combination of patrols. You know, we were doing some diplomatic stuff, you know, meeting with the you know provincial governor you know this Nnila province, so the provincial governor of the Iraqi. Yeah, the their version of a core level commander was stationed with us, you know, so we were coordinating air strikes. You know, we we had some guys going out on target. So, I mean, it was a it was a really interesting kind of
all encompassing mission set. It was great for a for a young lieutenant to get out there and kind of see everything that was going down. And this was this was a couple of years after you know, we had cleaned out Isis, you know, but there were obviously still I mean, as you know, Mosl and Rbil Kurdistan. It's kind of a confluence of a lot of different ethnicities.
You know, it was an old trading route historically, so there was a there's a you know, a lot of a Sunni Shia conflict happening in that part of the you know, that part of the Middle East, and you know, obviously in in the late twenty tens, that was when Iran first really started to uh flex on that area. You know, the Isis was was Sunni and so once Isis got cleaned out, the Shia you know, came in
and decided they were in charge. Obviously, these Shia backed or these Ran backed Chia militia groups, the s mgs, you know, we're all over the place. It was a really fascinating and and pretty intense mission set out there. But you know, like I said, it was a it was a good experience. It was a good deployment. I deployed with some great people, uh, and not just army. You know, we had some you know, we had some some Marsat guys, marine raiders, we had some Air Force
j tax with us. You know, we had some some guys from your with with you with your training who were with us. So it was a it was a really outstanding deployment.
So what I wanted to ask you, I wanted to get that background. It's so interesting too, by the way, I mean, I everyone that I talked to who deployed your rocker Afghanistan before you, it was it's always roughly my contemporaries, you know, either a few years before a few years after being in that part of the world. But you know, now, of course we have people that were dealing with like you, dealing with the isis uh situation uh up in up in a rock specifically obviously
Afghanistan kind of continued much much longer. If if I got to ask you something. I'd be curious if someone told you that you could go and advise the Kurds.
Just theoretically, if this kind of thing were happening.
I don't know, But if I told you that you could go and advise the Kurds on the ground, I'm sorry the Ukrainians. You already advised the Kurds, the Ukrainians on the ground to help them against the Russians. And I really mean this honestly, like, would you want any part of that fight? Would you say, you know what, I want to go and possibly, you know, take the risks of we all know what can happen over there.
How would you feel about that?
I would advise the Ukrainians to make peace as quickly as possible on the best possible terms they could get, because I think that's that is the best possible outcome for them right now. And that's that's not the narrative that you get from the mainstream media. You know, obviously they you know a lot of these people, these warhawks and meocons and you know, unfortunately lives now. You know, they're they're willing to fight to the last drop of
blood of someone else. You know, like namely the Ukrainian people, you know, and the allies who are who are helping
them in that fight. But you know, I just think that, you know, I'm I'm not willing to go over there or send someone that I love to go fight for the territorial sovereignty of the frontiers of Eastern Europe, especially when there's ethnic conflict there that you know, most people, you know don't even have the beginnings of an understanding of and you know, especially when here in the United States we don't have territorial sovereignty over our own country.
You know, let's just let's just be very blunt. I mean, we we don't have a southern border. You know, I talk to people who are with border patrol. There's actually kind of a developing story that's you know, people who are plugged in or following. Actually our northern border is actually becoming more and more of an issue. You know, these these you know, the.
The numbers are a lot smaller, but the percentage increase is substantial.
Absolutely, And you know it makes sense because there's not as much media attention on our northern border now, and so you know, in the in the age of globalization and transportation, people can get there I.
Mean, I think that if you can get to Mexico, your chance. Now, I've spent a fair amount of time at the border and a bunch of different locations right along the border patrol, spending time with those guys and gals. You know, I would I would bet that. I mean, if you were telling me, never mind getting getting myself into the country illegally, if I chose to do that across the southern border, I'd give ten to one odds that I'm able to get into the country.
You know.
Now that's not including the idea of like surrendering, right, I mean, because that's what a lot.
Of the family units and others have done.
But if you're just saying streakshot into America, I think ten to one I can because I know the cartel games, I know what they do. So if you just replicate that, you'll be able to get in pretty easily. Put them at the northern border, you know, I feel like that's wide open. That's got to be super easy to get across.
We have almost no protection up there whatsoever. So if people figure out, well, if you can, you know, if you can fly to camp mean, especially for the people that aren't coming via foot and train, you know, from Central America, specifically in Northern Triangle countries. People forget they're coming from Pailand, They're coming from West Africa, they're coming from China, from Pakistan, all over the world, right, the illegal traffic across the border, so that means planes. So
at some point it is interesting to think about. You know, I guess it depends on who you know, who's allowed into Canada, but it would be easier to come across.
You asked me a question, I mean, what's what's a fight that I believe in? Securing America's borders is a fight that I believe in. I mean, I made the
point on social media a couple of months ago. It's it's always struck me as strange that, you know, you have these these these warhawks and neocons and everyone, you know, beating the war drums, you know, supporting literally every possible foreign intervention, you know, I mean, like they'll back any proposed military action if it's done by NATO or the
United States or the UN. But you never hear them mention like destroying the Mexican drug cartels or you know, utilizing America's armed forces to supplement border patrol on the southern or northern border. And like, look, I'm not someone who trusts the Pentagon, the DD or our military establishment to do the right thing at all times. But it's just curious to me they've never never even floated that.
You never hear Lindsey Graham, you know, talking about like, you know, spinning up America's military to destroy the cartels. He may have jumped on that bandwagon after people pointed that out, but I just think that's strange. That's a fight that I believe in. I mean, you want to solve America's recruiting crisis, and when it comes to military personnel, you know, like actually have a you know, a dedicated campaign. I mean like like Trump kind of dipped his toe
in on possibly using the military. I mean one of the one of our sister brigades with one hundred and first Airborne was you know, quote deployed to Arizona on the southern border. They didn't really do anything, they didn't have the authority to really interdict, you know, the illegals coming across the border. But I mean I would love I mean, like some of our best military you know leaders,
I believe Douglas MacArthur. When he was a young lieutenant or captain, he was involved in the you know, the Poncho Villa cross border raids. And I mean like like, using the military to secure our southern border has long been well within the traditions of American foreign policy. So I mean, that's a fight that I believe in.
Let's come back to that in a second.
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my pillow dot com. Get those Giza Dream Sheets and whatever else you like, and make sure you use promo code buck. Okay, so you were you were up there in northern Iraq. You saw the situation with ISIS, which was a there was a little more conventional actually military fight than what I had seen, which was a clearly a counterinsurgency. You know. It was much more find the bad guys, kicking the doors and arrest them if possible.
Often it wasn't possible cartels, fight the cartels.
With the military, and obviously the intelligence force intelligence community would be a big part of this too, so it would be kind of like dealing with al Qaeda, you know, looking for individuals and networks and things like that, not you know, brigade versus brigade combat maneuvers.
What do you think of that idea? Do we send the military after the cartels in Mexico?
Well, I think it's a it's an all the above strategy. I mean, you leverage intelligence, you leverage your power, and obviously you leverage you know, conventional and special ground forces. You know. But I'm just I'm tired of people who, you know, you mentioned things like this and they just kind of scoff like it's not possible. I mean, you know, look at what Nai Bucal is doing in El Salvador. I mean, this is a guy who I mean, I'm as high on this guy as a world leader as
I am on anyone. I mean, he's he's one of these guys who's just who's showing He's showing the world what's possible with genuine leadership. I mean El Salvador, you know, had the the world's highest murder rate not too long ago, and you know, it would it's laughable, it would have been laughable to assume that, you know, someone could come in there and neutralize these gangs that have been terrorizing and ruining the country for generations. But he came in
and did that and it wasn't easy. And yeah, I mean he was a mixture of you know, hard and soft power. But it is possible, and you know, we just you know, I use bucal At as an example, you know, I use Governor Ron DeSantis as an example. I mean, just people on the right in America, we don't even know what excellence looks like. We don't even we don't have any conception about what is or is
not great. And you know, we have these beacons. We have people who are showing us Hey, if we just have people, if we have leaders on our side who have the will, who have the force of will to actually do this, who were going to pin their ears back and just get it done, I mean like, yeah, well you know, like you kind of you know, it's it's as Coach Belichick would say, it's it's part.
Of the process.
You know, it's it's it's something that you know, you you know, you adjust and things go wrong, you fix them, and things you know, you you get it done over time, But it starts with just having that iron will that you're not gonna let anyone tell you that it can't be done. You have an in state in mind, and you know you're not gonna know just one more thing about like about you know, this, this this idea of
leadership I'm sick of. You know, for so many years people on the right were captive to people like Frank Luntz and you know, people who like they think that leaders are supposed to follow public opinion. You know, you know, one of the greatest things about Governor DeSantis is he's very clear that he doesn't govern by following public opinion. He has the Steve Jobs model of leadership in mind. And you know Steve Jobs of famous I think he
borrowed this saying from Henry Ford. You know I'm paraphrasing, but essentially he said, you know, people don't know what they want. You have to show them what they want and then they'll follow you. You know, like like no one could have envisioned the iPhone. They wouldn't have responded to a Frank Lunz poll and said I want an iPhone. No, Steve Jobs showed them the iPhone, and then of course
now everyone has an iPhone. Same thing with the vehicle, and the same thing with leaders like Naive Buclet and Ronda Santis. That's what leadership is. It's not following, you know, Frank Lunz's polls. It's actually, you know, like having the will to solve a problem and showing the people that it's possible. So that's I mean, I want to see more people like that rise in American politics or else. You know, we're in We're in deep trouble.
It's fascinating that Bucule and El Salvador used prison labor prisoners MS thirteen prisoners to destroy I'm sure you saw this the graves of MS thirteen gang members because they were being used as gathering sites in the cemeteries. So they just if your gravestone said anything about MS thirteen, they just turned into rubble. Not allowed to have public displays of anything having to do with Mara. Salvatrucia, he's he's hardcore about it, man. He treats it like he
says this. I've heard him in an interview saying that he views the threat of MS thirteen the way that he thinks people in Germany should treat Nazi as, which is that it is a threat to the live, safety of lives and safety of the people, and also a threat to the very integrity of the state itself. And for a small country in Central America to take that approach and obviously have some results early on, I think is really interesting. I've got a couple of NFL questions
for you when we come back in a second. Here, So hold on for a minute. Everybody, you will see if you're watching this, if you're not watching, if you're only subscribing on the podcast, which most of you listen to the podcast, but there's also YouTube. Go to YouTube dot com slash box Sex and we've got video there. You can see that my friend Jake here has a
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What's you like?
Well, he's a genius. He's one of the greatest leaders I've ever been around in the civilian world or the military. I did my last potdcast actually on the Patriots Dynasty and and what we used to call the Patriot Way. And you know, Coach Belichick had a very simple set of rules for the team. You know, do your job,
work hard, be intentive, put the team first. You know, those those were the four rules you know that you had to abide by when you know, when you when you step into the Patriots facility, you know, when you became a new England Patriot. And you know he was he was able to push us very hard. I mean, there were so many stories of other veterans coming in from different teams, either by trades or free agency or whatever, and after a week or so, you know, they would
just quit the team. I mean, like big name guys like you know, Reggie Wayne, Robert Gallery, Kellen Winslow. I mean, like you know, brand name players. And I'm not denegrating these guys, but you know they would come in and after seven, seven or ten days of Patriots training camp, they would go to Bill and just say, hey, coach, you know this isn't for me. I'm going to retire, and like that's you know, other other players who came in could not believe how hard he worked, how hard
Bill coached the players. You know, but we were all on the same page, you know, we all marched the beat of the same drum. You know, Tom Brady was a huge, huge reason for that. You know, I like to tell the story of my first ever Patriots team meeting. You know, I'm a brand new rookie coming in there in May. It was like our first first spring mini camp team meeting that the team had just lost the Super Bowl to the Giants the year before that. I got there and you know, he was just kind of
the first team meeting, kind of a nothing meeting. Bill's just kind of laying out his expectations for Mini camp and Tom Brady comes in and he's sitting front row center. You know, he didn't have to do that, but he sat front row center every single day. And in this first ever team meeting, I'm sitting there, Brady's just he's got his notepad, He's sitting up and he's just scribbling notes furiously. He's trying to soak in every bit of
knowledge that Bill was sharing with us. And he had probably heard the same meeting ten or fifteen times, the same spiel, but he was trying to glean that extra bit of knowledge. But I think what he was really doing he was setting the example for all the new guys. He was he was setting the tone for everyone else who was sitting right behind him in that team meeting room, you know, in the in the rows above him, and you could see Tom Brady just just so attentive in
taking notes and engage intellectually and mentally engaged. And you know that was that was the kind of leadership we had from the coaching staff, from the Marquee players, guys like like Tom and Gronk and Vince will Fork and Matthew Slater and so many others. You know, it was just an absolute machine. And that I tell stories like that to really explain what is the Patriot Way because it's not just for football, you know, it's for any
Any leader can learn from the Patriot Way. You know, whether you're in politics, or in business or in media, whatever it is. You know, if you if you follow those rules and you and you hold people accountable, do your job, be attentive, work hard, put the team first, you're going to have success.
What was your favorite part of being an NFL? What were you a linebacker? By the way, is that right?
I was a de defensive end, tight end, special teams player, I was. I was a utility guy. Okay, I kind of did everything.
What was your favorite part of playing in the NFL, And what was the part that wasn't so great?
I mean, the best part was being around people who were the greatest at what they do. And you know, I I was I was very you know, humbled to be drafted by them in the third round and just I didn't take it for granted to be around some of the great the greatest coach of all time, the greatest quarterback of all time, some of the greatest players in the league. You know, I think Gronk was the best tight end of all time. You know, I was in the same tight end meeting room as him for two years.
He seems like a fun guy, by the way, Is he a fun guy? Is that? Is that real?
Gronk is exactly who you imagined him to be. I'll tell you a Gronk story. So Gronk, you know, every member of the Patriots players and coaches and staff, we had these key fobs that gave us twenty four to seven access to the facility, you know, at any time, and like during the offseason especially, guys come up there at night or early morning to get a workout in,
getting the hot tub, col tub, whatever. And you know, Gronk, you know, during the off season, he would, you know, he'd go out in Boston or Providence or whatever, you know, have a great time, stay out till two or three in the morning, and he would have his buddies drop him off at the Patriots facility at like three thirty in the morning. So he would fob in and go straight to the training room and he would find one of the training tables and just like pass out, just
stretch out and go to sleep. And so when the trainers would come in in the morning, they would see Gronk like still in his like you know, like night life clothes, just like sleeping there. They would roll up his sleeve at stick an IV in his arm and just kind of revive him and he would get up after a couple hours and just go be like the dominant force that he was. It was about that time that it was about that time that I realized that,
you know, some people are more talented than others. That he had a pretty high ceiling like I was, you know, I was getting plenty of sleep, do it everything right, and like still, this guy was the greatest tight end that I had ever seen, you know, but he was. He was a great player, a great teammate. You know, despite like having a good time on the weekends, he worked his butt off when he was you know, when it was time to do that, and he was just
a joy to be around. I mean, just a hell of a great guy.
Was there anything, though?
I mean just physical punishment to your body or like, what was the what was the thing?
If you had to point to one thing.
I mean, you're playing in the NFL, right, I feel like when people get to that level of success and something that's as heralded as that, there's a maybe for a lot of folks, a public perception of like it just must all be amazing. Nothing is all amazing, right, I mean we all know that. So what was either the challenge or the thing you wish you could change, you know, something that you were just like, ah, that part of it's maybe it was a surprise, Maybe it wasn't.
Yeah, don't get me wrong, it wasn't easy. I mean it was I mean I told you those stories of some of the greatest NFL players of all time to strip quitting because of how tough it was. And yeah, there's a lot of physical punishment that goes into playing at that level, and you know, Bill's old scho Well, he came from the Bill Parcells school of coaching, and I mean that was like full contact practices as much
as possible, you know, all kinds of hitting. We probably did more hitting in New England than we did, you know, in my college days at the University of Arkansas. So you know, it was a it was a huge you know, it was very very tough on your body, you know, very tough mentally to to to survive and thrive and
that and that tough of an environment. But you know it was a great preparation for what I was, you know, gonna do in the military and Rader school, and you know, at the end of the day, you know, guy had a plan. I would have loved to have played for a bit longer in the league, but you know, I wouldn't change it, Like going back, I would not change a single thing.
Institutionally, dating a Patriots cheerleader frowned upon or encouraged for players.
So, uh, they're actually I'm pretty sure it was actually it was against their rules.
For from other another situation, I keep going, I would so obviously everybody, Yeah, I mean there is you know, there is kind of a double standard there it's from from what I remember, it is true that.
I mean, there were no restrictions on us. I mean, we coul date whoever wanted, but for the Patriots cheerleaders, they would get fired if they, you know, we were caught with one of the players. I'm pretty sure Gronk's longtime girlfriend is a former Patriots cheerleader, and like that's that's what happened, is you know, they got outed in their relationship and she got canned or maybe maybe like
they went public after she was done or something. But yeah, there, I'm pretty sure it's against it's against their the cheerleader rules, you know, and that's you know, hey that I think that's kind.
Of ridiculous, the cheerleader code of ethics.
I mean, come on, yeah, I mean I think that's that's kind of absurd. Like, I mean American, Like there's an old Sports Illustrated cover of when when Miami won one of their national championships, you know, the you there's this famous you know photo of you know, one of the players on the field left of the game, you know, kissing the cheerleader. I mean, like people love that, Like what's wrong with that? I Mean, I really don't see you know, any problem. Maybe it's just me. I don't know,
maybe there's some other rationale that I'm not seeing. But I thought that was kind of a dumb policy. And you know, I'm glad that Grant guy as a girl.
There we go.
Yeah, I think I think all the men of America are hitting your saying and some of the ladies. I'm sure tour seg it's that's absurd. But anyway, not an important topic, but I was curious. Anyway, Jake, you're doing great work.
Where should people go to listen to your podcast?
Yeah, we're on all platforms, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, the Jake Beckett Show podcast like subscribe, leave a good review. You know, it's been great. We're seven or eight episodes in right now, and it's been a great project thus far. So give us a give us a listen there, and you can find me on social media on Twitter at Jake Beckett ninety one. So yeah, that's that's where you can find me.
Jake, thank you for your service and thank you for your time.
Man.
I appreciate you being with us.
Thanks for having me.
Buck