Welcome to Games of Names.

I'm Julian Edelman and we got a brand new compilation highlight reels starting now now.

Julian Edelman on what it's actually like in an NFL locker room at halftime.

Would there ever be a player that took a shower at halftime?

Absolutely not.

I used to think it was weird, and guys would take their pads off.

Some guys would take their pads off halftime.

I like my stuff snug.

You got the sweat, would you eat it halftime?

Yeah.

There's always like pickles for the salt so you retain water.

They always have peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

That's a huge thing, you know, as Travis with then crustables they'd have sometimes they have chicken broth.

If it was like a cold game, they have every kind of like power bar or protein bar or meal supplement bar.

Yeah.

They sometimes when it's like a you know, a high play first half, guys are kind of drained.

Usually in the heat, you got to take in calories gives a little more energy.

Cool pregame shower.

Oh I shower like five six times before game because you you know, you wake up.

I like to wake up shower.

I like, I like hot water on my face.

That helps me wake up.

Then you hit the tubs, you know, warm up, do another shower, and then like you go do ball drills this that I don't like the sweat, and then I'll do like another shower.

I'm a shower earth.

I like five six showers a day.

Also, day before the super Bowl, you're not practicing right, Like Friday is the last practice.

Day before Super Bowl is usually a mental sharp sharpening day.

So it's kind of like your walk through your dress rehearsal.

You know each team they're at a hotel, so they'll probably clear out the ballroom.

You have the whole hotel, and you'll go through the whole script.

So you go through first and second down, all your first and second down plays.

You'll go through all your third down plays, you go through all your red area plays, you go through your two point menu, you go through gotta have it plays just to get that mental rep so when it's game time, the more you know the material, the more you can be spontaneous with your play.

Yeah, you know what I mean.

That's when like instinctively things happen.

Yeah.

Next, Matt Light confesses to the best thing he ever stole from an NFL locker room.

What's your favorite thing you stole from another stadium?

Like the listen?

Is there statute of limitations?

I mean, I'm not going to jail on your podcast.

No, Like.

That's double Jeopardy, Bro, It's gone.

That's a good point.

Yeah, yeah, it can't be tried twice, there's no way.

Gosh, man, the best thing ever?

Hey, you know so some of my favorite stuff that I have hanging now.

We just moved down to Chapatchet, Rhode Island, and in the move I found some stuff that I'd ganged from the Super Bowls.

So again I was always the first guy off the field, right.

It was like my goal to get to the bar as quickly as possible.

Bar Louis Baby.

And I would rip down all these banners.

I remember just jumping up in this running thinking thing thing thing, wadding it up, throwing it tin and I have all these really awesome banners from the Super Bowl eras, like the ones that hang in the hotel.

Yeah yeah, well we get the hotel.

I couldn't stop myself there either.

They'd be like hanging off like a big atrium and I'd find my way up in there and.

Like, sink sink, sink, sink sink.

Can we just get it?

What is your craziest prank that you did as a New England Patriot?

Okay, so I would say probably the best one that I did on a team.

I mean, the best one I've done period was having some guys pulled off their private jet.

That was that was one of the greatest of all time.

Man, what do you mean?

I mean?

And by the way, I did have a guy and you can look this one up.

I just did a full video on it.

I had a guy kill a turkey and he thought it was the world record albiino osciola and osciole was the only found in Florida.

It's a it's a version of a turkey, right, it's a subspecies.

And he went hunting with me.

But what he actually killed was a broad breasted white turkey that was farm raised and like some like literally like in a double wide in some guy's backyard and I just put it out in the woods and he shot it and he snuck up on it.

I told him that if you squat down like a Suma wrestler and carry a fake turkey tail, fan that you can walk right up on him, which you cannot do that, but he did it, and he practiced it for a while and it's one of the funniest things ever.

I have it on video.

Like, by the way, I was right next to him when he shot it, but he had no idea.

It was in a full gilly suit in a palmeadow bush snake almost bit me.

And when he sneaks up on it, I swear to guy, when the turkey saw him, it was like, oh, thank god, it's a human.

I've been out here in a while, Like what the hell?

Like he came from like literally a guy's backyard, and so he shoots and misses him and the bird he was so fat he could barely walk forty four pounds, Like, dude, that's twice as big as any bird.

And he started walking my way.

I'm like this how I die being a dumb ass.

This is how I die?

And thank god he didn't shoot me.

But anyway, my brother calls him as the head of Florida Game and Fish.

I made up two hundred copies of a magazine where he's on the cover, and he thought, like, I'm dead serious, dude, I mean I will put a lot of effort into this.

A year later, he gets up on stage at the shootout where we sold the Hunt to begin with, and I said, Jamie, you got to come up here and help me sell this thing.

Man.

I'm like, it's going to go for big money.

You just shot that.

And so he gets up and he's talking about how he killed the moby Dick of Turkey.

He's the Tom Brady of Turkey Hunt.

I got it all on video.

I had my guys there wearing Florida game and fish collared shirts that I had made up because they were there to get content for their website because they're getting ready launch it.

They brought two hundred advanced copies of the magazine.

He's signing the magazines for people at the event, like, you can't make this stuff up right.

He had it mounted a farm raised bird mounted.

So up on stage he's talking about all this stuff.

I'm the Tom Brady of Turkey Hunting.

I killed the moby Dick of Turkey.

And then I said, well, you know what, we actually have this on film.

Why't we roll it?

And in front of five hundred people.

A year later, he finds out it shows me getting the bird and he's on stage like are you serious?

Like all this realization it's one of the greatest videos you'll ever watch.

Man.

We laugh so hard now.

Joe Mazula on what an NBA locker room is actually like at halftime?

So halftime, what's what's the what's the locker room like?

Under coach?

It depends.

I think you're as soon as that horn goes off, Even during the first half, you're I'm constantly saying, Okay, what did we do well?

What didn't we do well?

What hurt us?

And you try to anticipate on what's going to happen in the second and then when the horn goes off, it's a about a forty five second to a minute walk to the back.

You're you're kind of deciding about like all right, like what does the team need right now in this moment?

And then you know, what are we going to focus on?

And so in that game, you're talking about the you know, you follow a three point shooter three times and you give them nine potential points out of that that you have to take that away, and so I think you're just constantly and but it changes, right Sometimes you're in there and you show film you know, sometimes you're in there and like you don't show any film.

Uh.

Sometimes it's like okay, who does an individual player need something?

Or does the team need something?

And so you're just constantly diagnosing what needs what at that moment, figuring out like, Okay, where do we need to be better that we can control, where do we need to be better?

Are the things that you know we sucked at?

And then you know, try to.

Get ready for the second half there, Now, how long is the halftime?

It's fifteen minutes By the time you get back to the locker room, it's like thirteen thirty.

And then you got three and a half minutes to look at the halftime minute to see what you want to show, and you try to show the half time minute at like ten.

So do you have cause like whenever our halftime it was it was clockwork.

We would come in for halftime, it was thirteen minutes or twelve minutes.

Coaches would have two minutes together while we were undrained, like let our emotions get down and then we break up into O and D.

Offensive coach would have his four keys that were going into defensive coach would have his four keys.

We'd have two minutes there.

Then we'd have two minutes as a team and then special teams would have one minute or what like.

It was broken down like you guys have a moment where like that, or it's different because you guys are so different.

So I think you're in the back as far as roster size.

No, by the time we get to the team, it's probably four clips offense, four clips defense, or if one side of the ball is just so much more drastically different impacting the game, you just focus on that.

But it's like that in the staff like you know, the offense team will give their insight, the defense team will give their insight.

Then the coach doing the halftime minute kind of puts in, you know, order of what's most important, and you're just so in that three and a half minutes, you're kind of deciding, Okay, what's the most important?

Is is it A are both important?

Or are we focusing on one?

Next up Puka Naku on the Rams breakfast club and the dynamic inside that locker.

Room, and you're like, ohly Cole, like I was right next to this guy.

I was in the breakfast club with Matthew Stafford Cooper Club and coach McVeigh of like some of the best football minds currently right now in the NFL and like to hang it like to where the to where the jersey?

Y TM.

I'm like, I think about, man, the Eagles game, his first game back, and we got to line up in the formation next to each other and being.

Like yo, like this is real.

Like cups out here.

I'm playing football with Cooper Cup right now, Like what it felt like when I got called out before him and then they called Cooper Cup number ten.

He has a song play and the whole stadium is like coo and being like.

What it's happening like all through like training camp.

Oh he got hurt during training camp rookie year, and like he came back and I was like everybody you could feel like the leadership and then also like the football player of being like he controls, he knows what's going on.

It made it made it so fun.

Yeah, he's a pro.

I remember when he was a young buck.

We used to work out together at Golden West, the hot Spot.

I remember he was coming off an injury.

I threw with Matthew a couple of times.

Oh man, he can light it up.

What do you gotta do to get in this goddamn breakfast club.

I mean, the cool name you got McVeigh, you got with, you got Stafford Cup, that's it exclusivity.

Soho home membership.

How do you get in this thing?

Hopefully?

I'm like, they didn't ask me for any membership for you, so but shoot, you got to get up there earlier.

I'm like, that's one of the things I was like that helped.

I was watching Coop and I changed my routine of like, man, during season, I'm normally in bed at least by nine thirty, like, if not, like going to bed by nine thirty, so I could wake up and be up at five thirty five forty five, so I could get to the facility at six o'clock.

And they've already and I would be the almost the last one there.

They've already been there, like they're watching and they've probably gone through the last practice, and now we're we're about to start watching the explosive from all the other teams across the league.

And I'm like, so I come in for the back half and then we rerun the tape.

Me and Coop will be like, all right, now we're going to watch the receivers at the end while either Matthew's going to grab coffee, they're grabbing breakfast, and then like can we kind of sit there, Yeah, watch all the tape and the be like all right, I keep them updated on like the newest slang terms because I'm like those two guys, I'm like, yeah, one Coop probably never actually had gone on social media area.

And then Matthew, I don't think he even knows he has an Instagram.

Damn April Fools yesterday that he has.

He's all tatted up.

Do you see that Stafford has a full sleeve?

That was the news yesterday.

I ever seen that.

That's a boot.

That's such a dad joke right there.

He is Matt's cool.

Now.

Cooper cup on what makes Sean McVay so special.

What makes Sean McVay so special?

He does He commands the room that anyone I've ever been around, right like comes in.

His ability to communicate to people, get a message across is a one I think it's for any coach.

If you can't, if you're not a good communicator, you're gonna make everyone's life miserable.

And so for him, as from the very top, you're getting clear, concise communication that trickles down through through everything.

When we had wit on he said he walked in on McVeigh watching game tape of himself giving speeches to the team, trying to break down his own stuff.

Why do he pause after he said he walked in on mcvaye traumatic effects, like doing what.

To let a linger for a second?

Yeah, no, yeah, Well because I think that was a super important thing for him coming he was.

I mean, he was my age when he was head coach of the l as you're you're stepping in, you're my age going in, Like I can understand being critical and wanting to learn from all this.

This is your first time leading team, meeting as players, we can opportunity to watch ourselves and learn.

And you know, I think he wanted to learn and be the best that he could be for us.

You know, I think that's uh, he takes that mentality.

He is very critical of himself and wants to be He doesn't want to let people down, and you know, that's kind of his hard for people, and I think that's kind of what drives a lot of the things that he does.

I love that he he like just outside looking in and I mean, I've gone to practice, but I'm not there.

But you could just tell he's got just leadership qualities.

He's a leader of men, ye know, is that?

And then the communication thing is so so important generation, Yeah, just you know what I mean, yep, And he knows how to do it.

He seems like he knows how to be a chameleon with each guy to make them get their best.

Yeah, find find ways to motivate people and connect with them.

He does.

He does a really good job of that.

It seemed like Coach was a little starstruck though with Belichick my first starstruck.

I love Coach.

We played against each other in colleagues, like, I love Coach McVeigh.

That's my dog.

We Mac baby.

So we've gone and got hammered together and stuff.

But you know, he wasn't a star.

He wasn't starstruck.

Little No, I don't think that's what it was.

He saw Darth Vader for the first time, he's like, oh my next.

Jim Craig takes us inside the locker room of that legendary nineteen eighty Olympic team.

Now, when did you guys come together?

And like, did you guys like herb.

To me, I always liked Herb.

You know, I had just lost my mother to cancer and I was there.

It was like it was a stepping stone to try to make it to the Nation Hockey League.

You know, when Herb asked me to play in the World Championships in Lenigrad Moscow, I couldn't.

If somebody showed me in the lineup, I wouldn't even know what he looked like, you know what I mean.

It was just you just played.

So to me, he always had my best interests in heart, and working hard was just part of the deal.

Yeah, but what about the boys, Like when you guys are in the locker room and coach ain't there, Like when Belichick wasn't there, were like, fuck this guy.

This guy's making us run the goddamn hill.

It's week eighteen.

We got no knees.

What's going on here?

Yeah?

Put money in the bank.

When did that camaraderie with the guys come together?

Strategy?

It was his strategy.

If they don't like me, maybe they'll.

Like like each other because you guys are all from different places.

Yeah, some people coach and they're not very good at preparing, but during the game, they're really good.

At adjusting.

Very few are great at preparing and adjusting.

Yeah, and when you get somebody like that, then then that's it's really special.

Like we'd see you're wearing o'callahan's jersey, right, Brooks would know what O'Callahan was, kind of do something stupid and pull him off the ice, you know what I mean, because he knew it'd be he'd be so excited he's going to get a penalty.

So he had the ability, like Jack, get off.

You know what I mean.

And and he was that in tuned on intimidation of the referee, intimidation of the other player.

Uh, you know so many of the other different things.

Wow, who's the team?

Who's the team?

Prankster?

Davy Christian?

What is what is some of the shit he would do?

Well.

Rob McClanahan was a perfectionist, right, and so you know Christian brothers made the sticks.

So Robbie would have eight or nine sticks taped up and they'd be absolutely perfect and right down by the blade, they'd be a little red little stick or you're plastic covering, right, So Davy would take that off, take a hack, sar and sorrow it so it wouldn't quite break if you money leaned on it, but if you went to shoot, it would break right.

And so Robbie was so particular about the thing.

So all of a sudden, Robbie goes goes to shoot stickpering pissed off, another one pissed off, and then he finds out that Dave Davey had done that.

And so we're in Colorado Springs at the Broad Moor, and you know, our travels are tough.

We got tons of game, and so all of a sudden, you know, Brooks is coming in a little bit late, and Davy Christian and Pavliche find that the figure skaters have their two two's right.

And so Davy Christian gets in this to two right with Pavlage and Herb was talking about for checking right.

So Davy cut a Christian Brothers stick, taped it on another one another one, so had a stick that reached from here to the corner right.

So he's out there and that Herb comes out and he just couldn't do anything but laugh.

But that's kind of who Davey was.

God you need a little of that, though, especially with that environment.

We had our guy, the matt Lights of the world that would do a fucking prank that all the boys could just laugh.

And you know your guys are getting yelled at sweating together, you're leaning together, ma'am.

I did a prank on this one kid who would you know come in our day, you'd you'd break in your goalie or your skates.

They were really hard to break in, so you would put steam in them and then you tie them up as tight as you could.

And there was nothing more painful than what we call lace bike.

You know, all of a sudden, you tight, you skate and you get lace bit.

It's like, oh my god, it's so painful.

So there's this one kid, uh Rory, and he was like helping the equipment manager and he was a real fan.

And I shouldn't have done this, but I did.

H He goes, Jimmy kids, anything I do for it?

He said, yeah, I go, Rory, I've got these news skates.

I need a bucket of steam.

He goes, well, where do I get that?

I go, do you ever see the zamboni when they come out all that steam?

Because you get down there, you capture that steam and you bring it back.

So thys later he comes back.

I can't I can't get your bucket.

This team I got like worry.

I know, I know, oh Rory.

Thanks for listening.

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