I’m Julian Edelman, and my last meal would be a bagel and deviled eggs, a mission style burrito and pan fried chicken potstickers, a french dip sandwich and smash burger, can’t forget the fries, and a Coke, and an old fashioned hot fudge sundae for dessert. ((Intro Music)) Every person has exactly two things in common. We all gotta eat, and we’re all gonna die. Today we’re joined by podcast host, three time Super Bowl champion, one time Super Bowl MVP, and the only person in this room with a higher career passer rating than Tom Brady. Julian Edelman, welcome to the show, man. Thanks for having me. Passer rating, I like that. I’m gonna have to use that. I’m gonna, I’m gonna tell, I’m gonna text him that immediately just to fire him up. You should pull out the phone, text him right now, because you are the greatest Patriots quarterback of all time by the numbers. I’m just a stats guy here. Nah, nah. I changed positions for a reason, let’s just say that. I’m not gonna lie, that pass to Amendola down the left sideline, little wobbly, little wobbly. Oh, definitely. It got to him, it got to him. You know, getting to the playoffs and, you know, one of the things you always say is you’re not leaving anything in the bag. Nothing is left in the bag, everything’s out. And, we practiced that play, we needed a little, gadget play here and there. We’re walking through the game plan, we call the play, and we use this little lacrosse ball. It’s like a mental rep for everyone, just to kind of go over their assignment. Linemen get to do their steps, receivers kind of walk through their, you know, routes, or what we have to do just to sharpen in the night before the game. We call this play, we throw the lacrosse ball to me, I miss Amendola. McDaniels’ is like, like, are we gonna hit this in the game? I’m like, we got it, coach. We got it. Man, gadget plays in general are so fun, especially when you find out Tom Brady cannot catch the wheel route. Anyways, Julian, Julian, have you ever thought about your last meal before? Go birds. Since I’ve retired, I, you know, I used to have a chef, and you’re on this crazy regiment, you know, but since I’ve retired, I’ve kinda, like, ordered what I wanted. So, you know, I’m pretty blessed and fortunate enough where, you know, I get to try those things whenever I want, so, I haven’t thought about it until I got the request, or until we found out we were doing this, and then it made me really start thinking. And then I did, thought out my things, and I was like, man, I like a lot of, like, handheld things. It’s crazy, but I haven’t really necessarily thought about it. I’m glad we can make this dream come true. How often do you think about death in general? I don’t. I mean, now that you have a, I have a kid, you think about setting up the future and especially when you get into like doing all like, will stuff and trust, you know, like then you have to think about it. Yeah. But I’ve always been a guy that worries about what’s on my plate right now. You know, that’s been something that I’ve been doing since I was a kid and it’s led me to this area and it’s been, you know, a good way for me to live. And. You know, don’t think too far into the future, don’t think about the past, just kind of live in the present. Alright man, well your plate in front of you today is going to have a hell of a lot of food on it, brother. Let’s eat! Let’s eat it! Let’s go! ((Bells Ringing)) Alright Julian, for course number one, we got the plain toasted bagel, half with cream cheese and raspberry jelly, half with cream cheese, scallion schmear, and then we got the deviled eggs made with sweet pickle relish. Tell me about it. When I was a kid I used to go to this place called Donut King. Down the street, before school, me, I’d meet up with my boy Scotty. We’d ride our bikes to school, and we’d go to Donut King. And I, in the morning, I never loved, like, just straight donuts. Like, I would, I would narrow it down to maybe, like, two donut holes just to get a little fix. But I was always a bagel kid. I loved a toasted bagel with schmear, and I love scallion schmear. But I also like to do two things. I cut my bagel in half. I want my little savory one with my scallion schmear. And then, you know, I eat that first and then I go, I need a little sweet, I need a little something to, you know, settle the stomach after I have some calories. And that’s why I always put on a raspberry jam with, regular schmear. You are a man of refined tastes. I grew up eating this in my grandma’s home every day. We would come home from school and she would take the cream cheese out of the freezer, because she grew up during the Great Depression and World War II, and she would microwave it, schmear it on a stale bagel, put some raspberry jam on it. And so I also grew up eating this, man. I’m excited. Good bagel. It’s got that nice chew, the nice leathery crust. I wanted to ask you. It looks, sourdoughy? About your Jewish heritage. Because me, growing up as a Jewish jock, a “juke” if you will. A “juke”. I always looked, you can steal that one, I always looked for Jewish role models in sports, and the pickings were slim, all due respect to Amar’e Stoudemire and Sage Rosenfels. But did you ever actively think that you were combating the stereotypes of, like, the nerdy Jewish accountant with seasonal allergies? Yeah, me and my father, every Friday, talk to my rabbi, Rabbi Hamilton, out back in Boston. Study Torah, study Old Testament. And it’s just a good way to learn. Good, good thing for me and my father to have, like, quality time every Friday. Gives us a, you know, an excuse to really, like, set things aside because we do a lot of business together. And he’s always coaching me or, you know, kind of just take in and meet every week without having an agenda. Yeah. Other than learning about what we are, you know? Yeah. Did you ever get bar mitzvahed? I didn’t. If you want to go a two for one deal, because I was never bar mitzvahed either, I’m just saying. Should we do a bar mitzvah party? Guys, comment down below Josh and Julian’s Bar Mitzvah Extravaganza. It’s not too late after 30, we can still get it. I’ll even get snipped too. We’re going to the, wait, you’re not snipped? No, I’m kidding. Oh, I was about to say. You want to check, bro? What are we doing here? Tell me about the deviled eggs. Super Bowl Sunday, my mom would be making up these deviled eggs and she’d always use the sweet relish. Oh, we got the sweet relish in there. Have you been to like, any Houston’s or South Beverly Grill? Yeah, yeah. They got a good deviled egg. If, I see a deviled egg on a menu. I mean, you’re not gonna not try it. I think it’s the Judaism, because this is, you throw this against the wall, it’s egg salad. It’s egg salad. That’s jelly, baby. And I like it with a sweet pickle. I like sweetness. I was talking mad shit outside about the sweet relish choice, and now that I’m face to face with you, that’s a good choice, man. It’s pretty “deece”. It’s pretty “deece”. How many deviled eggs do you think you could eat in one sitting? I think about this a lot. I could probably take down, so, two halves is one egg. No, but you count the halves, so this is. Oh, are you going half? This is one deviled egg, but if you put two together, that’s one egg deviled. So this is one deviled egg, but now this is one egg deviled. So, is it one or two? Is that count in the count of two or one? Different things. One deviled egg, put them together, you have eaten one egg deviled. So, how many eggs deviled could you eat? Oh, eggs deviled, probably about 23, 24, but deviled eggs. You cannot eat 23. Guys, we have eggs in the kitchen, right? Somebody get some eggs boiling, you don’t think I can? I don’t know. You don’t think you can, you don’t believe in yourself enough, you know? I know you got Super Bowl MVP, you know, three rings, all that stuff, but. For who you’re going to be hanging out with a little later, it’s going to be a toasty day. I’ve been in a long term relationship for a minute, man. We’re used to it. We’re used to it. What’s the biggest lesson that you learned studying with a rabbi? You know, the life lessons. I mean, the oldest one in time, David versus Goliath. You know what I mean? The underdog. Taken out, you know, the guy that’s supposed to win. And that’s always been the parallel of my career. You know, I would say something like that. The 2018 Patriots notorious underdogs, you know, for the entire, the entire run. No. No. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. But no, that’s, that’s one of the things I love. One of my, I think that’s one of our best teams. Yeah. No, it was a joke. I’m saying you guys. Minus Gronk. We didn’t have Gronk that year though. You were the bad guys, man. Always. Now that I’m comfortable enough, I can say that you knew you were the bad guys, right? Oh. The villain. Oh, good, good. I’m so glad. I loved running out of the tunnel, cause I used to run out, I would let Tom go out the tunnel I’d let him get ten yards, cause he’s got, he’s the, he’s leading the team out. And after he did his little like, horse trot, then I would take off and run, I’d run the whole sideline to kind of rev up and get my, my legs going, and I would go and like, get the crowd all hyped up, or if you’re in an opposing stadium, you’re getting the crowd all pissed off, and, you know, just, I’ve, I’ve fueled off of villain energy. Who were the most fun fans to rile up? I would say the Bills, and they were, I mean, the Bills were creative. I, you know, never in the history of the world did I ever think in 2016, after a play, I would see a dildo thrown on the field. Never. I mean, the creativity. The creativity of the Buffalo. I tip my hat. I tip my hat to you guys. And we left with a lot of wins, so you got a lot of pissed off people. I’ve never been flipped off in so many creative ways. You know, you’re in the bus and you’re going out and all the fans are lined up and this one lady, old little lady, she has something in her, like her purse, right? She’s like going through her purse and I’m sitting there, is this lady about to pull out a gun or something? It’s Buffalo. No. She goes and she pulls out and goes like this and throws while she’s doing it like some fetti. ((Laughing)) I sat there. I looked at, I looked behind me and I sat on bus one. I was like, yo, Brian, you see that? There’s confetti flip offs! It was spectacular. Whose job was it to pick up the dildo? I sat there and watched. And three refs, they all came around. And they’re sitting there, and they’re scratching their head. You know, I couldn’t hear them because I was like 15 yards away, but I see them like having a I’m not picking that up. You picking that up? All of a sudden, one just kicks it off. Kicks it off. One of the refs kicked it off. They should have brought the chain gang out to measure it and then, you know, yeah, yeah, fourth and seven and a half inches. That’s a good one right there. ((Bells Ringing)) Julian, for course number two, we have the pan fried and steamed chicken potstickers. These are all made from scratch. We have the Lao Gan Ma chili oil, a little bit of soy scallion dipping sauce. And then we have one of the crown jewels of food achievements in the world, the mission style burrito, carne asada, refried beans, queso, Mexican rice, little bit of pico de gallo, salsa roja, salsa verde on the side. I’m going hands, if it. Perfect, I didn’t want. Well, I already felt like a nerd because I put my, I put my napkin on my lap. And he’s got his napkin over there. I should touch it to actually, yeah. I felt nerdy. Napkins are out. Right in that chili oil. You get chili first, right? And then into the soy. You get both. A little bit of acid, a little bit of salt, chili. These are proper. Yeah. Spectacular. You got a podcast. It’s called Games with Names. It’s about some of the most famous sporting events. In history, the ones that you remember by name, you played in one of those. 28 to 3 game, greatest Super Bowl comeback in history. How much do those singular moments mean to you versus your entire career? That’s what you play the game for. You know, that’s why I, at least that’s what I played for. I played to go and try to play in the most important, play in the last game of the year. And, you know, we got to do that a few times. It was, it was, when you’re in it, you don’t really get to enjoy it. You know what I mean? Like, right now is when I’ve really sat back and kind of watched those games because after you win those games, the next year, it gets so much harder. And you have to turn the page. And, you know, when, after my first one, you go have fun, and, you know, by the time, you know, you’re in my third one, you know, you didn’t even go do anything after the Super Bowl because you knew the road to get back to the Super Bowl was so much harder. Each and every time, you were even in that game. Because you become America’s most wanted target. Yeah. Everything on films already been out from the year before. I mean, it’s a crazy thing, but that’s what you definitely play the game for. It sounds like it kind of sucks a little bit. Like, it’s a bit of a paradox, because you reach the mountaintop for, you know, the third time in your career, and then there’s just that cycle of dread that hits you of, oh God, we have to do it again. Do you ever just let yourself rest and like let it sink in or that was strictly for after retirement? After retirement. Yeah. You know, and you know, there’s this, I used to live by this saying called happily miserable. I had to be in like a miserable mindset. You don’t get too high with the high. You don’t get too low with the low. You’re just trying to stay in this medium area so you can go out and put your best foot forward for what you’re doing next. And you know, it’s there’s that whole story, you’re, you’re the Philly guy, right? Yeah. Well, there’s that whole story about right after you guys beat us in 17, there was the jokes about how there’s no fun at the Patriots. We have fun over in, you know, Philadelphia. It’s fun over here, that. And there was a lot of talk going on about, you know, it’s hard to work here. It’s, you know, it’s, it’s, it’s, and I put one thing, which is the simplest thing ever. Winning is fun. Yep. Okay? Winning’s not easy. Winning is fun. You know what I mean? Work’s not easy, but winning is fun. And that was kind of like the theme for that year, you know? We went and won a Super Bowl that year. You know? And we beat the Bears in the first round of the playoffs, and I’m very proud of that team. Dig into your burrito. It took a double doink to get there. So I also had a burrito on my own last meal, but, SoCal kid. I had the San Diego style carne asada burrito. So you go Cali style with the french fry in it? No french fries though, because that’s the Cali burrito, but a San Diego style asada burrito. Just asada, cheese, pico, guac, hot sauce, nothing else. Yeah. The purity of it, but I do love a mission style burrito. Yeah. I had to do it. I had to rip it in half. You rip it in half? A load, the bite was, oh, man. I’m a sauce guy. I’m drowning. If we weren’t sharing this, I would’ve just been dunking back and forth to make a little brown sauce, you know what I mean? I’m a sauce mixer, too. I want to ask you about the nature of luck. Because this is something that a lot of athletes have very different relationships to. You had one of the most memorable catches in one of the most memorable games of all time. Fourth quarter, near the two minute warning. Coming across the middle. You bananaed the route a little bit, but who’s counting? Tom Brady throws the ball. This guy does his research, right? He does his research. You didn’t set up the outside. I’m absolutely kidding. I mean, you didn’t, but that was from your own admission. Ball hits the DB right in the hands. There are, if you were to replay that moment a hundred times. Say the DB catches it 65 times, right? There was a lot of pace on the ball, DB was slow to move his head, but there’s a chance. And then, that game was known as the Julio Jones catch game, right? Yeah. Do you think about it in terms like that, or do you see it as an inevitability? You were sort of always going to win that game, it was written. I have so much ADD, that like, I had to do things, and then like, also with the fact that I used to, my dad used to always set up these crazy drills for me as a kid. I started doing that at work to dial in my eyes and work on my hands every morning before work. So like, so I get my eyes right, I get my hands ready for work cause I wanted to look like a, you know, you want to look like a [BLEEP] pro out there. And, so I do these tennis ball drills where I have two color tennis balls. I’d hold two, a tennis ball in my hand. I have a guy throwing from behind me and I’d be catching, you know, the red ones with my right, the green ones with my left. You know, you’re trying to, you’re just working your reaction and I would change up my ball laying angles. So you’re working your different eyesights. And I get like a chalkboard, I cut holes in the chalkboard. He’d be on the other side throwing and you try to, you know, see what color it was and catch it with the right hand. Catching bricks, anything, any like legendary Jerry Rice drill that you heard of. Like I would try to do catching two bricks at a time, two balls. And so. I don’t know if that helped me. It probably did. I mean, you’re the one that came up with the ball. You’re the one that one won the game. You know what I mean? It was very, it was really reactive and you know, when it happened. You see you’re tracking the ball in the slow-mo, you’re tracking the whole damn time. You know, and that’s what you, that’s the oldest throw in, in as a receiver, when you’re a kid, you look the ball in. And you know, like I said, as a guy with a lot of ADD, for me to combat and make myself focused, I always had to do something. And, and, to manipulate my mind into the focus zone. Yeah. I don’t know if that helped me, but it probably did. What would have happened if you had routed him up and had a better route? It wouldn’t have been the cool catch. It wouldn’t have been the cool catch. It’s not even my favorite catch. What’s your favorite catch? My favorite catch. Can I guess? Can I guess? Let me hear. You, you, well you did the research, this guy’s, he’s, impeccable research guy. I have a favorite catch. Let me see. Let me see. I want to know if it’s your favorite catch. What is it? Uh, it is, Super Bowl against the Seahawks. Kam Chancellor. That’s my hit. My guy. My guy. Tell them about the catch. I don’t want to tell your catch story. No, yeah. Third and 14. And, you know, we’re in the fourth quarter, so the urgency level is up. You need, you know, you’re starting to do math. How many more times are you going to have the ball? The crazy thing is, right before that play in that series on the punt return. I was a punt returner, I caught a ball and I try to juke some dude and this guy flying down took out my hip and I took a helmet to the hip and my personnel group was in and they’re like, yo, we got to go. No huddle. We’re kind of hurting on time, so fast forward to that play, you know, we’re in no huddle and I was on the outside a bunch. So I’m running deep balls. So I’m kind of gassed, in between plays, my hips singeing up on me, you know, your adrenaline can kick in during the play, and you’re like, cool. Anytime you’re at the deep end, you got a quarterback clock in your head, especially me. So, you’re sitting there, you’re running, I hit my end, and usually the ball needs to be on you on the numbers, because there’s a safety right there waiting for you. Yeah. And so, I’m running, and I’m sitting there, I’m like, uh oh. Tom steps up, has to do something in the pocket, I’m sitting there, I’m like, this joker’s gonna throw it to me and we’re, we’re damn near in the middle of the field. He throws it, zings it, I knew, I hit Kam earlier in that, that, that game. And he felt like a rooted tree. I mean, he’s like a 6’3, 6’4 230 pound safety, right? Like, he’s a massive guy. But honestly, one of the nicest human beings I’ve ever, he was very polite to compete against. And then, I go, and I catch it, and Kam lays the hammer on me. Like, I didn’t know if my knee popped down, I popped up, and then everyone thinks, and, you know, then I try to get up, and if you see, I grab for my hip. Yep. And I couldn’t get up because the adrenaline was down, and my hip, my hip singed up. But, yeah, that was the play, and I love that play because I remember always, when I was a kid, in the street with my dad and my brother, we’d always be doing these little dumb, like, football drills. He’d make us, he’d be challenging us with, like, He’d set up like four rocks and you’d have to run in between this and the other hole, this hole. And, and he would throw it and, you know, he would say stuff like, if you’re gonna go over that middle, you gotta take that hit. You know, you gotta take that, you better catch it cause you’re gonna get hit. You know, and, and that was that play. And I remember watching that catch and going, of course he caught it, of course, of course he did. Of course, Malcolm Butler. Anyways, what makes you different than all the other guys who come across the middle and alligator arm their ball? What makes you particularly fearless? I always had like a guy in front of me. Especially when I turned to receiver watching Wes and I watched him go across the middle and take big hits where I thought, this guy, I’d be putting my helmet on, cause I was like, not starting yet. Coming out and he would get up and go, and you know, I was like, oh damn. And then we traded for Danny Amendola, or we signed Danny Amendola. And you know, he was the kind of guy that could do that. You know, so I think, the guys that did it, inspired me, and made me feel, well if guys have done it, why can’t I? Yeah. You just gotta hold on, bite your lip and give it hell. And you sure did, man. You were running like a waiter trying to not spill a tray of beers after that play. That was a fun play. Those are some crazy plays, man, and you know, it was, hell of a run. ((Bells Ringing)) Julian, course number three. We got the French dip sandwich. We actually got this from a spot called Houston’s, one of my favorite French dips in the city. Then we got the double patty smash burger. Classic 70/30 ground beef. Really smashed into the griddle to get crispy, American cheese, pickles, a little bit of onion and, ketchup and mustard, some fries. Classic Coke, dig in, man. This is the All American meal. What did you flip your burger over for? What? Why’d you flip your, is that burger flipped over or am I tripping? Yeah, yeah, no, no, I did, I did. Well, okay, so all the juices are flowing downward in a burger, and so I like to reverse the flow of juices so it evenly distributes, the weight across the bottom and top bun. This is my lunch too, man. I wanna enjoy it as well, you know? I never knew that. And I’m a burger connoisseur. You learn something new, man. New techniques. Yeah, I love burgers. I mean, I love sandwiches. Yeah. I’m a sandwich guy. And then I love, like, sauces. I’m a huge au jus guy. Like, I’ll make French dips at my house with the McCormick’s packaged au jus. You know, I’ll add a little couple things in there, but you just can’t go wrong. The bread is always super crucial, too. You know, I like a good sourdough or, you know, crusty bread that when you dip her. Then she softens up for you. It can soak, the crustier it is, the more it can soak. There was one time, when you were camping out near Tom Brady, and he calls you up to run routes. You were at a barbecue. How many beers deep were you when you were running routes with Tom Brady? It was early, it was early. So, I didn’t have any beers in me, quite yet. But I was, I was well on my way. Like we were playing in this thing, it was right over Marina del Rey. My boy got a jumpy house right on the beach, like it was. You’re talking like a bounce house? Yeah. Don’t ask me. It was, we were like 22. What would happen if Bill Belichick would have found out that you tore a ligament in your ankle in a bounce house? Well, if I tore a ligament in a bounce house, as a professional athlete, we got a problem. Fair enough. Fair enough. That’s be on me. So yeah, he hits me up. Yo, hey babe. Yo, you wanna, you wanna run some routes? You think you could get, like, yeah, I’m coming. Of course, be right there. I’m out there doing a dynamic, getting all lubed up. I was there like 30 minutes early. And he comes and he ran me to the ground. I mean, I was dying. We ran like 65, 70 routes. He would do little things, like we would do these like Eight, eight play drives, like the length of the field. And then we get in the red area, he’d make me do a red area route. Red area is the red zone, 20 yards and in. Thank you for explaining football to our fans. They’re more Swifties than NFL fans in our fandom. Yeah. But they know more about football than ever now, which is great. So this is the most educated, our fan base has ever been about football. The best, that she’s done. Anytime you make the league bigger. Let’s go. I was, what do you think this is? This is my best friend bracelet from my daughter. That’s beautiful. We went to the concert. She made me a little bracelet, so I gotta wear it. I have a friend who dressed up for the Chiefs game, because they’re a fan now, and they said they’re doing cosplay. And I was like, that isn’t exact, well no, you’re doing cosplay and you’re doing great, sweetie. I forgot my story! – You were, you were. – I forgot my story! You were running like a hundred routes, you thought you disappointed Tom Brady. I thought I disappointed him. Fast forward to like, the next year, you know, he’s calling me a couple times. And then fast forward another year, we were doing it three, four days a week, and you know, it’s a huge part of the reason why we were able to develop a chemistry. Dig into the burgers. It’s getting cold, it’s getting cold. I’m just making sure my juices are flowing in. You see what I’m saying though? The correct direction. Now the buns are more symmetrical? I believe in this. Dude, I mean. You work on your craft. You’re out there running routes with Brady. I’m here flipping burgers. We’re the same. I always cut the burger in half, bubs. Never cut the burger in half. Always. Then I’m getting stuff all up in my, I’m a beard guy. Okay, usually I have a beard. I know I don’t have a beard right now, but if you go right here, double trouble, sauces all up on the beard, then I’m smelling like burger for three days. You cut it. It doesn’t get in the beard. That’s perfect. That is good technique right there. That is a technician, a man who has practiced craft. And me, as a rook, I gotta look up to the veterans like you, man. No shot, this guy. Speaking of which, one time you were a rookie. You played for a coach named Bill Belichick. Former coach of the New England Patriots now. Maybe the greatest coach of all time. What’s the biggest lesson you took away from Belichick? Because yourself, I mean, you, you were unrecruited out of high school. JUCO product. Played at Kent State, smaller school. Switched positions, going into the NFL, switched positions in the NFL, thought you were going to get cut for four years. Fast forward to Super Bowl MVP, that is a hell of a journey, and you’re surrounded by a bunch of incredible people. I think the one thing that stood out the most to me was, was his preparation process for when he’s doing a job. And the consistency, the relentlessness, the sacrifice, all those keywords that we all hear in success, that successful business mind tweet, Instagram post, like the way he prepares and his attention to detail and his attention to like. He would coach and do like some of the most like you would think like we had to stop the run and run the football, block and tackle and you’re sitting here like we all know that. Yeah, those are the verbs in football, thanks. Yeah, the verbs, but if we make all the open field tackles, if you win your one on one blocks, if you work on the the open field tackling drill that we do every day and you use it in the game, the fundamental, we will win and he broke it down to simple forms for every guy to really understand what his vision was, and I just thought like man, this guy’s, he’s like a computer. Tom Brady went on a rant about how fundamentals in football are getting pretty piss poor. And I know a lot of that has to do with rules that the NFL is implementing to make the game safer. Is there something futile about trying to make the sport of football safer? A sport that is defined by violent high speed collisions. Yeah, this is a, this is a loaded question. Sure. You know, it’s a double edged sword. Players complain about rules, but players sue because of injury. Sure. Like it happened in the middle of my career. I mean, it was starting to happen. It wasn’t like we were 1970 or, or the 80’s or 90’s. Yeah, facemask people. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it’s, it’s a, it’s a tough situation. You know, I like the game physical. I always was the type of guy that like knew what I was signing up for. Yeah, it’s dangerous, but it calcified the player with all that. And if you made it through training camp, then you had a good chance of making it through the season. Now the training camps aren’t as hard. So, you’re seeing all these crazy spikes of injuries because your body’s not like really getting calcified to what you need to be doing. I’m a little scared. Well, are you spooked on, like, a very personal level? Because, I mean, obviously you’ve taken a lot of hits. Do you worry about CTE? Do you get worried? Yeah, you get worried. But, once again, I wouldn’t be sitting here talking to you on this cool show if I didn’t put my body through what I had to go through. Sure, yeah. You know what I mean? There’s, there’s a lot of good studies out. There’s a lot of proactive treatment you can do to help your brain. I think with technology, the rules of the game now, I think we’re going in the right direction. It’s not exactly the same, but in my life, there’s a report that came out that said every hot dog you eat takes six minutes off your life. And brother, I’ve eaten, I’ve eaten a lot of hot dogs. I’d be dead, bubs. I’d be dead. ((Bells Ringing)) Julian, we are in the final round. We got your good old fashioned hot fudge sundae here. I almost threw up a little bit of french dip. We’re at the end, baby. Do I go in? Did I say are we starting? Yeah, man. Are we starting? I’m sorry. I thought we were comfortable. Tomayto, tomahto. Do you want to say a prayer? Do one of these? L’hadlik ner shel, old fashioned sundae. Amen. Amen. I feel like, early days Eminem spitting out that Hebrew. Yeah, you can’t go wrong. I like classic. I want you to know that yesterday, we ordered maraschino cherries on grocery delivery, and they came without stems. So we drove our asses back to the store to get the stem ones. You gotta have the stem. Got to. The key to a whole sundae. I mean, watch. Watch this trick. I can do the thing with my tongue. I’m joking. Do it, and then we’ll do it in post. We’ll do it in post. It’ll be a whole balloon animal in there. Watch this. The TikToks are titled, What Julian Edelman’s Mouth Do. ((Laughing)) There’s, nope, he swallowed it. Yep, and it’s down there. Got him. Wait, did you eat it? No, it’s right here. I did it, you see? Wait, did you actually? – No. – Oh, I thought it was. It looked like. It looked like it. Easier than my daughter, bubs. Let’s talk about your relationship with your daughter and your father, because, you have talked about how your dad was a real hard ass training you in sports. And you once charged the mound on him? Tell me about that. I mean, we would practice every day. Dad would go to work at 5 A.M. come home at 4, pick me up. We’d go do an individual practice, then we’d go to the team practice. You know, like, just reps, reps, crazy drills, all this crazy stuff. Like, he always was testing me. He was always trying to make me better. Sometimes I was a punk. You know, and he’s throwing me, batting practice before a game. At Sequoia High School, I was dipping my shoulder and my dad goes, stop dipping your shoulder. And like, I like spit at him or something. I was like, just throw the ball. And so he threw a ball and he like gave me some chin music, to close off the plate. I looked at him, I dug my foot in, dug my other foot in. I looked at him again. I was like, all right, let’s go. And so he threw it, and I dipped it again. On purpose. Next pitch he throws one and it hits like my legs. I finally throw my bat down, I went and I ran at him, he one two’d me, I’m on the ground, he’s, oh, he’s pinning me down, I’m like bleeding, I’m trying to get him, he’s like, are you done yet? I’m like, yeah, I’m done. And that was the time I tried to charge the mound on my dad. And then I went to the game with like a bloody jersey and shit, this was the 90s, alright? You know, go to the game with a bloody jersey, people are like, what’s going on? Kid’s got a bloody nose, you know, we’re good. Yeah, yeah. It’s funny, you tell that story, and I, I grew up, sports were my entire life until food became my entire life. And I’ve sort of had to learn to look at the world through a different lens. I remember even getting into a workforce. And I was working, you know, it was like a 14 hour double shift at a catering company and this girl broke down crying because she’d been, quote, on her feet for 14 hours. It was very foreign to me to have to take people’s feelings into account. That story, you could tell in a very different tone if you wanted to. You know what I mean? You’re on a therapist’s couch saying, tell me about your relationship with your dad. There’s different ways to doing different things. And every kid is different. You know, a good parent learns their child. Knows their child, and does the things for that individual child. Like, things were different for me and my brother. And I was like a hard head little kid. I needed that. I needed that structure, or I was, you know, gonna be working at my dad’s shop, washing windows. You know what I mean? That kind of kid. And I’m very thankful for it, because I wouldn’t be where I’m at now, without that. How old’s your daughter now? She’s seven. What sports is she playing? She plays soccer. She’s getting pretty good with a little soccer ball. She loves, she’s still a little kid. – Sure. – You know what I mean? When you’re a parent, you’re just throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. And if they have interest in something, then, you know, you push them there. But it’s fun, because watching them progress and watching her work on something, and then you see her progression, and you see her little light click on, you see her, her competitive side of something, and then you see, you know, her really sitting focused because there’s some kind of goal, or, you know, she’s trying to do something, like, that’s where you’re, that’s, that’s like my high now, that’s the only thing that really makes me happy, like, we, doing all, everything, you get, we, we’re fortunate enough to do so much stuff when, you know, with the situation that I’ve been, I’m in, but like, the only thing that really makes me happy is watching her, doing something, and enjoying something, or progressing at something, competing at something, you know, it’s fun. If your daughter comes to you and says like, I want to be the best gymnast in the world, are you going to take up that mantle as nutty sports dad? I’m in the spot now where I can hire people, hey. And also with a little girl, like she has a soccer coach, I think it’s really cool for her to see like, her soccer coach, Melanie, like, she works with a woman, and it inspires a little girl when she sees her soccer coach with all the skills. Like, if it was me, I don’t know if it’s the same kind of effect. Sure. And also the whole thing when, you know, because of my father, being coached by your parents sometimes, you take coaching from a different person better. You know my dad used to say this all the time, then I go get another coach and I’d be like, the guy’s saying the same thing my dad said, but I’m doing harder with this guy, you know, I mean? You ready to get in the lightning round? Let’s go. What’s the lightning round, man? Well, I ask a series of lightning questions. You don’t got to be that fast with it. It’s more just I ask more questions, you can keep eating through it too. Other than me. Who’s the one person dead or alive? You’d want to share your actual last meal with? I don’t know why but I can’t, it just popped, Michael Jordan would be pretty cool. That’d be sick. No one’s picked a rando. Not that he’s a rando. Everyone’s been like, oh family, you know what I mean? Nah! Michael Jordan! Seen them. Love them. If you got to start a regular season game at QB for the Pats, what would your final stat line have been? Now am I prime me? Am I in prime me? Oh yeah. Am I prime me? Gonna get a lot of buzz with this one. I think I could go like 7 for 20. Like 170 yards, a touchdown, throwing, maybe two running. I’m not joking, man. I can, get some, I can make some stuff happen. What song do you want played at your funeral? Turn the Page. Bob Seger. If you were to come out of retirement right now, what quarterback would you most want to play for? I gotta, I mean, I’m going with either, probably Pat. Pat Mahomes. It’d be fun to play with him. I think he’d like that too. Give Kelce a little help across the middle. I think Kelce would like that too. You know, coach up on Toney. I think we’ve made some magic happen here today. If these guys, if these guys are in the Super Bowl, cause I don’t know, this is coming out the week before. That’s crazy. Brother, you’re already gonna be at Arrowhead. I’m calling it in the future. Arrow? I’m 38 years old, bro. When did Tom Brady win his last Super Bowl? He’s a quarterback. He drops that. Okay, we need to get this out of people’s mind. Okay, what he did. Is different. It’s very different. People look at me and go, you’re not that old. I played 12 years. You get hit running full speed by guys twice your size. And see how you feel. Also, you’ve been eating eggplants and tomatoes too. That’s why you can’t play until you’re 43. You briefly made the switch to corner in your career. Who’s the one wide receiver you’d want to man up on? I would want to man up on Danny Amendola. Oof. Calling you out, buddy. We can set that up too, I’m just saying. We got, we got the venue. I know all your little moves. I know every single little shimmy you got in that tool belt. Oh man. Cute. It’s cute. What’s your greatest regret in life? I don’t have any regrets. Hell yeah. What’s the one thing that annoyed you about Tom Brady? I used to get so mad when he said Wes Welker’s name. Cause he didn’t say his name, he’d be like, Wessie. ((Laughing)) He would say Wessie in the, in the film room. If I did something exactly the same way that Wes did it, he’d be like, hey babe, you know like, you gotta see what Wessie does. He would say Wes, and I’m sitting there and it’s dark so no one sees, and I’m sitting there and I’m like. I would get so mad when he would say Wessie. Like when am I getting a, a Y at the end of my name or something. Julesy or. Did you ever get it? No, just Jules. Jules is a good one, Jules is a good one. And finally, are you happy? I am. I am happy. Happy is a mentality, bro. You know, and, I got a lot of great things in my life. I’ve got my health. I got a healthy daughter. My parents are still here. So yeah, do we, do I get like depressed and have down days? Yeah, but as an overall, I’m pretty happy. I appreciate you, man. Julian, you absolutely rule, brother. Everybody, make sure to check out Games with Names. Julian, if you want to deliver your last words to that camera right there. Tough times don’t last. Tough people do. You always gotta believe. Goddamn, I could run through a brick wall right now. Sign me up. You need tackling help? I can plug up the middle, I’ll put my body on the line. Julian, again, man. Thank you so much. No problem, man. This is fun. This is absolutely rad. Again, everybody, Games with Names out wherever you get podcasts. It’s fantastic. I remember where I was during the Reggie Bush game. Yeah. I was like eight years old on the couch, man. Eight? How old are you? Like ten? 31 years old. What year was that game? I think it was like twenty, 2006? Five? 2005? I would have been 12 years old. Yeah. That’s insane bro. I was a 12 year old boy. I was in college around there. Wait, when did you work out at UCLA? We can cut the cameras off. Thanks so much for stopping by. Thanks guys. What years were you working out at UCLA? – [Josh] Face the reality of mortality head on with our new Last Meals hat and tee, available now at Mythical.com