That was when I went from this kid that played football to this larger than life personality.

Wow.

You know, that's a...

Heck of a question.

There's no doubt about that.

I would say my rookie year in New England, in the NFL, it wasn't the moment where I connected with fans like that, like, oh, Gronk became Gronk, because that was my second year in the NFL when I was scoring a touchdown like every game.

I scored 18 touchdowns that year, like broke all the records, but it was my rookie year is when I fulfilled that connection and the trust with my teammates, with Tom, and with my coaching staff.

had lots of surgeries

When I just bring up the matchup to you, where does your head go looking at it

uh you know i think it's one of the best thursday night games of the year uh it really is it's in chicago as well great atmosphere i love the city of chicago i love playing there uh this matchup is obviously when you think about the patriots versus the bears though it's not really about the history there there's some history there but there's not you know, an insane amount of history.

But what really it goes to is Drake May versus Caleb Williams.

It goes back to that draft class.

It goes back to, hey, who should have been the number one pick? Who should have been the number two pick? Who should have been the number three pick? And I'm going to tell you this right now.

Tonight is not good.

I mean, not tonight.

Is it effective? Does it do what it's supposed to do?

How is he getting the best, like if you can get to specific of what you're seeing, like how is he getting the best out of the guys around him?

him?Well, here we go.

Let's, let's go to Mike Vrabel and let's go back to Josh McDaniels.

They were taking, you know, a lot of garbage over the last couple weeks.

Oh, they're not performing at the coaching position.

Well, let me tell you this.

Those are two veteran coaches in the NFL, and two guys that know how to make adjustments, you know, whatever situation is brought to them.

I'd like to know, are you, are you, are you out on the Rams?

What is that day gonna feel like? What do you think the emotions are gonna be on that day?

They're gonna be high.

I'm gonna have a lot of emotions for sure.

Probably, you know, a couple tears there and there.

I mean, it's definitely an honor.

It's something I never thought of while playing, which you never think of playing.

You just wanna be the best player you can be and, and you know, win championships.

We're s- we're chatting just before week three kicks off, but who-- which team early on are you like, "This team could go the distance and be Super Bowl contenders?"

Who gets the win?

This is gonna be a heck of a battle.

And last year I said, you know, when they opened up the, the, you know, season when they faced each other, I said, "San Francisco needs this win because the Seattle Seahawks are gonna be a better team, you know, by end of the season." And I was spot on, and San Francisco did get that win, you know, last year to open up the season.

Uh, and this, this is, uh, not the same case.

I think Seattle, you know, is a solid team now.

It's not like they're gonna get better, you know, throughout the year kind of like they did last year, like, with the leaps and, and jumps that they can get better with.

I think they're already solid, and they can just stay solid now this year.

Yeah

No.

Like, e- even though that's the most common.

We're gonna have buffalo wings, we're gonna have mild, medium, and hot.

We're gonna have barbecue wings as well.

We're gonna have garlic wings.

And then we're gonna have a specialty wing after that every single week as well to see what catches on, and then the best specialty wing of that w- of, of the year will be on the menu full-time the following year, so, uh-

Not the fake one.

Yeah, and, and everyone goes to ranch then.

yeah no it's all good just asking what was the first thing you wanted to invest your money in and like What was that decision like? What was it that you decided to invest your money in and what was that decision for you to do so?

Well, I didn't really like investing my money.

I didn't know anything about business.

I truly didn't.

And put it this way, I signed with Body Armor.

I was one of the first athletes to sign with Body Armor in like 2012.

And they gave me stock and some cash.

What was that experience like? And how did you how involved were you in writing those

What do you think has unlocked this version of him?

Well, he kind of had it last year, but then he got hurt, so he couldn't show the world what he was truly all about, especially dealing with an injury.

But just going into this season, seeing what he's done in the first three games, yeah, he didn't have that great of a game versus the Chargers, but with the run after the catch that he had versus the Chargers is just showing his improvement that he has just becoming the improvement of becoming a confident player out on the football field and becoming a complete tight end on the football field as well with that catch and run and him in the ability just to keep running through tacklers i didn't think that he had that in him i don't know where this confidence is coming from obviously getting on the same page with josh allen obviously builds up confidence the more you play in the nfl just as a young buck the more experience you get builds confidence as well obviously he's taking his craft seriously too obviously he's taking practice maybe he's learning the game more and more so he feels you know very very you know, solid every time he hits the field, but the way he took his game to a whole nother level with that catch and run, if he just keeps building.

And now if he just protects the ball, cause that's understandable.

If you don't, you're going to fumble in those cases.

Sometimes I have done it before because you're just trying to defend off so many defenders and break so many tackles that you forget at that moment.

Hey, mind to ball connection, protect the ball.

In your eyes, is it more players or more coaches?

Who's the next great tight end in the NFL?

Oh, uh, I think Trey McBride's probably the best consistent tight end right now over the last couple years.

Uh, the next great one, I would say Brock Bowers was on his way.

Uh, he's been hurt a lot lately, so I can't really credit him right now, but his phenomenal rookie year and, and he does great when he's actually out on the field, so we gotta see how he produces this year.

But, uh, next great young one, oh, man.

What's wild is, like, I thought Sam LaPorta was gonna have, you know, break out more.

Like, these guys are having good, like, rookie years, but then they're kind of falling off a little bit.

Were you allowed to ask for the ball in the huddle?

What's the most trouble you got in with Belichick?

Uh, it was my second year, going to my second year, uh, and Scott Zolak, he's the, you know, game day commentator, well, play-by-play, um, in the local market in New England, and I had that little...

It was a production meeting, and Scott Zolak goes like, "How many guys does it take to tackle you?" And I go, "Scott, it takes a whole entire defense [laughs] to tackle me this year.

I'm gonna go all out." So then Scott Zolak-- It was, like, me saying it like that just being funny.

Scott Zolak goes out to that game, uh, the next day and goes, "Oh, he-- where I catch a ball." He goes, "I was talking to Gronk at the production meeting.

It doesn't take three guys.

It doesn't take four.

Who's the next great tight end in the NFL?

What's the most trouble you got in with Belichick?

Uh, it was my second year, going to my second year, uh, and Scott Zolak, he's the, you know, game day commentator, well, play-by-play, um, in the local market in New England, and I had that little...

It was a production meeting, and Scott Zolak goes like, "How many guys does it take to tackle you?" And I go, "Scott, it takes a whole entire defense to tackle me this year.

I'm gonna go all out." So then Scott Zolak...

It was, like, me saying it like that just being funny.

Scott Zolak goes out to that game, uh, the next day and goes, "Oh, he...

Where I catch a ball." He goes, "I was talking to Gronk at the production meeting.

Who's the next great tight end in the NFL?

What do you have up your sleeve for this? And are you going to cry?

I'll probably cry, definitely.

It's definitely an amazing honor.

And what's most exciting about it, my whole family is coming into town.

All the boys that I play with, all my teammates, I'm sure plenty of them are going to be in town, too, just to see them, reminisce with them about our good old days.

It's also the 10-year anniversary of one of our Super Bowl wins, too.

So that's really, really cool.

want to rub that in a little bit more.

Does the entire offense need to rethink how to protect him? And how do they do that?

Well, in that case, I mean, it's just a game of football.

You know, you got to protect your quarterback, though.

And the way to protect them is with your offensive line.

They just got to be more wary about, you know, where Jackson Dart is in the pocket.

As you can see, he dropped back, you know, pretty far in that pocket.

And It feels like the offense both tackles didn't have that feel of exactly where he was.

What do you make of this?

In the meantime, who in your eyes is that player? Who steps up and becomes the dude?

All right.

Well, it's going to have to be Romeo Dobb.

You can't just go out there and pay somebody that much money and then not have any production from him.

He's going to have to pick it up and pop Douglas.

It's not going to be one guy that, you know, that is going to just pick it up for this offense to take them to that to the level they need to be.

It's got to be a collective because because only special players play.

How many teams do you have more faith in right now over the Rams?

What are your thoughts on Darnold? Where do you think he should rank in the pantheon of quarterbacks here?

Uh, I mean, I think he's where, you know, he deserves to be.

I mean, I love what he's doing.

I love Sam Darnold as a person.

I, I, I really like his game.

But I mean, there was some flaws last year.

It's not like they won the Super Bowl because of Sam Darnold, but he did pick it up in the playoffs, I mean, and in the Super Bowl, not turning over the ball.

What do you expect from May this year now with more experience, with the playoff experience, and then the greater receiving corps?

What does this do? What is the effect that I need to know? What do you think the effect of getting this deal done before week one?

I think Baker is gonna be Baker no matter what.

If the contract was done or if the contract wasn't done, Baker's gonna go out there and be a mad man.

He's gonna play his best football.

You know, it doesn't determine how Baker plays out on the football field with what his contract looks like.

I mean, this guy's an absolute a- animal out there.

He's gonna try everything that he needs to do to win football games.

But the b-

How do you feel about that? Like when, what does he have to do? Or when can we feel safe putting him in even just like the top 10 convo?

I mean, it's tough, Kate, because of his history.

I mean, to be in the top 10 combo, you got to, you know, play solid football for a couple years straight and you got to show that you belong there.

And, you know, Sam Darnold, you know, he missed some throws throughout the season.

He had some turnover problems as well.

I would say, you know, it wasn't, you know.

a Super Bowl victory because of the quarterback.

What do you make of that? And are you surprised that it's going well so far? How far could they go this year?

Talk about this Friday Nights 5G Lights program.

Yeah, so this is my third year, and it's bigger and better this year, and it gets bigger and better every year.

And it's about small towns coming together and rallying their high school team.

And you can enter at FridayNight5GLights.com. You can enter your high school.

And it's about winning the grand prize, and it's a million-dollar field renovation.

And two years ago, Enola High School out of Oklahoma won the million-dollar grand prize and got their field renovated.

And guess what? It gives you so much excitement.

So our question is for high school athletes who want to play college football, what's the best piece of advice that you could give them?

Yes, I'm

right off the plane to right here on the Today Show this morning.

Where were you on vacation? I was in Greece.

Oh, nice.

Yes, yes.

I'm one of the islands.

Yes, I was tanning a lot.

I've

Yeah.

Using, using basketball college terminology right there.

But, uh, I, I'm still gonna stick to my statement is that it's gonna be hard for us to compete at the highest level with the likes of Spain, with the likes of France, with the likes of Argentina, or with the likes of Portugal because- Like I said, I am, I'm hosting the other football.

I'm learning what they do in those other countries.

They have academies that these kids go to, you know, and they start playing the game.

They go to these academies just to learn in how to play the game of football at the highest level possible.

And in order to be great at this, at this sport, in order to have the skill level to compete in the World Cup and be the best, you have to start at a young age.

Yeah

invented the telestrator.

That's why.

He is who he is because you said it.

He made the game simple.

And the game of football is not simple.

There's a lot going on, especially if you're the quarterback.

You've got to know 15 things going on in a matter of a split two seconds.

Like, the booms and, you know, he would come up with names and he would, like, he analogized the regular man shit to, like...

You're saying, "Oh, my gosh." Like, what do you make of this trade?

Well, I did beat the Rams in the Super Bowl, and then the Rams came back and they actually, um, beat me my final game of my career, um, you know, when I was in Tampa when that, when we played that unbelievable game and Matthew Stafford hit Cooper Kupp in the final seconds, so, uh, to set up the field goal when we came back, um, when we were down by about two or three touchdowns.

So I respect the Rams.

What they've been doing over there, uh, since we beat them in the Super Bowl when I was in the New England Patriots, this is kind of a dynast- it's not a dynasty program because they haven't won, you know, many Super Bowls, but it's like a dynasty organization for always being ready to go and competing and ready to win.

Um, and, and having a chance to win a Super Bowl every single year, and that's what the Los Angeles Rams are.

And this trade is, is spectacular.

I didn't expect anything less from the Rams.

Josh McDaniels comping you to A.J. Did you see this?

Still balling.

Oh, man.

That, that's a very, very tough question.

I'm gonna go with, uh, you know, I'm gonna go with Messi.

Ooh.

You know? Ah.

I'm gonna go with Messi because g- because it's not really soccer related, but Cristiano Ronaldo looks like all the skillsets, you know, w- were handed to him at, as, as he was born.

Mm

Was, was the crowd what you thought it would be?

Yeah, the crowd was exactly how I thought it was gonna be, and it was rough just, you know, how the Canadiens came out and scored the first two goals of the game.

So it kinda just zapped us in our energy.

But I kinda got the feel when we scored that one goal, I think we made it 3-1, and it felt like the momentum was gonna shift there in the building.

Let me tell you, I've never felt that type of electricity, uh, in, in the Sabres r- uh, what is it, KeyBank Arena now.

It used to be HSBC when I was growing up, it's the KeyBank Arena now.

I never felt that type of energy and dopamine just going through the building like I did in just that goal.

Uh, that, that kid who got drafted first overall, Mendoza, what a, what a special guy, eh? Like, what do you think of him just kinda coming in and it seems like he's gonna dominate from the start?

Yeah.

I saw that when we, when he was gone.

You know, I rem- I just saw it.

I didn't realize it until he was gone, 'cause I would remember when he would, he would yell at these linemen.

He would yell at you guys.

[laughs]

...

he would yell at guys in front of the wh- in the, in the offensive meeting, but he would yell-- he would, he would call him a fat fuck or a fat piece of shit, but then he would follow it up with the technique that you had to do.