Julian Edelman tells Jon Bernthal how he forged his legendary connection with Tom Brady

foreign [Music] you always heard the stories about TB throwing away Welker and moss in LA and you know you have Gronk come out here so you know after my first year I was like yo Steve my agent you know I was like give me a place in La and let Brady know I'm gonna be out there yeah just in case he wants to throw you know I wanna I wanna throw with them I want to be around them and you do that like multiple you're just like trying to get his attention trying to be like yo I will be your your dude I just wanted to be available that's right you know because I mean I was still like a slap dick at the time I had some run and some burn my rookie year but you know there was Wes Welker and he was a [ __ ] stud yeah you know I was a transferring positions from quarterback to receiver and I was still learning my game I was still trying to gain confidence through experience and Reps and you know I needed reps so how do you get reps you got to be around the guy who's throwing the ball and you know that's all you can ask for is to be around especially with a guy like Tom Brady who already had three Super Bowls you know he was 35 he was a stud for him to give me any kind of time time would be like insane and you know I moved out here my first year he only called me once dropped everything where were you when you called I was in a barbecue okay I was gonna barbecue here in in Venice he's like yo a bit because he's like he babes he babes everyone yeah he's like oh hey babe uh can you uh come come catch some routes over at UCLA yeah I was like yeah I'll be there in 10 minutes yeah yeah dropped everything went out there doing you know warm-ups and [ __ ] he comes out and he [ __ ] worked me to death yeah you know I mean I I was like we ran we must have ran 65 70 routes which is a lot you know you go out usually in off season you know when you're you're running routes you probably do you know conditioning you'll hit like 25 to 30 routes afterwards very specialized and detail but you know he was over we were over here doing two minute drill going set to 10 go down take a minute break come back and all the that kind of work prepare me because he was learning my body mechanics and I was learning ultimately what he wanted you know if he was yelling he would yell at me on like an out route like Yo dude you got to get downhill on this one you know cover four you know talking football with the guy who's ultimately Distributing the footballs in the driver's seat but you know I remember you know from uh I've seen both of the the documentaries that they're so [ __ ] I mean like me and my my kid a little Bill we we like watch him over and over again I'm gonna talk to you about him a little bit too but but uh you know um Brady like says on there you were like a like a [ __ ] golden retriever you're just like like your work ethic was so apparent to him like right off the the jump and I'm just wondering like I get it like you guys are learning each other but at that point he wasn't really looking at you as like this guy could be this guy could potentially be like my you know what you ended up as right but what it would he run 75 routes was that with everyone or was there something different about the way you were doing it like how do you feel like when you're working out with your quarterback like what is the proper way to do it should you when you catch the ball are you coming full speed backhanding in the ball like what made you different how did you show your work ethic I think I think we were both using each other for different reasons I was using him just to be seen just to let him know you know I'm here sure uh he was using me because he needed to throw the ball and you know you need to throw the ball to move in targets and especially guys that know your system you can sit and talk football and you know you're sharpening your brain in the off season when you can sit and talk play you say hey you're the F zero out slot thing ride 134 FBO ice you know you gotta and so like we're talking football so it's helping him stay in shape mentally physically and for me it was like I what I did I was just available yeah yeah that was the one thing like I I always told him if you need anyone I'm I'm there you know that I'd drop anything because you know I I loved football and I I was you know when you get in this like sense of unknown you know you're getting something new yeah you know I never played receiver you you're like a cornered animal you gotta I was always taught you gotta work your way out of it you got to do everything you can to get out of it how do you get out of it how do you get confident work and who taught you that and and and you know you're uh your pops man I I really want to like uh I'm so I'm so fascinated by your guys relationship and uh again I'm I uh my dad coached me uh I'm I'm the father of athletes and and my nine-year-old plays quarterback had a you know he's pretty phenomenal he kind of shits on all these dudes in basketball and stuff already but he plays baseball and basketball and all that and I really want to um I won't talk about that I mean like how would you how would you how would you describe your old man and how would you describe um how would you describe like what sports the the bond between you and like how Sports is has played a played a role yeah my pop you know he uh he grew up without a dad his dad died when he was three and uh he was in and out of trailer parks mom you know my grandma had like three or four different husbands and you know so it was a different life than what I was and his dream always was to have a father and have you know a relationship with someone that could help him because he always remembered when he was playing sports he was a stud but he was never quite better than the guy that had his dad pushing him you know and so that's why he ended up quitting Sports to go out become a mechanic help his mom and he learned you know ultimately the root of hard work through that process now when he had me you know he his dream was you know to basically give me what he never had you know that support system and I was like a knuckle I was a wild kid and he knew how to handle me you know he he pushed me very hard he was very tough on me this was the 90s you know like this shit's not you couldn't do something like that now yeah you know so I learned from him through our hard work you know we practice every day whether it was football baseball basketball my dad would go to work at 4 30 or 5 30 come home at four pick me up before practice we go hey infield take batting practice you know get some extra reps some football catching balls throwing balls before practice then we go do homework after he was just always there you know and and I think seeing his hard work uh through example of how he worked and then his dedication to the you know the kids me my brother and sister you know that kind of when you're a kid you are what you you're around that's right and so when you're around that you know I picked that up and you know he was always the voice in my head when I I then went off without him I went to college he was always that voice in my head that was always talking to me because I could always remember the little [ __ ] he would do to me like when I was taking infields to have my sister like throwing like wiffle balls at me and and trying to bug me and and I would get so pissed off and right I was a firecracker and I'm like what the [ __ ] what's going on he's like I stopped that [ __ ] yeah he'd be like you're not going to make it because your mentality like your mental games out there yeah you know what I mean like if you can't handle this what makes you think you can handle other people yeah and he would challenge me this like when I was 11 years old right 12 years old right and so and in the moment what would that what would that how would that make you feel see I would get pissed off and try to prove him wrong like that was me you know like he knew what bus buttons to push with me to to piss me off and that's the kind of person I am now people are different some people can't be coached hard they need to be loved up a little more you know everyone's a little different but with me he knew that I needed that in order to get pissed off work hard Focus up like all these little factors these fundamentals that have helped me succeed in my life like he knew that at a young age did you coach your brother and sister in the same way like in this was his style his style or did no his sign was his style he coached my brother and my brother you know he couldn't take it as much how so you know he's just you know we're you know every kid's different and I was like how would it manifest itself yeah he my brother like he would I wouldn't say he would back down but it was a different situation and my brother had a different dad my dad raised him and it was just kind of it was a different situation he he would get hard on my brother and my brother you know wouldn't react the way I reacted you know my sister it was different by the time he got done with me she's younger than me he's like man I probably abused this kid I can't do this to a little girl so you know it was different with her but you know it it goes to like for like especially your parents that coach their kids you know you got to know your kid yeah and you got to know what buttons to push and and we fell into the situation but with me and him were you know I was the kind of kid if you were to challenge me like that would fire me up and I wanted to prove someone wrong I wanted to like because he yelled at me or something he threw a fastball at me I was just sitting there and I wanted to just like shut his ass up because he was bitching the whole time to me so it made me focus and I played better angry you know what I mean my brother didn't necessarily do that yup yup yup so and when he was coaching the other kids on the team because he was coaching your Peewee team was he that same way with them like was he oh he was he was terrifying yeah he was he was that guy he was that guy yeah they were tough it was a tough group back then you know when we played Pop Warner and [ __ ] like it was uh you know it was different I mean you gotta you got a a 33 year old coach with a dip in yeah and like croakies like [ __ ] these kids that's right making us puke because like there's a special formula in pop one or there's like a number of players you wanted because MPR the you had to play a certain amount of plays if you had like 33 you guys got to play 12 plays again yes yeah so there was like that special number so we'd start out with kids you would try to run these kids they [ __ ] quit so you get the the team right you know what I mean and we want Super Bowl Zone and [ __ ] like we were I remember going to high school after like pop warner thinking it was soft yeah yeah because of how like disciplined we were we were well coached yeah you know it was a testament to you know not only my father but the other coaches along that program so yeah [Music]

Channel: REAL ONES with Jon Bernthal

Views: 195,964

Keywords: Tom Brady, Julian Edelman, New England Patriots, NFL, Jon Bernthal, Real Ones Podcast, Real Ones with Jon Bernthal

Id: 9Id_bLAJogk

Length: 11min 3sec (663 seconds)

Published: Wed Dec 21 2022