Sports Radio Interviews

Tedy Bruschi Calls It Quits After 13 Years In The NFL

Longtime veteran linebacker Tedy Bruschi of the New England Patriots has retired from the NFL after 13 NFL seasons. Being a  huge fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers myself, it’s hard for me to wax too poetic about Bruschi and his playing career in New England. But leaving allegiances aside, it’s impossible not to admire and respect what Bruschi accomplished on the field. Nor can any fan of sports not give the man credit for the way in which he conducted himself as a professional athlete on and off the field.  In addition to playing all 13 years of his career with the Patriots – something that’s beyond rare in the salary cap era – Bruschi inspired people worldwide when he returned in 2005 to play in 9 of 10 games after suffering a stroke just days after he made his lone Pro Bowl appearance after the 2004 season. Since that time, the now 36 year old Bruschi has continued to shine on a New England defense while also excelling in his role as a mentor to the younger defensive talent New England has added in recent years. Bruschi and his wife Heidi joined WEEI in Boston from Gillette Stadium to talk about his career and his decision to leave the game on his own terms.

On his press conference and how confident and joyous even he seemed to be about his decision:

“Well I alluded to it a bunch of times. It made it easy I tried to use the word celebration you know, and that’s really what it is for me when I look back at my career. Because when you achieve everything that you set out to achieve, it makes it a lot easier, it makes it a lot easier. I’m not one of those players who just wishes I would have had that one time, you know. I had so many. I had so many times and it gives me incredible peace. It gives me incredible peace inside. I’ve talked to so many guys….and they want to know how I’m doing. I say, I’m doing great. And they sort of look at me and say you’re doing great? And then they go ok and they know where I am. They know where I am and that makes it easier not only for me, but for them also knowing I’m just in a great place right now. “

Heidi on if she noticed something different in Bruschi leading up to this training camp and season compared to others in the past:

“We talk about this. We’ve talked about this every day for the last…every year at the end of the year we talk about it a little bit more. Then we talk about it a lot in July and then he’s off. He’s off and running. But this time, we were just prepared for it a lot sooner than we were going to be.”

Tedy on all that he’s accomplished individually:

“Yeah I mean, that’s something that was never really a focus for me in terms of statistics. Statistics, what you achieved in a particular season, how many tackles you had or how you did in a particular game. I always believed that individual success always correlated with the team’s success. If you were playing as hard as you could for the team and you were doing your job in what you were supposed to do and the team was winning – those accolades would eventually come on their own. So why concern yourself with them? So just go out there, make plays and if the numbers pile up, they pile up. And the only stat that you should particularly concern yourself with is those wins.”

On the emotional tribute that Bill Belichick gave him, including calling him the perfect player:

“Him being emotional almost made me get emotional over there sitting down. You know, we spoke yesterday and a very good conversation. But it was more of the same, it was just him being very appreciative, expressing a lot of gratitude. Me expressing to him, him expressing to me. And shoot, I was very thankful for what he said today. It was incredible…I mean, let’s talk about the perfect coach. The perfect coach and I’m sure people are nodding their heads and agreeing with me because he is something – like I was saying, I hope everyone realizes what you have here in him. I can only use his name in a short breathe of coaches like Paul Brown, you talk Lombardi, you talk those guys that really took the game and took it to the next level. And Bill did that in terms of players and presenting information and turn us in to players – not just good football players, but championship football players.”

Listen here to Bruschi on WEEI in Boston

Tags: athletes who suffered strokes, dangers of playing in NFL, longest time with one team in NFL, New England Patriots, Tedi Bruschi retires