Patriots HoF and former OL Coach Dante Scarnecchia joins! Will Scarnecchia be consulting with the #Patriots next season? Scarnecchia: "It's not true!"
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00:00And it is so great to have our next guest back on the show. It's been a while.
00:05The great Dante Skarnecchia. Hello, Dante.
00:09Good morning. How's everyone doing today?
00:11How are you doing?
00:13I'm doing great.
00:16Bill O'Brien was just on this program, and he appears to be dropping news left and right. I
00:23don't know what you can and can't say, but he's informed the world that you're going to be
00:28consulting with the New England Patriots next season. Can you talk about that or not?
00:33It's not true.
00:36Oh, that's kind of sad.
00:39Well, he did kind of walk it back this morning, Dante, where he said, well,
00:42you've been doing this the last couple of seasons, and you've always kind of been in this
00:47role. So is that true that you have been helping out kind of behind the scenes and you're going
00:51to continue to do so?
00:53I have not been helping out behind the scenes. I'm not involved over there.
01:02It's because you're focused on one thing and one thing only, and that is
01:07total world pickleball domination. Am I correct about that?
01:12Yeah, the domination part's not going so well, but I'm having a lot of fun.
01:18Well, I mean, he's got to be who's the athlete we just talked about who's now going to stop
01:22playing. Oh, J.D. Martinez. Be careful. He started playing professional pickleball,
01:27so maybe there's a lead you could play in, Dante.
01:31Is that the baseball player, J.D. Martinez?
01:33Yeah.
01:34Well, hell, he ought to be good at it.
01:36Said he's training to play pro pickleball.
01:38He signed with the team.
01:42Dante, how do you feel about this choice when it comes to Mike Vrabel as the head coach here?
01:48I love it. I think it's spectacular. I think he's really a great coach, and I'm not making
01:54comparisons to anybody. I think Mike did a really good job at Tennessee. I've been on the field
02:02and watched him as both an assistant coach, a coordinator, and as a head coach. He commands
02:11the room as a head coach, commands the field as a head coach. He's involved in everything.
02:17He knows what everybody's doing and how they're doing it. He's the boss, and I just respect that
02:23about him and love him as a player. He's a great person, and I'm just really, really happy for him.
02:31I think it's a great fit here in New England.
02:34Dante, you've been in a role where you were in the NFL for a long time,
02:39and it was all about respect, and you garnered a lot of respect from players that played for you.
02:45What do you think the most important piece is, because you talk about Vrabel and Vrabel getting
02:51that respect, what do you think the most important piece is as a coach for players to basically
02:58buy into that respect of you as a coach that you need to do?
03:03It's very simple, Jermaine. You have to convince them that you can help them be the best player
03:09that they can be. Stand up in front of them, tell them how to do their job and how to make
03:15them better players. You know the deal. If you play good, you get to stay. If you don't play
03:23very good, you're out. They'll do anything they can. If what they're hearing is convincing to them
03:32that, hey, this guy can help me become a better player and do my job as good as I can do it,
03:38then they get to stay around for a while, and I think that's it. How can this guy, in this case,
03:44Mike, how can he make our team better? When he gets up in front of them, it's going to be
03:49very apparent to all of them how he's going to make it better, and I think that will be the key
03:55to his success. Dante, any stories jump to mind when you were coaching on the staff? Obviously,
04:02you're not coaching the defense, but anything that you saw Mike Vrabel do in particular
04:07on the Patriots roster that you said, this guy can make a coach one day?
04:12Well, I learned it the hard way when Mike was no more than a substitute defensive end at Pittsburgh,
04:20which he did for four years. I mean, he never started, but he was one of those guys that got
04:26out there in certain pass rush situations, and we were playing him late in the game, and
04:31I had heard about Mike because he was such a great player at Ohio State,
04:36and here we are in the fourth quarter. This was pre-Belichick, and we had a chance to beat him
04:43over there, and here he's on the field, and he runs by our left tackle, who was a good player,
04:50and slapped his hands down, and strip sack drew, and game was over, and I said, damn,
04:56and then the next time, the very next year, he's on our team, and it just hit me right away.
05:04For what I saw him do on one play, I'm glad he's on our team, and I don't have to coach against
05:09this guy, and then he became really, for me, my arch nemesis on the field because he would do
05:16everything possible to mess with us, especially in OTAs and minicamps where no one had any pads on.
05:24He'd hold guys on stunts, and then he'd look over at me and smile as I was cussing his face off,
05:31and that's how it was with him. He just would try to get under your skin and mess with you
05:37because to him, it was a lot of fun. Now, when the games were on, it was serious. It was a heart
05:44attack, but I love the guy, man, for what he did for us for so many years. He's special.
05:51Who are you leaning towards Sunday, Dante?
05:54You know, that game is so damn close, it's sickening. It's a one-and-a-half-point spread,
05:59not that I gamble, which I don't, but I just think you're going to have a hard time ever convincing
06:08me to go against Patrick Mahomes. I just can't do it. He's such a good player, and he's carrying
06:16that team. When you look at the statistics offensively, it's he and Kelsey. Kelsey's
06:27the leading receiver. He's throwing it, and they won a bunch of games. You just can't bet against
06:33that guy, especially if it's a close game. He finds ways to beat you. I think Philadelphia
06:41is a really good team. They certainly have a great running game, and the quarterback's good,
06:48and they got good receivers, and their defense is awesome. If Philadelphia can rush four and
06:55cover with seven, they may have a better chance of beating Mahomes, but it's just a hard thing
07:02to beat that guy. You were here for a long time with a quarterback who was, from time to time,
07:09accused of getting favorable calls. Do you think that some of the officiating goes the
07:16Kansas City Chiefs' way from time to time in this league? I don't pay any attention to any of that
07:23stuff. I don't. Look, fans are so rabid and fanatical, and that's why they're called fans.
07:33You know, it hurts when you lose, especially when you got a chance with those guys to beat
07:39those guys, but we played them a lot of times. Maybe we had the krypton for it with Tom and
07:47kryptonite. At any rate, I just didn't think that's a big deal with it. I think the officials
07:54are busting their butts to do it as well as they can and make the right calls. With
08:02replaying all the rest of that, you just got to think they're doing it the right way.
08:07Well, Dante, it is always great having you on this show. We tried one time. One of my goals this year
08:16is to do some sort of pickleball-related foundation fundraiser and to have you be a
08:22part of it. I would do it at any time you want. Just let me know and I will try to get it done,
08:30but it would be so much fun, especially with a lot of the people over there. I'd look forward
08:36to it. All right. Dante Skarnackia, great to talk to you, and we'll talk to you again soon.
08:41Take care, everybody. Stay healthy. Bye. Thanks, Dante.
08:45Wow. I love him. Geez. I mean, weren't there
08:51breathless Patriots beat writer reports, Curtis, that Dante was back and apparently he's not?
08:57He's not. You just got to go to the source on these things. That's what we do on this show,
09:01is go to the source.