Julian Edelman Certainly Sounds Interested a Return to Football

Q: Do you miss football, Julian Edelman?

A: "I do. I miss it more this year than I did last year. I miss waking up in August, going to the field, smelling the fresh-cut grass, seeing the sprinklers just finished, seeing our equipment guys setting all the stuff out, the locker room, the fellas, the competition. And now being in my second year out, I can actually miss it. Because last year, it was still ingrained in my head, that last year was rough. Football is not fun when you feel like shit. Or crap. I've been doing so many podcasts, I apologize. ...

"This is my first year my body's felt kind of pretty good, and that's when you start to go back into the mindset of when the game was at its easiest for you, when you were in your best physical shape and it cross-paired with your smarts of the game, and that's when you miss it, when you can go out and compete at a high level consistently."

This is Julian Edelman doing what he's always done best. Besides catch passes and become romantically involved with impossibly attractive women:

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And that is, play the Media Game. I've seen both Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray Vaughn (RIP) live, and neither of them could shred a guitar the way Edelman works an interview. 

Minitron went on Rich Eisen to promote a podcast he's going as well as his Inside the NFL gig. And he's savvy enough to understand that if all he does is sit there and talk about his new side hustles, it's getting little to no traction. You can't step over a homeless guy on the sidewalk these days without him asking you to like, share and subscribe his new pod, "Dumpster Diving" or whatever. So if he's going to get the word out about his and attract ears to his downloads, he has to chum the waters with some sensational news and get people talking. 

Mission: Accomplished. 

Give him credit. This is great work by a true master of the art of drawing attention. Right down to the opening line, which comes almost verbatim from Kenny Chesney. To the point I thought he was going to sing the rest. 

Yet for all that, I don't doubt his veracity. I'm sure he does feel that way. Hell, I think most football players and coaches do this time of year. Your body and soul get caught up in the great cosmic dance of the changing of the seasons and tell you should should be back on the field this time of year. It takes years to get over it. And some guys never do. Matt Patricia has talked about the same feeling after he graduated from Rennsalaer and had a job designing submarines or something, getting paid more than his parents, who were tenured professors. But he walked away from that life to get back on the sidelines, making entry level money. It happens. And could possibly happen with Edelman. 

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I just don't see any way it will. Sure, the mental picture of him cradling a Mac Jones spiral in the end zone at the end of a goal line pivot route is the stuff dreams are made of. But his last completion was thrown by Jarrett Stidham, in the 4th quarter of a blowout loss to San Francisco, a week before Halloween of 2020. Both mentally and spiritually, that feels like half a lifetime ago. For a wide receiver? It's eons. Receiver years are shorter than dog years. And by any measure a wideout who was grinding bone on bone in his knee two calendar years ago is an old dog who used up his final trick. 

If by some miracle there's a … well, a miracle … and he is willing to walk away from all these new gigs and get back in the helmet, cleats and shoulder pads (more Chesney), of course I'd want him to try out in New England. I just don't see it happening. I just think this was said partly out of emotional honesty, partly out of his genius for promotion. And ultimately, he has respect for the importance of retirement announcements. Unlike some people we can name. 

On that note, if Edelman does come back, and does end up in Tampa, and is successful there, I'm taking hostages. Mark my words, it's going to get ugly around here.