Here’s the full transcript of what New England Patriots linebacker Matthew Judon had to say on Wednesday, July 24, 2024:
OPENING STATEMENTS:
“You’re all down. Wow, it’s kind of tall.” (referring to the podium)
“What up, y’all? First day. Go ahead with the questions.”
On how important it is for him to be out here today:
“Bro, I haven’t played football in so long. It was important for me to just get back out here with the guys. I did mandatory minicamp, but just started getting on the right foot, especially with all the guys, man. I just miss football, for real, honestly. The game.”
On how he’s feeling being in the office:
“What up, bro? From Germany all the way. I’m feeling great. I’m feeling great about the new guys. My health-wise, I feel good. Body, I feel great. I rehabbed an injury. Very hard, very intense, very focused. And so throughout the offseason, I got to just work on a full body and just not trying to get back. I had enough time to heal myself and step away from the game of football to get right…”
On his contract status:
“Bro, you all be knowing before me. But honestly, it’s tough going into the last year of the deal. You kind of look at everybody around the league and in the building, and you see them getting deals done and worked out. And it’s tough to not be jealous or envious or something like that. But honestly, I got to focus on myself. I’m happy for those guys. As much as everybody wants to see me stay around here for a long time, it’s really not up to me, bro. I’d pay myself a lot of money and just stay around here for a long time, but it’s not up to me, man. So, you got to ask those guys that’s making those decisions. They’re trying to do what’s best for the team, rightfully so and understandably. They’re trying to put us in the right spot to win games and leverage everybody’s contract in the right situation, make sure the salary cap is right, so where if we get in a tough spot later on the year, we can sign players and whatnot. But it’s not up to me. I’d pay myself a lot of money and then just be cool with it.”
On as he sits today, if he’s optimistic that he can get a deal done:
“Me? Like I said, me. You all get to talk to me. I don’t even know if you all get to talk to those guys, but you all get to talk to me. If it was me, If it was me, I’d love to stay here forever. That’s not up to me.”
On what is it about here that makes him want to stay:
“Honestly, I’m lazy, so I don’t want to move again. But it’s the locker room, bro. My teammates, [Deatrich] Wise, I hang around him in the offseason just because he’s a good dude. We kept a guy like Matthew Slater around. That speaks volumes about the organization. [Dont’a] Hightower came back. It’s not just me that want to stay. It’s a lot of guys that played a lot of good football around here that want to be around this organization and want to be in Foxborough. Even though it’s raining, first day of camp, we want to be out here. We want to be close. You see a guy like Josh Uche that signs back, and he says it’s because of the people in the locker room. You see Anfernee [Jennings] sign back. It’s because of the guys in the locker room and what he can learn and what he improved. Jonathan Jones has been here for going on nine years.”
“It’s a lot of guys that get in here and get in the locker room, and they get addicted to it. It’s an addictive locker room. It’s an addictive culture in there, and that’s what I want to be around. We communicate football on the defensive end at a very high level, and I love it.”
On the fact the other day he retweeted a tweet proposing to trade him to the San Francisco 49ers, and if he wants to be traded:
“Do I want to be traded? Hell, no. I feel like when you traded, you don’t got no saying so in it. They just come tell you, ‘Hey, bro, you’re leaving.’ I don’t think nobody want to be traded, honestly. But I told y’all, I don’t run my Twitter, bro. People be tweeting stuff, and I’ll be reading this stuff, but I don’t run my Twitter. The only time I’m really on there is when I’m talking to Ben AP and Miles. That ain’t me.”
On if he would welcome a trade to a contending team:
“No. It ain’t up to me. I’ll be telling my daughter this. She’s nine years old. You only can control what you can control. It is so much stuff that go on in our lives day to day that we have to respond to. If I’m traded, that’s not up to me. I’m responding to all the variables in my life as a dad, as a son, as a brother, as an uncle, and as a football player as well. All this stuff was given to me. God blessed me. A lot of talents and a lot of attributes and a lot of charisma and all that stuff. But that’s one thing that I don’t get to control. If I go to San Francisco or I’ve seen trades to Atlanta, Detroit, all that stuff, the stuff you all see, I see as well. But I just don’t buy into it. Once they tell me I’m gone, that’s where I’m going. But until the end, those guys, like I said, Jay Jones or Anfernee or Josh Uche or Drew. I knew Drew for a long time. High, Bent [Ja’Whaun Bentley]. Those are my best friends until I got to leave and then I got to play them. But I’m still have respect and come out here and do my job because it’s not up to me.”
On the fact it sounds like he’ll play out his current contract:
“I got to, Honestly, bro, that’s again, I signed the deal, my signature on it, so I got to play on it. Would I like to? No. Do I think that’s my value? No. But again, bro, that’s not up to me.”
[Inaudbile Talking]
“Hold on, hold on. One at a time.”
On if he’s been told that there won’t be a deal or extension for him:
“No.”
On if that means he’s optimistic it still can happen:
“Hey, bro, you all know what Matt Groh looked like and Elliott, where they walk out here in front of you all every day. If you all can, pull them to the side and ask them. Ask them just have a real conversation with them. Don’t be a reporter. Have a real conversation with them. If they get you all that time, that’s when you all get all your answers, man. You all can’t get no answers out of me because they really talk to my agent, and then I get to… I hope I can play here this year. I hope I can continue to wear the red sleeves, continue to contribute for this defense, be a catalyst to one of the best defenses in the league since I’ve been here for a very long time. But if that’s not the case, that’s not the case.”
On the fact he mentioned his value and what he feels separates him from other edge rushers in the league and makes him want to be a better player:
“Bro, I love football. I love the physicality of it. I love the mental preparation. I love everything that it gives me, but I think my separation, because I think a lot of people do. I think that I’m not a football player. That’s just my job. And so I can detach. I can detach it. I can go back and look inward, look to Christ, and still be grounded. Most people don’t like you all because they think you all are the bad people, right? But I just see you all as doing your jobs, bro. You all just do what you all… That’s your talent. I’m sorry. But that’s your talent. God gave you all that talent to report and tell stories and depict stuff in a certain type of way that people were drawn to. I think my talent was just football. I think that’s what helps me, that Christ is first and then football is second, so I can detach from the game.”
“Appreciate you all.”
(Editor’s Note: This transcript is done via the available footage and is subject to typos. If you spot something, please take a moment to let me know in the comments below.)
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
