TRANSCRIPT: Phil Perry’s Interview with James White
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Here’s what former New England Patriots running back James White during Phil Perry of NBC Sports Boston’s most recent Next Pats Podcast:
There he is, friend of the podcast, Patriots legend, James White, coming at us from NIU. You’ve been working with NIU for quite some time, but you’ve got the gear on, you got the logo on the back. It is a slick logo, by the way. I love everything about the color scheme. But James, tell the people, if they’re not familiar, what you’re doing for NIU football:
“For me, last season, I was more in the player development type of role. Met with the kids if they wanted to sit down and watch film or just talk about personal life or what it takes to get to the next level. But this year, probably looking to get into more of like a player personnel type of role, which is becoming more important to college football that now has turned like the pros with the NIL and transfer portal and all that. It’s been fun to be around the kids. Thomas Hammock, the head coach here, coached me in college for three years as my running back coach. It’s been fun to be back around him, and it’s been fun getting to know all these kids here.”
Yeah, I’m sure you’re a tremendous resource for them, having the college football experience you did, the pre-draft NFL experience that you did. We got kids that are going through that right now. It’s a Senior Bowl. Senior Bowl is going on as we speak here today as we record this on Wednesday. Then obviously, the pro experience that you had, three times Super Bowl champion, James. We’re just coming off of the AFC and NFC title games. Before we talk Patriots, I have to ask you, because this is everywhere throughout the ether right now. The Kansas City Chiefs are on the verge of doing something that even the great Patriots teams were not able to do in terms of winning three in a row. When the Super Bowl rolls around, will any part of you be rooting for the Eagles just so that the Chiefs don’t inch a little bit closer to doing some of the things that the Patriots organization was able to do? You won three Super Bowl as a member of this organization. Are you hoping that they sort of put a pause on all those championships that they’re racking up in Kansas City?
“I wouldn’t say I’m rooting against them. History definitely is meant to get broken. You would love for us to remain the most dominant dynasty in the history of the sport, but it seems like this team, this organization, they’re moving rapidly in the right direction. It’s a ton of credit to Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes. They have a chance to put themselves in a category of their own. I’m excited to watch it. I wouldn’t say I’m rooting against them, though. They’re a good football team. They do it their way. Actually, it wasn’t pretty this year, although they only lost technically one game. You would’ve thought their luck was going to run out in all these one possession games, but they just know how to win.”
What’s been most impressive for you when it comes to their run? Because you mentioned the one-score games. I think they were 12 0-1 score games this year, James, and they’re 17-0 in one-score games going back to the middle of last year. That seems almost impossible to do in this league where everything is based on parity and bringing everybody back to the middle. Is that the number one thing that stands out to you? What’s been most impressive about their run, specifically this year?
“I think the parity is definitely key. Andy Reid and Steve Spagnola. I know he’s getting a lot of attention probably now, but ever since he was a defensive coordinator with the Giants, we dealt with it before I got there and whatnot in the Super Bowls, he’s able to scheme things up to allow his players to play to their strengths, and he puts them in tough spots, too. He’s going to call his game. He’s going to be aggressive in the biggest moments and it’s tended to work out really well for him. But I would say that they’ve done a great job maintaining their key guys, Mahomes, [Travis] Kelsey, Chris Jones, now Joe Tuney’s, one of those key guys over there, Creed Humphrey. Got some core guys that have remained there that have been able to instill the hard work and culture that they’ve built. Those young guys that they’ve drafted or have been undrafted or the free agents that they’ve signed, they fit their mold and they’re excelling.”
The offensive coordinator that you played for while you were winning three out of five Super Bowl’s with the New England Patriots was Josh McDaniels. He obviously is making his way back to the Patriots now. He’s going to be offense coordinator under Mike Vrabel. When you saw that McDaniels was the choice place to be OC moving forward for this team. What went through your head? Why is he the right guy for this job right now, James?
“I thought it was the perfect hire. He’s the only offensive coordinator I ever got to play for, but to me, from what I’ve watched from afar from this offense over the last couple of years, it’s been a lack of details and a lack of execution. That’ll be the two things that Josh will emphasize the most. The meetings, he’s going to make sure you’re attentive in there, the walk-thrus, he’s going to make sure you’re attentive in there. On the field, he’s going to make sure you’re attentive out there and doing the right things. He doesn’t miss a beat. Like a play is run, he’s going to see what the office line is doing, see what the quarterback is doing, what the run-back is doing, receivers, tight ends. It’s amazing how he can see everything at once and make sure everybody’s doing the right thing so he can go out there and be successful. He’s going to hold the players accountable, most importantly, and he’s going to put the most reliable guys out there. If you can’t be reliable, you can’t be trusted, probably not going to be on the field. So all those guys are going to have to earn their reps, earn their stripes.”
“For Drake Maye, I think it’s perfect, too. You saw what he did for Mac Jones in his rookie year, had a great rookie year. Then Josh ended up leaving. It became a little bit more difficult after that. I think for Drake, he’s going to learn even more about the game after having a pretty good year one. He’s going to learn inside and outside in and out of the offense, which is good when you understand what exactly you’re trying to get done at the quarterback position. So It’s going to be fun to watch.”
It’s interesting that you bring up his ability to hold people accountable and his desire to just put the most reliable people on the field. You’ve been very open talking in the past about how your rookie year, that 2014 season, you had a guy ahead of you, and Shane Verine, you didn’t see the field a whole lot. Bill Belichick used to love to tell that story about you. I remember him glowing after the Falcons Super Bowl, where obviously you played a huge role in that comeback and in that win. He couldn’t talk enough about your road and how you barely played as a rookie, but look at you now. How hard was it to play for Josh? Because I think people look at him and Bill together, and they sort of look at Josh as the good cop, and Bill as the bad up when they were a duo. But how hard was he to play for? Because I think he has some of that in him. He’s got a little bit of old-school in him, even though he’s the younger guy, and maybe he’s not quite on the Bill end of the hard coaching spectrum.
“It’s not easy in the beginning when you’re a younger player or if you’re a veteran player coming from somewhere else, ‘Man, why is this guy constantly getting on me? I’m trying to get it right,” but he wants to be as close as perfect as possible because he puts in the work to make sure you’re prepared and ready to play. We just do what we need to do and follow his plan. More times than not, it’s going to work.”
“He literally works constantly from, let’s just say, during the game week, probably after the game, Sunday night to Monday, all the way until Saturday night or Sunday right before the game. He’s constantly thinking of ways to figure out how to beat the defense and beat the team that we’re going up against. The preparation is crazy. It’s like you do so much during the week. You’re like, ‘Why are we doing all this?’ But when the Sunday rolls around, it’s like clockwork. It’s almost just like practice, or it’s even easier in practice because we’ve seen every look that they could possibly throw at you. Maybe they can throw a different wrinkle at you and you make some adjustments on the sideline, but you’re just so prepared.”
Like you said, you really only played for Josh as offensive coordinator. I am curious, though, James, because you were with the team before you retired in 2022. I think you probably got a little bit of a taste of what the team was trying to do offensively going into that season with Matt Patricia running the show there, and it felt like it was trying to have a little bit of a West Coast feel to it. How hard do you think it might be for the players that were here this past season, and maybe there’ll be a lot of turnover, but we know Drake Maye will be back, right? How hard will it be for those guys if the language changes on them? I know you basically had experience in one offense, and it was voluminous, and there was a lot there. But if they do change the language, do you think it might take a while for Maye and others to pick it up?
“It definitely could. I mean, I myself, for the few months that I was there before I retired, trying to learn a new offense, ‘Man, you got to learn a whole new system.’ Maybe one word meant this and Josh system and another word, that same word meant something different. Matty P’s offense, you got to try to get it out of your brain, erase it and put it in this new box. It’s difficult. I did it in college a couple of times. I was about to do it in the NFL. It’s not easy picking up new offenses because I think the OTAs and offseason are very important. I feel like the most important when it comes to installing a new offensive system because that’s the time we can rep it the most. You can really harp on those finer things, the shifts, the motions, the formation, the alignments, the personnels. When training camp rolls around, you have a good foundation of where you want to be. Then once you get into the season, it’s really based off game planning.”
Our last question I want to ask you before you can get back to your hard work there with the Huskies, James, is this. It’s interesting to see the staff come together. I don’t know how closely you followed it from afar after Josh McDaniels, but Doug Marrone is now in the building with a title that’s sort of to be determined. Thomas Brown, who was with Sean McVay in LA, then down to Carolina, then Chicago, now here in New England, has a West Coast background. Tony Dews, who’s the running backs coach, he’s coming from the Jets and from Tennessee before that. Again, West Coast background. When you look at that, and you know Josh’s background, is there any concern on your behalf that philosophically, these guys are all seeing the game the same way, or do we maybe make too much of that? That Josh has his thing and has done his thing for a long time. These other guys might come from a little bit different school. Do you think they’ll be able to come together and work out whatever philosophical differences there may be in order to have the kind of offense that they’re looking to have?
“I think a little, sometimes a little much is too much is put into that. At the end of the day, he’s the offensive coordinator, so they’re going to follow his plan. Maybe he wants to implement a little bit more West Coast style along with what he’s done. I’m not sure. He’s been a couple of different places, I know he went to different colleges and NFL coaches during this year to kind of learn some new stuff because the game constantly evolves. But at the end of the day, they’re going to follow his vision, whether it’s West Coast, whether it’s similar to what we did in the past, being a little bit more a versatile offense, being a week-to-week game plan offense. Like I said, I don’t know what his idea is going to be this year, but at the end of the day, whoever’s the offensive coordinator, they’re in control of what the office is going to be, and I would expect it to just be multiple. That’s how I would see it.”
It feels like that’s been Josh’s M-O for a long time is multiple, whether it’s a spread offense in ’07, two tight end offense, two back offense. You guys changed on the fly in 2018 to win that Super Bowl against the Rams and make the run in the postseason that you guys did. That’s, I think, the best part of McDaniels coming in as offensive coordinator is he’s able to do whatever you need to do in order to have success. He’s proven that in the past.
James White, thank you so much for taking some time out at NIU. Hard at work. The college football game is not for the faint of heart these days, my friend. You know that better than anybody, I’m sure, right now. We appreciate you taking some time to talk to us on Next Pats you’re the best.
“No problem. Thanks for having me, Phil.”
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