New England Patriots star pass rusher Matthew Judon joined The Rich Shertenlieb Show on Tuesday morning, a day after reporting to mandatory minicamp in Foxboro.
While Judon was there to talk about being an honorary pace car for the NASCAR race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, his contract status was a popular point of discussion. Judon, who held a bit of a âhold-inâ by being present but not participating in the early part of training camp last summer to get a pay bump, is entering the final year of his contract and is due just $6.5 million in base pay.
Hereâs some of what Judon said with Rich Shertenlieb, Mike Giardi and Michael Hurley.
On how he feels about his current contract on a team discountâŚ
âMaybe they didnât know what I was gonna be in four years. Maybe they knew exactly what I was gonna be, and itâs at a discount. Thatâs just how it happens.â
On his cryptic tweets and whether heâs ever trying to send real messages on social mediaâŚ
âYou know what, man? I think people are just so reactive, man. You can say anything and get a reaction. Everything is always a hundred percent speculation and always a hundred percent he-say she-say until somebody actually says it. So you know, on Twitter, on social media, thatâs just what it is, I donât really be interested in nothing on there. Iâm not about to go and tell yâall my ins and outs or my day to day of whatâs going on. Iâll let yâall in on a little bit sometimes, but not for real what Iâm really doing.â
On his plans for showing up and playing on his current deal âŚ
âI mean, I got goals for myself and my personal career, so Iâm tryring to accomplish those. Thatâs really what Iâm on right now. As far as, you know, the dollar amount and how much I play at, weâve gotta just understand like in the grand scheme of things, Iâm so blessed to just be in the NFL and for yâall to even think that Iâm underpaid, which, you know, Iâm getting paid so much to play a game and to have yâall watch me. So youâve gotta think about it like that. Itâs like, all right, I could be getting paid a lot more or I could be doing this or I could be doing that. Or yâall could not know my name, and I could be broke, and I could be living paycheck to paycheck or struggling. But Iâm so very blessed to just be here where I am right now, to come in the building, my keycard still works. Iâve got friends that Iâve made brothers for a lifetime here. So in the grand scheme of things, how yâall looking at it, how I feel about it, is two different things. Iâm very blessed to be in this situation. Iâm not gonna take it for granted.Â
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On how far apart Judon and the Patriots might be on a reworked contractâŚ
Bro, Iâm in the building right now. We ainât far apart, you feel me. Youâve seen me with my helmet and jersey on yesterday. Iâm not mad. You gotta hear it, like, I had a setback last year and I only got to play four games. And in that fourth game we were getting our butt whooped. After that, I couldnât do nothing else about nothing else. So Iâm trying to play football. I want to play football. Thatâs what Iâve been blessed to do. Iâve been blessed to be really good at it. And so playing football is kind of what I really want to do. The money will come. Itâll come if Iâm good enough, right? If they value what I do. I got goals. I got goals and aspirations I want to get done in my career and just my legacy. So when I go back and tell my sons, you know, âYour dad was kind of a baller,â itâll be true. Itâll be true. I think my kids and stuff are gonna be set up for the rest of their life, how much I have already been paid. So Iâm gonna be all right whatever I get paid.
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On how Judon feels about the NFLPAâs proposal to eliminate voluntary offseason training programs and expanding training campâŚ
I donât like that. I feel like the NFL be trying to do away [with ] too much in this. I think they just [should] let that rock, how we have it now, and optional or not optional â mostly everybody shows up. Iâm one of few that donât show up, but I think when you kind of make it more mandatory, everybodyâs gonna be here. But let it be optional, because if you can go somewhere and you can be with your family and you can do this and you can do that and then you show up ready, but the people that donât show up ready or canât show up ready, theyâll usually just come and do the optional stuff, so they are ready. And so if they donât show up ready, itâs not like, oh, I wasnât trying. Well, I kind of did give yâall ⌠two or three months. And you can blame it on the team at that point.
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On if he might have another hold-in this summer without another add to the contractâŚ
Uh, right now, Iâm just gonna get ready to play. And you know, you kind of donât â you kind of keep throwing tantrums, tantrums, tantrums, and then you donât come out there and do what youâre supposed to do? It kind of gets old real fast, you know. I ainât really trying to do that. Iâm just trying to come out here and play football, get ready for this upcoming season, and put our defense and ourself in a position to where we can win the most games or be the most effective. So thatâs what Iâm really on right now. I ainât worried about holding out, sitting out ⌠kind of protesting. ⌠Because that, last year, that stuff was trash. I ainât really like that. Like Iâm a football player, I donât want to get into the agency side. So Iâm gonna come out here and play some football.