LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 15: Linebacker Matthew Judon #9 of the New England Patriots looks on from a sideline in the second quarter of a game against the Las Vegas Raiders at Allegiant Stadium on October 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Raiders defeated the Patriots 21-17.
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 “hold-in” 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.
Here’s some of what Judon said with Rich Shertenlieb, Mike Giardi and Michael Hurley.
On how he feels about his current contract on a team discount…
“Maybe they didn’t know what I was gonna be in four years. Maybe they knew exactly what I was gonna be, and it’s at a discount. That’s just how it happens.”
On his cryptic tweets and whether he’s ever trying to send real messages on social media…
“You 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, that’s just what it is, I don’t really be interested in nothing on there. I’m not about to go and tell y’all my ins and outs or my day to day of what’s going on. I’ll let y’all in on a little bit sometimes, but not for real what I’m really doing.”
On his plans for showing up and playing on his current deal …
“I mean, I got goals for myself and my personal career, so I’m tryring to accomplish those. That’s really what I’m on right now. As far as, you know, the dollar amount and how much I play at, we’ve gotta just understand like in the grand scheme of things, I’m so blessed to just be in the NFL and for y’all to even think that I’m underpaid, which, you know, I’m getting paid so much to play a game and to have y’all watch me. So you’ve gotta think about it like that. It’s like, all right, I could be getting paid a lot more or I could be doing this or I could be doing that. Or y’all could not know my name, and I could be broke, and I could be living paycheck to paycheck or struggling. But I’m so very blessed to just be here where I am right now, to come in the building, my keycard still works. I’ve got friends that I’ve made brothers for a lifetime here. So in the grand scheme of things, how y’all looking at it, how I feel about it, is two different things. I’m very blessed to be in this situation. I’m not gonna take it for granted.
On how far apart Judon and the Patriots might be on a reworked contract…
Bro, I’m in the building right now. We ain’t far apart, you feel me. You’ve seen me with my helmet and jersey on yesterday. I’m 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 couldn’t do nothing else about nothing else. So I’m trying to play football. I want to play football. That’s what I’ve been blessed to do. I’ve 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. It’ll come if I’m 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, ‘Your dad was kind of a baller,’ it’ll be true. It’ll 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 I’m gonna be all right whatever I get paid.
On how Judon feels about the NFLPA’s proposal to eliminate voluntary offseason training programs and expanding training camp…
I don’t 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 – mostly everybody shows up. I’m one of few that don’t show up, but I think when you kind of make it more mandatory, everybody’s 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 don’t show up ready or can’t show up ready, they’ll usually just come and do the optional stuff, so they are ready. And so if they don’t show up ready, it’s not like, oh, I wasn’t trying. Well, I kind of did give y’all … two or three months. And you can blame it on the team at that point.
On if he might have another hold-in this summer without another add to the contract…
Uh, right now, I’m just gonna get ready to play. And you know, you kind of don’t – you kind of keep throwing tantrums, tantrums, tantrums, and then you don’t come out there and do what you’re supposed to do? It kind of gets old real fast, you know. I ain’t really trying to do that. I’m 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 that’s what I’m really on right now. I ain’t worried about holding out, sitting out … kind of protesting. … Because that, last year, that stuff was trash. I ain’t really like that. Like I’m a football player, I don’t want to get into the agency side. So I’m gonna come out here and play some football.