With three Super Bowl rings, a Super Bowl LIII MVP, and a reputation as one of the most clutch postseason receivers of all time, Julian Edelman’s resume in the NFL needs no introduction. But behind that hard-nosed playing style was a childhood shaped by grit, discipline, and plenty of tough love — especially from his father.
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Edelman recently opened up about that relationship in the latest episode of Games with Names. The former Patriots wideout peeled back the curtain on just how intense his upbringing really was.
To illustrate it, he shared one story that stood out — a batting practice session before a youth baseball game. What started off as routine quickly went sideways when his dad pushed him too hard. It perfectly summed up the hard-edged environment in the Edelman household.
“I was dipping my shoulder. I think I was 13,” the podcast host recalled. “I was finally at that age trying to bow up, and he was brushing me off the plate.”
But what began as a normal father-son batting session quickly took a turn when the younger Edelman, fed up with his dad throwing at him, finally snapped.
“He threw at me. I threw the bat down and I charged the mound on my dad,” he recalled, drawing laughs from the room. “He one-two’d me, put me on the ground.”
Naturally, the scuffle left the ex-NFL Wide Receiver with more than just a bruised ego. “I ended up going to the game with a bloody nose, bloody jersey,” he admitted. “People were asking me what happened, and I was like, ‘Batting practice didn’t go well.’”
This brutal honesty struck a chord with Celtics head coach Joe Mazzulla, who was the special guest on the show and had his own infamous “alpha male challenge” story from his upbringing. Mazzulla’s tale, which has gained viral traction before, revolves around an actual fight with his dad after a heated argument. That argument led to a rainy brawl at a baseball field.
“He locked the fence and said, ‘Winner take all,’” Mazzulla recalled. The Celtics Head Coach even tried pulling a classic trick to win: throwing dirt in his dad’s face and going for a groin kick. But it didn’t work.
“He catches my leg, leg sweeps me, mounts me, and just starts wailing on me,” Mazzulla said.
And as it turned out, by the time this scuffle ended, they were both late to dinner at his grandmother’s house. But before reaching the venue, Joe Mazzulla’s dad had one final command for him: “You don’t say a word.” Mazzulla, beaten and humbled, simply sat at the table in silence, nursing the bruises.
Though their stories took different forms, both Julian Edelman and Joe Mazzulla agreed that these moments humbled them and ultimately shaped their mental toughness today.
“Never tried that again,” Mazzulla admitted. And Edelman? “I didn’t go back to my dad ever again,” he said with a smile.
Two fierce competitors. Two unforgettable lessons in toughness. And proof that before the hardest hits on the field, the heart to endure it is not often built in a game.
