 from Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. It's theCUBE, covering VTUG Winter Warmer 2018, presented by SiliconANGLE. I'm Stu Miniman, and this is theCUBE's coverage of VTUG Winter Warmer 2018. In addition to being an analyst and a host of this program, I've also been a longtime Patriot season ticket holder. Really excited to welcome to our program Logan Mankin's number 70. Thanks so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. Yeah, so it's interesting. At this show, we're talking tech, a bunch of the IT admins, they're people that you consider in the trenches. You spend a lot of time in there. I wonder, guys like Teddy Bruceke, Ty Law, lawyer Molloy's here today, making interceptions and things like that, sometimes get a little bit more coverage out there, and they're a little bit more well-known. Do you ever feel that you were faceless paying for the pass? No, those guys, they made all the plays, they got all the recognition, but the linemen, we always knew that without us, the offense couldn't go, the team couldn't go, so, and most linemen, they don't want to be the face out there anyway. Me personally, I'd rather not be known, but it comes with the job. Yeah, well, you know, seven-time pro bowler, matter of fact, I was looking back, and there was this great video from Bill Belichick, and he's like, you know, there's tough players in the NFL, but when I think of Logan Mankins, he's super tough out there. When you look at the game now, Rob Gunkowski took massive hit in the AFC championship game. How does toughness and injuries, how did you think about that? Did you think about that when you were playing versus now being out of the game? When I was playing, no, you don't really think about it, but fortunately for me, I didn't have hits like that to the head those big concussion-type hits. The stuff I always played with was just body stuff, and there's always a difference between being hurt and injured. If you're hurt, you can still play, and if the injury's not too bad, you can still play. So it was just a fine line of figuring out what you could do and what you couldn't. You know, Patriots have had a phenomenal run. I mean, you played for, you know, great team, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady throughout the mall. Gives a little perspective to somebody that played for the team for a while. You know, how did you work through the changes, but yet there was some consistency around the core? Yeah, that's the main thing, the core, and they've had an unbelievable run, I don't know what's Bill been there, 18 years or something, and it's been unbelievable to see what those guys have accomplished, and it all starts at the top. You have a good owner and the best coach ever and the best quarterback ever, so as long as you get the right guys to buy into that system and follow those two guys, you're gonna have a good team. Last year, Dan Branch shared with us some great stories about Tom Brady. His competitive type of guy gives a little color. What's it like playing in front of TB12? Oh, that's great. You know he's always prepared. You never have to worry about him. He's just gonna play great majority of the time, and just the way he competes and works, it rubs off on other guys, and he's just so dependable and can make all the right reads, throws, and he's a great guy to be around on top of that, so he's the ultimate teammate and ultimate competitor, and that's why he's had so much success. You said that you didn't take, you played through some injuries. You played when you were hurt. We know you had some rough injuries during your career, but concussions weren't a concern. Is it something that you look back now or you're gonna look at the game today and all the things about CTE and concussions, is that? The more you learn about it, the more you worry about it, because you're aware of it now. I think when I started playing football, no one talked about it. There was no worries about it, and towards the end of my career, it really started coming out, and more comes out about it every year, so of course you worry about it. You hope you're one of the guys that it's not gonna affect, but there are guys that it's really affecting in bad ways, so at this stage in my life, it's too late to go back, so we'll see what happens, I guess. Yeah, would you recommend young people going into football, knowing what you know now? I think so, it's a lot safer now. You're not taking those big, well, every once in a while, guys are just gonna take one. You just saw Rob the other day, but for the most part, they're trying to prevent that, and the techniques that they're teaching now with the blocking and the tackling to not use your head as much, so it's a lot safer, and look at the end of the day, it's up to whoever's making that decision to play, and if they wanna play, then they have the right to play. So we're obviously, everybody locally, super excited, getting ready for another Super Bowl. How does the team stay focused? Two weeks leading up to it, there's a lot going on. Not New Orleans that they're going to, but how does the team stay focused on their job? Well, this team, with the Patriots, they've been through it so many times, and they know what, they have a big job ahead of them, but they do a good job, but when I was here and we went to Super Bowls, like all the tickets and the hotel rooms for family and all that, they do a great job by getting that out of the way the first two days, and get that taken care of, so you don't have to worry about that, and then it's on to the opponent that you're playing, and you just focus in on that, and Bill has a, he's great at just, he draws a line and follows that line, so he'll have everyone in that line, and everyone will be ready, there won't be any distractions, and they'll be ready to go. Yeah, speaking of distractions, there's been a lot of noise in the press lately, is that the relationships, everything like that, when you were in the locker room, I mean, does that hit your radar? Do you just focus and do your job? How does that impact what's going on? Yeah, most stories, they don't bother you. They gotta find stuff to write about, but the last one, I guess, with those guys, the story coming out that they're feuding, and this and that, I don't know if they are, or they're not, but if they're not, I think that would have set me, if they said I was feuding with someone that I wasn't, that has been a colleague, and most likely a friend of yours for that long. Yeah, well, Logan Makin, really appreciate you joining. Patriots had some phenomenal guards, Hannah, in the Hall of Fame. You're definitely up there, is one of the greatest guards in Patriots history. I appreciate that. Really appreciate you joining me. All right, thank you. All right, so thanks again to the VTUG for bringing Logan Makin's, love being here at the intersection, virtualization, technology, and the Patriots. I'm Stu Miniman, thanks for watching theCUBE.