Max Lane is a former New England Patriot football player who was an offensive lineman for eight seasons in the National Football League (NFL) from 1994 to 2001. He started in Super Bowl XXXI for the New England Patriots. In total he played seven seasons with the New England Patriots and one season with the Houston Texans. Since retiring from the NFL he has been in a few industries including commercial real estate, and most recently business development for a Boston based technology start-up.
🔉 Listen to Audio Excerpt:
“I think that the Naval Academy prepared me in more ways than just from a football perspective. It prepared me from a discipline perspective. My first coach in the NFL was Bill Parcells, and he was a very disciplined coach. So the discipline that I was trained with, at the Naval Academy kind of made it a seamless transition to the way Coach Parcells ran his team.”
I’m here with Max Lane, former New England Patriot who played eight years in the NFL, seven with the New England Patriots and one with the Houston Texans. He came from the Naval Academy, which is where my first question comes from. Max, how did the Naval Academy prepare you for the NFL? What was the transition like? Do you think it’s changed at all for younger players coming into the NFL today?
I’ll handle the first part of that question . I think that the Naval Academy prepared me in more ways than just from a football perspective. It prepared me from a discipline perspective. My first coach in the NFL was Bill Parcells, and he was a very disciplined coach. So the discipline that I was trained with, at the Naval Academy kind of made it a seamless transition to the way Coach Parcells ran his team.
I had noticed like other guys that came from other civilian colleges or other teams as free agents, always had a little bit of a adjustment to the way he ran things. And for me it was a pretty seamless transition. From a football perspective, the offense, I was an offensive lineman, so the offense that we were running at Navy at the time, we had a coach that was trying to run a pro style offense, so pass blocking. I learned a lot about pass blocking from my college position coach, who I think was probably my best position coach that I had and got me prepared for the pro game. And he was also just a great all around mentor from my freshman year on up through my senior year.
That kind of prepared me for being able to have, you see so much turnover in college football from a coaching perspective, to be able to have the same position coach all four years in college was a very big advantage before coming into the NFL. To go into the last part of that question, has it changed for players now? I think that turnover that you do see now, whether it’s even player turnover, you see players now being able to leave and because of the transfer portal and all that, and then the stability that coaches have at the college level, it’s not very much. So to see someone go all four years with the same position coach I think is not very common anymore. So I think that’s probably one way it’s changed.
And so first of all, do you remember the draft night when you first got the call?
Yeah, I was at home back out in Missouri with my family watching it. Back then, it was only two days. It was on a Saturday and Sunday. The first three rounds on Saturday, the last four on Sunday. My agent had told me that I could go anywhere between the third round and the seventh. So I was somewhat optimistic and interested in that first day, but it didn’t happen. And then the second day came and then as I saw, I was pretty well common with the, I guess, knowledgeable of the offensive linemen that were being drafted. And when I would see each one go, it would kind of take that little hope, little string of hope away. At one point in the fifth round, I think in the fifth round, I got a call from Chicago saying that if I didn’t get drafted, they would take me as an undrafted free agent.
That felt good as far as, okay, if I don’t get drafted, at least somebody wants me to come to camp. But then in the sixth round, the Patriots had two picks. They had sent their offensive line coach out twice to work me out, so I knew they were interested. And the offensive flying coach, the phone rang, it was the offensive line coach, and he said, Hey Max, we got two picks coming up. We’re going to take you with the first of those two. Just stay on the phone with me. And that first pick came and they picked somebody else and he was like, oh, sorry about that.
He goes, we’re going to take you with the next pick. And it was like two picks later. So that pick came around, I saw it go across the ticker on the tv, and then he was like, well, congratulations. And he goes, Hey, hang on a second. Coach Parcells wants to talk to you. And then he got on the phone and that was such a thrill.
That must have been pretty cool?
Yeah, it was kind of surreal.
I didn’t know anything about New England. I mean, I knew Drew Bledso because he was there in the quarterback. I knew Steve Grogan and John Hanna. That was it. That’s all I knew. So getting that, and Parcells had, I think part of it was Parcells had, he had coached at Air Force. He had coached at Army and he had had some players from Navy in the past. So I think that’s why he was familiar with my pedigree coming from that type of school.
Do you remember about what age you started to recognize that a career in the NFL might be possible?
Yeah, I mean, obviously when you go, I grew up in a small town, like 850 people out in the middle of Missouri and playing high school football out there. We were the second smallest 11 man football team in the state. So alls I cared about was just playing one more year. When I got to be a senior, I just said, oh, I want to try to play college football. And at that point I had scholarship offers and whenever I chose Navy, I didn’t choose Navy because I thought I was going to play pro. I chose Navy basically because a good education, a job when you graduate, and then probably the straw that broke the camel’s back is they played Notre Dame every year. And I was a big Notre Dame fan growing up. So whenever they didn’t even send me a letter and I found out Navy played ’em every year, I was like, oh, I can play against them.
That pure love I have for them turned into pure hatred for Notre Dame. But leading up to in my junior year, we had a defensive lineman that was being looked at by Pro Scouts and a guy named Bob Kuberski, and he ended up being drafted by Green Bay in the seventh round when I was a junior. So that kind of got scouts coming and looking at our practices and our film. And I think due to that, they started seeing me and some of the coaches would tell me like, Hey, these scouts were asking about you today and all that. So that’s kind of when I knew there was something going on. And then at the beginning of my senior year, there were scouts coming by practices that the coaches would tell me who was there. And that’s when I kind of knew that this was possible. And I didn’t get invited to the combine or anything, but I knew that being was a possibility.
Wow. Does anyone, I mean, in today’s game, do they draft guys who don’t go to the combine?
I don’t know. Only 300 guys go to the combine, do the math on that, because I think there’s probably some guys from the combine that don’t get drafted, they don’t perform well, or I don’t know how all that works.
What’s the nickname big country for? How’d you get it?
I think it was my first couple years out here I was playing in these charity football chip flag football, softball and basketball games during the off season. And somebody knew that I was from a small town out in Missouri, and at that time there was a basketball player that had played at Oklahoma State and was playing for in the NBA guy named Bryant Reeves. And his nickname was Big Country, and I think they just, somebody called me that one time. I never really took to it. I guess it was just kind of something that I don’t think it really ever stuck.
What are some of the behind the scenes moments in the locker rooms that fans don’t get to see or understand? If you can share any, you can just do the tame ones.
I think overall just, it would be just, I mean..
Back then in today’s game, first of all, you have to be a lot more appropriate, I would imagine when reporters are around, right?
Well, I mean, cell phones weren’t around. They were just starting to be commonplace. I think I remember the first time I ever saw a pager, Willie McGinness had a pager and he came in the training room and was like, Hey guys, check this out. Look what this does. So you didn’t have all those devices that were there to take video and everything. So it was a lot more just organic and genuine between guys and there’s locker room pranks, and then you’d have, the locker room was a safe space back before there were safe spaces. It was just a very, always even probably starts whenever you’re in high school and you’re in a locker room. And then in college it’s a place where you always felt, and you always knew you weren’t going to get coached in the locker room because it, like coaches don’t coach in the locker room. So it was always like, that’s why it was always such a good place to go.
I think now when it comes to the Patriots post games a different story. You’ve got about five minutes before you get back in from the game, head coach talks to you, talks to the team, and then you kind of break up, says, okay, everybody, you’ll see you at one o’clock tomorrow on Monday and all that. And then usually the PR guy will say, will give a five minute warning, alright, press is coming in five minutes. So that’s kind of let guys, if they want to go ahead and get in the shower, all that, just to let ’em know. But back then, I’m sure it’s not much different now, I don’t know if it’s different, but the reporters would start coming in, everybody’s sitting there in towels, and the male reporters would kind of shield the female reporters. And so there would be, the more popular players would have a group around them and they’d make sure that the female reporter was on the inside because there’d be other guys just walking around naked around the locker room. So it was something the first couple of times it was weird to get used to that, but after a while you kind of knew the way you were supposed to behave and act whenever that time happened.
You were talking before about playing with Drew Bledsoe. You finished just before the Brady Era?
Yeah, he was a rookie my last year. So I always tell people, he got me Gatorade during practice. He was a rookie.
Is there a part of you that ever wishes you had started the game a decade later?
I think about that because New England cut me May 4th, 2001, and then they won three out of the next four Super Bowls. So I was a bitter I, and they cut me injured. And so on the inside, I was not a New England Patriots fan. On the outside, I lived in the, continued to live in the area and the new stadium was being built and I was going to games and everybody just thought like, oh, you must be so happy that they’re winning. And so I’d have to put on that smile on the outside. But on the inside I was just bitter and it wasn’t a good time. I went through a divorce during that.
Wow. So it really affected you mentally. It had to.
Yeah, there was a lot of effects that went on back then, and it took a while to get through that. And so it was a tough time. Now going back to the original question, I love the era that I played in. I take a lot of pride from being able to play in that era with Parcells. Everybody says that things were tougher whenever they were playing and all that, but things truly were, and unfortunately I didn’t get out. I got out without having too many injuries. But I take a lot of pride being able to play for a guy like Bill Parcells.
Changing direction a bit. You’re currently an assistant coach at the Philips Exeter Academy for the offensive and defensive lines. What lessons would you say, if any, from your career, your football career, do you try to impart to your students as a coach?
I mean, these guys that I coach, it’s at the high school level. It’s a private high school up in New Hampshire. And so a lot of the players that we’re getting are, this is a pretty good level of football. A lot of the kids that are going there, they’re good students. They are kids that are wanting to go play in college. A lot of ’em already have offers to play at. A lot of the kids that come to our school go to Ivy League schools. Like I’ve got my left tackle’s going to Harvard, my left guard’s going to Penn, my right tackle’s going to Yale, our quarterback’s going to Brown. I mean, we get some pretty special kids. And the part that I want to, it’s more my experience of going from high school to college that I want to help them out with.
Obviously the technique and stuff, because I’ve coached high school football at a lower level before, and the kids that I had there, they were great kids, but you couldn’t teach ’em stuff like higher level technique stuff that I can teach these guys. These guys, they can handle a lot. So I’m trying to give them as much technique as possible. And also just let them know that these guys that are seniors, they’re technically freshmen age wise, college freshmen, so I want them to, when they get to college next year, I don’t want them to think about themselves as freshmen. They’re done with freshman year. I want them to think that their time is now, you only got four years and you can’t wait for something to happen. So that’s kind of the stuff that I try to bring to them.
My wife and I were watching 60 minutes, I think it was 60 minutes this week, and they were interviewing little kids in, I don’t even remember, fourth or fifth grade, 10 years old, I don’t know. And they were asking them questions about who they would vote for to see in swing states, and I think they chose four different states. It was really, really interesting to see these kids and their answers and they were so smart. And it made me realize really for the first time, maybe I’m getting older, that how much I would love or enjoy working with kids because they’re like sponges. They take up so much information. Do you feel working with high school kids which is still pretty much the same? Do you get that same kind of enjoyment out of it where they’re listening to you and really taking in what you are saying?
Yeah, I mean, it’s hard to tell right now. I think some of the stuff that I try to tell him I think will come to fruition years down the road, but the stuff on the field that I try to teach him, it is fun on a weekly basis when they play a game to see the film to be like, oh yeah, okay. He’s trying to do what I’m trying to teach ’em to do. So stuff like that is it gives you a lot of satisfaction.
You had played in one Super Bowl, super Bowl 16.
No, 31.
Oh, sorry. Sorry, my Roman numerals were off. 31. Do the kids realize that? Does that impress them? Do they have questions about that? Does it mean, I mean, that had to have been such a wild experience 31 or last year, it’s still so incredible.
Yeah, I’m not a big self-promoter guy, so I know they know I played professionally. I don’t know if they know the details. I think if they tell their parents that, oh, this guy played for, and then their parents might know and then their parents might say, oh, he played in. But I don’t know. And I don’t know how much they really care the kids these days. It’s like things have changed a lot with social media and everything, and they’re so into the current stuff. I mean, I know that I have a son that plays college football, and I mean he knows that just because he is grown up with it. But kids are still kids. They’re still, the world revolves around them.
When you left the NFL being a professional football player, that was your day in, day out life. I mean, you talked briefly about the period with the Patriots going on the run. Was it hard to transition from being a professional athlete to just being a professional?
Yeah, I think so. Last, like I said, I played seven years for New England and I broke my leg. They cut me. I was out a year rehabbing and working out to try to come back. I was angry and I wanted to come back and show ’em that I could still play. And then Houston signed me the following year in 2002, and I went down there and was in training camp, but my knee injury was a tibial plateau fracture. So at my age, at 30 years old and that injury, it really made it, I would’ve rather would’ve tore my ACL because I could have come back from that. But this injury made it, I couldn’t make it back. So whenever at the end of training camp down in Houston and they released me the final cut at that point, I had to come back up.
I was still living at that point, I was married, had two young kids, they were living in the Boston area, so I had to come back to them and figure out what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I had a brother that was in the financial services industry that steered me that direction, which I think his heart was in the right place. I just don’t think that it was too much too soon for me. I should have given myself some time to let my head and my heart realign. And then in those first two years, that’s when I got divorced. There was a lot of things that happened that were challenging and took a while to figure it out. In some ways, I still feel like I’m figuring things out.
In today’s game, does the NFL help players transition?
They have a lot of programs. They do, but they don’t. It’s like you have to go seek it. And the one thing that I think I know about myself and about a lot of guys at play, were not good at seeking help. I wish there was a way to have a program that had actual former players that were assigned and had access to the stadiums or to the workplaces or the facilities to where they could be more in touch with the guys and know when, okay, this guy’s probably playing his last year. We need to start figuring out what he’s going to do more on an individual basis instead of having the program that says, okay, we’re here for you whenever you’re ready. Be a little bit more proactive with it instead of reactive. But I think that would help a lot of guys that are coming out of it. And there’s also other things, it would help current guys that they get traded. If there was somebody that knew him personally and said, okay, I know the guy and you’re getting traded from New England to Miami. My colleague down in Miami, I’m going to set you up with him and he’s going to get you. So I think there’s ways to make it better, but..
Injuries. You certainly had your fair share. Which of the leagues do you think is the worst for injuries? Football? Hockey?
Overall. I mean, I think, I don’t know. You could find the stats out on that I’m sure. But I mean, I always think of football. The other sports like hockey, hockey would be closest to football. But I always think football, they always say football is a contact sport. Football’s a collision sport.
Do you know many guys who ended up with CTE?
I mean, you can’t diagnose it in the living right now. So I mean, the one thing, so it’s hard to say, do I know guys with it? I’m sure I know guys with it, but we don’t know.
Or who had been diagnosed?
After the, I mean, I know the guys, there’s guys that have, when they die, there’s that group in Boston called the Boston BU’s doing It. I do work with a study that Harvard is doing, but the BU one is the one where guys have said they would donate their brain upon death. And so I know some of those guys that have had their brains examined posthumously and I mean, not really any personally, but I just know who they are.
You had mentioned, I was going to ask you how you stay connected with your former teammates and the broader NFL community. You had mentioned to me that you still have a role at Gillette Stadium on Sunday games. What’s that? What do you do?
Yeah, I’ve always said this is the best part-time job ever. I am an NFL Uniform inspector.
What is that exactly?
So I’m on the sidelines at every Patriot’s home game. Tthe league has, the NFL has two former players at every NFL stadium that are making sure that the home team and the away team are wearing their uniform the right way, meaning jerseys tucked in, undershirts, tucked in. Pants are supposed to be over the knee, that they’re wearing pads in their pants, like knee pads, thigh pads, that the brands that they’re wearing are NFL licensed brands. They can’t be wearing some brand that’s not licensed with the NFL. And then just safety stuff. They can’t be wearing jewelry. And I mean, they can wear chains underneath, but they can’t be outside flopping around.
Are you ever finding guys who were, well…
I put guys on report probably I put four or five guys on report every week.
Oh really?
Yeah, from, I mean, just the whole, they all like to wear their pants way above their knee. And that’s a no-no. So definitely several guys for that. I probably don’t get everybody that’s probably in violation.
So when they’re in violation, do they have to go back in the locker room and change?
It all depends for that stuff, no. If they’re wearing some ridiculous color of shoe that’s not team colors, the guy, my supervisor will text me and say, Hey, that guy needs to change his shoes else. He can’t go back in. And then I have to go to the team liaison, which is usually an equipment manager till they say, Hey, that guy needs to change his shoes. And sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t.
What’s the process? Do they then get fined or they get warned and then…
I fill out, I do a report online on an app after the game and they can get warned fined, but I never find out. I never find out. That’s why it’s the greatest. It’s like you get paid good beer money for it. I’m on the sidelines and there’s no accountability.
We had met years and years ago.
I think it was a bowling, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it like a bowling tournament?
It was Doug Flutie’s, the Doug Flutie Bowl. Yep. A friend of mine was one of their sponsors. That’s right. I forgot about that. That’s when I met Julian Edelman as well. He was on my team way before he was who he is today, which is really interesting. When I watch him today, how far he’s come. And I remember back then you were starting to get into doing some triathlon. You used to tell me that you did it because you wanted to be able to eat chicken wings and drink beer.
Yeah, it was a combination of eating chicken wings and drinking beer. And I was also dating a girl that got me into triathlon. So if I was going to hang out with her, I had to run.
You’re not still doing that?
No and I’m not dating her either.
Alright. Final question. What advice would you give young athletes aspiring to play at the professional level?
I just think that worry about what you’re doing. Make your bed every day. Worry about where you at, where you’re at right now. Don’t get caught up. Obviously different ages I’d give different advice to, but, and also, don’t put all your eggs in that basket. We all know the numbers. If you think high school players that play in college, college players that play in the pros and those aren’t good statistics. So your education, don’t forget about that and kind of figuring out something that you want to do. If football doesn’t work out for you, go to a college that you would want to go to. That’s one piece of advice that I’ve heard over the years is that if you’re going from high school to college, pick a college that you would want to. If the first day of practice you got a football career ending injury, would you still want to go to school at that place? That’s the school that you want to choose. Not don’t choose it for the football. So that’s one piece of advice. Gosh, I could go on forever, Charlie.
Alright, well thanks. I appreciate you stopping by today. Really appreciate it. Thanks so much.
Yeah, no, this was fun.
