In the most recent episode of the [Dudes on Dudes with Gronk and Jules](https://open.spotify.com/episode/5tDJTyypn86zCR78MwUo0r?si=PM5Lwhi-QxCzx8l_Wet7EQ) podcast hosted by Julian Edelman, and Rob Gronkowski, NFL veteran and two-time Super Bowl champion Rob Ninkovich joined the show to talk with his former teammates.
Kicking off the hour and a half long episode, Ninkovich talked about the safety of players during his 11-year career and how his views changed once he had children.
“You’re burning it from both ends, eventually you’re going to have nothing left,” Ninkovich said of balancing his family and football. “At the end of my career I didn’t necessarily want to play. Because of my kids I didn’t necessarily want to play football anymore. It’s all risk and reward.”
Discussing the length of his career, and how extending it could’ve perhaps brought in one last contract, Ninkovich posed a question to Edelman and Gronkowski.
“If you had played 11 or 12 (years), would there have been a difference in how you’re living right now,” Ninkovich asked.
While Edelman and Gronkowski acknowledged his point, they also couldn’t deny the financial incentive.
“Probably, there’s a few more M’s,” Edelman said. “There was a bigger contract at the back of my career. It was a lot bigger.”
Gronkowski even used it as a chance to joke about the duo’s podcast studio, saying, “we would probably be in a penthouse right now instead of just on the third floor.”
Still, Ninkovich did not back down from his idea of the risk against the reward. One of his key points involved the safety of the helmets players wore during their careers in the 200s and 2010s, and the models since banned by the NFL.
“How many headshots did you take, did you take any headshots that last year,” Ninkovich asked Edelman. “They all catch up to you. We played with the helmets that are banned now, you can’t even put them on. The last helmet I wore you can’t even wear anymore.”
Edelman though was still not dismayed. The former Super Bowl MVP chalked it up to Ninkovich using outdated models when plenty of newer, safer ones were available during their careers.
Edelman in particular cited the introduction of the VICIS brand helmets, as well as the decreased physicality of the league these days.
“Yeah, year one,” Edelman said of wearing the older helmets. “They don’t even hit anymore, that was 15 years ago. These VICIS helmets are freaking sick, if I could’ve kept playing I would’ve kept playing. That sounds like a you problem, I was wearing a VICIS helmet.”