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Zolak: Common Practice For NFL Players To 'Take Care' Of Equipment Guys

BOSTON (CBS) - On Thursday morning, 98.5 The Sports Hub's Fred Toucher and Rich Shertenlieb talked to coworker and former NFL quarterback Scott Zolak about the Wells Report.

Read: The Wells Report (.pdf)

Unlike the Felger & Mazz show, which often times hangs up on "Scott In Wrentham," Rich actually wanted to talk to Zo about one particular part of the investigation that he believes is getting misconstrued.

Based on the text messages between the two Patriots equipment guys, many are assuming that Tom Brady paid these guys off for their handling of the footballs. But Zo says this is a normal occurrence in an NFL locker room, and it shouldn't be read as some sort of bribe.

"You grease these guys all the time, whether it's monetarily or with whatever shoe contract you have. So if you have Nike, Reebok or whatever, it's, 'Hey kid what do you need? You need a size 11? Size 10? What size is your dad for Christmas?' Or you sign a helmet.

"At the end of the year we would always give our helmets, or they would buy the helmets at an extremely discounted price and all the guys would sign it. Not only do these guys take care of your footballs, but they put the pads in your pants before practice, got your shoes ready, cleaned them off and all that stuff."

So contrary to popular belief, Tom Brady hooking the equipment guys up with cash and "new kicks" is not out of the ordinary.

"It's common practice. Tim Hasselbeck and Matt Hasselbeck were our ball boys. They did them at the time. It's kind of funny because it ages me, but Drew Bledsoe and I used to grease those guys. Steve Grogan's kid was a ball boy, and we used to grease him for doing that stuff. It's totally common."

Zolak warns people to not read too seriously into the text messages between the two Patriots employees, because it's impossible to understand the tone without actually hearing the message.

Listen below for the full interview:

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