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The Patriots just concluded their lone practice on the sixth day of training camp and quarterback Tom Brady answered questions from the media after the session.
The first question he was asked was how he feels about the Deion Branch situation, in the wake of his comments to Sports Illustrated's Michael Silver which have created a stir.
"I think it maybe has got overblown a little bit," Brady said after practicing with a brace on his left knee. "With Deion, when you build a relationship with someone for a long time -- and as Coach [Belichick] said, the quarterback/receiver relationship is a little bit different -- he's one of my favorite guys. That's what I think. Obviously, sometimes when I speak maybe I do get a little emotional about things. But I love Deion. I love him as a person and as a player.
"The thing about it is that I don't make any decisions here. I don't lobby for things, I don't go into Coach Belichick's office and mention anything to him. He makes his own decisions. He and [Vice President of Player Personnel] Scott [Pioli] do probably the best job in the league of anybody.
"Not that I need to clarify anything, but I think as it was presented it was like 'Deion is not as good as some of these other players' and [the writer] named a bunch of receivers. I take offense when anybody says someone on my team is not that good. That's just kind of how it was.
"We'd love to have him out here, there is no doubt about that. But it's not my decision."
Reiss's blog...
Last edited by Kdo5; 08-02-2006 at 04:21 PM..
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No..he's saying that some writers are comparing Brranch with "players(s) x y and z" while finding him lacking by comparison and they are wrong...and to the extent (if any) that NE Pats officials are feeding said writers with their view... *those officials* are wrong.
A few more comments from Tom Brady's post-practice interview:
You’ve mentioned a couple times that Deion is probably the best player on the offense. What makes him that key to the offense?
“He’s a special player. In the biggest games and the Super Bowls, he’s been my target, the guy I’ve been throwing to. I can’t say enough good things about him. He knows how I feel about him. Like I said, when it’s your quarterback and receiver, you’re in meetings; I see him more than I see my friends, my parents, my girlfriend combined. That’s not the way I like it, but that’s the way it is, especially during football season.”
How would you characterize your emotions on the Deion Branch situation. Are you upset at Deion for holding out? Are you upset at the team for not stepping up? Are you just upset at the whole situation?
“Honestly, I don’t think I’m upset at anybody. I’m really not. I know that was probably characterized in the article, but I didn’t ever say I was angry or anything like that. I’m not angry. It’s totally out of my control. It’s in the control of the people that I want it to be in control of, my coach and the general manager of our team. Like I said, they make great decisions. I don’t have to worry about those. I just have to come out and try to play. When Deion gets out here, my job is going to be to get him going and get him up to speed, and get our continuity back. I’m excited when he does. I’m very confident he will. I know Deion very well and he wants to be here as bad as anybody. All the players that are out here, we’re working really hard. The guys that aren’t out here, some of the guys who are injured, they’re dying to get back out here too. I see those guys every day working hard and it kills them to not be out here with us, as it killed them last season to not be out here with us. It will be nice to finally to get the group out here and hopefully it’s sooner rather than later.”
Have you been in touch with Deion?
“Yeah. We talk quite a bit.”
You’ve been playing with knee brace. How is your knee?
“My [left] knee is fine. I just don’t want to hurt it.”
What was behind the two days you had off?
“I think it’s just preventative, same with the knee brace. You just try to avoid injury, precautionary, or pre-therapy, or whatever our trainers call it. It’s just trying to be a little more proactive and just trying to take care of yourself. You see all these quarterbacks, their left knees get hurt, Carson Palmer, Brian Greise, the last thing you want to do is hurt your knee. I figure I’m slow enough as it is. This thing can’t slow me down much more.”
Did Deion say anything about comments to Sports Illustrated?
“No. I think he knows me well enough and he knows every thought of mine. We’re always talking and expressing thoughts. We’ve been through a lot together. He doesn’t need to say anything to me. I know his thoughts on certain things and he knows mine. That’s kind of the way it goes."
Did you speak to Sports Illustrated to give it more national attention?
“I don’t think so. It’s just the way it was. I think I spoke to you guys the day before and Mike Silver was in town. It got set up through [the team]. I’ve known Mike since I was in college. It wasn’t anything. I don’t come here with motives or plans or anything like that. You guys know me, I speak my mind sometimes, and sometimes, maybe, I think this one got a little overblown.”
Will it get to the point that it hurts not to have him here?
"You’d love continuity, but at the same time I can only control playing quarterback. God knows I do enough bad things out here that I try to correct. I have to worry about myself and getting Reche [Caldwell] on the same page, and when Deion gets here, I’m very confident he’s going to get up to speed and you’ll see him, and he’ll be in great shape, and he’ll look like the Deion that we’ve seen over the past four years. I’m excited. I think we’re making progress out here. I think what we showed last night in kind of scrimmage situations, we’ve been practicing real well.”
So is he backpeddling? Or was he taken out of context the first time?
I have a lot of respect for the guy - hope it's the second one.
Has to be. Backpedalling is when you soften your stance. When you say someone oveblew what you said, you are standing by what you said.
FWIW, I don't know if you read the article when it came out. I did, and looked at all the Brady quotes and could not see where the writer got his conclusions.
Even worse, though, were talking heads who say, "Brday tells the Patriots to sign Branch at any cost" as Wilbon did on PTI.
I still think what Tom said was fine, and even if he didn't clarify, I'd be fine with it.
The big winner is wRONg Borg-Ass, who can say, "See, I was right all along. Brady is not a stand-up guy and the Patriots are a bunch or inept morons and their fans a bunch of brainless sheep."
What a shock. A writer took false liberties with some statements made by a player. When does that ever happen?
I say this now with a straight face. Sports would be infintely better without ESPN.
Why? SO we could be left with 10 minutes of sports stuck at the end of newscasts and team or league written whitewash programs? I don't know how old you are, but I can remember what it was like before we had a sports network devoted to sports. Without ESPN, there would be no NFL Network and a whole bunch of other great sports programs and interviews.
ESPN may not be perfect, but they are pretty damn good IMHO.
"Overblown", Bradys interview
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