So on Sunday morning, Tom Curran of NBCSports.com reported that Patriots quarterback Tom Brady might miss the 2009 season due to his slower-than-expected recovery from knee surgery.
And on Sunday night Peter King of NBC contradicted the, um, NBC report.
King said on Football Night In America that two people close to Brady dispute the report, claiming that he’s actually ahead of schedule.
Per King, there’s also a theory in the Brady camp that the Patriots are floating a phony story in order to get more value for quarterback Matt Cassel via a trade.
Of course, to trade Cassel, the Patriots would have to slap the franchise tag on Cassel. But King has previously opined that the Pats won’t franchise Cassel if Brady is healthy.
But now King is now citing sources close to Brady who think that the Patriots intend to franchise Cassel even if Brady is healthy.
So when in the hell did ESPN buy NBC?
Here’s the bigger potential issue, in our view. To the extent that the Pats are trying to help the franchise by crying poor mouth when it comes to Brady’s knee, the unnamed sources close to Brady aren’t willing to play along. And thus to the extent that Brady controls these unnamed sources close to him, perhaps Brady isn’t playing along. And thus maybe there’s reason to believe that the relationship between Brady and the Patriots has taken a hit ever since Brady took a Week One hit on the left knee.
