While many players speak pretty much the same words, week after week, season after season, Bruschi always had a way of offering up commentary that was specific to the game just played or the next one on the schedule. It was as though he wasn’t just speaking to the reporters or to the fans, but to every player on every team the Pats play. When he did so, he was supplying bulletin-board material that opponents didn’t dare post on the bulletin board, this because they knew Bruschi was speaking fact, not smack.
How valuable was Bruschi to the Patriots? The best way to answer the question is to ponder this question: How often does a non-Hall of Fame-bound player’s retirement announcement rush every media outlet in the region into live, on-the-scene coverage?
Or you can look at it this way: Bill Belichick was reduced to a quivering, voice-cracking, bleary-eyed puddle when he talked with the media yesterday about Tedy Bruschi. Bill Belichick. This is a guy who changes players the way auto mechanics change oil filters, and for the same reason: The only thing that matters is keeping the machine running. Yet there he was, welling up about the news that some linebacker is cleaning out his locker.