Thursday Patriots Headlines: September 16th
Yesterday Patriots quarterback Tom Brady expressed his frustration with the Foxboro Faithful on Wednesday, as the quarterback looked up and saw a half empty venue after they were on their way out of the stadium early in the fourth quarter when New England was up by three touchdowns against the Cincinnati Bengals last Sunday.
“The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd, who, when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points in the early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about. But I don’t think the Jets fans leave early.”
Karen Guregian has more on Brady's comments, which she feels should be a wake up call to the fans. You'll see in the photo in this piece there where were there were a sea of empty seats late in Sunday's game.
Herald columnist Steve Buckley writes that the Patriots and Jets have a "Hate - Hate" Relationship, which obviously is going to make Sunday's game that much better to watch.
Ron Borges talks about Jets coach Rex Ryan, who claims he has no problem dealing with the criticism following their Monday loss.
He also writes that Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis isn't backing off his "slouch" comments of Randy Moss.
“If that’s what he said, I guess that’s what he’s been preparing for all offseason,” Revis said. “He said it with a laugh, but it’s been on his mind for the whole offseason. Randy speaks the truth. He speaks how he feels. Obviously, if he said that, it was on his mind in the offseason.
“I called him a slouch because I felt he played like a slouch (in the first game). They tried to come after me in the second game. He wasn’t a slouch in the second game, (but) . . . if I said it in January, whenever I said it, you guys know I said it. That’s how I felt at that particular time.”
Ian Rapoport of the Herald writes that the Patriots don't want to hear about "Hard Knocks" they aren’t big fans of it, they’ve barely watched it, they don’t want to talk about it.
Mike Reiss writes that the two teams have differing styles, with one being brash, while the other keeps quiet and lets their play on the field do their talking.
Mark Farinella writes that a while Rex Ryan is trying to stay "low key", he's still getting in his shots, pointing out that the Jets weren't the only team to lose to the Ravens recently.
"That was such a disappointment," Ryan said. "We lost to a pretty good football team, and I think the Patriots lost to them in the playoffs, last time I looked. But we expect to win every game. We're going to lace 'em up again, and we'll see how that goes this week."
Meanwhile after the trade of Laurence Maroney had some questioning whether it was a wise move considering the injury history of Sammy Morris and Fred Taylor, Taylor appeared on the injury report yesterday after being limited in practice with a "toe" injury.
Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Herald feels that the Maroney deal came at the "right time", after head coach Bill Belichick gave his reason for sending Maroney to Denver, saying yesterday that the team simply wanted to go in a "different direction".
“I just felt like it was the right time for us to move on,’’ he said. “I have a lot of respect for Laurence. He came in, been here for four years, worked hard.
“I think he’s improved a lot and has helped us a lot as a player. I think he would have helped us this year, but we just felt like it was time to move on.
After being promoted from the practice squad yesterday, Jeff Howe of NESN writes that Javarris James is ready to step into the Patriots offense.
And finally, Jessica Heslam of the Herald talks about the scandal surrounding the Jets and the sexual harrasment incident going on down there, with Brady saying yesterday "that wouldn’t go on here".
That's it for this morning. As usual we'll have more throughout the day, so be sure to check back for updates as there a couple of other pieces that will be released later this morning, along with another for this afternoon. So check the front of PatsFans.com for more later on.
