For years, Tedy Bruschi and Rodney Harrison were insiders in the Patriots’ world, privy to secrets known only to those in that tight circle. Only the men in silver helmets knew what the relationship between Tom Brady and Drew Bledsoe was really like in 2001 or if Brady’s shoulder truly was bugging him all those years when he was listed on the injury report.
Whenever anyone criticized the Patriots’ methods or questioned some piece of information coming out of the team’s media relations office, Bruschi and Harrison were the first to defend the franchise at all costs.
Well, those days are gone for these two, as they discovered Monday morning. Both of them separately were critical of Patriots wide receiver Chad Ochocinco‘s tweets complimenting New England’s offense last week. Once upon a time, from inside the Patriots locker room, their words might have carried weight and exhibited great leadership. Uttered into a microphone while wearing a tie, the words rung hollow.
Brady settled that by defending Ochocinco on Dennis and Callahan.
“None of those guys have any clue what they’re talking about,” Brady said. “They’re outside of the locker room. They don’t know what we’re trying to accomplish.”
“With all due respect to them and what they’ve accomplished, and like I said, I love them, but they don’t know,” he added.
This has to be an awkward discovery for Bruschi and Harrison. They are, in the minds of the players, no longer part of the “in” crowd. Their words are just as easy for current players to dismiss as the words of any typical Knight of the Keyboard.
Congratulations, fellas. Having a star player tell you that you don’t know what you’re talking about is a rite of passage in this business. You’re officially one of us now.
Insert sinister laughter here.
