Oddly enough, it's not from Bill Belichick or Robert Kraft — it's from a retired Patriot regarding a harmless tweet about Tom Brady's impressive performance on Monday night in Miami.
Yes, a harmless tweet, as seen below.
"Just waking up after a late arrival,I've never seen a machine operate like that n person,to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW," Ochocinco tweeted.
While pretty much everyone in New England cracked a smile after seeing Ochocinco's excitement, one Pats legend — currently an analyst on ESPN — wasn't happy at all. That former player? Tedy Bruschi, who told the receiver to clean it up while appearing on WEEI earlier this week.
"Drop the awe factor, OK, Ocho, Chad, drop the awe factor," Bruschi said. "You're not a fan, all right. You're not someone who's on another team or watching TV. You're not an analyst. You're a part of it. They want you to be a part of it. So get with the program because obviously you're not getting it and you're tweeting because you're saying, 'It's amazing to see'? It's amazing to see because you don't understand it! You still don't understand it and it's amazing to you because you can't get it.
"Stop tweeting and get in your playbook," Bruschi added. "Wake up! If you're just waking up now — I don't know when this was, six minutes ago? Get out your bed and get to the stadium and watch some film if you still think it's amazing. If you're in it and you know what you're doing and you execute out there you don't think it's amazing. You know why? Because it's what you're supposed to do."
While questioning anything Bruschi says or does is sacrilege in these parts, one has to wonder who gave Bruschi the right to tell Ochocinco what he can and can't do? Last I checked, No. 54 on the Patriots was Brian Waters, not Tedy Bruschi. Same can be said about Rodney Harrison, who told Ochocinco "Instead of tweeting … focus on what you can do to get on the field and make us better, make us a more complete team."
Harrison spends his Sundays in a suit with a mic strapped to his lapel, while Ochocinco spends his catching footballs and doing what he can to help the Patriots win. As much as it hurts to admit, this is that tweeting, media-hogging loud mouth's team, not Harrison's.
This isn't the linebacker's team anymore. He now plays for ESPN, and he's playing it well, as these comments have caused quite the stir around the league — something he was hoping for, made evident by the way he ended his segment by excitedly bragging (at around the 14:12 mark) "… and I'm in today!"
Anyone who has followed football over the last decade has to respect what Bruschi has done, but will he be some miserable 80-year-old man sitting on his stoop whining about players because they're not doing it his old "Patriots way"? Does he not understand that a team's culture changes and that a locker room won't always remain the same? Will he ever realize his days as a Pats leader are over?
Take it down a notch, Tedy. You sound like you still care for this team very much, but by making a big stink of this harmless tweet, you're just bringing more problems to Belichick's den. You can't be upset with a new guy for being excited about joining a winning team – why can't football be fun?
