At first, there was nothing out of the ordinary.
"Randy Moss walks thru locker room into weight room," wrote ESPNBoston.com reporter and NESN insider Mike Reiss on his Twitter page.
"Gary Guyton bolts the locker room… Says he has to go lift weights then get to a 12 o clock meeting.," wrote the Boston Herald's Ian Rapoport.
That left just Derrick Burgess and Adalius Thomas to represent the disciplined Patriots. Shortly thereafter, Thomas didn't shy away from the media.
“I wish I could give you some answers,” Thomas said, according to Rapoport. “I really do. I don’t know. I mean, you’re told to call [if running late] and you call, you get sent home.
“I mean, I could have been in the ditch. They really don’t give a damn, honestly," he added. "Hey, as long as you ain’t in the meeting, they really don’t give a [expletive].”
Earlier in the season, Laurence Maroney compared the running backs unit to the cartoon Voltron. Thomas likened his situation to another cartoon.
“I don’t really know what else to say,” Thomas said. “You leave home, you have people there, cars sitting in the road, you’re sitting there and what [do] you do? It’s not The Jetsons. I can’t jump up and fly.”
Thomas said he wasn't sure exactly when he arrived for the 8 a.m. meeting, but he said it was somewhere in the area of 8:09 a.m.
When asked if he had spoken to Bill Belichick about the coach's decision, according to Providence Journal reporter and NESN insider Shalise Manza Young, he replied: "For what? Ain't nothing to talk about."
"You have to ask him about that. I have no idea," he said when asked if he had a strain with his head coach. "I just do what I'm told. I was told to go home so that's what I did."
Thomas said that he believes the incident will be a big topic in the media, regardless of the outcome of Sunday's game against the Panthers.
"I think it's more than what it should be, so, you know, your focus should be on Carolina, but instead, it's on this whole topic of being late and whatnot," he said. "It will be determined on Sunday after the game — [if] we play well, it will be this whole great thing, and if it doesn't, then you guys will come back to this whole thing and say it's a distraction."
The decision has been debated and dissected by just about everyone in New England. That's not a first for Belichick, who's not been shy to make controversial decisions.
Still, it seems as though Thomas, who's in his third season with the Patriots, doesn't have a better understanding of the enigmatic head coach than most fans.
"You have to ask … I don't know," he said when asked if he thought Belichick was making an example of the four players. "Teaching tool? I don't know. I really … I can't figure out what Bill thinks or knows. I don't know it. I promise you I don't."
