The New England Patriots won a lot of games and scored a lot of points during Bill O’Brien’s brief tenure as offensive coordinator. But O’Brien’s one season in that role might be best remembered for an incident that took place on the sideline.
During a win over the Washington Redskins in 2011, CBS cameras caught O’Brien and Patriots quarterback Tom Brady screaming their heads off at one another after Brady had thrown an interception in the end zone. It took backup QB Brian Hoyer, wide receivers coach Chad O’Shea and head coach Bill Belichick to separate them.
With O’Brien, who now is the head coach of the Houston Texans, set to visit Gillette Stadium this weekend, Brady reminisced about the sideline blowup during his Monday morning appearance on WEEI’s “Kirk & Callahan.”
“He kind of let me have it. I deserved it,” Brady said, via CSNNE.com. “It was kind of a dumb throw. I deserved it. I kind of chirped back, and he didn’t like it. I was kind of fiery at the time, too.
“We cooled off pretty quick. That’s Billy’s style. Billy’s gonna let you know if he doesn’t like something that you did. He handles it in the right way, in a way that you really respected. You know he’s fiery, you know he just wants to get the job done. We cooled off. We ended up winning the game (when) Jerod Mayo made a great interception to end that game. By the time we got to the locker room, we were good.
“There are a lot of emotions in this game. You wear them on your sleeve, and sometimes you just fire off. That’s just the way it goes.”
The Patriots went on to lose in Super Bowl XLVI that season. They’ll look to take another step toward Super Bowl LI on Saturday night against O’Brien’s Texans, who secured a spot in the divisional round by beating the Oakland Raiders on Saturday.
