When you make your living formulating sports opinions, you’re bound to miss here or there.
But when it comes to Julian Edelman, Boston sports radio host Michael Felger really missed.
Felger, the afternoon drive-time host for 98.5 The Sports Hub, is a polarizing figure (at best) for New England Patriots fans. More or less since Felger’s beginning on the airwaves in Boston he consistently has come off as a contrarian amid the Patriots’ historic run to NFL immortality.
Like in 2011, for instance, following a lopsided Patriots win over the Kansas City Chiefs during which Edelman returned a punt for a touchdown. That apparently was enough to convince the TV broadcasters to compare Edelman to Patriots great Troy Brown.
As we saw in a video unearthed Wednesday by a Twitter user, Felger was no fan of that comparison.
“I covered Troy Brown, I watched Troy Brown his entire career. I know Troy Brown. Julian Edelman is not Troy Brown,” Felger proclaimed.
Tony Massarotti agreed if you can believe that, chiming in, “Oh, I’m so with you. If I was Troy Brown, I’d be insulted by that.”
And that’s where things got really good.
“Stop with that,” Felger said. “Julian Edelman is a nice August player. He’s a nice preseason football player.”
And then, of the Super Bowl LIII MVP, Felger said …
“I call him Mr. August. Maybe somewhere down the road, he’ll fill a role for you. But that is not Troy Brown. Stop with that.”
In Felger’s defense, comparing Edelman — who had 48 career catches by the end of the 2011 season — was probably a little much at the time. But, as we all know, “Mr. August” has turned into one of the greatest postseason performers the sport has ever seen. Only Jerry Rice — arguably the best wide receiver in the history of football — has more playoff catches than Edelman, who hauled in 10 passes for 140 yards during New England’s Super Bowl win over the Los Angeles Rams, the third title of Edelman’s borderline Hall of Fame career.
Regardless of where you stand on that Hall of Fame debate, there’s no doubting Edelman has far exceeded any talk of being a “nice preseason player.”
