The Patriots have long had a reputation for being no fun, but one former Super Bowl champion has done his best to dispel that.
Chris Long only played in New England for one season, winning Super Bowl LI with the Patriots in 2016, but has long been complimentary toward the organization. On Thursday, he continued the praise of his lone season in Foxborough.
"(It was) impactful. I mean, it was so impactful to me," Long said, via Tom Curran's Patriots Talk Podcast. "First thing is (I had) great teammates, lifelong friends. Learning football from Bill Belichick was such a blessing. And he was so cool about the way it ended, too. Not that he cared that I was leaving, but he didn't hold a grudge or nothing like that. We still text from time to time... Everything worked out. It just worked out."
Long left during the free agency period following his Super Bowl win with New England, joining a Philadelphia Eagles squad that built a reputation of getting under Patriots fans' skin. Not only did Philly defeat New England the following season in Super Bowl LII, but offensive tackle Lane Johnson chose to slam the Patriots organization while taking his victory lap -- calling their success "fear based." As a player who spent time with both organizations, Long took some of the blame, which he didn't appreciate.
"Lane opened his mouth, " Long said. "...Lane got walked into that and it just stuck. And of course, everybody was like, 'Oh, Lane is best buddies with Chris. Chris is the one who said it.' That always bothered the hell out of me, because all I've ever said is positives about New England and my teammates there. We were drunk as hell at the parade, we had a tight-knit group. It was awesome man, the locker room was great. So I hated being misrepresented by association with that thing, because I did have fun up there."
At the end of the day, all parties came out of the whole situation positively. The Eagles got their Super Bowl win, the Patriots rebounded with one of their own the next season, Long won the Walter Payton Man of the Year Award in 2018 and Patriots fans get to make fun of Johnson every time he loses a game.
