Tom Brady And The Pats vs The NFL Network

Thursday, August 21, 2008


You do not want to make Tom Brady angry. You will not like him when he's angry. Yesterday the Golden Boy laid into the NFL-N for comments that Sterling Sharpe made about backup Pats QB, Matt Cassel. Sharpe and Marshall Faulk were pretty critical of Cassel in his last game against the Bucs, but neither said anything that out of line. The most I can gather is that Sharpe said that the Patriots shouldn't be “too comfortable” with their backup QB.

Well that angered Brady and he had this to say on WEEI yesterday. Via The Boston Herald....

“Watching Matt (Sunday) night, hearing all the criticism, I don’t even know where that was coming from,” he said. “That was so far from what I was watching. The quarterback has a lot of responsibility out there. I thought Matt was making good decisions. He was really decisive with his throws. Was every throw perfect? No. But that doesn’t happen so often anyway.

“I see Matt every day in practice and the improvement he makes. I love what I see in Matt. I have a lot of confidence in Matt . . . for the three guys sitting in the booth, I thought it was unfair to criticize the way they were criticizing, because I don’t think they really knew what was happening.”
Now I know that Brady has to stick up for his friend and teammate, but let's be honest here....Faulk will be a HOFer and Sharpe would have been if not for injuries. I think they're pretty qualified to say if a QB is having a bad day. With Brady himself being injured, it's also a pretty good point to raise in a preseason game.

Cassel himself responded himself after the "criticism" and had this to say: "It’s interesting to me because those guys were in the same shoes at one point in their career, and they should understand how hard it is to go out there and perform each and every week.”

Now I didn't hear the conversation firsthand, but if you're seriously that defensive about a random announcer's comments in the freaking preseason, maybe the NFL isn't the place for you. This whole "The World is against us" routine the Patriots try to pull off every single week is getting old. And good for Sterling, he's standing by his assessment....
“It looked as though the passing offense made a change, as a confidence-building thing with some of the throws for Matt,” Sharpe said. “I could be way off on that. Maybe I missed the boat, and if so, I apologize. But from a player’s perspective, I’m looking at it like, he’s already been in the situation for three years now and he’s in a quarterback battle with a rookie and a guy without much experience? If he’s in a battle, you’d expect him to win it. . . . This was his opportunity to separate himself from the other guys. He has to show why he is the No. 2 guy in New England. So I put more pressure on Matt to perform than I did (Kevin) O’Connell. You bet I did.”
Honesty is the best policy when it comes to announcing, and if a player stinks, I don't want an announcer holding anything back. With ESPN and CBS kissing the Pats collective ass whenever they can, it's great to hear someone take a stand. Bravo Sterling.

Sterling Sharpe’s words for Matt Cassel defended (Boston Herald)

18 Comments:

Why on Earth would either Brady or Cassel respond in any way to the criticism? Isn't that what on-air guys are paid to do at some point? Did either of them watch the tape of Cassel's "performance"?

Sounds like they're picking a fight they can't/won't win and for absolutely no reason at all. Unless Brady is hurt worse than we think.

Joseph said...
Aug 21, 2008, 10:03:00 AM  

Guess what? Matt Cassell sucks. Remember last year when Brady had to come back into a game against Miami because Cassell was too inept to hold a 42 point lead? And shouldn't Brady be more worried about actually playing than what a broadcaster has to say about someone who should be a practice squadder???

GMoney said...
Aug 21, 2008, 10:39:00 AM  

If you had listened to any portion of the game, Faulk and Sharpe were just awful. They weren't just criticizing Cassel, they were laughing and taking great joy out of every Patriots mistake(which in this game, there were many). However, in this game, Cassel was accurate on just about every single pass except the first one which was almost intercepted. So, you could understand why one might wonder what the hell they were criticizing. I guess because all of his passes were short? Well that's obviously not his call, we don't know what the Pats coaching staff is trying out in a random preseason game. Should the Pats be worried if Brady goes down? Hell yes, but isn't that true out of the majority of NFL teams??? Just watch the next Pats game that is broadcast the NFL network. I'll give you 1 million dollars for every good word that Faulk or Sharpe have to say about the Patriots. You can see that Brady is tired of his team getting bashed on a weekly basis(see his comments about ESPN).

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 11:08:00 AM  

"With ESPN and CBS kissing the Pats collective ass whenever they can.."

Are. You. Effing. Kidding. Me.

I think the Giants Superbowl Parade was on the ESPN campus.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 11:10:00 AM  

Anon- No offense but you're insane. Name me one analyst that picked the Giants to win that game. The spent the whole lead up going gah gah over the team. After the fact, sure they were going to praise them, but all last year ESPN just sucked them off at every opportunity.

Sure they bashed following spygate but that was quickly brushed under the rug now that season is getting underway. We had a whole day of Tom Brady injury news the other day.

Don't get me started on CBS either. Robert Kraft is funding a damn building for them outside of Gillette.

Aug 21, 2008, 11:15:00 AM  

To discover that the NFL Network employs Sterling Sharpe as a commentator makes me sort of glad my cable company refuses to offer the NFL Network.

Rick Rottman said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:09:00 PM  

It's CBS' job to kiss the Patriots' ass - they hold the majority rights for AFC games, and they need to tout the flag-bearers of the conference.

Neither of the players bashing Cassel are quarterbacks, but instead offensive players that enjoy bashing QBs when the offense struggles - notice it's rarely the WR's fault, it must have been the guy that threw the ball.

HardScores said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:25:00 PM  

If by "quickly brush under the rug", you mean drag out for 8 months, I completely agree with you AA.

There were a couple who picked the Giants because they hated the Pats so much - I remember Mike Ditka for one. They were openly rooting for the Giants. For you to say they were sucking up to the Pats for pointing out the obvious(they did go effing 16-0, it's hard to bash their play on the field), is ludicrous.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:49:00 PM  

If by "quickly brush under the rug", you mean drag out for 8 months, I completely agree with you AA.

There were a couple who picked the Giants because they hated the Pats so much - I remember Mike Ditka for one. They were openly rooting for the Giants. For you to say they were sucking up to the Pats for pointing out the obvious(they did go effing 16-0, it's hard to bash their play on the field), is ludicrous.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:50:00 PM  

And let's not forget all the complaining about "running up the score" either. Mike Wilbon advocated for an opposing defensive player to try to injure Brady.

And I'm sure you remember the NFL Live special during the "Matt Walsh interviews". The Omsbudswoman did a whole article about it. Open your eyes, dude.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:54:00 PM  

http://www.bostonsportsmedia.com/2008/05/why-spygate-is-the-most-disgraceful-episode-in-recent-sports-media-history

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 12:58:00 PM  

http://www.whogivesashitmagazine.com/2008/07/why-spygate-is-the-most-disgraceful-episode-in-football-history

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 1:10:00 PM  

Nice job, awfulannouncing man, it's reprehensible that the Patriots are glorified on a weekly basis. We don't have to hear this garbage anymore. It's nice to see the Pats suffer some affliction. If Brady's hurt worse than anyone supposed, don't expect me to shed any tears for them.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 1:31:00 PM  

"With ESPN and CBS kissing the Pats collective ass whenever they can.."

You just lost your credibility. NOBODY was blowing the Pats last year. With each win, more hatred was piled upon them with the nadir being Monday Night Football encouraging Don Shula to openly root against them. Tell me the last time you've seen such a thing; exactly you can't.

ESPN takes every shot it can at the Patriots. Anytime there's a story about them, it's Scott Van Pelt snickering while he makes a "taping " joke.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 2:00:00 PM  

Sorry Anon, but I agree with AA. ESPN (and CBS, for that matter) were ga-ga over the Pats for the whole year. Every other freaking story was about them.

And what, were poor Matty Cassel's wittle feelings hurt?

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 2:38:00 PM  

Obviously you Pats fans are going to disagree, but you have to realize what a bubble you are in with the way the team is covered up there.

Also, negative and positive don't really matter in regards to coverage. Your team was the story every single week last year and if it was for Brett Favre....it would be this year too. With some Cowboys thrown in for good measure.

Aug 21, 2008, 2:57:00 PM  

FYI that story is more than a day old, Brady talks to WEEI on monday mornings.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 5:56:00 PM  

CBS and ESPN need some big lips to kiss both the Patriots and Jets collective asses this season.

Anonymous said...
Aug 21, 2008, 6:09:00 PM  

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