Larry Brown Sports

Wes Welker played the role of safety valve to perfection for Tom Brady for six seasons. Any time the New England Patriots had to have a first down, Brady would always be looking to go to Welker. Now, the three-time Super Bowl champion will not have that option. Instead, he will have to rely on the newly-acquired Danny Amendola and his dynamic tight end duo of Rob Gronkowski and Aaron Hernandez.

Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark wonders if the aforementioned players will be enough. During an appearance on “NFL Live” On Monday, Clark talked about Welker’s importance to the Patriots, which he thinks has been understated.

“I think what’s really underestimated is Wes Welker’s importance to not only the New England Patriots, but Tom Brady,” he said, via ESPNBoston.com’s Mike Reiss. “A lot of what they do is timing. A lot of what they do is option reads, when you’re working inside against that nickelback or against those linebackers. Losing him is huge.

“I know they think Danny Amendola can come in and have the same type of numbers he had with the Rams, but we also have to remember, he’s fragile. He’s not a guy who has completed a whole season, especially playing inside in what can be a physical AFC East. You also think about Gronkowski and the injury; that is going to be bigger than anything for the New England Patriots coming in this year.”

The Patriots were not as concerned about Amendola’s injury history because most of his injuries have been to the upper body, but Clark makes some valid points. The chemistry Brady and Welker developed isn’t going to be instantly replicated by Brady and Amendola. Gronkowski’s health is also a major concern. However, there wouldn’t have been much bulletin board material for Bill Belichick to use if Clark had stopped there. He didn’t.

“In 2010, we saw it start with the Jets in the playoffs,” he continued. “When Tom Brady gets pressure and when you’re man-to-man and bumping those guys and making it hard for him to throw, he sees ghosts. Even when guys aren’t around him, even when he’s not about to be sacked, when his clock goes off in his head that the ball should be out, we’ll see him duck, we’ll see him flinch. When you get Tom Brady doing that, the whole New England Patriots mystique goes away.”

Again, some valid points. But Brady will probably use those points as motivation before the Steelers play the Patriots on Nov. 3. Health will be a major concern for New England heading into the season, but the same can be said for a lot of teams. Is it possible that this guy could be the answer? No, I didn’t think so either.

T.O. is the latest football player to join Tom Brady for offseason workouts.

Terrell Owens tweeted Wednesday afternoon that he was about to work out with Brady and Matt Cassel at UCLA. Owens must have made a minor mistake, because it turns out they were really practicing at USC.

The USC Trojans athletic department confirmed that was the case:

Today, New England @patriots QB Tom Brady was working out at USC with none other than @terrellowens.

— USC Trojans (@USC_Athletics) April 3, 2013

Brady spends his offseasons in Los Angeles where he and wife Giselle built a mansion. Though their enormous home is in Brentwood which is close to the UCLA campus (where Brady often practices), the New England Patriots quarterback has worked out across town at USC the past few days. On Tuesday the school tweeted that Brady was practicing with new teammate Danny Amendola:

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Tom Brady has restructured his contract with the New England Patriots once again, this time agreeing to a three-year, $27 million extension that will keep him with the team through 2017. The deal almost guarantees what most people already suspect: that Brady will retire in New England. More importantly, it gives the team massive salary cap flexibility.

Sports Illustrated’s Peter King first reported the deal on Monday afternoon, noting that the extension will pay Brady nearly half of what he is actually worth and would command on the open market. He and the Patriots worked out a similar deal in 2005.

Prior to the extension and restructuring, Brady was set to earn $43.6 million against New England’s salary cap over the next two seasons. The new agreement lowers that number to $28.6 million. The NFL’s salary cap is expected to remain the same at $121 million for the next two seasons before being raised in 2015.

The timing of King’s report hardly seems like a coincidence, as NFL.com reported earlier in the day that the Patriots and Wes Welker could be making progress toward agreeing to a long-term deal before the free agency period begins. It’s no secret that Welker has been Brady’s favorite target and one of the most reliable receivers in the game since he arrived in New England. At age 35, Brady would hate to lose his safety valve.

For those of you who are thinking to yourselves “big deal,” you’re right — in a way. Brady will earn more than $14 million a year over the next five seasons. He also can earn bonuses, will make millions off of endorsements and has a wife that makes more than he does. That being said, Brady’s willingness to restructure his deal for the sake of keeping his team in contention is incredibly rare — let alone doing it twice in a career. It’s not his responsibility to give the team flexibility to sign other players, which is why you don’t hear about other quarterbacks re-working their deals. Whether you’re a Brady fan or not, it would be tough to argue that he doesn’t put the team ahead of himself.

The NFL announced on Tuesday that it is reviewing the play from the AFC Championship Game where Tom Brady slid toward Ed Reed with his cleats in the air. When watching the play, which you can see here, it certainly looked like Brady intended to kick Reed. Whether the NFL will actually discipline the Golden Boy or not remains to be seen, but the Patriots quarterback has since apologized to Reed.

“I told him — you know, we talked,” Reed told WJZ-FM in Baltimore, via ESPNBoston.com. “We talked actually not too long ago, we talked on the phone. He actually reached out to me, texted me. I tried to text him back, but the message exploded after 12 seconds, so I had to call him … and he’s just apologized and what not. But I told him, ‘You know, it’s good, man.’

“I know he’s a great player. I respect Brady and his game for all it stands for, and I know he’s not a dirty player. And emotions get going in the game.”

No two people in football respect Ed Reed more than Brady and Bill Belichick. They’re always gushing about him and talking about what an unbelievable defender he is, as evidenced by the way they were talking about him in the Belichick documentary “A Football Life.”

While people like Bernard Pollard want to see the league make an example of Brady and prove that quarterbacks don’t receive preferential treatment, it’s not like Brady intended to seriously injure Reed. He got caught up in the heat of the moment, which happens to almost every player at some point. The reason it’s such a big deal is that Brady has never done anything like that before. That’s precisely why the league is unlikely to fine him.

Not only did Tom Brady show poor clock management at the end of the first half of the AFC Championship Game on Sunday, but he also had a questionable slide.

The Patriots had a second-and-10 play at the Baltimore 10 with 24 seconds left in the half. Brady scrambled to his left and slid to avoid a tackle, but he pointed his leg up high and kicked Ravens safety Ed Reed in the leg.

Baltimore safety Bernard Pollard ran toward the official to point out that Brady may have committed an unsportsmanlike play, but no penalty flag was thrown.

Rather than call a timeout, Brady tried setting up the offense for another play. He took so long to get organized that New England didn’t get another chance to score a touchdown. Brady finally used the timeout with four seconds left, and New England kicked a field goal to go up 13-7.

There is no doubt that Brady slid with his cleats high and aimed at Reed. The only question is whether he was trying to shield himself from a hit or inflict damage on his opponent.

Below is a screenshot of the kick:

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Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Dean Pees has his hands full with trying to stop the New England Patriots on Sunday, and he knows more than the average person about just how deadly Tom Brady and company can be. Pees was a defensive coach for the Patriots from 2004-2009, so he has experience watching Brady from the sidelines and going up against him in practice.

So how does he intend to stop him this weekend in Foxboro?

“Hire Tonya Harding,” Pees joked on Thursday according to the Boston Herald. “If they were getting off the bus, I’d spray water outside the bus and hope it freezes.

“He is who he is. I went against him up there in practice for six years. He’s as competitive of a person as I’ve ever been around. He can give you this little boyish look on TV, but he is a very, very, very competitive guy. He didn’t even like losing in practice. The more we rode him on defense, because I had a couple trash talkers, the harder he played. He is who he is. He’s going to play well.”

That’s a cruel joke that legendary skater Nancy Kerrigan certainly would not appreciate, but you get the point. Pees gushed about Brady and called him a Hall of Fame quarterback, reiterating that he expects him to play well and that all Baltimore can do is try to disrupt him the best way they can.

While the way a playoff game will go is impossible to predict, common sense would tell you that the Ravens will have to score a lot of points this weekend if they want to advance to the Super Bowl. A certain Baltimore linebacker may think New England runs a “gimmick” offense, but talking trash isn’t going to help them stop it. Nobody knows that better than Pees.

Save this picture, because it’s one of the few times you’re going to see Tom Brady in Ohio State gear.

The former Michigan quarterback apparently lost a bet with his former Patriots teammate over last weekend’s Michigan-Ohio State game and had to wear the Mike Vrabel Buckeyes jersey you see above during a recent practice.

“As promised #buckeyenation. A bet is a bet” Vrabel wrote on Twitter.

Ohio State beat Michigan 26-21 to remain perfect on the season, improving to 12-0. Brady isn’t the only Michigan player to lose a bet on the game with an Ohio State teammate. Arizona Cardinals kicker Jay Feely paid off his lost bet with running back Beanie Wells by wearing an Ohio State hat and shirt:

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