The New England Patriots are almost certainly going to downplay everything that was written in ESPN’s bombshell piece about their organizational power struggle, and NFL agent Don Yee has decided to lead the charge.
Yee, who represents both Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, released a statement through NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero on Friday.
Statement from Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, on ESPN report about #Patriots power struggle: "I don't really know what to say — it's tough to have a response since it didn't appear to me to have one on-the-record quote. All I can suggest is don't believe everything you read."
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) January 5, 2018
The biggest claim in Seth Wickersham’s piece is that Patriots owner Robert Kraft essentially forced Bill Belichick to trade Garoppolo. Wickersham was also told by sources that the Patriots “repeatedly” offered Garoppolo contract extensions worth between $17 and $18 million annually over four years. Yee could be suggesting that all or some of that is untrue.
It seems highly unlikely that Brady or Belichick will address some of the surprising takeaways from the ESPN story, but you have to wonder if the piece will serve as motivation for the Patriots as they try to win their sixth Super Bowl and third in the past four years.
