It’s official: Tedy Bruschi is taking the whole Patriot Way thing way too far. We all know they have a certain way of doing things in Foxboro. We all know former Patriots are proud people and they should be considering many of them won multiple Super Bowls. Having said that, lighten up.
A couple weeks ago Bruschi lambasted Arian Foster for tweeting a picture of his injured hamstring, and most of the criticism was deserved. Any NFL coach would prefer that his players not disclose extremely detailed information about an injury, so in a way Bruschi was saying what many of us were thinking. With regard to his recent verbal attack on Chad Ochocinco: Not so much.
On a night where Tom Brady broke a career high in passing yardage by more than 100 yards, Ochocinco was minimally involved. He caught only one pass Monday night, further proving that he is not up to speed with the Patriots offense. Apparently this is not acceptable for Bruschi, nor was Ocho’s tweet which read “Just waking up after a late arrival, I’ve never seen a machine operate like that n person,to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW.”
“Drop the awe factor, OK, Ocho, Chad, drop the awe factor,” Bruschi said during an appearance on WEEI Radio. “You’re not a fan, all right? You’re not someone who’s on another team or watching TV. You’re not an analyst. You’re a part of it. They want you to be a part of it. So get with the program because obviously you’re not getting it and you’re tweeting because you’re saying, ‘It’s amazing to see’? It’s amazing to see because you don’t understand it! You still don’t understand it and it’s amazing to you because you can’t get it.
“Stop tweeting and get in your playbook,” Bruschi continued. “Wake up! If you’re just waking up now – I don’t know when this was, six minutes ago? – get out your bed and get to the stadium and watch some film if you still think its amazing. If you’re in it and you know what you’re doing and you execute out there you don’t think it’s amazing. You know why? Because it’s what you’re supposed to do. All of a sudden it’s second nature. ‘I know i was supposed do that, yes I went 99 yards, I threw for 517 you know why? Because we’re that good and that’s what we’re supposed to do and that’s what I thought we were gonna do.’ You are still in awe to be a member of the New England Patriots offense. Join the system, buddy.”
A little much? The Patriots did not return home from Miami until about 5 a.m. Tuesday morning, so a little sleep was probably in order after a late night and a full football game. More importantly, there is absolutely nothing wrong with Ocho saying he was amazed by his own team’s offense. If anything he is trying to make it known that he doesn’t plan on being a “get me the ball” crybaby the way some might expect. More than anything I believe he was trying to make a point that he doesn’t care how many passes he catches as long as the team succeeds and the offense does its job. Whether his attitude will change or not remains to be seen.
To say this was an overreaction from Bruschi would be an understatement. We get the point: You worked hard throughout your career and you think Ocho should be doing more to get up to speed with the Patriots offense. I’m sure even Bill Belichick has no problem with the Tweet or Chad sleeping late in a situation like that. If four weeks from now Ocho has caught only 5 passes for 100 yards, it’s safe to start ripping him.
H/T to Tom E. Curran of CSNNE.com for the story.
