Breer On Toucher & Rich: Brady's Kick And Welker's Future
According to receiver Tim Brown the Oakland Raiders were "sabotaged" by then head coach Bill Callahan Super Bowl XXXVII in 2003. Brown claims that Callahan changed the game plan at the last minute, which led to the 48-21 loss to Jon Gruden's Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
"I have enormously difficult time believing that," Bert Breer of the NFL Network told 98.5 The Sports Hub's Toucher & Rich on Wednesday. "I understand players are bitter about it, and a guy like Tim Brown more so than other people because he doesn't have a ring. I can understand that maybe he messed up the game plan, but to insinuate a coach would mess up the Super Bowl; I don't think the players understand the magnitude of that."
In New England fans are dealing with their own tough loss from Sunday. The Ravens came in and rolled over the Patriots in the AFC Championship game 28-13. A play that's getting a lot of attention is Tom Brady's slide into Ravens safety Ed Reed. On the play Brady had one leg raised in what looked to be an attempt to kick Reed. Reed's teammate Bernard Pollard believes Brady should be disciplined by the NFL. Brady has reached out to Reed to apologize.
"It doesn't surprise me that Brady would see that word was getting out there that maybe he'd done something intentionally," Breer said. "It doesn't shock me that Brady would reach out to Reed considering the level of respect that some of those guys in that small group at the top of the league have for each other."
Breer went on to try and explain what Brady might have been trying to do, "The worst thing I can think Brady would be doing there would be trying to protect himself; putting his leg up so someone doesn't hit him – avoid a monster hit while he was going to the ground. I don't think he did it with malice for the defensive player."
Moving on from the game and looking ahead toward the future the team has some decisions to make regarding some free agents, one of those players is wide receiver Wes Welker. Will the Patriots be bringing him back?
"The big thing for the Patriots in bringing him back is if they prioritize getting a bit outside weapon. If they think they can get that type of weapon through the draft, then I think they can probably afford to keep Welker."
The Patriots could use the franchise tag once again, but what if they don't?
"If they're not going to use it on Welker, the most likely scenario would be either they A. Don't use it, or B. use it on Sebastian Vollmer. My guess is that Talib, they don't want to create a situation where Talib feels entitled to anything. My guess is they let Talib hit the open market test his value, and then ask him can you come back to us and present us with whatever you get and we'll see if we can do anything or not."
