Saints coach Sean Payton sent out a tweet featuring a picture of the large picture of Tom Brady that the Patriots affixed to the outside of Gillette Stadium to keep Brady around the team in spirit while he serves his four-game suspension to open the season.
There was some similarity between the Patriots’ move and the picture of Payton that the Saints put up in their training facility -- captioned with “do your job” to none of the aggrieved response the Cowboys got for using the phrase -- while Payton was suspended a year by the league. That suspension drew a similar response in New Orleans to the one Brady’s suspension has received in New England and Payton confirmed that his tweet was intended to show that he understands “what Tom is going through.”
During his Thursday press conference, Belichick was apprised of what Payton posted and said it was nice to have Payton’s support.
“Yeah, I mean I have a good friendship with Sean. We go back quite a ways. We’ve had a great working relationship, great professional relationship and a good personal relationship. So, I always appreciate his support. He has had ours, we’ve had his. You can’t say that about everybody but certainly he has been a good friend and a good supporter.”
Belichick was also asked about Cardinals quarterback Carson Palmer’s less empathetic response to a question about Brady’s suspension. Belichick said he wasn’t aware of it, but that he thinks highly of Palmer.
“I didn’t see it,” Belichick said. “But I mean I have a lot of respect for Carson Palmer. We’ve known Carson throughout the years, had him out at the Pro Bowl. I really have a lot of respect for Carson and what he has done throughout his career with three different organizations. I think he’s an outstanding person, outstanding quarterback, great competitor and he has had a tremendous career.”
Belichick and Palmer will be on opposite sides of the field on Sunday night when the Patriots and Cardinals kick off their regular seasons.
