Ed Reed, the longtime Ravens safety who’s now retired and an analyst on Inside the NFL, says there’s not a lot of love for the Patriots in Baltimore. But there is respect.
Reed said after the Spygate and Deflategate controversies don’t change the fact that the Patriots are a great team -- perhaps the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport -- and that the Ravens respect the Patriots even while disliking them.
“I played against these guys continuously and we never really talked about the cheating part. I mean it comes up, but in Baltimore, we didn’t like the guys,” he said. “But you respected them. You had the utmost respect for those guys because at the end of the day it comes down to football. It comes down to between those lines and execution, and those guys execute to a T.”
Tom Brady was once fined $10,000 for kicking Reed, so it’s not surprising that Reed doesn’t like him. But at this point, just about everyone in the NFL has at least a grudging respect for the Patriots.