Buried within our post from this afternoon on the Patriots send-off in Foxborough Sunday was the following quote from Tom Brady:
“I wish I could take all you guys to Indy with us,” Brady told his fans. “We’re going down there, and we’re going down there for one reason. We’re going to give it our best and hopefully we have a lot more people at our party next weekend.”
Innocuous enough.
Starved for a storyline, we saw a number of New York-area reporters on Sunday evening bring this quote up to Brady and other Patriots as if Brady had made a Joe Willie-style guarantee.
ESPNNewYork.com had a headline that said “Brady planning victory party.” Sigh.
We can’t wait to see the back covers in New York Monday. (You know it’s a bad sign when PFT thinks someone is stretching for a story.)
“Well, it was a pep rally,” Brady said in response Sunday night. “People were pretty excited. Certainly players were excited. I know 25,000 fans who were there were excited as well. It was great to see the support. We get great support, home and away, and hopefully we have some Patriots jerseys in the stands next Sunday night.”
As the guys on NFL Network might say, “Good answer. Good answer.”
I heard a few other Patriots players asked about Brady’s comment. Most just dismissed it.
“We’re a confident football team. We have every reason to be,” guard Brian Waters said. “Both teams have every reason to be confident. I’m confident in my teammates. . . . If we prepare like we have for 17, 18 weeks, I think our confidence will be at all-time high.”