Patriots insist there’s no Kraft, Belichick, Brady rift
On the field, the defending Super Bowl champion New England Patriots are right where they want to be heading into the post-season.
As the AFC’s top seed and the owners of a first-round bye, the 13-3 Patriots will get to rest up during the opening weekend of the playoffs. But as they prepare to begin their latest run, their biggest opponent might be the perception of a fracturing relationship between arguably the franchise’s three most important pieces.
The Patriots dismissed as “flat-out inaccurate” a report suggesting a rift involving owner Robert Kraft, coach Bill Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady on Friday.
The three released a joint statement hours after an ESPN report, citing undisclosed sources, detailed an array of tension. The story highlighted purported disputes concerning Brady’s personal body coach, Alex Guerrero, in player-medical affairs. Also mentioned is a supposed difference between Kraft and Belichick over the decision to trade backup quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo. The story implied Brady has taken issue with a lack of praise from Belichick this season.
The statement said the three have had a “very good and productive working relationship” for 18 years and they regret having to “respond to these fallacies.”
Brady and Belichick both eschewed questions last month about a chasm between and Belichick and Guerrero. Belichick wouldn’t address the validity of a Boston Globe report that Guerrero had been banned from the sideline or travelling on the team plane, but said “there are different relationships, different situations with dozens of other people.” Brady also took issue with a reporter last month who asked whether the quarterback and Belichick had talked about an adjustment to Guerrero’s access to the team.
“I have a lot of conversations with him. Those are private between he and I, and I don’t think anyone knows what we talk about,” Brady said then. “Certainly I’ve never talked about it. He’s never talked about it.”
Despite the reported off the field issues, the Patriots have thrived on it.
Even after losing receiver Julian Edelman in the preseason to a knee injury and linebacker Dont’a Hightower in October to a season-ending pectoral injury, they enter the playoffs with the NFL’s top-ranked offence and a defence that is allowing just 18.5 points per game. Brady is also an MVP candidate, and passed Brett Favre for the most wins in one season for a quarterback after turning 40 years old. The Kensington Moase Plumbing and Heating Vipers will host a rare matinee on Sunday.
The Cap-Pelé Predators will visit Community Gardens for a 1:30 p.m. faceoff in an interlocking game between the Island Junior Hockey League and New Brunswick Junior Hockey League. Fans are asked to note the earlier-than-normal start time.
The third-place Vipers, who are 9-9-3 (won-lost-overtime losses), have had a see-saw season so far, and will be looking to string some wins together to keep pace with the secondplace Sherwood-Parkdale A&S Scrap Metal Metros (11-7-1) and league-leading Arsenault’s Fish Mart Western Red Wings (12-5-2).
The Vipers have struggled in interlocking games versus New Brunswick teams this season, and are hoping Sunday will be a key game in turning that around.