Clueless QB jokes about concussions
TOM BRADY was at his smug and arrogant best — who would have guessed?! — as he stepped to the podium Wednesday i n Foxborough.
The Patriots quarterback — whom the Daily News put in a diaper on Wednesday’s back page after Broncos defensive lineman Antonio Smith called him a crybaby — said he couldn’t remember what he complains to refs about because “I’ve taken a lot of hits over the years.”
Nothing like one of the faces of the NFL making light of concussions, one of the league’s biggest health problems.
Brady claimed he hadn’t seen the image of himself as a baby in a Patriots diaper, but his face told another story.
“No, I haven’t seen any,” the quarterback said with a grin that gave away that, most likely, he probably had seen it.
Earlier i n the press conference, Brady was asked if he thought he works the referees more than other quarterbacks in the league.
“I’m not sure. I’m not sure what the other quarterbacks do,” Brady said. “If the refs want to throw the flag, I love when they throw the flags on the defenders, absolutely. It advances our team. So that’s just part of football.”
Brady then dropped his concussion joke when asked how his conversations with referees go.
“I don’t remember much of ’em,” Brady said. “I’ve taken a lot of hits over the years.”
Smith didn’t hold back in his criticism of Brady on Tuesday.
“I’ve never seen any quarterback l ook to the referee right after he gets sacked more than Brady,” the defensive lineman said. “Every time he gets sacked he looks at the ref like, ‘You see him sack me? Was that supposed to happen? He did it a little hard. Please throw a 15-yard penalty on him. Get him fined.’”
Bill Belichick, not surprisingly, didn’t take the bait when he was asked Wednesday about possible “bulletin board” material the Broncos may have provided. “We’re focused on the Denver Broncos and the game,” Belichick said. “All the rest of it’s a bunch of hot air.”
But the Patriots’ opponents aren’t the only ones offering up smack talk this week.
Rob Gronkowski, in response to a tweet that i ndicated the Broncos were going to try to hit him in the knees, tweeted Tuesday, “Heard their whole team is good at giving low blows.”
Belichick was not asked about Gronkowski’s tweet, and Broncos coach Gary Kubiak declined to really respond to it.
“I really don’t get into that stuff,” Kubiak said. “We preach to our team, throughout the course of the season consistently, not just now, the importance of staying focused on your job.”