Patriots quarterback Tom Brady addressed a media gathering today for the first time since the Super Bowl. And based on a reading of the transcript of his comments, the Associated Press appears to have misunderstood a joke he made about the ankle injury that got so much attention in February.
Both the Boston Globe and Boston Herald posted this verbatim transcript of a question and Brady’s answer:
How is the ankle and were you able to participate in the off season program as much as you have in the past?
“The ankle feels great. Yeah. It feels really good. I’ve been able to do pretty much everything. I’m still slow. I still can’t jump. I still don’t lift very much. That hasn’t changed.”
Brady seems to be making a self-deprecating joke about his lack of athleticism, but only after clarifying that “the ankle feels great.”
But the AP article suggests that Brady is still hurting. The first sentence of the AP article says, “Brady says he is slow and can’t jump because of lingering effects of an ankle injury late last season.”
No, that’s not what Brady said. He said he is slow and can’t jump because he’s slow and can’t jump. Maybe this is why the Patriots usually don’t talk to the media about injuries at all.
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June 7th, 2008 at 9:56 pm
Brady’s interview was chock full of dry humor. He even said he had a great amount of respect for the Jets!
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:00 pm
I love PFT but the patsie homerism is just too much.
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Rating: 2.7 / 5 with 7 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
ESPN picked right up on this too… how stupid are these people?
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:44 pm
I noticed that during the Super Bowl, Brady didn’t sit down even once while the Pats offense was on the field. That could only mean one thing… his ass fell off.
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Rating: 3.65 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
The young skulls full of mush entering college next year know nothing about journalism,reporting,or interviewing. All they have been conditioned to do is text message for AI,or some other reality based tv show. God forbid these chosen children’s blackberry goes down. Anyone ever heard of a steno pad and a pencil? God forbid.
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Rating: 3.35 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
It was a Fumble
Barret Robbins (sniker)
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Rating: 2.35 / 5 with 6 rating(s)
June 7th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
Yet another example of the decline of the media in the United States. Doesn’t the AP have fact checkers? It is strange that they directly quoted Brady for how he and the Patriots are moving on from the Super Bowl, but not about what the ankle which the headline and the lead of the story is about.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 1 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 12:51 am
Brady is a pretentious pretty boy. Who cares about his lame attempts at humor?
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Rating: 2.6 / 5 with 5 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 2:49 am
He’s perfectly fine except for his right shoulder …
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June 8th, 2008 at 4:51 am
Maybe Mike Florio doesn’t get it! Who the hell is he to interpret what Tom Brady means by his comments? Is he a mind reader? I get so sick of Mike Florio spreading rumors with his opinions - absolutely NO res[onsible media spurce has confirmed his opinion that TOM BRADY DIDN’T LITERALLY MEAN WHAT HE SAID. Florio is brain dead!
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 4:54 am
PFT/Florio edits out the critical comments it doesn’t like on this site. This will probably be edited out as well.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 4:55 am
“Brady seems to be making a self-deprecating joke about his lack of athleticism, but only after clarifying that “the ankle feels great.”
Emphasize SEEMS TO BE. Florio has no crystall ball. He is just a Pat homer.
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Rating: 1 / 5 with 3 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 7:07 am
I have a journalism degree, and I’ll admit they didn’t exactly hold a seminar on how to pay attention and know when someone is just giving a colorful quote, it’s common knowledge.
Likely, they were under deadline and the editor saw that part, grabbed it for his headline and put it on the wire. It would seem to me that if someone heard Brady say it, they’d see the dry wit. If they just read it and didn’t pay close attention, it’s understandable how it could have been missed (it’s dry wit, after all). Let’s not ignore the fact several media outlets at least subtly blamed Brady’s ankle injury for the Super Bowl loss (or maybe it was just Bill Simmons).
I wouldn’t be surprised if the writer who covered Brady’s quasi-press conference was some news intern who doesn’t know a football from a golf ball because their regular reporter is on vacation. May and June are the only months those writers have available to get away, and mini-camps aren’t exactly the Week 6 press conference in terms of news.
As for why the Patriots don’t discuss injuries in the media, this would seem like a great reason to speak about injuries, rather than avoid it. Why would the Patriots care (outside of humor’s sake) how the AP interpreted his injury?
If I were in the organization, I’d have a blast taking that clip, posting it to Brady’s locker, then crowing about how his Fantasy stock is slipping.
I think Florio handled it well, I’m not saying this is not something that should be written, I’m just shedding some light on it might have happened.
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Rating: 5 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 9:56 am
FreeAgentPro,
Are you really this stupid. emphasis STUPID? Of course, Brady is joking.
Your blind and rather pathetic obsession with the Patriots is really clouding your ability to grasp reality. Do you really not see that Brady was joking? Or are you hoping he isn’t?
As for Florio being a Patriots homer, don’t be ridiculous. Florio has been playing both sides of the fence with the Patriots for a while now. He pisses off both Patriots fans and Patriots haters for about 8 months now.
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Rating: 3 / 5 with 2 rating(s)
June 8th, 2008 at 11:46 am
@FreeAgentPro: Maybe Florio edited out your comments so that you wouldnt look so STUPID. You should thank him you DUMBASS.
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June 8th, 2008 at 11:48 am
I’m sure Arlen Specter finds something wrong with Brady joking with the media. He’ll probably call him in front of Congress…
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June 8th, 2008 at 11:55 am
Brady has always been self deprecating. It stems from being overlooked during the 2000 draft and branded as “lacking athleticism”. He will continue to be self deprecating during his Hall of Fame induction speech.
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June 8th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I want some of whatever that freeagentdude is on.
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