Patriots offensive coordinator Josh McDaniels worked in New England for each of the six Super Bowls that Tom Brady won there. As McDaniels tried to win a seventh against the Seahawks in February, Brady declared that he didn’t have a “dog in the fight.”
Since then, speculation has emerged that Brady, a Raiders owner, helped Seattle in its effort to beat New England. Patriots coach Mike Vrabel recently shrugged at that possibility, given that Brady was preparing to hire Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak.
McDaniels had a chance to chime in on Friday, during an appearance on WEEI in Boston.
Asked if he thinks Brady helped the Seahawks, McDaniels said, “I have no idea.”
McDaniels then was asked whether it would bother him, if that had happened. Said McDaniels, “I wouldn’t have a dog in that fight.”
It’s the ideal response, turning Brady’s clunky throwaway line back at him.
Regardless of how current and former Patriots players and coaches may feel about Brady’s neutrality, Patriots fans were and still are pissed off about it. With one comment, he went from being one of them to being an outsider — even though his statue is now parked outside Gillette Stadium.
It makes his anticipated return to Foxborough to call the Week 9 game between the Packers and the Patriots even more intriguing. How will he be received that day? Even if most fans cheer his return, it likely won’t be universal among fans who feel betrayed by Brady’s decision to not publicly support the Patriots — and the possibility that he privately helped the Seahawks win the game.
The fact that the issue came up during two separate Friday interviews on WEEI (one with McDaniels and one with linebacker Robert Spillane) shows that the locals haven’t forgotten. Which surely means that many of them haven’t forgiven.
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