Go ahead and jump, Patriots fans, because the 2008 season is all but loss. Okay, perhaps I'm overselling it just a tad, but it looks like Tom Brady and his raging case of club foot might not be available to play in New England's third preseason game against Philadelphia this Friday.
"I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm trying to get treatment this week and I'm feeling better every day," Brady said on radio station WEEI. "It's going to end up being up to coach [Bill Belichick] and what he wants to do, but I think he's been coaching long enough to understand that the first game in September is what's going to be important for us."Brady didn't even travel to Tampa last weekend and the Patriots were embarrassed on both sides of the ball. His replacement, Matt Cassel, looked exactly like the guy who backed up both Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart at USC without ever registering one college start.
Which means that New England HAS to have Brady healthy for the regular season. Frankly, there's no way that doesn't happen, and it sounds like that, barring a setback, it won't be an issue. Still, Brady is very confused by the media backlash following Cassel's performance:
"Watching Matt and hearing the criticism on TV, I don't even know where that was coming from," Brady said. "That was so far from what I was watching..."Brady added, "then again, I spent much of Sunday night making time with my ladyfriend so, admittedly, I may have missed some of Cassel's bigger 'WTF?' moments." Between that and the Coldplay blaring on the stereophonic, all perfectly understandable.
