Wandering Athol
Blood in the streets it's up to my ankle
From his recent interview with Seymour:http://bostonherald.com/sports/columnists/view.bg?articleid=1217916&position=0
“I really have moved on from that situation,” Seymour said from an airport near his South Carolina home as he prepared to fly back to Oakland to prepare for Sunday’s game against the Washington Redskins, “but I know I could have helped. No doubt about that."
“I have a lot of friends there. I know what’s been going on; the troubles they’re having. When I’m on the inside rushing, (opponents) ain’t going to put just a guard on me one-on-one. I would have freed up room for Tully (Banta-Cain) or (Derrick) Burgess to be one-on-one on the outside. Tully and I talked about that all through training camp -- what we would do rushing together from the same side.
“I still have an impact (in Oakland). Maybe I don’t get the glory all the time, but I free up somebody else and our team gets the success. I know what I bring to the table. They wish it was that easy to replace me, but it’s not."
“You can’t just have great coaching and no talent. You’ve got to have both. Bill (Belichick) is an extremely smart coach. Extremely (smart) ... but he thinks it’s his schemes all the time. He had players like ’Hot Rod’ (Rodney Harrison [stats]), myself, Ty (Law), Willie (McGinest), (Tedy) Bruschi and (Mike) Vrabel in that system to make it look good."
“I’ve received a lot of text messages lately from guys back there saying, ’We could use you now.’ I’m sure they could, but so can Oakland. Over the years we won a lot in New England, but they can’t live off those Super Bowls. Most of the guys who won them are gone."
“It’s hard to lose all that leadership and place it on young guys. I was 20 when I came to New England. I learned a lot of defensive football there. I was taught what it takes to win by McGinest and those guys. Somebody has to show you. Team camaraderie is overlooked sometimes by coaches.”
[...]
“I’ve heard (Sports Illustrated’s) Peter King and a few others, friends of Bill, say I didn’t play hard every play,” Seymour said. “In 2006, I shouldn’t have even been on the field for half of those games. I should have been having surgery. I didn’t until the season was over and that set me back for 2007. That’s why I started on the PUP list.
“When I had a full offseason to work out, and not rehab, I came back in 2008 and had a strong year,” Seymour said.
[...]
“This year,” Seymour said, “I haven’t missed a snap.”
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Click the link to read Borges' commentary and more from Seymour. I'm sure Borges has been saving the article, licking his chops, for the right time to bombard the Pats with it - his transparency is kind of laughable at this point.
Anyway, I think Seymour does have a good point, and if BB believes in self improvement, maybe he should take a class on change management in the offseason...I would think Kraft that would reimburse him.
I also like how Seymour defended himself for his subpar 2006 season, which in turn led to a limited 2007 season. Those are the two seasons I believe a lot of Pats fans thought he was simply "loafing".
