Apparently, it takes more than a pair of working eyes to realize Ed Reed isn’t playing well.
The Jets safety hit reporters with the classic “never played the game” card, saying that their lack of understanding was the problem, not his diminished skills.
“That’s football, man,” Reed replied when asked about missed tackles, via Dom Cosentino of NJ.com. “We in this locker room have been playing football for a long time. Nobody’s perfect out here on this football field. You guys’ jobs is to critique, be critics. That’s why you ask a controversial question—to try to be controversial and then trash people in the media. I could care less about that.
“Missed tackles happen. Nobody’s perfect. Big plays—you can’t have them. Not to win.”
The 35-year-old safety, who was cut by the Texans earlier this year, admitted he had higher expectations. But he insisted that if you didn’t watch film, you aren’t qualified to realize that losing a starting job for a 2-12 team is considered a negative in most places.
“Everything I’ve been through, I’ve been through for a reason, to learn a lot,” he said. “Even reading you guys’ blogs, listening to your comments, knowing half of y’all don’t know as much about football as you think you do, unless you come and sit in the film with us, and break the film down. You don’t even know the schematic part of it.
“You can ask the questions, but that don’t mean that you’re an expert at what we do. It’s funny to me. Reading it, I smile at it, laugh at it, but that’s your job. Some of your jobs, you tear people down, [or] try to, and tear the team down, not understand that it’s a team. You’d rather point the finger at one individual. It’s not an individual game. It’s a team sport—totally a team sport.”
Reed never seemed to have a problem with the intellect of the assembled media when he was being described as being good at playing football. But apparently, with time, our minds have grown as slow as he is on the field.