As it stands now, the first month of the season will be quite different for Jimmy Garoppolo.
But that doesn’t mean this month has to be.
The Patriots backup quarterback, who would be the starter for the first four games if Tom Brady’s suspension is upheld following his appeal, said today he wasn’t changing much.
Asked if he followed the #DeflateGate saga more closely because of the immediate impact it would have on him, Garoppolo gave as perfect a Patriots answer as he could.
“No different than I usually would,” he said, via Mike Reiss of ESPNBoston.com. I just went about my business, tried to get prepared for this season, got in the playbook a lot, got out there with some of the guys and threw it around, so it was a good offseason.”
He took a few more reps than normal, splitting them close to 50-50 with Brady. And while said he spent some time training in California with some of his receivers, he otherwise seemed unmoved by the attention coming his way.
“It’s nice to be back out here, I missed the guys and missed the team,” he said. “I just have the mindset I’m trying to get better. That’s all you can control at the end of the day.”
I’m not sure what the OTA rules are for brainwashing, but that’s about as Belichickian as it gets, without saying he’s “on to Cincinnati.”