Just when you think the chatter between the Patriots and Jets couldn’t get any sillier, Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker stepped to the podium Thursday as if dared to see how many “foot” references he could cram in to a single media session. Behold:
1. On this week of preparation: “Everybody’s putting their best foot forward.”
2. On young players in the playoffs: “You can’t just stick your toe in the water. You gotta jump right in.”
3. On playing this year as opposed to last year: “It’s definitely different. You know, you’ve got your foot up in the air trying to get the swelling to go down. Definitely excited about the opportunity to get out there and have some fun.”
4. On the opportunity this week: “These are the games you play for. What you spend all year getting ready for and you just want to put your best foot forward.”
5. On Revis: “He’s got great feet.”
6. On Revis again: “He’s very patient, has good feet.”
7. On Deion Branch: “He runs some really good routes out there . . . He’s another guy with great feet and can really move around.”
8. On practice: “You want to make sure you’re putting your best foot forward out there and making it happen.”
9. More on practice: “Us going out there and being good little foot soliders and making sure we’re going out there and doing everything coach asks us to do.”
10. On seeing new things in the playoffs: “You definitely have to be on your toes and make sure you’re ready to go.”
Genius. Since this is clearly the most important post I’ll ever write at PFT, let’s analyze further.
Welker is deadpan as ever with his delivery, so there’s no way he can really be called out for it. A few clues indicate that it’s not just a coincidence. Jackie MacMullan of ESPNBoston.com wrote a great feature on Welker. Part of it is about what a huge prankster he is.
“Put Wes, Matt [Cassel] and Larry Izzo in a room, and they are ‘The Three Stooges,'” Tom Brady said.
Welker got his first “foot” reference in on his first question and rarely let up in his ten minutes of talking. He also appears to be stifling a smile and/or laugh after his two most ridiculous references — No. 2 and No. 9.
Maybe it’s all a coincidence, but we really doubt it. And that would be no fun. We’ll continue to update you on this vitally important breaking story here at PFT.
UPDATE: Since we’ve posted, Deadspin compiled all the references into a 20 second video. Nicely done.