The team that never says anything unless it has to has decided that it needs to say something about the report that coach Bill Belichick and former tight end Aaron Hernandez exchanged 33 pages of text messages.
Via Shalise Manza Young of the Boston Globe, lawyer Andrew Phelan released a statement clarifying the extent of the communications and the period over which they occurred.
“Earlier this week, a report indicated that an exchange of text messages between the team’s head coach and Mr. Hernandez totaled 33 pages,” Phelan said. “While it is unknown how the texts were printed or displayed, I thought it was important to clarify that during an early investigation conducted by state prosecutors, the team produced a total of 34 text messages (not pages of texts) spanning a period of five months (December 2012 -- May 2013) between the head coach and Mr. Hernandez.”
While the content of the messages remains to be determined, the Patriots felt compelled to make sure it’s understood that the back and forth didn’t consume 33 full pages of text. This won’t change the fact that the messages will be scrutinized with the benefit of hindsight for any hint that would have put the Patriots on notice of Hernandez’s impending implosion. It only means that there aren’t as many messages as the report of 33 pages of texts would imply.