In the aftermath of Antonio Brown’s Facebook Live misadventures, most of the attention has centered on why Brown would do it and what the Steelers plan to do about something that conflicts so sharply with the behaviors from other teams, including the typically buttoned-up New England Patriots.
While addressing the situation earlier this week, one Patriots player was perhaps not as buttoned up as his own coach would want him to be.
“Hey, people have different rules,” receiver Julian Edelman said on WEEI in Boston. “That’s how that team is run. I personally don’t think that would be something that would happen in our locker room. But, hey, whatever. Some people like red and some people like blue. Some people like tulips and some people like roses, whatever.”
The full context of Edelman’s quote takes some of the sting out of the “that’s how that team is run” line. But the overriding message is clear: Players on some teams would do something like this, and players on other teams would not.
Patriots players wouldn’t. Because Patriots players know, either instinctively or through hearing it repeatedly from coaches and teammates, that the consequences would be swift and severe. Bolstering that message are examples that arise when, for example, a guy shows up late for work in a blizzard. And promptly is sent home.
In plenty of other cities, things are much looser. And through that looseness comes the opportunity for a guy to decide, due to exuberance or otherwise, to do something really, really stupid. The challenge for every coach is to be smart enough to spot the guys who would do something really, really stupid and come up with a way to keep that from happening.
In New England’s case, the fact that Edelman actually said something neither boring nor robotic about the Pittsburgh situation probably is enough to get him in trouble with Bill Belichick. Which proves the broader point that none of the Patriots players would do what Antonio Brown did.