On standing tall and delivering
Patriots' QB Jacoby Brissett came through when it counted
Though I’d need a team of CPA’s to calculate the number of words I’ve written over the 50 plus (well, most of them were plus) years of writing about sports, the one thing I’ve never really written is a fan letter.
Probably the closest I ever came to that was writing a long letter to former Boston Celtics’ Hall of Fame great Bob Cousy after I’d read the “The Last Pass” a while back. Gary Pomerantz’s extraordinary account of the long-retired Cousy in his dotage, writing a long soul-bearing letter to his former Hall of Fame teammate Bill Russell, apologizing for not doing more to help Russell cope with the racism he experienced in leading the Celtics to 11 championships in 13 seasons is a remarkable book, well worth your time, especially these days.
More recently, I’ve been watching the way the classy, exemplary, absolutely no excuses manner in which New England Patriots’ quarterback Jacoby Brissett has handled the endless flow of bristly questions from the Boston press corps regarding the brutal start to the Patriots’ season. I was actually tempted to write him a fan letter.
The guy had been put in an impossible situation, trying to generate points for a Patriots’ team as devoid of top-notch offensive talent as any I’d seen in many years. Brissett was just trying to survive game-by-game, play-by-play behind a sieve-like, ever-changing offensive line, pass receivers that had as many drops as catches, all of this while facing up to a Boston press corps used to Super Bowls and AFC Championships and gridiron dominance. The team stinks. WHY, Jacoby?
Keeping in mind that these veteran Patriot reporters had previously been dealing with the Kremlin-like stonewall called the Bill Belichick press conference for years and years, suddenly they were presented a forthright, plain-speaking prominent player who would stand up there at their mercy. Why, it opened a long-shut door.
After ducking enemy rushers for three hours, here was Brissett standing there week after week, answering every pointed question honestly, with no anger, resentment or bitterness, just class and maturity. It was heartening to see. Is it Ok these days to say. complimentarily, that he acted like a man, a genuine role model, someone who faced an awful lot of adversity, who knew what he was in for when he came back to New England.
Brissett had been a Patriot before. He’s a guy who has made the rounds in the NFL, playing for the Colts, Dolphins, Browns, Commanders before returning to the Patriots to be the stand-in, really, until first-round draft pick QB Drake Maye was ready to take over the offense. He understood that his role was to be a good soldier, do what he could given the circumstances, be a leader, a real pro.
And he did exactly that, leading the team to a surprising win in their opener vs. the Cincinnati Bengals, then struggling along with the team through loss after loss after loss. He was taking a beating every week but never complained or whined.
No matter how poorly he or his team played on Sunday, he stood and answered every question like you would have hoped he would. The team sucked, we all knew it, and as the quarterback, a lot of the blame for the struggling offense was on him. It seemed he hit what would have been a game-winning TD pass against the Miami Dolphins but because Ja’Lynn Polk’s heel came down out of bounds, the score was disallowed, the Patriots lost. The next week, Brissett was benched and Drake Maye got his first start.
Maye is a talent. There’s no question he needs to play, to see if he can find a way to give the Patriots a chance to win a few more games. But when Maye suffered a concussion early in Sunday’s game against the New York Jets, Brissett had to take over. All eyes turned to him. Again.
Happily, Brissett led the team on a dramatic, last-second, game-winning drive, hitting a couple of big pass plays, running for a key first down, leading the Patriots to a win in the game’s final seconds.
After the game, Brissett once again stood before the Boston media, who couldn’t wait to pepper him with questions. At last, they had a win to write about! Something positive, fun, exciting. And then came a snotty question from an insensitive sportswriter, looking for a cheap, easy-to-write angle.
Q: “I know, team first,” the sportswriter said. “but you didn’t like being benched. No one does. How does this feel personally to have a little bit of a redemption story today?”
Yeah. Automatic story. Quarterback sucks, team sucks, quarterback gets another chance and, holy crap, he wins! Makes up for his awful play before, redeeming himself before the sportswriter, Patriot Nation, the world.
Only Jacoby Brissett saw that blitz coming.
A: “I don’t look at it as no redemption,” he said, looking directly at his questioner. “I think this is a testament to me believing in myself and not y’all.”
NOT y’all. Good for him! Sure, he had read the criticism in the papers, too. And he didn’t like it. But he rose above it.
Brissett’s response wasn’t said with anger or bitterness, just straight and direct like that long 34-yard pass he threw to Kayshon Boutte on a third-and-10 in the game’s closing seconds, stepping into the throw as a Jet defender was on a ferocious attack, so close Brissett could see the whites of his eyes and smell his breath. He knew he was going to take one hell of a wallop.
Regardless, Brissett stood in there and delivered the football in that crucial moment just like the pro he is. And this time, Boutte caught it. The Patriots went on to win.
Brissett didn’t have to “redeem” himself for anything. He did what he could with what he had, with what the team provided for him. You can’t ask for more than that, can you? When you’ve done the very best you can, why should you have to apologize? Even if it clearly wasn’t great.
We all are going to face adversity in our lives. And it wasn’t as if Brissett thought he was going to a Super Bowl contender. He knew what he was in for. He may not have known what writers were going to say about him. He might have expected better. Maybe he should have expected better. Maybe we all should. A little more compassion and understanding can go a long way.
In these days of fist pumps and end zone dances and sideline chains for interceptions and all sorts of Pop Warner foolishness, it was refreshing to see somebody continue to step up and be a professional during the game AND after. And handling a uncouth, thoughtless question with grace and strength.
So, consider this post a tip of the hat and a wink to an NFL veteran who has certainly earned my — and I imagine -- his team’s respect. For one Sunday afternoon in a mostly forgettable season, we saw something worth remembering. On the field and in the press conference.