Popeyejones":ke7xy60a said:
endzorn":ke7xy60a said:
I would say Belichick looked like the one rational person in that article. Brady sounded like a New Age baby and Kraft sounds like he needs to stay in his lane.
I think the general rule with these types of palace intrigue stories is that from the way people ultimately come off you have insight into whose supporters granted the most access to interviews.
Just as it was true with Wickersham's reporting on the 9ers (Harbaugh or his supporters clearly talked to him as did a Jed supporter) and the Seahawks (Defensive players or their supporters clearly talked him, whereas Pete and Wilson clearly didn't).
For my money, Wickersham's 9ers one was far and away the best one of his investigative pieces because he was able to get people on both sides of the riff to open up to him (which didn't seem to be the case with the Seahawks one, and doesn't seem to be the case with this Patriots one, which basically reads as "The Situation According to Belichick").
...And apologies for self-quoting, but the following example is a great one for how who gives you access colors the story you have access to tell:
In Wickersham's reporting the Pats repeatedly offered JGQ a contract at 18/per that would escalate when Brady retired, but it was always unclear why JGQ turned it down, and Kraft eventually mandated that Belichick trade him. That's pretty clearly Belichick's version of the story, as it paints him as a sympathetic figure who did everything he could but had his hands tied down by a bad situation.
From this we know that Wickersham had access to Belichick, but didn't have access to JGQ or Yee (the agent for both JGQ and Brady), and likely Kraft either.
Yet in Curran's follow up reporting (see here -- he's a Boston beat writer:
http://www.nbcsports.com/boston/patriot ... ysfunction):
(1) JGQ was never offered those contract extensions and the reasons why they would be turned down if they had been offered were obvious. Curran, unlike Wickersham, is getting his info from Yee or a JGQ supporter who wants JGQ to appear in a more positive light.
(2) "Nobody knows" what Belichick has been thinking according Curran, but Wickersham is wrong that Belichick was ever given a mandate by Kraft to trade JGQ. Curran is also getting Kraft's side of the story, but unlike Wickersham, isn't getting Belichick's.
So, was JGQ repeatedly offered a contract and when he turned it down did Kraft force Belichick to trade him?
If you believe Wickersham's source of Belichick and his supoorters the answer is "yes" to both of those, but if you believe Curran's sources of Yee, Kraft and their supporters the answer is "no" to both of those.
It's only funny in that both reporters insist that the motives and true feelings of the sources they don't have are opaque and totally unknowable :lol:
What probably really happened: Of course, it will always be somewhere in between with this type of palace intrigue stuff:
(1) The Pats floated that contract structure for JGQ to Yee but never formally offered it, and thought Yee/JGQ should have been less resistant to it than they were.
(2) Kraft never formally demanded that Belichick trade JGQ, but he made clear to Belichick that he thought that would be the best course of action.