00:00It is 93.7 WEEI, Rich Schertle, Ken Laird, Ted Johnson, you can call us at 617-779-7937 and
00:08that
00:09right there is your newest wide receiver, Mr. A.J. Brown, talking about Christian Gonzalez.
00:15He's calling him the top corner. It has been an awesome back and forth between these two
00:20over the last couple of days. I do like the jawing. I do like that A.J. Brown seems to
00:26bring out personality and Christian Gonzalez on the field that we haven't seen in a while.
00:31He's never been someone who you would consider a trash talker on the field. He kind of works
00:36quietly, but this has been kind of fun to see this side of him. Hasn't it been, gentlemen?
00:44There's a clip in there where he talks about going up against Gonzo and he's like, does he
00:50basically inferred that Gonzo plays him differently than he plays other guys with a different effort
00:57level maybe? And I said that yesterday to Meg. Omega was like, no, he goes hard every play. I'm
01:02like, no, no, he doesn't. If he doesn't respect the guy that he's playing across from, he doesn't
01:09play as hard. And so I think he has a ton of respect for A.J. Brown or else you
01:15wouldn't be
01:15hearing these stories. I mean, he's bringing out a side to him that honestly none of us have
01:18ever seen. So in my mind, he's looking at A.J. Brown as the best guy he's ever had to
01:24go against,
01:24at least on his own team. And so that says something about A.J. Brown. But these guys
01:30are really, they're tuned up. They're ready to play. And here's the thing. Once next week comes
01:35around and the Colts come, it's probably over. You very rarely go the ones versus ones. It's usually
01:44ones versus twos. So there's not many more practices left where these guys will be matching up
01:48in practice. Even today, they split them up. I mean, it was they had a draft. So it was like
01:51kind of unintentional, perhaps, but they were on the same team. So they didn't go one on one. But
01:56I think you guys brought this up yesterday. It could be to me that this is Gonzalez responding
02:01to those reports, you know, the because remember how he lashed out at Bedard for putting that out
02:05there that he was soft or whatever the reputation was. That's got to be bothering him. So it wouldn't
02:09surprise me that either he's doing it on his own to try to prove people wrong that he does
02:13have an edge or Vrabel came up to him in person and said, I want you to trash talk AJ.
02:18That would
02:18not surprise me in the least bit. I don't know whether that works for you or works against you.
02:23You know what I mean? Like, Ted, do you think that there's a case where, you know, you could hear
02:28these things that you're not physical enough or that you need a little more attitude? And couldn't
02:33you see someone kind of losing their mind in that instead of doing what got them there and just
02:37doing what made you one of the best corners in the league?
02:40I mean, if you're, if you're, you know, if you're mentally weak or you, you know, I look,
02:45everybody uses this is as to their advantage, but if it's, you know, if you're, you're so if in
02:52there, in the, in a player's kitchen, then that they, they stopped doing the things that got them
02:57there, then they're, then they're not cut out to play at this level. So, um, guys can compartmentalize,
03:01um, but also, uh, at the same time use it as fuel. Guys are just always looking for fuel. Like
03:07there's
03:07nothing really, I would think fueling him more than this big ass pot of gold waiting
03:14for him, uh, anytime, any day now, um, when he gets this big contract. Um, and other than
03:19that, yeah, you know, and then once you get your money, then you kind of, Oh, you said
03:23that about me. Okay. Then you look for other things to kind of get you fired up. And so
03:26that's, that's what you got. Uh, can I hear that clip by the waist is that, uh, Ted was
03:30referencing there. This is a crazy, I think AJ is kind of getting mad. With me or with
03:41that? Uh, he's, uh, he's going a little bit more. Uh, I should say with anyone else. He's
03:55just, it's real calm and, and, uh, relaxing. It's, it's more fluid, you know? So, I mean,
04:02but it's cool though.
04:03I love it.
04:05People can probably could, you couldn't hear the question. It was Mike Reese asking him
04:08like this. He basically said to AJ, it feels like Gonzo goes at a different level with you
04:15versus other guys. And then AJ Brown confirmed that that's, uh, that's him confirming that.
04:20Yeah. Long pause. Like, how do I say this without being a, you know,
04:25how do you think that this might also have something to do with it? Less about it being
04:29AJ Brown and more about I'm doing this during a contract negotiation and we are near the finish
04:35line and I'm trying to just do everything to justify the kind of money that I'm asking
04:40for. So hell yeah, I'm going to put a little extra sauce on this. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, did
04:44you see that David Andrews tweet of him weighing in on the subject, former Patriot line? And
04:48I think that's interesting. It's like even guys now are just watching Gonzalez play like
04:53this. And they're like, I don't really get this, but it's kind of awesome, but I'm not sure I would
04:57do this. Here was the tweet from Andrews. I never judged somebody for holding out during times like
05:00these. It's such a short career. You're trying to maximize it as best you can. But as a staff
05:05organization players, you have to respect the way Gonzo is handling this out there competing,
05:09going about his business. I believe the deal will get done. And he's handled this awesome hats
05:12off to him. Here's, here's what I want to say to a lot. Everybody that is, is sitting there
05:17going, if he goes out there and tears his ACL, then all the money's gone. No, it's not there.
05:23Kraft is on record saying that we offered him the most money. You think he goes out and has
05:27like an injury, like an ACL or something that they're going to go, Ooh, we're not, you know
05:32what? We're going to, we're going to cut you, man. Sorry. We're not going to pay you. We're
05:36not even going to come close, dude. You he's already, he's already pot committed. Not even,
05:40not even the Achilles or anything. That's like, you wonder whether he'll come back from it.
05:44I mean, it had to be a, like a, such a horrible injury that, that to just, to justify them
05:50not honoring, I think at this point, a very much a substantial contract. That's what I
05:55think. Well, they could honor it, but they could put down the guaranteed money and put
05:59huge clauses in there that have to do with his injury. You know what I mean? Like, so you
06:04could potentially lose a ton of money, even though it still may be quote unquote, the biggest
06:11contract in Patriots history. You know what I mean? It's like, they could put a bunch
06:15of clauses in there that, you know, if you miss this game or this game, you're not getting
06:20this, this, this, or this, the protections, the injury protections being taken away, which
06:24could mean, you know, tens of millions of dollars. Yeah. It's just, if you, if you don't play,
06:29you're not getting better. The seasons get, you start to get four playoff teams to start
06:33the season. You got your, the, the Superbowl champs to, uh, and out of the gate. Um, the,
06:38the, the, you know, the chances of him having a serious injury are very, very small. I think
06:44he's just playing and, and you know what? And if he goes through this whole thing, doesn't
06:49get injured, gets paid all that money. People are going to look back and point to him as
06:53the standard for how you do things. And he's going to, his, his reputation will just only
06:58grow, uh, because the, he was willing to take the chance and still got, uh, everything he wanted.
07:05Yeah. That is just ballsy to me though, Rich. I mean, concussion, we've seen guys get concussed
07:08Sidney Crosby and hockey missed a year when he was concussed. They're, they're not going to take
07:12any money off the table if he gets concussed. Ooh. Okay. Oh, wow. Well, I mean, listen, as I said,
07:16Ted, you, you've been in the middle of all this. So I, I, it just, it seems strange because it
07:21almost seems like at any point they could pull it off the table. I've never heard the owner ever say
07:24before the deal's done, we've offered him this. Yeah. So we all know what
07:28the, you know, the most money is for the quarterback position. Yeah. And then, and if
07:32craft reneged on that, Oh my gosh, because he was out there doing the honorable thing,
07:39playing, practicing when, uh, you guys probably have this policy that you don't want to really
07:44admit that, you know, you don't, uh, you don't do new contract negotiations. If guys aren't
07:48practicing, you're going to pull that off the table. Can you imagine what, uh, that would
07:52look like from a fan's perspective and just as a reputation around the league perspective.
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