Quote (Madmartigan @ Jul 30 2013 06:57pm)
Tedy Bruschi was a class act and great player. Seems like since he retired in 2009, the Patriots haven't had the same luck on and off the field.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qTtKuYa_lSg
Several minutes into his speech, Belichick zeroed in on a play Bruschi made during the 2001 AFC playoffs against the Oakland Raiders as the one he cherished most. Facing a second-and-3, the Raiders ran an off-tackle play. “We were in a bad defense, it wasn’t good, and there was a hole there, I’m telling you, it was as wide as this stage. That’s how big it was,” Belichick said. “And here comes (fullback) Jon Ritchie and here comes (running back) Charlie Garner with the ball right behind him, and we’ve got one guy, and that’s Bruschi. He stepped in there, he hit Ritchie, he tackled Garner and it was third-and-1. And I’m telling you, without that play, there wouldn’t have been a lot of other plays that happened that year (on the way to winning the Super Bowl). That was the biggest play of the season. He made a lot of the other ones, but that was one that I’ll never, ever forget.”
“There’s great players and then there’s great players, and Tedy Bruschi was a great, great football player, because of his passion, his love, his team attitude towards the game were all second to none,” Belichick said of his former linebacker. “There is no player that I’ve ever coached that epitomizes a football player — you know when I look at the word football player in the dictionary, you just see Tedy Bruschi’s picture there,” Belichick said. “That’s the best way I can put it.”