This came out of a brief Wednesday morning conversation with a member of the Patriots organization when talking about Thursday night’s NFL opener against the Steelers:
“At least we can finally talk about football,’’ the person said over the phone, clearly exasperated by the endless Deflategate saga that has engulfed the Patriots — and particularly their quarterback, Tom Brady, whose four-game suspension was lifted by a judge’s ruling last week.
That Patriots official was correct about this: There is a football game that’s finally going to be played Thursday night at Gillette Stadium, but the night will be about more than simply a 60-minute game.
You can bet your Brady bobblehead there will be a heavy sense of an us-against-the-world vibe inside of Gillette, with the locals still steaming about the way commissioner Roger Goodell treated their beloved quarterback.
Never mind that Judge Richard Berman’s ruling last week to erase the suspension Goodell imposed had nothing to do with whether or not Brady and the Patriots were guilty or innocent of tampering with the PSI in those playoff game balls in January.

Post picks

Staff predictions for Patriots (-7) vs. Steelers:

Blezow: Patriots (best bet)

Cannizzaro: Patriots (best bet)

Charleen: Steelers

Costello: Patriots (best bet)

Hondo: Steelers

Hubbuch: Patriots (best bet)

Loftis: Steelers

Rico: Steelers, Under

Serby: Steelers

Schwartz: Steelers

Willis: Patriots (best bet)

The ruling had nothing to do with guilt or innocence. It had to do with Goodell clumsily overstepping his bounds as judge and jury.
So the Patriots and Brady will play on — and do so with a chip on their shoulder the size of Cape Cod.
“It’s time for me to do my job,’’ Brady told reporters earlier in the week.
The Patriots’ embattled quarterback was, of course, referring to the months of Deflategate accusations, innuendo, four-game league suspension and finally last week’s stunning court ruling that lifted his ban.
“Anything that’s happened over the last seven months really wasn’t my job,’’ Brady said. “This is what my job is — to go out there and try to be a great leader for our team, to try to go out and execute the plays that are called and execute them at a high level. That’s where my focus is.’’
Make no mistake about this as Thursday’s anticipated game nears kickoff for the 2015 NFL season: Many raw and frayed nerves remain exposed in New England, specifically with regard to Brady, who has been staunchly reticent to speak about Deflategate and its controversial fallout.
Throughout the entire, seemingly never-ending saga, Brady had been silent publicly — with the exception of a couple of carefully crafted posts on his Facebook page.
So, once the judge’s verdict came down last week and as the Patriots made their final preparations for the opener against the Steelers, Brady finally made himself available. And he refused to offer any reaction to the court judgment or to how he dealt with the entire process.
“I really don’t want to get into all those feelings,’’ Brady said. “I’ve been dealing with that for seven months, so I’m really at the point where I’m focused on the opener and the Steelers and all the challenges they present. Anything that we really dealt with in the offseason is kind of compartmentalized.’’
Nothing has been compartmentalized by Patriots fans, who remain bitter toward Goodell and his hell-bent determination to severely penalize Brady and the Patriots.

That is certain to make for a circus atmosphere at Gillette Stadium, where the Super Bowl team will be honored with a raised title banner before the game. Patriots fans in general are among the most passionate and animated around in the league and, given the events of the last several months, the atmosphere should be combustible.

“It will be electric,’’ Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger said. “Especially having Tom out there and with everything that’s going to happen, it’s going to be awesome. Nerves will be running. Jitters will be running for everybody.’’

One person who won’t be nervous because he won’t be at Gillette Stadium Thursday is Goodell, who revealed earlier in the week that he wanted to avoid being a distraction and saying he wants the focus to be on football, not Deflategate.

The focus will, indeed, be on football thanks to New England coach Bill Belichick, who is as adept at deflecting distraction from his players as perhaps any coach in NFL history.

“I’ll be excited to run out there,’’ Brady said. “It’s obviously been a long seven months for everybody. Obviously I have a lot of personal feelings, but I really don’t care to share many of those.’’

If Brady has his way, those powerful, pent-up feelings of his will manifest themselves on the field.