FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Chad Ochocinco was inactive last week, doesn’t have a catch in the playoffs and has been pretty much a big-name flop in his first season with the Patriots.
The wide receiver also has been uncharacteristically quiet with the New England media all season before finally opening up to the Boston Herald yesterday to say he has no regrets about talking his way out of Cincinnati and becoming invisible with the Patriots, who play the Giants in Super Bowl XLVI a week from Sunday.
“No, there’s no bittersweetness,” he told the newspaper. “There’s a competitive side to me that is angry, the competitive nature in me that it didn’t go the way it normally has. I routinely produce a certain way every year. So when that routine goes astray like it did this year, it feels funny. It’s something I had to get used to.
“But I took it in stride,” Ochocinco continued. “I did everything I was asked on and off the field. I didn’t become disgruntled, as I’ve done in the past. When I want the ball, I’ve let it be known I want the ball. I didn’t do any of those things. I bought into the Patriot Way, and it paid off [with his first career Super Bowl trip].”
It certainly didn’t pay off in individual honors. Ochocinco managed 15 receptions for 276 yards and one touchdown in the regular season, all of them career lows for the 34-year-old.
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Veteran receiver Deion Branch laughed when told the Giants’ Justin Tuck had said they needed to get to Tom Brady because “the way to kill a snake is to take off its head.”
“If that’s the analogy that they’re taking, then that’s what it is,” Branch said. “I think our job is to protect our guy, protect The Snake, make sure he doesn’t get his head cut off… We have to worry about what we’re doing and the snake will do his part.”
Brady, mocked in some corners for becoming an endorser of UGGs footwear (a brand known mostly for its boots for women), gave each of his teammates a pair of the men’s boots yesterday.
An UGGs box was in every player’s locker yesterday, plainly visible during the media session. Some joked about being hesitant to wear them, but wideout Matt Slater was grateful.
“Tom’s a generous guy,” Slater said.
