But when Wes Welker opened up to Sports Illustrated magazine in an interview earlier this week, his motivation was clear - he wanted to lay blame for the fiasco that he felt led to him being shown the door by the New England Patriots this past offseason in favor of St. Louis Rams' receiver Danny Amendola...
It's a sorted tale, how the whole mess came about, and nobody knows for sure how things actually went down - but we can guess, and we have, and Welker's comments to the magazine were rife with the kind of immature teenage babble that we've come to expect from both the slot receiver and his agent.
Welker took the advice of his agent, who told him to play hardball with the New England Patriots in contract negotiations, resulting in the Patriots sticking him with the franchise tag in 2012 - but Bill Belichick and Bob Kraft were in no mood to deal with Welker or his agent in free agency this March, having just dropped an AFC Championship game to the Baltimore Ravens that Welker had no small part of helping to lose...
...Just go to Denver, they said, catch a hundred five-yard slants then drop a crucial one from Peyton Manning in the AFC Championship game against the Patriots. No need to bring up the past, because it just makes you look like a jilted former lover - and with all the passes you caught from Brady and all the excitement you provided our fans, your legacy deserves better.
But no.
In the immediate aftermath of Welker signing a contract to play with the Denver Broncos, his agent, David Dunn, spewed a bunch of bile about the Patriots not respecting Welker and forcing him out of town - which is true, but not the way he told it, and both Kraft and Belichick admonished him in public from the Owners meeting in Arizona...
...and now, as was an occasional occurrence while he was in Foxborough, Welker felt compelled to open up to Sports Illustrated about his time with the Patriots and let the entire football world know that Bill Belichick is a big meanie and yelled at him in front of his teammates.
Well, yeah. To quote a famous movie line, Belichick may be an ornery cuss, but he's the same ornery cuss to everyone - and the fact that Belichick called him out in a film session is akin to whining, and football players are not supposed to be in that business.
Welker was kicked out of New England for a reason - both Tom Brady and Belichick losing trust in him - and the only way he was ever coming back was as a member of another team - and that will happen on Sunday night, November 24th in front of a nationally televised audience, and if Belichick had anything to do with the Patriots' Public Relations department, they would hand out Wes Welker cry towels at the gates...
...because if the Patriots' and their coach didn't have that game circled on the calendar in the locker room before, they sure as hell do now, and we all know what Belichick does to opponents that open their mouths to challenge his team in the media - he goes after them on the field - not to hurt them, because that's not Belichick's style.
No, he embarrasses them, and exposes them as frauds.
Welker should know this, but perhaps he needs Belichick to explain it to him again - only this time it will be in front millions of people around the world instead of in front of just 52 teammates...
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