When it comes to Sunday's Patriots-Buccaneers game, all everyone wants to talk about is Bill Belichick vs. Tom Brady.
More specifically, how it ended with Brady in New England and who deserves more of the blame.
But not former Patriots safety and current NBC analyst Rodney Harrison. On Merloni & Fauria Thursday, Harrison went on a long rant about it and how it shouldn't be a negative discussion.
“You’ll never know. That’s the thing. You’ll never know. You will never know. We will never know," he said. "At the end of the day we can’t focus on things that we can’t control that we don’t know everything about. I choose to focus on two decades of what [they] did together. Imagine two decades of being with Coach Belichick -- how tough he is, how demanding he is, how much of a perfectionist he is. To me, that speaks volumes with Tom Brady and what he’s been able to do and his mental toughness to be able to be able to deal with that. Conversely, the same thing with Coach Belichick. Tom is a stubborn dude. And you know how Tom is at times. Tom gets stuck in his ways and wants to do things a certain way and you have to give [credit] to Coach Belichick.
"However you want to focus on it, in 20 years in any relationship there’s going to be ups and downs. But to be able to manage at the highest level of football, these guys sticking together for 20 years is absolutely incredible and that is what I choose to put my focus on.”
Harrison is looking forward to being on site Sunday night.
“It’s going to be crazy," he said. "That’s what I’m talking about. I’m pumped up. I’m excited, how can you not be excited for Tom to come back? And the fans, I know the fans are going to do nothing but show Tom nothing but love. Everything that he deserves. All the players, I’ve talked to a bunch of players, they said they are coming back to watch Tom. And just the level of support.
"At the end of the day everyone wants to make it something about Bill and Tom. I’m not making it about Bill and Tom, as far as anything negative. To me, it’s nothing but positive. Coach wouldn’t be the coach that he is if he didn’t have Tom. Tom wouldn’t be the player that he is if he didn’t have Coach. And you know what, both of them have a lot of respect for each other. I’m just so pumped up, I can’t wait.”
