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Tedy Bruschi Didn’t Take Too Kindly To John Harbaugh Calling The Patriots’ Titles “Stained”

Ravens coach John Harbaugh made an appearance on a Baltimore radio station earlier today, and while he was on, one of the hosts brought up the topic of cheating/rule-bending/dirty playing in the NFL. This, of course, is a hot topic right now because of the Saints’ bounty controversy, and Harbaugh – while he was measured in what he said – ultimately said that the successes of the Saints and the Patriots (thanks to the Spygate scandal) are “stained” and have “asterisks.”

Again, Harbaugh was careful at the time to note that this “stain” happened whether or not the rule-breaking actually had anything to do with those championships, but one wouldn’t expect, say, the players on those Patriots teams to take any comment insinuating their championships were tarnished in any way very well. And it just so happens that ESPN has one of those Patriots, Tedy Bruschi, on staff. He addressed what Harbaugh said earlier today. Some of his more interesting comments are below:

He’s defensive. Of course he’s defensive. As he pointed out, the Patriots undoubtedly worked hard. Look at their record over the last decade. They would have clearly been really good with or without any illicit spying on other teams. We’d expect Bruschi to defend his record. We even enjoyed the “drop a pass in the end zone, miss a kick” smack-ish talk.

But one thing he said there troubles us: namely, that Harbaugh “needs to learn” “a little bit of loyalty” because he spoke honestly about the Patriots. Yes, Belichick recommended him for his job with the Ravens. Yes, Harbaugh said that the Patriots’ titles are “stained” (though again, he didn’t say that rule-breaking definitely helped the Patriots do anything). Something Harbaugh also said not long ago: that Belichick is “the greatest coach in our league right now,” and that he respects him as a coach and person. He’s made it abundantly clear he doesn’t have it out for Belichick.

And suggesting he needs to show “loyalty” to Belichick by not giving an honest assessment of a huge controversy that happened on Belichick’s watch, when it’s relevant to the discussion at hand, is how you get people like the Saints’ whistleblower – any whistleblower, really – labeled as a snitch and as someone to be scorned. Showing loyalty to a person doesn’t mean always looking the other way and pretending they’ve never done anything bad in their lives.

Again, Bruschi should go out there and defend his, and the Patriots’, record. You know who agrees with that? John Harbaugh, who after Bruschi’s comments issued a statement regretting he wasn’t “more clear” in saying the “stain” on the Patriots’ and Saints’ championships was a reference to public opinion in general, and not his personal opinion. Apparently, he’s talked with both Bruschi and Belichick, and we imagine he’ll be on okay terms with both going forward.

But the fact that Harbaugh needed to issue a statement at all makes us feel a little icky. And it wasn’t just Bruschi’s comments that led to that statement – Harbaugh’s remarks wouldn’t have blown up like they did if people didn’t pounce on the word “stained” and make them out to be way more inflammatory than they actually were. The funny thing is at one point in the radio segment, Harbaugh mentioned that he didn’t want to get in to specific instances of when he thought opponents might have been cheating, because then it would blow up and he’d be caught in a mess. Clearly, though, it takes a lot less than that, and when all it takes to cause an uproar is your honest opinion, that’s never a good thing.