No "I" in Ocho

A lot was made yesterday of Tedy Bruschi’s criticism of Ochocinco’s tweet Tuesday morning:

“Just waking up after a late arrival, I've never seen a machine operate like that n person, to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW.”

While I agree that when it comes to the Patriots, Bruschi is still an active, potentially biased voice that should be otherwise analytical in the forum of ESPN or any other sporting program (i.e. Dennis & Callahan), the message here is not one that is exclusive to the former Patriots’ captain.  When Ochocinco was first brought to New England over the summer, Skip Bayless, from his outlet at First and Ten, instructed Ochocinco to – and I’m paraphrasing – “drop the personae.”  Two months later, Ochocinco has moved in with Patriots fans, hugged media personnel, and is as active on twitter as he ever was in Cincinnati, sans the criticism, but has yet to show that he can produce within the Patriots’ system as proven by his slow pre-season and now a regular season debut with one catch in 18 plays while only being targeted one other time which, to his credit, should have been pass-interference.  This lack of production with the same overzealous off-field antics, though not as excessive, shows no attention to the sentiments of Mr. Bayless, who is one of the few critical analysts in the world of sports journalism now, which should be more respected and not dismissed as negative, but I digress.

Enter Tedy Bruschi.  There is a “Patriot Way” and Bruschi knows it better than anyone, he was around it for four super bowls, three championships and was playing under it before Tom Brady was a starter and his commentary, while exuberant, is informed more than anyone on ESPN’s staff (I’m looking at you Damien Woody).  Bruschi instructs Ochocinco to “drop the awe factor” not because it is undeserved, but because it is forced and fake.  Ochocinco, like others on this roster, is trying to redefine his image within the scope of the NFL.  Albert Haynesworth has entered the organization with the same goals and has let his performance do the talking occasionally interjecting into an interview how grateful he is for such a rebirth.  Ochocinco has neither performed on the field nor has he stayed below the radar off of it.  These roles need to be reversed, his play needs to pop and his quotes need to stop.  I’m not saying that he needs to be tight-lipped as Belichick, the Patriots have seen a number of egos come through the system in the last decade and each has adopted the Belichick mantra in his own way.  Randy Moss was not absent in his end zone celebrations, he was just a Patriot in doing so, likewise I don’t expect Ochocinco to drop the tweeting all together, other Patriots tweet, as Mike and Mike researched this morning, he just needs to “drop the awe factor.”

To one final point, Mike and Mike suggested this morning that within a team unit there are certain superstars to whom the rules may not apply, citing that Michael Jordan typically did not have to run after games as other players had to, and questioned if Ochocinco perhaps fits that “superstar” build on the Patriots roster.  Golic was quick to acknowledge that this was probably not the case for the Patriots, at least not in the public eye.  He did suggest that behind closed doors there was probably some special treatment granted to Tom Brady and the like, but even that I might question, though I would not find it unexpected.  My evidence: following the release of Randy Moss last October, Brady, in his comments, often asserted that he had no say in personnel decisions, while the media implied for weeks that it was Brady’s team to determine.  In January, Wes Welker caved to the white noise from the Jets’ locker room and infamously held a press conference loaded with feet references for Rex Ryan.  He was benched for the first series of the ensuing playoff game.  Then to Monday night: following Brady’s 517 yard performance and Wes Welker’s record-setting 99 yard touchdown reception, Brady was asked about Welker to which he stumbled in response, catching himself before saying, “he is a player I love having on my team,” and instead saying, “he is a player we love having on our team.”  Ochocinco is right to call the Patriots “a machine,” because they are; no part functions without all parts and that’s what defines the Patriot Way.  The problem is that Ochocinco is one of those parts now and had he been more productive and less “awestruck,” perhaps that 517 may have become 600.  Certainly that is not to criticize any performance Monday night; it is simply meant to illustrate the competitive mentality that has lead to Tedy Bruschi’s three championship rings.