Brady Defends Deception Against Ravens
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Jim Rogash/Getty Images(BOSTON, Ma.) — Tom Brady respects Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh, but believes the Patriots did nothing wrong in their win over the Ravens in Saturday’s AFC Divisional match.
Brady, on his weekly radio appearance on WEEI’s Dennis and Callahan Show, explained that trick plays, deception and misdirection are all part of football.
“Let me say first, I have a lot of respect for him as a coach, and obviously that team is one of the toughest teams we face. It’s always a tough match-up,” Brady said.
“It was a play that we liked and we thought would work. We had a couple versions of it. It’s kind of an alert play for our team, and we made them figure out what to do,” Brady continued. “I think that’s what it looked like to me. We had to execute it, we had to make the appropriate calls and block it and make the plays, and I was proud of us. That was a good weapon for us. That’s part of football. You have to prepare for everything.”
The issue lies in the Patriots lining up four offensive linemen and one wide receiver that declares as ineligible. A player that is ineligible cannot cross the line of scrimmage until a pass is thrown or on a running play. The Patriots did this on three plays.
The Ravens took exception to this because of the difficulty in figuring out whom to cover. Harbaugh was assessed a 15-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during the game when he ran onto the field to alert an official of the issue.
The NFL ruled that what the Patriots was legal as defined by the rule book.
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