Ex-Patriots DE Marsh speaks out: 'They don't have fun there'
Along with being one of the most successful teams in NFL history, the New England Patriots are also among the most criticized.
“Bill Belichick is so condescending.”
“Tom Brady is too perfect.”
“They have an advantage because the AFC East is so bad.”
“And of course they’ll cheat to win.”
What’s interesting is that most of the shots at New England come either when a player has left the team or after a big game.
The latest example comes from former Patriot and current 49er Cassius Marsh, a journeyman defensive end who spent nine games with the AFC champions last season.
“They don’t have fun there. There’s nothing fun about it. There’s nothing happy about it,” Marsh recently told the San Francisco Chronicle. “I didn’t enjoy any of my time there, you know what I’m saying? It made me for the first time in my life think about not playing football because I hated it that much.”
In fact, Marsh says he went to his coach hoping to get cut.
“I confronted [Belichick] about all the things that were going on,” Marsh said. “I won’t get into detail, but it was BS things they were doing. I just wasn’t a fan. And so I, basically, without asking to get cut, I kind of asked to get cut. … I had confidence that I would have an opportunity elsewhere and I would take advantage of it.”
The Patriots traded Marsh to San Francisco, where he signed a two-year contract extension.
Is this just a case of a disgruntled player who couldn’t cut it in Foxborough?
Philadelphia’s Lane Johnson had a similar criticism of the Patriots shortly after the Eagles beat them in the Super Bowl.
“They’re successful, but when they go to interviews, they act like f—ing robots. Hey, stop being a d—head. We can be cordial for a little bit. You only get to do this job one time, so let’s have fun while we’re doing it. Not to be reckless, but I’d much rather have fun and win a Super Bowl than be miserable and win five Super Bowls. But hey, it is what it is.”
It’s worth noting that Johnson’s comments came after the Super Bowl, not before it.
Former Patriot Danny Amendola, who left New England for Miami in the offseason, talked about playing for Belichick.
“It’s not easy, that’s for sure. He’s an a–h— sometimes. There were a lot of things I didn’t like about playing for him,” Amendola told ESPN. “But I must say, the things I didn’t like were all in regards to getting the team better, and I respected him. I didn’t like practicing in the snow, I didn’t like practicing in the rain, but that was going to make us a better football team and that was going to make me a better football player. It wasn’t easy, and he’d be the first to admit, at the [Super Bowl] ring ceremony, that it wasn’t easy playing for him. The silver lining was that we were at the ring ceremony.”
Is the “Patriot Way” just the cost of winning?
The answer apparently depends on who you ask.
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