The Philadelphia Eagles right tackle took more shots during a recent appearance on Steve Austin’s podcast and revealed why he hates the Pats with a passion.
“Here’s what pissed me off,” Johnson said. “The Patriots, obviously, I respect their coach, I respect Bill [Belichick], I respect Tom Brady, but just because the way that they won the Super Bowls, the Patriot Way, is that how everybody else is supposed to do the same thing? No, it’s not. And that’s what I got mad at, the arrogance by them.
“There was obviously some stuff behind closed doors. Their owner talking s— to our owner. Bill talking s— to our head coach [Doug Pederson] before the game. I’m not going to say it, but a lot of s— kind (of) built up to that, and I just got tired of hearing about it, man, to be honest.”
When asked about the mystery surrounding Belichick’s decision not to play cornerback Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl.
“That’s the thing, you’re never going to know,” Johnson said. “Whatever they’re told to do in the media is what they’re told to do. Like I said, they’re robots.”
The Eagles defeated the Patriots 41-33 to claim their first Lombardi trophy.
“I saw a [Patriots] defense that wasn’t overly talented. It was all really about containing Tom Brady,” Johnson said on the Austin podcast. “We had a hard time doing that — he had 505 yards. But that was really it, man. Going into the game, I’m not going to be shell-shocked by it. That was kind of our thing going in. I think we had the upper hand on that.”
I definitely don’t see Gronk as a Robot, so the picture he’s painting isn’t really all that accurate. Sounds to me like he just has a strong distaste for the Patriot way. I imagine a lot of players feel that way about the Pats. Just means they are the top dog, even when they lose.
