Advertisement

Tedy Bruschi says Matthew Stafford 'not tough enough' to play for Patriots

Matthew Stafford’s trade to the Los Angeles Rams is old news by now, but the report that he would accept a trade to any team but the New England Patriots still has some people riled up.

One of those people is retired Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi. In an appearance on WEEI’s “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria” on Wednesday, he went in hard on Stafford.

“He’s not tough enough to play here. He’s just not tough enough,” Bruschi said via Radio.com. “I don’t think he’s tough enough to be coached hard.

“Do you realize the mental toughness that Tom Brady had to have for 20 years to deal with Bill Belichick and that type of coaching? I mean, constant pressure every single day. Does Stafford sort of grab you as a guy who could handle that? I just don’t think so.

“He went to Sean McVay and his little best friend relationship and go have fun over there. That’s fine.”

Stafford handled three seasons of being coached by Matt Patricia, who comes from the Bill Belichick tree of “hard coaching” and was widely disliked by his own players. The Patriots recently re-hired Patricia, so it’s common sense for Stafford to want to avoid the man who coached the Lions to a 13-29 record over two-plus seasons. But if toughness is all about voluntarily associating yourself with the utter coaching failure of Patricia, the Patriots are definitely tough.

BOSTON, MA - APRIL 09:  Stroke survivor Tedy Bruschi speaks at the David Yurman In-Store event to celebrate the launch of the Albion Collection to benefit the American Stroke Association on April 9, 2015 in Boston, Massachusetts.  (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for David Yurman)
Tedy Bruschi doesn't think Matt Stafford could handle being coached by Bill Belichick. (Photo by Paul Marotta/Getty Images for David Yurman)

Bruschi says Rams paid a ‘ridiculous’ price for Stafford

Bruschi hasn’t been a fan of Stafford for a while. On “Ordway, Merloni & Fauria” in January, Bruschi gave Stafford a slew of backhanded compliments before declaring that he’s not a winner.

“I mean I’m a fan of Matthew Stafford, the player. I’m just not a fan of his teams. So what does that say? It says watching him play is fun, sling it all over the place, the arm angles, taking chances, all of that stuff, that’s great. But it never equals into anything substantial, anything meaningful for the victory.

“He is a star but, yes, he is not a winner. There are a lot of guys out there with a lot of stats that have no playoff wins, and I think Stafford doesn’t have playoff wins for a reason.”

On Wednesday, Bruschi doubled down on those comments, calling the trade “quarterback desperation.”

“The price that [Los Angeles] paid for Matthew Stafford was ridiculous,” Bruschi said via Boston.com. “I think it was two [first-round draft picks] and a [third-round pick] for a player that’s never won a playoff game. But this goes into the arrogance of offensive coaches. It’s like, ‘OK, no, my system, my coaching, I’ll fix this guy. Let’s bring him in here and this is exactly the upgrade that I need.’

“That type of quarterback desperation, that’s the first couple moves. And that’s where the Patriots just will not participate in.”

The Patriots reportedly made an offer for Stafford before they were eliminated from the chase. I wonder if Bruschi thinks that’s also quarterback desperation, since Belichick would have been doing the same thing the Rams are: finding an upgrade and “fixing” him. Would Bruschi be just as critical if the Patriots swung a trade for Stafford, or would he be calling it genius?

We’ll never truly know the answer, but you can probably guess what the guy who spent 13 years playing for the Pats would say.

More from Yahoo Sports: