Quotes from around the NFL on Tom Brady’s season-ending knee injury:
“When you lose a marquee player like that, the whole league suffers. People like to watch the stars in this league. That’s who they come to see. People like to watch great quarterbacks play. It was that way with Joe Montana and other guys. You hate to see those guys go down.” – Chiefs coach Herman Edwards.
“I mean, it’s the sport. Tom Brady goes down – who would have thought? Obviously, I’m not Tom Brady, but it’s a tough sport that we play.” – Seahawks wide receiver Nate Burleson, who also suffered a season-ending injury on Sunday.
“It’s terrible. You never want to see that happen to a guy, especially to a guy like him who’s really kind of the face of the league in terms of professionalism, winning championships, doing the right things off the field. It’s tough to see a guy like that go down.” – Saints quarterback Drew Brees.
“Now there’s only one Tom Brady. It’s very unfortunate for the Patriots and the league to lose a marquee player like that.” – Titans coach Jeff Fisher.
ever minimize the impact that he has on any given game. But being part of New England and having a lot of seasons there, and a lot of seasons where there were injuries to key players – and I know the quarterback position is different – one of the things Bill (Belichick) and his staff have always been able to do is create a plan to win the game that week and overcome those things.” – Jets coach Eric Mangini.
“You hate to see anybody go down. I was watching when they showed it and you felt like ‘That’s a knee injury.’ You’re just hopeful that maybe it’ll be like Dallas Clark’s injury a couple of years ago where it’s not as bad as it appears. We were at that point with Dallas two years ago and four or five days later, it looked like he was going to be able to go and that’s what happened.
“It’s tough. You just hate to see that with anyone, one of your players or anybody in the league.” – Colts coach Tony Dungy.
“I am glad he wasn’t number 10 on this team. I know what a quarterback, especially a quarterback of the caliber of Tom Brady, means to a team and in his case, what it means to the NFL. He was our MVP last year and he is well-respected around this league not only as a great football player, but as a good human being, too. I wish Tom the best and I wish him a speedy recovery.” – Giants DE Justin Tuck.
Tom Brady fans. I’d say Tom Brady and Brett Favre are my two favorite quarterbacks, and any time you have a chance to watch them live play or play against them, you want to do that.” – Bills QB Trent Edwards.
“I think with New England, for me, I say they’re still a very good team because they have so many other pieces and they’re well-coached and they’ve got a good defense. And so you never know. Matt Cassel, he didn’t turn the ball over, he managed the game. So you never know with New England. That’s their style of football.
“To me, they did the same thing when (Drew) Bledsoe went out. Everybody was saying the same thing. Then Tom Brady comes in, nobody knows who he is. Our first game, I remember, I was a rookie. And it was like, ‘Who is this guy?’ And he beats us. So you never know.” – Chargers RB LaDainian Tomlinson.