FOXBOROUGH, Mass. -- Not counting NFL preseason games, Matt Cassel says the last time he played extensively in a contest that mattered was ... high school.
No, seriously, it's true. High school.
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| Matt Cassel finally will emerge from the shadow of another quarterback. (Getty Images) |
Out goes Tom Brady, Hall of Famer, possible top five player of all time, underwear model. In walks Matt Cassel, couldn't beat Poly, career backup, could walk into downtown Boston in his underwear and no one would know who he was.
At least a portion of this story should sound familiar. Brady was an NFL unknown when a freakish, brutal injury to Drew Bledsoe introduced the world and single women everywhere to Brady.
Now, is it Cassel's turn?
"This is something I've been preparing for a long time," said Cassel after news broke that Brady had injured his knee Sunday against Kansas City. "It's not something that we expected to come up on the opening day. I went out there, I got a lot of reps during preseason and that ended up being pretty fortunate for me because I got a lot of looks and everything like that. Obviously there's an adrenaline pump that went on immediately and then you just come back and focus on the job at hand and what needed to get done."
It's rare in sports that you see such a large power vacuum filled by someone so extraordinarily ordinary. To go from Brady to Cassel is like going from Casablanca to American Pie.
Cassel taking the Patriot helm will test a number of things, at least in the eyes of some non-Patriots fans. Can Bill Belichick win without Brady (the answer is a resounding yes) and did the organization take Brady's normally practically unbreakable body for granted by not investing in a higher quality backup?
Or can Cassel shock the world?
Cassel will never be Brady. Not many people can, but Cassel has something going for him. He's a persistent and stubborn soul who despite being a backup for practically all of his collegiate and professional athletic life has never given up on dreaming of becoming a starter.
Cassel went to Southern California and was the backup for Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart. Both went on to Heisman trophies and NFL careers. (The way Leinart's career is going, he might one day be backing up Cassel.)
After the game Cassel met with the media and handled himself well. He walked off the podium and headed back through a door into the locker room. There, among a small number of media, was running back Laurence Maroney. Maroney said something to Cassel in his ear. I couldn't hear, but a Boston Herald writer did.
Maroney told Cassel: "It's your first time on the big stage. Don't stutter."
Don't stutter.
Easier said than d-d-d-one.
