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There is a clear-cut awkwardness between the Patriots and commissioner Roger Goodell, stemming from Deflategate and the suspension of Tom Brady for the first four games of 2016.

Brady, for his part, is playing the role of good solider and attempting to avoid creating a distraction (sounds familiar). He's claiming he never heard Pats fans chanting, "Where is Roger?" during the AFC Championship Game, and he told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News after the game that he has "no animosity" towards Goodell.

"I have no animosity towards anybody. I'm a very loving person," Brady said. "I want to win for my family and I want to win for my teammates and my coaches and our fans."

It's pretty hard to believe Brady doesn't have some negative feelings toward Goodell over the suspension. The Pats quarterback maintained his innocence throughout the process. He's got an opportunity to make Goodell hand the Patriots the Lombardi Trophy -- and later hand him the Super Bowl MVP trophy -- by beating the Falcons in Super Bowl LI.

If that happens, Brady probably has a decent idea of what he'd say to Goodell, too. Although he's not revealing exactly what that message will be. Asked on WEEI Monday morning, Brady laughed and said he would "tell you after" the encounter actually happens.

"[Laughing] Hopefully we finish the deal and ... we'll see. Maybe I'll tell you after," Brady said. "I don't want to get into winning something before we've won it, because it's going to be hard to win this thing."

If the Patriots do win, the players and coaches will spend plenty of time celebrating the victory and probably won't be immediately focused on vengeance and revenge. On the other hand, it could totally get awkward if and when they're collecting hardware from the commissioner.

Now they just have to win.