Perhaps part of the reason Patriots quarterback Tom Brady expressed such respect for the Texans this week — other than it just being the kind of thing Tom Brady says — was the relationship he had with Texans coach Bill O’Brien.
And the fact O’Brien was willing and able to chew him out on the sideline stuck with Brady.
In the five years O’Brien spent with the Patriots he earned the nickname “Teapot” from his quarterbacks, and blew off plenty of steam in Brady’s direction after an interception against Washington in 2011.
“He kind of let me have it. I deserved it,” Brady told WEEI’s Kirk and Callahan show, via CSNNE.com. “It was kind of a dumb throw. I deserved it. I kind of chirped back, and he didn’t like it. I was kind of fiery at the time, too.
“We cooled off pretty quick. That’s Billy’s style. Billy’s gonna let you know if he doesn’t like something that you did. He handles it in the right way, in a way that you really respected. You know he’s fiery, you know he just wants to get the job done. We cooled off. We ended up winning the game [when] Jerod Mayo made a great interception to end that game. By the time we got to the locker room we were good.
“There are a lot of emotions in this game. You wear them on your sleeve, and sometimes you just fire off. That’s just the way it goes.”
Of course, O’Brien’s being so willing to share his emotions might also be a factor in the continuing chatter about his long-term future with the Texans, but it’s also a sign of his stature a as a coach that he made such an imprint on Brady.