Chad Ochocinco (remember him?) is embroiled in his first playoff week as a member of the Patriots, and -- from the sounds of it -- he's a babe in the woods.
"I was like, 'Is Tom OK?'Â " Ochocinco told Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports this week. "You know, he's intense, but this was like a whole new thing, man. They were like, 'It's that time of the year, you just have to understand.'
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"I've been around a lot of really competitive people, and I've had Carson Palmer and Jon Kitna as my quarterbacks. You know that quarterbacks are a little different. They have to act a little different because of the position. But Tom has taken that to a whole different level."
Cole recounts a recent exchange between Brady and a reporter, who asked how long it took the quarterback to get over last season's playoff loss to the Jets.
"I don't know," he said. "I don't remember."
It's clear Brady has something to prove Saturday against the Broncos after two consecutive one-and-done postseason appearances. Much was made of Brady's sideline tiff with offensive coordinator Bill O'Brien against the Redskins, but the tweaking, the correcting, the constant prodding of teammates is nothing unusual.
"That stuff happens every day," Ochocinco said. "Every ... single ... day. That's what it's like around here. Everybody is pushing for perfection, and they're pushing hard. I've never seen anything like it in my whole career. You understand why this team is where it is. ... Tom is on you about the littlest things, that you were a step off where you should be or the angle is wrong or whatever it is. Really, he has me walking on eggshells, and I haven't done that since I was a rookie."
