| 11.03.03 - Quarterbacks Drew Brees and Doug Flutie weren’t the only Chargers who found themselves in front of the microphones on Monday.
Pro Bowl defensive end Marcellus Wiley also was the focus of a lot of attention thanks to some of the comments he made after Sunday’s game when he said coach Marty Schottenheimer should have put Flutie into the game sooner in place of Brees during the Chargers’ 20-7 loss to the Bears in Chicago.
But before speaking to the media on Monday, Wiley made a point of talking to Brees first, one-on-one and man-to-man. Wiley wanted to make sure that Brees heard from him first.
Both players described the meeting as amicable, and both spoke freely about it afterward.
“Actually, I didn’t read it; he came up to me and we talked face-to-face about it,” said Brees. “Yeah, I’m disappointed, because you want everybody in your corner and you want everybody to support you. It’s no fun to have people doubt you or maybe question you as a player.
“As long as guys understand that I care and that I’m going to do whatever it takes to get back where we need to be or I need to take us, as long as they know that, that’s what’s important to me. I just want to make sure that they knew. I’m happy to put all this on my shoulders, because that kind of has been the case. I’m going to be accountable to them, accountable to myself and everybody else, coaches included.”
“I talked to Drew,” said Wiley. “I was a man about it and pulled him to the side. We spoke. It wasn’t meant to be divisive for this team. It wasn’t meant to split us in half. It was just a sweet potato pie of frustration and some brutal honesty. We’re moving forward from it. That’s the part professional spirit, the same way it was said in a professional spirit.”
Brees and Wiley agreed on one thing: that speaking directly to one another in the future might be a better course of action than airing their thoughts through the media.
“I guess it’s hard to be a leader or speak out sometimes when you’re not necessarily playing well,” said Brees. “Obviously, I haven’t been playing very well, so it’s kind of been hard to speak out and lead at times. I kind of respect Marcellus for saying what he did to me. I don’t think it was necessary to say it to the media, but to come and say to me is perfectly fine. As long as he comes to me about it.”
“Sometimes maybe it’s not best to talk to you guys,” said Wiley, who added jokingly: “Kobe and Shaq called me right after and told me, ‘Chill out dog.’”
More seriously, Wiley added: “It’s a situation where Drew is somebody I respect on and off the field.”
Brees and Wiley have something else in common: they are both brutally self-honest about their performances so far this season, and neither is satisfied with the way he is playing.
“I didn’t say that comment sitting here as a mid-season Pro Bowler with ten sacks,” said Wiley, who has one sack through eight games. “It wasn’t a situation where I didn’t have any blemishes on my own game to be able to talk about Drew. I was just trying to be an outlet of frustration. I tried to handle it the best way I could and today is another day that I’ve learned from yesterday.”
“I feel like we are much better than our 1-7 record,” said Brees. “Part of that is because of me, and part of that is because of other things. I really believe if I’m the guy, I will respond in a very positive way.”
Added Wiley: “Drew says he’s going to be the number one quarterback in this league, and I believe him. It’s not a situation where guys don’t believe in him or believe that he can be everything he says he can be and what this organization feels about him. It’s a situation right now where we are 1-7. You sneeze wrong in there right now and you might get cut. It’s just uneasy right now. We know that if we win, that’s the only cure for this cold.” | |
