FOXBOROUGH - So to cap off a day in which he was easily the most unpopular person at Gillette Stadium, let the record show that Anthony Smith was prepared to don a Yankees hat.
His taste for fashion apparently matches his prognostication talents, though the 24-year-old second-year safety for the Pittsburgh Steelers refused to back down from his well-publicized comments earlier in the week. He had "guaranteed" a victory over the Patriots and he wasn't sorry he had, not even in the aftermath of a 34-13 defeat.
"You take what you get and move on," Smith said.
Though there are far more heralded Steelers - from quarterback Ben Roethlisberger to wideout Hines Ward to safety Troy Polamalu to linebacker James Farrior - it was the safety from Syracuse who dominated the spotlight with his bold prediction. While he tried to deflect some criticism by pointing to the oldest alibi in the book ("If he would have quoted me right," Smith said postgame), he seemed to overlook the fact that his words had been captured on video.
"Yeah, I can guarantee a win," is what Smith had said, but exactly what those words had to do with the outcome depends on which locker room you stood in shortly after the game had ended.
Down at one end of Gillette Stadium, it was easy to feel that Smith's boastful talk had fueled the fires.
"We've played against a lot better safeties than him, I'll tell you that," was even offered up by none other than Bill Belichick, and the Patriots' coach rarely says anything so provocative.
But in the solitude of the visiting team's locker room, teammates shook their heads and defended Smith.
"The guarantee comment? I don't have a problem with it," Ward said. "He felt confident. Words don't win or lose ballgames. We didn't lose the game because he made a guarantee comment. We lost the game because they executed better than we did."
Several lockers away, linebacker Larry Foote laughed when asked if he and his teammates had felt the wrath of the Patriots and their fans because of Smith's comments.
"We don't care. The only people who were fired up about [the quote] was the crowd," said Foote, though there was plenty of evidence to the contrary. Like on the Patriots' first touchdown, a 4-yard bullet pass from Tom Brady to Randy Moss? It was a score that seemed so routine, like any of the other 41 he had tossed coming into this week, except that it ignited an emotion in Brady that has rarely been seen.
He went after Smith with what he sheepishly conceded involved some R-rated trash talk, although he might not have said it loud enough.
"He didn't say nothing to me. I wasn't even paying attention," Smith said.
OK, then, what did Moss say to him a short time later, after hauling in a 63-yard scoring toss off a brilliant play-action that froze Smith.
"I couldn't hear what he was saying, either," said Smith, playing host to a few dozen reporters in front of his locker.
He had been beaten, yes. But he had not been humbled that much. No, sir.
"I said [earlier in the week], 'If we come out and do what we're supposed to do, we're going to win the game," Smith said. "And we didn't do that. We gave up some big plays and that's what happens."
Indeed, big plays were at the heart of this game and it wasn't lost on the assembled media that a trio of them went New England's way at Smith's expense. The touchdown passes to Moss, then a third-quarter flea-flicker that involved Brady's lateral to Moss, Moss's lateral back to Brady, and Brady's massive pass for a touchdown to Jabar Gaffney that covered 56 yards.
"I almost got there," said Smith. "A second quicker and I could have made that play."
But because he didn't, the Steelers were looking at a 24-13 deficit and Belichick didn't deny that Smith's aggressiveness had opened the door to such trickery.
"The safety play at that position was pretty inviting," said Belichick.
Down the hall, Pittsburgh coach Mike Tomlin didn't want to get as specific. He wasn't about to discuss defensive breakdowns at anyone's expense.
"I'm not going to get into pointing fingers. We're a football team," said the rookie coach, whose team fell to 9-4. "The reality is, they ring the scoreboard up on us, the Pittsburgh Steelers. We accept responsibilities, starting with myself, for that. If that's the measuring stick, then we're not close."
His players showed that they stood with their coach.
"They're a phenomenal team, and they showed it [yesterday]," Roethlisberger said.
So the visitors seemed willing to give all the credit to the undefeated Patriots, whose roll to history lives for another week. But still . . . deep down the Steelers know that Smith had not helped their uphill cause with his "guarantee" talk.
"When you play the best team in the NFL," said Ward, "you definitely don't need to give them any more motivating bulletin-board stuff to feed off of."
Was that why the Patriots seemed to spend a lot of time engaged in some verbal exchanges? Safety Tyrone Carter laughed. "It was verbal," he said, "but at the same time, they had the upper hand. They were winning."
Don't tell that to Smith. He seemed to miss all the trash talk. He never heard Brady. Never heard Moss. Didn't hear anyone, or so he said just before reaching for his Yankees hat.
"I talk a lot myself," he said, "so it's hard to hear what they say when they talk to me."
Jim McCabe can be reached at jmccabe@globe.com.
