Branch harbors no hard feelings
FOXBOROUGH - The strained conclusion to Deion Branch's tenure with the Patriots will be forgotten this weekend, Branch said, when his former team travels to Seattle to face the Seahawks for the first time since Branch, the MVP of Super Bowl XXXIX, was traded there early in the 2006 season.
"I never think about how it ended," Branch said yesterday. "You never know what the next day holds for you in this business that we're in. It was very businesslike. Both sides respect each other. I respect Coach [Bill] Belichick. I respect everything he did. I'm pretty sure he respected me as well. I think each party had to do what was best. It was just a business move."
Branch still talks regularly with "a slew" of current Patriots, including Kevin Faulk, Ty Warren, Vince Wilfork, Benjamin Watson, and Rodney Harrison. Branch plans to meet up with his former teammates - "old friends," he said - for dinner tomorrow night in Seattle.
He will walk over to the team hotel, where he knows he might run into Belichick or other members of the Patriots' brain trust, the people he grappled with at the start of the 2006 season. Branch held out in hopes of landing an elite contract for a wide receiver; the Patriots wouldn't budge off their initial offer. After Branch filed a grievance, the Patriots eventually traded him for the first-round pick they used to draft safety Brandon Meriwether No. 24 overall in 2007.
Now Branch will be facing them - and potentially seeing them before the game.
"I don't think it will be awkward, because I think both sides understand what happened," Branch said. "Who knows? Down the line, we may see each other again. Who knows? I'll see those guys at the hotel when I go over to pick up the other guys, and I'm going to shake their hands and hug them. We'll talk about a couple things here and there, and we'll move on."
Most notable among the former teammates Branch stays in touch with is his old quarterback, Tom Brady. "We text a whole lot," Branch said.
Branch was finishing rehabilitation for an anterior cruciate ligament tear when Brady's season ended because of a similar injury. Branch has tried to help Brady's mind-set, and he believes the quarterback will return to his familiar form.
"I know what he's about to go through, but there's nothing to it," Branch said. "He's a strong guy. He's going to prevail. He's going to be all right. It's just an injury that you have to be mentally strong to overcome. A lot of guys come back from the injury, but a lot of guys are not mentally back from the injury when they come back. Tom, he'll be OK."
For Branch, watching Patriots game film and seeing Matt Cassel, not Brady, leading the offense felt different.
"That is probably the strangest thing about it that you can think of," Branch said. "We always counted on Tom to be there every week, and he was. For him to be gone . . . and it's not a surprise that those guys are moving on and still doing what they're doing with Matt Cassel leading the team."
Branch's enduring closeness to the Patriots made yesterday morning seem odd. He pored over his playbook and saw the Patriots helmet on the front, his opponent for the first time. The scouting reports were on people he knew, teammates with whom he won two Super Bowls.
"I think it's going to be a little bit of both - a little strange and a little excited," Branch said. "It's crazy. It's going to be exciting to play against all my friends." 