Cordarrelle Patterson's apparent illiteracy has him angry with Bill Belichick
He also, apparently, cannot read. Or, more likely, he only reads headlines.
The latter has been the folly for many a PatriotsLife twitter follower over the years, and it appears to have gotten the best of the Vikings' wideout. Speaking with reporters yesterday, Patterson said that he was angry with Bill Belichick for saying that he didn't want to draft him.
Via Jeff Howe, Boston Herald:
"I've seen a little article today where Belichick, I think he said he didn't want me," Patterson told Minnesota reporters Thursday, via the Pioneer Press. "So that's the kind of things that stick in the back of a player's head. And you get out there, you just want to beat the defense up since people say things like that."
That's all well and good, except Bill Belichick never said that.
The Patriots traded the 29th pick in the 2013 draft to the Vikings for a 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 7th round pick. Minnesota obviously picked Patterson.
Belichick was, of course, asked about the trade yesterday and he gave his normal vanilla answers. To recap, here's what he actually said:
On the trade:
"We made the decision based on what we felt was best for our team," Belichick said, via The Star Tribune. "That's what we always do. We felt like at that time it would be the best thing for our team, and that's what we did."
On if he would've selected Patterson:
“I don’t know. We didn’t hold onto it,” Belichick said. “There were a lot of good players at that point. We feel we got one with the player we picked plus the other selections we received in moving back.”
If you're going to get offended over that round of non-answers, then hey, I can't really help you.
I think what really happened was, Patterson did not read any article. As he says, he saw an article. Headlines can often take things out of context, because you have so few words to get a point across. Oh, also they are designed to generate clicks. NFL.com's headline on Belichick's quote was "Bill Belichick: No regrets in Cordarrelle Patterson deal". When pressed, Patterson would not reveal where he saw the article, but let's say that Patterson saw that NFL.com one. He could easily interpret it the wrong way, and through a sensationalized game of telephone he could end up thinking that Belichick, known for not answering any questions as to not provide bulletin board material, was providing bulletin board material by saying he didn't want to draft him.
Really, really, makes you think.
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