Jets cornerback Brandin Echols has had an impressive rookie season so far. He’s tied for the team lead with two interceptions and earned Defensive Rookie of the Week honors in Week 15 after taking one back for a touchdown against the Dolphins.
Echols added his second pick against Tom Brady in the Jets’ 28-24 Week 17 loss to the Buccaneers. While New York came up short, Echols wanted something special to remember an early highlight in his career. So he asked Brady to sign the football Echols snagged from the seven-time Super Bowl champion at the end of the second quarter.
When you’re a rookie like Brandin Echols and you intercept Tom Brady it’s perfectly awesome to ask him to sign the ball pic.twitter.com/xxy8RXodKU
— Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) January 2, 2022
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A few pundits scoffed at Echols’ decision, but Robert Saleh had no issue with it. Saleh said he understood the optics of asking an opposing player – especially one who just beat the Jets with a last-minute score – for an autograph, but the coach didn’t take offense to what Echols did.
“The reality is, the NFL is a brotherhood. These guys all know each other. They talk to each other on the phone, they call each other, they work out with one another,” Saleh said. “This is a huge fraternity of brothers and they just spent four hours going at it on the football field, they spent all week prepping on how they’re just going to absolutely embarrass one another, and so at the end of the game, the jersey exchanges, those conversations that they’re having, that is a very cool, genuine moment that’s happening between players.”
The Jets coach even called Echols “a little ballsy” for asking Brady to sign a football that he turned over.
“I don’t care what anyone says – he picked off Tom. Like that’s a childhood dream. That’s one of the greatest of all time and for Tom to humor him with the autograph and to do that for him, I think is pretty cool on his part,” Saleh added. “I have no problem with it, not at all, because I know what those guys go through and trust me, Echols cares that we lost and he cares that Tom had a hell of a game. But to be able to pick off a guy like Tom Brady — how many guys can say that, right?”
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