Tom Brady On His Conversation With Peyton Manning: “he Said He Felt Better. I Would Never Count Against A Guy Like That.”

Tom Brady on his conversation with Peyton Manning: “He said he felt better. I would never count against a guy like that.”

The Patriots and Colts have now met 13 times in a 10-year period since the inception of the two-conference, four-division NFL format. There has always been one constant in this matchup: Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. These two field generals are some of the best quarterbacks to ever play the game and both will be in the Hall of Fame one day. The 2011 meeting between the Patriots and Colts took on a different feel yesterday as Peyton Manning sat and watched on the sidelines dealing with his season long neck injury as his team fell to 0-12. Peyton Manning’s future is very uncertain in Indianapolis with his impending contract bonus. The Colts look destined to have the first overall selection in the NFL draft and are toying with the idea of drafting a quarterback for the future. Tom Brady had a chance to chat with Manning before yesterday’s contest and gave us his thoughts on the future of No.18 in Indianapolis.

Tom Brady joined WEEI in Boston with Dennis & Callahan to discuss the Patriots victory over the Colts being unsatisfying, if he felts the Colts are intentionally trying to throw their season in order to get the first pick in the 2012 NFL draft, what Taylor Price did wrong to get cut, the hardest challenge of going undefeated like the Packers are trying to do now based on his experiences in the 2007 season, his pre-game conversation with Peyton Manning regarding his health and his future with the Indianapolis Colts and his pre-game conversation with Peyton Manning even taking place if Manning was playing in the game.

Some of your teammates described the victory as “unsatisfying,” and somebody said “disappointing.” What would you term it? What did that win feel like to you?

“Well, it’s just our inconsistency that’s showed up from time to time this year. We’ve really yet to play a 60-minute game. I’d really love to see what the outcome is if we do play a 60-minute game. But there’s things that haven’t really allowed us to be able to do that. And hopefully, we can get those things straightened out here going into this week’s game. We’ve won four straight. We had two pretty tough losses back to back six weeks ago. And then we’ve won four straight. We’re in a good position. We’ve obviously got some huge games ahead. What more could you ask for in the middle of December to be leading your division by a couple of games and really could put a lot of pressure if we go out and win this week on the competition?”

The discussion and the speculation is starting to grow, that the 0-12 Colts don’t think being in a position to draft Andrew Luck is really a bad thing. Did you see any sign out there that they weren’t giving 100 percent?

“No, not at all. Not at all. They play very hard and they don’t back off anything. They haven’t all season. I think what you see from them is they play extremely hard. They scored 21 points in the fourth quarter. There was no quit in them, certainly.”

Can you tell us what Taylor Price did wrong?

“It’s really not right for me to comment on any of that. I don’t get into that. I don’t make any of the decisions. I really don’t. I enjoyed Taylor. I enjoyed working with him. And I obviously wish him the best of luck.”

What’s the hardest thing about going undefeated like the Packers are trying to do right now — just the questions every week or that pressure that builds as you get closer to the end of the season?

“There’s no one thing. Like I said, winning an NFL game is hard to do. It really is. There’s good players and there’s fluky things that can happen on any single day. It’s just the consistency of playing good football day in and day out. That’s the biggest challenge, more so than dealing with questions on a Wednesday afternoon. It’s lining up on Sunday afternoon and playing your best game. That’s obviously the most challenging part.”

Did Peyton Manning tell you what he plans to do? Everyone’s wondering here. What did he tell you? Is he coming back next year? Is he playing somewhere else? Is he going to stay with the Colts? What do you think?

“He said he felt better. He’s a tough guy. He’s as tough as anybody. Obviously, with him never missing a game up until to this point. Even going into training camp, he thought he was going to play. He’s a hell of a player, man. He’s a hell of a player. Watching him over the years, I mean he’s someone that I’ve always watched and tried to learn from, and a lot of aspects of his game that he does better than anybody else. I would never count against a guy like that.”

Does the pre-game conversation with Peyton Manning take on a different tone since you’re not going to be competing that day? In fact, would you even have that conversation pre-game if he were suiting up?

“No, no, probably not. Probably not ’til after the game.”