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Falcons' Devonta Freeman causes first distraction of Super Bowl week

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HOUSTON

Put all the crap in your life in a drawer, and slam it shut.

It’s Super Bowl week!

That advice might not qualify for the pantheon of motivational quotes, and sure wouldn’t get a stamp of approval from any local mental-health association, but it’s what New England head coach Bill Belichick has told his players, according to Patriots quarterback Tom Brady.

And it’s advice Atlanta Falcons running back Devonta Freeman and his agent should have heeded before making themselves the first major distraction of Super Bowl week, with their ill-timed contract demand on Monday afternoon.

But first, the Pats.

At a rousing send-off rally Monday in Foxboro, Mass., Brady professed to liking Belichick’s advice so much, he passed it along to the adoring throng.

“Like coach tells everybody, put all that crap that you’ve got to deal with in a drawer. Put it all away for one more week, because we need you guys at your best, because we need to be at our best,” Brady said.

“So get your rest this week, rest up, hydrate, and get ready for Sunday because it’s gonna be a helluva game. And hopefully we see you back in Foxboro with a win. Go Pats! ... LET’S GO-O-O-O-O!!!”

And away they went. To Houston.

Several hours later, the AFC champions flew into George Bush Intercontinental Airport, on the northern fringe of this sprawling metropolis, to conclude their two-week preparations for Sunday’s NFL championship game (6:30 p.m. EST, CTV via FOX).

The Patriots’ foe in Super Bowl LI, the NFC champion Falcons, arrived here a day earlier. The Falcons held a walkthrough practice on Monday at Rice University on a gorgeous, summery day of 26 C and sunshine.

On Monday night, the teams were scheduled to make a Super Bowl team’s most supreme sacrifice -- taking turns for an hour in making themselves available to literally thousands of reporters and cameramen from around the world, as advance coverage of America’s high holy day of hype kicked off in earnest.

There, Freeman should have been bracing for a barrage of questions sure to come about his distracting demand to be shown the money.

In an NFL.com report by Michael Silver posted late Monday afternoon, Freeman and his agent, Kristin Campbell, picked Monday of Super Bowl week to let it be known the star running back won’t be happy if he has to earn his slated $800,000 salary in 2017, in the last year of his four-year rookie deal.

“It’s time for the Falcons to pay him like the elite back he is,” Campbell told NFL.com. “I expect them to make him a priority this off-season, as he’s been an integral part of the dynamic offence that has gotten them to the Super Bowl.”

For his part, Freeman himself told Silver that sharing carries with 2015 draft pick Tevin Coleman has been a frustration.

“Oh, I’m certainly struggling with it, just because I’m a competitor,” Freeman said. “I just want to be around the ball as much as I can, to help the team win. Now we’re in the Super Bowl, and this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I don’t know how many carries or touches I’m gonna get going into this game, but I’m gonna try to make the most of every opportunity I get.”

Campbell described her client as “frustrated,” practically suggesting Freeman is offended by having to share snaps with Coleman.

“Yet he has made his case nonetheless,” Campbell said. “He’s versatile. He’s durable. He’s productive.”

He’s also selfish, for having just made himself a huge distraction for his team this week.

That crap belonged in the drawer til week’s end, too.

Pats owner unsure of future relationship with commish

HOUSTON – Until Deflategate, the owner of the New England Patriots had been one of Roger Goodell’s most vocal and powerful supporters within NFL ownership ranks.

Not anymore.

Robert Kraft, who arrived here Monday afternoon with his AFC champion Patriots, told Gary Myers of the New York Daily News he’s unsure if he’ll ever again be buddy-buddy with the commissioner.

Goodell in 2015 punished the Patriots and suspended Tom Brady for four games, after controversially concluding the star quarterback had masterminded a scheme to deflate miniscule amounts of air from some footballs used in the January 2015 AFC championship game.

Leading North American scientists, among many others, later concluded -- including in court filings -- that based on the NFL’s own measurement data, the footballs in question deflated naturally because of the cool outdoor conditions in Foxboro that day.

Reports said the NFL had not immediately considered this factor, although Goodell never has admitted as much. Junk scientific calculations used in an NFL-commissioned investigation allowed Goodell to claim otherwise.

Kraft publicly ripped the NFL and Goodell in 2015 and again last July, when Brady’s court appeal was overturned by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District.

How’s Kraft’s relationship now with the commish?

“I don’t know if it will ever be the same,” Kraft told Myers, “but in order to do what is best for the Patriots franchise long term, I believe it is best to compartmentalize and move on.

“Like our quarterback, I am trying to remain positive and look to the future rather than dwell on the past. As a native New Englander, that’s easier said than done, but I am doing my best to put the matter behind me.”

Brady time and again has refused to slam Goodell publicly.

JoKryk@postmedia.com

twitter.com/JohnKryk

blogs.canoe.com/krykslants/

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