Matt Cassel is our guy

When football season began last year, I blogged a couple of posts on Bill Belichick and Tom Brady as media spokespeople. I noted the incredible (albeit boring to those of us listening) consistency of messages, the swiftness with which they brought media back to those key messages when there were attempts to lead them astray, and the general easiness of their demeanors as they spoke to the media -- never getting riled but quick to shut down questioning they felt was inappropriate.

For those of us who are media trainers, we can't help but be impressed by the rigor that is applied to delivering a message consistently, and we can appreciate the time and effort that goes into developing the skill of bridging back to a key message when a reporter wants you to talk about something else. As a Pats fan and a media trainer, I'm torn. I respect the skill, but geez...tell us something we don't already know.

Just this week it became abundantly clear that the key message training is permeating the team. With the stunning turn of events in the first quarter of the Pats game last week (clearly I can't even talk about it yet), the team message board needed an update, with the following add: "Matt Cassel is our guy."

After listening to a couple of Belichick interviews, as well as those with Cassel and Randy Moss this week, it was obvious the core messages stayed consistent from last year, namely 1) It's all about the team, and 2) Everybody has a job to do. They have been augmented with the one noted above and EVERYONE has a laser-like focus on using them.

Take a look at these excerpts -- I'm not even attributing the statements, because there's no need. Anyone on the team could have said them.

We need to move as a team

It's about being a team player and team success

I will focus on what's important to help the team win

Everybody has a job to do

Every player has to be ready

We expect him to go in there and do his job

I need to focus on what I need to do when it comes to football

We all just have our jobs to do

The biggest way I can help is go out and do my job

Everybody just needs to do their job and my job is to score touchdowns and catch balls

Once you get on the field it's business as usual

We have a lot of confidence in Matt Cassel

That's it. He's our quarterback

Our organization and team are behind Matt Cassel

Seriously, is this consistency or what? I can promise you, this is an example that is going to make its way into training that Lois and I do for our clients.

I just hope "Matt Cassel is our guy" on Sunday.