Peter King spends a good chunk of his Monday Morning Quarterback discussing Deion Branch, both his move to Seattle and the subsequent return to New England, and he does not mince his words: "In hindsight, it was an idiotic move, holding out and forcing the Patriots to trade him."
And while Branch won't go quite to that extreme, you can tell there is some regret and wondering "What if ...", feelings that come with leaving Tom Brady and the Patriots.
"I think about it a lot,'' he told me over the phone from the Patriots' locker room. "My brother and my father do too. They say, 'You'd be ready to put a gold [Hall of Fame] jacket on if you stayed.'" [...]
"It's easy to say that now versus back then, and I wish ... well ... but we can't go back on it. We could easily factor in what went wrong, but right now, but I'm very thankful and honored to be back where I belong, and I'm not looking back or anything,'' Branch said.
Branch's nine receptions against the Ravens on Sunday are the most he's had in one game since the 2004-05 season, when he snagged 11 catches on his way to being named MVP of Super Bowl XXXIX.