‘I had a change of heart’: Aqib Talib no longer thinks that Wes Welker hit him on purpose during 2013 AFC Championship game
Welker's hit on Talib in the Broncos' 2013 AFC Championship Game win over the Patriots knocked Talib out of the game.
When former Denver Broncos (and Patriot) receiver Wes Welker hit Aqib Talib during the 2013 AFC Championship game, Talib thought at the time that it might have been on purpose.
It was a sentiment that was echoed by Patriots head coach Bill Belichick, who called it “one of the worst plays” he’s seen in his coaching career. The play, which was deemed legal by the NFL, caused Talib to injure his knee and not return in the Patriots’ 26-16 loss to the Broncos.
“I definitely applauded the reaction by Bill,” Talib said while appearing on 98.5 Sports Hub’s “Toucher & Rich” on Wednesday. “He was standing up for me and saying what, hell, what we all thought was right at the time.”
Talib said he has rewatched the play a “couple hundred times” and has taken some time to think about what exactly happened. Given Welker’s history of concussions (Welker once referred to himself as the “poster child” for concussions), Talib has a different perspective, now.
“Knowing Wes Welker’s history with concussions and stuff, I don’t know if he did it on purpose,” Talib admitted. “If they were going to do it on purpose, they could have Bubba right there, put a different receiver, someone besides Wes because I don’t think you would see a guy who has a problem with concussions, you would send him on a crash dummy mission. I don’t think it was on purpose, but at the time it did look like it was on purpose a lot.
Talib said that when he re-joined forces with Welker on the Broncos in 2014, the two of them actually talked about what had happened.
“We were in the same locker room, the Broncos and Wes were still over there, we played on the same team,” he said. “Wes definitely came up and said, “You know I didn’t do that on purpose.’ We laughed it out and by that time, I had watched it a hundred times and, I had a change of heart.”
Get Boston.com's browser alerts:
Enable breaking news notifications straight to your internet browser.
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com