Brady Just Wants to Hang With His Bunch

Although New England quarterback Tom Brady bristles a bit when people compare him to Joe Montana -- it’s far too early for that, he insists -- Brady does acknowledge he and his boyhood idol have common personality traits.

“I consider myself a little more shy, kind of the jokester, sit-in-the-back-of-the-room-and-goof-around type of person,” Brady said Thursday. “That’s kind of how he was.”

Brady called Montana two years ago to ask him about how he handled the pressures of fame after winning a Super Bowl as a young quarterback. Montana told him about how even now, more than a decade after his last Super Bowl victory, he has to hunker down in public places to avoid being noticed.

“He told me a story of being at an airport, huddled in the side of a bar with his two buddies drinking a beer, and I said, ‘That’s me,’ ” Brady said. “You just want to be with your buddies. I said, if he’s still feeling that way with all the success he’s had at his age, I don’t think I’m ever going to get over that for me. You always think you’ll be more comfortable with things, but I don’t think I ever will.

“Rather than say, ‘It’s going to get better,’ just say, ‘It’s not going to get better. I’m just going to have to deal with it better.’ ”

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People might view Stephen Davis and DeShaun Foster as two completely different kinds of running backs -- a bruiser and a cruiser -- but Carolina tackle Todd Steussie doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

“If you consider DeShaun as just a slasher back or bouncer back that goes to the outside only, then all you have to do is look at the Philly play at the goal line to know he’s not just that kind of guy,” said Steussie, referring to Foster’s Earl Campbell-like touchdown run when he muscled past a few tacklers to just stretch the ball across the goal line. “He can run the same way as Stephen does.

“Obviously, Stephen brings a level of experience, and that probably is the biggest difference. Stephen’s experience allows him to read the holes differently than DeShaun might, but I think that will change in a few years as DeShaun gets more carries and more experience.”

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Who says you need to win a Super Bowl to hobnob with the stars?

Carolina’s Jake Delhomme does that every day in practice -- with his backup quarterback.

“There is not a person that Rodney Peete doesn’t know,” he said. “It’s kind of funny. I mean, any big name, they see Rodney and they come and give him a hug. He’s Mr. Hollywood. You’ve got to love him. He’s by far the most famous person I know of.”

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As more and more players announce their plans to give up their final season of college eligibility and declare themselves available for the draft, NFL teams might want to consider these numbers from its players’ union.

There are 880 players in the league with undergraduate degrees and 15 players with graduate degrees. The three teams with the most degree-holding players are Carolina, 42; Indianapolis, 37; and New England, 35.

Need more be said?

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Everything’s bigger in Texas, but Reliant Stadium is huge. Take it from a huge person, Panther center Kevin Donnalley.

“It’s the most enormous thing I’ve ever seen,” he said. “Especially next to the Astrodome. You know they used to market the Astrodome as the eighth wonder of the world, and it’s so big, and now it looks like a little toy house. It looks like something for the kids to play in.”

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A few years ago, rumors made their way around the league that defensive tackle Brentson Buckner, then a free agent fresh off three seasons in San Francisco, might sign with New England. He wound up signing with Carolina, and Thursday laughed off the Patriot stuff as idle chatter.

“I never talked to the Patriots,” he said. “I don’t know if my agent talked to them, but he never mentioned anything to me. But I just think it was a rumor. You think they’re going to allow another Buckner to play for a New England team, a team up in Massachusetts? That’s not going down. You know what would happen, just for the fans that actually believe there’s a Buckner curse? You know how many season tickets would have been turned back in?”