Matthew Judon got the new contract he was looking for from the New England Patriots and he sought the last laugh against a former Patriots player after signing.
Judon restructured his contract and got a raise from the Patriots , ending his training camp hold-in. After signing, he sent a message to former Patriots cornerback Asante Samuel, who is rather famous these days for his antipathy toward Bill Belichick.
Samuel responded and managed to make Judon’s new deal about Belichick anyway. The former cornerback dismissed Judon’s new deal as “not a new contract” and suggested that Judon would be in the same spot with the Patriots next year, calling the deal a “Bill Belichick friendly contract.”
Judon got the last laugh, calling the contract dispute “the best problem to have.”
Samuel and Judon have had a long-standing back-and-forth that started when Samuel said Judon had been “brainwashed” by Belichick. Samuel, who has been famously critical of Belichick, might have been hoping the Patriots wouldn’t budge on Judon’s demands to contribute to his narrative of Belichick as an anti-player coach. When that didn’t happen, he dismissed the actual deal as insignificant.
Samuel did not enjoy his time with New England. Judon, who has 28 sacks in two years with the Patriots, is clearly comfortable there. That does not fit with Samuel’s narrative, so he just cannot let it go.
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