Weeden Doesn’t Act His Age
By John Helsley
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Brandon Weeden is a sportswriter’s dream.
Interviews with the Cowboys quarterback are engaging and enjoyable, with Weeden always good for thoughtful and insightful answers, with honest emotion at a premium and clichés at a minimum.
If only OSU would have Weeden hold a Media 101 class for all its athletes.
And, yes, part of Weeden’s media skills are a product of his age.
Just don’t bring up Weeden’s age.
That’s the one topic that shuts him down.
He’s been there (hesitantly), done that. And he’s done with it.
Inside the locker room, taking jabs from teammates, Weeden is cool with that kind of fun. But when reporters probe about his upcoming 28th birthday, or how difficult it must be fitting in with “the kids,” it’s the one thing that noticeably irritates.
Weeden is overly patient and tolerable of all sorts of silly questions ranging from strategy to his relationship with new coordinator Todd Monken.
But poke around about his age, which someone inevitably does, even with that part of the story over-tapped old news…
It happened again a few weeks ago, with an out-of-market reporter going the old-man route.
“I fit in pretty well. I joke that before I was a starter, 95 percent of the guys on the team had no idea how old I was,” Weeden said, trying to snuff the line of questioning. “I fit in fairly well in the locker room, like to joke. Even to this day, I don’t think I stand out because of my age.”
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