FOXBORO -- Monty Beisel has had a tough year, both on the field and off. From the start, the linebacker has had trouble adjusting to the pressure of playing in a tough media market for a two-time defending champion.
Yesterday, Beisel snapped.
Beisel, signed last spring as a free agent after he spent four years with the Kansas City Chiefs, sniped at a local beat reporter before turning his ire on the Patriots' public relations director in front of a full media contingent in the locker room at Gillette Stadium.
"Why do you have to come to my locker and rub it in?" Beisel said when approached by Providence Journal reporter Tom Curran -- a former Daily News Patriots beat writer -- who last week wrote an article criticizing the linebacker. "That's your professionalism? You slash me in front of everybody? What kind of (expletive) is that?"
After Curran walked away, Beisel turned to media relations director Stacey James and continued his rant. Beisel's voice could be heard throughout his end of the vast locker room.
"How are you going to let him come over to my locker like that?" Beisel said to James. "You're not supposed to be allowing that (expletive). You're not supposed to make me look bad.
"Im a PR guy myself," added Beisel, a former social sciences/mass communications major at Kansas State. "I know that's total (expletive). You're not supposed to do that. That's crap. That's the last thing in PR that you should do."
Beisel started the first five games at inside linebacker before losing his job in Week 6 in Denver. After the Broncos game, Beisel appeared on a Providence radio station and blamed the defense's problems on the inability to stop the "long ball."
Tedy Bruschi returned for the next game, against Buffalo, and Beisel lost even more playing time.
Beisel, who has recorded 47 tackles with a sack and a forced fumble, signed a two-year contract with the Pats. The deal included a $450,000 signing bonus, a 2005 salary of $550,000 and a 2006 salary of $700,000.
