Tim Brown backs down from sabotage claims

Here is part of what Tim Brown said about his former coach Bill Callahan with regard to Super Bowl XXXVII in the controversial interview on Sirius XM radio "We all called it sabotage . . . because Callahan and Gruden were good friends,"

The feces really hit the rotary air circulating device on Tuesday when Jerry Rice came on ESPN's NFL live and backed up his former teammate and friend.

"maybe because [Callahan] didn't like the Raiders, he thought maybe we should sabotage just a little bit and let Jon Gruden go out and win this one."

Now today, Tim Brown is attempting to put out the fire he started and Rice fueled.

"I've never said [Callahan] sabotaged the game," said Brown on the Dan Patrick show Wednesday. "That's something that can never be proven," Brown said. "We can never go into the mind of Bill Callahan... I should have said we could have called it sabotage. It was a question, not a statement. You cannot prove it."

Technically, he's right. He didn't say outright that Callahan sabotaged the game. He used the word sabotage which had people's ears perking up. He knew what he was doing. You want people to listen, you gotta add a little controversy.

After his statements on the Dan Patrick show, he took to Twitter as well.

"Raider nation, I'm sure u r waking to the news of what unsaid about our last super bowl... I just want u to know 2 things, comments were made In support of Barrett (Robbins), but absolutely NOT to hurt callahan... What I relayed is factual, I'm sure others will back me up when/if necessary... And they said Tim brown wasn't controversial! Certainly didn't mean to start this firestorm. As I have said form the start, was only... Defending a teammate!"

This statement is also true. If you read the Brown statement without focusing on the word "sabotage" it really is centered around defending Barret Robbins. It would seem Jerry Rice was also defending a teammate when he came out and said what he said. So, I would expect we hear from him soon as well.