FOXBOROUGH, MA—Insisting that it is the furthest thing from their minds at this point in their season, members of the New England Patriots told reporters Thursday that they are not allowing their upcoming game against the Houston Texans to become a distraction. “Obviously, it’s something we’d rather not be dealing with right now, but we’re not going to let trivial stuff like this Saturday’s matchup with the Texans take away our focus from our goals as a team,” said Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, who downplayed the upcoming divisional playoff game by adding that players and coaches have avoided discussing the subject at all in the locker room. “We know it’s something that the media wants to make a big deal of, but it’s getting blown out of proportion, and honestly, none of us are paying any attention to it. It’s not something we’re going to waste time worrying about.” Sources confirmed that a visibly frustrated Brady later stormed out of the press conference after refusing to answer yet another question about facing Texans quarterback Brock Osweiler.

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