New England Patriots QB Matt Cassel touched down in Tampa Tuesday night, and he’s doing some promotional work with Gatorade, so we were able to get a few minutes on the phone with him this morning. In addition to studying playbooks as a backup throughout his career, he has memorized the “how to handle the media” playbook. Suppress all true feelings, avoid controversy, and toe the company line. And frankly, it’s the smart thing to do. He’s a pretty laid back guy who likes The Office, thought about transferring from USC when he was backing up Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart, and avoids the media like the plague. We’ll try to poke around the web today and find out who the Boston writers are that Cassel wasn’t thrilled with back in the preseason.

Q: Arizona’s playing in the Super Bowl, but you just beat these guys by 40 a month ago. Surprised?
A: Well, they’re playing great football right now. We won that day, but they’ve been great. And that’s the great thing about football – you just never know. You get hot in the playoffs, and you can get to the Super Bowl.

Q: So you’ll be rooting for your buddy Matt Leinart and the Cards?
A: I’m just want to see a good football game. I’ll be rooting for Matt, but also Troy Polamalu, too, since we played together at USC, too. Hopefully they go and put on a good show out there.

Q: What’s the mindset like about being a backup for seven years? How easy is it to lose interest? How frustrating does it get?
A: You keep putting your best foot forward each and every day. You remain diligent about studying the game plan so that when the opportunity comes, you’re ready. Sure, it gets frustrating and difficult because you don’t know when that opportunity is going to come, but you just have to stay focused and be ready.

Q: Frustrating to the point you may have wanted to transfer from USC or quit football altogether?
A: I never thought about quitting, ever, but there were times where you think about possibly going somewhere else to play. But I went to SC for a lot of different reasons, and education was one. I was about a semester away from getting my degree, so I decided to stay.

Q: Speaking of your days at USC, who was a bigger man on campus, you, Carson Palmer, or Matt Leinart?
A: (Laughs) They both had a presence about themselves and, they were both huge at the time they were playing. They were both big men on campus, no doubt about that. Nobody really cared about me much, I didn’t play that much in college. I wasn’t a big deal.

Q: Try to be as honest about your realistic expectations when taking over for Brady this year.
A: I was just thinking about executing well. I had no clue what the year would have in store. I knew we had a good team, and I have been with the team for four years, so I knew the offense. We started a bit slow, but we came on strong as the season progressed. It just kind of took off. I don’t know if I would have ever predicted 11-5, though.

Q: How has life changed for you since you became a starter? Old friends reaching out? Do people react differently to you in public?
A: It’s different outside of the stadium. When you’re at work in the stadium, it’s normal. When you’re outside, there’s a few more people that notice you, and more people vying for your time, but I don’t read the newspapers or read the internet. I try to steer clear of anything like that to keep my focus on the right things … when you don’t read the papers you don’t have to listen to everyone who wants to be critical of you.

Q: No newspapers or internet? What about the radio? You avoid all media altogether?
A: I don’t do any of that stuff. A lot of people won’t believe me, but I’m going to tell you the truth – I don’t do any of that stuff. I’ll read sports, but just not about the Patriots.

Q: Do you watch Sportscenter?
A: I’ll watch some segments, but in terms of football, I really don’t watch anything about myself or the Patriots.

Q: Has this been a practice of yours for many years, or is it a recent thing?
A: I really kind of got into it during preseason cause I found that I would go out and have a performance and I’d feel a certain way about myself, but then people would write certain things that would be contrary to what I was believing and what coaches were telling me (laughs).

Q: Negative stuff, I assume?
A: Exactly. So I figured, what’s the point of reading that and getting all worked up, when you can focus on other things? From that point on, I made a conscious effort of not doing it, and it’s made my life a little bit easier.

Q: So you haven’t seen the photos of Tom and Gisele hanging out by a pool in Mexcio?
A: No, haven’t seen any of that stuff.

Q: Have you talked to Brady?
A: I talked to him. He sounds like he’s doing well, and everything’s going well.

Q: Is he going to Tampa?
A: I don’t know.

Q: You don’t want the franchise tag, do you?
A: I don’t know right now. I’m starting to evaluate the situation a little bit right now. The franchise tag or not being franchised and being a free agent … it’s really early in the process, and I don’t want to say one thing and have something else happen. I don’t really know what’s best for me right now.

Q: You and your wife are from California, how sweet would it be to go home and QB?
A: That would be kind of cool, yeah. Eventually, but I don’t know if that would happen.

Q: The 49ers have QB issues, don’t they?
A: They might, I haven’t really checked it out. I’m not reading so I’m not up on any of that stuff.

Q: Favorite restaurant?
A: There’s this place in Los Angeles called Cobras and Matadors. Really good restaurant that I frequent. Then this other place, El Cholo’s, which is a really good Mexican restaurant.

Q: Favorite TV show?
A: The Office. I’m a big Michael Scott fan.