Patriots Suspend WR Glenn

In Terry Glenn's three seasons playing for Pete Carroll, the wide receiver's agent talked with the New England Patriots coach "hundreds" of times by telephone.

Yet, James Gould says, Carroll didn't call when he suspended Glenn for the rest of this season. Carroll defended his decision on Thursday, saying he hoped it would help Glenn become a better team player.

"I don't have any reservation about it, no second thought at all," Carroll said, adding that team owner Robert Kraft was "completely supportive of my decision."

Gould, meanwhile, awaited word on his request for an expedited hearing that he hoped would overturn the suspension and allow Glenn to play in Sunday's season finale against Baltimore. The NFL Players Association filed the request Wednesday night with the NFL Management Council, Gould said.

Carroll said he suspended Glenn on Wednesday because the player, who was excused from practice last Friday and Saturday because of the flu, didn't meet with club medical personnel Saturday night, Monday and Tuesday.

After Glenn didn't report to the team hotel Saturday night, Carroll decided not to activate him for Sunday's home game against Buffalo. Gould said that Patriots trainer Ron O'Neil called Glenn at home Saturday and told him Carroll would like him to go to the hotel and that Glenn responded that he wasn't feeling well.

Gould believed Glenn, with a fever of 102, indicated to O'Neil he would show up if his condition improved.

"It was a gray enough area that he just stayed in bed," Gould said. "He couldn't figure out why Pete was trying to make a federal case out of the flu."

He also said Glenn called O'Neil at home and at Foxboro Stadium on Sunday morning, asking to play, and was told Carroll wanted him to stay home.

After the 13-10 loss, defensive end Willie McGinest was one of several players who criticized Glenn for missing the game.

"They had no right to take shots at my character," Glenn said in an interview with the Boston Globe. "There are some guys who feel they have to be the leader, but you don't see it on the field as much as you see it from their mouths."

Gould said he had met with Glenn and Carroll in the past about other issues and received "hundreds" of calls from Carroll.

"We'd always been able to talk through things and communicate and this is one time he didn't have the decency to call me," Gould said. "It was like he was sending a message to somebody else to prove a point."

In three seasons as coach of the Patriots, Carroll rarely criticized players publicly. Now his job is in jeopardy after six losses in the last seven games.

"I know he's going through a lot right now, but at the same time I feel like the whole season is being blamed on me," Glenn told the Globe. "I'll work hard this offseason and come back better than ever. This will motivate me."

Although Carroll may not be in New England to see the results of that attitude, he said that was one of his aims in suspending Glenn, the seventh pick in the 1996 draft and the AFC's No. 7 receiver with 69 catches.

"I hope the actions that we took will help this young man understand where he fits with the team," Carroll said.

Gould was baffled about why Glenn was suspended and said the receiver was very upset after finding a letter in his locker Wednesday saying he was being fined $5,000 for not being at the hotel Saturday night.

"I've tried to look at it in my heart and say, `What's he (Carroll) trying to do here,' and every time I try to be sympathetic to Pete I say, `What's he doing to this kid?"' Gould said. "I find it incomprehensible."

Carroll thinks he understands it quite well.

"It was very clear what the circumstances were," he said. "The actions I took were justified."

More from CBS News