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Brock Osweiler To Start For Broncos Vs. Patriots, According To Chris Mortensen

By Michael Hurley, CBS Boston

BOSTON (CBS) -- On the day that ESPN is airing the Patriots on Monday Night Football, and consequently on a day that has Patriots fans extremely angry at the network for its questionable DeflateGate coverage, it is the very ESPN reporter who's found himself the target of many New England fans' rage who is dropping some fairly big news that affects the Patriots.

Chris Mortensen, he of 11 of 12 footballs infamy, reported Monday afternoon that Brock Osweiler will be the Broncos' starting quarterback on national television on Sunday night when Denver hosts the Patriots.

Osweiler, in his first career start, went 20-for-27 for 250 yards and two touchdowns in a Denver win in Chicago on Sunday, while Peyton Manning remained back in Denver to treat a plantar fascia injury.

There's been some question as to the actual severity of Manning's injuries, with some folks speculating that perhaps Manning has simply been benched. Certainly, with nine touchdowns and a league-high 17 interceptions, Manning's performances have been hurting the Broncos more than they've been helping. Yet with all Hall of Famers who near their 40th birthdays, the handling of their playing time can always get a bit tricky.

Yet, according to Mortensen, next weekend's workload will fall squarely on the shoulders of Osweiler, thereby robbing football fans of one more chapter in the Tom Brady-Peyton Manning rivalry. He's almost assuredly right about this one -- though we'll only have to wait a maximum of six days, instead of four months, to find out for certain.

UPDATE: As it turns out, confirmation only took a few minutes. Gary Kubiak confirmed that Osweiler will start on Sunday.

(Mortensen's original DeflateGate report, which was proven false by the Wells report, is still live on ESPN.com for some reason, by the way.)

(Jonathan Kraft also denied Mortensen's claim that the Krafts apologized to the reporter for the way everything went down.)

(The soap opera of "DeflateGate" is mostly over, but it will clearly never truly end.)

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