Petting Machinegun and Alien weapon

Did Battlefield 2 pay a homage to Half-Life Opposing Force by having the USMC soldier pet his M249 SAW machine gun just like the Marine Adrian Shepherd pets his Spore Launcher alien weapon?
Both Battlefield 2 and Half-Life Opposing Force have the USMC and the M249 SAW Machien gun.

My guess is that one of the developers of Battlefield 2 was either working at Gearbox at the time they made Opposing Force and then joined DICE when they were making BF2 or he just loved Opposing Force and wanted to pay a homage to it by having the Marine in BF2 pet his machine gun the same way.
And now the question is if upcoming Battlefield 3 will pay any tribute to one of Valve's newer Half-Life games.