Hubris
For the record if the Patriots go 18-0 and then loose to the Giants in the Super Bowl for the second straight year, I will buy Jose a car of his choice.
I get nothing in return if it doesn’t happen.
Tag Archives: Coach Belichick
Doomsday Scenario
Despite the opinion of some in the media that the Patriots would struggle to rebound from their Super Bowl letdown, before Sunday they were the odds on favorite to win the Vince Lombardi trophy, again. This standing at the top of the league was shattered half way into the fist quarter of yesterday’s game. The Patriots have yet to disclose Tom Brady’s injury other than to note that he will have season ending surgery on his left knee (Don’t expect a full explanation ever).
My initial reaction was to send a text to my brother saying “season’s over” but the more I think about it the more I like the Patriots chances to compete this year. That’s not to say that they will be as good as they would have with Tom Brady, but I think Matt Cassel has the potential to hold his own as an NFL quarterback based upon his time in the system, his obvious talent (Belichick never would have kept him around if he was completely useless), and the plethora of weapons surrounding him. As a Pats fan I’m devastated that we are going to miss a year of the greatest quarterback of all time’s prime, but I want to be on record as not having given up on this season.
Unless Cassel is completely lost on the field, even without Brady the Patriots are the best team in the AFC East. One reason for this is that they have genuine talent from top to bottom on their roster, another is that the other three teams in the division are not really that good, and finally their schedule is absurdly easy. Buffalo may take a step forward this year, but they do not have the depth to survive the inevitable injuries that come with a 16 game season. The Dolphins are rebuilding, and the Jets are grossly overrated, even St. Brett will not be able to overcome their mediocrity. While its an imperfect measure, if you take the top-10 players in The AFC East, sans Brady, six are still on the Patriots.
1. Randy Moss
2. Vince Wilfork
3. Richard Seymour
4. Adalius Thomsa
5. Kerry Rhodes
6. Logan Mankins
7. Marshaun Lynch
8. Jason Peters
9. Ty Warren
10. Brett Favre (funny irrelevant stat of the week: career QB rating for Brett Favre: 85.7/ career QB rating for Matt Cassel: 85.8)
Honorable Mention: Alan Faneca, Dan Koppen, Wes Welker, Lee Evans, Thomas Jones
In terms of the Super Bowl, I think the Brady injury catapults Dallas to favorites, with San Diego, Indianapolis and Pittsburgh close behind. Obviously the result of the Patriots’ season will be in large part decided by Matt Cassel’ level of competence, but the team is so talented as long as he can perform at a Chad Pennington/JP Losman level, they may be able to exploit some of the Colts or Chargers’ deficiencies in the playoffs.
The silver lining for this season is that it has the potential to be a supremely enjoyable team to cheer for. The problem with supporting an all time great team is that you expect the team to win every week, and by the end of each game all you are able to feel is relief (don’t worry I wont ask for your pity). My hope is that this team can start playing the no-respect / underdog card again while upsetting some teams and some expectations along the way.
My prediction: 10-6 AFC East Champs.
Gino Pisses Me Off
After the Celtics won I had a decidedly more negative reaction than my friend Jose. The next day I was spared the scenes of celebration from another Boston championship by Tiger’s announcement that he’s out for the season. Well, spared until I saw an ESPN.com headline: “Simmons: For One Special Night, All Was Well in Beantown”.
Uggggh.
So in the smoky downstairs bar of Summer’s Restaurant, I wrote an angry, nonsensical anti-Boston rant on my blackberry over a beer and a cigarette (HatGuy would be proud).
The next day I read it and decided that my beer and nicotine-fueled rant would probably alienate me from my many pro-Boston friends, and that’d I’d rather not be a sore loser.
Regardless, I have to write something. So here are five reasons I hope Boston is done winning championships:
1 - Bill Belichick doesn’t deserve any more. He’s got three, and he’s a douchebag.
2 - Boston celebrations are getting worse. When the Sox won a few years ago, the city erupted, and Manny carried a clever sign. Maybe a little too clever… Anyway, when the Celtics won the other day, all we got was a little flower pot tipping? What is that??
3 - Fair-weather Boston fans. Okay, I’m a Yankees fan. Obviously there are a ton of fair-weather Yankees fans. But I can’t stand sitting in a bar in DC listening to some drunk girl in a Boston hat yell “Go Sawx” while she tries to mask her North Carolina accent in a flood of Guinness and a lack of r’s.
4 - Boston teams are just so fucking charming! First it was Cowboy Up, then the more ironic, “The Idiots” - oh how loveably un-loveable they were. The recent trend seems to be moving towards dancing. First we saw Papelbon dancing, and now Gino. Gino?? Why Gino? Why not any of the other idiots in that video. Or why that video at all??? Whatever the reason, I’m thankful that I only came across this phenomenon recently.
5 - Bill Simmons, are you finished yet? Okay, I understand that ESPN feels the need to have a columnist devoted to the greatness that is Boston sports and their fans. I’m really glad for three years we got to hear how gloriously miserable it was to love teams that always lost. Now that we get to hear how gloriously glorious victory is… well, it’s gotten old. What set me off was that headline: “Simmons: For One Special Night, All Was Well in Beantown“. ONE NIGHT?!?! I can think of at least 125 nights last year between the Sox and Patriots alone when things were awesome in Boston. Now throw in the Celtics, Harvard and BC football, New England Revolution, Boston Latin Girl’s Basketball and Somerville Chess Club, and you’ve got a lot of great nights.
Lastly, I’d like to thank Jeremy Shockey for his enduring teamsmanship during the Super Bowl that enabled the Giants to beat the Pats, and for his continued commitment to the NFL’s next dynasty.
The Week In Review… kinda
Hi everyone,
Wow. What a bunch of cheaters! But really, do we care that much? Most of us have lived in an era when many of our favorite baseball players were cheating in one way or another. I’m not condoning breaking the rules, but I think it would be a bigger story if, say, super-American Tom Brady were to impregnate a beautiful famous actress and then leave her before the birth of his child for a much more beautiful and famous supermodel. I could watch months of Sportscenter coverage of that.
Yuck. Is it just me or does ESPN try to hype some investigative story every few months just to get an endlessly-recurring Sportscenter headline and remind us that they’re journalists? Have you ever watched E:60? Black-and-white footage of people discussing stories around a table: JOURNALISM! But really, prospects getting money/gifts/women/whatever for some reason? Shocking! More Spygate, please.
他妈的，你臭法语
If you can’t see them on your work computer, they’re Chinese characters that might mean “Fuck you, you smelly French!” How stupid would all those people who disrupted the Olympic torch feel if the Dalai Lama ended up sitting next to Wen Jiabao at a fencing match? And think of all the money spent on those Free Tibet flags that were made in… China. Yeahhhh. Semi-capitalist socialist republic 2, hippy protesters 0.
We’re back! And boy is it great to see all you passionate readers again. In case you were wondering, 66.6666666666667% of the Shockey Brigade was doing business with our good friends on the island of St. Thomas. We went down there to canvass the streets of beautiful Charlotte Amalie and ask some of our semi-international readers what they thought of our weblog. The most frequent questions were, “Hey mon, why don’t you talk more about Tim Duncan?” and “Hey mon, who is Jeremy Shockey?”
Anyway, we had a fantastic time and would like to thank everybody who was so nice to us. And don’t worry, we’ll be making more of those wildly popular “I heart Jeremy Shockey… Brigade” bumper stickers and patches.
So now to cover every major story we missed in chronological order. Thursday, May 8th - “New England stole offensive signals”Wow. What a bunch of cheaters! But really, do we care that much? Most of us have lived in an era when many of our favorite baseball players were cheating in one way or another. I’m not condoning breaking the rules, but I think it would be a bigger story if, say, super-American Tom Brady were to impregnate a beautiful famous actress and then leave her before the birth of his child for a much more beautiful and famous supermodel. I could watch months of Sportscenter coverage of that.
But really, ESPN telling me that the Patriots may have watched the Dolphins practice in 2002… meh. And I’m quite sick of Matt Walsh.
Friday, May 9th - “New York Knicks preparing $30M offer for D’Antoni”
Huh? I mean, I was a closet Suns fan - they were fun to watch. But I think most Knicks fans yearn for the mid-1990s defensive mentality that got them in the playoffs every year. And anyway, D’Antoni is going to come to a team that’s at least two full seasons away from being able to sign a significant free agent. What’s the point?
Saturday, May 10th - “D’Antoni accepting New York offer”
HUH!?!?! Ugh. I’ll leave much of the ranting about this to Jose. But really, Marc Jackson was an excellent choice. Shit,
“Yeah, I guess I know some stuff about basketball. What I definitely know is that this team isn’t going to be very good for at least a few years. Maybe by some miracle we’ll get the eight seed or something, but does that really excite you? Yes, I remember the
eight-seed 1999 Knicks. We are not the 1999 Knicks. We are pretty bad. But in 2 years Donnie Walsh over here will get Lebron and I’ll leave. Did I mention I played high school basketball?”Sunday, May 11th - “OJ Mayo denies he took gifts at USC”
Yuck. Is it just me or does ESPN try to hype some investigative story every few months just to get an endlessly-recurring Sportscenter headline and remind us that they’re journalists? Have you ever watched E:60? Black-and-white footage of people discussing stories around a table: JOURNALISM! But really, prospects getting money/gifts/women/whatever for some reason? Shocking! More Spygate, please.
Monday, May 12th - “Dalai Lama would consider attending Olympics”
他妈的，你臭法语
If you can’t see them on your work computer, they’re Chinese characters that might mean “Fuck you, you smelly French!” How stupid would all those people who disrupted the Olympic torch feel if the Dalai Lama ended up sitting next to Wen Jiabao at a fencing match? And think of all the money spent on those Free Tibet flags that were made in… China. Yeahhhh. Semi-capitalist socialist republic 2, hippy protesters 0.
Tuesday, May 13th - “Walsh, Goodell to meet”
Hahaha, we got you Belichick!!! Oh wait, no we didn’t. And who’s “we” anyway? Well, “we” is the sports journalism community, who would’ve been very excited to slobber over a story they had no role in uncovering. Then again, the only media outlet that actually tried to break a story about this, the hometown Boston Herald,
T
hough I am kind of interested whether Belichick will wear his hoodie to a congressional committee. Whatcha think?
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