The New England Patriots visit the New York Jets
at the Meadowlands. Sunday, September 9th, 1:05 PM
I haven't been following the preseason as closely as I usually do, but even though we'll be missing Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour on the defensive side of the ball, I expect that Tom Brady will be connecting well with his new wideouts Donte' Stallworth, and Randy Moss, hopefully in full recovery from his "tweaked" hamstring. It should be enough to handle them Jets...
14 comments:
Hmmm... I thought the year began when Pedro started pitching for the Mets again.
Your Red Sox are doing fine and I'm excited about the Celtics this year. As far as football goes, I'm more of a college fan, and as Notre Dame is recovering and Columbia is as bad as they ever are, I might just ignore the sport until the Super Bowl.
Hi Liam,
Did you see that kid throw the no-hitter for the Sox a little while back? It seems to have stopped the 1978-style slide, but you know, with the playoffs now, instead of just a straight pennant race, it doesn't carry the same sense of tragic drama for me that it used to.
How's Pedro doing there in New York? I love old Pedro.
You're a Celtics fan? I didn't realize that.
I'm not really a Celtics fan -- I hate Danny Ainge for a couple of reasons. Still, I'm intrigued to see how the Kevin Garnett thing works out. My team is the Jazz
Danny Ainge... His whininess and chronic crybaby antics as a player used to drive me crazy. I think I know what you mean otherwise.
Funny that you should mention him. He lives here in town. My son and his son had somewhat of a schoolyard friendship while they were attending the same public school. I've never met him myself, but Anne tells me he's an OK guy. His wife is really nice.
William,
If you see this, it was too bad about that ankle injury to Pennington. That was really bad luck.
Jeff,
I was in the far-away land of Texas for a while, unable to post anything.
Yes, my worst fears were confirmed and your Pats totally destroyed the Jets. Kudos to the team.
I'm sorry, too, that Chad got hurt. But part of me secretly hopes Clemens can play a few games. I think it's time for a change at QB. As much as I respect and admire Pennington, I just don't think the Jets will ever go that far with him as QB. too bad. He has all the skills and personal strengths that you want in that position, except for one really important one - the arm.
Meanwhile, what's your take on spy-gate?
William!
He's alive! I was wondering where that Cowboyangel was at... You were down in Texas at the begining of the academic year? What stones you have. Good for you.
You know, Clemens almost pulled that game off this past Sunday. He did what he needed to do. Those receivers have to make those catches in those situations. It wasn't Clemens' fault.
Regarding spy-gate....
Nobody here is defending Belichick and the organization. We knew way back from his days in Cleveland that Belichick isn't a nice man. It increasingly looks, however, like he's not really a decent man either. It's getting under people's skin a little bit that he seems to think he's teflon. He's not talking about this and letting it stick to him, he didn't let the thing with Rodney Harrison's growth-hormone stick to him, and there was that matter with him picking up one of the Vikings' players out of pique, only to turn around and cut him. The rules are the rules. The Pats were wrong. They got caught, and they are going to pay a price for it.
As for the Krafts, their high-mindedness around "character" seems to have ended over the flap about picking up Nebraska's Christian Peter in the draft several years ago. Ever since the Parcells Super Bowl debacle and
this border war with the Jets, it has all, A-L-L, been about winning. I suppose in that respect, they are the same as everyone else in the NFL.
Having said that, we do think there is a sort of "get New England" mentality around the league. People in other parts of the USA don't consider this to be true football-country. I think there is widespread bitterness and resentment that New England seems to be able to pick up guys like Corey Dillon and Randy Moss at will, seemingly out of thin air,
when they have a missing piece of the puzzle to fill. This was supposed to be the Peyton Manning era now. If Brady and Moss both stay healthy, I don't see how anybody can stop this offense..
For years now, every coach I've seen on the sidelines holds the laminated play-card over his mouth when he's speaking, so that leads me to believe that videotaping is more widespread than many people think. The Pat's got caught though, and they will be punished, deservedly so... Did you happen
to see Terrel Owens with his "camera" routine after his touchdown last Sunday? We won't ask him how many crucial dropped passes of his were captured on video last year. :-)
Jeff,
I have to say, you continue to impress me with your thoughtful, even-handed responses. Even when it concerns the higly emotional world of football! Most of your compatriots on the sports websites have not been nearly as . . . balanced. I know, because I've gotten into it with some of them. It's like arguing with 13-year olds.
You know, the Patriots have been one of my second tier favorites ever since I was growing up in Texas. Sam Bam Cunnigham, John Hannah, Steve Grogan, etc. I rooted for them against San Diego and the Colts in the playoffs last year almost as much as I would for my own team. Well, at least, a lot. So I've been wondering what's going on with signing Moss, a player I don't respect. That, at least made sense. Not much of a risk to get a possibly great reciver. Then the Harrison story. Now this. And I don't think it's even that they were videotaping signals as much as they had been called on it before and still kept doing it. And Belichick's response. Either he's icy-scarily unethical, or he doesn't think it should be illegal. Maybe he just think that videotaping should be one more part of preparing for an opponent?
Dr. Z at Sports Illustrated, my favorite football writer, had a pretty damning article about the whole thing, as he said it was part of a longterm pattern. He has tqwo current head coaches talking about their headsets going out in Foxborough, which wouldn't mean much except that I remember that happening to hte Jets as well. You start wondering about everything, whether it's real or not. What can you trust?
I so wish it would've been the Dolphins who were caught at this, I tell you.
You didn't mention Mangini's role in the affair! That's really got a lot of Pats fans furious. Ratini, etc.
I'm not so sure a lot of teams are doing the videotaping. Trying to steal signals in other ways, perhaps. Peter King, also at Sports Illustrated, who has a lot of contacts in the league, estimated that between 3 and 10 teams might be doing this.
As far as there being a bias against the Patriots, I think that's definitely true of fans around the country. But then your team won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. Nobody wants to see that except for the fans of the team who does it! I would actually argue that the Pats have been pretty hyped and beloved by the sports media, which is why I think the story had so much traction. I mean, post-9/11 - the best team in the US is the "Patriots." They're a model team. They exemplify real teamwork and sportsmanship, etc. That's the script I've seen. So, when something like this comes up, the media people who've touted them so much as the model team feel like they've been duped - in public. And journalists hate nothing more than being shown up in public.
Interesting about the regional thing. No, people may not naturally associate New England with football. I think of Texas, Florida and Ohio. Maybe California. I mean, high school football really is religion in Texas. It's actually scary.
As far as the rest of the season, I think the Jets are going to struggle. Maybe 9-7? We'll see what happens. I haven't seen a single play of the first two games - but the pre-season didn't give me a lot of confidence.
The Pats look pretty unstoppable, yes. But it's September. We'll see how Randy's doing in November. As long as Brady's the QB, they've got to be one of the top teams to beat.
I'm pleased to see Houston at 2-0! Hoping against all hope that they can upset Indy this coming week.
Also pleased to see the Giants bombing. And, most of all, the Fins at 0-2.
Ciao!
You know, in the end, I always give football situations the Tom Landry test. Would Coach Landry have done this? How would he deal with this player or that situation?
I don't think Belichick's actions lately would pass the Landry test.
William,
Most of your compatriots on the sports websites have not been nearly as . . . balanced. I know, because I've gotten into it with some of them. It's like arguing with 13-year olds.
Are you talking about fans or sportswriters? From what I can see, the Boston writers didn’t stick up for Belichik at all here. As for the fans, I really don’t get that. Like I tell my sons, you can admire all these people in pro sports for their skill and dedication in getting to the point that they’ve reached, but don’t look to them as role models. You don’t want to be like a lot of them. It’s just a game. You’ve got a life to live. Did you ever see the movie A Bronx Tale, where the mobster played by Chas Palmiteri is asking the young kid why he feels sorry about Mickey Mantle’s team losing the World Series? (“Mickey Mantle makes $100,000 dollars a year. If your father lost his job driving a bus tomorrow, would Mickey Mantle feel sorry for him? No? Well, what do you feel sorry for Mickey Mantle for?”) I’ll still root for the home-town team, what am I supposed to do, let all the fun get taken out of it? Just the same, I’m not going to go to the wall defending these people. Belichik was wong. There is no defending the indefensible.
Would Landry have done this? Assuredly not, but that was in a different era, an era where loyalty to an organization still meant something. Now all these guys are mercenaries. Landry, no, although I don’t know if I would have put it past Lombardi. :-)
Randy Moss… I don’t know if I put him in the same category as Steve Smith and Keyshawn Johnson (egomaniacs) and Terrell Owens (stone crazy). He’s never had someone with both a brain and an arm throwing to him before. I think he might make it through this season OK, but it wouldn’t shock me if I was wrong.
He has two current head coaches talking about their headsets going out in Foxborough, which wouldn't mean much except that I remember that happening to the Jets as well. You start wondering about everything, whether it's real or not. What can you trust?
Hey, that’s nothing… Our best cheat of all time was against the fish in the snow, when we brought the snowblower out for the field goal. I’m probably the wrong person to complain to though. I’m still mad about how we got jobbed by the officials in Oakland in 1976 (Snake Stabler… roughing the passer… give me a freaking break). The tuck-rule call doesn’t even begin to make atonement for it. It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen in any professional sport.
As far as there being a bias against the Patriots, I think that's definitely true of fans around the country. But then your team won 3 Super Bowls in 4 years. Nobody wants to see that except for the fans of the team who does it!
Easy for you to say. A fan of “America’s Team” all those years. :-) I remember the “Patsies” being the laughingstock of the league for decades over their hapless ineptitude, disastrous draft picks, bone-headed clock management, cowardly QBs, missed chip-shot field goals, the knife-in-the-kitchen and fork-in-the-road (Irving Fryar), drug parties before playoff games, dramatic coaching exits, etc… I’ll enjoy this era of efficiency while I can. If we need to be laughingstocks, I prefer it to be over videotaping.
I'm pleased to see Houston at 2-0! Hoping against all hope that they can upset Indy this coming week.
The Titans almost knocked Indy off. I’d love to see Houston do it!
Also pleased to see the Giants bombing. And, most of all, the Fins at 0-2.
Amen. And the LORD did grin.
I meant the fans. And I probably shouldn't have said they sounded like 13-year-olds. That's not really fair or accurate. It's been closer to 5-year-olds. "But Jimmy cheats, too! "
Bronx Tale was very good, and that's a great line from the movie. I had forgotten it. Excellent.
Well you gotta root for your team. None of them in the NFL are perfect. And it's not like Belichick executed young kids out behind the stadium or something.
Or trained dogs to tear each other to shreds.
Hopefully it will have a beneficial affect on things in the end. Steroids and cheating do concern me - I don't want the NFL to wind up like MLB or the NBA.
Landry may have been a product of a different generation, but I think his principles can and still are followed today by various coaches in various matters. I think of Tony Dungy, for instance. For some reason, I can't see him doing what Belichick did. (Now watch, tomorrow, there will be an article on how Dungy has been caught spying.) And I think some teams - the Benglas and Vikings, for example - have suffered by NOT following the Landry principles. This is the coach who cut an All-Pro linebacker because of his drug involvement. Talk about a lesson for a young kid. "Wow, drugs must be pretty serious if the Cowboys got rid of Hollywood Henderson." That made an impact, let me tell you. I think Goodell's cracking down on crap is a good thing, and not un-Landry-like.
I HATED Dallas being called America's Team. I don't know who started that. Not many Cowboys fans liked that. Of course, now they throw it around for whoever's popular at the moment. Patiots, Saints, etc.
You guys were laughingstocks for a long time. But so were the Broncos, and look how they turned the franchise around. Did you ever see those horrid socks they wore in the old days? Talk about embarrassing. I'm glad the Patriots turned it around. Makes things more interesting.
If Namath hadn't pulled off that upset in Super Bowl 3, the Jets would easily rank as the biggest laughingstocks of all-time. And they still are in many ways. Not as bad as poor Detroit, but they've been bunglers for a long time and still haven't really turned it around, though things seem to be a little better. Even Parcells couldn't get this boat floating right.
I think you're probably right about Lombardi.
This kind of stuff has always gone on. I think, as Dr. Z, said, it's the arrogance of Belichick that he can get away with things, and the pattern of suspect activities that is the worst part.
Also, if Detroit had been caught, it wouldn't have been such a big deal, because it obviously hasn't helped them any. I think it's the fact that Patriots have been so successful that makes this a big story.
William,
Hopefully it will have a beneficial affect on things in the end. Steroids and cheating do concern me - I don't want the NFL to wind up like MLB or the NBA.
That’s interesting, isn’t it? So many of these guys in the NFL are obviously juiced, but you don’t hear the hoopla about it like you do with baseball. I hear horror stories about it going all the way down to the high school level.
The NBA… My gosh… It’s becoming as irrelevant as the NHL.
Landry may have been a product of a different generation, but I think his principles can and still are followed today by various coaches in various matters. I think of Tony Dungy, for instance. For some reason, I can't see him doing what Belichick did.
I saw a player’s poll a few years ago. Dungy was voted the coach that players would most prefer to be able to play for. Know who was at the bottom? Parcells... but this might have been before O’Brien was in New York.
I HATED Dallas being called America's Team.
Oh, me too! :-) You and me both, you and me both. Truth be told, it was more like their cheerleaders were America’s cheerleaders.
If Namath hadn't pulled off that upset in Super Bowl 3, the Jets would easily rank as the biggest laughingstocks of all-time.
I don’t know if I’d say that... The red-jerseyed Patriots had a reputation for ineptitude and plain old bum luck that could only be matched by orange-jerseyed Tampa Bay, the Saints, and maybe Detroit. Yes, poor, hapless Detroit. It’s a damned shame…
And they still are in many ways. Not as bad as poor Detroit, but they've been bunglers for a long time and still haven't really turned it around, though things seem to be a little better. Even Parcells couldn't get this boat floating right.
Well, Parcells/Belichik came close with their core of Parcells acolytes. Losing an AFC Title game in Denver is no disgrace, believe me. Nothing to be ashamed of.
Did I say O'Brien in New York? Meant to say Coughlin, excuse me.
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