a note about the pros
Before I get into my picks of the week for the high school season (which ironically are printed above this on the blog and you probably already read them) I wanted to say something I meant to talk about last week.
Of course, it's the New England Patriots.
Full disclosure up front. I used to root for the Patriots (in fact, I used to root for the Red Sox a looooong time ago, but gave that up when I was around seven or eight years old). The Pats were never my favorite team, that has always been the 49ers (sigh). But I cheered for the Pats the rest of the time, and rooted for them back in the Bledsoe/Parcells/Curtis Martin days. (Although my favorite on the team was always Ben Coates. I always have a soft spot for pass-catching TEs).
But over the past decade, since the Pats' first Super Bowl victory when I was rooting heavily for them, I have seen some disturbing things from both the team and the fans. The team needs no explanation as rumors of cheating carry a lot of weight. But I've seen the fans go from the frustrated ones of a struggling or downright awful team to the arrogant ones of a winner that knows everybody is out to beat them, which usually leads to a very defensive attitude, particularly when that winner is not used to winning or being the favorite.
Put simply, Patriots fans last year reached the point of being unbearable. Their arrogance regarding their team was one thing. But their complete ability to not only overlook the character flaws of their own team, but actually celebrate them, was dispicable at times. I hate to generalize this way, because I know some Pats fans who, of course, are perfectly decent, honest, trustworthy and respectful human beings. But what shocked me most was how so many of them could cling blindly to the faith that their team had done nothing wrong, or the dictum that "everybody's doing it",as if that justified cheating.
So, very few things would please me more than to see those fans and players, who took it upon themselves not just to win last year but to needlessly embarrass opponents for the Jets' audacity of rightfully accusing them of cheating, be handed a big plate of humble pie this year. Don't forget that before the Pats were clinging to leads as the pressure of 19-0(TM) built up, they were running scores up on helpless opponents through the first half of the season, and padding their own stats.
And that brings me directly to the one thing about the Pats that might anger me more than their cheating, dishonesty, manipulativeness, arrogance and general offensiveness: the myth of Tom Brady.
We all know how this myth started. Bledsoe, always a QB prone to making bad decisions, gets hurt against the Jets early in the 2001 season. In steps Brady, an unknown player who never saw the starting position at Michigan, and the fans feared another doomsday. But somehow the new QB played smart, didn't make huge mistakes, and the Pats' defense and a man who must be credited as a brilliant coach went on to win the title (whether by cheating or not).
And all the credit went to Brady.
And more was heaped on him as they won again, and again. Suddenly Brady was a sure-fire Hall of Famer, despite never putting up exceptional numbers.
And then comes to town Randy Moss, and suddenly Brady has a weapon like few others, perhaps none other. There is not a better deep route runner than Moss in the league, and the deep ball is one of Brady's skills. And Belichick's system is still designed to force teams to respect the run and short passes, making this a match made in heaven.
Result: 2007, Brady's first spectacular statistical season.
Now, before you think I'm crazy, I'm not saying Brady is not a good or very good player. He is. But what bugs me is the seeming concensus among analysts and fans that, as I heard several times last week, he is clearly the best player in the NFL and is irreplaceable.
Well, we finally get our chance to find out, and I have to say I'm torn. Do I root against the Patriots so their fans and players can be brought back to reality and humbled? Or do I root for Matt Cassel, a guy with eerily similar pre-NFL pedigree to Brady, to once and for all destroy the great football myth of our generation.
My honest prediction is that the Patriots will go 11-5 or within one game in either direction, make the playoffs, and threaten to make the Super Bowl but will be stopped by somebody just a bit better. That is partly because of their cupcake schedule.
But mostly it's because the greatest myth about this team for the past eight years is that Brady was the reason it was successful. True, Brady did better than Bledsoe, because Drew was never a good QB in Belichick's system, or with a team that needed to minimize mistakes to make its defensive effort worthwhile. Brady gave the team the consistency and conservativeness it needed to win.
So can Cassel. While Cassel doesn't have Brady's experience, which admittedly has gotten better through the years, it was evidenced in Week 2 against the Jets that he can stay away from trouble, and the defense can still win.
We'll see. I guess either way I should be happy. I just kind of want to see Tom Brady's legacy shown for what it is, a very good career, but not necessarily worthy of the Hall, with a lot of team success, more than I want to see the team fall off its pedestal.
Of course, it's the New England Patriots.
Full disclosure up front. I used to root for the Patriots (in fact, I used to root for the Red Sox a looooong time ago, but gave that up when I was around seven or eight years old). The Pats were never my favorite team, that has always been the 49ers (sigh). But I cheered for the Pats the rest of the time, and rooted for them back in the Bledsoe/Parcells/Curtis Martin days. (Although my favorite on the team was always Ben Coates. I always have a soft spot for pass-catching TEs).
But over the past decade, since the Pats' first Super Bowl victory when I was rooting heavily for them, I have seen some disturbing things from both the team and the fans. The team needs no explanation as rumors of cheating carry a lot of weight. But I've seen the fans go from the frustrated ones of a struggling or downright awful team to the arrogant ones of a winner that knows everybody is out to beat them, which usually leads to a very defensive attitude, particularly when that winner is not used to winning or being the favorite.
Put simply, Patriots fans last year reached the point of being unbearable. Their arrogance regarding their team was one thing. But their complete ability to not only overlook the character flaws of their own team, but actually celebrate them, was dispicable at times. I hate to generalize this way, because I know some Pats fans who, of course, are perfectly decent, honest, trustworthy and respectful human beings. But what shocked me most was how so many of them could cling blindly to the faith that their team had done nothing wrong, or the dictum that "everybody's doing it",as if that justified cheating.
So, very few things would please me more than to see those fans and players, who took it upon themselves not just to win last year but to needlessly embarrass opponents for the Jets' audacity of rightfully accusing them of cheating, be handed a big plate of humble pie this year. Don't forget that before the Pats were clinging to leads as the pressure of 19-0(TM) built up, they were running scores up on helpless opponents through the first half of the season, and padding their own stats.
And that brings me directly to the one thing about the Pats that might anger me more than their cheating, dishonesty, manipulativeness, arrogance and general offensiveness: the myth of Tom Brady.
We all know how this myth started. Bledsoe, always a QB prone to making bad decisions, gets hurt against the Jets early in the 2001 season. In steps Brady, an unknown player who never saw the starting position at Michigan, and the fans feared another doomsday. But somehow the new QB played smart, didn't make huge mistakes, and the Pats' defense and a man who must be credited as a brilliant coach went on to win the title (whether by cheating or not).
And all the credit went to Brady.
And more was heaped on him as they won again, and again. Suddenly Brady was a sure-fire Hall of Famer, despite never putting up exceptional numbers.
And then comes to town Randy Moss, and suddenly Brady has a weapon like few others, perhaps none other. There is not a better deep route runner than Moss in the league, and the deep ball is one of Brady's skills. And Belichick's system is still designed to force teams to respect the run and short passes, making this a match made in heaven.
Result: 2007, Brady's first spectacular statistical season.
Now, before you think I'm crazy, I'm not saying Brady is not a good or very good player. He is. But what bugs me is the seeming concensus among analysts and fans that, as I heard several times last week, he is clearly the best player in the NFL and is irreplaceable.
Well, we finally get our chance to find out, and I have to say I'm torn. Do I root against the Patriots so their fans and players can be brought back to reality and humbled? Or do I root for Matt Cassel, a guy with eerily similar pre-NFL pedigree to Brady, to once and for all destroy the great football myth of our generation.
My honest prediction is that the Patriots will go 11-5 or within one game in either direction, make the playoffs, and threaten to make the Super Bowl but will be stopped by somebody just a bit better. That is partly because of their cupcake schedule.
But mostly it's because the greatest myth about this team for the past eight years is that Brady was the reason it was successful. True, Brady did better than Bledsoe, because Drew was never a good QB in Belichick's system, or with a team that needed to minimize mistakes to make its defensive effort worthwhile. Brady gave the team the consistency and conservativeness it needed to win.
So can Cassel. While Cassel doesn't have Brady's experience, which admittedly has gotten better through the years, it was evidenced in Week 2 against the Jets that he can stay away from trouble, and the defense can still win.
We'll see. I guess either way I should be happy. I just kind of want to see Tom Brady's legacy shown for what it is, a very good career, but not necessarily worthy of the Hall, with a lot of team success, more than I want to see the team fall off its pedestal.
posted by Ryan Pipke at
12:52 AM
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