Brady's New England Patriots have no class
by
I have no intention of doing sports here beyond the occasional TV schedule for a major sport's playoff, but I really need to get this off my chest.
I'd like to say to all of you Patriots fans out there that your team, bar none, has the least amount of class of any team in the NFL. Up by over thirty points, your hero of a QB had to go for it on fourth down not once, but twice. You had already won the game by half time, but that wasn't good enough for you. Playing against a team ranked second to last in scoring that up until last week hadn't been over .500 for over two years, with 32 and then 40+ points already on the board for your own team, you just couldn't settle for field goals.
No, you couldn't settle for just winning the game. Your ego couldn't take being scored on by such a lowly team like Buffalo. You had to pile it on, embarrass a franchise and a sold out stadium full of 90,000 fans that have more heart to stay with their guys than you or Brady could ever imagine, and make a mockery of the sport in the process. The 2007 Pats may very well be the most skilled team ever, but you'll never amount to anything, because all the championships in the world can't make up for being assholes.
NBC choose to move that game to Sunday night thinking it might be an honest contest, and it's not their fault it was never a fair match-up in the first place. Hardly is it anymore the fault of the Bills for not getting lucky by finding this generations best QB and not even knowing what they had until the starter got hurt, and then pushing him down the stairs and out the door.
Brady may break every record in the books, but it won't matter in the end. His true colors and those of his team have been laid bare for all to see this year. Cheating for god knows how many years resulting in god knows how many illegitimate championships and wins, now they ride into the national spotlight and humiliate a lesser team on purpose - purely for the fun of it.
Every sport has one. In baseball it's Barry Bonds, in football, it's Tom Brady and the Patriots. They cheat without caring and ruin the sport's good name for their own cheap thrills. Winning is never enough for people like that, probably because they know they could never do it legitimately. They over compensate by thrashing everyone and everything around them because that's all that matters - them - not you, not the opponent, and obviously not the game.
It's all about them, and what they want. Screw everything else.
Some day down the road, Brady will get hurt, or lose his edge, or the Pats will suddenly find themselves unable to afford all their high priced mercenaries at WR and other positions. The three other teams in the AFC East have been held down and stumbled for far too long. Eventually, at least two of them will rise and NE fans will be back where they were in the 90's.
Only without the cheating, with a coach and QB that care about more than just winning.
At some point, the Pats will find themselves on the losing end of a 30-whatever rout, and their opponents will know when it's time to quit, when it's time to respect the game and the other team and their fans. When it's time to be men, they'll put the gloves away.
That day is not here in New England, nor will it ever be under the current coach and under Brady. In the year the Patriots will probably go undefeated for the first time in franchise history and only the second time ever, their accomplishments will be forever marked by their immaturity as a team and organization that didn't know when to stop.
Tom Brady and his Patriots are anything but real patriots - the class of 2007 is ironically the team lacking it where and when it counts the most.
November 19, 2007 10:21 AM | Reply
What a whiny lil' bytch you are!
Everyone who is complaining about the Pats running up the score are goddamn hypocrites unless they agree that the opponents offense takes a knee on every play.
November 19, 2007 11:14 AM | Reply
November 19, 2007 11:47 AM | Reply
This is a remarkably silly argument to have. Just a few weeks ago this same sort of debate occurred following the Patriots' defeat of the Washington Redskins. Did the Patriots run up the score? Did the Patriots humiliate the other team?
Perhaps. But let's look at it another way. Pulling one's starters out of the game so as to NOT run up the score is humiliating to the other team; what could be arrogant than to say that, in this case, the Patriots second- or third-team squad is all the Buffalo Bills could handle?
Moreover, if the Bills (and their fans) believe that the game is lost and the Patriots should stop playing their best, then why do the Bills keep their best on the field? (The same with the Redskins: why are the 'Skins' starters on the field if the game is over?)
As for your suggestion that the Patriots' decision to go for a fourth-down conversion is somehow racking up unnecessary points, the suggestion makes no sense: in both cases the only other option was to kick a field goal, which DOES look like racking up points. The sportsman-like thing is to TRY for extra yardage; it's gentlemanly to give the other team a chance to stop you.
Lastly, Tom Brady said in his press conference last night that "Drew Bledsoe taught me how to play quarterback in the NFL." He went on to say that the whole team was dependent on all those who preceded them; that no one on the Patriots was self-made and thus they could not boast. Brady's comments -- echoed by the whole team -- are the classiest in football by a long shot. And Bledsoe knows it.
The "cheating" thing you cite is a joke, and is a red-herring. The NFL concluded that the Patriots could not have benefited from what they were "stealing" in that game; they could only benefit months later. That the Patriots in nearly every instance this year have crushed their opponents by the end of the first quarter proves they are not cheating (why bother?). Besides, teams change their signals constantly.
The Patriots have re-defined football. It was the "classless" Patriots you berate who were introduced -- per Belichick's order -- at the 2002 Super Bowl as a team, and not individually. Note how classy that is; note, too how EVERY team since has emulated them. we will never again see individual introductions at the Super Bowl thanks to the class of the Patriots.
The Patriots are nothing like Barry Bonds. They are like Tiger Woods -- excellent to the core.
But I am just a homer.
Peace!
Bill Gnade
November 19, 2007 12:27 PM | Reply
So you idolize Oprah Winfrey? Does Ellen make your Top 10 Hit parade? Can you say, "I'm a wussy-puss"? Sure you can! You just did by whining and weaseling out of a fact of life.
These are professional footbal players, NOT Tele-Tubbies. Grow a set and move on.
November 19, 2007 12:57 PM | Reply
Sorry, but I made a mistake in my comment above. It should read:
"…what could be [more] arrogant than to say that, in this case, the Patriots second- or third-team squad is all the Buffalo Bills could handle?"
Sorry about omitting "more."
Peace,
BG
November 19, 2007 2:10 PM | Reply
The Pats played as long as the Bills did. The Bills kept throwing the ball down field to the last drive. They didn't give up trying so why should the Pats. Let them score to make them feel better? Let them stop us to make sure we don't hurt thier feelings? I'm sure the Bills don't want it.
Quit the whining and go back rooting for tee ball where every kid gets a hit and every game ends in a tie so kids feel good about themselves.
November 19, 2007 3:44 PM | Reply
November 19, 2007 5:39 PM | Reply
Next point, you say they are running up the score. When did it become a crime to be competittive in Football? Where were your cries of indignation when the Colts were running it up on other teams in previous years? You say that not taking the guaranteed three points on a chip shot field goal and going for it on fourth down is unclassy? Taking the three points would be running up the score, that has always been considered running up the score. Going for it on fourth down is only what desperate teams or teams who are trying to give the other team a chance to stop them from scoring will do. This Patriot team is one of the most classy teams to ever play the game.
Another point is you assume that all Patriot fans are band wagon fans and don't know what it is like to have a bad team. Apparently you were born yesterday or something as I can remember the team pre-mid ninties and they were a bad team for most of those years. I have suffered through 2-14 seasons with my team and continued to support them.
How dare you judge my team and myself. You obviously know nothing of this team or its fans.
Don
November 19, 2007 5:44 PM | Reply
It's not about asking the Patriots to stop scoring Bill, and I never said I thought they should take out their starters. I said going for it on fourth against a team you clearly beat before half time in their own house is purely about running up the score and the player stats.
Nobody could argue that doing so helped the Patriots win the game, or that a victory wasn't a sealed deal when they did it (twice.)
What the Pats did on Sunday night was cross the line from beating a weaker opponent to humiliating them on purpose, because there's just no other reason for what they did. The outcome, sadly, was a forgone conclusion, all that was left from the opening kick was to see how the Patriots would handle themselves against a team that might as well be playing college ball.
Well, we all saw what happened, and I stand by my assertion that the Patriots and Tom Brady have the least class of any team in the NFL. Terrell Owens would fit right in with that bunch.
November 19, 2007 11:48 PM | Reply
November 20, 2007 1:00 AM | Reply
Go figure.
November 20, 2007 10:49 AM | Reply
If you look at the history of American Football pre- combined NFL as it is today, the scores were much like high school or college football - hugely one sided if the competition was that much better.
Looking around the world and recognizing that American Football has its roots from Rugby (Union not League rules) and the competition. Lopsided scores (England beating Romania 105-3 a few years ago) are still happening and it is not considered to be running up the score as it is a competition and the best win, even if by a wide margin.
I think you are being too P. Not everything is fair in life. This attitude has led our country into its current issues. People want a house, big flat screen TV, car etc, yet cannot afford it and go into debt and then complain when they lose everything.
People should take responsibility - that includes NFL football players getting paid to play a game and losing by a wide margin. The players and coaches only have themselves to blame and not look to blame the team that beat them.
now go get some cheese to go with your whine.