Realist wrote:Realist wrote:TDDance234 wrote:It wouldn't have been a problem if he didn't put Brady BACK IN THE GAME in the fourth quarter. He better be careful--some over-zealous DL is going to take a shot at his knees if they keep play-actioning on 4th down, up by 40, with 2 minutes left.
I kept thinking the same thing as I watched the 4th quarter. I almost expected after the whistle blew on one falst start on NE that the Redskins DE was going to keep coming and bury him. It's going to happen if they keep doing this, some guy is going to claim he didn't hear the whistle and Brady's leg is going to snap in two. And I can't say that I will be entirely disappointed. When you're up by at least 4 scores and he's still in, you are asking for it.
I say this even though NE is making me a pretty penny every week, it's like free money every sunday. The running up the score takes all the risk off of laying the line with NE.
Some overzealous DL would also find himself staring at the business end of a massive crippling fine and a career altering suspension. It's pretty humorous and a bit disturbing to read on other NFL boards folks who are salivating over this exact scenario. In all the time that Aikman, Young and Montana were in the league, during which I "loved to hate" those teams, I never once wanted them to get hurt...that, to me is much more egregious than a perceived deliberate score padding. I mean, I'm aware that the girdiron is America's civilized answer to the Roman Coliseum, but, wow...
I can understand some of the vitriol that is spewed as I always loved to hate the 49ers in their day and the Cowboys in theirs...but some of this stuff is just ridiculous. The selective amnesia is entertaining, since it was only a short time ago when Manning was going for his record that they left him in when the games were decidedly in hand. And let's not get started on Steve Young who took NE to task on MNF. Perhaps its further evidence of selective amnesia, but he hung 6 TD passes in a 55-10 romp of SD in the Super Bowl. The Niners also averaged their wins by 20 + points in their day.
Leads evaporate in the league quickly (a la Texans/Titans) and going on it on fourth down was a run of the mill run play so as to avoid putting up the gauranteed 3 points. Then the turnover. (I'm aware that this is a matter of perspective as those who "love to hate" the Pats see this chain of events decidedly different.) While I am not a fan of deliberately hanging points on end, the second, third and some fourth stringers were in with a few a vets to guide them...I mean, if the Patriots just handed the ball to the Skins, then they would be accused of condescension towards their opponents.
Oh, as an aside, Belichick isn't arrogant, just methodical and stoic. Now, Bill Parcels, that guy was arrogant and dismissive (even when he was on the Pats side.) Has the sensitive patrol really abducted fans of the NFL, so that coaches now have to be lovey-dovey in their postgame interviews for the fans to be satisfied (As evidence, listen to a few full interviews on WEEI here
http://www.weei.com/pages/268228.php, rather than relying on the 30 second ESPN soundbites.) Even though I am a Pats fan and some will invariably disqualify my points on that account, I don't see arrogance there at all. Perhaps many hate the hoodie, but come on, have the fashion police and metros really taken over the NFL now with all of the belly aching?
(But as a Pats fan, I largely stay out of all this and sit back and kind of soak up all of the vitriol as Pats fans know that it only fuels the fire of the "us vs. them" philosophy the Pats utilize to galvanize the team. One day the Patriots will be Brady-less and Belichick-less and all will have turned their vitriol to the en vogue team to hate at that point...perhaps a London-based team.
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- By LU Armchair coach