That's the New England Patriots. I think I wrote something about them earlier. I am a fan. I've sort of admired them for a long time, even pre-Bellichick era, but felt that being an all-out fan would be either hero-worship (Bledsoe or Brady) or just liking the best. Now I live here, I can truly adopt them as my team. Since returning from Iceland I don't really have one. Guess what, they don't watch American football in Iceland, I didn't keep up with the game.
So I am very happy now to have a team I can genuinely root for. I always liked football for the team aspect of it. More than any other sport I know it requires teamwork. Yes, the attention goes to the quarterback, the star receiver, the back who gets 1000yds a season. But, if you watch at all its not just that every person plays an important role on the team. Every person on the offense plays an integral role in every play on offense.
There's no war between pitcher and hitter and if pitcher wins no one else on his team matters for that bit. If pitcher loses, than one, maybe two other members of his team matter as they field the ball.
There's no possibility for the individual dominance of a single player as there is in basketball. I think basketball is quite fun to watch when they play as a team. But when one guy runs up the court, yells for the ball and then shoots, thats not interesting.
Let's see.. hockey... okay, I admit I haven't watched much hockey in my life, but despite surface, equipment and size of playing space it seems similar to soccer (football) in having lines. A line plays together, and probably improves as they play together. But, that's only three people. Anyway, I'll stop going on about sports that I know nothing about. I'm generally averse to other people talking about things they know jack about so I should try to avoid hypocrisy and stop myself from committing similar crimes.
I found myself writing a rather long e-mail about today's game to someone who probably cares a little, but really not all that much. Definitely not as much as I was going to write.
So guess what?
Yup, I decided to write here instead!
Patriots played the Vikings today. Patriots had a very good record going in despite the fact that they really haven't played very well, and on paper their players don't look very good. On paper the Vikings look very good, but at least some of them have been playing horribly of later, and their record pretty much sucks. Amazing since they were awesome last year, and are, essentially the same team.
And now they have Randy Moss! Who they got from the Patriots a couple weeks ago in what has to be the most bizarre trade I've ever followed.
It seemed quite a shocker when they traded him since they had no other deep threat wide receiver, or even medium threat wide receiver. Their leading receiver in yardage is a tight end. A rookie who is only 20 years old. (How does that happen anyway, don't they still have to go to school?)
But perhaps more shocking, Moss, who certainly has a penchant for bizarre behavior has not only taken it in stride but is showing a love-fest for his former team. He can be petulant. He can not try. He can get angry and say stupid shit. He can do stupid shit. He pretty much says whatever he feels like saying and does whatever he feels like doing. Apparently he respected Bellichick so much that he got the wackiness under control for the past 3 years. Apparently not so much respect for current coach, since he told the press that he told the coaches what the Patriots would do and they ignored him and then after the game, they're like, hey you're right, they did do that stuff. And he criticized a coaching decision. So. Uh oh. Lookout Minnesota. The rehabilitated Randy might have only worked for Bellichick.
For some reason I like Randy Moss. I usually don't like the trouble makers. But I guess I like the fact that he speaks his mind. He may come off looking pretty awful, but a lot of it really seems to be a stubborn defense of his right to think for himself and do what he thinks he should do. I kinda admire that. And if someone tells him stop talking about that, then when someone asks him about it, he says, they told me to stop talking about that so I won't talk about it. Probably not the intended result of the request. He marches to the beat of his own drum. And I think if you earn his respect he treats you with it, if not, he doesn't.
The Viking coaches will probably be very unhappy with his adoration of the Patriots today.
It was a mutual admiration society. Pats owner was out there chatting with him. Brady hugging him. Bellichick talking about how he's a special player, and he was glad he had the chance to coach him.
So if they all love one another, and none of them has said a bad thing about the other, then why did they trade him?
Favre did his typical super-human thing. I have a strained tendon in my ankle that bothers me and I'm limping around. It tightens up so badly overnight that when I wake up and get out of bed I have fallen on my face. He has two freaking bones broken in his ankle and one week later he's out there running around and getting hit. He may be finicky and have trouble making up his mind. He may play horribly at times. But he is either ridiculously tough or extremely stupid, and has a very poor short term memory for his own bad play. He played very, very well. But I'm not buying chin laceration. Obviously there was one, since that's what would be bleeding. But a guy who plays great for almost the whole game with broken bones in his ankle would not be brought to his knees, carted back to the locker room, white in the face, eyes screwed shut, from a cut on his chin. He would have walked back to the locker room. They'd sew it up in a few minutes and he would have been back out there.
I'm certainly glad they didn't do that. I've been disturbed seeing players who received bad shots to the head returning to the same game this season. Protect your brain! When it gets too much it gives up and you gradually become a vegetable. Or, it seems, possibly kill yourself. I'm going to stop there due to the fact that there are two routes to go with that. One is dark and potentially offensive, and the other is preachy. So I choose neither and move on.
Much as I am certainly a Patriots fan, I do not understand how they win these games. They look like they suck most of the game. Repeatedly, but somehow they win them all. It seems though, that maybe the offense can only play for one half or the other. Most games they have slept through at least the first half, and then woken up and looked like an actual team the second half. They don't do anything stupid in the first half, they just can't move the ball. Instead, the defense gives up 5 yards after 5 yards and get shoved down the field and then prevent a touchdown. So it looks like the defense kinda sucks too, but the don't actually give up many points. So halftime comes, Patriots are either miraculously up a few or down, but not by much, and then they wake up.
I wish they would play the first half too. Except then I remember the one time they did. They played the first half against the Jets. They had a huge lead. And then they went to sleep and lost the game. Apparently it is much better to play the second half rather than the first. I guess if you only play the first you don't know how many points you need to rack up. If you play the second you know how far you have to go.
Even if they seem to sleepwalk through chunks of the game they are very rootable. The playmaking guys on offense are oddballs. The big play today came from Brandon Tate who got free on a blown play and with Brady in trouble he managed to get loose and make a catch and then run for a 65 yard touchdown. Second year guy whose claim to fame is 2 kickoffs run back for TDs. Then there's Woodhead who has made big plays in other games. The tiny little guy who looks woefully out of place. There's the young tight ends running routes and making great catches. And the defense is sprinkled with newbies. You can't help but root for them. Cheer them on when they have a great play, and not blame them too much if they blow it, cause they'll get better and learn from it (I'm worried about Patrick Chung. I want him back out there.)
The team with one of the best records in the league in the past decade. The team with the best record, somehow, kinda seems like an underdog. If it weren't for Brady and Bellichick they would be.
I did find this quote from Bellichick hilarious:
'if we do a little better job of coaching and put them in a little better position and they keep working hard at it, we can be competitive.'
Right, so, does that mean they're not competitive now?
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