Original Face

Somebody been spikin' your spliff, Arlen?

    You would think a grown man, especially an United States senator, would have much more important things to do than to obsess about the NE Patriot's "spy-gate" issue.  Yet, bizarre as it might seem to any sane person, that is exactly what Arlen Specter has been doing.  He is now calling upon the NFL to launch a full "Mitchell" style report on the Patriot's "illegal" taping of opposing defensive coaches' hand signals.  If the NFL does not, Specter has said he will open his own investigation and call for Senate Judiciary Committee to hold hearings on the matter.
    Grow up, Specter.  There are millions of people dying in Burma, there is a war in Iraq, terrorist threats throughout the world, Israel under siege, an economy that is on the knife's edge, gas and food prices that are skyrocketing and this nutter is concerned about whether Bill Belichick told some low level low life to point a video camera on some assistant defensive coach?  What kind of sick, twisted mind does that?
    The only four explanations with which I can come up are:  he lost some serious, serious money against the Patriots and this is payback; the dope he has been taking to stop the nausea from his chemotherapy has been laced with crack; Bob Kraft has been sleeping with Specter's wife; or he is just a whack-job.  Whichever it is, the Republican leader in the Senate should put his arm around Specter's shoulder and tell him to knock it off; that he is making himself and the Senate look like horses' asses.

The better team won

    Yep.  The New York Giants just plain beat up my Patriots in the Super Bowl.  One look at the faces of the Pats O-line after a play seemed to say it all--"we just can't stop these guys."  I know that Pats fans are saying--if only Samuels would have brought down that interception, or Seymour dropped Eli for a sack during that bizarre play.  But it wouldn't have been right.  The Pats should not have limped to the perfect season that way. 
    No, the Giants won.  Congrats to them.
    Hey, when do pitchers and catchers report this month, anyway?

Ain't no style points given out in football

    The Patriots are happy that they're not.  Today's win against a very gritty San Diego Charger team was not pretty by any means.  Brady was having a off day for more than 45 minutes of the game.  His passes were frequently off the marks, frequently sailing higher than they should, even when the receivers grabbed them.  His three interceptions were all quarterback miscues as well.
    Yet the Patriots remembered how to play smashmouth football.  Relying upon the running game and a bend but not break defense that kept the Chargers from the end zone, the Patriots returned the favor to Brady, winning the game in spite, rather than because, of his performance.
    Phillip Rivers, whose manhood had been questioned by his teammates before today showed a determination and ability to play with pain that should alter his career, or at least how he is viewed throughout the NFL.  Cromartie and his band of merry men (hehehe) showed that they will continue to be a force for years to come.
    Two weeks to go.  Then the Pats have, as Junior Seau must have said twenty times in the post game press conference, "a chance to be an 'ever' team."

Ahem...

Remember when I said that Bill Belichick would gladly give up a first round draft choice for the chance to have a historic season?  Lots of emails took me to task saying that the Patriots would rue this action.  Well not only are the Patriots 16-0 but Belichick just won Coach of the Year.  Not too shabby for a draft choice.

Fun, fun, fun

As I said before, I hope everyone is enjoying this NFL season in New England.  This is something very, very special.

I particularly think that Peter King of SI, the Commissioner, and of course, Eric Mangenius has had a hand in the making of this Patriot season.  Again, who doubts that in the end Belicheck would trade a first round draft choice for the chance to coach the best team that ever was?  Not me.

BTW, do you think that Bob Kraft is making sure that the Gillette Stadium scoreboard can display three figures?  If I were the J-E-T-S, Jets, Jets I would be very afraid about the December 16th rematch in Foxboro.  It could be the biggest point differential in NFL history.  (I think I'd take the "over" that game...)

Larry says it all

Laurence Maroney, the Patriots chief running back, spoke for the rest of his teammates when he said, "He's always had our backs, now we have his.  He's like our brother.  We're family.  We look after family around here."

In an age of spoiled multimillionaire sports stars, such talk is a throw back to the age of George Hallis.  I don't think I'd like to be a coach facing this 2008 Patriots team. Maybe I would send them a tape of my team's hand signals in the hope that might chill them out a bit. 

If last night was considered a blow-out, just wait for the rematch in November with the Jets at Gillette Stadium.  Oh, boy.  Do you think that Eric Mangini has figured out yet that he has been played?

Who's your daddy?

Tom Brady's post game comments with the Sunday Night Football sideline reporter said it all, when he said that the only people that the team trusts are in the locker room and their loyal Patriot fans and that everyone else has always been against them.  Hmmmmm....I thought a blog columnist may have said something about this earlier in the week.

Bill Belichick's stock in New England is still high...perhaps even higher.  New Englanders love battlers and Belichick's inability to get rattled by the press has made him an ever greater icon.  If you missed the hugs from his players and the pumping of his fist to the cheering fans, you missed the long term story here. 

The media, both local sports talk folks and the national football writers, (aside from WEEI) have never liked Belichick's stonewalling in the best of circumstances and they have tried to pile on him this week in retaliation. But as Belichick told his team, it takes two sides to advance a story and he wasn't going to give them anything.  (My favorite moment was the post game press conference when Belichick was asked about how tough a week it had been, the coach said that the Chargers were a tough team for which to get ready.  At that moment, even the most jaded journalist must have known that Belichick wasn't ever going to bite.)  He has a career in politics after he quits football, at this rate.

Don't get me wrong, I misjudged how big this story would be.  But I didn't miss how brilliant Belichick is and  how this adversity would bond the coach to his team and his fan base.

Again, Belichick is the best head coach that ever put on a headset.  Believe it.

Oh yeah, Bob Kraft has just announced that Belichick's contract was been extended for five more years.  What do you think, any chance that there may be a $500,000 signing bonus?

Doozy

When I make a mistake...well, let's say that it isn't small or, as my emails have told me, unnoticed (hey where is everyone when I am right, huh??).  Anyway I was wrong, wrong,wrong about the Patriots' use of videotaping as no biggie.

But Belichick is still a genius.

Sneaky Bill--Part Deux

Ok, so the NFL bigwigs saw something nasty in the woodshed, I mean on the videotape.  Big deal the Pats lose a couple of lower round draft picks. 

So what? 

If you were Belichick, would you trade 2008 picks for a 2007 Super Bowl?  Of course you would.

The rest of my analysis stands.

Sneaky Bill

The Patriots might have dismantled the Jets this past Sunday but if you were to listen to sports talk radio or read any sports-blog you would think that the only reason why the Pats beat the Jets was espionage by a New England staff videographer. 

Bill Belichick could not have scripted it any better.

Belichick has motivated his teams in the past by playing the victim card--that the football writers and the League has no respect for the Patriots.  That everyone outside of the team thought they were "dirt." That was going to be a tough sell this year with almost universal agreement that the Pats were loaded with talent and would be the odds-on choice to win the Lombardi Trophy.  These comments were only heightened after the blow-out at the Meadowland last Sunday.

Now with the allegation that the Pats used skull-duggery during the Jets' game, the press has been demonizing the team.  They are even saying that all of Belichick's teams' successes have been merely the result of cheating.  No longer lionized, the Pats have been vilified.

And you can bet your bottom dollar that every one of these comments is finding its way to the bulletin board in the Pat's locker room.  The chip is firmly back on the Patriot's shoulders.  They have something to prove.  Could there be a smile on Belichick's face today?

In addition to providing the needed motivational fodder for his team, he has placed a seed of doubt in the mind of every opposing coach.  Is Belichick using a set of spies in the stands which, according to the rules, is not illegal?  What else are the Patriots willing to do?  How do we protect ourselves?

Remember, every moment the opposing coaching squad spends thinking about these questions is a moment they are not preparing for Tom Brady and Richard Seymour.  Advantage Belichick. 

If he is really lucky, he will even get the opposing coaches to go mental and denounce Belichick and the Pats in the press-- that would be the perfect "two-fer."  Talk about playing mind games.

Do I think that Belichick was cheating?  I dunno but I doubt it. 

I bet he told a cameraman to go out and film some cheerleaders and other such fluff.  Then he had one of his minions "leak" to Eric Mangini, the Jets' head coach, that he was videotaping defensive signals.  Bill knew that Mangini would bite...and, as they say in contract bridge, he can lay down his cards because all of the rest of the tricks are his.  Even if he did that the staffer tape the other sidelines, it would be worth the loss of a 2008 4th round draft selection to ensure a good 2007 season.

Belichick is a genius.  If you didn't think so before, think so now.  Brilliant.