Talking NFL

“Brady threw a 4th quarter TD?!  News team - assemble!”

Unless you live under a rock (that’s located in a no WiFi zone), you’ve probably heard or read about the NFL issue du jour.  Specifically, the fact that the Patriots are lighting up other teams to a historic degree and have very little desire to lay off the gas in the fourth quarter, regardless of the score.

Now, I call this fact because frankly, there’s no doubt that the Patriots are running it up.  As far as my position goes on the subject, I agree 100% with Michael Felger of the Boston Herald; yes, they’re “running up the score”, and no, I don’t have a problem with it.

However, over the last two weeks, there’s been an astounding volume of bloggers, writers, and fans that are incessantly whining complaining about the Patriots on-field activities.  They’re saying that the Pats are behaving like bad sports and disrespecting the game.  In some instances, writers are running headlines that read, “The Pats Have no Class.”

To this group, as a collective whole, I have a question for you:

“You guys (and gals) got picked on in recess, didn’t you?”

Let’s stop and think about these accusations, starting with the “bad sportsmanship” tag.  Now if this were simply a matter of a Pop-Warner game, Monopoly, or hopscotch, then I could understand this complaint.  But this is the NFL, and the NFL stopped being just a sport or a game a long, long time ago.  

The National Football League takes in just under $7 billion in revenue per year (that’s billions with a ‘b’).  The Dallas Cowboys alone are worth $1.5 billion as a team.  And top tier players are pulling in contracts that are worth around $100 million.  That’s not a game, son.  That’s big business.

“You’re the one who’s guilty!  Superfans, ESPN, those crappy truck ads…”

Bill Belichick’s place in that business world is HC of the NEP.  Which means that he answers to one man, and one man alone - his boss, the owner and CEO of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft.  Mr. Kraft employs Mr. Belichick in order to win football games and championships, a task the coach did not accomplish last year when the Patriots blew a 21-3 lead to the Indianapolis Colts in the AFC Championship.

Which means the off-season annual review for Coach Belichick may have gone something like this:

Kraft:  ”Well, Bill, you guys kind of choked in Indy this year.  How are you going to prevent that from happening next season?”

Belichick:  ”I’m going to start by telling Pioli to sign every good free agent available.  Then when we play, I’m going to pound the everloving crap out of the other team & make sure there is 0.0% chance they can come back and beat us.”

Kraft:  ”Allrighty.  Sounds like a plan.”

So far this year, Mr. Kraft (and his constituents, the Patriots fan base) have absolutely nothing to complain about.  Job well done, coach.  Continue to cash those paychecks guilt free (on the other hand, Coach Mangenious might want to give Woody Johnson a refund).

In that same vein, let’s keep in mind that this year has proven that almost no lead is safe.  The Titans were up on the Texans 32-7 going into the fourth quarter and gave up 29 points to the immortal Sage Rosenfels.   The Bears lost to the Lions thanks to a 34 point fourth quarter by the illustrious Jon Kitna.  So no, I didn’t have one problem when the Patriots continued to score on the Miami Dolphins a couple of weeks ago, because the Fins scored 21 in the final frame under the leadership of the indelible Cleo Lemon.

(yeah, I know indelible doesn’t really work there.  I went to the i adjective farm one time too many…)

Of course, I still haven’t address the core issue of those Patriots haters, who will say you can’t excuse the 52-7 beatdown they gave the Redskins and their “classy coach”, Joe Gibbs.  I’m sure you’ve read the tirade of Redskins linebacker Randall Godfrey, but in case you were under that heavy rock, here’s a snippet care of NBCSports.com’s Tom Curran:

“You look at all the great head coaches … I’m just disappointed,” he said. “You gotta show some class, show some respect. Joe Gibbs? We wouldn’t have done that.  That was blatant disrespect.”

A few comments on Godfrey’s rant:  first,

Second, he’s a second stringer, so I’m guessing he’s upset because he thought he’d play more once the lead got into the 30’s.  Most importantly, his comment about Coach Gibbs?  Completely wrong, as noted by Rich Tandler of Tandler’s Redskins Blog:

“After the game, Gibbs said that he had no problem at all with what the Patriots did. He shouldn’t. In 1991, Gibbs’ Redskins had a comfortable 35-17 lead over the Falcons going into the fourth quarter. Rather than call running plays to kill the clock, Gibbs had Mark Rypien throw the ball. He threw touchdown passes of 82 yards to Gary Clark and of 64 yards to Art Monk. And these weren’t dinky passes with a lot of missed tackles and YAC. They were bombs away. That made it 49-17 and Andre Collins finished off the scoring with a touchdown on a return of Bret Favre’s first NFL pass. Nobody clad in burgundy and gold complained about the score being run up.”

By the way (and I’m sure this is going to come as a HUGE surprise to most of you out there), these don’t happen to be the only two examples of NFL teams running up the score.  My personal favorite is the tale behind the 1940 NFL Championship Game:

“Washington had defeated Chicago 7-3 in a regular season game three weeks earlier. After the contest, Redskins owner George Preston Marshall told reporters that the Bears were crybabies and quitters when the going got tough. As the Bears prepared for the rematch, Chicago head coach George Halas fired up his team by showing them newspaper articles of Marshall’s comments.”

The Bears went on to obliterate the Redskins by the score of 73-0.  Quite possibly the first recorded instance of an NFL coach using bulletin board material to fire up his team.  You can go ahead and make your own correlation to the modern day Patriots and “CameraGate”.

So you say that today it’s a different league and a different game?  Fine.  Just don’t tell me it’s that different than three years ago.  Because the Indianapolis Colts (you know, the goodie good guys) ran it up in ‘04, big time.  Read Eric Wilber’s excellent take on this double-standard at Boston.com, where he also does a great job of pants-ing the Indy Star’s Bob Kravitz.

There’s a couple of other reasons behind this double-standard.  First, of course, is that hatred for the Patriots is all ready at a zenith.  But you also have to look at the world wide web 2.0, and the dizzying array of writers and bloggers that are out there (yours truly included).  While this abundance of writing sources and fan participation is primarily a good thing, it has also brought out the ugly side; namely, fans that are bitter at their own team’s lack of success who decide to throw wild haymakers at the good teams in an act of petulance.  Perhaps even oh-so-subtly hint that players should or will start going after a quarterback’s legs.  A big case in point - AOL Fanhouse; just check out these fine article headlines from this week:

- Attention NFL Defenders and Tom Brady: It Costs a Mere 15K to Concuss a QB

- Someone Could Go Gillooly on Tom Brady

(By the way, as writer who likes to get fans riled up, I know that’s exactly what Fanhouse & other bloggers are doing by insinuating that Brady could get hurt.  Sorry, but I ain’t falling for it.  Besides, I am having WAY to much fun watching the greatest Patriots team of my lifetime  to get worked up over some bloggers that like to post sensationalized articles with little to no original substance.)

Now, if a player were to put a hard but LEGAL hit on Brady, that’s a different story.  Hey, it’s football; people hit each other.  Besides, in case you haven’t noticed, Tom frequently gets sacked, goes up the middle for a QB sneak & runs the ball in for a touchdown every so often.  Yet somehow he will be starting in his 103rd straight regular season game on Sunday.  I think it’s safe to say he’s a football player & knows how to buckle his chin-strap.

Speaking of wishing ill-will on a quarterback, for you long-time readers out there, you know that I simply cannot stand one Peyton Manning.  I’ve written at length about him.  However, you can check all of those back articles (if you dare; some of them really suck) and note that never once did I advocate that Rodney Harrison or Richard Seymour should pull a Johnny Lawrence and “sweep the leg” (and why would I?  I mean, how else would Peyton throw one of those precious late-game pics?).

As a final point (at last!) - a personal note regarding one of the worst drubbings in Super Bowl history.  When the Bears completely embarrassed the Patriots 46-10 in Super Bowl XX, I remember being very upset.  I remember watching the Fridge blow through the Patriots D-line like a cannonball through saran wrap.  

And I think I remember crying at one point (hey, I was a kid).

But I tell you this much, I don’t ever remember whining, “jeez, why are the Bears still scoring touchdowns?”, or “isn’t that enough all ready?  Can’t they take pity on my poor, hapless football team?”  I knew it was the Super Bowl, I knew that it was my team’s job to stop them, and I knew that they simply couldn’t.  End of story.

So for all you bloggers, writers and fans who continue to b!tch and moan about the Patriots and the number of points they’re scoring on your team; hey, if that’s how you want to be known (either by real name or screen name), then knock yourself out.  Just realize that when you write that type of drivel, you aren’t perceived as a moral champion or a protector of the weak and helpless.

You actually look (and sound) more like this kid:

New England Patriots, running up the score, the continued pu$$ification of football and society