Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Why I Hope the Patriots Lose the Super Bowl

Probably won't happen, they are overwhelming favorites, but I hope the Patriots lose. Beyond my typical support for the underdog to do well I have other reasons to want this team to lose. A difficult choice because they are my home team. Here are a few of the reasons:



Their coach, Bill Belichick is a heartless, cold man willing to cheat. No need to go into the details here, he and his team were fined by the league $750,000 for their attack on the integrity of the game. Cheating is something Belichick also does in his personal life, as it was discovered that he cheated on his wife for over 3 years with a woman in NYC when he was named in a contested divorce case. Belichick expects injured players to return to play sooner than any other NFL coach. An example comes from Ted Johnson, former Patriots linebacker, who tells the story of how Belichick made Johnson take off the red practice jersey (assigned by the team doctor to those players who are to avoid any contact during practice) to "see what you can do". What Johnson could do was get further injured in practice (further aggravating a string of concussions). Johnson's career would be over the next month and he suffers greatly from the countless concussions. There is a long standing unspoken rule in the NFL that "you don't lose your job due to injury" meaning if you make it back from an injury you at least get the chance to tryout for your old job, particularly if you were hurt on the field of play. When Drew Bledsoe, quarterback for the Pats went down due to a serious injury (severed chest artery) when trying to run for a first down he was out for six weeks. Third string QB Tom Brady was brought in and compiled a 4 and 1 record during that time to put the Pats record at 4-3. Bledsoe was never given any snaps during practices to suggest he was going to get a chance to win back his job. Belichick's decision was to go with Brady and send Bledsoe packing (even though Bledsoe had to come into the AFC Championship game in the first half and finish for Brady when he hurt his ankle thus allowing the Pats to go on to the Super Bowl). My anger about this still lingers and of course to most seems ludicrous since Brady has gone on to be such a Superstar. But Belichick is cold hearted. I have never rooted for the Pats since and therefore shared no joy in their Super Bowl victories.

Dirty players. Rodney Harrison who played for the San Diego Chargers and was considered by far the dirtiest player in the game was acquired by Belichick 3 years ago. Every Patriot fan in New England despised Harrison for his spearing of other players in the back with his helmet, hitting late out of bounds and taking shots at other players in a pileup. When he came to New England, fans suddenly adored his "hard play" - he also was suspended this year for being caught red handed using HGH. One of only 3 players ever caught and suspended. Belichick picked one of the other drug abusers after his suspension last year and made him their punter for the last 6 games. His name was Sauerbrun. More "quality character players" as Belichick likes to say he makes his teams from. Then there's Vince Wilfork fined 3 times this year for dirty play (knocking the Buffalo Bills QB out for 6 weeks when he dived at his knees). He also poked the eye of another player through his face mask in a high profile televised replay. Mike Vrabel several fines for dirty play - in the recent game against San Diego he dove at the knees of Ladainian Tomlinson who was injured and carried only one other time. A few plays later he tripped the SD QB Phillip Rivers as he threw, causing an interception. No penalty flag was thrown. Rivers had had arthroscopic knee surgery 4 days prior. Richard Seymour though I haven't keyed in on this, has been called a cheap shot artist by a SD player this week. He claims he's the worst in the NFL. Here's another quality character guy. Backup fullback Kyle Eckel was witness to a rape in his dorm room by his roommate, he punched a woman in downtown Annapolis and somehow got himself released without having to fulfill his duties as a Naval Academy graduate just after Bill Belichick drafted him. And how about Randy Moss...ran over a female crossing guard with his car when she would let him by quickly enough, major traffic violations and drug possession when in Minnesota and now another woman accusing him of assault. There are more but who has the time.

Running up the score this year on teams clearly down on their luck and with coaches trying to keep their jobs. In many cases Belichick could have called off the dogs and kept many scores from being lopsided/embarrassing contests. The worst was trying to humiliated Joe Gibbs of the Washington Redskins by putting up a score of 52-7. Belichick is a good coach but an ass. Within the brotherhood of coaches I think they all have absolutely no respect for him.

And New England fans. I'm surrounded by them and was once one of them. They are the worst.
Arrogant, disrespectful and pig-headed boors. The man-love that many of the male fans have for Tom Brady is, well, uncomfortable to watch.

Another reason to root for the Giants against the Pats is that they did not lay down in the last game of the season against the Pats and take the chance to rest their players. They played them tough and played the entire game. And nearly beat them. They are coming out of a wild-card slot and are vast underdogs. I don't think I'll be alone next weekend rooting for the Giants.

Please Giants, beat this team, their a-hole coach and their mouthy fans. I've had enough already.

1 comment:

Liz said...

I can't argue with any of that!

GO GIANTS!