A note on LT/Patriots feud

It's funny because it's true.

Besides, sports is so much better when there is an identifiable bad guy, a winner that seeks to destroy the opponent and humiliate him. It's great theater, that LT and Merriman can't handle the fact that Brady and Belichek beat their ass, is fun. And that the Pats continue to humilate the media's golden boys, Manning and Dungy, is also great theater.

 

This is a longstanding issue for Simmons, he is just using the Pats as his water-bearer here. Simmons - king of all bloggers - has bitched and whined for years now about how bloggers take shots at him and others. How bloggers pick apart minor mistakes he makes, how 'dark and cynical' such bloggers and the culture that spaws them are, etc.

Thankfully, he's regained some of his sanity on the matter. Now (as in this column) he correctly points out that he takes plenty of shots, himself, at others in the sports and sports media world. Yep, Bill, you do. And for a long time you've looked like someone who can dish it out but can't take it. Honestly, it's been a pathetic performance, and I like Simmons.

Bill's sounded a lot like mainstream media types who bitch about the undue influence of bloggers and the internet. Now Bill has gone from outsider to insider, and the access of the bloggers isn't as fun as it was when he was the one taking, not receiving, the shots.

That's a lot to take from someone who sits on his ass to write almost all of his columns. No locker rooms, few sitdowns. Hell, he doesn't even have to get off his couch if he doesn't want to. And I think that's great, but don't be surprised when the hunter becomes the hunted, Billy-Boy. You're paid well, use some of that $ for insulation from the blows if you need to.

I don't totally disagree with what Simmons is saying in his critiques of current blogger culture, but it helps to understand where he's coming from. Sure, he's discussing it in his latest column as it relates to the Pats, but make no mistake, this column is all about him. Which is fine, but that's what it is. The Pats are his team, and he's basically telling himself: "It's ok - no, it's GOOD - that I root for the Pats." He's another person justifying his own behavior and feelings. Move along, nothing new to see here...

Oh, and for the record, I think it's MARVELOUS that the Pats punked out Merriman. Merriman's a jackass cheater, and I wish the Pats would have made even more fun of him. Can't think of someone who deserves it more than Shawney. How great was it that the week after Merriman sent Jason Taylor his package of popcorn, Merriman is now ready to take up his own snack food and watch the playoffs beside Taylor, having been shut out by the Pats. That's Karma, baby. I wish the Chargers would have won, but I take solace that SM is out of the tournament.

 

Just for the record - since 2001 Belichick is 7-1 against teams who beat him earlier in the season.

Brady is 12-1 in the playoffs and undefeated in dome stadiums.

Peyton Manning on the other hand is a huge Kenny Chesney fan.

 

Media's golden boys? You mean the same guys the media loves to grill as never having won the big game?

Sorry, but if you're talking golden boys, the list starts with Tom Brady.

 

Let's not get overheated with the Tom-Gisele rumors. She was at the game at a guest of Bob Kraft (he's a bit of a celeb ballwasher - he had Trump in the box at Foxboro the week before). The two shiksas at the Boston Herald who worship at the Cult of Tom (while mericlessly ripping Belichick over his troubles in Jersey) are desperately trying to hook him up again. They're turning Gisele's stop to say hi after the game into Romance of the Century.
For all we know, Gisele's actually dating Dane Cook (another Kraft guest in San Diego).

 

Name an NFL coach that is more universally loved and respected by the media than Tony Dungy.

 

Marty Schottenheimer

Actually, after watching the ESPN Sunday Conversation last week I'd have to say Nick Saban.

 

The owner's cheaper than the rest? Really? Nearly every owner in pro sports who wanted a new stadium swindled their local government. Kraft ponied up a quarter-billion of his own cash to build a stadium. Yeah, he's super-cheap.

This is the sort of nonsense that makes all this hyperventilation about the Patriots so silly. You're sick of the Patriots because they keep winning and they won't go away? Fine, that's your right. But these attempts to paint the franchise as villainous are just ridiculous.

 

He "ponied it up" only after he tried to get as much as he could from two states, and he still got infrastructure money that, I do not believe, has yet been repaid to the state. He owned the team, the stadium, and the land to build a new stadium. No other NFL owner had that parlay.

 

Regardless, he shelled out his money when push came to shove, rather than move the team.

 

The only team which approaches the Pats in terms of being under the cap is Philly, isn't that correct? That's cheap. C-H-E-A-P. Got Viantieri? Perhaps Gillete Boy spent all his money on those blue button-ups with the white collars? Kraft sucks, and Belichick really wowed 'em in Cleveland. Brady - the 6th round pick - saved all their asses. "Bonnie Bernstein" Belichick should give Brady a bj every day for the rest of his life; Brady rescued Bill from ignominy and allowed him to be the jackass photog shover and homewrecking hoodie wearer he is today. Belichick has become a great coach; he certainly didn't start that way. I love Brady, I have nothing against him. He's a good guy. But you can have Fatty Kraft and antisocial Belidick. They're just along on Tom's ride. Hoodie's greatest coaching move ever was when Bledsoe got hurt.

 

So the Patriots suck because they win games without spending a lot of money?