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I think my IQ dropped about 20 points after reading that.

There used to be local high school coach who bitches about the referees, win or lose. Simmons reminds me of that guy, who also impinged on giant douchian territory.

Maybe J-Bug or House or one of his other buddies can suggest to Bill that he get an editor.

 

That Patriots/Tony Soprano comparison is awful, too.

I think Simmons and other writers are digging too deep with the Patriots. It's as simple as this: the Pats are the smartest orginization in football, ran by an grumpy asshole who is also the best coach in the NFL, with a Hall-of-Fame QB and a Hall-of-Fame WR playing rejuvenated football surrounded by a deep, talented, and veteran roster. That's why they are undefeated. I don't buy the evil vs. good thing or whatever analogy any writer wants to make.

 

I like the penalty-by-penalty recap, very necessary and unique. Because no team has ever lost a questionable call. The pass interference calls (and the late no-call0 were valid, the rest was just football.

I was momentarily excited to see his pick column return, so i could lay money against him. Alas it was just a text box.

 

Never got him.
Never will.

 

I don't read much of this guy. This might be the third column I've read. The Pearl Jam one was pretty good.

I tried to read this one and was entertained and repulsed at the same time.

He's got a very likeable personality - if you don't take him seriously - and I can relate to all of his pop culture references.

Yet openly rooting for one team and rambling on and on without much direction (Omar's right, the guy is begging for an editor) makes it difficult to finish anything he's written.

 

He could have written this column about the Packers-Chiefs game, too. Point is, bad calls happen here or there every week in the NFL. And for once, it happened to work against the Patriots. A week from now, it might burn the Bills.

And bostonbred, I don't buy the Sopranos analogy either, but for a different reason -- the Pats aren't near as likeable as Tony Soprano.

 

Fenian, I am curious: Is it a generational thing? A style thing? Something else?

 

Wow. I couldn't even finish it. Beyond awful.

It's not even so much being critical of the officiating. It's the conspiracy theory crap that reeks of fanboy and has absolutely no place in a professional column. The NFL has so much to lose if it was to ever come out that a game was fixed that it is beyond ridiculous to suggest that it uses its officials to do so. Or maybe he meant that crew was doing it on its own out of hate for Coach Hoodie and Co. I don't know. I just couldn't bring myself to read any more.

 

You are correct, sir. Randy Moss is the NFL's MVP. I hope, for its own sake, Green Bay gets the most incredible third-round pick ever next year. As for as Colts-Patriots, the difference in the game was that the Colts' WRs didn't make plays, and the Pats' WRs did.

 

I'd venture a guess that I'm a generation younger than Fenian -- and I don't get Simmons, either.

Anyone can tie pop culture to something else. A big jug o' Smartass is available on the street for cheap these days.

Give me substance, reporting and soul.

 

I hope it isn't the first, because that would be sort of shallow. I mean, there are young 'net guys that I really like, in sports and out of them.
I guess it's the second. I never found him funny. I find his chip-on-the-shoulder 'tude toward daily guys repugnant -- Hey, you sucked at the Herald, pal. Ask around. -- especially since he does it in kind of a gutless hit-n-run fashion. I don't think he discovered the wheel in "incorporating pop culture into sportswriting" wha-dee-doo-dah a) because Dan Jenkins and the Laguerre-SI gang did that first 30 years ago, and b) he doesn't know dick about pop culture beyond a very small window between about 1981-1990. I mean, I wasn't born in 1935, but I understand Casablanca and Duke Ellington. Push this guy past U2 and he gets the bends.
The real underlying reason is that I never found him funny.
No biggie. I feel the same way about Seinfeld.

 

His NBA Draft Diaries, the movie stuff and the tv stuff are very good.

If you are around his same age, have his same taste in movies and music, he will be interesting to you.

He just needs to realize that most people hate Boston teams if they are not from there.