Corp000085 Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 Q: I'm still in the "bargaining" phase of coping with this Tom Brady injury. Is there any advice you can offer to help me get through to acceptance as soon as possible? In times like these, I turn to you, Mr. Sports Guy. Please help me make sense of all this. -- Tim B., Merrimack, N.H. SG: I have five silver linings for you. First, the Patriots were in a no-win situation heading into the season: They were America's villains, everyone expected them to win, and even if they won, they were supposed to win. That's never fun. Maybe this injury will end up liberating them in a weird way. Second, the whole (cue up Pat Summerall's voice) "the New England Patriots have chosen to come out as a team" dynamic shifted a little when Brady became a mega-celebrity and the offense started breaking records left and right -- tackles could whiff on blocks, cornerbacks could give up big plays, linebackers could take bad angles, and none of it mattered. The offense covered up every mistake. Right up until the last two minutes of Super Bowl XLII. Now it's a normal football team again -- everyone has to do his job or the team will lose. Could that give them some extra motivation? Possibly. Third, did you see the AFC last week? Only Pittsburgh and Tennessee's D looked good. It's wide-open. Fourth, Brady or no Brady, the Pats have the easiest schedule in the league -- the NFL did everything but schedule Georgetown and Columbia in December for them. Fifth -- and most importantly -- they suddenly have the "Nobody Believed In Us!" factor on their side, which I've been arguing for the past year has emerged as the single most underrated force in sports. The '08 Giants had it, so did the '07-08 Celtics, the '08 Jayhawks, the '06 Cardinals … hell, even Rashad Evans had it when he coldcocked Chuck Liddell last week. Nobody believes in the '08 Patriots without Brady. This might be a good thing, right? Um … right? (Oh, who am I kidding? We're screwed. I will now attempt to hang myself with my Wes Welker jersey.) A few things: 1) This guy is a hack 2) He obviously glossed over the bills/seahawks game 3) Obviously, since he writes for the credible ESPN, the bills were relocated to the nfc edit: here's the link to the whole column. He also rants on how the hit was not clean and compares it to the losman hit last year (which to his credit also called a dirty play) http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/080909
RayFinkle Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 I enjoy reading the Sportsguy...even if he is a hack. His podcasts are awesome. Funny stuff.
Ramius Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 The onyl thing i might enjoy more than brady being gone for the season is seeing bill simmons in misery. He is the epitome of obnoxious prick bostonfan.
Rubes Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 He's at least a decent writer, and at least he acknowledges and embraces his homerism. Yet I still relish in his despair. His stuff after the SB loss was classic, and quite entertaining.
silvermike Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 I think he wrote his real feelings here: http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/0...ing-season.html
DC Tom Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 The onyl thing i might enjoy more than brady being gone for the season is seeing bill simmons in misery. He is the epitome of obnoxious prick bostonfan. Link?
UConn James Posted September 9, 2008 Posted September 9, 2008 I think he wrote his real feelings here: http://kissingsuzykolber.uproxx.com/2008/0...ing-season.html
Corp000085 Posted September 10, 2008 Author Posted September 10, 2008 Link? fixed... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/080909
AJ1 Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 A few things: 1) This guy is a hack 2) He obviously glossed over the bills/seahawks game 3) Obviously, since he writes for the credible ESPN, the bills were relocated to the nfc edit: here's the link to the whole column. He also rants on how the hit was not clean and compares it to the losman hit last year (which to his credit also called a dirty play) http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/080909 I hope the Bills kick the living crap out them. In Foxboro. Then he has to file a story describing the carnage he just witnessed. And then suffers from writers' block for the rest of the season.
plenzmd1 Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 He's at least a decent writer, and at least he acknowledges and embraces his homerism. Yet I still relish in his despair. His stuff after the SB loss was classic, and quite entertaining. Agreed. I find him to be quite funny, and he never, ever, pretends to be objective.
OvrOfficiousJerk Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 I enjoy reading the Sportsguy...even if he is a hack. His podcasts are awesome. Funny stuff. I agree, his podcasts are great. Also, he donated an entire column/mail-bag to the Sonics' fans this past year to air their grievances about their team being ripped out of their community (something we all could appreciate in Buffalo). Moreover, more important to the current discussion about Brady, he directly compared Wilfork's hit on JP to what happened to Brady: "One more note on Pollard: I watched the play in slow-motion 40 times, not to mention the other 440 times that the TV networks showed it … and I don't care how badly Pollard felt or how he tried to spin it, when you're on the ground and make that sprawling hiccup jump toward a quarterback's knees as he's throwing, bad things happen. Vince Wilfork did the same thing to J.P. Losman last season, and that wasn't right either. It's a cheap play -- worse than a horse-collar tackle and a cut block, in my opinion. And both of those are penalties. Nobody should be allowed to dive at a quarterback's legs unless he's running." http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/080909 Unlike the fairweather prima donnas over on the Pats board, he admits that Wilfork was guilty of a cheap shot; he may be a homer, but at least he's consistent.
DC Tom Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 fixed... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story...=simmons/080909 Q: I am giving this Cassel dude four weeks. If he doesn't get better, I'm gonna jog through my routes and stop going over the middle. Cool?-- R. Moss, Foxboro, Mass.
Bmwolf21 Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 I posted this in another thread: I used to like his writing, but now I'm really enjoying watching The Sports Guy piss and moan about how the P*ts season is over: Getting final word on the Brady injury felt like being an actor on a cop show and identifying a murder victim at the morgue: Yep, that's it. That's the 2008 Pats season. You can pull the sheet back over it. Thanks. But this was what he wrote about the effect of the injury on Moss: Q: I am giving this Cassel dude four weeks. If he doesn't get better, I'm gonna jog through my routes and stop going over the middle. Cool? -- R. Moss, Foxboro, Mass. SG: Just kidding. I wrote that one. But that has been the underrated part of Brady's injury -- the Pats didn't just lose Brady, they might lose Randy Moss, too. His track record of quitting on bad quarterbacks is both extensive and frightening. I don't even want to talk about this. LINK
The Dean Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 But this was what he wrote about the effect of the injury on Moss:Q: I am giving this Cassel dude four weeks. If he doesn't get better, I'm gonna jog through my routes and stop going over the middle. Cool? -- R. Moss, Foxboro, Mass. SG: Just kidding. I wrote that one. But that has been the underrated part of Brady's injury -- the Pats didn't just lose Brady, they might lose Randy Moss, too. His track record of quitting on bad quarterbacks is both extensive and frightening. I don't even want to talk about this. LINK I said this very thing (nearly) to a friend, yesterday. Perhaps the bad moon was a year late.
Bmwolf21 Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 I said this very thing (nearly) to a friend, yesterday. Perhaps the bad moon was a year late. If we're lucky, we could be witnessing the implosion of the P*ts "dynasty": 1. Spygate 2. The loss of Brady 3. ?? 4. PARTY!
Alaska Darin Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 2) He obviously glossed over the bills/seahawks game I would have too, given the Seahawks fielded a receiving corp that wouldn't have started on a Top 10 Saturday team.
Captain Hindsight Posted September 10, 2008 Posted September 10, 2008 Q: Where does Brady's knee rank on your list of the most devastating Boston injuries? I mean, I thought this was gonna be the best year of Boston sports ever. Am I just spoiled? This feels worse than following a team like the Chiefs or Dolphins last year. I mean, you knew they were gonna lose each time they took the field. But this is as if Michael Phelps was giving the U.S. men's swimming team a motivational speech just before the final relay and a shark jumps out of the water and ate him (a la Samuel L. Jackson in "Deep Blue Sea"). -- Ethan B., Brookline, Mass. SG: How soon everyone in Boston forgets -- there's no way this was more crushing or depressing than Bird missing the entire '88-89 season just a few months after the famous shootout with Dominique; John Havlicek separating his shoulder during the '73 Eastern Conference finals against the Knicks; Nomar (coming off a .372 season) hurting his wrist before the 2001 season started; or even Tony Conigliaro getting beaned by Jack Hamilton during the "Impossible Dream" season. That's the five-headed Mount Rushmore of most devastating Boston injuries. Bandwagon Much?
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