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The Voice of Reason on the Patriots is… Rick Reilly?
ESPN – To too many of us — sports writers, analysts or supposed Patriots fans — the Super Bowl is a zero-sum game. Win and we would step in front of arrows for you. Lose and you’re the biggest choker since the Hillside Strangler. Tom Brady is hearing all that ugliness now. So is Wes Welker. So is Bill Belichick. They don’t deserve it. They don’t deserve anything near it. “You blew this Super Bowl,” Boston Globe sports writer Eric Wilbur wrote of Brady on Monday. “You denied your coach No. 4. You let down your teammates.” … “Epic fail,” Kerry J. Byrne wrote of Belichick on ColdHardFootballFacts.com. “Epic failures from one end of the organization to the other.” … The Patriots should not renew Welker’s contract, suggested Luke Hughes of Boston’s NESN.com. “It’s a hard sell to start with and an even harder one when you consider that [fourth-quarter] drop,” he wrote… Eight thousand Butterfingers were dumped in Copley Square on Tuesday to mock Welker. Tough crowd… A little decaf, folks: The Patriots lost the Super Bowl on the last play of the game when a tipped ball failed to stay in the air another quarter second longer so a one-legged Rob Gronkowski could possibly catch it. If it had, all three of these writers would be hailing Brady, Belichick and Welker as just slightly greater than Lincoln. How fickle are you people?
I’m so frigging dumbfounded by the fact that Rick Reilly- of all people- is making sense of all this that I’m reluctant to take issue with him. But I have no choice. This is one of those instances when we have to draw a distinction between Patriots fans and the people who cover them. Like I said when Eric Wilbur wrote that asinine claptrap on Monday, he hasn’t the first clue what New Englanders are thinking. If he did, he wouldn’t have tried to claim he was trying to write what we’re all saying. And those corporate criminals who dumped the Butterfingers don’t speak for Patriots fans anymore than British Petroleum speaks for people of the Gulf region. And anyone who says the team shouldn’t bring Welker back doesn’t know a goddamn thing about what the Patriots fanbase is feeling right now. Having Welker back works strictly from a football perspective because he’s the single most reliable receiver in the game, but also from a rooting interest because he’s an overachieving, team-first workaholic who drives opponents insane and makes you proud to pull a Kid’s Small No. 83 jersey over your son’s head. If this nobody from NESN thinks Welker won’t get a booming Standing-O at the home opener next year he’s living in a fantasy world.
Full disclosure: Kerry Byrne of Cold, Hard Football Facts is a Stoolie and a friend of mine. And he can break football down to its numerical components and make sense of it better than any man on the planet. But even he’s missing the point if he thinks this loss represents “epic failures” of the organization. If anything, the 2011 season validates the team’s philosophy. It proves the Patriots Way works. Once again, they were there until the very end. The thinnest of pubic hairs away from winning it all. Just like they were in 2006 and 2007. While all the teams that made splashy free agent signings and grabbed flashier sexier names in the draft were sitting at home watching. Would we rather see them do business like Philly? Or Atlanta? Oakland, God forbid? I know they don’t get a trophy or rings or Duckboats for coming subatomically close to winning. But anyone who goes off the deep end about it… or thinks Patriots fans are going off the deep end about it, is flat out wrong. It’s a measure of what a strange week it’s been that I’m agreeing with Rick Reilly on that point. @JerryThornton1
Rick Reilly is 3000x the sportswriter you’ll ever be you old bag of bones
My own take is that some of these writers at the Globe saw this as a great opportunity to write something controversial, get some attention and maybe get noticed/hired by ESPN. Because a month ago the Globe could replace any of these guys and many of us would not even notice. Now I’ll remember the names Wilbur and Bedard. Remember with scorn and contempt, but remember nonetheless.
only a complete fucking idiot wouldn’t want the pats to resign welker
the under appreciation for what this team accomplished is Jenna Marlbes mind bottling. These chances can all be gone in a flash. Watching the Celtics play the first 20 games of this season was a horrendous feeling. They SUCKED. They have turned it around and now realize you just have to savor every game that group has left, because who knows when another 5-10 year skid is coming.
I know the american trend is to be an ungrateful asshole if you don’t get your way, but we are better than, you are better than that
While the ending is disappointing, the season itself would have to be viewed as a success. If someone told you at the beginning of the season that the Pats would be in the Super Bowl with a bunch of guys that you never heard of playing in the secondary and getting nothing out of Haynesworth and Ocho, most people would say that you are high. Fact is that the Pats should have a lot of cap room to make moves and they have 2 firsts and 2 seconds to address needs on both sides of the ball. Sign Welker, maybe pick up Brandon Llloyd, stay healthy, and this team is the favorite to come out of the AFC again next year.
Can we all just agree that the Pats need to actually use all 4 of their 1st and 2nd round picks in next years draft (unless they package their 1st rounders to move up and get a pass rusher). Getting a little old trading draft picks for future picks that we’ll just repeat the old process with. We need actually players
actual not actually
Great post jerry, anyone who tries to classify a super bowl appearance as an epic failure clearly hasn’t rooted for a team like the lions, or the dolphins, or the falcons. Can you imagine if Pittsburgh played the giants, if they lost would it be considered an epic failure? Of course fucking not, writers would be tipping their caps to the giants, and rightfully so, and not ripping ben for not winning tomlins 3rd ring. I guess when you have such a solid run of success like the pats, the words success and failure come to take on entirely different meanings altogether.
I actually don’t think they should bring Welker back, not because of his play but because his skill set is somewhat redundant with Hernandez and Gronlwoski on board. Would love to see the money spent on Welker go toward a deep threat.
well said Jerry. during all this heartache people need to get a little perspective. yeah it hurts now but realize we have seen our team play in 5 Superbowls in the last decade or so. literally every other fanbase in the NFL would LOVE to be able to say that. the city of Cleveland would bust its collective nut to just for the Browns to make ONE postseason these days let alone play in the title game this frequently.
@pathetic, the money they spent on Ocho and Haynesworth could go towards the deep threat and still bring back Welker and Branch. Pats are gonna have roughly $20 million even after they sign their draft picks i believe. Sign Welker & Branch, Bring in Brandon Lloyd and Robert Meachem. The WRs will be similar to 2007 along with Gronk & Hernandez.
.
2012………2007
Lloyd……..Moss
Welker…..Welker
Meachem..Stallworth
Branch……Gaffney
Gronk…….Watson
Aaron…….Kyle Brady
I’ll take the 2012 group.
MikeFelger said what I was thinking. At the beginning of the season my expectations were low for this team and I thought this would be the year that the Pats would finally start their eventual decline from a top team in the AFC. Losing in the SuperBowl hurt that much more because I feel like this team gave me false hope.
More receivers!
John Elway got blown out in three super bowls and scored a whopping 40 points in those 3 games combined before Denver subverted the Salary cap and finally won a full 8 years later. Yet people think he’s better than Brady….
^People who actually think Elway is better than Brady are just “prisoners of the moment”, as Skip Bayless likes to say. Once people aren’t thinking about this superbowl and actually reflect, the overall body of work is much stronger.
who are these people thinking Elway is better than Brady?
The superbowl wasn’t a failure, it shed a light on the problems facing the Patriots. They’ve become the Atlanta Braves of the NFL. They’re built for the regular season in that they play in a weak division and build a great record which allows them to gain home field advantage and skip a round of the playoff’s. Then when they have to play the cream of the crop they lose. They were lucky to get by Baltimore to get to the super bowl. Their defense is clearly lacking and needs to be rebuilt and they could use a solid running game. Anyone who blames Welker for the loss is an idiot. I didn’t see Welker giving up 21 points. But as a Steeler fan, I’m glad they lost.
Look, the Pats made it to the Buper Bowl with a bunch of re-treads and guys off the street starting on the Defense. They don’t need to reinvent the wheel, they just need to inflate the one they’ve got a little bit, and they’ll be fine.
.
Build a strong, young Defense through the draft, pick-up a few free-agent WRs.
Josh McDaniels learns to commit to the run a little bit more. Boom, done.
Super Bowl 47, here we come.
Fair point OTwisted, I just don’t love Lloyd as a deep threat, he’s kind of more of the same of what they have. But you’re right, they probably have money to bring in another deep threat.
i’ve been talking people off of ledges all week with this same argument. 2nd place isn’t last place, it just feels like it b/c it’s disappointing to not come away with a ring, especially in the agonizing fashion it happened the last couple times.
we also need to recognize that we’re spoiled these days. all you guys who are under 25 have no idea what it’s like to root for a bad patriots team. that’s not your fault, but it’s a fact. i vaguely remember the game in ’86 vs the bears, but i think people knew we’d get killed in that one. in ’96 vs the packers, i was a senior in high school, old enough to fully grasp the situation. i was very disappointed that we lost, but i always also happy to be able to even play for the championships after almost a decade of teams that went .500 or worse, that’s all i knew at that point.
so before everyone swears the pats off, think about how lucky we are to wheel out a team every year that’s a contender. doobah’s tire analogy is great…the tire didn’t pop, it’s just needs a little air. my analogy is this: every year i piss and moan about how old i’m getting. fuck, i’m 28 now, holy shit i’m 30, when did this happen, yadda yadda. i spend the entire year lamenting the end of my youth, but then i’ll talk to some 50-something guy, and he’ll tell me how young i am in the grand scheme of things and how he’d love to be 32 again, or whatever. it makes me realize i’m not THAT old, and then i regret all the time i spent during my still good years thinking that my youth was gone. i feel like i’m going to wake up one day and be legitimately old and find that i wasted my youth thinking i wasn’t young. so with the pats, recognize brady and belichick and bob kraft won’t be here forever. we’ll be a rebuilding team some day wishing we could lose a wildcard game let alone the super bowl. appreciate the FUCK out of this pats regime while it’s still here!
*but i WAS also happy….don’t know where that “always” came from. and it was to play for A championship, not plural. looks like a fucking ESL student wrote my 2nd paragraph, what the fuck…
This overreaction to a team that could’ve won 6 superbowls in the last 10 years is shocking. (2006 Afc championship game, pats blow huge 4th quarter lead to colts. Colts beat Rex grossman and the bears in the sb, one of the worst teams to make to sb in recent history…and everyone knows about 2007 and last Sunday). I’m starting to see what everyone hates about a section of this fan base. Brady took a team with no deep threat and defense with Julian edelman as the nickel dback within 1 foot of winning the sb. Also I think Wes welker is one of the most underappreciated players in the league. He’s so automatic and so reliable it’s like u don’t even notice how good he is. That guy who put the butterfingers in Boston deserves to get his ass kicked by welker.
Rick Reilly actually said the Patriots were the Washington Generals, and The Giants are The Globetrotters. Fuckin’ dumbass…