wildflour420

I just can't take it anymore...

I feel he's got an agenda against BB. In any case, it was a poorly written and unnecessarily nasty column.

I just can't take it anymore...

I am neutral on the Patriots, despite the fact that the national media force fed us non-fans of the Pats from week 6 on.  I know they were on an epic journey, but when you reside in a fly-over state, you get sensitive to the whole coast oriented presentation of what is news.  Given that, I have to admit I kind of like BB.  I like the fact that he is a grumpy, rumpled, mad genius if a coach.  .01 seconds?  Big deal.  The game was done.  A smart official would have let the clock go to zero.  Not after they stopped it at .01, but instead of stopping the clock, swallow the whitsle and do not signal a clock stoppage. 

Since I am on this, I want to say that I wish the sports world and especially the folks on this board would stop the whole "classless" mantra whenever something they disapprove of happens.  Classless is a subjective term anyway.  But, every act of perceived poor sportsmanship is not classless.  In fact, it has very little to do with class.  We are talking about athletes people.  While not all of them are one track minded jocks, many of them are.  You know - see ball, catch ball, run fast.  They aren't all deep thinking  and reflective about what they say or do on or off the field.  Often, the pursuit of their achievements in sports has left them so poorly socialized that we are lucky if they can manage to use knife and fork.  Perhaps I am being far too harsh.   But, my point is why expect them to be all that self aware?  When they are, we vilify them for being phony, or a camera hound, or just a ball player.  It's probably a by-product of 24 hour news cycles and the proliferation of various shows where talking heads shout their opinions non-stop.  Fans, believing they are just as talented at analysis, have become overly critical and judgemental.

My soap box is now put away.  All this to say that BB is a cool dude.

I just can't take it anymore...

I didn't read Clark Judge's article. I've seen enough here to know I should avoid it. With the cooling effects of history and a damn cold winter in what my brother Jazzman calls a "flyover" state (why do I think of pigeon $hit when you call it that?), I would like to comment on The Coach's behavior this season and some of the backlash.

Firstly, I hold coaches to a higher standard on the emotional plane. They're hired, in part, to keep their young players' heads in the game and because they have the radar to pick up when a QB -- or a pitcher or a point guard -- is getting rattled and not playing "within himself," as they say. It's why I never blame Bob Knight for his meltdowns...his history is pretty clear, and I always wonder what in the world the AD was thinking when he said, "Good to have you aboard, Coach."

Secondly, Bellichick did have some remarks after the game that won't draw any sympathy. I don't care if his heart was broken for his players. It's noble, but come on. "Undefeated" isn't noble, it's just another trophy. If his heart was broken because the team didn't go undefeated, they were pursuing the wrong goal anyway, and that's on him. Undefeated is bragging rights and not much more, till the next team goes undefeated and often in a more spectacular way. And the bragging rights themselves are vacuous, not relating directly and entirely back to the talents or smarts of the team but the perfect alignment of the stars in a small window of time. Not to take away anything from the Giants, but maybe that was demonstrated in their Super Bowl victory. I don't know.

Thirdly, people remember seeing other coaches on the losing end of the Super Bowl come out to congratulate not only the winning coach but the winning players. I feel strongly that a coach's responsibility is to all players on a field. It's not so much that it meets my definition of "classy," but I do think it meets the players' definitions. I'd go so far as to say it means more than beating the undefeated team.

Finally, New England is on a run, sports-wise. The Red Sox, the Pats, and now the Celtics. Cripes. That's fortunate for the region, but as with any run of its kind, bandwagoners and all their gracelessness come out of the woodwork in droves, the media force it down the throats of everyone else in the world, and before long it's Backlash City. Bellichick and the Pats had a very special season. It ended in a less than special way. If Bellichick and the Pats are truly composed of competitors that want to rise to the challenge, they'll put that one afternoon behind them, look toward camp on a mission, and perhaps make themselves and their fans really happy when they win it all while they're less than perfect.