Via JVL, your (semi-accurate, alas) guide to being an insufferable New England sports fan. (I get the feeling the author doesn't much care for Bill Simmons ...) Meanwhile, Ben McGrath profiles Scott Boras.
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The Most Obnoxious People in Sports
22 Oct 2007 04:02 pm
Comments (12)
As a Giants fan who STILL can't figure out how Ray Handley was picked to succeed Parcells, rather than Belichick...
The crazy thing about Belichick is, he's always been able to convince his players that "Nobody respects us, nobody gives us a chance," even when it's idiotically, demonstrably untrue!
NO player in NFL history has gotten more acclaim, respect or fear than Lawrence Taylor. Offensive coordinators re-wrote their entire game plans when they faced the Giants. The media, the fans, and players around the league praised LT to the heavens... and yet, Belichick would tell LT over and over, "They don't respect you, they don't give you any credit, they think you're NOTHING!" And while you wouldn't THINK that kind of simplistic motivation would work, it always did! Taylor was always frothing at the mouth on Sundays, ready to punish the adversaries who supposedly didn't respect him, who supposedly didn't give him a chance!
So, it's not surprising to me when I see Belichick playing the same games so successfully in New England. Face it, the Patriots get a fawning press! I've lost track of how many times I've heard the Peter Kings and Paul Zimmermans giving the Pats kudos for "doing it the right way." The Patriots are always held up by the media as the perfect team!
Practically EVERY sportswriter picked them to go all the way last year! Practically ALL of them picked the Pats to knock off the Chargers and the Colts. Right now, the Pats are being (prematurely but not necessarily wrongly) ranked with the greatest teams of all time.
And yet, despite the universally fawning press, Belichick still tells his players they're not respected- and they still believe it!
Astorian - I have to agree with you there. I remember a Patriots player (I forget which one) being quoted after the third Super Bowl victory as saying something like "No one gave us a chance! No one gave use any respect!" This was, of course, demonstrably untrue and, indeed, out-and-out absurd. I didn't realize that this attitude went all the way back to his time with Lawrence Taylor.
The author probably does not care for Bill Simmons because Simmons is an overrated douchebag.
Or maybe he doesn't like him for other reasons. I don't know.
What's funny is, the 2007 Red Sox, Celtics, and Patriots got good the Steinbrenner way -- use big bucks to sign talent which other coaches and teams have made first-rate.
Yglasias can hate the Colts all he wants, they got good the old-fashioned way. They drafted players, developed them, and used them to build an incredible team.
Give Peyton Manning some high-cash receivers and he'll easily double that single-season TD records. But Tom Brady couldn't do that. The difference between Manning and Brady? Manning makes good receivers extraordinary; Brady needs extraordinary receivers to make him good.
And what's amazing about Simmons is that he is a talented writer who's paid to be a whiny sports fan.
The column which kissmesuzy mentions isn't even his whiniest Patriots column of recent memory. Check out what he wrote during the "Camera-gate" scandal.
Despite it all, I like Simmons. As part of my job, I spend a lot of time with sportswriters. A lot of them (I'm not naming names) act kinda snide, like they're laughing at sports fans stupid enough to root for a team.
So it's nice to come across an unabashed sports fan writer. Even if he's insufferable.
Give Peyton Manning some high-cash receivers and he'll easily double that single-season TD records. But Tom Brady couldn't do that. The difference between Manning and Brady? Manning makes good receivers extraordinary; Brady needs extraordinary receivers to make him good.
Right. The Patriots get lots of respect. Uh huh.
Actually, the real difference between Manning and Brady is that the latter has three rings to the former's one.
Woah! How about a language warning, huh?
I also don't get the demonization of Mangini.
So, if a coach notices that the other team is cheating against him, and he used to work for that other team, he's supposed to...
Ignore it?
Quietly tell them to knock it off?
This isn't the Mafia. Mangini's supposed to win, too.
Astorian - I have to agree with you there. I remember a Patriots player (I forget which one) being quoted after the third Super Bowl victory as saying something like "No one gave us a chance! No one gave use any respect!" This was, of course, demonstrably untrue and, indeed, out-and-out absurd. I didn't realize that this attitude went all the way back to his time with Lawrence Taylor.
Have you even watched sports center or read anything online for the past 6 years? Up until last week, it's always been Manning this, or random NFC team that. While the players and coaches have always had respect, the sports punditry rips them down, or just plain doesn't talk about them. Now that they can't ignore them, they either hate or man love, but more of the first.
We've had a very good program up here for 6 years now, and only once did we get the spread in the superbowl.
Give Peyton Manning some high-cash receivers and he'll easily double that single-season TD records. But Tom Brady couldn't do that. The difference between Manning and Brady? Manning makes good receivers extraordinary; Brady needs extraordinary receivers to make him good.
Please! Brady has never had a receiving core that would show off his abilities before, while manning has always had a pretty good squad to throw too. Dion branch and troy brown beating out what Manning's had for the last 1/2 decade? I'd would have taken your guys any day! And lets face it, we finally only have one star guy. Welker was a great pickup, but who would have known he would have meshed so well up here. If you need to attribute one thing to big guy, is he makes good players play better, and thats the sign of a great coach.
I always wondered just how things would have turned out stat wise if Manning had the receivers of the Pats, while Brady has those of the Colts since 2000. I think you'd see a really large swing in stats from what they are now, and not in manning's favor.
Right now I think it's more along the lines Brady needs good receivers to make him extraordinary. He's always been great with what was given to him.
I also don't get the demonization of Mangini.
It goes back a while, and this was just another chapter in the story.
The total effort by patriot fandom to excuse the Patriots and attack Mangini and everyone else has been worse than pathetic.
"Give Peyton Manning some high-cash receivers and he'll easily double that single-season TD records. But Tom Brady couldn't do that. The difference between Manning and Brady? Manning makes good receivers extraordinary; Brady needs extraordinary receivers to make him good."
I've been a passionate Colts fan since the age of nine, but this is crazy talk. Manning has ALWAYS had better receivers than Brady prior to this year. And, correspondingly, Manning has usually put up bigger numbers. This year Brady is the one with the video game numbers and Manning is the one grinding out a ball-control offense with one Pro Bowl receiver, a pretty good Tight End, and a platoon of walking wounded. It's probably time we acknowledged that these guys are both really, really good quarterbacks who can win games no matter who you put around them.
Brady has three rings and Manning has one because the Pats have long had one of the league's best defenses, and they had Manning's number. This no longer seems to be the case. Based on what I've seen so far this season, the Colts have the edge on defense. They also run the ball and control the clock more effectively. I think they're the better all-around football team.
Not that this will matter in the slightest if Kelvin Hayden gets burned all day long on deep routes by Randy Moss. But I do like the Colts' chances.
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I really don't get things like this. It seems to merely be resentment of fans being passionate about their team, and why shouldn't fans be passionate about their team? Yankee fans can be irritating, but I never begrudged them their right to be passionate about their team.
Posted by James Kabala | October 22, 2007 4:57 PM