SteveTHEyankee

Take the most talented group of NFL players and coaching staff in recent history (maybe all of NFL history?) and the most loyal fan base and mix it with one part cheap shot, cheap accusations and 10 parts sore losers and you put together a 19-0 team. Parity >> down the drain.

I bet there isn't an NFL owner or head coach in the League that isn't kicking themselves for not pointing out to the Commish the cameras THEY always used during the game. BTW - anyone wondered exactly how BB was to gain an advantage during game 1 with the Jets from an UNWIRED camera that could not transmit intantaneously to the team analysts in the booth? Maybe the cameraman was providing real time comentary? Can't wait for Mangini to visit Foxboro soon - real soon.

richpats

I know I'm loyal and a lot of us out there are too but if we were 3-7 at this point a lot of "fans" would be counting down the days to pitchers and catchers reporting. Look at Cleveland or KC - now those are some loyal fan bases.

JJDChE

Not to go too off-topic, but "parity" in the NFL isn't about there not being great teams, it's about everyone starting off on a level playing field, money-wise.

That's one of those things that really bugs me, when the media runs with the storylines about "where's the parity?". Parity has nothing to do with records, it has everything to do with the salary cap and free agency.

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groundgame

I am tired of hearing how all the teams use cameras etc. The bottom line is they got caught after a league-wide warning and deserved to punished for it. What the NFL has done to penalize the Patriots is equivilant to a driver caught for speeding added to the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List.

SteveTHEyankee

Point well taken - I agree that they should have been disiplined Groundgame. My point is twofold. 1. It gave the team motivation, if any was needed, to show those who are 'holier than thou" that talent, not tricks are what will get the Pats to the AFC champ game. 2. Even though it is against the rules, it is a rule that does nothing to prevent an advantage from being gained. If someone could explain the advantage during the game the camera provided, I would like to hear it.

And JJDChE: Parity is a good thing. I takes away all the usual excuses for a team not meeting expectations. It gives them no where to run when they go up with a superior team and cannot compete. If they want to recuit Stars then they have the money, but if they want to recuit a Team, they have to go for talent and motivation - the way that Kraft and BB have done it.

onegameatatime

Maybe that's what it should be, but I think it's about "any given Sunday," any team can beat any other. I think the NFL leaders would be perfectly happy with all teams between 6-10 and 10-6.

patsox23

A bit off-point, but I just want to state, for the record, that there is absolutely, positively NO WAY that Sports Illustrated DOESN'T use "Perfect Storm" as its cover headline if/when the Patriots make it 17-0 in a snow-strewn Giants Stadium on December 29th. That will FOR SURE be the cover. You read it here first.

PatsFanInVa

Welcome to the board... The way I've phrased this before is in question form:

You take a team a couple flu shots short of the Super Bowl, load it up with the greatest offseason upgrade in recent memory, back it into a corner and tell it it's achieved nothing... WTF do you think is gonna happen?

It's hilarious to me that opposing fans -- and sometimes, even opposing players with some sort of team death wish, still, -- regularly keep repeating the "everything you ever achieved or will achieve is tainted" bullcrap.

Which, of course, is all fuel for the fire.

Just enjoy knowing that what people will remember is witnessing this historic 19-0 juggernaut. They'll tell their kids and grandkids about it. They'll talk about it in bars and they'll reference it on football talking heads shows, when someone gets really, really, really hot: "Does this team start to approach the 07 Patriots?"

We're odds on favorites to win the Super Bowl (bet a buck to win sixy cents,) after 10 weeks. Assuming we don't trip up, this year's "perfect storm" isn't just the story of the year, it's the story of the decade. It's the Team That Left No Doubt.

It's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

You know what's great? After 04, I was thinking "threepeat." Then after 05, I was thinking, you know what? Chances are we won't see a window like that ever again.

The window is back, and in a big way. It's beginning to look like the 01-04 run might be looked on as a sort of warm-up to the present time.

Ahhhhhhhhhh... to be a New England homer here and now. This is even better than if I got laid a lot more in high school.

PFnV

JJDChE

I thoroughly disagree. Why would they want that? Great teams create excitement. The league would be boring as hell if no one was better than 10-6.

I believe people have grossly misinterpreted "what the league wants".

The point of the salary cap and free agency is to give every team a shot at the beginning of the season, and it does exactly that.

I really don't know where this idea that the league wants everyone to be around 8-8 came from. I'd love to see some proof from the league management that this is what they were interested in when they instituted the salary cap and free agency.

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JoeSixPat

If coaches were listed on the injury report I'd have him down as "doubtful".

I have a feeling Eric MangIdiot is going to have a bad bout with the flu that day.

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