My email to Kevin Hench

[BradyManny]

It's all about the bleating of the Ravens. The rest is just typical media piling on.

Whatever is going to sell the most stories, get the most ratings, is what the media will do. We should know that by now. Whether something makes sense or not.

Ray Lewis, amongst other things, is a gang-banger involved in a double homicide, so I'm not sure that if, logically, we should really pay much credence to his opinion on the violence of the game (I'm sure if he had his way, you could stab QBs and get away with it). But nothing in the sports media really needs to be all that logical.

 

[Lloyd_Christmas]

This story is really pissing me off. Today I had a normally sane and football savy coworker ask me why Tom Brady was such a ****ie that he had to have the Tom Brady rule called on a play where Ray Lewis never even touched his knee.

I couldn't help ripping him a new one for having no idea what he was talking about...

1) wasn't the Brady Rule
2) wansn't Ray Lewis
3) Sugggs actually tried to end his season, but Brady dodged *most* of the impact and it was still enough contact to draw a flag, especially given the intention

Seems like the Raven are getting rewarded for being a bunch of whining babies and the mediots keep pumping out the misinformation while the dumb masses are too stupid and/or lazy to look at the play closely themselves.

 

[Zeus]

New England Patriots 27 Baltimore Referees 21

That's all that matters. Everything else is BS. On to the next game ...

 

[Deus Irae]

Manning might be a similar lightning rod but the media piling on is has more to do with the fact that it's Tom Brady than it does with the Raven's bleating as you put it. The media now has another excuse to drag out a non story for the Patriot hating nation. Peyton crticism would likely be confined to Patriots fans and a few conference rivals....Cripes Polian would be proposing a Peyton knee touch suspension clause, lol.

Well, we disagree on this issue.

 

[BSR]

This current ferver is being caused both by the Raven's bleating and by the lightning rod that is the NE Patriots. The two of them together has set off this rather blatent crap storm. Those of us closest to the situation can see how the media is manipulating this by only casting these two plays into question while totally ignoring everyone of the other 22 RTP penalties called this year. If this truly were a referendum on whether RTP were over the top or not then all of those plays would be reviewed, someone would tell us which QBs get the calls and which don't. None of that has been done. This is just a story to get hits.

That being said, I'm over it. Like I said before, at its worst its a single bad call in a game. Big deal. Happens every game. Who cares. As for the idiots on the NFL message boards, just tell them to stop whinning.

 

[Wolfpack]

Whatever is going to sell the most stories, get the most ratings, is what the media will do. We should know that by now. Whether something makes sense or not.

Ray Lewis, amongst other things, is a gang-banger involved in a double homicide, so I'm not sure that if, logically, we should really pay much credence to his opinion on the violence of the game (I'm sure if he had his way, you could stab QBs and get away with it). But nothing in the sports media really needs to be all that logical.

"The football players at my school were really tough. After they sacked the quarterback, they went after his family. " - Rodney Dangerfield

 

[Ice_Ice_Brady]

The problem here is where were the media monkeys after week one when we got called for the Wilfork/Thomas penalties? Those two were worse than either Ravens calls.

This is only a problem because it's Brady.

Notice nobody mentiond the Mike Wright penalty. Can anyone guess why?

The danger here is that the league caves and it becomes open season on Brady'd knees.

Does anyone expect anything different anymore? Whatever miniscule advantage the Patriots receive, it's going to set off a firestorm from the media/ the other team. When the Patriots are the victim of some bad calls (Buffalo) there is no mention of it. I don't know why it's surprising. When Kobe Bryant whines about calls, and the refs call a foul, does that get ignored? Of course not. When the Charlotte Bobcats get a big call to win a game, does anyone care? Of course not. Teams like USC, the Lakers, the Yankees, and the Patriots will always be nitpicked for as long as they have their iconic players and coaches. That's the way it is, and the way it always will be.

By the way, not one major media article mentioned that Mike Wright's penalty was exactly the same type as Ngata's. Is anyone really surprised?

Also, it's funny that everyone is crying because Brady turned to the ref and "lobbied" for the call. I've never seen Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, or any quarterback in the NFL, ever, at any time, complain to the refs or make a case that there should/ should not be a penalty.

 

[mgcolby]

My reaction to the Brady is a ****y is this "yup, he's a ****y a ****y you would love to have on your team".

I was in Cleveland for the 2004 beatdown and a guy a few seats over kept calling Brady a ***got, I used this line and he shutup after stumbling over a few words trying to figure out what he could say to it. Since then, that has been my response to anyone who says anything of this nature.

 

[reflexblue]

Hench and his ilk know that trashing the Patriots is a gold mine. All the mindless minions tht watch fox,bspn eat it up.