The thing that gets me about these media portrayals is that the Patriots are cast as wussies.
Brady is a wimp. The offensive line can't take getting punched in the mouth. The defense is a pushover.
If anything, I look at the Patriots as exactly the opposite. I see physical deficiencies in terms of strength and speed (everyone excepting Gronk and Hernandez).
Brady is not the most imposing specimen for a QB, BJGE is not the fastest or biggest, Welker and Branch are shrimp-ly, our Dline is rotund and very un-JPP like, our LBs are unheralded other than Mayo, while our DBs are just a lost cause.
So how do they win: mental toughness. This is one of the hardest--no, I'll say, THE HARDEST, NFL team to beat. They are beatable, yes. Because there are more talented teams out there. But boy, if you want to beat them, you better bring it, because they will not yield an inch to you. You better be on your game and be ready for a real scrap. This team is simply gritty. They ARE tough. They personify tough, at least to me. Maybe not tough in the sense of badass (and I know football is one badass sport) but tough in the sense of being diligent, doing their job, fighting, not giving up, having pride in the team and in one another.
This is why I love this team. And I simply can't understand how in the world they've been cast as soft pushovers. Bizarre.
I'd rather the media talk about how the Giants are going to dominate because of the speed problems they present. That seems like a viable argument, but don't tell us about Eli's toughness and the relative lack of it in Brady.
