Silver on the Pats @ CNNSI -- who's the source?

[NE39]

Could be from this year's class, which includes Graham and Banta-Cain.

Silver used to cover San Francisco, lives in the Bay Area and went to Cal --> which happens to be the school of Tully Banta-Cain, recently signed by the 49ers.

 

[zippo59]

Everyone who has played with Moss says he is competitive as hell. I'm willing to take their word over some ex-Patriot who won't even identify himself and has probably never even spoken to Moss.

 

[Born_a_Patriot]

It said he went to another team but Johnson didn't. Cross him off the list

Ahh! man....

 

[primetime]

Doesn't it say Willie McGinest?

McGinest is actually saying he thinks the veteran leaders in the locker room can control Moss. He said if they can't then Moss has some real problems and no one else will ever be able to control him. I took that as him endorsing the move, with trepidation.

It's a poorly written article. He never qualifies that he spoke with another player on condition of anonymity, though he seems to imply that. He simply jumps back and forth between McGinest and the mystery guy without saying that he's doing so. "The former Patriots player"... well what former Patriots player? You were just talking about Willie, but this doesn't fall in like with what Willie was saying. Maybe "the" should be "another."

That said, this is just another article about how the Patriots are selling out with their values and all this jazz. I don't get it. I wasn't aware that the NFL was some kind of Church, and the players were all saints. They're obviously not.

 

[mcsully]

The writer fails to understand the fact Moss did give up money even if he thinks Oakland would have cut him (which would have never happened).. FYI there was other teams interested.. Namely the Packers. And they wanted him out right without a pay cut .. SO yes RANDY MOSS redid his contract and gave up money.. Its a fact.

Conclusion - Slanted view towards the facts..

 

[patsacolachick]

I don't believe there is a former player. Seriously, this former player says he was told to be more "virtuous" than players on other teams. LOL, does anyone really believe the Pats teach a "Morally Superior" class to their players???? If he would have said "we were told to behave ourselves and not embarass the organization", that I could live with, but told to be more virtuous??? Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

My bet is it's the whiney ex-Patriot kicker

 

[Mooch]

My bet is it's the whiney ex-Patriot kicker

Ding Ding Ding!

That's who I thought of immediately.

 

[Barnsie]

The Patriots are supposed to win with heart and soul and virtue - nothing more. We aren't supposed to upgrade our team with better football players. Why would we ever want to give Tom Brady, one of the best QBs to ever play the game, some legitimate WR options? He should be condemned to forever play with the WR scrap heap so that we might dream of what could have been.

And we should never give a player with baggage a chance. We are better people than everybody else.

 

[Mike the Brit]

My bet is it's the whiney ex-Patriot kicker

Could be, but they've just won a Superbowl and it sounds odd to say that the only difference between the Patriots and the unnamed one's organization is that the Patriots have Brady.

Certainly, the guy (if he's being quoted accurately) is quite articulate. Why hasn't anyone guessed Christian Fauria? (Reserve guess: Matt Chatham.)

 

[The Boston Patriot]

My bet is it's the whiney ex-Patriot kicker

Bingo! We Have Bingo!

 

[zippo59]

Could be, but they've just won a Superbowl and it sounds odd to say that the only difference between the Patriots and the unnamed one's organization is that the Patriots have Brady.

Certainly, the guy (if he's being quoted accurately) is quite articulate. Why hasn't anyone guessed Christian Fauria? (Reserve guess: Matt Chatham.)

I don't think Christian Fauria would ever say that. The Matt Chatham guess sounds right on the money to me.

 

[kolbitr]

Silver likes to antagonize...he loves celebrity, and doesn't really understand football. He is more like a Variety or Vanity Fair columnist--he's really only interested in the stars. A team like NE can't possibly have any interest for him.

This is a lot of nonsense about how the Patriots have claimed that they are perfect and angelic. I can't remember anyone ever claiming that inside the organization. What they have been about is TEAM, UNITY, and WINNING.

Having said that, the question should not be whether the Patriots have lost their way by signing a wide receiver who is not a choirboy, but rather whether they have made a mistake by signing someone perceived as self-centered. BB seems to think that Moss can transcend that and work as part of a team...not sure he would be the first player who has had issues with maturity and wanting attention. Ty Law did, at times, as did Vinatieri. While they were here, they provided some great memories.

 

[The Gr8est]

When I was reading this, the name of the recently released, Joe Andruzzi, jumped out at me. He was pissed that the Pats refused to overpay him, and now the Browns are no longer willing to overpay him either.

 

[PatsDeb]

I'd say the unnamed player is Deion Branch.

 

[Pat_Nasty]

How dare the Patriots choose to not live up to Michael Silver's misconceptions about them.

 

[onegameatatime]

These articles stink.

1. What has Moss ever done bad on this team? If he's an a-- and the team enables it, I'll be first to criticize. I doubt this will happen.

2. Why the need to set up ridiculously exaggerated strawmen?

"But I'll tell you this: I sure am sick of hearing the Patriots portrayed as the sole NFL team with principles and integrity, while their 31 competitors are depicted as heartless mercenaries who'd employ, say, Mel Gibson if he could run a 4.3 40 and play press coverage. (He definitely knows how to backpedal.)"

Most people think Pittsburgh, Denver, Philadelphia, and others are model franchises too. Philly especially is a class act -- and when TO got to be too much, they cut him off.

3. "It's hard to picture Moss not being motivated to be a good soldier in New England. If he shuts up and focuses and works hard for the next nine months, he may well end up celebrating a career resurrection, enjoying the fat contract that inevitably will follow and being re-branded as a champion who restored the Patriots' winning aura. If so, everyone will say and write that the Pats, because of their emphasis on character and integrity, were able to bring out the best in Moss, who was really just a misunderstood warrior all along. And that, of course, will be complete and utter crap."

I would not say he was just misunderstood all along, but what if the Pats can get the most out of him? Does that not say seomthing good about the Pats?

4. I know not to expect athletes to be geniuses, but:

"I'm not mad that they did this," the former Patriots player said. "I'm mad that for all these years, when everyone wrote that their values were different, they ate it up. They're no different than anyone else, and they never were. We had a run, and the rest is just propaganda."

Sounds like he's mad at the Pats because the media fell over themselves? it's not really like BB has done things to endear himself to the press anyway.

5. "As the former Pats player concluded, "When we were winning championships, it wasn't just that we were good -- it had to be that we were smarter, more principled and more virtuous than everybody else. And now that I've thought it through, I don't understand why. Look, they have a great owner and a brilliant coach; they evaluate players well, and they have Tom Brady. Why can't that be enough?" "

Again, blaming the Pats for media hype?

6. What an idiot.

 

[TeamFirst]

I think it is the former kicker as well. Who else could it be noone other than Adam has been successful after leaving the Pats.

 

[Kdo5]

I'd say the unnamed player is Deion Branch.

Nah Meion was actually telling Stallworth how good the Patriots were and that they would be a really good team to go to. So it didnt sound like he was all that bitter once he got moved to Seattle.

 

[bradmahn]

My favorite part is that he uses this anonymous source (Vinatieri, anybody?) who basically says "that whole moral highground stuff is a bunch of bull, they weren't doing that when they were winning" but Silverman still maintains that the Pats are leaving the path they've taken to get where they are today. I usually like Silverman, he's pretty entertaining (usually) and he also is generally unbiased (except when it comes to Cal), but he comes off as an ******* in this one.