Please, Boston Sports Media is one of the saddest excuses for a website I've ever seen. A bunch of wannabe media members bitter because they don't have press passes. They live their normal lives throwing stones at glass houses behind the computer screens. Pete Sheppard is right, they'll call you a turd on the phone or over the internet and yet these are the same nimrods that will tell him "I love you Pete" when they meet him in person.
That being said, Bruce Allen is a total fraud and yes, everyone has already awarded the Patriots the Super Bowl. Felger is absolutely right. This fraud team was playing its best football in October. Championship teams don't let A.J. Feeley and Kyle Boller take them up and down the field.
Apparently you never watched the '72 Dolphins. The didn't dominate anyone in September through December playing a weak schedule. A number of fraud teams who went on to win superbowls were undefeated during the first 10, 12, 13 weeks of those seasons, only to be handed their first loss by a <gasp> sub .500 team. Go figure.
Holley briefly touched on a great point last night, then let it fizzle. Felger doesn't watch a lot of games beyond the Patriots except perhaps in highlights. Too busy being a multi mediot. (As proof I offer his comment/question to TB this week that the Jags play mostly zone, to which Tom - who has watched every tape of every game they have played in 12 years - replied, they mix it up and play some zone but tight zone that usually ends up in man...).
It's the inverse of most of the national pundits, who see copious highlights and scan volumes of locally subjective analysis on every team but seldom see entire games from any of them - let alone coaches tape. We often lack a rational perspective against which to compare our team because we focus so intently on every play they make or don't make and do not maintain anything resembling that focus for the weekly perfomances of the other 31. Other teams give up big plays, other players miss tackles, other corners allow completions, and defenses experience coverage breakdowns or lose focus. Bad teams inexplicable rise up, although it's generally a short lived rising.
It's just that in the case of THIS team they ALWAYS overcame their missteps and rose to the unexpected challenge, while others didn't always. THAT is the true mark of a champion. When you hear a critic state that the stats simply don't back what his eyes see, or better yet the score was deceiving, or they just didn't look balanced or dominant or focused or whatever, you would be well served to listen to what follows with a grain of salt. At the end of the day, for all teams, a win is a win. And all this team has done so far is win more consistently and consecutively in the regular season than any team in 35 years. That's all...
Teams are never perfect, just once in a long, long while team seasons are. Fans should be allowed to enjoy it. This team doesn't benefit from armchair criticism, as some teams sadly do. Belioli have forgotten more about football as a game and a business than any of the armchair critics, including message board warriors and mediots, will ever know. Fans, media, players, coaches - we all serve a role. I just think a couple of segments of us have failed to check our egos at the door and misinterpreted what our limited role in the process is. Felger is their poster boy. Enough said.
