USA Today: What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

PatriotsReign said:

Marijuana charges? It wouldn't bother me if 10 of our guys had reefer charges against them. I don't even consider smoking pot a crime. If my elderly mother & father smoked the stuff, it wouldn't bother me.

So let's not even count "marijuana" charges at all.

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I agree with your stance but it does not matter. Posession of marijuana is still a crime in this country and a crime in the NFL. For that reason alone, it must count.

BadMoFo said:

No one is saying the Pats are The Mean Machine, the writer is just pointing out that this seems out of character for a Patriots team. However, I think a lot of that has to do with the extra scrutiny we are getting following SpyGate.

Our crime rate is possibly the same as in years past, I don't know, but everyone will be looking at our team different because of our success these past few years, and unfortunately because of SpyGate, the perfect regular season and the Super Bowl loss.

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We had years where we had players total cars driving home from strip clubs and throwing scolding hot water on friends and accused of hitting girlfriends/wives. And that is a small sampling of some of the run ins with the law. Every team have those types of things. Let's face it, there are a lot of unsavory people and/or people with questionable judgement in the NFL.

I don't think the Patriots players who have gotten in trouble are facing any more scrutiny than in the past or than any other player gets scrutinized in today's NFL. I didn't think the Andrews or Faulk arrests got any more play than any other arrest of an NFL player at the time of their arrests. Even Kazcur hasn't gotten that much play eventhough it has a little more juice because of the who informant thing.

Personally, I think we as a group have become too defensive because of Spygate. Every little thing said about the Patriots have some people overreacting (like the throw away line from Felger about the near-dynasty). I look at this USA Today story as filler in a slow news cycle. Similiar articles have been written about Cincy, Dallas, and others in slow news cycles. It is way journalism is these days.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

KontradictioN said:

I agree with your stance but it does not matter. Posession of marijuana is still a crime in this country and a crime in the NFL. For that reason alone, it must count.

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I realize it's a crime, but I'm talking about a man's character. It does not lessen anyone's character as other REAL crimes do.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

Dino 5 Rings said:

I just want football. That's really it. I love talking smack, but my smack isn't going to be "you guys are all criminals" cause the Steelers have never been choir Boys. You don't get the name Mean Joe Greene because you're nice to people. I'll talk about records and games and plays that made me go, "holy ef" while watching them. I want college football back, pro football back, and on my TV all the time. Bring it on. I don't really care who's on my team's schedule, I want to watch my team, do its best, bring the heat, never back down and get victories, or if its a loss, at least lose with dignity and no regrets. I don't care if some guy smoked weed, or had a pain pill addiction, get help, move on. What do you do on the field? How did you perform on Sunday?

That's what I focus on, well that and making fun of Browns fans cause that's just a cheap easy good time.

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EXACTLY. Maybe some people here should ask themselves,

"Who the F*** am I to judge?"

Because the answer would be...No one.

Rob0729 said:

We had years where we had players total cars driving home from strip clubs and throwing scolding hot water on friends and accused of hitting girlfriends/wives. And that is a small sampling of some of the run ins with the law. Every team have those types of things. Let's face it, there are a lot of unsavory people and/or people with questionable judgement in the NFL.

I don't think the Patriots players who have gotten in trouble are facing any more scrutiny than in the past or than any other player gets scrutinized in today's NFL. I didn't think the Andrews or Faulk arrests got any more play than any other arrest of an NFL player at the time of their arrests. Even Kazcur hasn't gotten that much play eventhough it has a little more juice because of the who informant thing.

Personally, I think we as a group have become too defensive because of Spygate. Every little thing said about the Patriots have some people overreacting (like the throw away line from Felger about the near-dynasty). I look at this USA Today story as filler in a slow news cycle. Similiar articles have been written about Cincy, Dallas, and others in slow news cycles. It is way journalism is these days.

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I agree, mang. I think many people here have been whining for way too long and trying to play the victim.

Until we have a Rae Carruth, O.J. Simpson, Ray Lewis, PacMan Jones or possibly a Marvin Harrison type of situation here, we're pretty much angels. Dave Meggett did come close, though.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

PatriotsReign said:

EXACTLY. Maybe some people here should ask themselves,

"Who the F*** am I to judge?"

Because the answer would be...No one.

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You do realize that about half of a football fan's time is spent judging or ctiticizing people (players, coaches, execs and the media). If they didn't most message boards would be empty.

People love to pile on since the Super Bowl, but it has been a bad offseason. BB seems to have alot of haters.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

KontradictioN said:

I agree with your stance but it does not matter. Posession of marijuana is still a crime in this country and a crime in the NFL. For that reason alone, it must count.

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It does matter because the type of crime is the most important part of the equation. It's what decides freedom, and punishment, and even life. It is irresponsible to ignore what the infraction was just so you can categorize them all as crimes, for as we know, not all laws carry the same weight.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

bradmahn said:

Would I prefer not to see these things happening to the Patriots? Of course.

But I would much rather see something like marijuana possession, Kaczur's situation, and an illegitimate child (whose inclusion on this list seems ******* insane) than DUIs, assault, shootings, or hit-and-runs.

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I know you didn't mean anything by it, but I think it's time for a new term when referring to a child born to unmarried parents.

Re: USA Today:What's wrong in New England? Pats' bad luck keeps growing

BadMoFo said:

You do realize that about half of a football fan's time is spent judging or ctiticizing people (players, coaches, execs and the media). If they didn't most message boards would be empty.

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You're right BadMo, but your refering to judging talent and level of play. Not a man's character. I don't believe I have any more right to judge a football players character than I do yours.

But I guess that's just my opinion.

Also, keep in mind I was referring to a great post by Dino that is worth quoting again;

Dino 5 Rings said:

I just want football. That's really it. I love talking smack, but my smack isn't going to be "you guys are all criminals" cause the Steelers have never been choir Boys. You don't get the name Mean Joe Greene because you're nice to people. I'll talk about records and games and plays that made me go, "holy ef" while watching them. I want college football back, pro football back, and on my TV all the time. Bring it on. I don't really care who's on my team's schedule, I want to watch my team, do its best, bring the heat, never back down and get victories, or if its a loss, at least lose with dignity and no regrets. I don't care if some guy smoked weed, or had a pain pill addiction, get help, move on. What do you do on the field? How did you perform on Sunday?

That's what I focus on, well that and making fun of Browns fans cause that's just a cheap easy good time.

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Can't argue with what USA Today is stating in terms of the problems relating to Patriot players. Willie Andrews, Nick Kaczur, Kevin Faulk, Randy Moss, Tom Brady, Spygate, etc. are all legitimate and as Pats fans we can't say that we are the cleanest team in the league. But we can proudly say that we are not the dirtiest team.

Rest assure that I'll take this type of criticism. The violations are minimal and some aren't even violations but allegations. And it is just as much out of respect for how good the Patriots are than piling it on a bad team like the Dolphins.

BadMoFo said:

Our crime rate is possibly the same as in years past, I don't know,

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I think this is the most incidents a BB Pats team has ever had in just a few months. They have gone long stretches with nothing at all...not even accusations such as what occurred with Moss. The last even mild one I remember before all this crap is the time Ty Law got caught speeding (I think) in South Beach and he pulled the DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!?!? card. I think he was either fleeing/trying to flee or resisting arrest. Might have been after SB 39...right before he got the old heave ho. So yes, comparatively speaking I am QUITE disappointed with all the recent events.

TealSox said:

Can't argue with what USA Today is stating in terms of the problems relating to Patriot players. Willie Andrews, Nick Kaczur, Kevin Faulk, Randy Moss, Tom Brady, Spygate, etc. are all legitimate and as Pats fans we can't say that we are the cleanest team in the league. But we can proudly say that we are not the dirtiest team.

Rest assure that I'll take this type of criticism. The violations are minimal and some aren't even violations but allegations. And it is just as much out of respect for how good the Patriots are than piling it on a bad team like the Dolphins.

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Why would you include Tom Brady and Randy Moss in you list? Brady didn't do anything wrong and neither did Moss.