Re: Goodell may have overstepped his bounds to help Rex Ryan bond with Santonio Holme
next you'll be blaming goodell for the pats losing in the playoffs 3 times in a row....jesus
I'm not sure if fans of other teams can understand how Pats fans feel about the entire Rat franchise. Before January 1997 I had no particular animosity towards them. You may think that the Pats-Rats animosity has always been there but it hasn't; at least for me, and I suspect most Pats fans.
Before then I referred to them as the "Jets", and they were just another divisional rival. I "hated" them in a sporting way, just like any other rival, but when the Rats tampered with Bill Parcells as we were getting ready to try and win our first Superbowl ever, that crossed a line into an act that was unforgivable and earned my scorn forever.
Now image someone showing you such blatant disregard and disrespect as if you don't count, you are of no more concern than the dirt on their shoes. All that mattered was getting a coach to help them break their long string of failure. That it hurt so many people who had worked so hard to get a chance to accomplish something gr8 was of no consideration to them. Tampering with our head coach was bad enough, but they couldn't even wait until AFTER the game was played and allow us to try and complete our goal. It wasn't as important as making sure that they got the coach for THEIR future.
Don't forget that up to that point, the Pats had had as pathetic a history as any franchise in any pro sport had ever had, and we were certainly not deserving of having our chance at winning a Superbowl derailed like this.
There has been no admission of fault or regret from that organization or their fan base, they just seem to have their entitled attitude so prevalent among fans of NY teams.
A San Diego fan, of all fan bases, should understand this. You know how hard it is to get to a Superbowl and how so many things need to go your way for it to happen.
Imagine how you would feel if the Chargers got to the Superbowl with Rivers, a pending free agent to be and winner of the MVP for the season, had the Broncos or Raiders contact him before the game about signing with them after the season; maybe they took him out and wined and dined him, and he seemed sluggish and possibly hung over and plays below par as the Chargers lose.
Now suppose that the Omissioner rules that these teams tampered and had illegal contact and docked each team a pick. How would that make YOU feel? You still lost the game!
Oh, and after that game the new Commisssioner is named and he has ties to the Raiders organization and the Raiders always have their transgressions ignored, while the Chargers are always being pursued for some transgression or other.
Back to the real life situation, Parcells ended up leaving the Pats; additionally, the Rats signed FA Curtis Martin to a "poison pill" contract that the Pats could not reasonably match. The Commissioner found the Rats owed the Pats damages and awarded the Pats some Rat draft picks, for which so many Rats fans seem to feel they were wronged by.
So fast forward to 2000 when Parcells is hemming and hawing about his future as the Rats head coach. The Pats are thought to be interested in hiring Bill Belichick, who followed Parcells to NY after the Rats tampered with Parcells, as their next head coach, and BB is thought to be interested.
Now the Rats still feel wronged by the Pats and don't want to let them have BB, even though there is nothing stopping him from taking the position, so they twist BB's arm to get him to sign a contract to be Parcells successor when he decides to step down. BB is so thrilled to be the next HC of the Rats that he resigns the next day after he is named HC.
The Commissioner found that BB was under contract to the Rats and the Pats would need to compensate the Rats. After a lot of wrangling the Pats finally agreed to pay a #1 pick to the Rats to have them release BB; in hindsight it was a bargain.
Now the Rats fans are dancing in the streets since they got a #1 pick for a guy who hadn't won anything and this was payback for them for Parcells and Martin since they somehow felt wronged by it.
Now the rest is history of course as BB authored a dynasty that is on the verge of beginning phase two.
Since then the Rats have tampered with Pats players who we were trying to re-sign such as Deion Branch and Lawyer Milloy, they have signed virtually every player who the Pats have cut, and even traded with the Lions to acquire Kevin O'Connell, since they claimed him before the Rats could. They have hired coaches away from us, such as Eric Mangini, and the Pats have never denied them to talk with a coach who was eligible for a promotion.
Not just the Rats have hired away our coaches either, and I defy you to find a team that has had to replace as many coaches as the Pats have had hired away from them. This is a burden that not many fans even think about and this has meant that BB has had to carry so much of the work load compared to other coaches.
Now the Rats have a commissioner who ignores Rats' transgressions, many of which have been previously mentioned in this thread, and has been shown to have grown up a Rats fan and is very pro NY.
Now try to begin putting this in the perspective of a divisional rival using league contacts to try and bring you down to the level of your chief divisional rival who is unable to do it for themselves.
Consider this and maybe you can begin to understand that Pats fans' grievances against the Rats and the Omissioner are not imagined, and based in fact.
