Steve Zabel
Banned
- Joined
- Dec 28, 2007
- Messages
- 38
- Reaction score
- 0
I hope you can forgive me. Life long Patriots fan from the late 60's-70's (Hate Fairbanks). I left our country to serve in 2 Gulf conflicts and have just got back after 6 years as a governement contractor. So my football acumen may be off. As I survey the landscape, I am drawn to several ironies that surround the Patriots from my time the new "PATS" and just wanted everyone's thought. When I left in 1991, Walpole High School drew more fans than the Patriots and the Dolphins were considered the model franchise. 18 years later (which I know is a long time) the Dolphins are on the 5th coach in 5 years and the Patriots are the NFL model.
In 1993, Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer were the 2 hot QB's drafted. If my memory serves me correctly, Mirer was considered the better player early on. By 1999 he had moved on to 4 teams, clearly not making the progress the pundits thought. Fast forward to 2001. We draft a skinny kid named Tom Brady, (who lets face it was so highly thought of that Damon/Brock Huard, Michael Bishop and Drew Bledsoe were ahead of him on the depth charts) In fact the Patriots give Bledsoe 100 million dollars to be the QB over the next 10 years. (I know it's romantic to say the Patriots knew what they had with Brady, but lets face it. Why give Bledsoe the money if you knew Brady was going to be the QB he is.)
An injury, a tuck game later, an ankle injury in the AFCCG vs. Pitt and a 48 yd FG later and a legend is born.
When you look back on it, has anyone asked what would have happened if Bledsoe did not get hurt vs. the Jets? If the refs had not called for a review of the fumble vs. Oakland?
I guess my point is in all walks of life people get luck, good and bad. It's what you do after you get that luck. I know luck is the product of hard work, but there are alot of people who work hard and just don't get the break.
I know. I was moved off a mortar line because I was considered too tall. 3 minutes after they moved me, the PFC who replaced me was killed by a sniper.
In 1993, Drew Bledsoe and Rick Mirer were the 2 hot QB's drafted. If my memory serves me correctly, Mirer was considered the better player early on. By 1999 he had moved on to 4 teams, clearly not making the progress the pundits thought. Fast forward to 2001. We draft a skinny kid named Tom Brady, (who lets face it was so highly thought of that Damon/Brock Huard, Michael Bishop and Drew Bledsoe were ahead of him on the depth charts) In fact the Patriots give Bledsoe 100 million dollars to be the QB over the next 10 years. (I know it's romantic to say the Patriots knew what they had with Brady, but lets face it. Why give Bledsoe the money if you knew Brady was going to be the QB he is.)
An injury, a tuck game later, an ankle injury in the AFCCG vs. Pitt and a 48 yd FG later and a legend is born.
When you look back on it, has anyone asked what would have happened if Bledsoe did not get hurt vs. the Jets? If the refs had not called for a review of the fumble vs. Oakland?
I guess my point is in all walks of life people get luck, good and bad. It's what you do after you get that luck. I know luck is the product of hard work, but there are alot of people who work hard and just don't get the break.
I know. I was moved off a mortar line because I was considered too tall. 3 minutes after they moved me, the PFC who replaced me was killed by a sniper.