- Joined
- Mar 19, 2006
- Messages
- 33,986
- Reaction score
- 14,475
Serious reply: I just posted over in one of the "Hate Kraft" threads (apparently it's a proxy for hating Goodell to hate Kraft for having too little spine).
My spin is I'm greatly disillusioned with Kraft and really disgusted with myself for thinking he's "different" and "really a fan." Bottom line: in the absence of weird league*-manufactured conflicts, Kraft is the dream owner. But these conflicts expose that our interests as fans do not, in such unusual circumstances, align with his interests as an owner.
And that's where it ends. You can't un-love the team, or at least I can't. It's irrational but that's how football loyalties work. Do what you would usually do, and forget the ideologues. Press them for an answer... they're all still going to or watching games, they're all still buying whatever they usually buy. If there's a huge organized boycott, what's the demand?
Let's face it, the whole point of the recent witch hunts has been "The Pats are too good. Let's over-enforce and over-penalize and make them a first round pick less good... then let's make something up and make them two more first-round picks less good..."
In other words, let's break up the Patriots. So by bailing on your team, even though you don't want to, you're doing Goodell's work for him.
Now here's where the logic loop comes in again. IF the League* would do this, THEN the League's* product should not be purchased. HOWEVER I still want the League*'s product, because... and here's the part a lot of people don't get... the Patriots are a part of the NFL*.
So if you still love the Pats, watch the Pats, buy the merchandise, get Sunday Ticket, do what you do. Once that ball gets snapped this becomes "that off-season stuff" again.
Just to cheer you up, there's an NBC Sports article on the Patsfans front page about how the chip in footballs doesn't measure PSI... a national (read, non-Pats) outlet is saying Goodell/Wells walked backwards from a guilty verdict and pointedly said that they've probably learned how the Ideal Gas Law works in cold-weather games (in other words, pointing out that it's a big secret what the League* learned in measuring PSI over last season). They full-on SAY that the league* railroaded the Pats. I dunno maybe it's not the national NBC outlet, maybe it's some local affiliate's website. But it's pretty heartening.
I'm a cheap SOB. But having lived out of the area since age 6, I greatly enjoy that it seems we're on national TV 6 to 8 games a year (when I was in grade school it was 2 a year, only because we got the Baltimore station). We have a die-hard Pats bar down here that I use to go to more... if I ever REALLY need to see them on an "untelevised" week it's a lock that it'll be on there.
What will you feel like if we're in the SB that could be #5 and you didn't watch the run?
If the answer is, "Game's fixed, don't care," well then go with your gut.
If the answer is, "Nooooooooo!!!," well, be the irrational fan that you are, dish out funds as necessary to buy the product from the evil League*, and hope that Goodell's days are numbered.
Ironic parting shot: .... though they probably aren't numbered, so long as the merchandise, gate, and broadcast funds keep rolling in
Eh well.
My spin is I'm greatly disillusioned with Kraft and really disgusted with myself for thinking he's "different" and "really a fan." Bottom line: in the absence of weird league*-manufactured conflicts, Kraft is the dream owner. But these conflicts expose that our interests as fans do not, in such unusual circumstances, align with his interests as an owner.
And that's where it ends. You can't un-love the team, or at least I can't. It's irrational but that's how football loyalties work. Do what you would usually do, and forget the ideologues. Press them for an answer... they're all still going to or watching games, they're all still buying whatever they usually buy. If there's a huge organized boycott, what's the demand?
Let's face it, the whole point of the recent witch hunts has been "The Pats are too good. Let's over-enforce and over-penalize and make them a first round pick less good... then let's make something up and make them two more first-round picks less good..."
In other words, let's break up the Patriots. So by bailing on your team, even though you don't want to, you're doing Goodell's work for him.
Now here's where the logic loop comes in again. IF the League* would do this, THEN the League's* product should not be purchased. HOWEVER I still want the League*'s product, because... and here's the part a lot of people don't get... the Patriots are a part of the NFL*.
So if you still love the Pats, watch the Pats, buy the merchandise, get Sunday Ticket, do what you do. Once that ball gets snapped this becomes "that off-season stuff" again.
Just to cheer you up, there's an NBC Sports article on the Patsfans front page about how the chip in footballs doesn't measure PSI... a national (read, non-Pats) outlet is saying Goodell/Wells walked backwards from a guilty verdict and pointedly said that they've probably learned how the Ideal Gas Law works in cold-weather games (in other words, pointing out that it's a big secret what the League* learned in measuring PSI over last season). They full-on SAY that the league* railroaded the Pats. I dunno maybe it's not the national NBC outlet, maybe it's some local affiliate's website. But it's pretty heartening.
I'm a cheap SOB. But having lived out of the area since age 6, I greatly enjoy that it seems we're on national TV 6 to 8 games a year (when I was in grade school it was 2 a year, only because we got the Baltimore station). We have a die-hard Pats bar down here that I use to go to more... if I ever REALLY need to see them on an "untelevised" week it's a lock that it'll be on there.
What will you feel like if we're in the SB that could be #5 and you didn't watch the run?
If the answer is, "Game's fixed, don't care," well then go with your gut.
If the answer is, "Nooooooooo!!!," well, be the irrational fan that you are, dish out funds as necessary to buy the product from the evil League*, and hope that Goodell's days are numbered.
Ironic parting shot: .... though they probably aren't numbered, so long as the merchandise, gate, and broadcast funds keep rolling in
Eh well.