I respect Peyton and actually like him as an actor, too.
What I can't stand (or couldn't stand) was the junk being spewed for the longest time about how he was the best QB in the league and would go down as the best of all time, meanwhile watching Brady and Belichick win SB after SB after SB and handily outplaying the Colts along the way.
After the Colts finally won theirs last year and people found it as evidence enough to back up their claim, my blood boiled. I had read a lot about how Brady had to constantly overcome people doubting him in life, in high school, in college and even in the NFL. Even after he had won 3 Super Bowls. The sons of Archie, on the other hand, were crowned the day they were able to throw a football.
When I saw Tom walk off the field last year in the AFCCG, and the look on Belichick's face, I knew this was going to be the result. But this revenge tour has much deeper roots than that game or Spygate. It's the culmination of a story that needed to end this way, for a franchise, a QB and a coach who have always been dismissed in favor of the media darlings and "NFL nobility". And for a gifted receiver crucified by the media his entire career. After this season, no one will ever forget the names Brady, Belichick or Moss, nor will they laugh at the Patriots franchise as a "never-could-get-it-done" or "one and done." The "Belichick Method" will be born.
Brady is the new Montana. Moss is the new Rice. Belichick is the new Bill Walsh. The Patriots are the new 80's/90's 49ers. No one will ever forget or overlook them now. They will each be considered the best until someone else far down the line assembles the next dynasty of this magnitude. And like Bill Walsh and Montana, Brady and Belichick will handle it with dignity and humility, as they have all along, letting history write itself. That's something that no media pundit or insecure, geriatric NFL squad can ever take away from them.
My disdain for Peyton starts and ends with the disproportionate amount of respect he's given compared to his contemporaries. This season has all but extinguished that for me. I feel like history is finally revealing the true story.
Christ, we have guys talking like we are going to lose to the Giants.
