Something Strange Going On With Easterbrook

[chris_in_sunnyvale]

Yes, Easterbrook is a widely-read columnist, and to suggest he is a minor hack, along the lines of a, say, Eagle-Tribune reporter, is incorrect.

But to say that he has proven himself to be, "over the years", "focused on facts" is just weird. Hotel Easterbrook has actually been, over the years, a haven of haikus, cheerbabes, factoids, and endless repetition of the same four football insights. He is prolix beyond belief, and completely self-absorbed. Cold hard football facts? They are not the brew of choice in Hotel Easterbrook.

I was about to write pretty much this second paragraph, especially the bolded part. At first I thought those insights were interesting, then I noticed he kept bringing up the same insights. Basically, he has the same insights and just looks for instances in games to point to in order to repeat them.

I used to read his TMQ religiously, word-for-word. For the last two years, I just scanned it for the football stuff and ignored the cheerbabe, haiku and technical/political commentary. This year, for week one I simply scanned it for any Patriots-only reference and planned on doing so for the rest of the year. With cameragate and his weeks 2 and 3 frothing over the "scandal", I'm not sure I'll even bother scanning for his Pats comments.

Regards,
Chris

 

[Deus Irae]

There is no axe, but fact remains, there was a bunch of hub-bub, an expectation of more to come, then shear silence, that's all.

So, now King is your buddy again because he said something that looks favorable to the Pats?? Listen, if it were not important, and gave miniscule advantage, then they wouldn't do it. If that truely IS all they look for(tendancies), why waste those resources and chance getting caught? Get the binoculars out.

Where did I mention King?

 

[Brady'sButtBoy]

Yes, Easterbrook is a widely-read columnist, and to suggest he is a minor hack, along the lines of a, say, Eagle-Tribune reporter, is incorrect.

But to say that he has proven himself to be, "over the years", "focused on facts" is just weird. Hotel Easterbrook has actually been, over the years, a haven of haikus, cheerbabes, factoids, and endless repetition of the same four football insights. He is prolix beyond belief, and completely self-absorbed. Cold hard football facts? They are not the brew of choice in Hotel Easterbrook.

Numbers, yes. He has always loved to count things. But we are not dealing with statistics in these rabid columns. We're dealing with insane rage. You might be right (although I am skeptical) that he feels let down by big Bad Bill, that he's disappointed to think that his heroic franchise has a base of clay...but this issue is too important for the Patriots for us to allow him a free pass to wage what nearly amounts to a smear campaign because Greggy needs a moment to vent and to grow up.

This is a man who loves conspiracy theories, loves the idea of a puzzle palace, and intrigue...who has suggested "over the years" that the mean old Jews might, actually, consider not making life miserable for residents of the Hotel Easterbrook. And most of us are calling BS.

Dude, you either haven't been reading him ' "over the years" ' or have decided to succumb to your own "insane rage." Haikus make the guy inaccurate? Cheer babe recognition, even adulation means TMQ is a fool? TMQ continously has sought out factual explanations to football behavior - if you deny this then you have an agenda. TMQ couldn't be prolix, let alone "prolix beyond belief" - if he was, readers, by definition, would have found him tedious and wordy - hardly the description of a persistently popular column followed and read by fans while it has been recruited from one website to another then back.

The coldhardfootballfacts is a fine site I enjoy visiting - I'm glad it's not the only football writing online.

The ability for us to disagree without reflexively diminshing our opponent has become a forgotten talent, I would have hoped someone as intelligent as yourself could have set a better example for the rest of us to follow. It is only September after all....

 

[kolbitr]

Dude, you either haven't been reading him ' "over the years" ' or have decided to succumb to your own "insane rage." Haikus make the guy inaccurate? Cheer babe recognition, even adulation means TMQ is a fool? TMQ continously has sought out factual explanations to football behavior - if you deny this then you have an agenda. TMQ couldn't be prolix, let alone "prolix beyond belief" - if he was, readers, by definition, would have found him tedious and wordy - hardly the description of a persistently popular column followed and read by fans while it has been recruited from one website to another then back.

The coldhardfootballfacts is a fine site I enjoy visiting - I'm glad it's not the only football writing online.

The ability for us to disagree without reflexively diminshing our opponent has become a forgotten talent, I would have hoped someone as intelligent as yourself could have set a better example for the rest of us to follow. It is only September after all....

Uhh, no. Interest in bad poetry and good boobs have nothing to do with my irritation or his inaccuracy. But they have nothing to do with facts, either, so I would suggest putting them off to the side, in the pile of harmless and irrelevant bric-a-brac that have made TMQ a bit of a cult-hit. And as far as his prolixity goes--your appetite for repetition and occasional blowhardiness might be more tolerant than mine. But I can't imagine that anyone, even his most dedicated readers, would consider Easterbrook pithy. His columns are always lengthy, sometimes rambling, and yes, sometimes tedious. That never stopped me from making his page a semi-regular stop before. I just skim the boring chunks.

But this is a man who would have us believe that skimpy uniforms=football success. That punting is masochistic. That a butterfly wingbeat in Bengali might alter the fabric of the universe. He is an exaggerator, usually for comic effect. That's done in good fun. He is also an exaggerator for paranoid effect. That's done in bad faith; and to continue it, as he is doing here, without bothering to take a breath to consider the proportion of deed to damage, is behavior I consider foolish.

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

For "Fanzzz" of other teams, and for many who despised the Patriots long before this, any ending of the investigation would appear "abrupt". The longer it goes on, the more joy in the Pats' pain, and embarrassment. Such wishes are neither noble nor rational; there is no point in analyzing them, because their source is obvious. It is not really a fear/hope that the league might discover something new and horrible, but simply a sadistic pleasure in the scandal. Scandals never end...true or false, real or imagined, they can only fade away.

But after all, why shouldn't Fanzzz of other teams be upset? This Patriots team had already committed dozens of horrible crimes over the years: the head coach's disdain for fools and media (often the same people...like Easterbrook!), his lousy fashion sense (which in itself ought to have been punished with the snatching of draft picks, right?), the cruel and heartless mocking of simple showboaters like Merriman and T.O., the passionless way they went about the game, the lucky calls of 2001, the nasty physicality with which they played the Colts...

And the worst of all is New England's unfair decision to cease being the laughing stock of the NFL after decades of misery and pathetic performance, years of unfair officiating and game after game of being an easy butt-end for the mockery of simple and gentle showboaters such as Shannon Sharpe. Who are they to get so good? Why couldn't they keep being the Lions?

Asterisk away, haters and assclowns...your time will come.

Beautiful ending, kolbitr, beautiful ending!!!