Someone asked me in a PM:
"Not sure WHY you do it, but you seem to go out of your way to defend the Colts spending habits. And, no, it doesn't come across as you correcting the person, it comes across as you defending the Colts."
I figured that I shared my response since I have been called on this board by my fellow Patriots fans a Colts troll.
My response was
"I am not a homer. I do not drink the kool-aid that says that the Pats have the only way of operating in the salary cap system. I have thought for a long time that Manning is a Hall of Fame quarterback and as such I always doubted that he would not win a Super Bowl."
There is no doubt Manning is a Hall of Fame QB, but that doesn't answer the question.
Sorry if I seem to beat up on you at times (beat up is the wrong word, as you more than hold your own).
It is actually good to have some independent analysts here, and it keeps us Pats fans thinking. But since this is a Pats fans board, you have to expect to be holding a mionority opinion. Most of us are not here to openly and objectively root for the best team in the league. We are here because we root for the Pats, win or lose.
BTW, the use of "homer" and "kool-aid" are pretty charged words, with negative import to fans, something like calling you a troll. Neither is correct or polite.
Fans root for their team. You may see it as drinking Kool-Aid, fans of the Pats think that with BB/SP's track record they may know a little more than we do, that while we can debate Curtis vs Welker on a stats and general performace basis, BB/SP are looking at what kind of a fit he is for the team with resokurces we couldn't dream of.
No one says they are infallible. Both had made errors of ommission and commisson. But far and away, we fans think that the job they've done is superior to anything yet seen with the Patriots and even perhaps the league. Certainly the current league. And that extends to the way they handle the cap.
But I'm not sure that we are critiquing the Colts only because they are the Colts. I think that if we did not have the $$$ to sign the FAs we wanted to keep and that we had a huge deferred charge account facing us, that we wouldn't be seriously discussing it. It is one thing to let players go when their $$$ do not equal their current value, it is quite another thing not to be able to get players needed/wanted becasue of the cap situation.
When BB first came here, supposedly he wanted to sign Priest Holmes but couldn't because of the Pats situation. That, to me, is an indication of poor cap management, of mortgaging the future too much. That is where I see teh Colts right now.
The Colts might be okay this year, though I suspect they may have issues on defense enless they draft extremely well. Next year will be wore, IMO.
Time will tell.