Wilbon: Redskins could go farther than Patriots

[PatsFaninAZ]

Why does this bother people so much?

I can guarantee that the next time there is a 16-0 team headed into the playoffs, people will write stories speculating on situations in which they are potentially beatable. It's the natural story to write. It's the story I'd write.

People get so freaked out on this board about the "blueprint" stuff, or about sports columnists suggesting scenarios where the patriots could lose. It's a huge compliment. It's a natural question begged by 16-0.

You see it in every sport all the time. It's nothing more than a variation on the classic, "Can anyone beat the [fill in the blank]." Whether the Yankees, the undefeated USC Trojans a few years ago, or whatever, it's just a classic variant on a classic theme.

Wilbon covers the Redskins. While he also has a national sports presence, he also has a local one -- they are on his beat, as they were on Tony Kornheiser's when he was a more frequent columnist for the Post. Wilbon has picked up the slack since Kornheiser got his radio show and MNF gig. (Some of Kornheiser's columns about the Redskins "bandwaggon" back when they were good and played in a rocking RFK every week are classics.)

 

[Bella*chick]

If I see him at the mall again, I will seriously have to rip into him.

That said, I'm sure that these writers don't actually believe 90% of the sh*t they write.

 

[carolinatony]

I stopped watching PTI and will NEVER watch it as long as he is on it!

 

[FrontSeven]

I'm getting really tired of people trying desperately to come up with ways to discredit the Patriots 16-0 season.

He's not discrediting anything, he's just reminding us that they can still be beaten.

16-0 is in the past. What comes next is not locked up until they play and win the games.

 

[cincipatsfan]

This is the same guy that wrote that Sean Taylor got what he deserved for embracing the life of a thug. If you want to see some real hate posts, go over to the Skins website and search for posts with Wilbon's name. They would burn him at the stake if they could.

Zero credibility.

Having said that, I'm putting them all on ignore. Like has been said, writing that the Pats will go down in the playoffs sells.

 

[brdmaverick]

I shi!t you not

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22463138/

we should ask him if he would put money on it

then i think we would see how lose his term of 'could' goes

 

[ClevTrev]

Much ado about nothing. We'll read more and more articles like this in the future. Grow a thicker skin . . .

 

[Terry Glenn is a cowgirl]

Who is Wilbon?

Is he related to Waldo?

 

[spacecrime]

Actually the Redskins will be going a lot further than the Patriots in January.

First stop across the country to Seattle. It is impossible for the Redskins to have a home game this season.

On the other hand the Patriots won't be leaving Foxboro until the SB.

 

[NormZauchin]

I'm a transplanted New Englander and have lived in the Washington area for more than 30 years. I have regularly read Wilbon's column. Ever since the Patriots became a Super Bowl contender in 2001, he has almost always picked them to lose in playoff games. The only thing new about today's article was his combining his homer instincts (he likes to pick the Wizards to win the NBA title) with his prejudice against the Patriots.

 

[Fanfrom1960]

I'm a transplanted New Englander and have lived in the Washington area for more than 30 years. I have regularly read Wilbon's column. Ever since the Patriots became a Super Bowl contender in 2001, he has almost always picked them to lose in playoff games. The only thing new about today's article was his combining his homer instincts (he likes to pick the Wizards to win the NBA title) with his prejudice against the Patriots.

Norm Zauchin, bet there aren't more than a handful of Patsfans that remember him. If not too personal, how'd you pick that moniker?

I used to like Wilbon OK, but his high octave shrill voice, which continues to go higher, bugs me. I stopped watching PTI because of him also.

 

[godef]

I shi!t you not

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22463138/

Well, they could, but only because the NFC play-off pool is so much weaker than the AFC.

 

[PatsWickedPissah]

And an asteroid could hit Mars next month. Also one chance in 20 or less.

 

[Boston Jay]

Redskins could go farther than the Pats because anyone can win the NFC this year.

 

[Satchboogie3]

It's all suggestive. By using the phrase "could possibly wind up going further in the playoffs than the Patriots." they imply that the Pats will lose, and will try to take the credit for predicting it. If the Skins get knocked out of the playoffs and the Pats win the SB, they would just claim they simply stated it as a possibility, not what was likely to happen. It's ****ty journalism.

 

[ctsports]

I could sleep with one of the supermodels that Brady rejects, but being middle-aged, short, slightly overweight and married that is extremely unlikely. In the grand scheme of the NFL, the Redskins chances are only slightly better than mine.

 

[stcjones]

I'm getting really tired of people trying desperately to come up with ways to discredit the Patriots 16-0 season. They keep coming up with excuses such as "The Colts almost beat them", "The Eagles almost beat them", and "If Rex Ryan didn't call a time out, the Ravens would have beat them". Well guess what? Those teams didn't win. They cracked. A sign of a great team finds ways to win just like the Patriots showed us this year. No team is perfect, but the record indicates that the Patriots are. So far, no team has shown that they can beat the Patriots for 60 minutes. If the Pats win the superbowl, they are without a doubt the greatest team in NFL history.

Actually I agree with Brady when he said "I would have gotten it....I heard the whistle and stopped" (in regards to the 4th and inches play)....Fact is, Billick came out right after the game and said "Yeah we called it, we were in the wrong formation and they would have gotten the first there, so Rex called a time out so we could regroup" (not verbatim)......My feeling is that Brady gets that first down 99% of the time.....He and several of the lineman stopped their progression when the whistle blew....and then Balt's D lineman slammed Brady backwards to the ground..........Either way....it is irrelevant.....Patriots WIN!!!!! 16-0....NEW OWNERS OF THE PERFECT SEASON!!!!

 

[stcjones]

The Redskins are a 9-7 TEAM that won 4 games in a row to get into the playoffs......and the cowpokes didn't seem to go all out and were playing without TO......Now, there have not been too many 9-7 teams that have gotten into the playoffs.....but because the NFC IS SO FREAKING WEAK....they got in..........I don't have any worries about the redskins and to be honest .....I think Seattle will take care of them at home......

 

[AzPatsFan]

As a Taxachsuett native born and bred, I have lived most of my professional life as a technological nomad with a long stop off in metro DC, where I adopted a second team, the Skins. but my love for the Pats goes back to '62.

Now I dwell in Paradise. Eat your hearts out.

I have ALWAYS been astounded at the ability of the sports reporters from two daily newspapers to produce original and intriguing copy of and about the Redskins 365 days a year. You are deprived in Boston until the rise of Messrs. Reiss and Speers, since departed to write copy for a Team that plays but once every seven days.

You have lived with the sports Heda Hopper impersonator, and his emulators of the Sports writers fraternity; and a bunch or semi-illiterate baseball writers who let the daily box score write their copy, while doing a sports beat for the Sox. A literal license to steal.

They never had to look for anything at the constant Soap opera Fenway Country Club; and never learned how to write an original story that required them to dig.

All Wilbon said is that the Pats could go out in the Divisional round, or teh Conference round, and the Skins might survive beyond that . Big deal. And rocks could fallout of the sky too. (Oops, Sometimes the actually do !)

 

[Patriotic Fervor]

I don't understand this feeling at all. The Redskins, on paper, aren't bad. Aren't good either. Better than <i>some</i> 8-8/9-7 playoff teams of years past, worse than many teams that didn't make the playoffs and ultimately not very good at all.

Seattle's clearly the superior team and that's not because of anything good with Seattle. A healthy Dallas team trounces the Redskins.

Oh, I agree!

This is a writer engaging in puff writing, reeling off 6 numbers off the top of his head and saying, these could be the winning PowerBall numbers!

Makes compelling copy (a-hem!!!), but it has little in common with reality.