My questions are
1) Is he good enough for what he will cost?
2) Will he sit on the bench for any length of time if required for the team/does he understand that what coach says goes?
3) Will he "go dark" in terms of distractions? We demand that of everybody ranging from the rookies to the GOAT. Wes Welker ruffled feathers just by teasing Rex Ryan about his foot fetish.. and it's not like that could stir up emotions in the locker room.
I mean, yeah, he could turn over a new leaf and thrive in NE, and we're one of the 32. I'd be fine with it. I even understand and support his logic about using his platform. In my perfect imaginary world, everybody on the Pats, the coaches, the management, et al, would agree with him, top to bottom, then it would not be divisive for the NEP to serve a dual purpose as a football team/social justice platform. Ideally, every gendarme in the 6 states would have an epiphone, announce en masse that they stand with Kap, and overnight inequities in enforcement stats would disappear.
But those outcomes will not happen. So what do I do, as a fan, with the realization that the core purpose of the NEP is to win football games? It's not like the team is segregated or something -- in that case, it would be wrong to say winning trumps the justice issue.
But the Pats succeed largely by tuning out the noise. Do they have to add another level of difficulty? They do have something on the line (objectively provable.)
I just feel like it falls on teams that permit other distractions generously, to invite the distraction Kap would bring, if he is using the time before the game as a platform. He's a match for a team that lets anybody say what they want at the podium, etc. etc. The Pats have worked hard not to have non-football statements be the focus of a NEP game/other event... am I missing counter-examples?
It seems that if they have a preexisting culture of noninvolvement in such statements -- and other teams have been generous in allowing freewheeling statements pre-game and off-field -- the Pats ain't where he should be, anymore than we needed Tebow kneeling and pointing at the sky (PS, weird how pointing at the sky makes it okay. But I digress.) (PPS, I am not sure whether Tebowing displays were going to be tolerated if he were any good.)
okay out of time, but thats my 2 cents
