.....or how about just acknowledging that Bob Kraft (who was grudgingly mentioned once in the column) has, in less than 20 years, achieved the once-unthinkable - - a privately funded state of the art stadium with a mini city around it in an outback town, while turning the region's long-held sports culture on its head. There is only one owner in the history of Boston/NE sports to come close to what this man has achieved and his name was Walter Brown.
Of course, in Ryan's (and the Globe's) mind, Gillette Stadium and Patriot Place were built by Bill Parcells, who also is responsible for the 3 Super Bowl Championships. That, and the Red Sox simply abdicated. Nothing achieved by the Patriots - - in fact, if they go 13-3 this year it is because they are playing nobody.
Here are word-for word excerpts from this "column":
"But then something happened, and that something was the hiring of the larger-than-life Bill Parcells by owner James Busch Chatsworth Osborne Orthwein."
"Well, he did come, and you can trace everything that’s going on today, from the presence of Bill Belichick, a Parcells acolyte, to the good fortune of having Tom Brady as the quarterback, to the very existence of Gillette Stadium itself, back to the hiring of Bill Parcells."
"The New England Patriots simply awoke on the morning of Aug. 26 and the town was officially theirs."
***And, now, here is the ending of this "Enjoy the rest of your lives, losers, I'm out" column by the fellow we thought had retired weeks ago:
"If any of us dwell on the reality that it is a semi-barbaric game that wrecks bodies, has the capacity to cause major brain injury, and speaks to our basest instincts, we do so only briefly, rationalizing negative thoughts away with the idea that, “Hey, these guys know the risks, and they are very happy to take them.”
You know how they love to make fun of us out there in the Great Beyond. We’re the weirdos who voted for McGovern, and who gave you Dukakis and Kerry (Mitt, we borrowed). Well, now we’re voting for football. That should make us legit.
By the way, it’s a 13-3 schedule, with only one of the on-paper tough games (Baltimore) on the road."
Talk about the bitter words of a jilted girlfriend!
