Eric Rowe Responds To Josh Norman's Comments About His Super Bowl Performance

[neuronet]

That's a ridiculous comment. Butler had been the team's CB for years (you may remember that started off with a certain play in an earlier SB), and Rowe was a last minute replacement. It's one thing for Rowe to search for motivation fuel by taking even the mildest of statements as a challenge. It's another for non-involved people to get panties in a twist over a statement that was completely non-controversial to any objectively thinking outsider, such as Norman's.


Rowe - 2nd round pick who was traded for a 4th just a year later, has played in just 17 games over the past 2 seasons, and has just 15 starts in 3 seasons and just 3 last season.

Butler - UDFA who made possibly the biggest play in SB history, has started 48 games in 4 seasons, including all but 1 game in his last 3 seasons, and who was voted to the AP 2nd team All-Pro in 2016

how does that contradict anything I wrote?

 

[tasmlab]

So Josh Norman thinks the Patriots should've played Butler over Rowe in the most important game of the year?? Controversial!

 

[Deus Irae]

how does that contradict anything I wrote?

If you can't figure that out, it would seem that you are the person in need of learning the definition of respect.

Who’s Eric Rowe? I mean, I don’t know the guy and I’m not trying to disrespect him at all and I think he’s going to be a hell of a player once his time comes.

But at the end of the day, I think Malcolm Butler, is he not senior to Eric Rowe? So he’s been playing the position and he has that experience.

I respect Bill Belichick as a coach. I respect everything they do as an organization, but at the end of the day man, you have to put your best players in the game no matter what happens.”

 

[MassPats38]

There is no difference, and people here are doing the usual "Look, someone spoke about a Patriots player without performing fellatio on him. Therefore, that person is bad, and I'm going to insult him!" nonsense.

And the saying about glass houses has no application here.

Interesting take on what I said, Deus, as I recall saying nothing about the validity of Norman's comment other than it is, in fact, a criticism in substance. I was critiquing the specific source, not the comment. I don't believe that is difficult to discern from the very short statement. You may think Norman is the bomb. I don't. That is precisely what I was calling out. The fact you graft all of that onto my comment is impressive, as I do not even see a hint of your general classification in what I actually wrote.

I am not defending Rowe or anyone else in the secondary, nor will I attack a criticism of that performance from any source. They stunk in that game. Norman's comments are no more valid or invalid than the comments of every other outsider to the problem. Plenty of speculation without known data points, and lacking the most important data from game day status that I believe most opinions are lacking if they are to be informed. I don't claim to know the answer, but I will claim that the small handful of people who do know are not talking so we may never know. If you believe yourself or another has cracked this enigma code with actual facts, then feel free to enlighten the group. Otherwise, it is no more than base conjecture.

And a cornerback who is himself being critiqued for at time lackluster performance under a major contract (the article I linked to in my first post) offering a criticism of another NFL cornerback and his lackluster performance does not invoke the glass houses metaphor? Maybe you understand the expression differently.