Okay. I am going to try to be rational here for Sanvara and Dojo.
There is probably an impassable divide between what you believe, based on team loyalty, and what Pats fans believe, based on same. For the record, I too find "what if it's true" and "where there's smoke there's fire" to be pretty unconvincing, but that's beside the point. You guys like your team, and even though you're pulling the punches fairly politely based on trying to be decent guests, it seems very likely that you do believe Hardwick has a legit beef, based on the fact that he says so.
Okay, I'll let everybody else handle "burden of proof" and the available evidence la la la la.
Instead, I'll turn your attention to the reactions here, and the unfolding of media events you see in connection with the Pats. I urge you to remember these things, and stick it all in a little memory compartment, to be drawn on in the unlikely event that the Chargers ever become anything more than a one-and-done Super Bowl winner, if even that.
If they become the dynasty you pray they'll one day be, watch these random and proliferating charges, and learn from them. Don't get stuck on whether your team is "classy" -- because if they win, they won't be regarded as such. You can take that to the bank.
Now Uminyura has come out of the woodwork to keep the ball rolling on this "dirty play" theme. Guess what? I expect more guys to come out of the woodwork with these "charges". I don't care. Nobody else here cares.
Were the Chargers in our position, you would not care either. Not because "we're all the same," but because whether or not it's true, your Chargers would have been accused of every rotten trick under the sun by now --
if they were a dynasty of this magnitude.
I took a naive pride in the squeeky clean ultra classy media image of the Pats, but it did not take me long to realize that the media are fickle, and build pedestals narrow and tall, the better to topple from. And when you're falling, they're busy digging around the base of the pedestal to make the fall longer.
And they are always assisted by those you've stepped on on the way to the top, without fail.
So anyway, if your Chargers ever do sniff the level of success which we have had, and which we will continue to have into the foreseeable future, remember that jealous griping is simply the cost of excellence.
I think it more likely the Chargers can remain forever "young," by avoiding success. But the talent is there for the Chargers to have a shot, if they don't continue to self-destruct on an annual basis.
I know I've done a little of the Patriots bravado in this post. I just really want you guys to remember this, if you ever do ascend to the level we currently occupy. Just look back, and say "Ohhhhhh." You might even want to be the first on your local bulletin board to explain to the rest where the ride ends up.
By the way, as you could predict from the screed, we don't give a damn what Nick Hardwick thinks. We have a football game to get ready for
PFnV
