Yeahhhhh I get tired of the "I coulda done it better" crowd too, but I'm of two minds on this one. This was BB waiting until value was far lower than peak.
I think the Wickershamization of Pats Nation has begun. What
if it's true?
Then there are machinations that knock vertical leadership out of alignment.
Kraft, Brady, and Belichick are therefore knocking around like billiard balls within the Holy Trinity of Foxborough.
Naturally in the part of the world that we see, the results are chaotic. A blue-chip quarterback is shipped out for a 2nd. A cornerback is benched with zero warning. A
super bowl... ah say, ah say a
super bowl son... is
lost!
So like this guy you're responding to,
yes I'm tired of seeing this seeming cavalcade of puzzling data triggering people like freshmen in a liberal arts college.
I
must concoct a theory that explains it all. Wickersham's world helps with just about anything puzzling; it's like the three body problem in physics. Just plug in the mechanism and trace a line from the position of the three bodies in battle to the outcome at hand (p.s., the "Jimmy G for a 2nd" post he responded to did not invoke this mechanism. But note that the theorized mechanism works for that situation, and zillions of others.)
If Bill is salty, every wrong decision can either be a conscious, subconscious, or semiconscious FU to other members of the triad. It can also be his arrogant statement to the league that "Yeah I did that," hoping for it to work and not giving a damn if it doesn't.
Now let's match what we see to the BB we've always known.
He always does stuff that's a head scratcher if it doesn't work and doesn't get wrapped around the axle if it doesn't. Milloy is a classic example. He always "reaches" in the draft. He always calls plays that are either boneheaded or brilliant.
Right now I feel a strong pull toward the "Squabbling Trinity" theory, and who knows, maybe that's real. Again, I continue to await the tell-all.
I don't like the repetition of the obvious either - e.g. "wahhhhh we only got a 2nd for Jimmy G." I mean, you're looking at a great half a season and anointing him the second coming of TFB. (Just like we looked at him after 6 quarters of football.) He's been evaluated by upside only for a very long time. Give him a full season at the helm and see if SF is a SB winner. That'll tell you whether he's the second coming of TFB.
And if he is? He'll be the Great One Who Got Away. Live with it.
They had to make a call, and they made a call based on a guy who was good for 3 TD and 500 yards on the biggest stage. I'm pretty sure we don't have the option of saying "Sigh, you made the wrong call, Brady sucks now." Get there again, and I have no doubt he does it again, and puts the team on his back as needed - until the biological mechanism simply gives out.
What's the second-best complaint? Right, we didn't get good draft value for him.
This is a crushing revelation, because the Patriots have so often relied on blue-chip high draft picks to build the team
[/irony]
BB made a call based on what he knew at the time he made the call. He held the insurance policy too long to sell it.
Hindsight leads to a methodical mental error, the removal of time from the equation.
Now maybe what BB
really wanted to do was pull the trigger at the "right" time, ship Brady out and go into battle with Jimmy G, but he was stopped by the Great Kraft-Brady Conspiracy.
That would have the same outcome as a considered decision to take the same non-action when Jimmy G's value was greatest.
Then maybe Bill B shipped out Jimmy G at the last minute to get
something of value, forced once again by the Great Kraft-Brady Conspiracy -- having lost the Jimmy G battle for good.
And maybe the pressure I feel in my nether regions at present is not the need for a vigorous morning constitutional, but the need for monkeys to fly out of my colon. Who knows.
What we do know is that BB made the call. That's it.
The rest of it is theory, hypothesis, and gossip.
So yeah I get irritated when people say we "woulda shoulda coulda" got better than a 2nd in the deal. Pretty much chump change by comparison to the big question. I would not put it past the cold heartless BB and co. to put Jimmy G. in a position they thought/knew he could live with (as opposed to dealing him to, for example, Cleveland.)
Of course, I don't get personal about it... I just think there's a narrative that's seeped in about a soap opera that we don't really know is happening, and it underlies a whole new level of "I have a right to question this team."
Also we didn't win the Super Bowl.
So at times like this, that makes me the "observer" type of fan rather than the "I know what explains that and I don't like it" kind of fan. I just accept that there are different kinds of fans, just like I accept that there are unknowns in football.
Morning rant over, the monkeys want out