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This is a thoughtful and reasonable defense of a position with which, on balance, I disagree. Mac WAS ill-treated, no question, but this is not a safe-space or a support group for the aggrieved. What matters going forward is how Mac responds to his (ill)treatment. That's what matters from a football perspective. If Mac is crushed beyond repair by such adversity as this, I doubt he would ever have been worth much anyway in the pressure cooker of starting as an NFL qb.It's not a hot take - it's based on what I saw unfold Monday night, which is the one of the ugliest scenes I've ever seen in the 20+ years I've been watching/writing about the team. That's not a take or an attempt to stir up controversy, that's my honest opinion. I don't remember ever seeing anything like that unfold - ever. It'll go down as a sequence of events I'll certainly never forget and, hindsight being 20/20, I think Bill probably would have also handled it differently.
Curran also agreed with that premise, which I included in the piece.
Lastly, it wasn't a hit piece on Bill. This was more an indictment on the fans than Bill, albeit how he handled it did lead to what we saw go down. And I'm pretty sure most people on here know I'm anything but a Bill-basher. I've always erred on the side of "wait and see" with Bill and this football team, which typically frustrates the people who are usually riled up after the team starts out slow every season.
So I think my history there is pretty well established. However, I do feel it was one of the few mistakes I've ever seen him make. And I'm not going to not write about something unless I feel like I can be balanced and fair about it.
As far as Mac goes, it is what it is and whoever is the starting QB is obviously someone I'll support. But no player, regardless of how you feel about it, should have had to endure or be treated the way he was Monday night. And if Belichick had any doubts about his health at all, he could have avoided that entire scenario and just started Zappe. He's the first guy to downplay the QB situation as it is, so I don't see what the issue would have been in keeping him in there for another week.
Alarmist nonsense.
I was going to be "that guy" but then looked it up first, and was fascinated to find that "one foul swoop" is apparently a much beloved current rendering of the phrase. So if you're a prescriptivist or a Shakespeare fan, "fell" is correct, albeit indecipherable to the masses today. If you're a descriptivist -- and we all are, unless we persist on the original, pre-vowel-shift pronunciations (just for example) -- you're good with the "one foul swoop." It sounds to me too much like something the British would say during baseball, if they played baseball right.
I'm with you on this, and I hit a wall with the report that both QBs would play in the second half, which never happened. Sorry, I ran out of Twister Board to accept all this as a planned deal.
. It was a good, and informative, take.I kind of like the suck-it-up-buttercup take regarding Mac's internal state. I've had it with the tone that refers to how fragile he is. He's got to tough it out if someone else has the inside track until he's "right," and he needs to see that might just be forever. Yes, new system. Yes, he misses Josh. But no, the system doesnt change to become whatever he is.
This was historical mistreatment of a quarterback the likes of which the world has never seen. He was ready to win this game, in fact he did win this game.
nesn.com
One of the greatest virtues of the English language, an important source of its remarkable vigor, is that it welcomes new takes on old verbiage, unlike French, in which a bunch of fusty old anal retentives fastidiously curate very detail. That does not mean, however, that we must celebrate every lazy or ignorant neologism.I was going to be "that guy" but then looked it up first, and was fascinated to find that "one foul swoop" is apparently a much beloved current rendering of the phrase. So if you're a prescriptivist or a Shakespeare fan, "fell" is correct, albeit indecipherable to the masses today. If you're a descriptivist -- and we all are, unless we persist on the original, pre-vowel-shift pronunciations (just for example) -- you're good with the "one foul swoop." It sounds to me too much like something the British would say during baseball, if they played baseball right.
Side-track: "Fell" sounds more menacing. A "foul swoop" sounds sort of bad, but not the work of demonic forces. More just diseased. If "Fowl swoop" is added to the menu, you could easily imagine a raptor being involved, leading, no doubt, to the future bastardization, "One owl swoop." This is the slippery slope when a malapropism is treated as just an otherapproprism.
I'm with you on this, and I hit a wall with the report that both QBs would play in the second half, which never happened. Sorry, I ran out of Twister Board to accept all this as a planned deal.
I can brew up a conspiracy type scenario... forced by kraft to give Mac another shot at proving the Borg Collective First Round Pick correct, before doing what he really wants and proving his pick correct, the "what if...?" pick from round 4... whatever. What he really looks like in all this is indecisive. I never thought I would say that about BB. I hope I go "nowwwww I get it" sometime soon, but on this one I do believe he's flummoxed. non-plussed. At sixes and sevens.
PS to everybody, I sort of smelled in this really readable write-up the foul (or fell) stench of the medium in which Ian's swimming here on Pats Fans. I felt like I was reading a lot of the better takes here. I'm not accusing him of doing it on purpose to garner our clicks and loyalty, however that model appeals elsewhere. I am serious about this, it's the legit flattering version where you can see the thoughts of those in the forum reflected (not "ripped off" if such a thing is even possible) in his work. I think it is fun to see, no passive aggressive double meaning. And not taking anything away from you, @Ian; if anything, if it's at all intentional, it shows you know your audience.
(That said, we will be forever at odds at the present in-vogue practice of hyphenating every instance of a numeral appearing next to a noun. The hyphen is for compound modifiers, for example, a "250-yard game," but not "he threw for 250-yards." I know a lot of people are doing it, but I don't know any of the style manuals that say to do it. The difference is, in the first example, the number and the word, together, form an adjective. You could substitute, for example "decent," yielding a "decent game." I am putting this in fine print because I am not proud that I am compelled to be this pedantic.)
Back to prescriptivism and descriptivism
I kind of like the suck-it-up-buttercup take regarding Mac's internal state. I've had it with the tone that refers to how fragile he is. He's got to tough it out if someone else has the inside track until he's "right," and he needs to see that might just be forever. Yes, new system. Yes, he misses Josh. But no, the system doesnt change to become whatever he is.
Was there a thing about him wanting more RPO? Because you combine that with him resorting to runs during his short stint Monday, and we might have a really obvious reason to pull him (as yet another serviceable narrative bubbles to life in my fan imagination...)
This was historical mistreatment of a quarterback the likes of which the world has never seen. He was ready to win this game, in fact he did win this game.
Wait no that's not what happened.
I don't think I voted in that poll. Make it 89 for Zappe.
Go Vote. It's your duty.
www.gazettenet.com
Hope he's ready for this Jets D who can bring heat especially inside
So He "deserves" to start I hope Mac doesn't ruin our Sunday.“I always try to prepare as a starter. Like I always say, if it’s one snap or 70 I’ll be ready to go and that’s all you can do. You can’t really control anything else. I work really hard and put myself in position to do that and, yes, I think I deserve that.”
So Jones doesn't sound too butt hurt over his despicable treatment by the rabid fans. He's as c*cky as ever. He "deserves" to start. Ok then.
Daily Hampshire Gazette
The Daily Hampshire Gazette is the essential daily news source for the Pioneer Valley from Northampton, MA, in Franklin County.
It’s going to be a tough game for him. Sauce essentially shuts down one side of the field, and (even as a rookie) has the capability to erase anyone he covers. I’d think Saleh would have him shadowing Mac’s security blanket - Meyers - in man. Mac tends to look for him early on in his progression and, if it isn’t there, is mistake-prone.
