I think the bigger problem is that people compare every problem player with Moss and Dillon as if the situations are the same.
First, the Pats acquired Dillon under the Tagliabue regime. Back then, you could literally kill someone and get a slap on the wrist. Tagliabue gave Little a free pass killing someone for drunk driving which cost Donte Stallworth a season under Goodell.
Second, the Pats did extensive research on both Dillon and Moss (and most likely Holmes and Marshall) and determined that many of their attitude issues were overstated by the media. Also, neither had recent legal issues at the time the Pats acquired them.
Third, the Pats did find in their research that both Moss and Dillon were well liked in the lockerroom and were even leaders in their own right. Reports have both Holmes and Marshall unpopular with their teammates.
Now I don't know why specifically the Pats did not get Holmes or Marshall, but there were 30 other teams that were in the same boat as the Pats and some with a greater need for WR than them and potentially higher picks in the rounds to give up. But comparing them to Dillon and Moss and what the make up of the Pats lockerroom may be irrelevant.
I wouldn't mind having the talent of either Marshall or Holmes on this team, but they both have baggage. I think Marshall has too much baggage to make the risk the Dolphins did, but the Jets didn't risk much for Holmes' baggage.
I think that the reaction on this board has been exactly consistent with the reactions to everythig else that goes on.
There are groups of people who fit their mold:
1) Some (many) fans see tremendous value in individual players, almost as if they are replacing zero with All World. Those fans always see no downside in the negatives, feel we must have every superstud player out there and see us not getting any of them as a disaster and our competitors getting them as a death knell to us. The one player (or a handful) makes the team thinking. This approach is shared by most of the media, the ones that name 2 or 3 players and decide that makes a TEAM better.
2) Some (like me) think that the addition of one player (with a very few limited exceptions, maybe 5 in the league) is a moderate additive move. That we can live without any player, that accumulating talent isnt the goal, and that no one has ever accurately been able to look at individual talent and predict team results effectively and consistently, because its about 53 players not 5 or 3.
3) Some feel an entitlement, so they get upset whenever they can find reason to.
4) Some feel they are smarter than BB and crew so they use the opportunity to criticize and pile on (interestingly piling their own misconception on top of their previous misconceptions)
5) Some want the silver lining and focus only on the bad.
6) Some feel there is more that we dont know about these decisions than that we do, so they reserve opinion.
and so on. What we have here is everyone being themselves.
