Some random takeaways from Week 6:
1) Here’s hoping NFL officials don’t turn into baseball umpires. Next year, they are finally bringing in the machines to electronically verify balls and strikes, as it is amazing that so many umpires have such a poor handle on the strike zone. With so many great NFL officials of past years now retiring, the new ones don’t always look like they can handle the pressure of these big games.
2) If there was a magnanimous TV station or streaming service in Charlotte, NC or one of the other big cities in the Tar Heel state, they should show a replay of each Patriot game and let them see clearly how well their son Drake Maye is doing. The things that are going on with UNC football are stupefyingly awful. It has to be a service where Bill Belichick has no control over, otherwise it won’t be shown.
3) Speaking of our former Patriot boss, what would happen if Bill told Jordan to hit the road and find someone who isn’t in AARP?
4) Penny for Woody Johnson’s thoughts. Born into the Johnson & Johnson family, he bought the Jets in 2000 a few years after Leon Hess died. The first thing he saw was Belichick resigning as HC of the NYJ. Since then, the Jets have been the consistent laughing stock of the league. This is 25 years now. They hosted Hard Knocks a few years back and all that produced was some new cuss words we learned from Robert Saleh and some of his assistants. No objection as to the language, every colorful word was needed and used in the correct situation. I wonder if Woody Johnson does the same thing when he’s alone in his office or at home.
5) We know that Ohio State is one of those universities who consistently produces NFL-ready players when they decide to leave Columbus. But their wide receivers over the last ten years is ridiculous. I would not be surprised if Rick Day starts getting orders from NFL GMs. In the 1980s, when yours truly attended Michigan, they had posters saying “Grow ‘em for Bo!”, with Bo meaning Bo Schembechler, their legendary head coach. They should be telling Ohio parents to “grow ‘em for Day” except let the parents know for which position.
6) Kansas City’s better days already seem like they are in the rearview mirror. And then Patrick Mahomes drops 30 points on Detroit. Not so fast, Chief haters.
![[⚠️ Suspicious Content] Aug 16, 2025; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; New England Patriots wide receiver Efton Chism III (86) reacts after a touchdown against the Minnesota Vikings during the second quarter at U.S. Bank Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images](https://www.patsfans.com/patriots/blog/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/USATSI_26862008_168390408_lowres.jpg)
7) I wonder what the league thinks now of the Patriots wide receiver room? Don’t forget, we still haven’t seen the newest up and coming NFL phenom, Efton Chism III. He made his Patriot debut on Sunday on special teams. I remember another guy who cut his Patriot teeth on special teams and got his red jacket a few weeks ago. Julian Edelman’s career began this exact same way. When Chism pops one on a kickoff or punt return, let the dreaming begin.
8) Geek of the week: Adrian Hill and his pathetic officiating crew set officiating back about 50 years with that stinker of a job at New Orleans. If I were Pop Douglas, I would have spoken my mind, then take my league fine and make it out in a check for my favorite charity instead of the league office.
9) What is happening to the Baltimore Ravens right now is mind-numbing. My only hope is that Steve Bisciotti doesn’t do something stupid and fire John Harbaugh. This is just one of those years. Lamar Jackson may be useless in the postseason, but you need him to get there. With him hurt, your team suffers greatly. That said, fix that defense.
10) Rico Dowdle taunted the Carolina Panthers this week. He winds up scoring a touchdown and it’s a big deal. Wow, he backed it up. The only problem was that Dallas lost the game. Dowdle needs to learn to keep his big mouth shut until you cease being a nobody who was just some hothead shooting his mouth off.
11) Mac Jones continues to do well for the 49ers in relief of Brock Purdy. But Baker Mayfield is a little bit better. When the Patriots have to come to Tampa in a few weeks, they should call it the “May Bowl”. Maye versus Mayfield. That could be a good one, and a great measuring stick as to who the Patriots truly are.
12) We are already hearing two sentences that I wish would go away. They are: “Is Drake Maye in the conversation for MVP?” and “Are the Patriots now suddenly a Super Bowl contender?” My answers are “Probably”, “No” and “Shut the hell up”. Someone will decode Maye and it might be Tampa Bay that does it. Then what? How long before Maye and Josh McDaniels make the necessary adjustments they will someday inevitably have to make?
13) They had an interview this weekend with Puka Nacua. They showed him when he was 14 or something like that. He went from young ladykiller to grown up ladykiller who can also play football pretty damn good.
14) Back to school: Don’t tell me that basketball schools can’t also play football. That includes you, Mister Belichick. Watching Indiana power past Oregon in Eugene was nothing short of amazing. The Michigan Man in me hates the basketball Hoosiers (not the movie) but enjoys watching the football Hoosiers except against Michigan. The Board of Regents in Bloomington, Indiana is someday going to have to deal with expanding the woefully small and outdated Memorial Stadium and build a football version of Assembly Hall. In a conference loaded with huge stadiums, if Indiana still wants to sit at the big boy football table, a new stadium may have to be the way to go.
15) I did hear one sports writer this week yell out “Go get him!” If AJ Brown still gripes in Philadelphia, who in Patriot Nation wouldn’t love to see Mike Vrabel and Elliott Wolf try and make a trade. The Eagles are also in a down year. We’ve seen this before, where Nick Sirianni somehow resuscitates his team and has them ready for the playoffs in time. But Brown seems perpetually pissed off right now. Keep an eye on this.
16) Year in and year out, the worst grass in the league is in Pittsburgh. Someone should tell the Rooneys to re-carpet that surface. Did you see that field goal attempt by the Cleveland kicker where a divot went straight up in the air after the kick? You don’t see that much dirt clump up like that on most golf courses. And it’s been like that since the stadium opened some 25 years ago.
17) If I were the New York Jets, I would petition HRH King Charles for asylum. Going to a local pub and quaffing down a few Guinness stouts would be so much better than having to go back to ridicule in northern Joisey.
18) That said, how do y’all feel about all these European games? Would a European division be long in coming? Wake me up and let me know when Barcelona would have to travel to play at Seattle. Or vice versa.
19) What makes more sense is an 8-team league, and they play only each other and not have to travel across the pond. For the postseason, take the European champion and work them into the NFL playoffs. You could have two London teams, and one in Barcelona, Munich, Frankfort, maybe Madrid, and test market cities like Rome and Paris some day. Just for starters, and see what shakes.
20) Remember him: The Houston Oilers were the first great team in the AFL. They won the first two AFL titles in 1960 and 1961. Bud Adams never saw a title again over his long ownership of the Oilers, who then became the Titans and his daughter Amy Adams Strunk now owns them. Adams was one of those “tough guy” owners the new league so dearly needed. For the AFL to grow and prosper under guys like Harry Wismer and Billy Sullivan, that would never have happened. Adams, Joe Foss, Al Davis, David “Sonny” Werblin, Ralph Wilson, and Lamar Hunt were just the right men to do the impossible and bring the AFL to parity with the NFL. When one NFL owner said “They don’t have to call us Mister anymore”, Adams and his gang of renegades had won their battle. Adams died in 2013, but his fingerprints are all over the success of not just his Titans, but all the old AFL teams who are now firmly entrenched in the highest form of football in the world.
21) Honk if you are sick of two Monday Night games. Week one is okay. That’s enough. You usually can’t watch both unless you split your screens. One game is fine. For easterners, it’s an imposition to stay up until almost midnight for the second night in a row.
22) So how do you resolve it? Simple. Watch the Dodgers. That was a white knuckle NLCS Game 1 win over Milwaukee they pulled off as they try and become the first team since the Yankees to win back to back World Series. They were victimized by the strangest double play in playoff history yet still won.
Yawn. It’s time for bed where I’m at. I’ll settle in, my head will hit the pillow, and I’ll go to sleep smiling, knowing that the Patriots are now in first place in the AFC East. I’ll wake up tomorrow morning and it won’t be a dream.
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Covering Boston Sports since 1997. Native of Worcester, Mass. Attended UMass and Univ of Michigan. Lives in California. Just recently retired after 40 years of public school teaching. Podcasts on YouTube at @thepic4139
How about enough of the Belichick hate? Especially about his love life. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the relationship, they’re both adults. Can’t we just grow up and mind our own business? He worked his tail off for 20 years to bring us 6 championships. Regardless of whether any particular decisions were good or bad, how about we show a little loyalty for what he did for Patriots Nation.
Right on Brian. The venom towards BB is way overboard. And the media to me generated a lot of it. Why, cuz drama stories get eyeballs and mouse clicks. And so the media coverage will happen. It’s business. BB however put himself in his own spot and owns some of it. The media just capitalizes.
Great article Bob G. The media jumping to declare the Pats have passed the Bills in mid-Oct, and also start mentioning AFC contenders is way jumping ahead. Maye for MVP is the same. AJ Brown is seven years in the league and I heard he may have some knee issues. Getting him would improve the team but large contracts like Brown likely aren’t wise. my opin. The pats 2025 free cap space now is needed for next off-season (visa rolloever) as they sort have little next year. AJ Brown – Not. The Jets have in deed stunk the last 25… Read more »