A crushing response to all the crying in NFL fan circles about those mean Patriots and Belicheat’s method of answering the charges that their rings are tainted and he needs to cheat in order to win:
Let’s start with a disclaimer: There’s no crying in football. You get your butt kicked like that, all you can do is suck it up.
Anyone who has a problem with what Bill Belichick is doing, there’s a real simple solution. Just make him stop. Make him punt. Pick off a pass. Do something about it. In the ultimate ubber-macho sport Belichick is letting everyone know each and every week who the Alpha Dog is and how loud he can bark….
In the middle of last week I was chatting in the parking lot with one of the veteran Redskins, who knew what is store. He wasn’t predicting the Redskins would get blown out, now, or anything of that nature, but what he did know is that if Belichick had any chance to run these Redskins off the field he would. “He don’t care man. That cat is going to (bleep) you up. He’s not going to do your job for you. I love that about him. Who don’t want to be a part of that?”
For all his personal flaws, and they are many, Belicheat is very, very good for the NFL. This destruction of the gentlemen’s mandate to quit playing while the game is still on promises to be a positive development for the league in the long run, as it will allow fans to see players playing for the full sixty minutes and prevent trailing coaches from their lame habit of playing conservatively in order to keep the score down.
Men love excellence. It’s telling that the veteran player’s response is not one of petty envy, but rather open admiration.
The Patriots are chasing history, and that’s what makes watching them all the more exciting even when they are blowing out careful, boring, losing teams like the Redskins.