Stats on Pats Weekly - I Hate the Pre-Season
Article by Raleigh Dugal, southcoast247.com correspondent
I Hate the Pre-Season
I hate the preseason. By the end of summer the MLB playoffs still seem like an eternity away, and the hunger for the NFL to storm in with a monstrous change of pace waxes strong. Unfortunately, all that arrives is sloppy football, peppered with a few mildly exciting plays and a lot of circumstantial hype. Round that out with a gigantic side of freshly convicted Michael Vick and all you have is a seriously meaningless month of additional anticipation, made worse by the fact that you are actually watching football and feel like it should be interesting. The potpourri of players on the field at any given moment, combined with the mash-up of trial and error plays teams are working out, is never representative a football-future. In the Patriots final 27-20 win against the Giants, Belichick stayed consistent with years past and kept the starters at bay to let the scrubs battle it out for remaining roster spots. Guys like Randy Moss, Lawre nce Maroney, and Dante Stallworth, whom fans have been salivating for, mostly rested on their laurels.
Samuel is locked up, thankfully not in federal prison
No, the big stories in the Patriots' preseason happened off the field. Number one: re-signing CB Asante Samuel. Last year, everyone watched him bait and hook so many QBs he could have run a tackle shop. But the fact of the matter is New England would have made do without Samuel, like they did without Ty Law to win their third Super Bowl. Signing Samuel preserves the Pat's highly touted system, by which players are treated with cold business acumen to the letter of their contracts. Avoiding a repeat of the ugly Deion Branch saga keeps Belichick and Company's cojones intact and discourages other key players from trying to opt out and "Get Paid".
More intangibly, the birth of Tom Brady's baby, John Edward Thomas Moynahan, sheds a load of baggage. Last year when the news hit that Bridget had been knocked up, media pundits across the nation debated whether the Super Bowl champ who'd recently dumped his lady for internationally renowned supermodel Gisele could maintain his golden boy status. Well aware of the typical extracurricular activities of guys like Shawn Kemp, most of the real sports media understood the irrelevance of Brady's paternal status, but the pink-hats and People magazine crowd couldn't help but beat the issue into baby-pulp. With the pregnancy over, the number of ridiculous non-football questions posed to Brady will be next to nil, and he'll be able to focus on the pigskin. The only controversy left is why this poor little boy received the surname of B-list actress Bridget Moynahan and not one of the greatest quarterback s of the modern era, if not all time.
These are the only people who care about Tom Brady's baby
In spite of a weak division, the Patriots are looking at some tough games. Look for the Jets to play them tough in New York in the opener and San Diego to bring a seething sense of revenge to Foxboro in week two. They'll sweep Miami since they've avoided the September jinx and don't head to Florida until late October. Teams like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Dallas, who were supposed to be good last year and weren't, could also put a dent in the Pats plans. My take-off predictions: Losses to San Diego and maybe Cincinnati, as the Pats like to start slow and play for the long haul. They'll probably drop at least one division game, though I just can't imagine that happening. They should skunk the inferior NFC East and will probably drop at least one game to the annoying AFC North, a division of loudmouth teams plus Cleveland. The highlight of the 13-3 season will be a pasting of the depleted Colts.
I bid farewell and good luck to Josh Bonneau, my Stats on Pats predecessor. Lots of luck to J.B. in law school, where he will hopefully grow well-versed in bending the judicial system to his will and return home to make various speeding tickets disappear for the SC247 staff. May I live up to Josh's sarcastic wit, dry humor, and wryly bemused way of giving props and calling bullshit when he saw fit. With that, let the season begin.
I hate the preseason. By the end of summer the MLB playoffs still seem like an eternity away, and the hunger for the NFL to storm in with a monstrous change of pace waxes strong. Unfortunately, all that arrives is sloppy football, peppered with a few mildly exciting plays and a lot of circumstantial hype. Round that out with a gigantic side of freshly convicted Michael Vick and all you have is a seriously meaningless month of additional anticipation, made worse by the fact that you are actually watching football and feel like it should be interesting. The potpourri of players on the field at any given moment, combined with the mash-up of trial and error plays teams are working out, is never representative a football-future. In the Patriots final 27-20 win against the Giants, Belichick stayed consistent with years past and kept the starters at bay to let the scrubs battle it out for remaining roster spots. Guys like Randy Moss, Lawre nce Maroney, and Dante Stallworth, whom fans have been salivating for, mostly rested on their laurels.
