So one of the podcasts guys thinks the blackout was the final nail in Pioli's coffin? I will JIMP.

Is this game getting blacked out locally or did they meet their minimum sales?

Pioli's coffin has been shut for a while.

The blackout is just the public ammo Clark needed.

Much like Haley being fired last year - the Jets game wasn't the deciding factor, it was the convenient excuse.

Of course all this stuff matters. None of it is "silly". There's an old Italian saying: "the fish rots from the head". It's the same for us, if we work for a clueless company and/or a shithead boss. The best situation is a great boss and success. A tolerable situation is an asshole boss and success. An unwinnable situation is an asshole boss and failure.

Pioli is a twisted fat midget with a Napoleon complex. He took only a few key ideas from Belichick and then twisted them beyond belief. The Patriots do put the team over individuals, but they do it right. They build a solid team. They identify potential stars who slip under the radar (Brady, Bruschi, Vrabel, Troy Brown, Welker). They utilize veterans who are supposedly "done" and get something out of them (Bryan Cox, Corey Dillon, Rodney Harrison, Randy Moss, Brian Waters). They hit in the draft (Gronkowski, Mayo, Law). They have a coach who players believe in (despite being an asshole) and an owner who's built a winning culture for the players, fans, and community. Pioli has no connection to this. It's like taking a longstanding famous rock band's fourth and most recent keyboardist and thinking you can recreate the band around him. "The band" is Kraft, Belichick, and Brady; Pioli is Ringo (or worse, Yoko).

**** I hope so. I am scared to death that he's going to be back here next year.

You know shit has hit the fan when even the Patriot fans won't stick up for him anymore. :p

It's the little things that are at issue - mandating that blinds facing the field are always closed, locking people in the media room and requiring escorts to go to the bathroom, and candy wrappers in the building (incidentally, it wasn't the candy wrapper that was the issue - the candy wrapper was just evidence that somebody was using a back stairwell when they were told not to) - some people contend that bitching about those things is silly and that they don't have any effect on the product on the field.

In actuality, they DO have an effect. Like someone said earlier, they expect these players to act like robots off the field - be business-like, don't blab, etc. - but then they can't understand why they're just collecting a paycheck on the field. The answer is obvious.

AT BEST, these little things are proof that Pioli is too preoccupied with maintaining control and protecting his image to actually FIELD a good team.

Most of us liked him when he was here and assumed he had some part in the winning. And maybe he did. Maybe he helped Belichick correct, say, the occasional wrong personnel choice. Given ten players, maybe Belichick alone hits on six, and with Pioli's input he hits on seven or even eight. But it's clear, as with all fruit from the Belichick Tree, that it wasn't about Pioli (or Mangini, or Weis, or McDaniel, or Crennel, or...). Pioli has displayed the inability, on his own, to be either an evaluator of talent or a leader of men. Being Belichick's lackey/assistant was as far as his abilities went. The Chiefs took a gamble on him and lost; Pioli is the Matt Cassel of GMs.

ROFL

Join the war on your dickhead export, Pats fans. :evil:

That is awesome!

ROFL

Boom!

I don't cuss ROFL

Brian Waters' fault

Tony Gonzalez's fault

Tyler Palko's fault

Todd Haley's fault


I see a pattern.