Whitlock - Fans should be praying for Pats win

[Hammock Parties]

Good stuff. I agree 100%.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7742260

PHOENIX - Let's begin by stating the obvious: Any disdain directed at the New England Patriots is born out of pure jealousy.

Yeah, Bill Belichick skirted the rules for a time and videotaped his opponents. And, yeah, the obscure "tuck" rule stole a Super Bowl appearance from the Raiders and fueled the early stages of the New England dynasty. And, for a while this season, the Patriots did take great delight in blasting their opponents well into the fourth quarter.

Sorry, those are not reasons to hate the Patriots. Neither is Belichick's gruff demeanor or rude post-game behavior with opposing coaches or intentionally stale comments to the media.

The Patriots are the perfect sports team. You cannot find a flaw or a legitimate reason to dislike them. They're not the Yankees, who simply outspend the opposition and pretend to have a strategic superiority.

Nope, if anything, the Patriots are Tiger Woods, everything we say we want in a champion. They're the ideal blend of talent, confidence, humility, hard work, intelligence and willingness to share the spotlight. They're what we all want our teams to be. We might as well admit it. Their success can only help our teams.

So why do so many people want to see the Giants upset the Patriots in Super Bowl XLII?

Well, that's not that difficult a question. Everyone loves the underdog, and most people get tired of seeing the same team win all the time. But there's also the issue of jealousy. I guess, you can be too perfect. That is the Patriots' sin. That sin should not make us overlook the potential blessing in store for the rest of us.

Tuesday afternoon during Super Bowl Media Day I listened for nearly an hour as reporters picked at Belichick's front-office partner, Scott Pioli, the club's vice president of player personnel, trying desperately to understand what makes the Patriots better than everyone else.

Pioli described a philosophy and approach that every sports fan says he wants his team to adopt. Pioli talked about not being a slave to numbers -- "forty" times, height and weight, vertical jump -- and selecting players with the proper character capable of accepting direction and coaching. Pioli talked about assembling a nucleus of players with the intellect to see the big picture and grasp what all it takes to win on a consistent basis.

The Patriots, if you believe Pioli, stress attitude over physical gifts. A player with the right attitude is more apt to adhere to Belichick's schemes and discipline.

In an era when sports fans believe athletes play the game for money -- not love -- the Patriots are a rare throwback. Star quarterback Tom Brady has never forced the Pats to pay him Peyton Manning-type money because Brady wants his team to have the salary-cap room to lock up a strong supporting cast. Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau, in pursuit of a ring, is willing to play for peanuts.

Belichick and Pioli selected a few key veterans -- Brady, Tedy Bruschi, Mike Vrabel, Richard Seymour -- and gave them ownership in the direction and locker-room culture of the club. Those players created an environment of personal responsibility and accountability that allows guys such as Randy Moss and Corey Dillon to come to New England and mature as players and men.

Rather than root against the Patriots, we should be rooting for the Patriots. They symbolize what we say we want in a professional sports team. Their continued dominance of the NFL gives us our best chance of restoring integrity and common sense to professional sports.

OK, I know that sounds comical to some of you, the ones who believe Belichick committed some sort of federal offense by taping Eric Mangini's defensive signals. I don't happen to view that as some sort of defining ethical lapse. The Patriots are not football's greatest dynasty because Belichick stole signals.

They're the best organization the NFL has ever seen because Belichick and Pioli are among just a handful of coaches and executives in the free-agency era willing to stick with their fundamental beliefs about what it takes to build a winning team.

Nearly everyone else bends and makes exception for talent.

Oh, it's easy for Belichick and Pioli to make tough decisions. They're playing with house money. They can cut loose their declining star players without raising an eyebrow. They don't have to put up with any player who refuses to conform.

It's a copy-cat league. You'll see more teams adopt the Patriots approach. If you're a Bengals fan and would like to see Marvin Lewis get rid of locker-room cancer Chad Johnson, then you should root for New England on Sunday. Oh, Johnson is a good player. But it's hard to build a winner with Johnson, who demands a renegotiated contract several times a season. Johnson is similar to Moss. You add Johnson to a winning organization, give him strict guidelines to follow, define clearly what you will and won't tolerate and he'll set records.

If you're a Chiefs fan, you want the Patriots to win because it's just one more piece of proof that drafting and developing a franchise quarterback is the key to building a consistent winner.

If you're a fan of the Raiders, well, never mind, just continue to pray that Roger Goodell will one day give Al Davis the Pacman Jones treatment and suspend the Oakland owner for conduct detrimental to the league.

[Consistent1]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

Also watching the giants make the biggest upset in history would be a historic priveledge

In reality, I think they have little chance of doing that. I also believe that Plax should have just shut up. The Pats have responded well to people talking smack all year long. It also seems to me that they (Pats) will be happy to play in nicer weather again. I think that touchdown record could have been 3-5 higher if the last few games were in better conditions. That is part of they game, and he still beat it, but really didn't play that great the last few games. If all their games were in nice weather, or indoors, I think he would have set the passing yardage record too. Then having two weeks off to plan for the game will help them a ton. The Patriots did not get this far to lose, regardless of the last Giants game being too close. My guess is that they win buy a couple TD's, something like 35-21. It will be fun to watch no matter what.

[stonedstooge]

Someone spoke of the beauty of football, having endzone lower level seats, watching the Chiefs offense was at most times a thing of beauty during the Vermeil years. It was awesome to see the plays develop on both running and passing plays. You could see each person performing their assignment and many plays were like poetry in motion. I just wish the defensive could have been just average. Many times the Chiefs could score at will but games were close because the opponent couldn't be stopped either.

[el borracho]

Belichik is a great coach but I won't root for a man who cheats in all phases of his life. Adultery and industrial espionage are not admirable qualities. He is a despicable man and I hope he fails.

[Silock]

Humility? The Patriots? Tell that to Brady.

"17 points? We're only going to put up 17 points? Yeah, okay."

[DTLB58]

Originally Posted by SEKChiefsFan

The main reason I'm rooting for the Pats is so the 72 Dolphins will FOREVER!

I would rather that these Patroits

[el borracho]

Originally Posted by GOATSE

Good stuff. I agree 100%.

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7742260

PHOENIX - You cannot find a flaw or a legitimate reason to dislike them.

They symbolize what we say we want in a professional sports team. Their continued dominance of the NFL gives us our best chance of restoring integrity and common sense to professional sports.

I'll give you two legitimate reasons not to like Belichik: adultery and industrial espionage. Anyone looking to Belichik for integrity is a fool.

[kcxiv]

And the funny thing about this, is Belichik is going to go down as one of the if not the greatest coach of all time. What he's doing is amazing. His personal life is his personal life, but as a coach, 99.9 percent of the players would love to play for him.

[Mecca]

Originally Posted by pr_capone

Please don't misunderstand.... I *LOVE* a good shit kicking. lol

There is a line though between domination and stupidity.

Domination, at least to me, is defined by a 30 point lead going into the 4th quarter.

Stupidity... and lack of humility, at least to me, is putting your key players at risk of getting the f00k knocked out of them and loosing them for a long stretch of time because beating them by 30 is not good enough.

Not that I wish ill on any player on any team (for the most part), but how fitting would it have been for Brady to have his shoulder dislocated in week 17 just because Bill wanted to ensure that the Pats would go undefeated.

By that point, they had nothing to loose in letting Brady, Moss, Welker, and several other key players have a seat and save them for the playoffs.

They still had the 1st round bye and still had the #1 seed over all locked up.

Again though.... that is just me. I have not played or been involved in organized football in nearly a decade so I sure as hell am not a professional, nor a coach.

So they shouldn't have played for undefeated? Are you nuts?

Also for people that want the Giants to win, that'll be far worse. The last thing I wanna hear about is the New York market talk about being underdogs and overcoming the odds....

[Chiefmanwillcatch]

Chargers and Giants are just one Tom Brady away from winning a superbowl.

The difference between great and good teams is not a lot.

[FRCDFED]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

So would you call that a focus on "drafting and developing a franchise quarterback"? I'm not sure. Did one develop? Of course. But we're talking a Kurt Warner situation here. It was by chance, not by design.

I disagree. While the level of Brady's success may have been underestimated I do not believe it was chance. From the moment he was drafted he worked hard with the coaches to "develop" into a quality starter. He did not have the physicality coming out of the draft but had the proper attitude which is the philosophy that is being preached. Brady spent a considerable amount of time working with Belicheck so they knew exactly what they had when Bledsoe went down. Belicheck would not have elevated Brady to the #2 QB position over Huard if he wasn't ready.

Also, Matt Cassel was a 7th round pick and I believe is now the backup to Brady. Are you going to say that NE isn't developing him to be a quality player as well?

If only we could be so fortunate to have a 6th and 7th round draft pick as our starter and backup and be confident with their development.

I think its time to start buying into all this talk of attitude!

[Bearcat]

Originally Posted by Sure-Oz

I can't stand that guy venus mars or wtf his name is

I like this rant... I could do without the arrogance and the "I'm going to explain my simple point of view with really big words because I'm SO much smarter than you", but he's exactly right. About half way through the interviewer says "No one has crowned them yet", and he corrects her, saying ESPN has already crowned them against all the great teams, and that it's way too premature to do anything like that until they actually win something.

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by keg in kc

In the end, what I think the Chiefs need to do is #1 stop throwing picks away on coach and player trades, #2 find a way to parlay their picks into multiple early-round selections, if at all possible. Because, while I do think superstar players can be keys, I think a team like the Chiefs needs more than one or two guys; I think they need an infusion of talent across the board. I don't think I'd drop out of 4 or 5 this year, but I'd start to try to work on getting multiple picks in future drafts, and I'd starting doing it while we're on the clock in April. If that means trading away guys like Tony Gonzalez or Brian Waters, or even Jared Allen and Larry Johnson, I'd consider it. I'd at least listen to any offers that might come in. And, finally, they need to start hitting on most of their picks (and that might have started in 2006 and 2007). There was a ten year period where they wasted draft after draft, and that got them into the hole they've been in for most of the 21st century.

Rocket science it ain't.

Outstanding! This is well thought out and the closest thing to the truth that many Chiefs fans will (unfortunately) not accept. A true blue overhaul and complete and utter rebuild. Ground ZERO baby!

[Stryker]

Originally Posted by ClevelandBronco

Because the game itself is a beautiful thing. And watching the Patriots play it the way they have is a historic privilege.

I 2nd that!

Peyton got his ring last year and the media !!!!!!!!!!!!! Now if the Pats win, the '72 Dolphins will !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thus hopefully, the NFL will have an equinox series of years where the WINNER of the Super Bowl will be appreciated because they simply got there and...WON as the better TEAM!

[pr_capone]

Originally Posted by Mecca

So they shouldn't have played for undefeated? Are you nuts?

Also for people that want the Giants to win, that'll be far worse. The last thing I wanna hear about is the New York market talk about being underdogs and overcoming the odds....

They were lucky enough that they did not have any major injuries through the whole year.

When it is all said and done, would going undefeated still have been worth it had Brady or Moss been knocked out for the rest of the year?

I realize that is not what happened...... but Bill put the record ahead of his own players and a Super Bowl run. Not what I would have done.

[Mecca]

When you are playing for undefeated the game matters.