Archives for posts with tag: New England Patriots
From a perspective of a New England Patriot’s fan, watching Monday Night Football last night was sort of like attending a Funeral of your favorite sports team.
The Patriots, who literally dominated the past two Decades of the NFL’s American Conference Eastern Division, now found themselves on the receiving end of a humiliating beat down against the Buffalo Bills, a team they used to literally toy with for the past 20 years.
Since Bill Belichick became the Patriots’ coach at the start of the 21st Century, New England was never swept by a Division opponent in one season until, of course, the Bills changed that last night. In the Belichick regime, the Pats played in nine (9) Super Bowl championships and won six (6) titles.
This season, with future Hall-of-Fame quarterback (who’s 43 yoa) Tom Brady playing with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the Patriots will have a losing record and won’t even make the Play-offs.
What’s especially funny about this whole situation is that just prior to either Brady signing with the Patriots, or Belichick becoming the Head Coach, New England was sort of like the joke of the NFL. To be perfectly honest, I never thought I’d live to see the day the Patriots would ever win an NFL title, YET, they’re now tied with the Pittsburgh Steelers on being the team with the most Super Bowls.
I never dreamed anyone would ever use the words “New England Patriots” and “sports Dynasty” together in the same sentence.
Needless to say, I know it might be a while before the Patriots are Super Bowl champions — I sure hope I’m wrong on that fact. I do feel, extremely blessed and fortunate to have been a Patriots fan, literally, as long as I can remember. For that, I’d like to thank current Patriot owner Robert Kraft, Coach Belichick, Tom Brady and the many others who helped make this past “Dynasty” possible. I hope and pray you guys will win another Super Bowl real soon.
Did Patriot’s coach Bill Belichick royally screw up this past weekend by NOT picking a Quarterback in the NFL Draft?
Jarrett Stinham — the presumptive New England starting QB this season — beat both Alabama and Georgia in consecutive weeks while he quarterbacked the Auburn Tigers two years ago. With that said, Stinham arguably had a much better College career than Jimmy Garapolo did with Eastern Illinois.
So here we’ve got Rocket Scientists: Stephen A. Smith, Marcus Spears, and Max Kellerman all of ESPN’s First Take staunchly debating this very controversial topic.
Coach Bill Belichick’s response:
So as a diehard New England Patriots football fan, this current NFL playoff season is really tough for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see the Pats work their way from Wildcard weekend to win their seventh and league-leading Super Bowl title but I just can’t see it happening. Quarterback Tom Brady is 42 years old playing mostly against guys that are about half his age. His supporting cast of usual Hall of Fame caliber teammates just aren’t there this time around.
I’m just hoping, praying, believing somehow the Patriots will prove me wrong once again.
As Colin Cowherd talks about in this video, Bill Belichick was a better than average football coach who drafted Tom Brady in the sixth round in the 2000 NFL Draft. Brady wound up marrying a Victoria Secret model who actually grossed more money annually than he did — which enabled the Patriots to spend more money on supporting teammates.
Rumor has it that the Pats won’t make it to the Super Bowl this year, never mind winning the thing. Brady has made it his purpose in life to prove his critics wrong, despite the fact that he doesn’t have the flashy weapons of some of his opponents. Again, I’d love to see Brady prove them wrong one more time. But even if that happens, will the Patriots be willing to sign the greatest Quarterback of all Time till he’s 45 — which he’s said numerous times he wants to do?
Win, lose, or draw this year, I’m still grateful for having Brady here for about 19 years giving New England fans the absolute best quality football we could ever imagine. Take care and may God bless, Amigo.
Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself. Just think of it as, New England Patriot’s quarterback Tom Brady, a.k.a. The GOAT (Greatest Of All Time) versus the Los Angeles Rams. Although this might actually have something to do with somebody’s Dream Interpretation. If nothing else, it’ll give you a great excuse to study the Bible a little bit.
Here the actual excerpt from Daniel 8:3-7 ,
3) I looked up, and there before me was a ram with two horns, standing beside the canal, and the horns were long. One of the horns was longer than the other but grew up later.
4) I watched the ram as it charged toward the west and the north and the south. No animal could stand against it, and none could rescue from its power. It did as it pleased and became great.
5) As I was thinking about this, suddenly a goat with a prominent horn between its eyes came from the west, crossing the whole earth without touching the ground.
6) It came toward the two-horned ram I had seen standing beside the canal and charged at it in great rage.
7) I saw it attack the ram furiously, striking the ram and shattering its two horns. The ram was powerless to stand against it; the goat knocked it to the ground and trampled on it, and none could rescue the ram from its power.
New England Patriot quarterback Tom Brady
Former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling
So the Boston Red Sox recently won its fourth World Series baseball championship – most thus far in the 21st century – and I can’t help but feel sort of bittersweet about this particular title victory.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love all the Boston professional sports teams and as of about 20 years ago, I was concerned if I was ever going to witness an actual Red Sox major league title in my lifetime. Prior to winning the World Series in 2004, the Red Sox hadn’t won the baseball championship since 1918. Currently, I’m about five years from my full retirement age according to the Department of Social Security.
The reason for my “bittersweet” feelings towards the Boston Red Sox this time around came after watching the ceremonial First Pitch just prior to Game 2 of the World Series between the Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers of the National League. Since the Red Sox hosted the game at Fenway Park, several members from the ’04 championship team were there with the obvious exception of one member – pitching ace, Curt Schilling.
It was reported in the local media that the Red Sox never invited Schilling to participate in the Game 2 First Pitch ceremony due to the fact that Schilling happens to be a very staunch public supporter of President Donald Trump and there was a possibility that he could walk out onto the infield of Fenway Park wearing a “Make America Great Again” ball cap – Heaven forbid!!!
If Donald Trump is supposedly “the Second Coming of Adolf Hitler”, where’s all the Mountains and Mountains of Evidence that this is even remotely true? Why does the sports media reporters now make it a Federal case every single time a team wins a National or Collegiate championship on whether or not they choose to actually go to the White House in Washington D.C., and meet with the President – which has been a historic tradition for many, many years? If an athlete does choose to go to the White House, why do the supposedly “objective” reporters twist their stories to sound like these champions are now fully supporting all the policies of President Trump?
I’ve said it before in my small social circles of friends, it seems like most of the Democrats are still “licking their wounds” from two years ago and still haven’t gotten over the fact that Donald Trump won the Presidential election while their favorite gal, Hillary Clinton, lost it.
Get over it!
Getting back to the Red Sox, the truth to the matter is that it probably never would’ve won the World Series in either ’04 or ’07 without the pitching expertise of Curt Schilling. In ’04 for example, can anybody cite a more courageous athletic effort than Schilling had against the New York Yankees in that year’s American League Championship Series? Amazingly down 3-0 to the ‘Bronx Bombers’, Schilling pitched with a severed tendon in his Achilles heel – the “bloody sock” – and helped the Sox win the next four games to become American League champs.
And now here we are, 14 years later, and the ungrateful Red Sox are basically saying to Schilling – “We can’t have you representing our team if you publicly choose to support the President of the United States, Donald Trump.” What a piss poor organization! What difference would it make if Schilling came out to the Pitcher’s Mound for the First Pitch ceremony wearing a “Make America Great Again” ball cap, or a pointed hat with a Pinwheel on top? How would wearing either apparel item last week in the most recent World Series negate Schilling’s heroic contribution to the Red Sox back in ’04?
The ONLY thing that could prove more pathetic than the aforementioned paragraph would be if Schilling gets deliberately passed over for possible induction in the Baseball Hall of Fame solely because of his public support of President Trump.
As you might’ve already guessed, Schilling is not the only professional athlete out of Boston (or ultra-Democrat Massachusetts) to publicly support President Trump. Predicted first ballot football Hall of Famer Tom Brady, also publicly stated that he supports President Trump. Apparently, the two had met in celebrity social circles, became close friends, before Trump ever ran for President. Although Brady has some time to go before he’s even eligible to be inducted into the Football Hall of Fame, it’ll be interesting to see if some of the ignorant Democrat politicians of Massachusetts will try to snub Brady from such an honor.
Aside from arguably the greatest professional quarterback of all time in jeopardy from making the Hall of Fame supposedly because of his political support, the arguably greatest pro football coach of all time also might have problems getting any respect from the Hall of Fame crowd since he’s also a big supporter of President Trump. New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick appears to be extremely supportive of our current U.S. President.
I cannot fathom Brady and Belichick being denied entry into the Football Hall of Fame due to their staunch support of President Trump. Among the “outstanding” members of that same Football Hall of Fame is none other than O.J. Simpson – an alleged double murderer. Which is worse? What the hell’s the “moral standard” for being inducted into either the Baseball or Football Hall of Fame?
Why can’t we revert back to a time, as an American society, when Politics was Politics, and Sports was Sports? As it so amply states in the Biblical book of 1 Corinthians – If a man (or woman) be Ignorant, let him (or her) be Ignorant.
http://boston.cbslocal.com/2015/02/05/hurley-failed-deflategate-accusations-means-its-time-for-irsay-pagano-to-be-banned-from-nfl/
Hurley: Failed DeflateGate Accusations Mean It’s Time For Irsay, Pagano To Be Banned From NFL
By Michael Hurley
CBS Boston
February 5, 2015 — 11:45 AM
BOSTON (CBS) — Here’s a story you definitely did not miss: The Patriots were accused of underinflating footballs in the AFC Championship Game.
Here’s a story you might have missed: It was all a bunch of hogwash.
Yeah, “DeflateGate,” you know the thing where the entire country lost its collective mind because Tom Brady and Bill Belichick supposedly cheated in the AFC Championship Game, a two-week period of absolute hysteria where people drew conclusions as soon as they heard the accusations?
All of it was nothing.
Two developments last week essentially put the kibosh on “DeflateGate,” as it stupidly came to be known. Well, technically, there were three developments. The first took place when Robert Kraft boldly stepped to the podium Monday evening in Chandler, Ariz., and firmly stated that he expects an apology from commissioner Roger Goodell to Belichick, to Brady and to the entire Patriots organization for all of the accusations that came without any proof or evidence of wrongdoing. Much like with Belichick’s press conference two days prior, a person of Kraft’s stature does not speak with such certainty unless he knows that the league has nothing. The stakes would be too high to make such statements if evidence found at a later date might prove them to be liars.
So there was that, but if you’re into more concrete evidence there was this.
First, at a press conference last Thursday in Phoenix, NFL vice president of officiating Dean Blandino spilled the beans that the PSI of the 12 Patriots footballs were never recorded by referee Walt Anderson. Blandino said that balls were measured, and if they were under the low threshold of 12.5, they were simply pumped up with some air. So instantly, the report by ESPN’s Chris Mortensen that said 11 of the 12 footballs were a full 2 PSI under the threshold was essentially debunked. How could Mortensen have that information if nobody could have that information? (The answer, of course, is that a source who desperately wanted such misinformation out there gave him the “scoop.”)
Secondly, NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport reported the morning of the Super Bowl that just one of the 11 footballs was 2 PSI under the limit, while the other 10 were “just a tick” under the 12.5 threshold. Rapoport’s report was crucial for a number of reasons. For one, he is paid by the NFL, and so he can’t afford to be wrong. If his report, which makes Roger Goodell’s bloodthirsty office look like a bunch of clowns, turns out to be wrong, how much longer would the league keep him on the payroll? Second, the phrasing of the footballs of being “just a tick” under the limit is at once believable, because that’s how non-technical measurements would be recorded, and also because footballs which were originally inflated near the lower limit would likely lose some air pressure after two hours outside in January.
And then there’s this: The one football that was 2 PSI under the limit? That was the ball intercepted by D’Qwell Jackson, the pizza man puncher, according to ProFootballTalk. It was the football that was taken to the Colts sideline and then submitted to the NFL to launch an investigation. You’re going to tell me that the Colts didn’t manipulate that football before submitting it? The team that fired off the accusations of cheating didn’t take an extra step or two to make sure they were right by sticking a needle in that football and letting it drain for a few seconds before handing it over to the league and saying, “Hey, the Patriots are using underinflated footballs, so you need to investigate”?
Yeah, well, no. They did that. They did exactly that.
Look, if everyone in the national media can say “the Patriots are scummy cheaters” without having any evidence, then I think I have more than enough reason to say the Colts tampered with the football in question, thereby launching a two-week campaign that worked to soil the reputation of two future Hall of Famers in Brady and Belichick. All because … why exactly?
And if prominent voices in the Indianapolis media like Bob Kravitz and Gregg Doyel can outright call for the firing of Belichick, despite having no basis for such a ludicrous opinion, then I can say this: It’s time to kick Jim Irsay out of the league. Heck, ban Chuck Pagano for a year, too. It’s the only fair response to this situation, right?
Irsay is a guy who, frankly, is lucky to still be allowed to have anything to do with the NFL. In his DUI last year, he was caught not just with a ton of prescription drugs in his car, but also with $29,000 in cash. Tell me, reasonable human being, why anybody would ever have $29,000 cash sitting around if he weren’t up to some super shady business?
“I observed the vehicle come to a complete stop on W. Main Street for no apparent reason,” the arresting officer wrote in his police report. “As I was approaching the vehicle it began to slowly move eastbound and came to another complete stop in the lane of travel for no apparent reason. … I asked him if he knew why I had pulled him over. Irsay advised that he was trying to find his house and gets confused with what road it is located on.”
After this event, Bob Kravitz wrote a heartfelt column saying that Irsay “needs help.”
“That doesn’t make him a bad man, just a troubled one, one who has been in and out of rehab on multiple occasions, one who needs to get himself some help again if he wants to be alive for the Colts’ next Super Bowl,” Kravitz wrote, before adding: “This is not written in anger. It’s written with compassion.”
So to recap: Irsay took drugs and stepped behind the wheel. He could have killed someone. But Kravitz wasn’t angry. Then Bill Belichick was accused of playing football with footballs that had a little less air in them. Kravitz was irate.
Here’s what Kravitz wrote after a very compromised source with an ax to grind against Belichick told him that the Patriots used some underinflated footballs:
“If Patriots owner Robert Kraft has an ounce of integrity, he will fire Bill Belichick immediately for toying with the integrity of the game for the second time in his otherwise magnificent career. … If Roger Goodell has an ounce of integrity, and he’s not spending all his time going to pre-game soirees at Kraft’s mansion, he will not only fine Belichick and take away draft choices, but suspend the head coach for the upcoming Super Bowl.”
So, driving under the influence of prescription drugs, an act which could result in the deaths of innocent people, is simply the act of a man who needs some help. Underinflate some footballs, and you deserve to lose your job. Solid reasoning there, especially now that we know the entire deflated football accusations were essentially made up out of thin air.
Aces.
Kravitz also fully believed Irsay when he said he had $29,000 in cash on him because he’s “extremely generous,” but he didn’t believe Belichick for not knowing how much air gets pumped into the footballs. His judgment is sound.
Oh, and Kravitz wrote this: “It is very hard for me to believe — no, it’s impossible for me to believe — that this was one large, cosmic accident. A deflated football, and we’re talking about two pounds worth of deflation, gives the team using it a distinct advantage when it comes to throwing and catching, especially during a rainstorm.”
Hey, Bobby K, Brady went 11-for-21 for 95 yards, 1 TD and 1 INT with the balls that you thought were underinflated and gave him a huge advantage. He went 12-for-14 for 131 yards, 2 TDs and 0 INTs in the second half, after the balls had been reinflated. And in the Super Bowl, with properly inflated footballs, he went 37-for-50 for 328 yards, 4 TDs and 2 INTs. It’s almost as if your theory about gaining an advantage in the passing game was based on nothing except the thoughts inside of your head. Crazy.
OK, I’m sorry, but one more quote from my man Bob Kravitz: “Still, it is utterly amazing (but not really) how far some media will go to defend their city’s team, especially when it wins Super Bowls.”
If Alanis Morissette ever writes a sequel to her hit song, I hope she’ll include this line from Kravitz, which comes while he’s doing his local team’s bidding.
Then you’ve got Gregg Doyel, who wrote this of Belichick after hearing the accusations: “Here’s what the NFL can do, and absolutely has to do: Remove Patriots coach Bill Belichick from the Super Bowl. Suspend him from football, and not next season – this season. Right now.”
Doyel also wrote these creative lines: “Cheater or not a cheater. Belichick’s a cheat. … Cheaters cheat. It’s what they do.”
Doyel also wanted history to change, all over a false charge: “I’ll tell you what should happen: The Patriots should be removed from the Super Bowl. Which means the Colts should be going to Glendale.”
Doyel also wanted to kick Bill Belichick out of the NFL forever: “Not a fine, not a docking of draft picks, not even a lifetime suspension of Belichick, though I would support all three, if the Patriots are found guilty of cheating.
Sorry — left out a word. If the Patriots are found guilty of cheating … again.”
One more gem from Gregg: “Cheating can’t be tolerated. Simple as that.”
Calling for the firing of a man before any conclusive evidence comes out can’t be tolerated, if you want to get technical, but sure, your statement works, too.
All fascinating stuff, truly, from Mr. Doyel there.
Again, if you actually followed the story instead of just listening to the blowhards pontificate about cheating, and if you researched the process of game-ball preparation and handling instead of watching Mark Brunell cry and Jerome Bettis call Tom Brady a liar, then you’ve known for several days that “DeflateGate” was nothing more than a talking point for two weeks. There is no substance to the charges, and if any team is going to face consequences, it will be the Colts for providing a compromised football.
So, if I may borrow the style of Mr. Doyel and Mr. Kravitz, I’d like to give this whole “fire darts before gathering any evidence” thing a whirl.
*Ahem*
If Irsay has any integrity — though I doubt he does — he will fire head coach Chuck Pagano. Obviously, the head coach is the mastermind behind every evil plot. Even if it’s Ryan Grigson and Mike Kensil conspiring to bring down the Patriots, Pagano has to go. That’s the only logical place to begin the punishment of the Colts.
If Roger Goodell has an ounce of integrity, he will force Jim Irsay to sell the Indianapolis Colts. It is very hard for me to believe — no, it’s impossible for me to believe — that this was one large, cosmic accident. A deflated football, and we’re talking about two pounds worth of deflation, being handed over to the league by a team accusing the Patriots of using deflated footballs is just too fishy for me to think it’s a coincidence. Not to mention, using a deflated football does not give a team a distinct advantage when it comes to throwing and catching, especially during a rainstorm, so why would the Patriots even bother?
Robert Kraft, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady have been through a lot in the past two weeks. That doesn’t make them bad men, just ones with trouble, ones who have been in and out of the Super Bowl on multiple occasions, ones who need to exact some type of revenge on the rest of the league, beyond just beating everybody on a regular basis. This is not written in anger. It’s written with compassion for Brady, Belichick and Kraft, ironically the three most innocent people from this whole sordid ordeal.
But all is not lost.
Here’s what the NFL can do, and absolutely has to do: Remove the Colts from competing in the NFL next season. Suspend them from the league. Right now.
Liar or not a liar. Pagano, Grigson and Irsay are liars. Liars lie. It’s what they do.
Irsay’s family has been a problem for The Shield for 30 years. Robert Irsay lied to the good people of Baltimore when he shipped the team to Indy in the middle of the night in 1984, and his drunken press conferences were filled with lie after lie after lie. It would seem as though lying is in the Irsay genes, because Jim enjoyed a full week of it following the AFC Championship Game, when his team got embarrassed so he decided to flip the table on the Patriots.
Do you think it’s a coincidence that a full seven days after his Colts got smoked, he finally took to Twitter to offer the most insincere congratulations of all time? You don’t think he realized that after the league investigated for seven days, it had actually come to light that he and the Colts were the ones who were in trouble, and so he decided to try to save some face?
(And do you think Irsay might have been having some heart palpitations after catching wind that the Falcons were about to be investigated for pumping crowd noise into their stadium? No, there’s no hard evidence that the Colts pumped noise into the RCA Dome or even their new Lucas Oil Field, but remember, liars lie. That’s what liars do. They lie.)
I’ve read the comments from some Indianapolis media members, and not surprisingly, they don’t think these over-the-top, ridiculously heavy-handed punishments should be enforced. No shocker there. Still, it is utterly amazing (but not really) how far some media will go to pile on another city’s team, especially when it kicks the crap out of the team they cover.
Despite the blind Indianapolis media’s thoughts on the subject, we can all agree that we can reach this sweeping conclusion: The Colts are in the wrong. I know this because I know this, OK?
So hit the Colts where it hurts. Not a fine, not a docking of draft picks, not even a lifetime suspension of Pagano, though I would support all three, if the Colts are found guilty of lying. Sorry — left out a word. When the Colts are found guilty of lying.
This was, as is painfully obvious, a failed attempt by the Colts to cast a dark cloud over the Patriots. But they came at the king, and they missed. Now it’s time to pay the consequence.
(Special thanks to Gregg Doyel and Bob Kravitz for the boilerplate on this story. I could get used to firing wild accusations, calling for Hall of Famers to be fired and spouting off complete inaccuracies in order to appeal to my audience. What a thrill!)
Boston Globe writer Corey Gottlieb
(Why does one of the largest – and supposedly most respected – newspapers in the country allow such a brain-dead moron like staff writer Corey Gottlieb to publish an editorial on something he knows little-to-nothing about?
Earth-to-Corey: Michael Sam was picked in the 7th – and LAST – round of this year’s National Football League’s player draft. The reason Sam wasn’t drafted in one of the earlier rounds is because – he ain’t that good as far as pro football goes. Most, if not all, of the other college football players who were drafted in this year’s 7th Round were probably cut by their respected NFL teams as well – NOT because of their sexual orientation, Corey, but because they weren’t THAT good.
Secondly, how the hell is Massachusetts – especially the Boston area – on the same plateau with Alabama, Mississippi, and Texas when it comes to Gay and Lesbian Rights and Acceptance??? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Massachusetts was the very FIRST state in the country to allow “civil unions” or marriages between Gay and Lesbian couples. In Massachusetts political elections, for example, being Gay or Lesbian doesn’t seem to a major problem for a candidate getting elected – if you don’t believe me, just ask former U.S. Reps Barney Frank or Gerry Studds what I’m talking about.
So how the heck would a high-profile gay athlete playing on a local professional sports team improve the attitudes of most of the people in Boston 180 degrees on Gay and Lesbian Acceptance? In fact, if Sam should land a roster spot on his current NFL team – the Dallas Cowboys – I think the influence Mr. Gottlieb is stating this player would bring to Boston would be much more beneficial to Texas, and that region of the country, than it would be here.)
Michael Sam Could Have Changed Everything in Boston
By Corey Gottlieb
Boston.com Staff
September 3, 2014 — 3:17 PM
I am not a gay man.
I haven’t walked a day in Michael Sam’s shoes. I couldn’t tell you what it feels like to be him—to be the most hyperbolic version of different.
What I am, instead, is a straight white man who grew up outside of Boston and bounced from one pocket of privilege to another – from Brookline to Cambridge to the South End, each a trendier version of the same homogenous landscape. In turn, I’ve spent the majority of my life in locker rooms where dudes count their conquests in bathroom-stall Sharpie and say ‘faggot’ every time they feel awkward.
Michael Sam could have changed that.
This isn’t to say that I haven’t also seen progress. From the perspective of tangible change and increased tolerance, my generation is historic. That my high school graduation coincided almost to the day with the passing of same-sex marriage in Massachusetts was neither symbolically insignificant nor ignored by kids my age. This is not the Boston of busing past.
At least, not on the surface. There is a gap, though, between the intensely liberal values that have become synonymous with Massachusetts and the culture that is most pervasive among this state’s young men.
Maybe it’s a prep school thing. Maybe it’s our fathers, our uncles, our coaches. Maybe it’s the vestiges of an Irish-Catholic community that fought tooth and nail to survive a century of poverty.
Regardless, it is. We don’t do tolerance well. We talk about it and maybe even believe in it, but often our own insecurities ultimately prevent us from truly enforcing it among one another.
Michael Sam could have changed that.
In a city whose lifeblood is sports, the first gay male professional athlete could have been as powerful as the mayor. There is no conversation here that doesn’t start and end with our teams and our players – say what you will about New York, but this is the most excitable, most embattled, most in-love-with-her-no-matter-how-crazy-she-drives-me sports town in the world. Period.
The Patriots could have changed all that.
The divide between us-in-locker-rooms and us-on-paper might have been bridged incomparably had the Patriots swooped in and signed Michael Sam after he was cut by the St. Louis Rams this past weekend, and before the Cowboys had a chance to scoop him up Wednesday.
Like it or not, the current role models for Boston’s young men are either as alpha-dog as they come (read: GQ posterboy, husband to world’s most celebrated supermodel), as salt-of-the-earth as they come (read: Red Sox captain who redefined the term ‘dirt dog’) or as aloof and emotionally disinterested as they come (read: Rajon Rondo). They seem like good enough men, and we could do far worse than to have our sons emulate them. But they do not inspire change.
We need immersion by force. We are past the point of conversations or even education. Stop by the mandatory preseason diversity seminar at a high school football team’s summer session in Brookline or Dedham or Walpole or Everett and I guarantee you’ll see a bunch of kids cracking jokes as a coach rolls his eyes.
How could Michael Sam have changed all that?
You can’t simply stick an openly gay player in a Pats uniform and expect open arms from the young men of Boston who’ve long cracked the same jokes.
The first wave of press and the initial ripples would have done little to nothing, except perhaps stir up a little drama.
For a little while, we would all have stood and watched.
And then we’d get over it, and that is what would’ve made a difference. The normalcy. Not the first Michael Sam tackle or the first Michael Sam penalty, but the fifteenth time Vince Wilfork bear-hugged Michael Sam and none of us noticed. The hundredth photo of the team doing walk-throughs when our first instinct stopped being to spot Sam and check, against our own better judgment, if somehow he ‘looks different’ when he plays. The quiet dropoff in buzz the second and third years when Sam reported back to training camp. The way, little by little, we all stopped caring about anything other than the game, the team.
Our team.
What Boston needs is less Sam’s bravery than his mortality. Not a name, not a celebrity, just a person. A man who laughs and gets hurt and makes mistakes and gets fired up – a man who happens to be gay, but whose gayness is a waning element of how we, as men, identify him. And that regular man needs to exist among a group of regular men—what our teenagers need is less a single hero than a collective social picture that looks a whole lot like theirs.
That’s it right there – that’s our best shot at cracking the hyper self-protective exterior of every 13-year-old kid who’s watched his brother throw touchdowns at Roxbury Latin and date pretty girls from Dana Hall. Show him 53 of the toughest, manliest guys in Boston and let him gradually forget that one of them is different. Get him to the point where ‘noticing’ the gay guy doesn’t make sense anymore, because why should it matter to him if it doesn’t matter to them? Make him see, through them, that it’s not a big deal.
It wouldn’t have changed everything, that’s for sure. But to find the single thread that connects every conversation among the men in this town, to grab Boston’s indisputable social equalizer and infuse in it a visible example of see-this-wasn’t-such-a-big-deal acceptance – that could have begun to make a difference.
Michael Sam could have been that. I wish he had been.
Tim Tebow
For thou art a holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a PECULIAR people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth. — Deuteronomy 14:2
Personally, I think when God Almighty inserted the aforementioned verse in the Bible, He had a person like Tim Tebow in His forethoughts. By all accounts, Tebow has to be regarded as a rather “peculiar” individual. Unfortunately, in Tebow’s young professional football career, teams tend to shy away from him because of the “circus atmosphere” that allegedly surrounds this guy – my question here is, “why”?
As a college quarterback with the University of Florida, Tebow was privileged enough to win both the Heisman Trophy (college football’s Most Valuable Player award), along with a national championship. But then again, there are a handful of past Heisman Trophy recipients and players who were a part of a collegian championship currently in the National Football League who don’t even get a fraction of the media publicity as Tebow.
Tebow did lead the Denver Broncos to the NFL playoffs two years ago, and then helped win an amazing first round playoff game against Pittsburgh Steelers. But that magical season came to a screeching halt the following week when Tebow’s current team, the New England Patriots, absolutely slaughtered the Broncos in the next round of the playoffs. But that was a year-and-a-half ago!!!
Another problem that NFL scouts seem to associate with Tebow is that he may have been a great quarterback in college, but he’s got poor “mechanics” to ever be successful in the pro ranks. But in that season two years ago, Tebow quarterbacked the Broncos to about 10-11 regular season wins, along with a win in the first round of the playoffs – that’s a heck of a lot than most NFL quarterbacks accomplish in their entire careers. Whether or not a “win” is pretty or ugly, a win is a win in my book, so what difference does it make?
It’s like the story of the Bumble Bee – according to the Principles of Aerodynamics, a Bumble Bee isn’t supposed to be able to fly. But nobody ever explained that to the Bumble Bee, so he just proceeds to go ahead and fly anyway.
I’d say, if Tebow’s quarterbacking “mechanics” are really that bad, keep letting him play in regular season NFL games until he starts losing. Getting slaughtered in a playoff game against the Patriots nearly two years ago doesn’t prove to me that Tebow is the worst quarterback in the NFL.
Since that time, Tebow hasn’t started an NFL regular season game or even played a “relevant” role in one. Last season, Tebow was Mark Sanchez’s backup quarterback with the New York Jets – a team which didn’t even make the playoffs. It seemed like after every loss, the media would ask Jets coach Rex Ryan if he was going to replace Sanchez with Tebow. Now after a long period of free agent signings, the Patriots decided to give Tebow a shot as its backup quarterback for future Hall of Famer, Tom Brady. As was expected, a whole media entourage peppered Patriots coach Bill Belichick with questions as to Tebow becoming the “new” quarterback should Brady, who’s now in his mid-30s, should have a string of bad games this season. Huh???
Where is this off-the-wall media interest on Tim Tebow coming from???
The guy does happen to be a devout Christian and blatantly shows his faith to God on the field either bowing down on one knee after a big play, getting caught on microphone trying to sing a popular Christian tune on the sideline, etc. Would most football fans feel much better about Tebow if he were addicted to Cocaine, or experienced 4-5 divorces, or had 4-5 kids out of wedlock? When sports fans or the media say that popular athletes have “an obligation to our society to serve as ‘role models’ for our children”, who’s a better “role model” for our youngsters than Tebow?
But the media is, in essence, attacking Tebow here by making him out to be “The Savior” when it’s clear that he’s initially signed-on to now his third NFL team as a backup quarterback. In other words, trying to make quarterbacks like Tom Brady and Mark Sanchez jealous and causing a schism amongst the various team members because Tebow, along with his supposed “circus atmosphere”, appears to be drawing the most media attention. And it’s not like Tebow is initiating all this attention to himself via “trash talking”, which many NFL players tend to engage in.
Compare and contrast Tebow with former Boston Celtic backup basketball player, Jason Collins. Collins, who’s now with the Washington Wizards, publicly announced back in April that he is a “gay homosexual”. Apparently, Collins is the first NBA player to make such a declaration. Major sports media outlets, such as ESPN and Sports Illustrated, painted Collins back then as a “hero” for making such a bold public statement like that. So why did America’s sports media cease to continue writing articles and/or broadcasting stuff on various aspects of Collins’ life??? There’s no doubt that presently, Collins is much more “relevant” than Tebow is, so how the heck did this “gay homosexual” backup basketball “hero” get to revert back to the proverbial woodwork in the media’s eyes?
Again, since Collins is merely a backup mediocre basketball player on a team that probably won’t even make the playoffs, it would probably be construed as “Gay bashing” to continue to give this guy more media attention that say, LeBron James, Kobe Bryant, or Dwight Howard. And if the Reporter trying to publicize every single aspect of Collins’ life happened to be a Caucasian, then that would probably be construed as not only “Gay bashing” but “Race bashing” as well since Collins happens to be a Black guy. Can you say, “Double-Standard”???
And what about the dozen or so NFL players who have converted to Islam? How come we never hear about their religious testimonies in the media? Pro basketball Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (f.k.a. Lew Alcindor) converted to Islam in ’68 – which is 33 years BEFORE 9/11, yet even this guy’s Wikipedia page doesn’t even have the reason(s) he converted to Islam. It’s as if to say: Nothing to see here folks, just move along.
Perhaps it’s just a crazy conspiracy theory on my part, but is the American sports media, via Satan or the Devil, deliberately focusing on Tebow’s every single word and action here, hoping to catch him in a non-Christian type moment just so they can say, “Gotcha”!!! And, hypothetically speaking, if the media were to catch Tebow in a weak “natural man” Gotcha moment, will that somehow, in a backwards sort of way, prove that God does NOT exist???
FILE UNDER: Very desperate measures for very desperate people.
One Bad Decision Away From Homelessness 