He's a major asshole but he's probably reacting, at least in part, to the high Vegas Super Bowl 52 odds and the pretty unusual fact that the Pats are favored in every game next year as of now. And that they have had a silly great off season.
This reminds me of the Colonel Runaway speech on the Doctor Who episode "A Good Man Goes to War"
I mean, I don't have a problem with him making a joke at the Patriots' expense, but I kinda have a problem with what an incredibly poor attempt it was. Is there some other meaning possible there, other than some 5th-grade-level playground-esque comparison of "Patriots = ass"? That was the best Tomlin had to offer, in a prepared speech?
To be fair, the two losses involved some pretty extreme scenarios:
As I posted above, it was an attempt at humor inspired by his locker room comment. And yes, a poor one at that.
For me, part of the beauty of the Patriots run is that teams feel like they 'should' have beaten them and yet, time after time, they didn't and the Pats won.
Fair point and one not considered by me. But of current head coaches (as in not a coordinator or a college guy), yes he would be top 5 for me. Every coach has flaws, every (other than NE) fanbase has gripes about their coach. We are certainly spoiled.
Plus the revolving cast of non-Brady, non-Belichick interchangeable parts. Or at least they appear interchangeable to the media and most fans. Go back to that Jonas Gray cover and accompanying article.
I think it's up to about 79, and, if you're 74 now, your life expectancy is about 11 more years. Hopefully, he only works for ESPN for 3 more years.
I think this is the key. So many coaches (and members of the media, who are often former coaches or players) still exist in the rah-rah mindset of "you will win if you want it more." Belichick wouldn't be caught dead uttering any such thing or any other of the countless platitudes the Herm Edwards' and Jon Gruden's of the world spout nonstop.
My theory is that dominant teams are always extremely polarising: they draw huge numbers of bandwagon-hopping casual fans and become hugely popular so long as they possess any one or more of the following: (1) a superhuman athletic specimen (think Jordan or LeBron in NBA circles); (2) an extremely fun-to-watch style of play (think the Spurs, who were widely disliked until they adopted the pace-and-space precepts of 21st century NBA basketball); (3) allegiance to a major costal US city (NY or LA); or, (4) perceived allegiance to heartland values ("you will win if you want it more"). These are the attributes that casual fans are prepared to associate with 'success'.
Maybe a good idea for a new thread, who would people take as a #2 behind BB? McDaniels and Patricia are excluded, only current head coaches.
And then Spygate and Deflategate happen, and it totally gives them a "reason" to think the Patriots are cheating, and they solidify their stance. And when you point out their unparalleled success, they simply reply with "How do they do it? Obviously they're cheating. They've been caught twice. Who knows how many times they've cheated and NOT been caught?"
The last sentence nails it. I remember so many of those Yankee rallies that included a bloop hit or a seeing eye single or a swinging bunt infield hit, maybe an error by the other team, an executed hit and run, etc. Sure those MFY teams hit some clutch home runs but they won a lot by letting their opponent make mistakes. It is kind of similar to the "dink and dunk" Patriots. They don't hit you with 70 yard bombs (aside from 2007), it is a methodical approach. And similar on defense, they don't lead the league in picks or sacks or whatever, it is bend but don't break.
Pete Carroll, no question. Despite his famous brainfart, he's played the Pats to the bitter end in their three encounters during the Wilson/Legion of Boom era, and the only team to dominate their A-team on both their and our turf.
That is not true at all. Kordell's "sometimes the best team just doesn't win" comment was from 2002. Sure there are others that I am forgetting. Spygate intensified everything but the whole "how are we losing to these guys" thing started well before 2007.
Perhaps "dominated" is being used loosely here, more like they've had enough of our number to make us play to the final whistle. And it's more than anyone team has come close to recently.
Yes, but no one used the term cheating until this story broke. Marshall Faulk claims he "knew something was up" or whatever, but funny that I don't remember him making this claim anytime publicly between 2001-2007. And then Kurt Warner talks about things he was suspicious about, and Peyton starts talking about suspecting bugs in locker rooms. None of this started until Spygate. The Pats became the sketchy person living down the street and all of a sudden the old neighbors living next door "always suspected something."
I'm pretty sure that LDT was making this same case in 2006, but it may have been later. Which year did Troy Brown cause the fumble on the INT return to save the playoff game?
What else was he going to do during the playoff game when he was sitting on the bench sulking? Play?
Yeah, I guess we're talking about two different opponent whiny narratives. First, it was these guys aren't that good and I can't believe we're losing to them, Brady is a system QB, etc.. Then, it was ha, they're cheaterzzz and that's why they won! Now, it's ok they're good but they still must be doing some shady stuff because Spygate and Deflategate and whatever Tomlin's excuse du jour is.
LDT was fuming about some Patriots jawing at Chargers players and doing the Shawne Merriman "lights out" dance over the Chargers logo after the 2006 AFC Divisional Round game. He implied the Patriots' lack of class stemmed from Belichick's behavior (and also gave us the "you know me, I'm a classy guy" gem of a quote). Didn't have anything to do with cheating or a sense that the better team didn't prevail, just a sore loser who was upset over the Pats celebrating a little too much in his stadium.
Pretty sure they accused the Patriots of filming their walkthroughs as the Patriots "seemed to know their routes" on some new plays. There was also lots of whining over how they got held and hit during the SB game.
It's important to be precise about this stuff.
I think this recap is pretty spot on. SB51 basically killed the spirit of any hater. There is still a smattering of people who are basically the sports fan equivalent of Trump supporters who will call the Patriots a bunch of cheaters forever.
