Saturday, January 20, 2007

It's Time!!!!

Although I am a huge Patriots and Redsox fan, I try not to write too many post about sports since it cuts off many readers that are not sports fans. Unfortunately the excitement that is brewing here in New England is too much for me to ignore. I suffered through the 80's and 90's watching my beloved Patriots having nothing but loosing seasons. They managed to make it to two superbowls and lost both. Now that the Patriots are making history with 3 Superbowl wins in just 4 years and are now going for 4 wins in 6 years, I am living it up, because I realize how lucky we are. I know the day will return when Bill Belichek and Tom Brady are gone and it we will be just like every other NFL franchise.
There is just one obstacle that could keep us from going to Florida for the Superbowl on Feb 4th, that is the Indianapolis Colts. They have put away teams this year like it is nothing doing. They did not even loose a game until more than halfway through the season. And most of all they have the best quaterback in the NFL, Payton Manning! This man will beat every one of Dan Marinos records. Calling him a phenom is an understatement. Catching his miracle passes is another one of NFLs best, Marvin Harrison, who many consider one of the best to ever play the game. He is right up there with Rice. These two lead the league in Touchdowns. They have more touchdown with just each other than any other quaterback has period (including all their receivers put together). Payton Manning has it all - the records, the receivers, the ability to call his own plays. You name it, Payton has it. Except there is one thing Payton manning does not have that Tom Brady does have,.....Three Superbowl rings. Why is that? Well there are several reasons. One is the Patriots have a better coach, in fact they have the best coach in the NFL. Another is that Payton Makes a lot more money than Tom Brady, so the Patriots have more money to spend on other players. When Tom Brady signed his second contract, he just came off his second Superbowl win and could have easily been the top payed player in the NFL, but he decided he wanted to leave the Patriots more money so they could sign better players (under the NFL salary cap). Many said Tom was foolish for not demanding more money.
Those things aside, here is most important reason Tom Brady wins Superbowls and Payton Manning Does not,... . . . . Leadership. What the heck does that mean? Yeah you gotta lead by example and work hard and all that, but I am sure Payton does all that. Here is an example of real leadership. When Payton Mannings Colts lost their playoff game last year and Payton had his post game conference. He stood up at the microphone and complained that the reason they lost was that his offensive linemen did not play good enough, therefore he could not get his passes off correctly. When the Patriots lost to Denver in the playoffs last year, Tom Brady stood at the microphone and told the media that "I just did not play good enough.....I didn't make the plays that needed to be made". This is what a leader does. When you win, you give credit to your team. When you loose, you take the credit for the loss.
This is why when the Patriots play the Colts tomorrow to decide which team will represent the AFC in the Superbowl. You will see the Patriots walk away victors. They have a locker room stacked with leaders. Got a couple of extra bucks? Better not bet on the Colts! Anyone want me to put my money where my mouth is, just leave a comment and I will bet you.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ok, it is 4:30 PM Sunday. I will bet you $500. Fair enough?

;-)

8:17 AM  
Blogger Jim Fisher said...

Too bad there is a time stamp on your post. I am sooooo depressed. Now I gotta eat my words. We were up 21 to 3 ?????? It was like we just kicked back after that. I have heard all year that this Patriots team is good, but not as good as the superbowl winning Patriots of a few years ago. I knew deep down it was true. No Ty Law, No Rodney Harrison. I just did not want to accept it. The Chargers were really a better team than both the Patriots and the Colts. They just made stupid mistakes and beat themselves. So I should be happy that we got to play one more playoff game, but I'm not. We should have lost to the Chargers, but should have beat the Colts. Thats football I guess. So goes the saying "Any given Sunday". Not to mention it was a great game.
When the colts scored that last touchdown, I was screaming "there going to run right up the middle, play goal line defense!", but rather then play goal line defense they played for the run (because of Payton). Then they ran right down the middle and scored. As smart as Belichek is, he should have seen that one comming. There was no way they were going to pass, since if they failed on 3rd down they could still kick an easy field goal to tie. If they went for a pass, it would be way too risky.
The good news - There is always next year. Brady is still here and so is the best coach in the NFL. Not to mention we get our 1st round pick plus the Seahawks 1st round pick for Deon Branch, and we are 15 million under the salary cap (they better spend it) The Patriots have been very successful drafting.

2:09 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Atleast you can eat your words.

;-)

7:32 AM  

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