Comments on: TV Talking Heads Weigh In On 16-0 Patriots

By: ozzy

ozzy — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:31:41 +0000

JC, I’m sure you meant Frank Deford of SI.

You know who surprised me with his comment? Emmitt Smith. I’d pretty much thought of him as an empty suit, not adding or detracting much from a broadcast. They type of guy who’ll be replaced the next time some big name retires and “wants to go into broadcasting”. But I thought his analogy was perfect. Thats exactly the way the Pats have been all season. After spygate, the national media all believed they should be be contrite and submissive. Instead, the national media got the middle digit from the organization. I think Smith nailed it. They HAVE stormed the beaches and burned the boats behind them. They have no fallback position. They spit in the eye of “conventional wisdom” when it said to rest the regulars and dont run up the score. Instead of shrinking from the pressure of an undefeated season, they embraced it. These cowardly media types whose asses have to covered at all costs, cant believe someone like BB who’ll go all in to achieve perfection.

By: JC

JC — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:03:01 +0000

The media heads get too much exposure on several outlets, run out of material and start creating stories. Look no further than Peter King. He had a very good football notes column, his daughter’s softball updates notwithstanding, but Peter got too big for his own good. All he does these days is drop names and tells everybody “what he thinks he thinks”.

This is precisely the reason why blogs, particularly fan blogs are becoming more and more popular. Again, look no further than Mike Reiss and BSMW empire.

And Dan, you forgot to add Frank Gifford of SI to your punk list. He compared Camera-gate to Water-gate and called Belichick this era’s Nixon (on NPR). Somebody should remind Frank that Nixon tried to get an edge in a presidential election and not a football game.

I say just enjoy this historic season and many more such seasons ahead. Ignore the negative nancies.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 21:34:22 +0000

I think the “playoff ban” comment was from Terrel Davis, not Faulk.

By: stan

stan — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 20:18:08 +0000

The networks have done a very poor job recruiting analysts. Gone are the days when objectivity reigned supreme. Now all that is considered is how opinionated can get in order to crank up the ratings. The flavor of the day all season was “hate the Pats.” Now it seems that half are trying to jump on the bandwagon and the other half are voicing their personal vendettas.

Why is it we HAVE to have former NFL players as analysts? They are horrible at objectivity and wear their hearts and agendas on their sleeves. Of course most of them hate the Pats, as the Pats have ruined most of their dreams at one point or another. Maybe in ten years or so it will be different, and we can listen to the likes of Brady and BB giving their analysis of the games.

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:44:02 +0000

Fantastic, Dan. Spot on. Thank you.

I watched a ton of the NFL network pregame coverage all afternoon, (though I did take a break a few times, because if I saw that ‘Put Up Your Dukes’ promo one more time, I was going to set myself on fire), but I missed that Marshall Faulk comment. How uninformed can one be?
Apparently, very. Though no surprise, he also said after ’spygate’ that they should be banned from the playoffs for 2 seasons. He’s a lost cause and still bitter about ‘01. He really should direct his anger at Martz, not the Pats.

By: Dan Riley

Dan Riley — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 19:05:29 +0000

The Pets (Pretty reliably pro Pats)
Boomer 1
Boomer 2
Salisbury
Simms
Kornheiser (his ludicrous and calculated World Wrestling Federation-like rant against Belichick on MNF notwithstanding, he generally slurps the Pats)
Mooch
Jimmy Johnson

The Pros (Struggle mightily to be fair)
Peter King
Collinsworth
Steve Young
(these three guys waaay over reacted to Spygate and seemed like loss causes by mid-season, but all three have reeled in their moral outrage to provide pretty balanced coverage by the end)
Schlereth (always benefits by being paired with Hoge the Idiot who, to his credit, was hating on the Pats long before it became fashionable)
Keyshawn
Cowher
Howie Long
Bradshaw
Chris Carter
Jay Glazer
Trey Wingo (Mr. “Fair Enough”…he beats that damn expression into the ground, but lives by it on-air)
Parcells (surprisingly so, though one never knows what he’s feeding his media buddies behind the scenes)
Jaws (reverse of the first three; seemed to be tending toward the Dark Side as the year came to an end)

The Punks (throw up in their mouths whenever they mention the Pats)
Costas (the WORST, a heartbroken 13-year old Rams fan trapped in the body of a big-time announcer)
Clayton
Ditka (a dick, Pats or no Pats)
Hoge
Mortenson (the day after they go 16-0, he goes on radio to talk about how classless they are…irredeemable)
Gary Meyers (BB’s Inspector Javert)
Wilbon (bias against Boston is pervasive…still thinks the Celtics are playing five white guys)
The Sharpe Bros
Marshall Faulk (did you hear him say before the Pats-Giants game that if not for spying the Pats would be 14-1 the other night and we wouldn’t even be talking unbeaten season…keeping the Whiner seat warm on the NFL Network until little LT retires)
The Bus
Marino
Tom Jackson (if the story is true that Chris Berman tried to get BB and Tommy together to bury the hatchet and BB refused, then I’m willing to cut the guy some slack, but still…)

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 18:57:33 +0000

Ok let me state, for the record, right up front: I too believe that they have to go 3-0 the rest of the way to fully validate the 16-0 season. I would ABSOLUTELY trade 16-0 for a Superbowl. However…
Isn’t it funny that we all know if you asked any of these guys about any team going 16-0 back in August, they would have said how that would be incredible, nearly impossible and it would be a great accomplishment? Fast forward to now and all anyone can say is: ‘means nothing… they have to win the SB or they will be chokers.”Gee, congratulations, but you haven’t really done anything.’ or my favorite: ‘So what?’ Unbelievable.
Jackson made another comment on the pregame showed and said that ‘The Pats are 3 games from immortality… and 1 loss from infamy’. Really? People around the country are just begging to pounce on this team… let’s hope they never get the chance, because their mouths will be full of humble pie.
Finally, everyone has said these things, but what got me was when Strahan said before the game, ‘16-0 means nothing unless you win the Superbowl’… and I thought to myself… hmmmm, no matter what happens Michael, I still think I would rather be 16-0 than 10-6, like you losers. Enjoy the bye week, all.

By: Rick

Rick — Mon, 31 Dec 2007 16:41:11 +0000

I saw a spot yesterday where Tom Jackson of course had to throw a little cold water on the Pats. This is just about word for word>>>>>>

“This Patriots team is different from the others though, in 2001 they came out as a team and weren’t concerned about breaking records or going undefeated. Now they seems to be a chippy team and it’s possible it will cost them in the playoffs”

Well, of course “they weren’t concerned” about going undefeated and “breaking records in 2001, because they DIDN’T have the opportunity to do so.