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Losing Brady is a killer blow to the Patriots. Sometimes we forget how great he is until we see the likes of Matt Cassel running the offense. That being said it is not time to panic yet. The Patriots won Superbowl XXXVI with an unproven quarterback paired with a stifling defense and a solid running game led by the steady but unremarkable Antwoine Smith. Make no mistake about it. The Tom Brady that played then is not even on the same planet as the current Tom Brady. Brady won Superbowl XXXVI as a game manager who stayed cool under pressure. At the time he was a solid quarterback with a fairly weak arm who did not make mistakes.

This year’s patriots will bring a good defense that will improve as the season moves on. Three young linebackers led by Jerod Mayo will bring speed and athleticism to a linebacking core that needed both. Expect this group to improve tremendously as the year progresses. The Patriots will also bring a solid if not spectacular running game that will grind out the clock. Combining Laurence Moroney and Sammy Morris will allow Morris to pound the middle while keeping Moroney fresh. Adding Kevin Faulk and Lamont Jordon to the mix gives the Pats a great tandem on third and situational downs. The Patriots also boast one of the best coaching staffs in Football and in Bill Belichick they have the best game planner in the NFL

The Patriots are certainly good enough to win the AFC East and make it deep into the playoffs. The question is can they win the big one. Whoever plays quarterback be it Cassel, Tim Rattay, or Chris Simms will have Randy Moss, Wes Welker, and Jabbar Gaffney to throw to. Even Dante Culpepper shined when he had talent similar to that around him. Will that be enough to get the Patriots to the Superbowl and win it? Maybe not. However, stranger things have happened. Recent Superbowl history is filled with average offensive teams winning the Superbowl. Do the 2002 Patriots or 2007 Giants ring a bell. How about Tampa Bay and the Steelers?

This season is not over. If the Patriots get Brady back that will be a huge advantage. If not, then it’s back to old style Belichick Patriots football and that is a (Superbowl) winning formula.

If you know any Jets fans please give them a hug today. They will need it. After all, these poor people thought that the Patriots losing Tom Brady would make the Jets a legitimate team. It’s quite sad really. To have all that hope shattered in one Sunday afternoon is terrible. Brady is down and yet the Patriots are still significantly better than the Jets. Now I understand the logic used by Jets fans and the media. The Patriots went from Brady to Cassell and the Jets went from a QB carousel to one of the all time greats. With those changes the Jets must certainly be better than the Patriots. It’s the same logic we RedSox fans used to use every year to find false hope that we’d win the division. Well, the logic forgets that a team is not made of one player. The match up is still the Jets D vs the Patriots D. Bill Belichick vs Eric Mangini. Moss and Welker vs. Cotchery and Coles. Pats special teams vs the Jets special teams. Which of those match ups favor the Jets?

Jets fans, you have an up and coming team with a good coach and a great quarterback. Your time will probably come. That time, however, is not now. Sit back and enjoy the ride. I may be visiting you when both of our teams are no longer playing after the second week of the playoffs. If that happens we can commiserate together. If the Patriots go deep in the playoffs then I may not remember to say hi. Please forgive me if that happens.

*** Please note that this is just fun smack talk and release after a week of ridiculous national media expectations that the Patriots would implode. Feel free to hit me back with everything you got.

The Boston Herald reports that, fan favorite and former eighth round pick out of Marshall, Troy Brown is retiring. Until Tom Brady retires he will be almost universally considered the greatest Patriot ever. Many people outside of New England have no idea who this receiver is that makes Randy Moss say that he himself is only the second best receiver to come out of Marshall. His 557 career receptions for 6,366 yards and 31 touchdowns do very little to show his greatness. Add to those numbers 1,862 kick return yards and 2,625 punt return yards for 3 touchdowns and you start to see that he was a special player. However, even these numbers do little to show the true greatness of Troy Brown as a football player. To learn his true value you also need to understand that he played cornerback when his team needed him to. A great corner he wasn’t but a solid nickel corner who made plays at the right time he was.

What made Troy Brown such a special and unique player was his team first attitude. Troy brown, much like Tim Wakefield of the RedSox, always put the team interests ahead of his own. When the more talented but far less productive Terry Glen was ahead of him in the depth charts he did not whine to the media like most receivers would. Instead he went out game in and game out and made plays. He got huge punt returns. He made key third downs when the offense sputtered. He blocked, recovered fumbles, and won games. The true greatness in Troy Brown was his ability to do whatever it took to win games. Whether it was catching quick 2 and 3 yard outs and turning them into big plays or fearlessly going over the middle and catching the needed 8 yard pass while getting clobbered by some linebacker he excelled. For his whole career he got open on key third downs or provided great punt returns at just the right time. Players like Brown help teams win.

Now, I’m not one to idolize athletes. But in this case, I would gladly tell my sons to do what Troy has done. Follow his example in whatever careers they choose. Brown is the rare athlete who is worthy of our praise and admiration.

Troy Brown enjoy your retirement. Whoever is fortunate to work with you in the future will be blessed to have you. You owe nothing to the game of football or the fans that have followed you. In the end, you had the career that stories are made of.

There are few things that are certain in life. Incompetent government, Sun in Phoenix, and Snow in New England are a few. One thing that is certain is that the Patriots were terrible Sunday against the Dolphins. They couldn’t run. They couldn’t tackle. they couldn’t throw. They couldn’t coach. You name it and they did it poorly. After several years of smug confidence coloring our online interactions with non Patriots fans it is time for us to receive our due.

All you Patriots haters have free reign to stick it to us. We called your teams pathetic. We laughed when you said your team could beat us. We spoke with the type of arrogance that comes from 3 recent Superbowl wins. Now we deserve everything that is coming to us. Please do not hold back.

After this season can we please stop talking about parity in the NFL? In 1993, the last NFL season without a salary cap, there were five teams with at least eleven wins and only eight teams with six or fewer wins. Fifteen teams had between seven and ten wins. The institution of the salary cap in 1994 was supposed to bring parity to the league and make the traditionally bad teams competitive. It worked for about ten years. However, we found out that in the end, salary cap or no the better run organizations will out perform the poorly run teams.

Coming into the last week of the season we have nine teams that have five or fewer wins and five teams that still have at least eleven wins. Of the teams that have less than six wins one team, the Detroit Lions did not win a single game. The Rams, Chiefs, and Bengals have only three wins. Never have I seen a league where this large a disparity between the haves and have nots. What do the the good teams have? It’s not always money. The good teams have solid management and good coaching staffs. The bad teams have poor ownership, management, and coaching. Teams like the Raiders, Bengals, and Lions have terrible ownership. San Diego made a horrible coaching move in hiring Norv Turner as head coach. Poor drafting and free agent pickups made the Chiefs and Rams what they are today. Poor coaching and a lack of player leadership made a talented Cincinnati team into a four win team.

One aspect of the NFL that keeps bad teams down is the salary of high draft picks. A bad football team can ill afford to make the wrong pick in the draft because not only does the team pickup a player who doesn’t help them but they also pick up a huge salary and signing bonus. Teams like San Fransisco and Detroit are almost devoid of talent due to early round draft busts. A rookie salary cap would go a long way towards helping bad teams get better but even a cap cannot prevent bad draft choices.

In the end it always comes down to competence. Smart people generally do better than people who are not as intelligent. Owners who pick great management and let them run the team almost always do better than hands on owners (Jerry Jones, Al Davis). Also, managers who choose good football coaches who have a system or fit into the philosophy of management will always win games. Here’s to the downfall of parity and the rise of meritocracy. Let the inept fail and the great prosper… as long as your team prospers.