Posted on 01/21/2007 7:25:56 PM PST by elhombrelibre
Indianapolis 38, New England 34
So he's immune from the simple rules of sportsmanship which govern everybody else? What a bunch of sanctimonious nonsense. I'm guessing must other coaches think about football all the time, yet most of them can manage a simple handshake. It's called being a good loser.
Would Tom Landry have snubbed an opposing coach or player the way your hero Belichick consistenty has? Not in a million years.
My opinion is: this is what would have happened those other 3 seasons if the lucky breaks and bad calls had evened out in any given playoff game instead of all benefitting the Pats.
This is not a rivalry that to me, has a lot of heat comparatively speaking.
I grew up a Redskins fan in DC, and watched them religiously for the better part of 20 years when I had to stop watching because I WAS too emotionally invested in it. It was a waste of resources for me, and the only way I could beat it was just by not watching. I can watch the game now and enjoy it for what it is, a game.
The Cowboys and Redskins rivalry had a degree of animosity in it between both players and fans that I do not see in between New England or Indianapolis. I would rather see respect.
Your generalization of Patriots fans has the ring to it of anyone who is not following the team. It is the same thing said of Yankees, Lakers, Celtics, Steelers, Dolphins, Cowboys, you name it. It is a perspective thing, and you probably get your perspective from a relatively small sampling. The fans are not much different here than they are anywhere else. They just happen to have been on a long winning streak.
Hardest:
12. Buffalo 7-9 .574
Square in the middle:
29. Indianapolis (y) 12-4 .500
What's that tell me? It tells me to bet on Indy in the big one, that the Bears stand to fall precipitously next year, and my preseason 50-1 longshot bet for next year could be the Bills.
ALL benefiting the Pats? So...it has been a conspiracy by the league to get the Patriots to win in the playoffs?
laser-rocket arm... *runs and hides*
I saw that and thorougly enjoyed it when Peyton gave him a love-pat on the belly.
Football is so violent. I wish they could find a better way to settle their differences.
You could just feel that this was a "last possession" kind of game and that when the Pats stalled out with more than two minutes to go Manning was going to get it done.
One minute isn't much to work with, but I thought the Pats time management at the end was a little botched.
Car bombings, perhaps?
They were sending in the greased K balls for him to catch. ;-)
Maybe you saw different footage than I did. But they looked directly at each other in the footage that I saw.
Spare me. They shook hands---what the hell do you want? Should they swap Hello Kitty memorabilia and sing Kum Ba Ya, too? It seems there's a certain class of clown on FR that won't be satisfied until opposing teams have a circle jerk after the game!
For cryin' out loud---it's football, not Model UN.
Again, wouldn't Belichick have had to turn his head a little to do that, considering his head was in the opposite direction?
And I'm frankly disappointed in some of my fellow freepers in making excuses for Belichick's poor sportsmanship. Really, his jerkitude is more similar to Terrell Owens than any alleged old-school way of acting.
I can't help but follow the Patriots. ...OR the Red Sox for that matter. I've got the "greatest Pats and Red Sox fan EVER" (his words, not mine) sitting in the next office. I know about trade rumors and off-season acquisitions before the Boston Globe. I get up-to-the-minute stats and injury reports, I know that all former players suck until they win something then they only won because they got their start in Boston.
I told my buddy about a car out in the parking lot with a "#1 Red Sox Fan" license plate bracket and he was incensed and told me that guy was full of crap, nobody was a bigger fan than he was. The good news is that the Celtics are still down or I'd be hearing about them too. Despite all that, he's still a good guy. He just takes his fanship too serious.
By the way, you know how I know that the Patriots choked last night? "The greatest Patriot fan EVER" didn't show up this morning. If they had simply lost to a better Colts team, he would have been here. Dollars to donuts he spent the rest of the evening getting hammered well into the early morning. But when he does show up, I'll report back and give you his take on the REAL reason the Patriots did not win the game. ;-)
And I'm frankly disappointed in some of my fellow freepers in making excuses for Belichick's poor sportsmanship. Really, his jerkitude is more similar to Terrell Owens than any alleged old-school way of acting.
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph . . .
Okay, so how should a good loser behave? What are the rules for being a successful loser? As you seem to have much expertise in the area---perhaps you should write a primer and post it to this thread.
When did public displays of affection become a necessary part of sportsmanship? I must have missed that memo. In the days of football I grew up with there wasn't some silly group hug after every game, maybe players and coaches who had some sort of history together might seek each other out, although they'd probably already made arrangments to get together privately.
Actually Tom came from the era that when the game was over the game was over, get off the field.
Gimme a break. It's a pretty standard thing to shake hands after the game. It's part of good sportsmanship. The fact that you can't seem to grasp that speaks volumes about you.
Who would want to go to the Bowl for a February game in Chicago or Green Bay or anywhere cold.
Maybe he should have shoved cameramen, the way your hero Belichick does.
I honestly didn't believe Peyton was going to lead them 80 yards in 2 minutes. He proved me, and many people, wrong. Now he has to do it one more game. I hope he does, but it will be a real challenge. Maybe now he won't have to battle his nerves too.
More specifically, would the corporate bigwigs want to go to somewhere cold.
The fact that you're making such a Mt. Everest out of this pimple speaks volumes about you, and that you have nothing else to do with your time today. Someone from NYC lecturing others on sportsmanship . . . from the ridiculous straight into the sublime . . .
HG, you shouldn't be THAT upset. I mean, your team did choke like a big dog and all, but it's really nothing to get so upset about.... Nobody likes a Mr. Gruff now, do they? Really, let's smile the clouds away. Let's turn that frown UPside down. It takes hundreds of muscles to frown but only two to smile! Don't worry, you'll get 'em next year!
There, doesn't that feel better? Or are we still a little sore? C'mon HG.... Give us a smile!....
The cameraman was in the way. But that's symptomatic of the entire idiocy with all this post game group hug stupidity. You've got all the players and coaching staff of both teams out there, plus a bunch of photographers, then with these conference championships you've got the league guys trying to setup the podium for the award handoff, easily 200 people out on the field and yet you think the opposing coach and QB should sit down in the middle of the field and some serious heart to heart abot the game. It's stupid, the whole midfield idiocy should end, unless there's an award to hand out everybody should get the hell off the field. Why is there a crowd obssesed with this metrosexual display of post game man love?! They're all in the league rolodex, if they want to talk after the game they can do it without you and I ever watching it, passing judgement on somebody for not wanting to hang out in the clusterf$%^ at midfield and swab tonsils is pathetic. Bill and Peyton will both be in Hawaii in three weeks, they can get together over rum drinks then and you'll never know it, of course that wouldn't stop you from saying stupid things about sportsmanship.
Ahem. It was only one week ago when Patriots' fans freaked out over LT refusing to shake hands after the Chargers-Patriots game. Now, when it's their beloved coach doing the snubbing, they won't even acknowledge that he did NOT shake hands with Manning.
Speaking of "from the ridiculous straight into the sublime," somebody summed it up well with the expression "your sour grapes are way past their expiration date." And for somebody wasting his day posting on a message board to criticize somebody else for wasting her day posting on a message board is pretty darned priceless.
Oh, I'm not. Compared to Grady Effing Little handing the ball back to Pedro, this is small potatoes.
Are you a Jets fan?
Somehow, virtually every other coach can manage this without being a jerk. Why is it Belichick who always acts like a twit, when other coaches (Tony Dungy springs to mind) can always act with class?
And, again, please stop the hyperbole. Nobody is angling for a group hug. But for pete's sake, when the opposing team's QB seeks him out for a handshake, it's the proper thing to do to shake that hand, and not carry on like a three-year-old.
Bill and Peyton will both be in Hawaii in three weeks, they can get together over rum drinks then and you'll never know it, of course that wouldn't stop you from saying stupid things about sportsmanship.
Speaking of saying stupid things....
No, I'm not. But I thought Belichick snubbing Eric Mangini was pretty classless. As was Reggie Bush's little routine yesterday.
Actually a lot of other coaches make a b-line for the tunnel and spend as little time in the midfield kumbaya as possible. Oddly enough that's one of the fairly common traits of the Parcells coaching tree, not a lot of huggers on that tree.
Again, when did public displays of affection become a necessary part of class? When did that memo come out? Tony is a hugger, Belichick isn't, some people are into that kind of stuff, some people aren't. I don't hear anybody in the league complaining, Belichick desciple Mangini public expressed disdain for the press when they started obsessing on whether or not Belichick hugged him after games, he understood Bill's not a big PDA kind of guy, what about that do you find difficult to grasp?
I'll stop with the hyperbole when you stop. Your complaints about this are 100% hyperbole... oops sorry I should say it's 1000% hyperbole so I can better keep up with you. Three year-old throw tempertantrums, kind of like you are, adults wh aren't into PDAs quietly leave, like Bill has done his entire career.
What was stupid about that? Will the two be together in Hawaii for the ProBowl? Yes. Is the ProBowl primarily a social affair where the players and coaches get together and relax? Yes. Will you hear about any time Bill and Peyton spend together? No. Wil you piss and moan incessantly about Bill's supposed poor sportsmanship long past then? All signs seem to indicate yes.
Stop trying to metrosexual football. So what if Bill doesn't want to wander around hugging people after games, how does that actually affect your life. Grow up and understand some people just aren't that affectionate in public.
For the hundredth time, I'm not talking about kissing and hugging. I'm talking about shaking hands, which has been part of good sportsmanship for ages. And Belichick somehow managed to hug Dungy, right before snubbing Manning, which kind of defeats your whole argument right there.
As for your Mangini argument, what was he supposed to say? Yes, I was offended that he snubbed me? C'mon now.
Then you must be a woman if this offends your tender sensibilities so.
Funny how expecting a coach to act like he's older than 3 draws all the "grow up" comments. Amazing.
I am a woman, actually. Some "Hemingway's Ghost" - your jabs on gender are more like Howard Stern's Ghost or something.
How many members of the opposing team does he have to give handshakes to before you'll be satisfied? Obviously just the headcoach isn't enough, would headcoach and star QB be enough? Or does he have to hit all the big names on the team? Maybe he should go through the entire starting roster? Can he safely ignore the waterboys?
If Mangini was offended he could have said so, he could have at least expressed some level of dismay at it. Instead he expressed dismay at the press obsessing on it, that tells you something.
Funny how the person throwing a temper tantrum thinks somebody else was acting like a 3 year old. Turn the brightness up on your monitor, it won't be as reflective then.
Again - I seem to remember Patriots' fans being in a tizzy over LT refusing to shake hands. I'm assuming his actions are A-OK with you, then, right?
If Mangini was offended he could have said so, he could have at least expressed some level of dismay at it. Instead he expressed dismay at the press obsessing on it, that tells you something.
And if he had said something, you would have called him a girly-man for doing so.
A-ha. That explains everything.
Check your meds---no one around here actually cared about that.
Grossman looked shaky in the first half, although he did pull it together in the second. Quite honestly, I think it'll be a blowout by Indy.
Oooh, what an intelligent retort. This exemplifies why should really call yourself "Howard Stern's Ghost."
P.S. Considering that 1) My screen name uses a word that means female, and 2) I had already referred to myself as a woman in this thread, it's clear that reading comprehension isn't your strong suit, dearie.
I think Reggie Bush was imitating that Hester guy. Not an excuse, but it's not much different than the Pats doing the mockery of the Merriman steroids dance.
Well I wasn't on that list. My only problem with LT's post game behavior was when he flipped out at the press conference about Pats players throwing Meriman's dance back in the Chargers' faces. I don't give a crap who does and doesn't want to shake hands after a game, it's a stupid thing to get bent out of shape over.
Depends on what he said. Given that he had a history with Bill I would have accepted him feeling slighted, but since he apparently wasn't that tells me he understands Bill's not a PDA kind of guy. Up until that game it's something the press never worried about, everybody knew Bill barely aknowledged as few members of the opposing team as possible, for some reason the press thought that with the opposing coach being a former co-worker he'd vary from his normal behavior. He didn't, and now people are obsessing on his post game behavior, and it's dumb. He is what he is, and what he is is a guy that wants to get off the field after a game, maybe he's gotta pee, I can't make it through an entire half of football without a trip to the can.
When playing teams like New England, kickoffs ought to be placed soundly through the end zone to prevent (*ahem*) 80-yard run backs and such. I kept begging the Colts to do that, but they didn't listen and went for an exciting game instead. Why they don't listen to me I'll never know.
My question is, could they hear you? Were they logged on?
My niece's varsity high school soccer team, for example: at the break-up dinner, each member of the team received an award for something-or-other. Each member of the team. Would a boy's team do something similar? Only if the soccer mom crowd gets its way.
I could care less about the meaning behind your screen name, "dearie." Besides, to me, a Virago is a motorcycle---and an outdated and underpowered one at that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.