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.
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