When will the national sports pundits bow to reality and stop picking against the Patriots in big games? Last week, they said that the Patriots wouldn’t be able to stop the Colts, the highest-flying offense in NFL history, but then the Pats held them to just 3 points.
Okay, but Peyton Manning has a neurosis about the Patriots so it doesn’t count. They really won’t be able to beat the Steelers, who beat them earlier in the year, who are tough and physical, run like crazy, and who had the number 1 defense in the league. So the Pats stopped the run and scored 41 points against them. Every week, the “experts” pick the other team and the Pats go on to prove them wrong. Yes, like a stopped clock that’s right twice a day, the pundits were right twice this year, but does that really count?
What’s impressive is the multitude of ways the Patriots win. One week they rush for 200 yards, the next it’s passing, and then the next it’s the defense scoring or Adam Vinatieri hitting a last-minute field goal. Yet, this team is unlike any other. It’s not a group of overpaid, spoiled superstars. They’ve drunk the Kool-Aid. (In fact, the Pats players’ wives told a Boston sports reporter that they have a running joke that their husbands aren’t on a team, they’ve joined a cult.) Every single one talks about the team before he’ll talk about himself. It’s always about what’s best for the team. Do the fullbacks whine when linebacker Mike Vrabel or defenseive end Richard Seymour come in on special offensive plays? Do the corners whine when wide receiver Troy Brown plays nickelback? No.
My only question is this: Is Bill Belichick Catholic and when he retires can we get him to fix the Church?
