No Respect, No Respect at All

While there isn't much to discuss with the Red Sox, let the talk turn to football …

Bill:
Honestly, I don't think I can take any more friggin' Diet Pepsi Machine commercials while watching football.

 

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Doug:
No kidding. The Deadspin guy is right when he says "It’s like a comedian who won’t let a bad joke go." Awful.

 

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Bill:
I probably would only hate it half as much if it involved some team other than the Patriots. That crapfest of a commercial completely tarnishes the Pats' image as a smart, no nonsense, "we will quietly kick your asses" image.

 

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Doug:
Speaking of the Pats' image, don't you love it how the sports pudnuts pooh-pooh the notion that the Patriots don't get enough respect in the media and then proceed directly to writing or saying something that completely disrespects the Patriots?

 

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Bill:
Oh, absolutely. Take the Post's Wilbon on Saturday. He tells everyone Brady is "delusional" because Brady's been "on the cover of every magazine this season except Ebony" as if, you know, one automatically disproves the other. Then Wilbon goes on to say that the Patriots suck and will get beat by Denvah.

 

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Doug:
Yeah, and then to add insult to injury, Wilbon disses those who did give some respect to the Pats during the first half struggles suggesting that it wasn't deserved since, you know, the Pats couldn't win consecutive games.

 

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Bill:
Yeah in the Pats' first half of the season they not only are decimated by injury but are adjusting to a new defensive coordinator and facing the toughest stretch of schedule in NFL history and, by the way, the coach's dad dies along the way, but, hell, the least little praise for coming out of that and still contending is, you know, considahed ovah the top and shit by dudes like Wilbonna.

 

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Doug:
And how about this guy at ESPN. He does the ol' faux praise trick in his first graf, but just in case the reader might miss his in-your-face sarcasm he adds the "here you go, Tommy boy" line just to make it absolutely cleah.

 

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Bill:
Right then continues with the classic no respect thing of saying the Patriots didn't really win so much as the othah team played poorly and gave it to them. Jeez. When will it evah end?

 

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Doug:
I know it. I half expect an asterisk next to the record for 10 consecutive playoff wins saying, "doesn't fully count because the other teams played poorly on each occasion."

 

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Bill:
Tom Brady could raise Lazarus from the dead and the media would be all, "Because Peyton Manning was too busy healing lepers and couldn't be at the tomb of Lazarus, Tom Brady got lucky and was able to bring him back to life. Of course, Lazarus wasn't really dead, he was only sleeping. And Brady really bettah get his act togethah because the Patriots are just two fishes and five loaves and that isn't going to get it done."

 

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Comments

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

Like the miserable rains of March and April that hit our fair city, I look forward to this yearly sportswriter banality of "the Pats being over their heads" for what it precedes. Lest we forget, the Patriots won three Super Bowls in the face of the no respect crapfest. I say let the sportswriters sling all the bullshit they want. In the end it's the Pats with three Lombardi trophies (right now). Every sportswriter knows their records over the past four years, and they know the Pats', too.

[grunherz]

Yup, the Patriots have won three of the last four Super Bowls but they suck and are just lucky. Brady is a poser and Peyton Manning is the second coming.

The Red Sox were defending World Champions last year, still have the best 3-4 combo since Ruth and Gehrig, have one hell of a starting pitching staff but are going straight to third place next year because it's January ad they've lost their SS and CF.

But the Yankees are the greatest sports franchise in the history of cells making complex life forms. With the acquisition of Johnny Damon they'll win 120 games next season and score 1200 runs. Never mind that their average age is 57 and half the team is held together with duct tape and chicken wire.

And folks say the media isn't New York centric ...

[Pond]

It's a shame New York teams can't suck so much at baseball as they do at football. Maybe Giambi should hook the Jets and Giants up with his dealer.

[Aaron]

This underestimation of the Pats has been going on for four years now; do any of us even pay attention to it anymore? Of course the national sporting press teabags the Colts every season while attributing the Pats' success to a combination of "luck" and smoke and mirrors from Belichik; that's because the national sporting press are morons. Gammo aside, there isn't one with an IQ over 85. If three Superbowls in four years isn't enough to make them pull their heads out of their asses, what makes anyone think another one will?

My stepfather is from Indy, and has been a Colts fan ever since the team moved there. I patiently try to explain to him that Tom Brady is a better quarterback then Peyton Manning, that leading game-winning drives in high-pressure situations against good teams is more impressive piling up mind-boggling stats in blowout wins against bad teams and choking against good ones. I've even tried the "Tom Brady is Joe Montana and Peyton Manning is Dan Marino" analogy. It makes no difference. Every year, he says this is "the year," this is when the "better team" will finally win, this is when the Pats will be "exposed." And every year, I laugh at him after the Pats hand the Colts their heads yet again.

My stepfather is an intelligent person, and he doesn't get it. Sportswriters are NOT intelligent people, so why would they have any more of a clue?

[pawsoxpop]

If the Jets and Giants could outspend the next competitor by almost 50 percent, they probably wouldn't suck as much as they do. Although they might get the Knicks management and spend all their money on lousy players. Let's just be glad that the Pats can still field a winner even after losing Curtis Martin, Lawyer Milloy and Ty Law in the last few years. And be glad the NFL actually has a salary cap to keep things competitive.

Oh yeah, and be happy that Tom Brady, unlike Johnny Damon, realizes that the team needs to pay a few other players besides him in order to keep him successful. Well I guess the team Damon went to can afford to pay all the players it wants. But then again, Johnny Damon is no Tom Brady.

[Kaz]

Steve Belichick dies....he gets a Washington Post article.

Dungy's kid dies....by his own hand....the media goes ga-ga for 3 weeks.

I'm not even suggesting that either death was cause for any outcomes in the respective coach's careers this past year. I'm just pointing out yet another misbalanced mediafest on how the two teams are treated.

If Boston isn't the downtrodden, the world just doesn't make sense, it seems. So, the media support that BS rather than see a team like the Pats for what they really are. They may play in Foxboro, but they live in the shadow of the Red Sox.

[Phil]

Good call on the idiocy of the Pepsi machine commercials. But even worse than the Pats getting roped in I thought it was great the Jets allowed themselves to be realistically portrayed as a team that can't tackle a Pepsi machine.

[DenverSoxFan]

The AFC West and AFC East had absolutely brutal schedules this year, and I hear you Patriot fans on the whole "no respect" thing. The Broncos quietly and methodically took control of the division, won 13 games and snagged that first-round bye while everyone from coast to coast was creaming their jeans over the Chiefs and Chargers, neither of who made the playoffs. I'd rather fly under the radar all year and dominate once the playoffs start than get respect all year and collapse come crunch time, though.

That said, the Patriots can lick my balls. We own you bitches in this town: the Broncos are 12-2 at home vs. New England since the AFL and NFL merged in 1970. No matter what happens, though, whoever comes out of Saturday's game with a win is going to have one hell of a good chance at beating Indianapolis.

The Respect Bowl begins at 6pm, mountain time. Bring your oxygen masks.

[Aaron]

The Respect Bowl begins at 6pm, mountain time.

So Jake Plummer will be turning back into a pumpkin at 6pm instead of midnight?

To be honest, though, this is not the matchup I wanted. I would've much rather seen them go to Hoosierville next week. The Pats have historically played a hell of a lot better in Indy than in Denver.

But look at it this way: if they do somehow manage to get past the Broncos next week, they will face a Colts team that will have been softened up a bit by the Steelers. I don't expect Pittsburgh to win, but their running game will beat on the Colts' smurf-sized defensive line for 60 minutes, thus leaving them ripe for the picking.

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

Oh yeah, and be happy that Tom Brady, unlike Johnny Damon, realizes that the team needs to pay a few other players besides him in order to keep him successful.

[illegitimate son of dwight evans]

Oh yeah, and be happy that Tom Brady, unlike Johnny Damon, realizes that the team needs to pay a few other players besides him in order to keep him successful.

Just like Ray Bourque, who pissed off the NHLPA by taking paltry pay increases, if any, so the Bruins had money to try to sign good players. It's just a shame the Bruins have the anti-Kraft/anti-Pioli/anti-Belichick constantly crippling their chances. Brady will cruise into the Boston pantheon if he keeps this up.

[NV in SD]

Founded in 1997, The Jake Plummer Foundation has a long and storied history of helping disabled children by bringing certain aspects of football into their lives. Mr. Plummer, in both Arizona and now in Denver, has personally been teaching blind kids how to throw interceptions since his rookie year. His dedication to throwing off his back foot on the run has inspired a generation of sight-impared children to strive to be the next porn-star mustachioed NFL pseudo-star.

Since Mr. Horseface Elway retired, the Donks have apperaed in all of three playoff games, which were all sound ass kickings meted out by Denver's opponent. I expect nothing different this weekend.

Bring on the Donkos.

[beth]

thing that drove me particularly crazy about this brady backlash was that his statement was immediately reinterpreted as "*I*, Tom Brady, SI Sportsman of the Year, am getting no respect," which of course would be a ridiculous statement. What he actually *said*, however, was that the team *itself* was not getting respect because of the pessimism earlier in the year. Nobody seemed to care to make this distinction.

Denver SoxFan, you have a point, but kindly take a look at Bill Belichick's record against a team when facing them for the second time in one season. Obviously anything can happen (cf. Carson Palmer yesterday--shudder) but it's not a done deal.

[COD]

Steve Belichick dies....he gets a Washington Post article.

Steve was 86 years old. The fact that he died can hardly be called "news." The 18 year old son of somebody famous committing suicide is news. Maybe it shouldn't be, but in our celebrity obsessed culture, it is.

Funnt aside - The Spellbound extension for Firefox wants to change Belichick to Chicken. Obviously, the author of the software is a Colt's fan.

[Kaz]

The 18 year old son of somebody famous committing suicide is news.

News? Yes. Sports News? No.

It was all anyone on ESPN linked to football could talk about for a minimum of 14 days. Will Dungy show up for the game? Will the Colts win one for their gipper? Will we ever know why he did it? What's Tony thinking about it all? ...

The passing of Favre's father was a sad note too. Bret even played through the emotions and put up one of his best performances in his career. His father dying wasn't news, but it made a lot of NFL chat fodder for a few days.

Belichick's dad passes away and it's only a footnote months later in Tony Dungy's story at ESPN!... and Steve Belichick even coached Navy Football (helped lead them to 6 bowl games, more than any other Navy coach ever)!

It's very clear that "anything Indy" is a media darling. "Anything Pats" has a plague of "New England Sports" surrounding it that diseases it in national media for some reason. Even going to something as redneck as NASCAR, the Sylvania 300 from the NH Speedway was only televised by TNT (even though it was billed as the first of the last 10 races called "Chase to the [Nextel] Cup"). Evidently, it wasn't all *that important* to the chase after all (NBC picked up races #8 to #1 though...I guess Dover, DE at #9 was a little too close to CT too).

I don't think there's a highly concerted effort (aka conspiracy) to downplay New England Sports outside New England...but I certainly don't think it gets equal respect in a number of genres...and I think you see that in a large number of the ways that national sports coverage can snub the teams.

[Kaz]

Oh and concerning Denver...I hear they make a tasty omelet.

As far as Denver's home record against the Pats...I hear records are made to be broken. The Pats were undefeated at Gilette through 2 seasons and Manning was a big 0-7 against the Pats coming into Foxboro this year...and Indy ended up winning.

It would seem that the Pats are poised and ready to "pay it forward" to Denver and reintroduce them to what it's like to lose at home to the Pats.

[Aaron]

I've often wondered if the seeming aversion to publicizing New England sports might not actually be a reaction to the massive amount of coverage that anything Red Sox receives in the national press. There's no question that the amount of coverage the Pats receive nationwide is miniscule compared to the Sox. Of course, that could also be because the Pats' following is still mostly regional, whereas Red Sox Nation is everywhere.

[Pond]

I don't think it can be said that New England sports don't get fairly represented in national media. For starters, the powers that be apparently think football fans need to see Tom Brady use his check card every fifteen minutes all season long. With the possible exception of the Yankees, the Red Sox get far more attention than any other team in baseball. The Bruins and Celtics, sorry guys, deserve about as much attention as the Brewers and the Royals. On the other hand, the Patriots have been the dominant team in the NFL for several years running and anyone who denies that is obviously pretty slow on numbers. But if you look at the football fan marketplace, people are just nutty for the sport in the Midwest, not New England. The Superfans were from Chicago. When you think of football cities, you think of Green Bay, Dallas, Pittsburgh, and yes, Indianapolis. I think attention is given to Payton and his boys because that's what the customers want to see. You Boston people (as a whole) are nutty for the Sox, not the Pats.

In New York, my dear neighbors are nutty for whatever team is doing well. That's why we have two of every team. Yeah man! I love the Jets, er, I mean the Giants! Hell, we were rooting for the Germans until '44.

[Kaz]

When you think of football cities....and yes, Indianapolis...

What?? You couldn't even think of Indy and football in the same sentence until 1984 at the earliest! That only happened because Irsay backstabbed the city of Baltimore!

20 years isn't a time-honored tradition in the likes of Green Bay or Chicago.

In the meantime, this isn't a discussion of "who gets media attention"...it's "who gets media respect". Just because the Red Sox get a lot of air time when it comes to baseball sports media, doesn't mean they get a whit of respect (until 2004..and even then it was very fleeting). If I had to listen to Joe Buck prattle on about the special magic the Yankees or Cardinals have while poo-pooing the amazing season the 2004 Sox had...I was going to drive to St. Louis and kill him with my bare hands.

You *never* hear NFL commentators say "let's face it, the Pats are going to hurt you at every position on the field" unless you're listening to a Boston radio station. The problem is that the Pats *will* hurt you at every position on the field.

They've won 2 seasons in a row and carried their division even through injuries that put 3/4 of the team on the bench throughout the season. They're looking to go all the way again and nobody says "oh my goodness, here come the Pats"...it's "oh my, Indy's almost undefeated" or "how bout dem steelers"...

How 'bout Dem Pats. THE Dynasty of Modern NFL...and they're treated like they're nothing special.

[Jim]

Nice, liking the added Pats chatter with the cube peeps. They probably also love the B's, too, right HB?

At any rate, I'm just glad the Pats are not turning into the Cowboys of the 90s: overexposed and annoying. OK, maybe some non-Pats fans would think that, but whatever, how can you hate the brand of football that the Pats play. Smart, no-nonsense, selfess. This is why a T.O. or a Randy Moss would never survive under Belichick, not that he would even bring him on the team anyway.

[BR]

The only saving grace of those kinds of ads, is that it is the kind of thing that allows the Pats to sign players for less than market value. If a Deion Branch knows that he will get a little less up front but get paid for a national ad b/c he's on the Pats he'll do it. Receivers like Branch (Super Bowl MVP or not) don't do national ads. Ditto McGinest and the metaphors and Troy Brown.