I didn't watch a single second of the AFC title game Sunday night. I just don't have any respect for the New England Patriots and their petulant child of a quarterback, Tom Brady, and haven't for years.
A quick check of the box score of the game, won by the Evil Empire, 36-17, shows that the hosts were only flagged for penalties twice. Gee, what a surprise! The Pats' legion of detractors would take a worse tack than I and claim the fix was in. I read some online comments during the game (I watched Time-Life infomercials and wrestling instead of the game otherwise), and at least one party said a holding penalty should've been called on New England's Eugene Chung, but wasn't. Of course not.
Why is this? Being the team everyone loves to hate because of SpyGate and DeflateGate, as well as Brady's diva behavior at times (see last weekend's game vs. Houston) means the Patriots bring big ratings to the league's television partners and their own network, and you know the saying. Money talks. Patriots owner Robert Kraft is on at least one or two influential league committees. You can do the math from there.
In other words, despite a number of media types, and ye scribe, picking Pittsburgh, who lost to New England in the regular season with Landry Jones at QB, subbing for Ben Roethlisberger, to advance to the Super Bowl, it can be argued that the shadowy power brokers in the league wanted New England to win to ensure big ratings on February 5.
The real money match-up, however, would've had either the Steelers or Patriots facing Green Bay. However, State Farm agent Aaron Rodgers ran out of magic, and the Atlanta Falcons closed the Georgia Dome in style with a blowout win over the Packers. Atlanta QB Matt Ryan (no relation to the Constantine star), a 2008 draft pick out of Boston College, finishing his 9th season, now gets to play against Brady for all the marbles. Atlanta has played inspired football the last two weekends in blowing out Seattle & Green Bay. They may yet be destiny's children. Unfortunately, it may require divine intervention to deny Crybaby Brady his 5th ring. The storyline all season has been the Patriots playing with a chip on their collective shoulder, going 3-1 without their diva QB, who served a 4-game suspension for DeflateGate, and the most you could charge him with in that case would be hindering the investigation, and 13-1 with Brady.
In my mind, Tom Brady is not the greatest quarterback in the history of the game. That would be Joe Cool himself, Joe Montana, who led the great 49ers teams of the 80's and early 90's. Anyone that thinks Crybaby is the "G.O.A.T." is delusional. End of story.
Some will argue, getting back to the AFC title game, that an overzealous Patriots fan, Dennis Harrison of Boston, wanted to give the home team an unfair advantage, at the risk of his own freedom. What does this moron do? He finds out where the Steelers are staying, then goes to the hotel, and pulls the fire alarm at 3 am (ET) on Sunday, or 15 1/2 hours before game time. It didn't really have an effect on the outcome, because not even the Patriots would've sanctioned something that stupid. However, as Harrison takes home a Weasel of the Week award for his actions, we must remember that the success of the Patriots over the last 15 years has generated a level of fanaticism that neither the Celtics, Bruins, or Red Sox have engendered over that same span, even though those three teams won 5 championships between them in that time frame.
A Yahoo! headline this morning noted that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is now in an untenable position where he could be forced to give the Lombardi Trophy to Crybaby and Kraft on February 5. If there is justice in this world, he won't have to.
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