Boston Globe/Gasper: Way they play is the thing

Not often Gasper makes the cut here on the blog but this is a worth article. Favorite part:

Asante Samuel warned teammates all week. In another football life, he was a New England Patriot. He tried to tell the Philadelphia Eagles what it would be like facing a Bill Belichick-coached team, the NFL version of a staring contest in which the Patriots’ gaze is unwavering.

Samuel conveyed the message that any mistake would be magnified, any weakness probed and exploited, any error potentially fatal in a football sense. He knew that Belichick’s Patriots, no matter how obscure some of the names on the backs of their jerseys, have one defining characteristic: they don’t beat themselves.