My gears are grinding. So before we get to enjoy the game this week, I need to get a few things off my chest.
Let’s start with this article about Aaron Rodgers comeback to victory against the lowly Bengals. A performance that Rob Demovsky began with these stupid paragraphs:
Take that, Tom Brady.
Aaron Rodgers did Sunday what the New England Patriots quarterback did three hours earlier.
It’s what MVP quarterbacks do.
And Rodgers might have even one-upped Brady.
I mean, this article begs 3 questions:
- Huh?
The Patriots played the Houston Texans, a team that happened to make the playoffs last year behind one of the best defenses in football that now has JJ Watt back. Aaron Rodgers played the Cincinnati Bengals, who suck donkey butts. Rodgers and Brady are both great QBs and are allowed to both have great performances. - On what planet was Aaron Rodgers’s performance better than Brady’s?
They both came back at the last minute, they were both hounded by a strong pass rush, they both had turnovers returned for touchdowns. But Brady completed 71% of his throws for 378 yards, 5 TDs, 0 INT and 1 fumble against the best front seven in football, while Aaron Rodgers completed 67% of his throws for 313, 3 TDs, 1 INT. Rodgers had the 15th highest rating of the week for a QB (not counting Ryan Mallett’s fill in duty). Brady the 2nd. If it was a competition, Brady did everything Rodgers did, just better. - Why do lazy ESPN writers do this dumbshit narrative ALL THE TIME?
In the take culture at (are they still?) the worldwide leader, the most pervasive media narrative is that Brady isn’t as great as you think he is. And Rodgers is a God. He is, just let it go. Rodgers is also great. They can both be great!
Jeff Howe wrote about Danny Amendola’s new state of the art helmet… which begs the question, WHY DID THE EQUIPMENT MANAGER HAVE TO SEEK A SAFER HELMET FOR AMENDOLA?
If you guessed, greed, you’ve got it. In 2014, the league modified a contract with the official helmet manufacturer of the NFL, Riddell. At the time the headlines on ESPN, NFL.com, ProFootballTalk all blared that the league was ‘suspending’, ‘severing’, ‘destroying’, ‘tearing up’ its contract with Riddell as the ‘exclusive’ helmet of the NFL, but like everything with the Goodell’s league it was PR BS. This destruction of their relationship left Riddell as the ‘official’ helmet of the NFL, and USA Football, the NFL’s youth program for High School and Youth Sports, but, no, they’re not the ‘exclusive’ helmet of the NFL anymore. Riddell, despite being in litigation with regards to the safety of their products and being behind the curve on protective helmets for concussions, it is still the most used helmet by NFL teams. The contract change from ‘exclusive’ to ‘official’ was done for one reason and one reason alone: it put the onus of safety on players, rather than the league or their corporate sponsor, Riddell. The NFL and its owners no longer require that players use inferior products, rather if players want to know their grandkids, it’s on them and their equipment managers to go find a better product.
Can you imagine a coal miner being told by his boss that he’d have to bring his own helmet because the ones they offer at the door aren’t going to help if there’s a cave-in? No. This is like if the prophylactics provided on porn-sets had holes punched through them and the directors shrugged, “well, if you don’t want to get AIDS, bring your own.”
With the news that a living CTE test is on the horizon, I can’t help but be cynical about the league’s motives. Link arms, sit or kneel, but the league and its owners only care about their players if they’re making them money.
Up next, Patriots Fans Burn Jerseys Because…
I once wrote an angrily received piece that had my wife concerned for my safety after reading the comments section. It was about my attempt to cut the NFL out of my life during the height of Goodell’s Deflate-gate and CTE lunacy. So I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t advocate for fans boycotting the NFL over their political beliefs even if I disagree with their specific beliefs. Protest team unity all you want, use the 1st amendment, cloak yourself in a flag, but a word of advice, burning stuff is a bad look. It’s the behavior of children who don’t know better. And I know sports make us all a little insane, but I’ve never seen a grown man burn a jersey and been like “cool”. It makes you look like a psycho.
As an aside, I support you and urge you to not watch Sunday if that’s what your moral compass tells you to do. Good luck, I certainly didn’t have the will power to do it.
Mike Dussault’s favorite article of the week: The problem with the Patriots is Bill Belichick’s Defensive Philosophy.
This is so hot takey, it’s adorbs. That’s not to say that the Patriots defense has been good, it hasn’t. It’s been horrible. In fact, 32nd in DVOA-bad (more on that to come). But this article dismisses out of the hand, the most important thing that happened…
It’s not scheme, it’s personnel, one big super important cog of personnel in fact: Donta’ Hightower, you know the guy that the Patriots defense is built around…
And you can actually see the statistics that back it up in real time. The Patriots defense was playing fine against the Kansas City Chiefs, one big play to Tyreke Hill aside, until 7 minutes left in the 3rd quarter when Donta’ Hightower is injured. The Patriots gave up 21 unanswered points in the 4th quarter against Alex Smith and the Chiefs much of that on shorter passing plays and runs. Hightower and his ability to take on multiple roles, set the edge and communicate with the rest of the defense disappeared and so did the defense. When he left the field, unsurprisingly the Chiefs RBs began to lope free. 164 of Kareem Hunt’s 246 yards came after the injury, Tyreke Hill and, even, Charcandrick West ran free.
Anyway, I could go on, but it’s not the scheme. It’s the Hightower and maybe it’s bad scheme to need one player so badly, but that’s not what this article argues, so pfffft.
Super Bowl D-Mise? Why Patriots are Super Bowl Longshots by the wonderful Aaron Schatz of Football Outsiders and ESPN
First, he doesn’t write the headlines, so he gets a pass on that take. But he basically makes the same argument as the PFF piece, but without ANY mention of Hightower’s injury. Though Schatz’s piece is much more nuanced and interesting for historical comparison, I can’t get past the fact that he wrote an entire article about the Patriots defense being horrible without mentioning their best defender has been injured. When the Seahawks defense got murdered last year after Earl Thomas went down did ANYONE leave that fact out of any article? It could be an article about their offensive line woes and Earl Thomas would get mentioned. Again, I’m not saying it’s unproblematic that one player’s injury completely affects the Patriots team, but that’s not what either of these articles are suggesting.
The Defense should be better this weekend. If not, I’ll eat crow. Until then, at least give the man some respect.