simplicity

It would be quite outrageous on my behalf to not mention the past weekend in terms of being a Redsox and/or a Patriots fan. It’s not often where the Yankees losing 5 of 6 to the Redsox wouldn’t be the headline on the sports page in Boston, but that’s exactly what happened this past weekend. Now that everyone has had time to digest the trade there’s been a variety of different takes by the media and football fans in general. There’s been talk that the Patriots are not their usual selves, their stepping out of the team mentality, that their the “New England Yankees”, that their changing their standards.ShaughnessyDan Shaughnessy in his recent article “This is a huge change from their usual route” says:

Say goodbye to that high moral ground, Bob. The Patriots this weekend put their standards on the shelf in the quest for victory. They might be the best team in football, but the Patriots are no longer “different” from all the other NFL organizations.

I’m being biased when I say this, as would any fan of any team they support, but I don’t think that’s really the case here. I’m not disagreeing that Moss isn’t the typical Patriot, but the idea that their no longer a “different” NFL organization can’t be further from the truth. As a organization they got a player to agree to take a major pay-cut, to put his job on the line. He didn’t get a signing-bonus, he was made aware that the Patriots would cut him at the first sign of a problem. Here you have this organization that has the ability to convince an athlete, in our current world of money is everything, to take this pay-cut. It shows that he’s willing to take the risk to believe in what the coach and the rest of the organization are preaching. Not to mention this man was a bargain. Our receiving core was upgraded dramatically before him, thus if Moss does anything wrong it won’t be painful to release him. All you would have lost is a fourth round draft pick, if that’s not smart business I don’t know what is. It’s weird to be so excited about the NFL season with it just being April.