Patriots Fans are Probably Caught in the Middle

You know what I’m talking about right?

Unless you’ve been underground with no access to the outside world for the past few months, then you know about the situation that took place back in January in the NFL that sent the internet world into a tail spin.

Of course I’m talking about a team and their deflated balls.

Actually, after this week, I think I’m talking more about a league Commissioner and his overly inflated balls because the more I read and hear the more I feel the following 2 things:

1. This has nothing to do with footballs.

2. The NFL has done a bang up job of taking over the world with their push to use controversy as a means to encourage discussion and (more likely than not) ticket sales for next season.

Because, hello? It’s May, not August or January, and yet here we are, still talking about football.

Does anyone give a shit that the NHL is just weeks away from the Stanley Cup Finals?

Does anyone care about the NBA playoffs that are currently happening?

Does anyone realize it’s baseball season?

Does anyone care that the NFL season doesn’t even start for another 3 months?

The answer (to all of the above) is no. Because this week all anyone can talk about in the sports world is whether you’re for or against Tom Brady. For or against The New England Patriots. For or against cheating in the league.

Well frankly I’m sick of it all.

The bottom line is that every team cheats. Plain and simple.

And The Pats’ recorded violations aren’t at the bottom (Browns/Cardinals who BTW did the same thing in 2005 with NO PUNISHMENT) but they’re nowhere near the top (nice work Broncos).

However, that’s just the NFL.

I don’t care what league you play for, if it’s one of the 4 majors or if you toss in MLS, NASCAR, Golf, Tennis, or any other professional sport as well because every single sport holds an element of “how far can we push it until someone calls us out?”

AKA: cheating.

For The Patriots that call-out time was this past week.

But when the penalty came down on Brady and the team – 4 game suspension for Brady, loss of 1^st round pick in 2016, loss of 4^th round pick in 2017, a $1million team fine, and indefinite suspension to the 2 equipment guys (without pay) – I started shaking my head.

Actually, scratch that. I started getting irrationally angry at this entire thing and that irritation has only built, not dissipated.

Why am I irrationally angry?

Because of the severity of the penalty over something that could have conceivably happened due to weather.

Or someone being sneaky.

Or both.

But no matter what caused it, I read that entire report and there isn’t one single definitive piece of evidence, not one definitive statement that Brady actually was involved.

But they sure said “probably” an awful lot.

Brady was suspended for the same number of games that a player caught doing performance enhancing drugs (PEDs, steroids) gets. And for those keeping track it’s 2 more games than Rice got (initially) for brutally beating his now wife in an elevator.

Rice was only suspended indefinitely when the video from that elevator incident leaked to the public and the outcry forced Goodell to make that decision or risk looking like he didn’t care that a top rated running back just perpetuated brutal domestic violence on a woman until she was at the point of unconsciousness.

Of course, Rice appealed and the penalty was lifted. Yes lifted. He’s free to play again right now.

Classy.

In fact, the league standards on game suspensions are pretty wishy-washy since Goodell came in as Commissioner in 2006. Certain things are pursued with aggression (Michael Vick and his dog fighting – 2 season suspension) while others are a slap on the wrist at best (Donte Stallworth killing a pedestrian while driving drunk – 1 season).

According to this list here’s a very small sampling of violations and their subsequent penalties that I (as a human being) consider just a bit worse than alleged knowledge of release of air pressure from a ball:

2006 – domestic violence – 1 game

2007 – 2 DUI arrests – 2 games

2008 – child endangerment – 3 games

2010 – alleged sexual assault – 6 games (later reduced to 4)

2010 – battery of a woman – 1 game

2013- repeated player safety violations – 1 game

Note how every single one either matches or is less than the suspension given to Brady?

And that doesn’t even include PED suspensions, which range anywhere from 1 game to life depending on the player and whatever criteria deemed to matter by the league.

So where do the Patriots fit into this whole thing?

Thin air, that’s where.

Because Brady, according to the “investigation” conducted into this whole debacle, was probably “generally aware” that more than the allowable pounds of pressure were probably released from 11 of the game balls.

Now please re-read that last statement and look for the reasonable doubt.

See the word probably? In the 243 page “report” the word probably appears 7 times.

Well I’m probably a best-selling author, probably a millionaire and probably the most attractive woman in the history of history too.

Probably.

What the league stated was they want to try to maintain the integrity of the game of football and that’s why this penalty is so harsh.

I don’t care about footballs and their air pressure. If Goodell and the rest want to preserve the integrity of the game of football they need to get into their time machine and go back to 1920 when the first professional football league was formed and start there.

Because in this day and age there really is no way to preserve any of that integrity he talks about. It’s all tainted by corporate money and sponsorships. The fact that (if this suspension upholds) Brady's first game back will be against the Colts (the team who allegedly blew the whistle) can't be coincidence.

Plus, if you’re backed by the right people and suck up enough to the media/general public for your personal redemption then you’re untouchable. Just ask someone like Ray Lewis or Ben Roethlisberger.

Better yet, don’t bother. Instead, come over my place and let's watch a civilized game like ice hockey where the players aren’t above the law but also don’t need to be because they tend not to get into all that stupid shit to begin with.

From now on that’s probably the only sport I’ll be supporting.

Image courtesy New England Patriots

• • • • • • • • • • • STUFF & THINGS: A new window opens when you click to comment. Posts older than 3 days = automatic comment moderation. Obvious or outright spam will be deleted.

Cool Stuff and Right Around the Corner No Less

I’m not really much of a historical connoisseur where anything outside of sports or pop culture is related. In fact even with sports I am a fast learner but an even quicker forgetter. Go ahead, ask me who won the Super Bowl last season. It would take me ten minutes to pull it out even though that night I was more into it than I expected since the teams held absolutely no meaning for me. (Although really, who didn’t want to see Arizona take down the Steelers?)

Aside from this kind of stuff, there is very little I pay attention to from the annals of time. One might ask what I am doing in the northeast then, especially since it is so ‘rich in history’ and I would repeat their question back to them and finish with something about the importance of family and friends being geographically close by. A couple years ago Matt, my mom and I all did a Boston walking tour and it was the first time since grammar school I went anywhere near the Freedom Trail.

OK to be fair I probably walked some of it while bar hopping in the Faneuil Hall area years ago. It is lucky they don’t use that thing for sobriety testing. If any of you have ever walked the Trail you know this would be an exercise in futility since most of it is two rows of bumpy red bricks ambling down the middle of hilly concrete sidewalks. And it’s just so long to boot.

So last night during our nightly evening walk, we decided to traverse the brick free, hilly sidewalks in our own neighborhood and we headed up towards Main Street in lieu of our usual flat, lifeless, and extremely easy, route. As we rounded the corner to Main, Matt mentioned there was a house a ways up that was of historical significance which he had wanted to check out for a while.

Now mind you, in Matt speak ‘a while’ could actually mean anytime within the past twenty four hours. Here is how that can work -- he sees something about this house in an article in the Metro on his way home from work. He gets home and boots up Wikipedia to read all about it. He discovers it is within walking distance of our house and must see it immediately.

So we headed in that direction.

There is a little park on the corner of George and Main and inside we came across this:

It was intriguing to read that the bell was such an integral part of the history of my current city yet I found some irony in the fact that it was shoved into a hidden corner of a park that, from the outside, appears to be someone’s side yard. When I looked over to the house next door to see whose yard it might be we discovered this, the house Matt had wanted to see:

One of the few pieces of history that has long fascinated me is the Underground Railroad. I think the abolitionists who assisted in freeing thousands of slaves from the southern part of our United States were amazingly brave souls, so to see a house where slaves were housed for almost seventy five years is still standing here in the northeast, shocked me. Over 200 years before my personal hero Rosa Parks made her quiet stand (or sit, as the case may be) this small residence, called the Isaac Royall House, was reconstructed to house twenty seven people while the main house held only one, Royall, Jr.

There are small gardens and a short walking path with a few benches surrounding the house but I felt slightly awkward being there as there were people hanging out having a barbeque on their deck next door. A woman at that home and I caught sight of each other for a brief moment and exchanged polite smiles but the entire scene felt extremely surreal so we left quietly with a good number of photos and knowledge we could always go back for a tour anytime before early November.

Matt will surely drag me back some weekend afternoon so we can check out what is inside. All I can say is he had better do it before football season starts.

I Am Thanks Full For…

The order is how they all entered my brain but nothing on this list is really any more important than another item (except maybe food lol). Consider this the condensed version. Enjoy a day full of food, love, football and festive thanks everybody!

Health
Happiness
Love
Smiles
Laughter
Ocean
Sunshine
Rain
Plants
Flowers
Matt
Family
Friends
Connections
Food
Amazing conversations
Quiet days
Fun nights
Red wine
Food
Did I mention food?
Football
Fun
Music
A pen and paper
Fabric
Obama
Nephews
All five of my senses
My sixth sense too
Road trips
Wendy
Being employed
Being unemployed
Making new friends
Chucka Stone Designs
Rock Band
Positivity
Air
Memories
Pictures
My mind
The Dictionary
Baseball
Coffee (I have no idea how this was not first lol)
Late night lovin’
Scrabble
Ingenuity
Perseverance

Almost Time to Put Away the Flip Flops

As of three days ago, fall officially began but I did not need a calendar to remind me this year. In the past few days I have noticed that the leaves are turning in random pockets and progressively in the past couple weeks the temperatures here in the northeast have started the inevitable downward spiral.

Even though I am a summer baby who is still a firm advocate for the hotter the better, there is something comforting about the early days of fall. Perhaps it is the re-introduction of warm colors, like red, brown, orange and yellow, which provide me a stronger bond to the Earth instead of my usual Water connection. After a summer full of an almost inexplicable need to be in or around water of any sort (but primarily the ocean), there is a peaceful feeling that comes from abandoning my fins for the land. Cooler temperatures allow for light sweaters and hot bowls of chicken soup with stars and even though I am not a big proponent of exercise I love to take off for a woodsy hike or city stroll on a sunny day.

This Sunday morning me, Matt, my Mom and our Fearless Leader my Aunt S are taking part in the Alzheimer’s Association Memory Walk in support of and to honor the many family members and friends we all know who suffer with effects from this terrible disease. This is my fifth walk, sixth year collecting donations and I actually hit my goal this year which was really exciting. Sadly, the forecast for a nice sunny stroll like we have had in most years past is not looking good.

The event of course is rain or shine. The good news is they are doing a big lunch at the end for all the walkers and it is only a short walk from the Cambridgeside Galleria, past the Museum of Science, down part of Storrow Drive, over the MIT Bridge and back down the opposite side of the Charles River to end back at the Galleria. We always manage to have a terrific time walking no matter what it is like outside and this year will be no different regardless of the predicted showers. Maybe that will prompt all of us to walk a little quicker and return home a little faster just in case the Red Sox Yankees game is not rained out.

Luckily the Sox are in the Wild Card spot regardless if we beat the Evil Empire and really luckily the Yankees are all done no matter if we ever play this final series of the season or not. It just makes me happy to think that maybe now Giambi will get rid of the cat on his face that has clearly not helped them garner a spot in the playoffs. I understand that an outfield is slippery when wet but it always aggravates me that rarely ever is baseball played in the rain. Games can always be made up in off days or double headers later because they play roughly 160 games per regular season. Then October arrives and the beginning of fall brings an end to the baseball season and the beginning of football.

Football games are played in rain, snow, sleet, hail, driving winds, 100 degree temperatures or any other element Mother Nature can throw at non-domed stadiums and teams suck it up and play because they have to. With only seventeen weeks of regular season play there is no time for a make up game. They come at you hard and fast and leave just as quickly. Just like fall in New England.

Autumn brings my favorite nationally celebrated holiday Halloween, the perfect excuse to cuddle up on a Saturday morning with a cup of tea, and the death that brings the rebirth of spring. It is the season that is necessary for leaves to fall and blanket the Earth beneath the snow of winter when the trees, and I, hibernate. Fall is the season of change.

In honor of that change and the many others I have personally made lately, I present this brilliant piece of musical prowess to keep everyone entertained while I pack up the summer clothes and pull out the wool cable knit sweaters.

Time to change.

Maybe I will leave one pair of sandals beside the sofa, just in case we have an unexpected heat wave in October.

Know When To Hold ‘Em but Definitely Know When to Fold ‘Em

“You know what I think is the saddest thing about sports? People who stay too long at the party.”

This quote is from one of my favorite cheesy chic flicks, The Cutting Edge and partially sums up how I feel about this whole Brett Favre debacle. Anyone who knows me understands that I am pretty much a walking billboard for Favre; I even posted how sad I was about his retirement back in March. Regardless of my personal, selfish feelings about wanting Favre to stay on the field forever however, there also comes a point in every sport where even the most renowned stars must admit that it is time for them to leave. Admit it to the world but most importantly, admit it to his or herself and bow out, hopefully gracefully. I had incorrectly assumed this is what happened with Favre this past spring when he officially got on television and cried for about six minutes of a ten minute press conference explaining how he had made the decision to retire.

His lifetime stats are impressive with about 260 games started in his seventeen year career he has 5,377 completions for 61,655 passing yards, and 442 touchdowns. Sure he threw a lot of interceptions and got sacked a lot as well but in a lifetime career there are few who could touch his level. Consider how Favre compares to another top rated QB, one of the top ten of all time who played eighteen seasons in the NFL, Johnny Unitas.

Unitas, just like Favre, played his career years split between two teams, the Baltimore Colts (for those of you under 25 the Colts were moved to Indianapolis in 1984) and the San Diego Chargers. Unitas spent 17 seasons with the Colts and finished his career in California for just one season the year I was born. He started 211 games, threw 2,830 completions for a total of 40,239 yards and 290 touchdowns. His overall rating? 78.2. His interceptions? 253. His sacks? 230.

Favre is rated at 85.7 although in his lifetime he threw 288 interceptions and was sacked 439 times. Obviously that is a huge jump from the numbers put up by Unitas but Favre’s rating was achieved with one less year in and throwing for 21,416 more yards than Johnny. Divide Unitas’ total yards in half and Favre’s difference between their totals is more. See, impressive.

Lots of people far less publicly renowned than him have retired in this country; many of them were likely on the same day that Favre handed in his televised resignation. Those people may have received a nice cake, maybe some cards of encouragement and possibly a few tears from co-workers who had known them for years. I find it difficult to imagine that any of these people would come back to their place of employment just over three months later and express their interest in having their old job back, telling the employer they changed their mind and explaining they would have gone somewhere else if it was not for that pesky non-compete agreement (read: contract). On the overview of the past few weeks this is essentially exactly what Favre did and it is really time to pin down why.

Here we are. We are all waiting with bated breath to see what will happen to our favorite right arm from Mississippi. Will number 4 start with the Packers or be traded to a rival team? If traded what are the chances he will start there? When Favre went to Green Bay from Atlanta in the 1992 season he was about to turn 23, now at 38 I have to wonder, is this going to be his banner year or simply a publicity stunt by the Packers for reasons unknown. Regardless of what all this is about, it sure will be fun to watch it unfold on Sports Center where there has been a separate ticker category created just for Favre.

EDIT: Its the Jets. Now what? I am a Pats fan. I am a Favre fan. At least Green Bay was neutral. How can I possibly watch the JETS as a fan of New England. Fuck.

I can now die happy

So here I am sitting at my new computer desk, which is set up right next to the tv, half watching the Patriots CREAM the Dolphins and I am suddenly smiling to the familiar sound of Jason Mraz. Wait a minute...what? 'Am I hearing the tv correctly' I think as I turn to look at the screen. It isn't like Mraz is giving an NFL concert in Miami or anything but this little blitz of music was responsible for extending my smile even further! I would love to know who chooses the music they use when cutting to commercial, that dude has some great taste. Everything came full circle in that moment with the successful blend of my two obsessions, football & Mraz. Life truly does have meaning after all.