I always refer to the competition between the Yankees and the Red Sox as The Rivalry, but at this point, maybe I should just call it "a rivalry" (lowercase letters). What used to be vehement, fire-breathing hatred between the two teams -- and the two fan bases -- is now more like Ralph Wolf and Sam Sheepdog.
Remember them from Looney Tunes cartoons? They clock in to work, bash each others' brains out all day, then exchange pleasantries as they punch out. That's kind of where we are in the Boston-New York rivalry. Heck, even the trash talk between Subway Squawkers and Boston site Monstah Mash is friendly and fun. Twelve years ago, we would have been at each others' throats. Now our sass comes with a wink.
Let’s face it, the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry peaked when Jason Varitek fed A-Roid his catcher’s mitt. Since then it’s been nothing more than two rich kids saying how their dads could beat each other up while attempting to b*tch slap each other like a couple of grade school girls.
Ouch! But, but, I don't disagree. (Although our rich dad has cut off our allowance these days!)
Not only are the fans friendlier these days -- I have a slew of Red Sox friends on Facebook, and I can't remember the last time we really got into it -- but the teams also don't seem to have the hatred any more for each other. After all, the Red Sox did tributes for Mariano Rivera and Derek Jeter when they were on their retirement tours, and you know the Yankees will for David Ortiz this year.
Tom Brady doesn't think
Frosted Flakes are grrreat!
Heck, I can't even get that worked up about all things Boston, the way I used to. I even have to say I admire Tom Brady (gulp!) on something! Brady took a courageous stance this fall against soda (calling it "poison for kids") and processed food like Frosted Flakes -- two industries that are huge advertisers with the NFL. Brady told Dennis and Callahan on WEEI radio: "You just keep eating those things, and you keep wondering why we have just incredible rates of disease in our country."
As somebody who has been on a mission to improve my own diet, I have to tip my hat to Brady for having the guts to say all this. And yes, I'm cringing as I type that!
Anyhow, something's got to give. What will it take to get The Rivalry back? I asked my Boston fan friends, and most of them agreed that a bona fide two-team pennant race would get things going. And maybe some brushback pitches, followed by a bench-clearing brawl, would help, too. Dare to dream!
Greetings. I am finally back from that secure undisclosed location. Actually, I went to Austin, Texas, to visit my mother for Mother's Day. It was fun to see my mom again, and she was in great spirits and looking and feeling good. I also got to see one of my brothers, who met up with me in Austin.
However, my mom still doesn't understand what a blog is, and when she heard that ESPN's Mike and Mike were getting a female co-host, she didn't like the idea of a woman taking a man's job. I was incredulous on this, and responded, "You do know I've been writing on sports for 10 years, right?" But, as my brother pointed out, our mom is 82, she has never used a computer, and she has no comprehension of this blog. (She was excited over my Guideposts magazine article, though -- print impresses her!) So I have to understand her perspective.
Anyhow, speaking of perspective, some members of Patriots Nation has shown that they are delusional when it comes to defending their team. First of all, there are the morons who have decided to start a GoFundMe account to pay for the Patriots' $1 million Deflategate fine. Yes, really. These moronic fans want to give money for a franchise worth at least $2.6 billion, owned by billionaire Robert Kraft. I guess it is because of the "injustice" of it all -- to wit, Tom Brady and the Patriots actually being held accountable for their cheating for once. Boo bleeding hoo.
I wrote this comment on their GoFundMe page, before they removed all comments, most of which were negative):
I generally don't like telling people where to spend their money. However, surely there are better things for fans to do with their dollars than to pay the (well-deserved) fines for a billion-dollar franchise. To paraphrase "A Bronx Tale," if your father can't pay the rent, go ask Robert Kraft and see what he tells you.
Then there are the idiots of a sports blogging site (I refuse to link to their site or mention their site's name, as they don't deserve the publicity) who literally got themselves arrested at NFL headquarters yesterday to protest Tom Brady's suspension. These idiots now have an arrest record over their fandom. How stupid is that?
Did you know that there are actually mailing lists out there of gullible people? The New York Times did a story on this a few years ago, about how con artists used such lists to target people -- especially senior citizens -- who would fall for scams. I wonder if sports-minded scammers will gather the names of everybody who donated money to the Patriots, and everybody who got arrested on the team's behalf, and target them for shenanigans. Would serve them right for their stupidity.
Of course, nobody as of yet seems to have done anything to help John Jastremski and James McNally, the two Patriots employees who have effectively lost their jobs, and had their lives ruined, due to following Tom Brady's orders. Shocker.
* * *
I wouldn't pay for this, either, but at least it is funny.
Anyhow, the news release explaining the fine and Brady's suspension and the draft pick losses is a real doozy. As I noted on Facebook, the NFL says that Nixon soundalike Brady failed "to cooperate fully and candidly with the investigation," and he provided "testimony that the report concludes was not plausible and contradicted by other evidence." It also says that Brady's actions "clearly constitute conduct detrimental to the integrity of and public confidence in the game of professional football." Read it and weep,
Yet Patriots Nation wants to believe this is all a witch hunt, and it is all because "they hate us because they ain't us," as one of their moronic slogans goes. And Kraft whines that the case "was based completely on circumstantial rather than hard or conclusive evidence." Um, Bob? Hate to tell you this, but circumstantial evidence is both hard and conclusive evidence. You know, like how circumstantial evidence put your old tight end Aaron Hernandez behind bars for life for murder. P.S. You are not getting that NFL apology you so arrogantly demanded.
Here are the facts:
Tom Brady, along with Peyton Manning, got NFL rules changed in 2006 to allow NFL teams to prepare their own footballs both at home and away.
Since that time, the Patriots had a staggeringly low fumble rate, as a statistical analysis shows. In addition, as Bill Plaschke of the Los Angeles Times notes:
"Before that rule took effect, in Brady's five seasons as a full-time starter, only once did he throw for as many as 4,000 yards, and never did he throw as many as 30 touchdown passes.
But after that rule change, he became the statistics monster that he remains today, throwing for more than 4,000 yards in six of the ensuing eight seasons, with at least 30 touchdown passes in five of those years."
Coincidence? I grew up in Jersey. I don't believe in coincidences.
The Wells Report says that the cheating was not just in the 2014 season. Given these statistical changes, Brady may have been getting away with cheating for many years. Spygate, Deflategate, multiple murders -- these are your New England Patriots.
In addition, Brady refused to provide the texts, emails, etc. he was asked to, "despite being offered extraordinary safeguards by the investigators to protect unrelated personal information." Just this failure to cooperate alone is enough to subject him to disciplinary action.
Anyhow, I am pretty gleeful to see a world-class phony like Tom Brady get his comeuppance. I only wish the suspension was longer!
Longtime Squawkers readers know that I have never been able to stand the smug Tom Brady, the smarmy, Uggs-wearing, pregnant-girlfriend-dumping, dopey-hairstyled phony who got outplayed by Eli Manning -- twice! Not to mention Gisele Bundchen, his smug supermodel wife, who cluelessly shamed moms for not breastfeeding their children and threw a hissy fit after Manning's Giants kicked her husband's tuchis in the Super Bowl for the second time.
But because some people are so shallow, Brady has
gotten away with murder, in no small part because he looks like the fair-haired golden boy. (Meanwhile, some people call Stanford graduate Richard Sherman a thug. Good grief.)
If it weren't for Pete Carroll's brain cramp at the end of this year's Super Bowl, we could be talking about how Brady hasn't won a Super Bowl since George W. Bush's second inauguration, and since Spygate was exposed. But instead, Brady is now a four-time Super Bowl champion. He is also a serial degenerate cheater.
It doesn't say much for Tom Brady's innocence in Deflategate that the biggest voice (no pun intended) coming to his defense is New Jersey Governor Chris (Bridgegate) Christie. It figures. They do have a lot in common. Both do ridiculous, unethical things, and hang their minions out to dry for them. Brady is also like Richard Nixon. He shouldn't have needed to do these things in order to win, but he did them anyway.
Now that the Wells Report has exposed some of the real Tom Brady that too many people haven't wanted to see, I want to point out a few things:
If deflating the balls was no big deal, as the Brady sycophants like to say, then why did he need to have it done so many times?
Anybody who thinks that John Jastremski and Jim McNally, the Patriots' equipment personnel involved, deflated the balls on their own, without Brady insisting they do it, has no idea how the world works (not to mention all of the text messages showing that Brady wanted the balls deflated.) Tom Brady is the biggest name in the history of the franchise. Anybody who thinks that this was not directed by him must have just fallen off the proverbial turnip truck.
According to a Boston Globe story about the Wells Report, Brady also lied about not knowing "McNally's name, his job title, or his pregame responsibilities," but "Jastremski disputed that, saying Brady in fact knew McNally and his role."
The fact that Brady lobbied for a rule change in 2006 to try to ensure that he could keep his cheating undetected makes this even worse.
Too many people are hung up on the idea that circumstantial evidence isn't real evidence. Ask Brady's old teammate Aaron Hernandez about that. Circumstantial evidence counts, too.
People are also hung up on the words "more probable than not" in the report as somehow being a defense. They act like this is a criminal trial, and that this does not meet the reasonable doubt defense. But what looks like hedging are actually legal terms. As the Washington Post notes, the preponderance of the evidence (more than 50 percent) is the standard in a civil case -- and in the NFL. That means that Brady can be punished.
There are two reasons there was no smoking gun here: the Patriots wouldn't let McNally be interviewed a second time, after the investigators uncovered more evidence, and Brady, as the Boston Globe notes, "refused to make his phone records, text messages, emails, or any other documents available for the investigation." That doesn't get Brady off the hook, though.
For those who say "Well, why should Brady help the investigation," they don't understand the NFL's rules, which say that "Failure to cooperate in an investigation shall be considered conduct detrimental to the League and will subject the offending club and responsible individual(s) to appropriate discipline."
Both Tom Brady Senior and Don Yee whined that the NFL ran a sting operation on Brady and the Patriots before the AFC Championship Game. The sting defense doesn't usually work with perverts who think they are arranging to meet 12-year-olds in person, only to meet a federal agent. It probably won't work here, either. On the one hand, Brady Sr. and Yee are proclaiming Brady's innocence. On the other hand, they're whining that the NFL didn't tell Brady that they knew of his cheating beforehand. What an incoherent defense.
Brady was particularly smug in his claim that he wasn't able to "digest" the report. Really, Tom? There is a report that could keep you suspended for many games, and you didn't read it? C'mon now. And what happened to Jim Gray, the guy who browbeat Pete Rose? He let Brady off the hook in their puff piece of an interview.
As my friend Staci points out, ask Alex Rodriguez what happens when there are text messages against someone, and the person involved doesn't show evidence of their own to refute it.
Speaking of which, A-Rod gave Cousin Yuri nearly $1M and a house and a car and health insurance. All Brady gave his minions breaking the rules for him was some swag he didn't even pay for. And it was clear how much these employees despised Brady. On the other hand, Barry Bonds, the guy we were supposed to hate, got such loyalty out of his trainer that the guy went to jail rather than rat him out. Says a lot more for Bonds!
At the risk of going "blue" in the Squawk (I usually try to keep this blog PG-rated!), I must share my friend Joe's assessment of Brady: "Be nice to the people who deflate your balls. If not, they will bring you down."
Sorry, I've been busy with some real-life, non-sports writing projects, so I haven't had time to squawk lately. You can read me at Business Insider and Huffington Post and see some of the things I've been doing.
Anyhow, during this time, I participated in one of those NFL survivor office pools, where you pick a team each week that you think will win. Squawker Jon is in the league, too, and I told him that he could not pick the same team as me.
Anyhow, in Week 1, I picked the Chicago Bears. So far, so good. In Week 2, I looked to see which team was most likely to win, and the Patriots were 13-point favorites. Squawker Jon wanted to pick the Pats, too, but I told him we couldn't choose the same team. So he chose the Giants, while I held my nose and supported New England.
It was a strange thing cheering for the Patriots to win, and you know what happened next -- New England lost, I'm out of the pool, and Squawker Jon had the last laugh. Or maybe I had the last laugh. After all, I jinxed the Patriots -- my jinxing powers know no bounds!
* * *
As for the Yanks, I was pretty unimpressed with their performance against the Boston Red Sox last week. Even thought they won two out of three, the games were too close for comfort. Fortunately, the Yanks have turned it around, and appear to be making the playoffs, barring some last-minute collapse. Tampa Bay spitting the bit certainly helped, too.
Anyhow, I hope to be squawking more as the regular season draws to a close, as long as my schedule cooperates!
In other news, I'm pretty saddened by the Vince Young story. Lots of bad decision-making all around. What do you think? Tell us about it!
I make no secret about I can't stand pretty much everything related to Boston and New England. When the commercial says to "Trust the Gorton's Fisherman," I say "No way! He's from Massachusetts!" I also love to hate Tom Brady and Bill (Belicheat) Belichick. It's funny that Brady does Uggs commercials, because that's what I think every time I see him -- ugh!
And Tim Tebow is my favorite NFL player to watch this year. I'm generally pretty cynical about athletes, but he is just so gosh-darn likeable, I cannot help but root for him. And all those come-from-behind wins are nothing to sneeze at, either.
Put those things together, and you have must-see TV tonight. To steal Bart Scott's link, I can't wait to see the Broncos/Patriots game later this evening. And I am going to go out on a limb here, the way I did with Squawker Jon last week on the phone, and say that Denver will win tonight. (I won a $1 from Jon over the Steelers game, but I should have bet that Jon would have to do a Tebowing pose!) While my predictions aren't always right, I did call the Jets' victory over the Pats in the playoffs last year, and the Giants' win over the "19-0" Patriots in the Super Bowl.
What New England reminds me of a little are the Yankees towards the end of the Torre years. Both teams had great dynasties going. Both teams would have impressive regular season records, where they looked pretty dominant, but they would then lose in the postseason again and again.
People talk about New England like they are the best team in football. But the last time they won a Super Bowl was when George W. Bush was getting inaugurated for the second time. The last time the Patriots won a playoff game was in their would-be undefeated season. They lost to the Sanchize and the Jets last year, 28-21, and to the immortal Joe Flacco the year before. But I am supposed to think that there is no way that they can lose today? Sorry, I'm not buying it. The glory days are over, my friend.
So, even though the Patriots are 13-point favorites, I am not counting the Broncos out. New England was nine-point favorites against the Jets last year, and how did that work out in the end?
I am strangely confident in Tim Tebow for this game. There is some sort of magic around him this year. And how great would it be for somebody who emanates such goodness to beat the face of evil? I am imaging Belichick disappearing in a great cloud of black smoke at the end of the game, with the hoodie turning into a cape!
This time around, I don't think even Squawker Jon can root against Tebow. Go Broncos!
I'm exhausted from doing the Snoopy Dance last night to celebrate the Jets stomping the Patriots (I'm not agile enough to do the Braylon Edwards backflips, though!) And yes, I did totally call the win.
I haven't as been as excited about a sporting event since the Yankees won the World Series. Granted, I'm not really a Jets fan, but I am a Rex Ryan fan -- and a longtime Bill Belichick and Tom Brady despiser. Not to mention that I dig seeing Red Sox Nation unhappy. So yes, this was great fun to watch.
And I love, love, love all the trash talk between the two teams. Phil Simms said something after the game about how all the talk this week took away from the game. Are you kidding me? All the trash talk is what made this game such a marquee event! It's entertainment, guys!
The same with Shonn Greene's nap in the end zone, and Rex Ryan roaring down the field over the last touchdown, yelling "Yeah, baby" like he was Austin Powers. But Jim Nantz didn't care for it:
"I've never understood the absurdity of all the self-aggrandizing and now you're going to cost your team 15 yards on the kick and you're going to give Brady and his unit a chance to do something."
Oh, please. That stadium was like a ghost town at that point. Nantz was about the only person who thought the Patriots could "do something" to win the game, being 14 points behind with less than two minutes to go.
One of my Facebook friends mused last night as to whether Bill Belichick is becoming the new Joe Torre -- great in the regular season; not so great in the playoffs anymore. He has a point. After winning three championships in four years, it's now been six years since the Patriots won a Super Bowl. And they haven't won anything since Spygate, either. Coincidence? I think not.
And Tom Brady, Mr. Postseason, hasn't exactly been bringing it. Bart Scott mocked him in another postgame interview. And the Boston Herald (!) pulled up the stats to show that Bart also had a point:
“This was the quarterback that couldn’t get touched,” Scott said. “(The media) talk all about how great he’s playing, but what Rex (Ryan) pulled out for us was his last three playoff games – what his record was and what his rating was then. He had a 66 quarterback rating in his last four or five playoff games and you guys didn’t believe that. You guys didn’t look deep enough into the notes.”
Taking Scott’s advice, here is a closer look at Brady’s stats in his last three playoff games:
1/16/11 — 28-21 loss to Jets: 29-45, 299 yards, 2 touchdowns, 1 interception, 89.0 rating
1/10/10 — 33-14 loss to Ravens: 23-42, 154 yards, 2 touchdowns, 3 interceptions, 49.1 rating
2/3/08 — 17-14 loss to Giants: 29-48, 266 yards, 1 touchdown, 0 interceptions, 82.5 rating
Looks like Tom Terrific isn't so terrific as of late. But hey, at least he still has that Uggs endorsement. And the supermodel wife -- unless she dumps him for Mark Sanchez, the new postseason QB hero!
Well, at least Mr. Bundchen has time to go to some more Broadway shows. Maybe instead of watching "Lombardi" during the Jets-Colts game, he should have caught "Jersey Boys" instead?
Here's something I wanted to weigh in before the Jets-Patriots game is over. Lots of people have noticed how, um, hypocritical it was for career big talker Reggie Jackson to essentially tell the Jets to drink a nice, steaming cup of shut the bleep up. But what bugged me about his ESPN Radio lecture was the fact that he compared Tom Brady to Mariano Rivera:
Jackson also said Jets coach Rex Ryan made a mistake when he questioned Brady's decision to attend the Broadway play "Lombardi" last Saturday instead of watching the Jets' 17-16 wild-card win over the Colts.
"This guy is an automatic Hall of Famer, making fun of him is like making fun of Mariano Rivera," Jackson said. "What are you doing? What are you doing?"
Excuse me? This is insulting to Rivera, someone who has never trash-talked or pointed or shown anything but respect to his opponents.Not to mention that Mo never left his pregnant significant other for a supermodel. He's also not running around with Justin Bieber hair meant for somebody 20 years younger.
No matter how many rings Brady has, he is still a serial tweaker. This is a guy who likes to stick it to his own Boston fan base by wearing a Yankee hat. And he couldn't have been more public in dismissing the opposition than by spending last Saturday night on Broadway going to see "Lombardi" instead of watching the Jets-Colts game. Do you think Tom just happened to go that night because he just wanted to catch a good play? Puh-lease. Don't see why Rex Ryan shouldn't be allowed to note that.
Squawker Jon told me yesterday about how Justin Bieber made fun of Tom Brady for stealing his hairdo, but I thought it would be too good to be true. Thankfully, it really happened!
The teenage pop star rapped under the moniker "Shawty Mane" this week in this video, and here's what he said about the Patriots quarterback stealing his infamous hairstyle:
"Sacked like a sacker. Call up Mr. Brady. Tell him to leave his hair to the guy who sings ’Baby.’"
Love it!
Brady claimed he didn't know who Bieber was. I don't believe him.
CBS Sports' Charlie Casserly claims that there's a hair-raising reason Randy Moss got traded from the New England Patriots -- Moss reportedly said Tom Brady's goofy new hairdo made the quarterback look like a girl. Please, oh, please, let this story be true!
"One of Brady's problems with Moss was his behavior as a Patriot," said Casserly. "One of the things overheard was Brady telling Moss, 'You've got to cut your beard.' And Moss counters, 'You've got to get your hair cut. You look like a girl.'"
You can watch this report here from NFL Today (the best part is the uproarious laughter in the studio after Casserly reports this.)
I try not to comment on players' physical appearance, but Tom's Justin Bieber hairdo needs a hair-intervention. It's the most ridiculous hairstyle on a Brady since Jan Brady wore that black wig on "The Brady Bunch" back in the day. Only thing is, her siblings told her she looked dopey with the "New Jan Brady" wig.
On the other hand, Tom's wife Gisele Bundchen is the one who pushed this ridiculous style on her hubby. Why? Is she trying to keep every other woman in the world from finding her husband attractive?
And if this story about the Moss-Brady confrontation is true, where does Brady get off complaining about Moss' beard, and telling him to cut it? Is the Patriots' QB -- who roots for the Yankees, by the way -- taking his Yankee fandom so far that he wants to institute a hair code for his team? If so, he really needs to take a look in the mirror, and see that his own hair would be banned in Yankeeland.
What happens if the Patriots don't make the playoffs because of Moss' absence? How silly will that be if this story is true, that Moss is gone because he dared to criticize what pretty much everybody else in America acknowledges -- that Tom Brady needs a haircut! When I saw Bill Simmons speak last week, he brought up Brady's hair several times, and mocked the 'do (more like a don't!)
Whose hairstyle looks dumber -- Tom Brady's or Jan Brady's? Tell us about it!
