<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (bakes781)</div><div class='quotemain'>I already stated how I felt prior to the Bolts game & now that we've beaten the best I see no reason not to be confident that we will have our 4th SB in 6 years.</div> 4 in 6 years is damned good too.
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Return of the Raider)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (bakes781)</div><div class='quotemain'>I already stated how I felt prior to the Bolts game & now that we've beaten the best I see no reason not to be confident that we will have our 4th SB in 6 years.</div> 4 in 6 years is damned good too.</div> Even if they stole one from the Raiders via "The Tuck Rule?"
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (vikingfan)</div><div class='quotemain'>So football is now a classless sport?</div> Of course it is. Most professional sports are. Where else can someone with a poor education get paid millions of dollars per year to hit people as hard as they can, do stupid dances, and run their mouths uncontrollably? Some of these guys barely graduated from high school. You don't see lawyers, judges, or doctors acting like that in their professional careers. I'm not saying that everyone in the NFL is an idiot but you can tell that a lot of them aren't very bright just by listening to them. "We aint got no..." doesn't exactly make me think they had a 3.5 or higher GPA in school. There are some exceptions and Tiki Barber is a good example. He is smart and well-mannered for the most part unless Michael Irvin says something about him. Irvin is a perfect example of what I'm talking about. Professional athletes who get arrested on drug charges and other felonies aren't classy people. This may cause you guys to hate me but what about Darrent Williams? Would he be dead right now if he hadn't been out at clubs drinking, crunkin', chillin' or whatever around thugs?
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (DolfanDale)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (The Return of the Raider)</div><div class='quotemain'><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE (bakes781)</div><div class='quotemain'>I already stated how I felt prior to the Bolts game & now that we've beaten the best I see no reason not to be confident that we will have our 4th SB in 6 years.</div> 4 in 6 years is damned good too.</div> Even if they stole one from the Raiders via "The Tuck Rule?"</div> Or even if they used audible signals to gain an advantage?
I may not be a big fan of Bill Belichick as an individual for a lot of reasons, but one of them is not how he has instructed his players to react on the field. Ninety-nine times out of 100, the Patriots will be very old-school about their celebrations, with a bare minimum of taunting or the in-your-face stuff that seems to be prevalent in the rest of the NFL these days. That being said, they're not angels. Not at all. I accept that. It's a football game and boys will be boys - especially when they've flown 3,000 miles to play a game that practically no one expected them to win, and they've come from eight points down in the last half of the fourth quarter to win the game. However, I can guarantee you that if Tomlinson became a free agent tomorrow, and that "classless" Bill Belichick called him and offered him a boatload of money and a chance to play for a Super Bowl championship with the Patriots, there would be a press conference in Foxboro the next day. "I'm just happy to be here with such a class organization," Tomlinson would say. "I have all the respect in the world for the Kraft family and for Coach Belichick, and I'm looking forward to the opportunity to bring another championship to the great fans of New England." You bet he would, regardless of what he's saying now. This whole concept of "class" in the National Football League is puzzling me, anyway. Is it "class" for a player to do a sack dance over a fallen competitor with each and every sack? The way I was raised in sports, and most of my friends were as well, was that you did your job, got up and went on to the next play without taunting or embarrassing your fallen opponent. You've succeeded on this play, yes, but there are at least 70 more opportunities to succeed or fail for each player on the field in every game, and one play often doesn't amount to a hill of beans in the big picture of the entire game. But the celebrations continue, and they get wilder and more emphatic with each passing day. It really galls me to see a defensive player make a tackle of a running back who's just completed a 6-yard gain up the middle, and then suddenly jump up and cavort about as if the stop just won the Super Bowl. Good heavens, man, you just gave up six full yards! That's not worthy of a celebration, that's worthy of self-chastising for letting the opposition make such an inroad into your territory! These days, however, it's all about style. So if the Patriots neutralize the steroid-enhanced Merriman and then do his signature sack dance after they got the job done, they're bad guys - just like when Mike Vrabel, a linebacker by trade and a part-time tight end by situation, caught a TD pass in Super Bowl XXXIX and then performed Terrell Owens' "Eagle Wave" in celebration of the moment. To be honest? The linebacker doing the dance that Owens couldn't was just plain funny. I'm seriously disappointed in LT in this instance - or more accurately, the Chargers' media relations staff, which should have given their star running back the bum's rush out of the interview room before he contracted a full-blown case of hoof-in-mouth disease. If Tomlinson had seen the situation more clearly before opening his mouth, and assessed the meaning of teammates that performed head-butts after the whistle and got 15-yard penalties as a result, or if he looked more carefully at a litany of stupid plays and brain-dead mental lapses (hello, Marlon McCree) that factored into the outcome of the game, perhaps he would have been more appropriately offering a heartfelt apology to the fans of San Diego for his team's failure to perform with dignity and poise in its most important game of the year. Tomlinson is a class act. He could play on my team any day of the year. Truthfully, the Patriots would win six more Lombardi Trophies if he was wearing their colors. But on Sunday, he was a loser - literally and figuratively.
I was at this game. I think what most people are not aware of, that prompted LT's respons is what happened at this game that was not televised. I also saw the replay on tivo. NE repeatedly would not come out of the tunnel when they where announced, several times in a row even when they all were standing at the opening including Bele. They finally decided to come onto the field when SD decided not to wait any longer and were announced to the field.......... Then after the home fans started cheering for the home team, NE come out with all their arms waiving to the crowd as if to mock the home fans........ This behavior continued in one way or another the whole game. CLASSLESS! As far as Merriman, he's paid his price for being young and ingorant regardless if he knew what he was doing or not. Personally, I dont mind the celebrations as long as they are just that....a celebration of a good play to help pump up the team. I do dislike when it turns to a mocking of another team or individual as with the end of the SD NE game. NE won the game in a well fought game from both ends......so celebrate your win with personal mocking. BTW, Merriman had been playing injured the last several games, as many player do. If you think your off the hook for the future seasons meeting with the "clean" Merriman, I would not be so bold.... He's a stud and has alot of game left in him. LT did the right thing to try to keep a lid on what the game is about and he would never play for a guy like Bele regardless of the $$$.
