12/21/24
September 15, 2007
For The Love of Sport: Battle of NFL Elite : On Sunday the 16th the Patriots host the Charger in a contest that hopefully features very little dancing and video equipment.
With basketball and hockey still a ways off and no great match-ups in either college football or Major League Baseball this week the choice for this article was easy. This week is the first contest in what you might as well consider a round-robin of the AFC’s three elite teams. The Colts, Chargers and Patriots will all play each other over the course of the regular season perhaps setting a clear Super Bowl favorite by the time the playoffs roll around. The Patriots will travel to Indianapolis in week 9 while the Chargers host the Colts in week 10. Individual NFL games are not life or death like they are in college football but the bragging rights still remain. There is always home field advantage to consider as well, but you could ask the Chargers how that turned out for them after the Patriots turned Qualcomm Stadium into a dance club last year. While these three teams will have the opportunity to battle for supremacy in the regular season (and most likely there will be at least one rematch in the playoffs) the focus in the short term is the September 16 rematch between the Chargers and the Patriots. There are so many ways that you could analyze a game, but no matter how you look at it this one has all of the makings of a classic. From a statistical standpoint the Patriots were 11th in offense, 7th in scoring and 6th in defense last year. Not to be outdone the Chargers had the 4th best offense in football, they were first in scoring and they also ranked 10th in defense. San Diego went 14-2 and was the number one seed in the AFC playoffs, New England was just the 4 seed in the playoffs but they landed in that spot with a very solid 12-4 record. After New England’s 24-21 come from behind victory at San Diego last year there was more than a little name calling and the game was most likely the final straw that led to San Diego Coach Marty Schottenheimer’s firing. If you were the owner of the Chargers you really have to feel that you had enough talent to win it all and that your coaching staff let you down. So in a move befitting Jerry Jones you fire the coach who has 190 career regular season wins, 13 trips to the playoffs as a head coach and a winning record at every stop (the lone exception was a one year stint with the Redskins where he went 8-8) and hire Norv “How do I stay employed” Turner. Norv Turner who was 49-59-1 in just shy of 7 years in Washington and a remarkable 9-23 in two years in Oakland. I mean, how did that interview go? “Norv I can see that you were fired from your other two jobs as a Head Coach basically because you weren’t any good, can you explain that little patch on your resume?” “No, I was looking for somewhere around $3,000,000 per year though.” “Well, that’s sounds good to us, you can start next Monday.” San Diego lines up with 12 players selected to last year’s pro bowl including their QB, HB, FB, TE, C and one of their tackles from just the offensive side of the ball. When you have perhaps the best offensive player in the game (last year’s league MVP LaDainian Tomlinson) and one of the best defensive players in Shawne Merriman you almost have to agree with the Steinbrenner-esque mentality in firing their coach but couldn’t you do better than Norv Turner? It is a little surprising to note that New England had just two pro bowl selections (neither of whom was named Brady). But that Brady fellow is all right and they added a guy named Moss at WR and another guy named Adalius Thomas who’s a pretty good LB. So yeah, you could say that this game has a bit of star power going for it. Until about last Sunday Bill Belichick was really the most respected name in franchise history. As Belichick proved time and again he was the star and the rest of the parts were replaceable. What makes his team winners is the mentality that what matters is improving from the bottom up (that and the judicious use of video equipment). Interestingly enough for an article about what happens between the lines for the second week in a row after picking my topic I find myself forced to focus on cheating. It is easy to sit and judge another team or player and say, “Oh that guy’s a cheater how could they root for him?” I am 31 years old and have been hooked on the Patriots since the days of Squish the Fish and Berry the Bears. What am I going to do root for the Dolphins all of a sudden because my team turns out to be a bunch of cheaters? Have you ever seen Cam Cameron, that guy just looks like he would rifle through your couch for loose change while you were refreshing his drink. Is it too jaded of me to suggest maybe everyone in pro sports is cheating? I am not a big fan of cheating and even though it is my team I think that the fine for both the team ($250,000) and the Coach ($500,000) along with the lost draft pick (2008 1st rounder if the Pats make the playoffs, 2nd and 3rd rounder if they don’t) are fair punishments. I just wonder how you list $500,000 fine on your taxes. Is that a deduction or do you just not list it as income? Look for a good old fashioned football game featuring two of the best offenses and defenses that money can buy. As always I look forward to feedback, both positive and negative, and I can be reached via email at kyrilmitch_76@yahoo.com.
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