Optimism about the Patriots season? Nope.
All day long today, I kept hoping for a miracle--that somehow all the news outlets were jumping the gun and that Brady's injury would somehow only be severe enough to keep him out, oh, a mere 10 weeks. But sadly no, today the Patriots made it official--Tom Brady is done for the year.
My emotional process has been interesting, to say the least. Yesterday, I was in the full "that's it, we're done" stage. The Wacky Chinawife was talking about putting our 49ers-Patriots tickets on craigslist to recoup our costs. I was trying to figure out if I could cancel NFL Sunday Ticket and get a refund on the prorated portion of the season. I thought about picking another "2008 proxy" team to follow just so I could root for SOMEONE to knock off the Colts in the playoffs.
Early this morning, I was in the "you know, maybe Cassel won't be so bad" stage. I thought about how in 2001, the Patriots managed to scrape by with a strong power run game, a "bend but don't break" defense, a dink-and-dunk passing game, and some plucky special teams play. I started looking forward to the excitement of watching the Patriots try and scrap together those 9-6 victories, just like they did in 2003. I started checking out their cupcake schedule to see what a realistic win-loss record would be (for the record, I optimistically came up with 10 wins, 6 losses and a wild-card berth, followed by a quick playoff exit).
At lunch, I had a Vietnamese iced coffee, which messed up my entire nervous system for the rest of the afternoon. And somewhere in this jittery state, I went back to square one. Opposing teams will have figured out how to neutralize Cassel by Week 5. The defense isn't fast enough to stop an above average passing game. The rest of the AFC East shares the same easy schedule. An 8-8 record seems like the best we can expect. Hey, maybe Culpepper will come out of retirement and...whoa....remember to never order that iced coffee ever again.
Just like yesterday, prime time football provides a measure of solace. To think, Raiders fans have wallowed in this same state of despair for 5 years!
And now....resignation. And the sudden understanding that this season is just a preview of the inevitable time where Brady and Belichick are gone (the former likely cut from the team to clear some cap space and the latter likely expelled from the NFL once his other ingenious cheating methods are discovered).
My emotional process has been interesting, to say the least. Yesterday, I was in the full "that's it, we're done" stage. The Wacky Chinawife was talking about putting our 49ers-Patriots tickets on craigslist to recoup our costs. I was trying to figure out if I could cancel NFL Sunday Ticket and get a refund on the prorated portion of the season. I thought about picking another "2008 proxy" team to follow just so I could root for SOMEONE to knock off the Colts in the playoffs.
Early this morning, I was in the "you know, maybe Cassel won't be so bad" stage. I thought about how in 2001, the Patriots managed to scrape by with a strong power run game, a "bend but don't break" defense, a dink-and-dunk passing game, and some plucky special teams play. I started looking forward to the excitement of watching the Patriots try and scrap together those 9-6 victories, just like they did in 2003. I started checking out their cupcake schedule to see what a realistic win-loss record would be (for the record, I optimistically came up with 10 wins, 6 losses and a wild-card berth, followed by a quick playoff exit).
At lunch, I had a Vietnamese iced coffee, which messed up my entire nervous system for the rest of the afternoon. And somewhere in this jittery state, I went back to square one. Opposing teams will have figured out how to neutralize Cassel by Week 5. The defense isn't fast enough to stop an above average passing game. The rest of the AFC East shares the same easy schedule. An 8-8 record seems like the best we can expect. Hey, maybe Culpepper will come out of retirement and...whoa....remember to never order that iced coffee ever again.
Just like yesterday, prime time football provides a measure of solace. To think, Raiders fans have wallowed in this same state of despair for 5 years!
And now....resignation. And the sudden understanding that this season is just a preview of the inevitable time where Brady and Belichick are gone (the former likely cut from the team to clear some cap space and the latter likely expelled from the NFL once his other ingenious cheating methods are discovered).
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