Going into yesterday, most people expected the Patriots to beat up on the Oakland Raiders, who were making their second East coast trip in three weeks, and heading out to London for next week’s game.

The Raiders put up a fight, and the Patriots continued their struggle to put the ball in the end zone yesterday, and wound up with a 16-9 New England victory. They held off a last-second Raiders drive when Vince Wilfork grabbed a deflected ball to come up with the game-sealing interception.

It wasn’t a satisfying win, but it was a win, and we’ll take it. Get all the coverage at PatriotsLinks.com.

Ray Lewis is not a good TV analyst – Chad Finn nails it here, especially in light of Lewis’ mind-boggling quote from yesterday – “There’s some things you can cover up. And there’s some things you can’t.“

A salute to the great sportswriter Joe Murphy – The legendary Eagle-Tribune columnist passed away on Saturday at the age of 89. Michael Muldoon had written this column back in May remembering Murphy, who in many ways was a prototype of the cynical, opinionated sports columnist of today.

ESPN’s Cris Carter’s on-air growth showing in NFL coverage – Richard Deitsch looks back at a crazy week of NFL media.

On Friday, ESPN’s Outside the Lines released their devastating report on how the Baltimore Ravens and the NFL handled the Ray Rice case.

Rice case: purposeful misdirection by team, scant investigation by NFL

Done by Don Van Natta Jr. and Kevin Van Valkenburg, the report had the Ravens scrambling and promising a detailed reply this week.

While there is a ton to digest in the report, from a media perspective, and keeping a theme going that I’ve had on this site over the last few weeks, here’s another damning bit of evidence against Peter King and his role as Roger Goodell’s mouthpiece.

From the ESPN report:

By early July, NFL beat reporters kept hearing Rice would get a six-game suspension. But privately, Ravens officials said they felt confident Rice would get only two games. One source who spoke to Cass said he had heard at least two weeks before Goodell announced the penalty that Rice would receive only a two-game suspension. Rice’s friends say he didn’t hear his suspension was two games until July 23, the day before Goodell announced it.

This is from King’s MMQB in MAY:

Rice likely faces a short (maybe two-game) suspension from the commissioner for being a first-time offender under the personal-conduct policy. He’s got a strong résumé and is greatly admired for his work in the community. He shouldn’t be thrown out with the trash. But he’s got to realize that the performance the other day was tone-deaf.

So King knew that the suspension would be “maybe” two games before the Ravens or Rice did? How exactly did he know this, way back then? The reasons given are also what Goodell cited. He’s awful. The worst.

<insert picture of smoking gun here>

I also love the audacity of King to suggest someone else is tone-deaf. King has mastered the art of tone-deafness. Finn touched on it in his Sunday Mailbag yesterday.

Let’s look at today’s MMQB for some more tone-deal, ugly-American examples:

Walking back from Central Park around noon Saturday, I spied a crazy-long line outside the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue. The line weaved in a maze of crowd-control stanchions, hundreds of people in the maze, and at the end of the maze, the line went east down 59th Street, a full city block to Madison Avenue.

It wasn’t too tough to guess what it was for—the rollout of the iPhone 6. I asked one of the security dudes: “How long a wait if I went to the end of the line right now?”

“Six hours,” he said.

So I went to the end of the line and asked a couple of young guys, 20 or 23, waiting with their heads in their iPhone 5s, “Did you know you’ve got about a six-hour wait in front of you? That’s what the security guy told me.”

“They told us it was about five,” one of the guys said.

Well, that certainly makes all the difference.

The guy who Tweeted delightedly about being able to inform a restaurant host about Robin Williams’ suicide now eagerly runs to the back of the line in Manhattan – where he lives – to inform the people there that they have to wait six hours. That last line is vintage Peter King.

6. I think if you’re waiting for me to call for Roger Goodell to be fired, you’ll have to wait a while. I’m not into mob rule either.

So people who are saying that Goodell needs to be gone are part of a “mob.” This is like when Peter referred to the “shrill cries” for his own job. And of course he isn’t going to call for Goodell to be fired. He’s got too much at stake himself.

Peter is also not into mob rule, but he is the one leading the crusade to change the name of the Washington football team.

a. My best to the family of Dave Rahn, former 49ers PR man, who died of melanoma Thursday. Dave was a good, good man with a terrific work ethic, and he was as professional a person as I’ve dealt with in this business. Rest in peace, Dave.

Well, that’s a nice sentiment, Peter.

b. I’ve had two significant melanoma surgeries, and it’s nothing to fool around with. Sunscreen and regular checkups are the only way to beat it—or to compete with it.

Of course. It’s always about Peter. He can’t even pay tribute to a man who died of cancer without making it about himself.

Tone-deaf doesn’t begin to cover it.

Published by Bruce Allen

Automattician.

46 thoughts on “Long Way To Go For Patriots”

  1. The only word that doesn’t fit in the blank in the sentence “Ray Lewis is not a good ______.” is “linebacker”.

    Also, Wilbur raises a good issue today (namely, why aren’t we assigning more blame to Tom Brady, who hasn’t been very good this year)… but naturally does so in a way that drives you away from ever wanting to read a word he writes again. At least he’s consistent. Unlike Brady.

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      1. I was always supportive of JMD. Not this year. No excuses. Find a way to get the weapons you have involved in the offense. It’s not Brady’s job to figure out a game plan to get LaFell and Amendola open. It’s his job to get them the ball when they are open.

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      2. If the offense was struggling because nobody was ever open and the team didn’t adjust to fix that, then I’d put the blame squarely on JMD. However, I don’t see that as being the problem. The problem to me is that Brady only throws to Gronk and Edelman. It doesn’t matter who the OC is if the QB is going to just force the ball to the same two guys over and over again.

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        1. I think you are not really looking at how the offense is being constructed. McDaniels likes long developing plays with a single check down over the middle. So the slot receiver whether he is Edelman or Gronk are targeted more often because the Partiots run plays designed to make space in the middle of the field for the check down. So what happens is Brady get the ball, looks up at the outside guy and his 20 yard play that needs 5 seconds to develop and then he comes back to the open middle of the field.

          This is completely different than what Charlie Weis and to a lesser extent Bill OB ran. WHat they did is had the first read and at times second read be on plays that developed quickly…the flanker screen, the quick slant, the wr 3 yard up and out curl. McDaniels runs none of those plays. He is so intent on forcing the ball up the field that he has Brady on 5 step drops and expects the line to hold blocks 4-5 seconds. In today’s NFL you can’t expect a pocket to hold for 4-5 seconds…you will get your QB killed.. So Brady looks for the more sure receiver and routes and locks onto his Binkies.

          One other thing…the Pats and Brady used to run brilliant play-action. It has disappeared since McDaniel has come back. Ask yourself why? Is it because Brady can’t fake a handoff? No it is because everyone knows the Pats are 1) not committed to the run and 2) that any play action play they do run takes forever to develop. The one nice playaction play they ran in the Oakland game resulted in the 20 yard gain by Wright. Yet they never went back to it.

          I have never like McDaniels. Compared to Weis and OB he is clearly inferior. he is going to get Brady killed and the chattering classes are going to say it is because Brady is losing it as he get older. I suggest that the talent in NE is fine, that the QB is fine, it is the offense they are running that is completely broken as of today. Do I think it will get fixed…yes, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady are too good to not fix it in spite of McDaniels. However it will be a constant battle and we will keep looking at it all year wondering why the Pats are not as explosive or as good as Denver or Seattle. It is a scheme issue.

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          1. Excellent breakdown that one should hear from the media, but, insanely, never would. Much too much thinking is involved. Personally, I feel it makes no sense to critique Brady or the receivers for the offensive output so far because pass protection has been abysmal. It’d be one thing if Brady were standing around with tons of time but was still unable to find an open receiver and/or missing wide open receivers (on a consistent basis). But that hasn’t been the problem. Brady can’t get the ball out quicker because the receivers aren’t getting open because the line isn’t giving them enough time to get open or for plays to develop. You make a very interesting point about the scheme and play calling, though. McD should be making adjustments to cover up for the offense’s biggest weakness.

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      1. I just ate lunch…seriously now I have an exposed Bruce as the visual in my head. Not Cool my friend…not cool.

        On a serious note, I have to think there is some sweating going on at SI over the whole MMQB investment and whether King has been exposed to the point where he is no longer viable going forward. I don’t think that is the case because for the most part I think sports fans are lemmings. I can’t think of an example of a reporter/commentator losing his livelihood once he has been exposed for being a lazy shill. The examples I keep thinking about that might be the closest are Tom Jackson saying “Make no mistake, they hate their coach” and John Tomasse’s article claiming the Patriots taped the Ram’s Walkthrough and that there was a tape. In both cases the offending parties kept their jobs however their reputations and credibility has never been the same.

        So King gets through all of this, the lemmings still read his drivel but I think media outlets will be less likely to call on him as an expert. That will be the only fall out I can think of.

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        1. Eh, remember that SI is the same magazine that for years employed “Dr. Z” as an NFL “expert.” So clearly, their standards for NFL beat writers have never been that high. My apologies to any Dr. Z fans out there, but the guy was a hack with a huge east coast/NYC bias to boot.The clip of him saying (paraphrase), “Miami has no great QB coach, so I don’t know why they drafted Marino; I don’t see him developing down there,” during ESPN’s coverage of the ’83 draft is priceless.

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    3. If you think Bruce is alone, or that the many places who criticize him do so out of some financial jealousy, you’ve missed the past week or two of what got Peter King exposed to many more. All of it was nothing new to people who follow media.

      And, “doing well” doesn’t bode well when SI isn’t doing so well itself. One could also say that SI makes a good chunk of its revenue via the Swimsuit Issue. There have been rumors that King has had to take a pay cut or two because of it.

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      1. I had never heard the “Tejada foul ball” story that Chad cited yesterday and just read it now. Wow. He actually rips those who took him to task for screwing the kid out of the ball with the same finger-wagging tone. Unbelievable.

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  3. Games like yesterday’s are why it’s impossible to follow the Patriots in this town without locking out the media’s negative influence. They played lousy, but they won the game. I’m not thrilled with the performance so far this season, and it’s clear they have issues to resolve, but they’re 2-1 and tied for first place.
    How do you think Green Bay fans feel after their team’s first three games, which featured one narrow escape at home against the Jets and two embarrassing road beatdowns? Giants’ fans? Their team finally showed up yesterday against a team that was 2-14 last season, after starting at 0-2. The 49ers? They’re 1–2 and there seems to be turmoil throughout the organization. They’re also already two games out of first place in the league’s best division. The Saints are also 1-2 and just had an underwhelming home win against the same team the Pats creamed last week.
    I think this market is the only one in which a victory, however narrow and unsatisfying, is treated like a defeat. Heck, they won by 23 points on the road last week and there was still a ton of gloom and doom going around town. And Felger….ah Felger. He’s calling the OBVIOUS holding call on the Raiders that negated the tying TD a “make up” call, as if it was an illegitimate flag, even though wrapping up a defender and tackling him to the ground always has been and always will be offensive holding. The P.I. call on Ryan was garbage, though, so maybe that’s were the “makeup” call nonsense comes from (to my eyes, the WR arm-barred Ryan and pushed him out of bounds, yet the flag flew against Ryan).
    I hope this team turns it around, because it’s hard to go through an entire season as a fan when you feel like you have no choice but to self-impose a media blackout except for the three hours every week when the game is on TV.

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    1. Felger, Borges, Longo, Volin…they all think that the Pats were bailed out by the holding call and that Ryan “yanked” the Raider wr to the ground, despite video evidence to the contrary on both. Sirius NFL Radio, thank you.

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    2. I get your point but I don’t blame guys like Felger…I blame the fans who don’t have a brain to think for themselves. I like listening to shows like Felger . Sometimes there are interesting angles on subjects that I didn’t think of. And I do love how they will attack a status quo while other media members protect theirs. I keep sports talk radio in it’s proper perspective. You can’t listen to all the shows all day that would drive you nuts. I listen at various times to get the pulse of the media and or the basement dwellers but that’s it. I’ll be here 3 months from now when the AFC East is locked up again and wondering what wild card team the pats will be playing at home after their playoff bye. And these same people who are foaming at the mouth now that the Pats aren’t winning their games 40-10 anymore will pretend that they never said that the Pats suck and Belichick is cheap and has lost it. These are the bandwagon fans that came aboard when the Brady era started who will thankfully go away when Brady retires. The remaining fans left will be the real fans who know football.

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  4. This is like a movie I’ve seen a hundred times.. For whatever reason, the Patriots always seem to be “slow starters” EXCEPT for the fact they tend to WIN while they struggle to “find themselves”…only time that they started out like a “powerhouse” that I can remember was 2007…So we get the PANIC talk, the Brady “Body Language” talk, the “window is closing” talk, the “No Weapons” talk… Oh yeah, this is a repeat.

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    1. Good point. In 2002 they started out 4-0 but ended the season at 9-7. The “highlight” of the year being that horrible game at home vs the Packers. Brady had no clue that day.

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  5. For YEARS, Felger and Mazz have been moaning about how the Patriots need to get better on defense, and that they will happily take the Pat’s offense going down in quality if the defense can compensate by doing better. Especially Mazz. Mazz is also on record for wanting the Pats to be more aggressive even if they get penalized more like the Seahawks.

    The Pats defense gave up 9 points and 0 TDs yesterday. They gave up 7 points last week and had 4 turnovers.

    What is the storyline? All about how the Pats offense sucks. Hours upon hours upon hours with the bashing, whether on Felger’s post game show or on the radio (and I’m sure in Mazz’s boston.com columns which I won’t read).

    Is the Pats offense due some criticism? Certainly. Especially the way they handled the end of the 1st half yesterday. This offense really needs to improve. But 100% of the conversation has to be on this?

    Goes to show that no matter what this team does, even if they sign Felger’s favorite player Revis and change the defense exactly the way Mazz wanted, all we will get regarding this team is the endless criticism.

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    1. In fairness I just want to point out that Mazz did say yesterday that he prefers the team this way. He said he feels that Belichck will have the offense figured out by the end of the year.

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  6. For years, this team has needed a big target inside the red zone not named Gronkowski. So last year they draft Aaron Dobson, and this year they bring in Brandon LaFell. Brady seemingly can’t work with either of them. He doesn’t have the patience to groom a rookie, and he becomes immediately frustrated with veterans who haven’t memorized every punctuation mark of the playbook.

    The result is the Patriots passing offense is as follows: First read – vanilla midget out of the slot; second read – Gronkowski wherever he is and regardless of coverage; third read – maybe Vereen. Maybe.

    You don’t have to be Rob Ryan to scheme against this team.

    If it were only Dobson, or only LaFell, or only Ammendola, or only Thompkins, maybe I could see implementing the “Bill The GM failed Bill the Coach” storyline, but are we seriously to believe that EVERY receiver they’ve drafted/signed since 2007 is either untalented, incompetent or both? All of them? I mean, I think Amendola is fragile, but he’s not untalented. LaFell had a very respectable season last year. Surely these guys have more than what they’ve shown. And what ever happened to Thompkins? Am I seriously supposed to believe this media garbage that he’s been high-stepping it around the practice facility with an over-inflated ego because he made one game-winning catch against New Orleans?

    I think my point is that the #HotSportzTakes 1. “Bill the GM” is over-blown, and 2. Brady needs to get more out of the weapons he has, instead of everyone lamenting that “Bill the GM” go sign the highest-paid receiver every season.

    Ugh. My points are all over the map today. I’m sorry. I’m just as frustrated as everyone else with the Pats team, and listening to too much talk radio seems to have turned my brain into mush.

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    1. listening to too much talk radio seems to have turned my brain into mush.

      You will be happy to know that the FCC is considering mandating that all radios come with warning labels, analogous to those found on packs of cigarettes.

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  7. How about how King treated Cam Newton? that was disgusting and hardly anyone called him out on it. He did hatchet pieces on him and his character in print and on SNF for 2 years until Cam kissed the ring and then King let up. That was bullying in it’s truest form.

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  8. Welcome to another addition of “DISBUNK THE RIDICULOUS FELGER AND MAZZ MEMES”:

    – Meme: Brady must be angry because the Patriots drafted a QB in the second round rather than bringing in a “REAL FOOTBALL PLAYER”. Yeah Brady has always come across as the selfish type who likes to micromanage rosters *cough Peyton*. Further Brady is known to allow his emotions from off field decisions to effect his play and contract status decisions.

    – Meme: Brady would rather the team be managed like the Broncos or Jets rather than the way the Patriots roster is managed. This one is so dumb I am not going spend too much time exposing it other than to say he has missed the playoffs exactly once since he became the Pats starting QB. 5 SBs and 8 AFC championship games. I am sure he would much prefer the Jets 2 AFC championship games or the Broncos 1 SB and 1 AFC championship game in the last 13 years.

    – Meme: If I were Tom Brady I would preempt the Patriots and their march to Jimmy G and either hold out or demand a trade. Well, Beatle, Thank god you are not Brady. So far Tom Brady has shown nothing but loyalty. but more importantly he understands that as long as he plays well its his job. He did not hear footsteps with Matt Cassel, he did not hear them with Hoyer, He did not hear them with Ryan Mallet and he does not hear them with Jimmy G…because they are not there. Brady had issues the first 4 games last year and the Pats ended up in the in the AFC Championship game. I don’t see how offensive struggles in September equate to an entire season of offensive struggles. Especially since the Pats have always gotten better as the season goes forward.

    – Meme: The Patriots traded Mankins because they are cheap. Do Felger and Mazz actually watch games. Mankins looks horrible in Tampa. His performance leads me to believe that Belichick knew something the rest of us did not know…that Mankins was not only not worth $6 mill this year, he could not play at all. He then was able to get a TE and a draft pick for him. I am not saying Wright is a steal. I am simply saying the problems on the line would be worse right now with Mankins because he can’t move laterally. Is he tough. Yes. Was he the best guard in the league for 6-8 years…absolutely. Is he today? Nope. So lets stop beating the drum while proclaiming all the Pats line issues would be solved were Mankins still here. They would not be. McDaniels would still be the OC, they would still have center issues and they would still be looking for their Offensive identity.

    – Meme: The Pats offense is difficult so difficult in fact that every receiver they bring in can’t grasp it so Brady freezes them out. Whereas the Pats have had some high profile whiffs, Donald Hayes, Chad Ocho, and Chad Jackson have certainly been balanced off by Wes Welker, Randy Moss, David Patten, Julien Edelman, David Givens and Deion Branch. The issue is how the offense is being put together, not the receivers…at least not yet. If Danny Amendola can catch 84 passes from Sam Bradford he can catch them from Tom Brady assuming he is put in a position to do it.

    It is infuriating. The Sox, Celts and Bruins do not get this type of treatment…and the Sox and Celts sucked this past year.

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    1. HOW DARE YOU CHALLENGE THE F+M GOSPEL. BRUCE, BAN THIS PEON WHO DARES EXPRESS ANY HETERDOXY. WE MUST MAINTAIN CONFORMITY.

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      1. I never thought I’d say this but thank God the Big Show is back on the radio (900 am here in the Merrimack Valley). F&M have caused me to embrace The Big Show again. I can’t believe it.

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        1. Love it, as well. I’m a noted fan so I’m biased, but I was happy to learn that I get 900AM everywhere in the house without 500ft of tinfoil and 24g wire. In the car, I can pickup 900/1250 almost anywhere from Nashua to Manchester.

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    2. Believe it or not, Tampa’s offensive line is worse than NE’s. Mankins has done nothing for them. He was injured in game one but continues to play. It’d be respectable if he weren’t hurting the team’s effort by doing it. BB should be praised for getting a 4th round pick for him. If the Boston media insists on continuing to criticize him for the trade, at least take a more logical standpoint: Belichick held on to Mankins for one season too long — he should have gotten rid of him after 2012!

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    3. Just when you think Felger & Mazz can’t get worse they do. After 13 years of amazing success, Brady is going to demand a trade from a first place team after 3 games? There is grasping for straws. Then there is really grasping for straws.

      On the Mankins matter, during the 15 minutes or so I tuned in today (it was so awful I couldn’t take anymore), there was some statement to the effect that the offensive line of the Pats was the 31st ranked in the league, and guess who was ranked 32nd? Tampa. If Mankins leaving is the problem they don’t you think he’d be talented enough to improve the worst offensive line in the game? Funny thing with stats on the Felger & Mazz show, they only matter when they make their ultra contrarian doo & gloom points. When Mankins was traded the topic of them being able to use the money to extend some of their players like McCourtey came up. Mazz then proclaims something to the effect that McCourtney is no good anyway and to pull up the stats from one of the sites they’d been relying on (I think PFF) to help support his argument. Said stats end up revealing McCourtey is the top ranked safety in the league. Mazz immediately backs up and craps all over it.

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    4. Of course they wait until Greg Bedard leaves the studio. Wouldn’t want somebody with an intelligence level to question their sanity.

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  9. Toucher and Rich did a segment this morning where they ripped off this column paragraph by paragraph. I didn’t know Bruce Allen was this influential.

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    1. He’s not. T&R know nothing about sports. They probably felt that this site was obscure enough to rip off and get away with it. Hopefully it blows up in their faces. They’ll be gone sooner.

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  10. Is Tanguay trolling us with schlock like this:

    “If the offensive line doesn’t get better TB12 is going to be TB6 . . . feet under.”

    Or does he genuinely think that sort of high school journalism class garbage is witty? I can’t tell.

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    1. Same guy that went on 98.5 this Summer and screamed about Clay Bucholz being the opening day starter in 2015 and the Sox fielding a team with a Tampa Rays level payroll. He’s a loudmouth douchebag.

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  11. It’s one thing for the rest of the league to be had by a coach who was only successful because of his players’ talents, but why would Belichick be fooled into thinking that McD has a quality offensive mind? Wouldn’t he know better than anyone that McD doesn’t have it? BB has never brought a former coach back into the fold after one left. Why is McD the exception? Very queer.

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  12. Earn his chops? Bedard doesn’t work for the Lowel Daily Bugle. You can be skeptical of the commentary (even though I’ve heard it echoed by at least 3 other NFL insiders since yesterday) but don’t demean bedard as some nobody trying to make a name for himself. He’s already well established and respected.

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    1. I may have Bedard confused with someone else. There are so many anti-Pats trolls out there in the media that they all tend to blend together in my mind at times. Plus, his previous employment with the Globe automatically set off alarm bells in my head about him, though I must admit that I stopped reading the Globe sports section years and years ago. If Bedard actually was one of the good ones, then my bad for calling him out. Still, this “story” about the O-Line guys not liking the new coach comes off as opportunistic, unsubstantiated rumor-mongering given that the state of the O-Line has been the number one topic of troll-versation on talk radio this week. The fact that he said it on the number one troll-radio show in town also makes the claim very suspect as far as I’m concerned. But it may turn out to be accurate, who knows?

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    1. “I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell. Because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. ”

      Simmons is a bad joke.

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      1. I’m interested to see what “going public” means. T&R pointed this out, mentioning that Simmons must be a little tired of this stuff, and If I were Murdoch or a FS1 exec, I would have had an informal call with his agent. I know Simmons isn’t popular here (I’m not a fan) but, like it or not, he’s a “big name”. Big names = eyeballs and page clicks.

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    2. I’m not a fan of Simmons, nor of ESPN. That said, I think BS is being a turd in this situation. Frankly, he’s a turd in general. He wants to be fired by ESPN because he knows that at this point his name is a brand unto itself. He doesn’t need ESPN to make a living. I would say that he could even make a better living (moneywise) without them (e.g. his own website, podcast, satellite radio show/channel). My problem with his attitude is that he wouldn’t be in such a position of prominence without the platform that ESPN provided him to get there. What other media entity could have taken his Boston Sports Guy blog 12 or 13 years ago and turned BS into what he is today? In my mind, there isn’t one. I understand that he is popular because of who he is and how he presents his views. But without the monster of an outlet like ESPN to be heard, read and seen on, Bill Simmons isn’t Bill Simmons. Now, I’m not saying that he owes them a lifetime of loyalty. But he certainly owes it to them to live up to his contract. And he knew what ESPN was when he signed that contract. They are not, nor have they ever been, the bastion of journalistic integrity. They’re in the business of sports which directly ties them in with the sports leagues that provide the product. If Simmons is so appalled by this, then why has he been with the company for over a decade? And if he wants out, then why doesn’t he just quit? Simple: He won’t get paid and he won’t be able to work elsewhere until that contract is up. ESPN has him by the balls. I’m not saying he can’t speak his mind. Go for it, and let ESPN suspend you if they choose. He could call Goodell a liar, leave ESPN out of it completely, and it wouldn’t affect his point one bit. But by calling them out like he does and, let’s be honest, implying that ESPN is somehow complicit or tolerant of Goodell’s actions or inaction, he’s trying to goad them into firing him. That’s what he really wants. I chalk it up to his rich kid mentality of entitlement. Just like he doesn’t see how daddy’s money and a trust fund allowed him the luxury to toil away as a “struggling” aspiring sportswriter, he doesn’t acknowledge that ESPN has been just as integral to his success as his “talent” has been. I think another factor is that the Boston Sports Guy is now Hollywood Sports Guy, and I have no doubt that he has people whispering in his ear that he could have his own cable network if only he could get out from under that pesky ESPN contract. He should probably remember his failed staff writing position on Jimmy Kimmel Live, though.

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      1. It would be interesting to see if he could go out on his own. I don’t know of any models like that in sports. Our buddy Peter King’s project is affiliated with SI. The rest are small bore and/or don’t make any $. The closets comp would probably be Glen Beck going on his own on TV and internet but i think he has an core audience that you only find in politics.
        I would also love to know how Grantland does financially. I haven’t heard really anything on that but I would suspect we might start soon.

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  14. I find it ironic that F&M often refer to Paul Perillo as “Sunshine Dot Com” when he’s become, somehow, some way, even more negative and insufferable than Felger or Mazz.

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  15. Bedard was the best football writer at the Globe in a long, LONG time. He is sorely missed on that beat.

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