Queue Rodney Dangerfield
OK, it's time to talk about the Saturday matchup between the Patriots and the Jaguars.
Tom Brady says the Patriots aren't getting any respect, so let me help him out. ESPN.com ran a poll on Monday asking the Sports Nation which of the four wild card teams would win this weekend. The other three teams, Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Washington were picked by somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of the people who responded. Jacksonville garnered a whopping three percent of the vote. Three percent, people! (And it was only up to three percent because I voted from home and the office, and called my buddies, Cooter and Bubba, up in Callahan and had them go to the public library and vote for J'ville on the 4 computers there.) How much more respect does Tommy Boy want? I heard a Boston Globe reporter in an interview say he thought Brady might have just been miffed that someone else was using the Patriots' rallying cry. What? Does Brady think the Patriots invented the 'no respect' card? I think that was around long before he was in diapers. For starters, you can reference Broadway Joe in Super Bowl III. He was a laughing stock...until he was right.
There is a ton of speculation out there that the Patriots threw their last game, because if they won, the Pittsburgh Steelers were coming to town, but if they lost, their opponent would be Jacksonville. The thought is, Jacksonville would be a far easier opponent to get past than Pittsburgh. Nobody in the Patriots camp will admit anything like that happened, but when you watch Doug Flutie make a drop kick, you have to admit that it appears there wasn't much concern about winning.
The spread was 7 1/2 points on Monday and is up to 9 now. I think the biggest spread on any other game this weekend is less than 4. If I were a betting man, I'd be waiting until 2 minutes before kickoff to place my bet. The spread might be 12 by then.
For the icing on the cake, I'm watching the Rose Bowl last night, and Mr. Announcer Dude doing a promo on the wild card games says something very close to, "...and Saturday night at 8:00 we have the New England Patriots game." Oh sure, they bring up the graphic with both the Jaguars and Patriots helmets on it, but you'd think the guy could at least mention that the Jaguars were playing in that one.
So Tommy Boy thinks he gets no respect. I'd sure hate to see what would happen if someone threw a little his way. Would they even play the game, or do we just cancel the flight from Jax International to Logan right here and now, and hand the game ball to Bill and Tom?
So what do I think about it all? Yes, the Patriots are favored, and maybe they should be. J'ville hasn't proven much in the last half of the season, squeaking by the lesser teams of the league. This is our chance though. Yeah, I think we don't get any respect and I think that Monday poll is an accurate depiction of the national perception of the Jaguars. If that's going to change though, it'll change in games like the one Saturday night. This is a chance to earn something. It doesn't come easy, and yeah...it's an opportunity to earn it. To get there, this team has to make something of that opportunity. Can we do it? Of course, I think we can. I'm a homer. In the end, it doesn't matter much what I or anyone else thinks (though it's fun to watch). That's why they play the game.
ps. Quick note on last night's Texas win over the University of Southern California (because that Trojan needs some ribbing, for more pleasure), even at halftime the talking heads were riding that horse. "USC has Texas right where they want them!" USC was down 6. Are you telling me they really didn't want to be winning at that point? If they were looking for a spanking, they didn't need to be in a football game. There are a few professional women who could accomodate..never mind. It was a beautiful thing, and all the game I could have asked for.
Tom Brady says the Patriots aren't getting any respect, so let me help him out. ESPN.com ran a poll on Monday asking the Sports Nation which of the four wild card teams would win this weekend. The other three teams, Pittsburgh, Carolina, and Washington were picked by somewhere between 25 and 40 percent of the people who responded. Jacksonville garnered a whopping three percent of the vote. Three percent, people! (And it was only up to three percent because I voted from home and the office, and called my buddies, Cooter and Bubba, up in Callahan and had them go to the public library and vote for J'ville on the 4 computers there.) How much more respect does Tommy Boy want? I heard a Boston Globe reporter in an interview say he thought Brady might have just been miffed that someone else was using the Patriots' rallying cry. What? Does Brady think the Patriots invented the 'no respect' card? I think that was around long before he was in diapers. For starters, you can reference Broadway Joe in Super Bowl III. He was a laughing stock...until he was right.
There is a ton of speculation out there that the Patriots threw their last game, because if they won, the Pittsburgh Steelers were coming to town, but if they lost, their opponent would be Jacksonville. The thought is, Jacksonville would be a far easier opponent to get past than Pittsburgh. Nobody in the Patriots camp will admit anything like that happened, but when you watch Doug Flutie make a drop kick, you have to admit that it appears there wasn't much concern about winning.
The spread was 7 1/2 points on Monday and is up to 9 now. I think the biggest spread on any other game this weekend is less than 4. If I were a betting man, I'd be waiting until 2 minutes before kickoff to place my bet. The spread might be 12 by then.
For the icing on the cake, I'm watching the Rose Bowl last night, and Mr. Announcer Dude doing a promo on the wild card games says something very close to, "...and Saturday night at 8:00 we have the New England Patriots game." Oh sure, they bring up the graphic with both the Jaguars and Patriots helmets on it, but you'd think the guy could at least mention that the Jaguars were playing in that one.
So Tommy Boy thinks he gets no respect. I'd sure hate to see what would happen if someone threw a little his way. Would they even play the game, or do we just cancel the flight from Jax International to Logan right here and now, and hand the game ball to Bill and Tom?
So what do I think about it all? Yes, the Patriots are favored, and maybe they should be. J'ville hasn't proven much in the last half of the season, squeaking by the lesser teams of the league. This is our chance though. Yeah, I think we don't get any respect and I think that Monday poll is an accurate depiction of the national perception of the Jaguars. If that's going to change though, it'll change in games like the one Saturday night. This is a chance to earn something. It doesn't come easy, and yeah...it's an opportunity to earn it. To get there, this team has to make something of that opportunity. Can we do it? Of course, I think we can. I'm a homer. In the end, it doesn't matter much what I or anyone else thinks (though it's fun to watch). That's why they play the game.
ps. Quick note on last night's Texas win over the University of Southern California (because that Trojan needs some ribbing, for more pleasure), even at halftime the talking heads were riding that horse. "USC has Texas right where they want them!" USC was down 6. Are you telling me they really didn't want to be winning at that point? If they were looking for a spanking, they didn't need to be in a football game. There are a few professional women who could accomodate..never mind. It was a beautiful thing, and all the game I could have asked for.
John put this out here at 8:35 AM
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