If you Can’t Beat ‘em, Defeat ‘em At Their Own Game. 

By TOM

BB has decided that if he can’t beat him then he will defeat him. The despicable and cheating Bill Polian was so distraught at the Pats complete defeat of his soft Colts 4 years ago, that he did the only thing he could, he cheated. He abused his role on the Competition Committee to change the rules of the game to not only suite his team, but hurt the Pats.

The Colts play the Tampa Two Defense, a heavy zone scheme. The Safeties and Corner retreat to a specific area they are to defend. They play Off-Man. They make no attempt to impede the progress of the WR, and rarely put their hands on the WR. The Pats mix up their coverages, but mostly use aggress Press Coverage whenever possible to disrupt what the WR is trying to do. They Jam, chuck, and physical the WRs to death.

The Colts WRs are led by the strange and small Marvin Harrison, who can be defeated physically, as Ty Law showed four years ago. As long as the Pats DBs could manhandle Polian’s finesse WRs they would be consistently defeated.

So what does Polian do, does he draft tougher WRs and Corners like the Pats, no he cheats. He weasels, whines, and manipulates the Competition Committee to completely change how Pass Defense is played in the NFL. You can no longer touch poor little Marvin or you be sent to your room. He also had two other rule changes that year that related directly to Patriots victories.

The fact that Bill Polian is still on the Completion Committee is a crime against football. Remember when Vader-chock missed the game Winning Field Goal against the Pats in 2004, as Mike Vrabel was calling Time Out. Well, according to the despicable BP, it wasn’t poor little Vander-chocks fault he missed the FG, it mean Mister Vrabel’s fault for knowing how to use the rules. After you called TO, you are not allowed a second TO in a row, so the referees were instructed to ignore a player calling a TO immediately after his team had just called a TO. So Vrabel was able to distract Vander-choke enough for him to miss. Well, Polian made sure that act of strategy was now a Fifteen Yard Penalty, he called it unfair, unjust, and cheating. He called it a kettle.

So now when a TO has been called and a player is trying to get a second straight TO, it is an Unsportsmen-Like Penalty. And the despicable Polian didn’t even pretend, he had that rule put into effect two weeks after Vader-choke missed that FG. He actually changed the rules during the season because his team lost a big game, and nobody in the NFL said anything? I have never seen a rule change put into effect during the NFL season, criminal. And if you think I’m full of crap, just look at all the rule changes the Competition Committee has made since Ty Law caught more passes thrown by Payton Manning then Marvin Harrison in the 2003 NFL Playoff game.

Okay, so what does BB do, now that Polian has manipulated the rules to the point where his Offense and Defense benefits the most by all the rule changes (or do you think it was a coincidence that two Tampa Two defense where in the Super Bowl this year), does he cheat? No, he out thinks the despicable BP again.

He trades for the tiny and ultra-illusive Wes Welker. He signs Free Agent Dante Stallworth. Stallworth has that scary speed that panics defenses. Welker has that special quickness, like Troy Brown, that devastates defenses in the slot. If you cannot put your hands on these guys, you cannot cover them. If you cannot disrupt their patterns, they will defeat you. They are both small, smart, and vulnerable to the double team and physical play, which now of course you cannot do. Hey Polian, Zone-this.

Okay so BB outsmarts BP again, and then in an act of pure revenge he Pimp-Slaps Polian right upside his head. BB just picks up the phone and says “Yo Al, I got an offer you can’t refuse, how ‘bout you give me Moss for a Forth?” Al says, “Ah… Okay… (I’m hearing Butthead’s voice when I am writing this;-) Well, BP sure looks like cheating by to me;-)

In the new Pussy-fied Polian NFL, who is going to cover these guys? With Moss and Stallworth on the outside, Welker in the slot, and oh yeah, Ben Watson running the seam, who is going to cover these guys? And just for fun let’s swing Faulk and Morris out of the Backfield, who is going to cover these two guys? BB not only outplayed BP at his cheating game, he destroyed him.

Do I like the Moss signing? I don’t know, when a man purposely bullies a female with his SUV, it’s kind of hard to have any respect for him at all, as a man. But, on the field he is as beautiful as a Van Gogh in Orange and Green (the Night Café). But, off the field he clashes with reality like green and orange in a Van Gogh in Arles. He has a long history of mental illness (as did Van Gogh) that has gone too long untreated because he is rich, famous, has great hands, and can run down the field and leap like a gazelle on steroids. Right BB, "He's a hard guy to defend. As I said, he attacks all three levels of the field - short, intermediate, deep and can run after the catch and he's a smart receiver that has been defended a lot of different ways and he knows how to compete and how to deal with them. He's a very experienced guy that's versatile and can do different things, so he's not just locked into one spot or one type of route or one level of the field. Anytime a player puts multiple pressure points on a defense it's hard, it's stress." But BB didn’t trade for him for his brain, he traded for him because he forces Defenses to consistently double-team him, right BB, "We've competed against him several times. He's a very explosive player, dynamic receiver who has a lot of skills. His hand eye coordination, his catching skills, his speed, his ability to stretch the field, run after the catch, run intermediate routes. He has a good skill set. He's a very smart guy, an experienced player, versatile, can play a number of positions, and has the experience and intelligence to handle the different techniques and responsibilities that go with that. So we'll see how it all plays out, but I think he has a lot to offer. Hopefully we'll be able to put him in positions where we can get production from either him or the rest of the offense if the coverage goes to him, which a lot of times I'm sure it will." If he could just mature enough to see his problems, and hold it together mentally for a few years what a wonderful world it would be.

Okay, that ain’t gonna happen, but maybe he could stay out of trouble for one Super Bowl Season, like Corey Dillon. Because, if you Double–Team Moss, Stallworth has a long beautiful history of destroying single coverage, and Welker has a short beautiful history of being unstoppable in the slot, and we all know what Watson can do when left alone in the middle of the field. When a team cannot put a Safety over Watson and Linebacker under Watson, they cannot cover him, he defeats Single-Coverage by a S or a LB. So the question is how long can Moss keep it together mentally. One year? Two? Maybe three years? Every year he can hold it together the Pats will be the favorites to win it all.

I think he will be like Corey Dillon. Dillon played well, and kept his erratic behavior in check until he got his ring. Then he almost instantly started to resort back to his strange behavior. If you saw the interview with him by Steve Burton in Training Camp last year, you know what I mean. He was going on and not making any sense, and even Steve was getting frustrated. He kept using a acronym that made no since, JFPC, or FTTP, or HTML, I forget. Burton kept asking what it meant, and Dillon kept Saying “You know, yeah, you know what I mean”. No, nobody knew what you meant, and I could see the whole situation was unraveling. By the end of the season he was sitting alone at the end of the bench near despondent, and then he was quickly out of football. If Moss doesn’t watch out he will be out on Lonely Street as well.

There has been a lot of negative reactions to this move. People claiming the Pats are enabling Moss, and giving him a second chance for the dozenth time. A chance he doesn’t deserve. And they are probably right. I am not going to put on my Red, white, and blue Patriots blinders on and blindly try to justify Moss’s mindless transgressions. I was never a huge fan of Moss’s, but I did like to watch him play. But to me, his critics are right. Notre Dame gave him a second chance by helping him enroll in Florida State, and Bowden did gave him another second chance by helping him enroll in Marshal, the Viking gave him a second chance after he purposely ran into a female cop, and we really don’t know how many time the Vikings gave him extra chances, then the Raiders gave him another second chance, and kept giving him a second chance every week he quit on them, and then Lane Kiffin gave him a second chance and he called him a “Mother fucker” and hung up on him, and that was the end of his second chances.

To me what makes this signing different is that this is not another second chance in a long line of failed second chances, this is Moss’s Last Chance. He has found himself at Last Chance Hotel, and he feels so lonely, he feels so lonely, he feels so lonely he could die. Sorry;-)

A lot of pundits have been saying, this isn’t the best place or the perfect place, it is the Only Place. The feeling in the NFL is that if he can’t make here, he can’t make it anywhere. And I’m not just talking about football, I’m talking about turning his life around. I’m not sure he gets another chance if he fails here. No Organization wanted him. Favre was begging for the Packer’s Organization to go out and get him for his final season, and they refused to give the Raiders more than a 5th Round choice. They wanted nothing to do with him, and that was it. It was the Pats or the Packers; no other Organization would touch him, and the Packer’s really were only kissing Favre’s butt, they did not want him either. Now, everybody in the NFL is watching this experiment; if he fails here I think he’s done. Right Randy, “Like I said, (the Pats) have a massive reputation of what they stand for, and that's winning. Through the course of my career and the course of my life of playing sports, I've always tried to be a winner and go out there and compete. And by me having a chance to play with an organization (like the Pats) with the coaching staff, with Mr. Kraft as the owner, and the players they have in position, I didn't think that money was a big factor to me. I think over the course of my career, I've made a lot of money, and I still have money in the bank, so by me coming to an organization like the New England Patriots, why would money be a factor? I know I have to get paid something, but to have the numbers that I was going to receive, I knew something had to be done with my contract, and I didn't have a problem with it.” He has shown his sincerity by giving up over 15 Million dollars. Something he has never shown before. So maybe he finally gets it. Maybe he really does understand that this is his last chance. If he does, he could finally mature, you cannot change a problem until you admit you have a problem. I think he may have finally admitted he has a problem.

The Pats have the structure, the culture, and the character to hopefully finally help him mature. If not he’ll just take a walk down Lonely Street to Heartbreak Hotel. BB will show him the door, and cut his ass, without any regard, remorse, or regret. Right Randy, “I've always been a big fan of Tom Brady. From the time that he took over the starting job fro Drew Bledsoe, I knew that was a blessing (for) Tom, because I saw him play a little bit in college and then by him coming in and taking grasp of being the starting quarterback of the New England Patriots and winning three Super Bowls, I think that was just something that, as a fan of the game, that I always paid attention to. And now to have an opportunity, not just to play with Tom, but just being on a team that runs a professional ship as far as on and off the field... I know there are some things that I have done in the past and young in my career, but I think that's all behind me. I'm really not living in the past. I'm trying to live in the present and the future. Hopefully this thing works out. I know I want it to work out and hopefully the organization feels the same.” Now, if he could listen to himself this could work. If not the pats lose nothing, just a 4th Round Pick.

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