Belly's is pulling out all of the stops to movtivate the Pats this week, including telling his team that New Yorkers cheered in sports bars when Brady went down . . . http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1118336&format=text More fuel for the fire: Hatred burns Patriots By John Tomase / Patrtiots Beat | Thursday, September 11, 2008 | http://www.bostonherald.com | N.E. Patriots FOXBORO - The Patriots [team stats] may have struck upon a rallying cry for the 2008 season, and it is simplistically visceral. ?Everyone hates us.? The Pats developed that feeling over the past few years while winning Super Bowls or running the table in the regular season. But it came sharply into focus following the season-ending knee injury suffered by quarterback Tom Brady [stats] on Sunday. Shortly after Brady went down, stories were told of fans in sports bars across the nation - particularly in New York - bursting into applause at the sight of the franchise QB writhing in pain. A Steelers fan Web site went so far as to create T-shirts trumpeting the ?Bernard Pollard Fan Club, established Sept. 7, 2008.? The shirt?s logo is the No. 12 with a line through it. Pollard is the Chiefs safety whose hit ended Brady?s season. ?That?s sad, but it makes sense,? Patriots cornerback Ellis Hobbs [stats] said. ?If you can?t beat it, then you cheer against it. If you can?t do it, then why cheer for it? That doesn?t speak for everyone, but it does speak for most. It?s sad you?ve got to do that, but it is what it is. ?They?re human. I?m human. We all make our mistakes here and there. You take it for what it is. I guarantee it didn?t wash anything off (No.) 12?s back. It doesn?t bother him any. It doesn?t bother us any. We didn?t (get forced into) this job. We signed up for it. We chose this profession. We get paid for this profession. We take the bumps and bruises with it.? Still, Hobbs was asked, is it shocking that people would actually cheer a season-ending injury? ?It shocks me every time that (fan etiquette) gets lower and lower,? Hobbs said. ?It?s like where is it going to stop? But it is what it is.? The New York Times [NYT] described the scene in Manhattan?s ESPN Zone when Brady hit the turf: ?Most of the people in the restaurant roared with delight.? The Times report prompted Red Sox [team stats] pitcher Curt Schilling [stats] to rip New York fans during his weekly appearance on sports radio WEEI. It sounds sick, and yet it?s certainly not unique to rival towns. Red Sox fans cheered when Derek Jeter dislocated his shoulder in a collision with Blue Jays catcher Ken Huckaby in 2006. Heck, Pats fans themselves used to celebrate Tony Eason?s injuries, since they meant playing time for the hard-nosed Steve Grogan. ?It?s believable,? Pats left guard Logan Mankins [stats] said. ?I think that?s what makes sports great - that people are that passionate about their teams winning. When the best player in the league gets hurt, it opens things up for everyone else. ?I?m sure every other team believes they have a chance now. No one beat us with Tom last year except for one team. Now people think with Tom out that we?re not going to be any good. Everyone wants to see us lose.? That?s the heart of the matter. Patriots safety Rodney Harrison [stats] continually laments that fans and media forget players are not robots. It nevertheless didn?t surprise him at all to hear cheers over Brady?s demise. The Patriots are that unpopular. ?It?s normal,? he said. ?Anything that happens to us, people are going to get excited about. Obviously, they don?t care for us much around the league, but I understand things are competitive and teams as well as their fans are looking at any edge they can possibly get.? The Patriots have fed off less before. ?It?s always going to be doubt,? Hobbs said. ?Nothing?s more thrilling to the opposition, whether it?s the fans or teams, than to doubt someone that?s been there time and time again. They don?t want to see it. They?re thinking, ?This is going to get ?em. This is going to get ?em right here.? We look at it as an opportunity to prove them wrong.? Mankins puts it even more succinctly. ?People are sick of seeing us win,? he said. ?But we like it, and we don?t plan on stopping.?
I certainly wasn't cheering when Brady got hurt but obviosuly I knew our chances got lot better. I hate seeeing injuries and wish every team could stay healthy but at least it wasn't us this time as we have lost 3 seasons since 1999 due to QBs going down early in seasons.
I agree completely Junc. I hate seeing any injury to anyone. Even Brady. That said, our chances have gotten better. The only thing that irks me is so many of the talking heads who claimed we may lose to the phins now want to proclaim us as a lock for the East. I swear sports writers either are some of the dumbest people alive or just love twisting their stances to sell more papers. Either way I have no respect for most of them.
Yeah, this is how I feel too. I didn't cheer. I think a lot of the reaction may have stemmed from ill-will caused by the whole cheating-thing and all its implications going back so far. I can't think of too many examples of when a nation rallied around a cheater.
I don't like seeing any player get hurt like that. Especially since I have had the same exact injury. It sucks real bad. That said, these guys are going to come at us hard. It will be about the same type of game as Miami, if not tougher since it is BB who is coaching and making the adjustments. But they will try and run the ball at us, much like Miami. We are not playing a Bradyless football team. We are playing a Bill Belechik coached football team. Thats the way I am looking at this, and I hope thats the way the Jets coaches are looking at it as well. We can win this, but it wont be easier on our offense to score points. Our defense should be able to stop the pats from scoring a lot of points, obviously. But at the same time it is our offense that needs to step up and play the same Pats defense that makes it a tough game for us every year. I like our chances, but this wont be a walk in the park. At least I don't think it will be.
I was. I've never wished an injury on any athlete other than Brady and I was stoked to see his knee broken in half.
My thinking is this. I never hoped that Brady would suffer a season-ending, massive injury like this. Did I hope that, for example, that the Giants would knock him out of the game in the Super Bowl when they were throwing him around like a rag doll? Of course. But now that he is hurt, am I supposed to wish that he wasn't injured, and was playing this week against the Jets? Sorry Belly and Chowds, no fcuking way that is happening.
The Patsy players are right. In fact, they are too kind. Anyone making, selling, buying, or wearing this "Bernard Pollard fan club" tshirt -- or who would even think of doing it -- is a pathetic loser IMO. Why don't you just wish for the Pats charter jet to crash on the way to a game and kill everyone on board while you're at it. Just calling it the way I see it; if that offends some, so be it. Sports is not supposed to be like war, there should be some minimal level of etiquette and mutual respect.
I think this one line sums up why some people are happy about this happening. Mutual respect and etiquette? Where was this mutual respect when Pats players were taking out QB's last year (Losman on a clearly cheap shot)? Where was this mutual respect when they were caught cheating, and revealing that they've been "respecting" their opponents like this since 2000? Where was this etiquette and respect when they were running up the score on teams last year? If this had happened to any other QB, I would not be happy about it. Why Brady then? Because he's extension of his scumbag coach, and he also comes across as a arrogant punk in interviews and during the games. If he wasn't such a dick, I'd feel bad for him.
I'm aware of, but not deeply familiar with, all that, I'll be honest. But i don't need to know anything about it to answer you, because my momma taught me that "two wrongs do not make a right." Going even further: say we are business partners and I swindle you. Does that make it all right for you to be happy if my wife gets maimed crashing the car I bought with the money I swindled from you? It's a reasonable analogy because you are happy to see Brady maimed because he benefited (won lots of games) from the cheating his "partner" BB conducted. Brady did not directly participate or benefit from this -- he's an offense player, he's not on field when other teams offense is & the stolen signals are taken advantage of, or quarterbacks are being taken out. Again, just being honest how I feel about this POV. I appreciate you taking the high road in your response, keeping this on a high level, non-personal discussion. I respect you for doing that.
Well when you win by cheating as the Pats did which was proven you should expect no love & much rancor
Why should the Pats expect anything less from Jets fans ? Hell, there were cheers last year when Pennington went down and came out of the Ravens game last year.
Let's not forget that the Cheats won all their SBs by 3 points, even if the spying didn't get them a big advantage, it may have given them a little one, say 3 points worth. I don't feel sorry for Brady, he is rich and adored, oh boo hoo, how sorry did they feel for class act Joe Gibbs last year when they were humiliating him??? And others. I hope the Jets kick the crap out of them, probably won't happen, but one can dream. For once would like to see them get a taste of their own medicine.
Were they cheering the injury in the sports bars or the fact that he got hit? i think it is probably the latter, they didn't know at the time he was out, i didn't cheer the injury but i did cheer the hit on him. This is just another way that the Boston media as wella s Bellicheat is trying to paint us with a negative view, who wouyldn't cheer one of there rivals QB's getting hit? it makes sense but i doubt very many people cheers for the season long injury, nobody likes to see that happen to anyone, even Tom Brady.
To be fair, the Boston Media is generally not that bad. No where close to as classless as the stuff we have here in NYC. Also, why does every article about the patriots quote Ellis Hobbes? Can't we get some Randy Moss, or atleast a Wes Welker?
