NFL: Week 1 Random Rants

Pats fans push panic button

If Bernard Pollard's shot-heard-round-the-world to Tom Brady's left knee is going to lead to "Curse of the Giants front four!" talk throughout the New England area, then let's just shut up about it now and move on. Somewhere in a dimly lit, musty basement, Dan Shaughnessy is penning his next morbidly taunting book.

If the hit wasn't delivered to the best player in franchise history, then we likely aren't debating the possibility that it was "dirty," and maybe not talking about it at all.

Look, it wasn't dirty. To say it was dirty would imply some sort of intent to injure and that simply isn't evident in the replay. We can have the "cheap" discussion, but not the "dirty." In a full speed, contact sport it's completely unrealistic to think Pollard was dirty for trying to get his hands on Brady and make a play. These things happen. Aren't we used to it by now?

I keep hearing NFL analysts and various talking heads claiming that Belichick's coaching abilities will be tested in the wake of Brady's injury. Huh? Suddenly the best coach in the NFL has to prove himself all over again? Three Super Bowls in four years didn't put those questions to rest? Isn't this the guy who put his faith and trust in the 199th pick of the 2000 NFL Draft?

Repetitive and meaningless Spygate chatter aside, nobody gets more out of his players than Bill Belichick. Period. Take a look at every player who has departed from New England in the Belichick era, for example. How many have gone on to be as effective elsewhere? Not too many.

The Pats can still win games with one of the easiest schedules in recent memory, even for AFC East standards. However, the molding of a career long second-string quarterback in Matt Cassel, and the possibility of a fresh, albeit rusty, acquisition (Chris Simms, Tim Rattay, or Daunte Culpepper, for instance), might be too much to ask from a historically resourceful coach.

Broadway Brett and the Jets

The Jets were all but declared runaway favorites in the AFC East the second Brady went down. Amazing how a knee injury can send the media into a total frenzy.

Isn't this precisely what the media wanted, though? They didn't spend all that time and energy in the off-season providing up-to-the-minute breaking news on the Brett Favre situation to see his team drenched in mediocrity below the powerful Patriots in the standings.

The media's love-fest with Favre is back on track and in full bloom, but it's still small potatoes compared to ESPN sideline reporter Erin Andrew's infatuation with Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow. No comparison there.

More to the point, Favre certainly did work some miracles against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, but nothing we haven't seen before. Just your run-of-the-mill improvisational long bombs that inexplicably find the hands of the right receiver, every time. Same old, same old.

Here's my question: Will future greats such as Peyton Manning and Tom Brady still be this impressive and carry the same swagger when they're 38 years old?

Manning and Brady strike me as a tad more old-fashioned in comparison to Favre, if that makes sense. Favre strikes me as the freakishly athletic high school freshman quarterback (well, maybe not so much at age 38 with salt and pepper hair) who the coach unleashes in the 4th quarter of a Friday night blowout. As he sprints onto the field, you know, he knows -- and everyone knows -- that he'll be the one to make the big play that leaves the crowd breathless and wanting more.

Sure, perhaps his improvisational skills are over-hyped, but you still get the feeling he didn't learn this game after years of studying game tape and a 500-page playbook, even though that's probably the case.

No, you get the feeling that he was the rough and tough, down south kid who treats football as a way of life, which is about true. He doesn't know where his skills came from, they're just built in assets.

Manning and Brady, on the other hand, can match Favre's numbers, but come off as too polished sometimes. They don't leave you with the, "how the hell did he do that?!" reaction.

And that, my friends, concludes Favre 101.

Anyway, I find the AFC East to be just about even after week 1. Really, I do. Jets emerged as the media favorite, but those pesky Buffalo Bills aren't getting much buzz despite a convincing blowout versus the Seattle Seahawks in enemy territory.

And if you aren't convinced of the Pats abilities without #12 gun-slinging, then perhaps you aren't aware that the Patriots clinched the division in 2005 using 45 different starters, and breaking the NFL

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