Curt Schilling's Shocking Discovery of New York-Boston Animosity

"Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something." -Plato

Curt Schilling reminds me of the generic and requisite Real World stock character: the cantankerous jackass that falsely assumes his "candor" is anything more than pathetic and offensive white noise.

The guy whose audition tape sounds something like, "I don't give a $%^& what people think. I just keep it real and say what no one else will say. I'm not afraid to go there." And while he's initially embraced by the other housemates, he ultimately alienates himself from the group, leaving him with nothing left to do but self-indulgent confessionals.

Curt's latest talking-head piece criticized New Yorkers for reveling in the season-ending injury to New England Patriots MVP Tom Brady. Also mentioned in his radio-broadcasted rant were shots at the Yankees and Jets, reminders of his Diamondback glory days, circa the turn of the century, a guaranteed win for an NFL team he's about as integral a part of as Elizabeth Shue is, and a fairly insane claim about the nature of Boston fans.

I swear to God, I'm shocked the guy doesn't have a Facebook account, just so he can update his status every day to reflect a new and fiery conviction. ("Curt...is reasserting his political affiliation. He's Republican. A big one." "Curt...damns yet another group of people to Hell." "Curt...thinks electric toothbrushes are superior to the manual pieces of crap and judges anyone who uses them.")

Indeed, the sidelined pitcher gives us many things to reflect on.

Tom Brady

When Tom Brady went down, my first emotion was actually acute distress, and for absolutely no other reason beyond the fact I had the Patriots winning Week One in my suicide pool—a pick 100 percent based on the fact that I wanted to root for them only once and get it over with early on in the season.

Once they scraped out a W, I washed my hands of any "allegiance" to the New England Patriots. Any distress over the golden boy's injury evaporated. And I was thrilled the potential AFC beast was dealt a second helping of some karmic retribution.

While many people have taken offense to Schilling's attack on Brady revelers, he's not wrong. Bars in NY erupted when the star QB limped off the field, but I can unequivocally guarantee that the vast majority of these rabid fans were not thinking of Brady's physical duress or the medical implications. We're sports fans before bedside nurses, just as Tom Brady is a professional athlete before he's a vulnerable mortal.

No one was happy he was hurt. Period. No one actively hopes for an injury. But this is a game. It happens. Brady's not invincible, and Belichick risked Brady's health last year by gluing his starters to the field. Maybe a season of "Eff You, NFL" pass-plays guzzled up Brady's luck.

So it's awfully convenient for New Englanders to suddenly develop integrity and self-righteous compassion when one of their boys hits the ground. They're looking down the barrel of a Brady-less season, chins quivering and revenge hopes dashed.

And when the tables turned on them, instead of taking their lumps, they resort to categorizing New Yorkers as classless.

I might take such accusations more to heart if they were coming from a fanbase whose moral rubric didn't advocate drilling baseball players in the head.    

Boston's unerring commitment to human compassion was egregiously absent during the Up-and-In reign of terror Yankees suffered at the hand of Pedro Martinez. Where were these Class Crusaders when the Sox hurler sent Alfonso Soriano and Derek Jeter to the hospital?

And during my trip to Fenway last spring, 35,000 fans weren't exactly overcome with grief when Dice-K opened his Boston career by beaning A-Rod. In the words of Schilling, "The euphoria was palpable."

And of course, nothing will ever reek of more class than Pedro throwing down 72-year Don Zimmerman by the head. Though seemingly indefensible, Sox fans doled out copious and zealous support.  

I'm not suggesting we offer a moment of silence whenever the heart of our lineup gets plunked. But good God, don't make sweeping generalizations about New York's honor and ethics.

The truth is, we don't care enough about Tom Brady to celebrate his problems. Tom Brady is the same guy who was carved up by Big Blue's D this past February. Hell, we love Tom Brady. Why would I want him out of commission? Without Brady, Super Bowl 42 just wouldn't have been the same.

Brady-less Patriots at the Jets this Sunday

"The sad part is going to be when they beat the Jets next week. Then they are going to come up with something else."-CS

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