The New England Patriots Went For It on 4th-and-2? Oh, I Hadn't Heard

I am losing my mind.

As if it was not painful enough watching the New England Patriots go for the first down late in the fourth quarter Sunday night against the Indianapolis Colts. Apparently everyone has an opinion on the matter.

Boy, do I mean everyone . It is eating away at my sanity.

Mike Francesa was on NBC's affiliate station in New York—a terrible place for a Patriots fan to attend college—after the game saying that were it any coach beside Belichick, he would have lost his job. I think that is a bit extreme, but point taken.

Former Patriots linebacker-turned ESPN analyst Tedy Bruschi has been quite vocal about his discontent with the call to go for it on 4th-and-2.

"I was surprised because it was just too risky on that end of the field," Bruschi said on ESPN Monday night. "I think you punt that ball away."

Wait, that makes sense. But Bruschi is a defense-oriented guy anyway, right? He wanted to see the defense get their chance to stop Peyton Manning's building momentum. Still Tedy, I have mixed feelings hearing you use disparaging words for your (very recently) former team. Maybe you need to prove to the viewers you will not show bias to your old team. Not that anyone would probably care or fault you.

I can not keep kidding myself though. I think that they should have punted. Discussing it with my friends at school minutes after it happened, we were all in agreement. Oh groupthink...

Were the Patriots able to review that play, would it have been ruled a first down? You can debate that with me all you want—yes—but it is not relevant since the play should not have been called in the first place.

I have not been struggling most with whether or not it should have been punted. Rather, I have been having a hard time stomaching the nauseating amount of people who apparently feel entitled to share their opinion on the matter. Just because you have access to a camera or keyboard that reaches millions, does not give you permission to speak out on this.

That includes me—even though my words will not reach more than 10 people—so I will shut up now.