Quote:
Originally Posted by SouperMeister
Bill Simmons is the biggest Boston "homer" on ESPN.com. What the hell did New England rebuild from??? They finished in first place in their division BOTH last season and this season. I for one am a lot more impressed with what the Saints did as a reclamation project. Coming off a last place finish, they bring in a new coach, sign an injured Drew Brees that San Diego and Miami wanted no part of, draft Bush, then plug in a bunch of role players and ride it all the way to the NFC Championship. Bill Simmons should take off his rose-colored Patriots glasses for a dose of reality.
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Simmons has never denied he's a Boston homer. It's part of his schtick. When the Patriots were on their way to their first title he went on at length about what a bland, unexciting history they had, how there had never been a truly memorable game in Foxboro Stadium, etc. He's not without bias and doesn't pretend to be.
New England lost Willie McGuinest, Deon Branch, David Givens, Adam Venatieri and several other players from recent Super Bowl teams. While the overall value of these players (save Venatieri) to other teams in questionable, there's really no arguement that they were vital to the Patriots. I disagree that they are the biggest rebuilding job in the league and would agree with your example of New Orleans, but in this day and age to sustain their kind of success (12-4) with losses like that is remarkable.
As to some of the other sentiments expressed in this thread, why should ESPN be raving about, or even mentioning, the Redskins except to crack on them? They were 5-11 this year, 21-27 since Gibbs game back, have only two playoff appearances in the last 14 years, only 5 finishes above .500 during that same 14 years and haven't been to the conference title game since 1991, much less the Super Bowl. This is New England's sixth straight winning season; you can dismiss that if you want but Washington hasn't done that in
twenty years (1982-87). Those old Super Bowl trophies are dusty relics- if you went to listen to praise for what Gibbs did during those years, tune in to ESPN Classic.
I do understand some of the sentiment against listening to the endless Parcells/T.O./Dallas saga when the Tuna is still looking for a playoff win after four years, and I agree that it sucks the Redskins don't get much serious discussion anymore, but the bottom line is that if the Redskins were winning big right now, they'd be getting talked up- they'd be a big story and we wouldn't be having this conversation.