A Very Brady Sequel

Blog world is quiet thus far...quiet for the Monday following a potential career-ending injury to Tom Terrific. Although now, he's more like Tom Troubled, or Tom Too Bad. I'm not trying to make light of this in any way, shape or form but I will say this: I am so thankful that I am not in the city of Boston right now.

I've been chatting with a few of the guys I used to work with in Boston and all reports are the same: people are totally out of it today. Women have shed tears, men are pissed off and little babies are spitting up all over their #12 bibs. I get it, I do. He's the face of the franchise and the face of the NFL, for all intents and purposes. He absorbed what many are alleging to be a cheap shot and from what I know as of right this second (which equates to little more than zilch), he's probably mangled his ACL/MCS/knee thing-a-majig.

The response out here is something I never thought I'd see as a Patriot fan. People actually laughed at the news report during the early games yesterday. You see, it's funny to outsiders who see the Patriot conglomerate/juggernaut as merely a black mark on the league due to the bullshit with Spygate or whatever you want to call it. Apparently this injury to the formerly Favre-esque Brady is payback...a little karma action, as Earl might contend. My question is, how are Pat fans panicking at this point? Isn't there some pretty pertinent precedent here? Didn't we all shake in our shoes collectively when Mo Lewis all but decapitated Drew Bledsoe back in 2001? Yeah, we did. Now we're here, without even the slightest aftertaste of Bledsoe bitterness and two rings...not to mention a perfect regular season. Wait a second here...what's really at work?

The Patriots manage to blow a perfect season at the hands of the (gulp) Eli Manning-lead New York (gasp!) Giants, finishing a deplorable 18-1*. Hilarious, right? Yeah, ok. But this happens in the wake of this taping scandal and suddenly black clouds start to roll in on this once marveled and oft admired picture of hard work and coaching. Belichick is a bozo, a cheat. Now the Pats are the Evil Empire of the NFL and they have haters in more places than the Sox have fans across the globe. And now, in the first quarter of the first game of the 2008 season, the poster boy of all poster boys goes down with a career-threatening knee injury. Gene Upshaw is rolling over in his grave (whatever that means...what does that mean? Rolling over? Not banging his fists? Spewing cuss words all over? Crossing him arms and pouting?). I find the timing of all this to be very, very interesting.

How insane would it be if the Jets are now captained to the AFC crown by Brett fucking Favre? Is this a joke, people? The Jets are suddenly looking pretty damn good to contend for the division, like it or not. I still tend to believe that the Patriots will win it, seeing as though Tony Eason could probably win the AFC East with the likes of Moss, Welker, that O-line and that D-line. Cassel will be fine if they don't do something ridiculous and hand things over to a Chris Simms or Tim Rattay. Look at this scenario for a second. Cassel is a huge man with a big arm and a brain. He knows the system as well as Brady if not better and now he's in charge. If he's given some time to sit in the pocket and do what good pocket passers do, Moss will have another 20 TD grabs and the Patriots will win 11 or 12 games and be back in the playoffs. But you have to be intrigued by the possibility of the Favre Jets to be there in January. He's slingin' it again...in case you missed the 4th-and-13 that he willed into the arms of one of his receivers to basically win the game. How long until the Madden 2009 covers are all reproduced with Favre in a Jet jersey? Make the originals collectors items and sell new ones with him on the cover as a Jet. It'll be a new Madden curse, only this time it will involve a seemingly washed up, wily veteran who will retire, then unretire, and take his team to the promised land. Madden 2010 will feature Warren Moon, who will unretire to lead the QB-desperate Chiefs back to glory.