New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's virtuoso performance helped lead the team to victory over the Miami Dolphins on Sept. 12, 2011
What's going on in Foxboro, Mass.? For years, the home of the NFL's New England Patriots was where fun went to die. The team, under coach Bill Belichick, perfected a brand of intense, win-at-all-costs football that never won the hearts and minds of casual fans as, say, the New Orleans Saints — a team that won the Super Bowl in 2010, inspired a beleaguered city and pulled off a catchy rallying cry ("Who dat?!"). While the Pats have had some electric offensive teams, they never earned an endearing nickname like, say, the Pittsburgh defense of the 1970s (the Steel Curtain) or the turn-of-the-century St. Louis Rams squads (the Greatest Show on Turf).
But now the two biggest (and by biggest, I mean most ridiculous) "controversies" of the first week of the NFL season are coming out of the Patriots' locker room, and these kerfuffles, far from damning the behavior of New England players, speak instead to the team's evolving spirit. This year's New England Patriots have a chance to be — if you're reading this, Belichick, don't gasp — fun.
The Patriots are usually entertaining on the field, and this year promises a bumper crop of points. New England's offense exploded during the Patriots' 38-24 win over the Miami Dolphins on Monday night, as quarterback Tom Brady threw four touchdown passes and became the 11th QB in history to throw for at least 500 yards in a game. Wide receiver Wes Welker galloped for a 99-yard touchdown catch, sending his fantasy owners into a state of ecstasy and their opponents into abject despair. The aerial assault compelled the Patriots' newest acquisition at wide receiver, Chad Ochocinco, (who only had one catch for 14 yards) to tweet the next day: "Just waking up after a late arrival, I've never seen a machine operate like that n person, to see video game numbers put up n person was WOW."
And somehow, for the crime of complimenting Brady on his virtuoso performance, Ochocinco got in trouble — at least with a couple of ex-Pats. Former New England linebacker Tedy Bruschi, now an ESPN analyst, ripped into Ochocinco on a Boston radio station; former safety Rodney Harrison later hit the airwaves to back up Bruschi's comments. Some excerpts of Bruschi's rambling rant:
"Drop the awe factor, O.K., Ocho, Chad, drop the awe factor. You're not a fan, all right? You're not someone who's on another team or watching TV. You're not an analyst. You're a part of it. So get with the program, because obviously you're not getting it and you're tweeting because you're saying, 'It's amazing to see'? It's amazing to see because you don't understand it! ... Stop tweeting and get in your playbook. ... Open your eyes and watch some film. That's what you need to do. If you're still in awe, that means you don't get it because you don't understand it."
Whoa. You won't find a weirder, more illogical media overreaction than that one. Sure, Ochocinco didn't produce, but his team did steamroll Miami, and all he did was say something nice about a teammate. Can't a guy put up a few weeks' worth of bad numbers before you rip him for a tweet that probably took five seconds for him to write?