IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to BE PERFECT?

Don Shula. One of the best coaches to ever coach in the NFL. He had some great teams, with some great players. He won a lot of football games. Now he wants an asterisk next to a team's accomplishments that hasn't even happened yet. Come on Don, relax. Comparing the Patriots season to Barry Bonds is like comparing Tom Brady to Sammy Sosa. It's irrelevant, and you know it. Why not wait and see how this all plays out, before you defend a record that will eventually be tied, not broken.

Should the Patriots become a 16-0 team this season, so what? I'm one of the biggest fans of the Pats, but I'm not buying into this stuff. What do you win if you are a perfect 16-0? Home field advantage throughout the playoffs, and that is it. You can win that being 15-2, or 14-2. It's not a Super Bowl title, something we've grown accustomed to in New England these days, world championships. That will come after the regular season has passed, and Mr. Shula's blood pressure returns to normal. Do i believe they will be 16-0? How about this, who really cares? This team already holds the record for the most wins in a row during the regular season, so why the hoopla? Even if they finish 16-0, does anyone believe that they will get credit for it? They cheated during the first half of the first game of the year. Since then, they have dominated the entire league, with the exception of the Colts last week. They just beat then in the Dome. But what do we hear all year, cheaters, cheaters, cheaters. Give me a break. Give us all a break.

Let's get right down to it, boys and girls. The New England Patriots are on another mission. It's not the same mission as any of the Super Bowl seasons, this one is different. They have one of the best football teams ever assembled, and are playing the way we all anticipated back in May and June. Blowing out opponents on a regular basis. But that doesn't seem to matter. Aside from the obvious comments from the media's "football experts," it has been nothing short of a frustrating year as a Patriot fan. As hard as that is to believe, listen to the reasons. We have, as I've stated, probably the best football team ever assembled. While it is fun to watch, and enjoyable to see our Quarterback finally raising eyebrows, it's all for not. Now, instead of people rooting for the Pats, they are the hated team in the NFL. The coach has no personality, all of a sudden, he wears a hoodie, which is very ugly all of a sudden, and the players are not beating their own chests, all of a sudden. Really? Were have you been, national media? Obviously not in New England. Nothing has changed, except the team got a lot more talented. There mission is to win another Super Bowl, but this time as the bad guys.

No matter what happens the rest of this year, it's not going to be good enough for the entire football nation. If they go on to win yet another Super Bowl, it will be questioned as possibly tainted. If they do go 16-0, it will be because they cheated in the first half of the first game. If they lose in the playoffs, it will be because they were to full of themselves. So why play? Oh, I don't know, maybe it's because the group of players assembled have pride in what a team this truly is. Same philosophy, better results. Maybe because their fans are still filling the stadium every home game, and the ratings for the Patriots games against another great team, the Colts, are at an all time high. Nothing has really changed in New England, we just have a better team than usual.

To all of the rest of football fans, please relax and enjoy the rest of the season. There are a lot of very good teams still believing they can win it all, and who knows, they just might. One of the first things you learn as a true football fan is that any team can win on any given Sunday, and that hasn't changed because the Patriots look real good. Would Patriot fans be disappointed if they don't win it all? Of course, because we are the same as any other fan. But in this, the year of a truly great football team, I don't think it matters what they do. Ask Don Shula, because he would certainly be the expert, right?