Bob Lobel: Why the Patriots Losing this Week is the Best Thing for Them
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Shocking that we could forget the grim season of the Boston Red Sox so quickly just because a football team went undefeated for a whole week!
This team wasn’t supposed to even think about losing anything until December. The Patriots, another of our greatest teams ever, were not expected to lose coin tosses, let alone a game at home against an NFC doormat like Arizona. Yet, this probably the best thing that could have happened.
Certainly in the world of post season tiebreakers, losing to an NFC team is the way to go. An NFC loss is only a loss and carries no other tiebreaker penalties that would go with a division or conference loss. In other words, no big deal. The big deal is the injury to Aaron Hernandez. The devastating part of this sport are the inevitable injuries that hit almost everyone.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTDrew Bledsoe, Tom Brady and Hernandez are three that come to mind. Hey, if bad things come in 3’s we have it covered: The Sox, the loss to Arizona and the NHL lockout have replaced the Mayan calendar in our little universe, at least for now.
The NHL lockout does finish second in my priority world to the NFL official lockout. That is one I can’t figure out. Clearly, it's not the money, so it must be personal or some union busting thing. Both lockouts have no consideration for the fans at all. Very few issues in professional sports ever do.
We are expected to love, pay and then obey. So we suck it up. The National Hockey League is disgraceful. The owners are disgraceful. Our owner is disgraceful. For some reason yet to be revealed, Jeremy Jacobs was inducted into the Sports Museum Hall of Fame. During his recent post Stanley Cup acceptance speech (introduced by Gary Bettman, btw), he took plenty of time praising many players for the Cup win without mentioning once the player solely responsible for that title, Tim Thomas.
That's our Jeremy. A leopard just can’t change it’s spots. So don't be surprised to learn that he is the point man for the owners in this lockout with Bettman as the pawn. He was that same guy when they shut down the season in their last lockout and he is at it again.
The regular season may not start until January 1st now.
The real answer to the NHL's problems is to contract and knock off about 10 franchises that don’t belong. The ones to go are those teams bleeding money in markets that simply cannot support a regional sport that has been shoved down their throats by ego driven owners.
Life will go on through December without the National Hockey League regular season. There also has been this media generated story about the Red Sox being for sale. Well, we all know that everything is for sale. Just show me the money. However, to cry out for the current owners to bail just because they are going through a bad patch is crazy.
When you forget the past, get ready to repeat it. I think that is the modern version of “the past is prologue”. Besides, NESN is more valuable than the team and the ball park. Let ‘s see how this all plays out with the contract and player dump to the Dodgers and the rebuilding of the on field product.
When you stop and think about how it all went sour, there is the current thinking, to which I subscribe, that winning changed everything. It is the “be careful what you wish for” line of thinking. In other words, we got what we wanted and it changed how we view the world. It made many of us impatient with impossible expectations. We have identified the problem, and it is us.
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