Or—How Much of a Player’s Success is Tied to Which Team Drafts Them?
I’ll tell you up front that I don’t have the answer to this age-old question, any more than anyone can tell you definitively how your child would have turned out had they grown up in a different family. But we’re into the silly season, and it’s interesting to speculate.
Let’s hope Tom will be seeing a lot of James on Sunday…
Although I used the more traditional name for Sunday’s opponent, it’s highly unlikely that anyone has forgotten the more informal sobriquet bestowed upon them by Mike Tomlin last Sunday evening. And whether Mike Tomlin actually thinks of the Patriots as constitutionally different than all the other teams or not, I would venture to guess Steeler Nation does. Many believe the Pats robbed the Steelers of two Super Bowl appearances.
I looked up the final scores of those two AFC Championship games, and discovered the 2001 game was won 24—17 by New England, and the 2004 game by a score of 41-27. I don’t know whether this merely indicates that Belichick got better at utilizing the information as he went along, or whether it’s a conspiracy theory sort of thing, but there is no doubt Belichick had video materials for both games. How much difference it made is up for debate.
By Ivan Cole
For Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 click the links.
Unintended consequences
This coming weekend the Pittsburgh Steelers play the Ravens in Baltimore. Even though M & T Bank Stadium is a relatively short drive away, I doubt if I would attend the game if someone gifted me the tickets and parking. And I am not alone.
The stories that I have heard from those who have attended Steelers games in Baltimore are almost universally horrific, with many fans experiencing everything from verbal abuse to being urinated upon. Nor are other game experiences all that different in kind, if not degree.
The last NFL game I attended was a Monday Night tilt between Washington and the Philadelphia Eagles that attained its own level of ugliness, such that I can say I am in no particular hurry to witness another game in person anytime soon.
AP. Photo/Steven Senne
Oh, the temptation. There were so many possibilities for the title of this article when referring to the opponent. In the end some remaining shreds of professionalism restrained me. I will try to continue to utilize them as I write about The Great Satan. Oops—I mean the New England Patriots.
That would be “quarter” as in “quarter of the season.” Ivan Cole did a well-researched and thoughtful series last week about how the Steelers are doing so far. But as we fans know, speculation is more fun than research, although a little bit may be involved.
The schedule for the remaining three games is:
via Boston Globe/Jim Davis photo
Now that the regular NFL season is officially beginning it’s time to start looking at some game-related things. Although this site isn’t focused on breaking news, we will have two ongoing features looking at the weekly games—our post-game Round Robin and an opponent preview.
Without further ado, here is the Week One opponent.
The big news about the Patriots has naturally centered around their quarterback. It was quite uncertain until recently who said quarterback might be in Week One, but thanks to U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman we now know it will be Tom Brady.
In some ways this is probably just as well. Although Brady is undoubtedly a more accomplished quarterback than his backup, Jimmie Garoppolo, nonetheless he is a familiar, if feared, opponent.
Why feared, other than that the Steelers generally lose to Patriots teams quarterbacked by him? Here are a few reasons: Read more
