Turf War
By Tom Rock
The Patriots apparently took the loss to the Jets so hard, they’re tearing their place apart! Actually, they’re installing FieldTurf and removing the muddy sod that has given the team trouble for years. It’s hard enough to grow a lawn in the northeast during November, nevermind one that is 120-yards long. I guess the cost of green paint for the middle of that quagmire (a word we writers rely on for describing anything muddy) began to overwhelm the cost of putting down the artificial stuff.
At least the Patriots did the Jets the favor of waiting until today to sign Vinny Testaverde. ESPNews is reporting that ol’ No. 16 has signed with the Patriots, a sight that likely would have been hard for fans to stomach in last week’s game. Vinny will be the Crash Davis to a struggling Tom (Nuke LaLoosh) Brady, providing a shoulder to cry on and a brain to pick on the sideline.
I was crunching some numbers for tomorrow’s paper and came up with some interesting stats. The Ravens have the easiest remaining schedule of the eight AFC teams with a winning record, but the Jets are very close and face only one winning team the rest of the season. In fact, after they face Chicago on Sunday, it’s losers from there out. If you figure that the Pats, Colts and Ravens win their divisions and the second-place team between the Chargers and Broncos in the west will get a wild card, that leaves the Jets, Jags and Chiefs for that final spot. Both Jacksonville and KC play four teams with a winning record (including facing each other in the final game of the season). Jacksonville’s remaining opponents have the highest winning percentage of the eight contenders, .540.
Just a warm thought to share on a chilly November night.
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Comments (3)
Your Nov 15th article about Eric Mangini's relationship with his players is borderline absurd. Did we not learn anything from Herman Edward's "treat you like men approach?" Jack Del Rio failed to inform David Gerrard about his starting this weeks game and I remember several times where Jets players were flabergasted when finding out through the media that Herman Edwards had made a lineup change without telling them first. These are the kinds of communication issues head coaches should be concerned with. As you have said in past posts, "I haven't been here long," so let me help you out. We do not need to go back to the days of Pete Carroll instaling a basketball court at Hofstra and have team BBQ's. To write that article this week is journalism at it's worst. Keep the blogging though.....enjoying it.
you might write decent blods but your nfl writing stinks. your article on mangini's relationship with his players makes no sense.it looks to me like you are trying to stir up trouble.let him coach and you stay out of it
Rock, you have to be one of the biggest fools there is if you really believe what you write. You write this drivel so well you should change careers and write for soap operas. It is so obvious that everyone is writing the same type of article (because it is all true) and YOU had to be different so you decided to twist it into an emotional struggle. Chad's quote means that his reason is that he (as qb) keeps getting beat by the pats so that is his extra motivation - the team's extra motivation was for the same reason. And mangini's was for obvious reasons --- but you twist it into chad "avoiding" the question -- what are you implying, that Chad and mangini have a cold relationship??? Mangini's quote on talking to some patriots players was this "Not too much. I said hello to a few guys prior to the game, but really didn't spend too much time reminiscing." you twist that into mangini preferring his old players to his own jets team. and Mangini's acknowledgement of disconnect is twisted by you into being "cold" to his players. I really think that, as a beat reporter for the Jets, you are smarter than what you wrote here -- you need to stand out as a reporter, but to fans that are in the know, you are just downright insulting us...to anyone not in the know, you are downright deceptive and you know it....and if you really feel this way, you may want to think about covering a different team going forward because you just don't have a clue