Your faithful scribe is on the road again. I'm in Kansas where for the next few days I'll be in Fort Leavenworth participating in the US Army's Combat Studies Institute's Symposium on the fight against terrorism. My own presentation will be on policing in contested political zones, using Apartheid South Africa and to a lesser extent Northern Ireland as historical context. I'm staying with Tom and his family and will write as I can.
Let's just say that yes, I am rather invigorated by the Patriots' performance against a Jets team that has playoff hopes. And I'm more convinced than ever, after Randy Moss' performance, that the preseason is way too long and for veterans guaranteed of a roster spot, largely superfluous. Bring on the Chargers!
16 comments:
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3012989
'nuff said
Atually, what do you mean by "'nuff said." this is a hugely overblown story. Given that the Patriots beat the Jets 38-14, which in the NFL is an asskicking, and that the incident was discovered in the first quarter, I actually am not certain what this says at all. We know that teams try to gain advantages over one another. We know that coaches and coordinators place their play cards in forn of their faces and have for years.
Lots of people will be thrilled, thinking that this somehow will represent comeuppance for the best team of the decade. Fine. Enjoy it. Because when the Patriots play your team, your team is more than likely going to get pounded. This is a tempest in a teapot.
dcat
Gee, Dcat, it *really* must be overblown huh?
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=3018338
Let's see here.... Scumbag Belichick fined how much? ($500,000) Patriots fined another $250,000 and they loose draft picks????
Typical Patriots. Typical Belichick.
Look, Special Agent -- make a fucking argument if you'd like, but frankly if you want to play the smartass sarcasm game here you are WAY out of your depths. Linking main page ESPN stories that any nimrod with an internet connection should find is simply not going to cut it when the discussion turns to sports at dcat. I am simply much more clever than you are. And I know a LOT more about sports. So keep those two things in mind if you decide that you want to engage in smartass comments about sports, because in that case, I double down and will win. Big. After all, I don't believe I am weighing in at your blog.
That Belichick was destined to be fined is not at all surprising. The question is: why the overwrought outrage. About what, precisely, are people so exercised (and by people I mean you)? This sort of stuff happens all the time. All. The. Time. The Broncos in the late 90's and Niners in the early 90's clearly violated salary cap rules, which is far more detrimental to competitive balance tha videotaping the other sideline which the networks do every week. Last year the Dolphins were caught trying to use illegal earpieces on defense. Last year Shawne Merriman was caught using steroids during the season. So in all honesty, check your self-righteous pablum (by which I mean something as emptily stupid as "Typical Patriots. typical Belichick." which doesn't actually mean anything) to yourself if you do not actually have the capacity to further the debate. I'll put up with a little bit of vaguely clever anaonymous wingnutry around here. Once you start coming in and just simply slamming my teams without actually saying anything beyond what some fucktard on talk radio will say I'm afraid I'm going to pull rank.
The Patriots have won three of the last six Super Bowls. They reenacted a shower scene from the late HBO show Oz against the Jets this past weekend AFTER the confiscation of the mystery sideline package that is the source of so much consternation. Teams pull this crap all the time -- and it won't be long before multiple sources confirm as much. I wish the Patriots had not been so unnecessarily dumb (or is someone going to argue that the J-E-T-S Jets, jets, jets were really the superior team this week?). But I'm not going to simply wring my hands because some gasbag has decided what qualifies as typical for a team about which I have forgotten more in the past 24 hours than that person knows.
dcat
Over time, your quickness with a cocky rejoinder must have gotten you many punches in the face.
- Al
Special Agent Chet Desmond really lives up to his name--his posts would only come from someone who really is "special".
I am sad that the Pats are going to "loose" draft picks according to Chet. I hope they can tighten them up before draft day.
And Chet--whatever NFL team you root for...they suck
dear dshat and thunderthighs,
your perverse fanaticism is oddly intriguing. not unlike the dog-haired boy at the circus or the late tammy faye.
So here is the sm of responses from courageous anonymous commenters: Special Agent Chet asserts that I have probably been punched in the face a lot because when he started an argument with me through his stunning sarcasm he found himself on the losing (loosing?) end when i responded. I'm a big boy. Anyone who wnats to try to punch me in the face because they are humiliated with my having a better capacity to use words and facts and evidence is damned well welcome to try. Chet -- you are damned well welcome to try.
As for anonymous -- it's funny how you can assert that thunderstick and I (and good work with the clever mockery. Well played) are "perversely" fanatic. how so? We have made actual arguments. You are welcome to do the same, s is Chet. But until you are willing to do so, why would either of you be surprised when we rise to the bait of namecalling and sarcasm directed at us? I mean, I realize that behind his anonymous shield chet desmond is an asskicker from way back. Nonetheless, I still await an actual argument from him while he prepares to show us all what a badass he is.
dca
Dcat-
What is your fascination with athletics, and your insistence on sticking up for professional sports?
If my favorite team was caught cheating (and I have no dobut my favorite team is chocked full of steroid and drug abusers, {insert any crime here}, etc...)... I would be the first person to say... "Yep, Team X is a bunch of no-good cheaters."
Shouldn't you be concentrating your efforts on your classes? If you spent as much time on your class prep, as you do blogging, maybe your students wouldn't refer to you as "an egotistical, arrogant professor who looks like a dork. He was probably picked on growing up and is now taking out his anger and bitterness on his students. No one cares about the idiotic book you wrote Derrick so stop talking about it! Avoid this LAME teacher (he's not worthy to be called a professor) at all costs if possible!"
Not my words, mind you. But your students.
You started the personal aspect of this discussion. Not me. I was criticizing the Patriots, not you. Not once did I ever personalize this.
Thunderstick, try prying your lips off of Dcats's unit. Come up for air once in a while.
Special Agent Anonymous --
Ah yes, the protection of gutlessly sniping without givingone's name.
From whence do you derive your information about my teaching? I'm just curious. Universities have very specific processes for assessing teaching. From none of those processes have I received anything resembling what you wrote. There surely are unfiltered sources -- ratemyprofessor and so forth -- that allow students to say whatever they want and to go unchallenged in doing so. Only idiots take those seriously given their self-selected nature. You have no access to official evaluations, and if you do I have a wonderful lawsuit on my hands. Meanwhile my official evaluations are fantastic. They are the ones that count. Of course there will be students who hate any professor. Citing one student's comments (what grade did that student receive? Was that student actually in my classes? Which classes? When?) from any source to which you have access reveals far more about you than about me. Selective readings of evidence indicate at the best serious intellectual dishonesty.
But the fact that you still are unwilling to address your dumb arguments (or lack of any substantial argument) on the matter a hand is the issue here. And the fact that you are willing to attack me without yet giving your name is rather vexing. I "look like a dork", fine. Nothing to do with your making a bad agument. Avoid me at all costs? Fine. My classes fill up. And you read my blog. Regularly. To my knowledge I know nothing about anything you have written. In this environment, you simply snipe at someone you take the time to read and comment about fairly consistently. As in all the time.
Not once did you personalize this? (Other than your last comment, I assume?) Then what about the punching in the face comment? This is the glory of anonymity. It allows idiots to spew. Any time you want to test your punch in the face theory, my dorkiness notwithstanding, come on over to Odessa. As I've said -- I'm a big boy. I can handle that particular challenge. If I lose (or in your rendering of the language "loose") I'll live with that. It's standing up frontally to the challenge that counts. Would that you believed the same thing.
Your arguments about the Patriots are dumb. And your assertion that I have blindly defended them is idiotic. Here is my simple view on the Patriots' situation: They broke rules. They got caught. They got punished. What the fuck more do you want?
You are a gasbag. You cannot win an argument about the specific case that my post discussed. You tossed out sarcasm. You made threats. You lost. Come punch me in the face if you so choose. I doubt, somehow, that such a thing will happen. Frankly I hope that the effort does. That will be worth writing about. Man up or shut the fuck up. That's my new motto. Verbally you've been losing bad. So let your bad ass self shut me up, anonymous one. I'll be home from Leavenworth and in my office by Monday. Make the first punch a good one. You have four days. I'll let my readers know how it turns out.
dcat
Chet--it is a very nice unit.
Dcat-
You are 100% correct, that was uncalled for on my part and I apologize. One thing certainly has nothing to do with the other. (And yes, it did come from ratemyprofs dot com... and yes I know that is an inaccurate sampling of the student population.)
However, that being said I'm still amazed at your support of professional sports.
The Patriots are cheaters. Judging from a majority of the responses across the nation, everyone agrees.
YOUR TEAM CHEATS.
Hey, you know what? My favorite team is filled with cheaters too! I'll say it to your face. I'll tell your mother and mine too!
Professional sports has nowhere near the integrity it once had. If you choose to support, by all means do so. However, I for one will not. I sleep quite well at night knowing that my heroes are better than yours.
Chet --
Words are said in the heat of battle. No harm, no foul.
I guess we attach this word "cheaters" and it becomes this huge, giant thing.
My view has been constant -- the Patriots broke the rules. They got caught. They paid the price and will continue to pay the price. I don't see purity any more than you, and in many cases, maybe less. But breaking the rules is breaking the rules, whether it's a face mask in the third quarter or what have you. I wish the Pats had not done this. I'm sure they are not alone.
It really is a matter of interpretation in terms of how much weight you freight this with -- you give it a lot of weight. I ardently disagree with that. I give it far less weight. You disagree with that. But I have a really hard time hearing people say with a straight face things like "oh, this taints their Super Bowl titles." that seems to be going to far. I wish they had not done it. But I'd also like to think that last night sort of should shut at least some people up.
Yeah, I'm a sucker for pro sports. It's got me. There is no purity. We just try to minimize the impurity and level the playing field.
Cheers --
dcat
Cyber-kiss and make up?
Consider it done! Which is actually a bit disturbing (no offense intended).
dcat
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