The Grinch Is Coming to New England

By Stephen M. Hague ProfessionalSportsCommentary.blogger.com 12.24.2008



The most wonderful time of the year? Not if you’re a fan of the New England Patriots who are in all likelihood, out of the NFL playoffs this year.
Think about it. An 11 – 5 team (with a much anticipated defeat of the hapless Buffalo Bills on Sunday), out of the playoffs. The team that just pummeled the NFC West Division champion Arizona Cardinals by 40 points. The team that lost the most important player on any football team and last year’s league MVP Tom Brady, after 7 offensive snaps this season and still will manage an 11 – 5 record. The team with the unknown, untested, and unsure backup quarterback Matt Cassel whose brilliant play will certainly lead to a multimillion dollar contract with another team as an unrestricted free agent. Out of the playoffs.
Meanwhile, those same Arizona Cardinals and the San Diego Chargers may win their respective divisions at 8 – 8.
The NFL really is “soap opera for men”. The Patriots and their fans are forced to root for the hated NY Jets on Sunday for a chance to win the AFC East. The Jets play at home against the Miami Dolphins who with a victory over the Jets can become AFC East champs after going 1 – 15 the year before.
The Dolphins are the team that ended New England’s 21 game regular season record winning streak this year with a 38 – 13 shellacing at Gillette Stadium. To add to the disdain Patriot’s fans have for the Dolphins, old friend Bill Parcells is running football operations in Miami this year. One of his first and best moves as Big Tuna was to swoop in and take Chad Pennington who had just been released from the Jets to make room for Bret “I’m a hugely over-rated QB” Favre. We can only hope that playing at home in The Meadowlands in front of rabid Jets fans will give them the edge, though they may be screaming for coach Eric Mangini’s head. Mangini of course is the rat, fink former protégé of Bill Belichick who blew the whistle on his mentor leading to the “Spygate” scandal last season.
There is another possibility for the Patriots to get in but it’s a lot less likely than the Jets beating the Dolphins at home.
If the 5 – 10 Jacksonville Jaguars can somehow beat the hard-hitting Baltimore Ravens, the Patriots are in as a wild card assuming a Dolphin win.
So find a dark green sweater to wear, paint your face green, and practice yelling
“J – E – T – S, JETS!”
If the Jets do lose as expected, just look in the mirror after the game has ended and you’ll see that the Grinch has truly come to New England this year.