Just a Couple of Thoughts

So, I've been seeing a little bit of Deion Branch in Malcolm Mitchell for a while now and pardon me for spiking the football but…

Nailed it!

I've got to say I'm thoroughly enjoying Deflategate 2.0. Not that it's anything anyone east of the Connecticut River didn't know already. I'm bemused by the tut-tutting of the pigskin pundits and bobbleheads, one of whom demanded Roger Goodell apologize to Tom Brady (and if he doesn't by sundown, Brady will have his choice of weapons; pistols or a one on one game of dodgeball played with properly inflated regulation NFL footballs). Not going to happen. First of all, Goodell would need to have the capacity to feel shame. Second of all, Goodell is too busy being the man with six fingers to be bothered, handing out arbitrary and cruel punishments and wondering why, no matter how terrible and unjust his actions, he no longer feels anything inside.

Nothing that's happened changes. It's enough for me to think of Goodell sitting alone in the dark in his study at home at night, teardrops in his Lagavulin, sobbing quietly.

I know I should be on to Denver but I've spent most of the past two days wrapped in the warm, reassuring sweater of the Monday night win over the Ravens and the deconstruction of the best defense in the NFL by Tom Freakin' Brady.

I have found that watching anyone who's good at something do their thing, regardless of what that thing is, to be utterly fascinating. Maybe it's the guy who makes violins. Maybe it's the guy who plays a violin. Or an electric guitar. Cook, blacksmith, photographer, American Ninja Warrior. Doesn't matter.

So it is watching Tom Brady play football. His three TD passes were like three pages from an instructional booklet called "Making All The Throws." The 90 mph two-seamer through a window the size of a dinner plate to Malcolm Mitchell. The sweet touch on the parabola to Martellus Bennett. The game-winning bomb, a perfect spiral hitting Chris Hogan in stride that was set up by a play action fake that froze safety Eric Weddle for just long enough. 406 yards passing against that Ravens defense on just 25 completions. If he continues to play at this level to close out the season, Brady may do one of the most Tom Brady things ever by winning league MVP despite playing just 12 games.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

There are still three games left to play. The Patriots will be facing a desperate Broncos team in Mile High Stadium on a short week. The Ravens may have been the top defense in the NFL statistically but it's not going to get any easier dealing with Von Miller and Denver's championship defense.

It should be fascinating.