It's Their Super Bowl

If you’re a Patriots’ fan, you’re probably familiar with the phrase. It’s their Super Bowl.  Opponents have been bringing their “A” game to Foxborough since 2002. I get it. Beating the Patriots still means something, even if they haven’t won a Super Bowl in ten years. Back in the day when I was an Army brat rooting for the pre-Elway Broncos with my dad stationed at Fort Carson, if Denver went 2-12-0 and one of those wins came against the Oakland Raiders, that’s all I would spend the off-season talking about. That was pretty much all I had to talk about.

If the New York Jets finish 2-14-0, and that second win comes tonight against New England, well, it probably won’t save Rex Ryan’s job, but it will give him something to tell his grandchildren. It might even spark the Jets to a 4-12-0 finish.

Early Story Lines

Never underestimate the NFL’s ability to surprise.

Life is a Journey and it's 33 Miles to the Next Rest Stop

Just when things were looking up, the Patriots are forced to shuffle their underperforming offensive line due to Bryan Stork’s concussion. Not good when you’re facing one of the best defensive fronts in the NFL. Even better, Tom Brady rolled his ankle in practice and will be even less mobile than usual. If that’s possible.

How It Ends

We’ve seen this movie before. We know how it ends. Everyone dies and nobody’s happy. Wait-What? Are we in the right theater?

Identity Management

A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day.

-Aragorn at the Black Gate, “The Return of the King”

Moving on to Cincinnati

I don’t know if you’ve heard but we’re moving on to Cincinnati.

Waiting for Monday Night

The locals are bracing for a pigskin tsunami of humiliation on a national stage this week. Monday Night Football. It’s the game that everyone else in the NFL is watching. The game every football fan is watching. No hiding place.

It’s a huge early season test for the Patriots. The Chiefs in Kansas City in front of a crowd determined to wrest the title of loudest crowd (on the Guinness Book of World Records scale) from the Seattle faithful of “12^th Man” fame. Part-man, part-machine ballers Tamba Hali, Dontari Poe and Justin Houston will feast on the weak and cowardly New England offensive line, rending their flesh and crushing their skulls before sucking the marrow from the bones of Tom Brady’s broken body.

Figuratively, of course.