http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmonsnflpicks/090918 JETS (+4) over Patriots Bad matchup for the "we played like crap last week, we lost our most indispensable defensive player, we couldn't run the ball and we can't totally protect our QB" Patriots. The Jets are hungry. You can see it. I fear this game as a Pats fan. At the very least, it's a 3-point game either way. Allow me three more thoughts: 1. Nothing's more enjoyable than a young QB overreacting after a long touchdown pass, deliriously sprinting down the field, then awkwardly jumping into the celebration circle about 2.3 seconds after it had already started to settle down. Mark Sanchez had an awesome one last Sunday. He nailed it. Even the part where he almost tripped on the landing. I really like him. He's one of my 20 favorite Mexican-American QBs ever. 2. Rex Ryan has replaced Andy Reid as "The Coach You'd Least Want to See Coming Out of a Men's Room If He's Been In There For 5 Minutes or More." 3. Backup Jets QB Kevin O'Connell is the latest to be sucked into the whole "Is he giving them info on his old team, and if he was, could that help?" media storyline. (See Mike Reiss' target=new>recent ESPN Boston post.) Happens five times a year. Nobody ever asks this question: Why don't NFL teams make their players sign confidentiality agreements? In "The Bachelor," a TV show that couldn't possibly generate more than $10 million in income for ABC, every contestant is required to sign a confidentiality agreement to protect the franchise. In the NFL, a business worth roughly a kajillion patillion dollars, players can switch teams and immediately spill secrets like Russian spies. How does that make sense?
What kind of a professional journalist/sports writer reveals his favorite team? They might as well give Patriots Nation NY a job at ESPN, he'd do a better job than this clown. Horray he thinks we'll win, it's probably 'reverse karma' in his eyes.
I guess he doesn't remember Tom Baby running down the field after a touchdown pass. he probably didn't become a Pats fan until their second super bowl win just to make sure he was on the right wagon.
Seemed like good-natured homerism from an admitted Pats fan to me. Like TBTF said, I'd rather they wear their heart on their sleeve than have a hidden and much denied agendum against the Jets.
King is a frontrunner. He's a Pat's fan who kind of picks up on what's hot and stays with it. He was all over Parcells jock as a young writer for Newsday in the late 80's and he followed him back up to New England, his natural team, when Parcells took over the Pats. Then he was back with Parcells and the Jets, of all people in the late 90's and transferred his allegiance back to the Pats when Parcells left town and the Pats won a Super Bowl in 2001. There's nothing really smarmy about it. The guy grew up rooting for the Pats in Massachusetts. It's just the hanging on Parcells jock thing that has made it look funny, that and the fact that he's so blatant about being a Pats fan in his column. When the dynasty declines, which it will very shortly, he'll go back to being a less obvious homer and his column will be readable again. BTW he was one of the best national sportswriters going by 2000 and then the Pats dynasty ruined him unless you were a Pats fan or whatever team Parcells was currently domoing. Dr Z is (I refuse to say was) a Jet's fan who managed to write about football for 30 years without making people look down on him for it.
I don't really care if the players spill secrets. It is easy to change audibles and game tape can show a play more clearly than someone can describe it. Also, route audibles cannot be predicted by some backup QB because they can always differ. It can help, but I don't think it will be a deciding factor. There is still a tonne of strategy involved even if guys are telling "secrets"...
Non-disclosure agreements are essentially unenforceable unless there's a government regulation or law specifically backing them. You can sue to recover damages if an employee signs an NDA and then spills the beans, but you have to prove damages and it would be hard to do that in the NFL.
ah who cares, Mark Sanchez is the new poster boy of the NFL and im happy hes on the Jets...Rarely ever, in fact, almost never happens
The guy is not funny, not knowledgeable (about football), and has no business writing about the sport. He consistently speaks out of his ass and really should stick to writing about basketball and baseball, sports of which he is reasonably well-informed. He picks the Jets every time there's a chance they may win. It's his own lame form of reverse karma.
I might actually be worried about Kevin O'Connell helping the Jets prepare if he had any grasp of the Patriots' offense. Obviously, jettisoning a guy who you took in the 3rd round a year ago = can't play in your system.
hes a comedic sports writer. personally, i find the guy funny and im glad he at least lets you know what his sports allegiances are. i also think for once he has a point. the jets are hungry and pissed and the pats just dont have the protection that they once did for brady. hes gonna get hit a lot and rattled.
My bad -- I thought stories/thoughts about the Jets were appropriate for the Jets' forum. As a long time reader, and, admittedly, infrequent poster, I decided to share the page 2 note about the Jets. It seems to me that people complain too much on this site about the stories people post. You can choose not to read if you don't care (my thread title certainly explained the post's content). As for the comment about non-disclosure agreements being unenforceable, that is not entirely true. States have different positions on the enforceability of such agreements. If enforceable, the team could sue the player for breach of contract. Players are well-paid; but I doubt they would want to pay lawyers and/or damages for spilling inside information. However, I suspect that the CBA precludes team's from requiring player's to sign non-disclosure agreements. It appears that team's can require coaches and other personnel to sign such agreements though. The following passage is from an ESPN story following Spygate: "Late in Super Bowl week, Walsh agreed with ESPN and the Times to go on the record as saying he knows damaging information about the Patriots that he will reveal if asked by the NFL. Walsh further noted that, although the NFL announced it had investigated New England's videotaping practices, the league had never spoken to him. People are right to be skeptical about Walsh's saying he knows something damning but not revealing it. Walsh says he fears legal retaliation by the Patriots because he signed a non-disclosure agreement when he left the team. He has been advised by an attorney that he will be on firmer ground if he reveals what he knows only at the request of the NFL or Congress."
