Brady to Moss...Touchdown!

Let me just say this for the record, I absolutely love what the New England Patriots are doing. Although years ago I never would have rooted for the Patriots as I was continually irritated at having to hear about them during my college days, conditions have changed. I no longer live in Massachusetts and fantasy football has almost completely stripped my sense of loyalty. But even more so than those reasons I have already given, I am ecstatic about this New England Patriots' football season because of one man: Randy Moss.

Okay, so in the interest of full disclosure, Randy Moss is on one of my fantasy football teams this year. He is having a big season with sixteen touchdown receptions through ten games. But even if he were not on my team I would still relish the fact that he is enjoying success because it surely pisses off so many other people out there. And who are these people who are certainly annoyed by Moss's success? Well, I would imagine the people who whined incessantly when Moss said, "I play when I want to play," would have to be upset. Also, I would imagine that Joe Buck, who threw a little crybaby hissy fit when Moss fake mooned some Green Bay fans in the playoffs a few years ago, can't be very pleased.

Randy Moss and fantasy football aside, though, what the Patriots are doing is so great because it breeds another form of whining: the whine that the Patriots are running up the score. Let's make things clear; I do believe the Patriots are running up the score. But do you know what? I don't care. I'll tell you when I would care about whether the Patriots were running up the score. I would care if the Patriots were in a league with a bunch of sixth graders and there was a chance that either one of sixth graders would start to cry or an idiot parent of a sixth grader would do something stupid on the field because the Patriots were running up the score. But I'll tell you when I won't care; I won't care when the Patriots are running up the score against grown men being paid millions of dollars to stop them in the highest league of professional football in the world. You're playing against the Patriots and you don't like that Tom Brady is still throwing touchdown passes with the Patriots up 42-7? Well then, I'll give you three options. Try harder playing defense and prevent them from scoring, execute better on offense so that you keep the ball out of Tom Brady's hands, or surrender the rest of your paycheck for the year and buy a ticket to the game where you can boo and complain to your heart's content.

The best thing about this situation is that the Patriots' coach, Bill Belichick, seems more than willing to run up the score despite all of the crying coming from a lot of other people around the league. The Patriots have scored 411 points through the first ten games of the season. Here's hoping they score precisely 255 points over the last six games of the regular season. Ah, 666 points: never would a number be more symbolic.