and not much of a departure for Dan.
Dan cites the acquisitions of Brandon Meriweather and Randy Moss as evidence of a seismic shift in the Patriot's Front Office's attitude towards player character. Enough so to drop Christian Peter's name and ask where was Myra Kraft.
The column focuses on Moss' troubles off the field and on. The former list of troubles includes three incidents, nothing in the last five years and two incidents over a decade old. Not apologizing for the guy, but pointing out the guy has not been in trouble off the field for a while.
As Dan points out, though, the real question is what you get on the field. He runs through the incidents, including the Lambeau Field 'mooning.' Only Dan and the priggish Joe Buck find this incident remotely troubling.
Dan has his opinion and points out all the reasons to be concerned. Pretty standard,nothing groundbreaking.
What is disappointing is Dan's characterization of Meriweather: "a gun-toting cheap-shot artist last seen stomping on a prone opponent during a disgraceful brawl." If Dan bothered to read his colleagues work, he would know that as Mike Reiss points out, Meriweather used his firearm in a legal fashion in order to protect himself and his property. Welcome to the Big Time, Brandon. You've been unfairly attacked by Dan Shaughnessy. You are in good company. (Also, think Dan has the guts to attack Richard Seymour for stomping on an opponent? Or, do you think Dan goes after only the rookies and marginal players?)
21 comments:
Looks like early-season Sox success has Cancer Dan feeling thwarted and in search of cross-over opportunities for spreading his barely veneered brand of bully racism and infecting the city's other franchise having a bit too much fun in his blighted world. I know it still flies down at the drunken Irish end of the bar, but isn't Cancer Dan painting himself into a life-threatening corner by now?
Drunken Dan can dish it out, but cannot take it. He picks on athletes with personal cheap shots, yet the countless accounts of his vitriolic reactions to constructive criticisms regarding his 'columns' shows how thin that blotchy skin of his can be.
I hope Randy Moss sticks him in a locker.
Also, there is a good chance Randy Moss' wild days may be behind him, he recently became a business owner of a fruit juice store.
Story here
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2499476
Sounds like Moss grew up a little bit, I'm sure the Patriots spoke with him extensively. I wonder if Shank actually bothered to try and talk with Moss himself.
dennis / callahan had same reaction to corey dillon. it's not even new material, as you also point out.
pats reverse their stance? wouldn't randy moss coming here and being a model prisoner be the best argument yet for the pats as a "character" team?
To answer your question of whether he only goes after rookies and marginal players, I believe the answer is, he goes after minorities of all sorts.
Juli, I know it's really fun to come up with cute nicknames for the Shankster but is there any possibility you could stay away from using the 'C' word? I cannot stand the term 'cancer' being applied to the sports world. I think it's a safe bet we all know a relative or friend who has dealt with some form of the many varieties of this disease and for anyone to use the word in this context shows an utter lack of tact. Otherwise the rest of your comments are right on the money.
Hey guys, not to be Joe Buck, but the mooning thing bothered me as well. There is a line between entertaining the fans (aka the Bengals' receiving corps) and being an ass (Moss, Owens). Mooning is an asinine thing, and totally classes.
And let's not forget that Moss did deliberately try to run over a human being...and laughed about it. Whether it happened yesterday or 20 years ago, it's still a reprehensible act.
The reason why Moss has been quiet is that he hasn't had a good quaterback to throw to him in a while and skills are diminishing to boot. Without a flashy highlight reel, Moss got his cockiness knocked off.
I give Moss 7 games before he does something classless on the field or borderline illegal off. Either way, I'm disappointed in the Patriots in hiring this bozo.
Receivers do not win championships, and are the least important offensive players. Getting this joke of a human being diminishes the Pats in my eyes.
But CHB does suck donkey balls.
ah yes, when a black man misbehaves on the field, in CHB's eyes, that's a "crime."
He didn't moon the Packer fans, he faked mooning them, which was in response to the proud Green Bay tradition of actually mooning the opposing team's bus as it leaves Lambeau field. Given the context, I think it is chuckle inducing and I would hope the Green Bay fans appreciated Moss's recognition of their past work.
None other than Tony Dungy (a perfect human being if one is to believe Ron Borges) "thought it was kind of humorous." Not to seem on national television in his opinion, but funny nonetheless.
Link
The Packer mooning incident needs some perspective.
It's a Lambeau tradition that fans moon the bus of the visiting team as it arrives at the stadium gate for the game. It's not malicious, visiting players think it's funny and anyone willing to drop trou in Green Bay in December deserves credit. Hell, I'm a Bears fan and I think it's funny.
Moss caught a touchdown and returned the moon to the fans. I know some people who were at the game who said the Packer fans cracked up laughing. Joe Buck went all Pat Robertson about it, but that's about par for the course.
As a fully provincial New England bonehead, there's no reason Dan Shaugnessy would know about something that goes on at a stadium in another time zone, so I'm not surprised he brought it up. Wrongly.
"He runs through the incidents, including the Lambeau Field 'mooning.' Only Dan and the priggish Joe Buck find this incident remotely troubling."
You've got to be kidding.
What's funny about CHB and the other self-appointed moral arbiters of the Patriots is that they conveniently ignore the fact that the Pats are not and never have been a collection of choirboys. Corey Dillon, Rodney ("cheap shot") Harrison, Ted Washington, Bryan Cox, Todd Saurbrun... why are they calling this "out of character"?
If players can adjust to the Pats' "all for one" philosophy, all well and good. If not, goodbye. It's happened in the past and undoubtedly will continue in the future.
You got it right about Dan being 'provincial.' Indeed, the world ends after you pass Worcester according to Dan and everyone at the Globe (Oh yes...there is Iraq, which must be the next exit after Auburn on the Mass Pike). But it is a very parochial bunch there, and it must stem from the Einstein who coined the term 'Hub' with respect to Boston. Two words about that: As IF. But it has The Globe and all its writers revolving around an axis called 'Boston' with not a real care that, gee, there are other cities out there! How 'bout that!
"He runs through the incidents, including the Lambeau Field 'mooning.' Only Dan and the priggish Joe Buck find this incident remotely troubling."
You've got to be kidding.
What do you mean? (I love one-sentence responses. Takes all the thought out of having opinions.)If Tony Dungy, the fans "mooned" and the posters on this site who knew the circumstances got the joke, what is to be upset by? Joe Buck is a sanctimonious ass and no sports fan I have ever run into cares what Moss did.
I agree with the poster who pointed out that, in fact, this is far from a "huge change". Rodney Harrison, Bryan Cox, Corey Dillon, et al. The Pats under Bill B. have been doing this for years now. Jackie MacMullen brought this up, too. My question for these people is, if we can see this, why the heck can't these so-called columnists? The mark of a successful franchise is being able to absorb guys like this, squeeze some mileage out of them and win games. It's interesting, because an ESPN columnist just finished praising Belichik to the heavens for this and other deals. Why is it that in my own town, these columnists cannot see the success of this franchise, cannot seem to accept that, by and large, the Pats make very careful decisions that have worked out? Why is it that I have to buy the Hartford Courant, the Post, the Times, to read about MY TEAMS because my hometown paper cannot seem to make very basic, obvious observations? Sorry for the length of this post, but I had to get it off my chest!
A very astute observation about newspapers and columnists. Why are they contrarians, or anti-team? Well, first you need to understand that The Boston Globe (where, coincidentally, McMullen and Shaughnessy work) is on life support. They are a laughingstock newspaper going down in flames along with the industry. At The Globe, readership, circulation, and ad revenues are all flat-lining (at best) or plummeting (at worst). It is understandable that the people who work there would be bitter and full of seething rage against you, the fans, for not 'buying' their newspaper. YOU, the fans, represent people who are causing their misery. Overall, they are a dour, unhappy crew of people at The Globe. What you are seeing is a manifestation of that. You, the fans, are now the enemy. Writers at The Globe cannot stomach the thought that their other arch-enemy--The New England Patriots--would join forces with their fans. How novel: Fans support their team! But the action-line at The Globe is decidedly 'anti-Patriots' (Ron Borges, et al). The negative spin will always win out over the positive, and that's what you're seeing from Shaughnessy and McMullen.
Eric,
My father passed away from cancer last year and it sucked more than anything in the world I could have ever imagined until that time. All the more reason that Dan’s vile, malignant, utterly unnecessary presence resonates and coheres perfectly with my feelings towards the disease. Point taken, however; different people process things different ways and there is no excuse for extraneously offending bystanders, even if it is in attempt to characterize the visceral repugnance of Dan’s very existence. Maybe STD Dan would be sufficient, since he wormed his way into one job and has intermittently reared his ugly, scabrous carrot head ever since. And I guess Herpes would be most appropriate since its impossible to eradicate, much like the Jurassic sinecures The Globe has handed out so enthusiastically to politicking weasels to the detriment of its readers.
What was Shank saying about Terry Glenn when he was still here?
Biggest thing that got me pissed was Danny boys claim that Kraft has gone against everything he believes in by acquiring Moss. This crap about Kraft caring deeply about the "public perception" of the Patriots. BULLSHIT. None of that mattered much until Belicheck came along. And yea, like some other people have mentioned, guys like Harrison and Dillon are NOT model citizens.
anonymous, actually Harrison has been a pretty model citizen and Dillon proved to be much less a problem than the hype made him out to be.
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