Even though my wish came true for the Saints to beat the Vikes and make it to the Super Bowl, I’m not quite ready to think about Petyon Manning being thisclose to being the first quarterback to win a ring with a coach who may or may not being sleeping with his eyes open on the sideline. Just can’t do it yet. Maybe next week, I’ll see how my schedule looks.
No, today we’ll be looking at a small piece of news that came out today that Matt Light didn’t just injure his knee against the Broncos, he dislocated his freaking kneecap. Granted, it’s not all that surprising to find this out a couple weeks after the Patriots’ season ended – Laurence Maroney could’ve had both his arms amputated during Week 17 and fans wouldn’t have known it until last week. Then again, Belichick could’ve taken Maroney out on his boat and left him on the Lost island and not many Pats fans would’ve noticed – or cared – considering the way he played down the stretch. In fact, I probably would’ve preferred that because it would’ve been a better excuse than “Well, we just completely honked that pick – sorry.” But that’s just me…
What makes it interesting is how he described the wet fart that subbed in for the end of the season against Baltimore and the overall tone of how 2009 went down…
“As players, we all talked about it after the game. We were in the locker room and there were a lot of guys hanging their head and it’s a tough situation,” Light said. “We know we have good guys, quality players. But we have to be a more physical team, a mentally tougher team. We have to be guys that act like we’ve been there and done it before.”
Now, I know that they lost a couple key guys this past year, and we all know the names by heart – Seymour, Vrabel, Bruschi, and Harrison – pretty much all of whom would qualify as leaders. That might not be the sum total of physicality or mental toughness, but it is where those things start. So now I can thank Matty Light for sparking yet another week or two worth of “There’s no way they shoulda traded Seymour!!!” calls and rants on sports radio – can’t thank you enough. What that overlooks, however, is something that I (and a couple other writers as well) have mentioned – coaching.
Instead of referring to players, might Mr. Light be referring to having coaches who have “been there, done that” – perhaps gentlemen like the now employed Romeo Crennel and Charlie Weis? I think there’s a better than average chance myself, and it’s at the very least another reminder that a team that actually improved on defense and got their franchise QB back on the field actually lost one more game this season and underachieved on offense for a lot of the year. Just one more reason to hope Hoodie knows what he’s doing and can find someone to call plays that actually has a pulse and someone to get the defense back to hitting hard once again.
