Will New England Patriots Give Redskins a Full 60 Minutes, or Merely Time of Day?
DATELINE: HUMOR!
Usually you can see 60 Minutes in its entirety following the game that runs over the allotted time for football on Sunday night.
The Patriots have made a point in the past few days to note they have not played 60 minutes yet this season. Both Coach Bill Belichick and QB Tom Brady have noted that the team has failed metaphorically to play the entire stretch of the game clock.
We could admonish Tom Brady that you can’t play 60 minutes when you are taken out of the game with three minutes left to play.
It’s hard to play sixty minutes when the coach decides to replace all his starters somewhere in the third quarter with the boys of Pop Warner fame.
Never one to second-guess the genius at the throttle, we realize that Belichick is always disingenuous with the media when he is not downright disrespectful.
The team does not play 60 minutes because Bill Belichick does not want to give opponents too much film footage to help them to prepare for the inevitable meeting in the playoffs.
Woe to those playoff opponents who will not find the photo of Patriot faces anywhere on the roster, but must—like NBC—go to a Facebook profile photo to identify players.
Bill Belichick’s team only plays half the game most of the time, and the rest is either letting the other team grow overconfident or allowing his own players to hide their big plays until it counts. He throws the clock out the window to watch time fly.
In an age when the NFL Combine decides on the statistical norms for who and what is a good player, Bill Belichick goes to the undrafted, unwashed, and tired and poor huddled masses. They seem easier to motivate, time and again.
What will the Washington Redskins face on the field during their 60 minutes of Sunday fame? The lineup on the field remains unknown and unknowable—except to one man: Belichick.
If you start the game, you are a starter. If you make the play, you are a contributor. The media hasn’t grasped that, and neither has the rest of the NFL.
It’s time to wake up, media dozers, because the coffee is perking, and Belichick has time to spare.
William Russo's newest book is now out, ready for your tablet, your smartphone, and your Kindle. Read RED SOX 2011: A WHIMSICAL AUTOPSY to find a month-by-month examination of the team, showing all the signs of trouble that most sports media missed. His other sports books are SEX, DRUGS, SPORTS & WHIMSY and RAJON RONDO: SUPERSTAR!
