So the Patriots trade Randy Moss to Minnesotta for a 3rd round pick last week. This week they trade a 4th rounder to Seattle to get former Super Bowl MVP Dion Branch back. Both deals were worked out quickly as the Patriots were anxious to get rid of Moss and get Branch back. Three years ago, the Seahawks trade a 1st rounder to get Branch from New England, and New England aquires Moss for a 4th round pick. I know it’s not that simple, and there are lots of risk factors with Randy Moss, but shouldn’t the Seahawks have at least tried to trade Branch straight up for Moss a week ago? While watching Randy Moss’s re-debut as a Minnesota Viking, and witnessing the thrilling but ultimately futile performance by Bret Favre against the Jets, the nation’s obsessive love/hate fascination with Favre was on full display. Football pundits have long pointed out Favre’s penchant for forcing throws makes him as much a liability as an asset. The success or failure of Favre’s teams over the last 4 years has been tied completely to Favre’s turnovers. Never was that more clear than on Monday night. On the night when Favre threw his 500th 501st and 502nd touchdown passes, he became the NFL’s all time leader in fumbles. He also threw interceptions on the 2 most crucial plays of the game; the potentially game tying 2 point conversion, and the 3rd down TAINT (Touchdown after interception, props to the Sports Guy) in the 2 minute drill that killed a potential game winning drive. To the football experts, (maybe even his own coaches and teammates), Favre’s insistence that the game is won or lost by his arm is tantamount to football treason. However, as fans, we wouldn’t have it any other way. Fans want heroes. Favre provides heroics. That 37 yard TD to Moss was an awe-inspiring feat of seemingly supernatural effortless precision. This is how fans want to see games won. It’s how players want to win games. It’s just more fun to win by making plays, as opposed to wining by maintaining discipline. Generally that’s not how coaches want to win. But there is one coach who does want to win that way: Bill Belichick. The Patriots coach has won the Super Bowl the old fashioned way, through discipline and execution…3 times. The last one was 6 years ago. Since then he has done everything in his power to turn Tom Brady into a Football Super Hero like Favre. That’s why he went out after Moss, to turn the Pats into a pass wacky 45 ppg scoring, awe-inspiring, play-making offensive juggernaut. But it didn’t work because in Super bowl XXXX the New York Football Giant’s made 1 superhero heroic play and the Patriots didn’t.
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