Lesson Unlearned

Posted by Adam Hart November 30, 2008 at 11:34 am

Last season, when the Patriots were marching on toward regular season perfection, Steelers safety Anthony Smith guaranteed a win for his team. I thought the guy got smart. Those findings were incorrect.

Ah, yes. There’s nothing like learning someone a good lesson, as Tom Brady and the Patriots did last season to Smith, burning him for big plays in a 34-13 win. Sometimes, thought, the student is just not good at absorbing factual information. Take Smith, for example. Despite being picked on by Brady and the gang, he came back this year with another quasi-guarantee.

“If they ask me again, I’ll say the same thing,” Smith said. “We’re the No. 1 defense. If we play like we’ve been playing, and our offense comes around and has a good game, and we’re clicking on all cylinders, we’re going to win the game.”

He has since denied it, saying the media twisted his words. He clarified his statement as:

“If we go out and play how we’ve been playing and eliminate the big plays we’ve got a pretty good chance of winning.“

Of course, the Pats could take that initial report and run with it, blinding their eyes to that retraction. Would anyone expect otherwise? Best bet is that the Pats will use that as fuel, subtracting everything from the original statement save for “We’re going to win the game.“  The guy should have had a gag order, considering last season’s episode.  Don’t get me wrong, what he said wasn’t even that bad.  But in New England’s eyes, a qualified slight is still a slight. Heck, an opponent could hold a red carpet award ceremony solely for the purpose of honoring the Patriots with the “Best Team of the Century” Award, and New England would stand at the podium saying, “What, only of this century?”. So you better believe they will be out to prove Smith wrong. Again.

Really, I need to have a sitdown with sports director Morry Levine. Those Syracuse guys just don’t know how it goes in the NFL. Right, Donovan McNabb? Oh, you didn’t know the rules? We’ll ask Marvin Harrison. Oh, you didn’t know the law?

So, get ready for today’s game against the Steelers. You know the Patriots are. Probably by throwing darts at a picture of Anthony Smith. Even though the guy who fired the loudest shot isn’t even on the team anymore.

We’ll be rolling out a running blog for you folks. Expect the first posting to come at halftime, with updates to follow after each score. I find the product is better this way. Otherwise the entire runner ends up being a string of incoherent notes smashed together.  We’ll try to avoid that.