'Tis a shame

Proving that New England must be a wonderful place to live and New Englanders themselves a charming lot probably explains why half of them live here in Southern California with their faux-distressed Red Sox hats and spiffy Tom Brady jerseys.

And because there is no more obnoxious breed of fan than Patriot/Red Sox fan, allow us to immerse ourselves into a soothing hot tub of schadenfreude.

The Baltimore Ravens stunned the New England Patriots, 33-14, today in Foxboro, Mass. giving us a reprieve for one more year of a class of fan that scarcely knew they had a football team as recently as a decade ago.




Up for a little sports-related BwD academia?

A comparison that you may have heard here first: Troy Aikman’s and Tom Brady’s respective career arcs are amazingly similar.

Troy Aikman garnered 3 Super Bowl rings in his first seven years in the league (1992, ’93, ’95 seasons) while Brady collected the same number in his first five years (2001, ’03, ’04 seasons).

After the ’95 Super Bowl, Aikman won only one more playoff game in his entire career, that coming in the ’96 season. In fact, that playoff victory drought extended until last night when the Cowboys thrashed the Eagles, 34-14.

After the Super Bowl victory in 2005 (the ’04 season), Brady and the Pats have only returned to the Super Bowl once (’07) losing to the Giants and have zero playoff victories in the last two years (granted, Brady missed virtually all of the ’08 season due to a leg injury and the Pats did not make the playoffs).

With aging at the skill positions and brain drain via the exiting of key front office personnel, coordinators and position coaches, we don’t expect to have to deal with Patriot fan again for some time.