RIP: George Shields

My wife's Uncle, George Shields, died suddenly the other day. He had been playing golf, one of his favorite past-times. No one can argue that dying, while doing what you love to do, is a bad way to go.

George was an incredible guy. He always had a smile on his face, he provided for his family, he loved to cook, go fishing, hang with his family, and enjoyed an occasional drink or two. He had recently bought a new cottage in Maine, to be used mostly for fishing.

George left us very quickly...not expected by anyone. He is someone who will be sorely missed by so many. RIP, George. We'll fish together again some day. I promise. I hope.

Patriots 19, Jets 10

OK...so I'm fine with calling this as a Patriot's LOSS. I'm still on track to call that Patriots season as 11-5. This just leaves me with a little "wiggle room" for them to lose a game that I thought they'd win. But who knows? Maybe, given their schedule and Cassell's improved confidence...they could finish better? But I'll stick by 11-5. Today's game against the Jets, however, just even more locks the Patriots into winning the AFC East, even though the Bills are now 2-0.

Cassell played well. Not incredible, but he played well. He threw a lot of short passes (playing right into Wes Welker's motif), and a couple of long balls (Hey, Moss, can you hold onto the ones that you catch???). They ran the ball alot...but then again, that's what everyone expected them to do now. Run the ball, because Brady's not behind Center. And HELLO Lamont Jordan! It's almost like he was brought here for a reason? Cassell is working towards proving that he's an acceptable Replacement to Brady. Like he said, "I'm not Tom Brady, I'm Matt Cassell". And I think this week, he started proving that. It won't be overnight. There's 3 types of fans when it comes to the Patriots. There's those of us who are true fans. We're here, every year, good or bad. Then there's the "Fair-Weathered Fans"...who most likely live in Western MA, Southern CT, or VT...and can "legally" claim their allegiance to either the Giants or Jets, depending on how the Patriots are performing (are they really worthy of true Patriots fans???). Then there's the PATRIOTS's HATERS. You can hate the Patriots for a number of reasons. I'll list these reasons in no particular order:

1. Bill Bellicheck was caught stealing signals from the NY Jets. OK...so he was caught doing something that a lot of teams did. But, even if no one else did this...can you not see the irony about Eric Mangini being the one blowing the whistle on this??? Is he, on his own, such a fucking BRAIN-CHILD, that he figured this out all on his own??? NO! He had worked under Billicheck for years...and, oh, yeah, accepted what was done. Of course, when he became head coach somewhere else, he needed to get an edge. So he blew the whistle. How's his team done since then compared to how that Patriots have done?

2. Because the Patriot's Haters, who jumped on the "Hey, Bellicheck cheated and got caught, so we MUST hate every aspect of the Patriot's team" bandwagon, actually CHEERED when Brady went down with a season-ending injury??? Well, my response is: You should all be FUCKING ASHAMED OF YOURSELVES!!! Who woul actually be HAPPY to see another human being hurt, and unable to perform their job?

I'm a Patriot's fan...tried and true. But if the Jet's QB (currently Brett Favre), was slammed, legally, and suffered a season-ending injury, I would not be CHEERING it!

The only solice I find is that...when all is said and done...I don't think that the Patriots will suffer such a humiliating season as most of you HATERS would wish for. Such is life.