It’s one thing when you get your occasional clueless Patriots messageboard posts or tweets stating something that is completely and utterly false about the team, but it’s another thing all together when it’s one of the so-called “pundits” whose voices are heard by millions start spreading misinformation and false insight.
Of course based on how the Patriots defense has played the last two weeks we should expect more of it. This week I’d like to point out two pundits whose cluelessness can’t go unrecognized.
Bill Simmons
First let me say that I’m a Simmons fan whenever he’s talking about anything other than basketball (because I just don’t care) or the Patriots. As far as I’m concerned the guy is a genius. How many people get paid millions of dollars to record phone conversations with their college buddies? He’s really the grandfather of sports blogging and is ripped off for both style and content by a lot of people.
Simmons knows gambling, television, baseball and obviously basketball. I respect his opinions on all those topics, but when he tries to talk about the Patriots with the same conviction I go off the deep end. When it comes to the Pats he epitomizes the casual fan who thinks they have all the answers. Just because you can write an encyclopedia about one sport doesn’t make you an expert in all of them. Just because you have weekly conversations with Mike Lombardi doesn’t mean his insight is transferred to you via osmosis. Just because you know how to gamble on football doesn’t mean you are qualified to tell anyone how defensive schemes work, or what the Patriots must do.
Here are two examples from this week’s BS Report podcasts which provide a little insight to what kind of Patriots knowledge Simmons has. While discussing the weekly NFL lines with “Cousin Sal”, Simmons made this observations about the Pats (and I’m paraphrasing): “The secondary’s okay but they’ll give up plays, the defensive line is pretty good, but the linebackers are awful.” What?
I’m not sure if he’s solely blaming the outside linebackers here or if he’s including defensive captain Jerod Mayo, all around solid Gary Guyton, or promising rookie Brandon Spikes who has singlehandedly improved the Pats rush defense. At least go to the well of anti-Patriots comments, “they can’t rush the passer”. But ‘the linebackers are awful’? That’s the most bland, uninsightful comment you can make. And he’s getting paid millions to make. Awesome.
Simmons followed this up with his podcast with Michael Lombardi when he said that after Danny Woodhead scored his touchdown last weekend that he and his Dad looked at eachother and had no idea who Woodhead was. Granted Woodhead was just picked up a week prior and Simmons is a busy guy, but come on, grabbing a running back from the vaunted Jets is at least marginally interesting news that someone who calls themself the Boston Sports Guy should know, right?
As I said, I enjoy Simmons podcasts and writing, and as a fellow Holy Cross Crusader we do share a common bond. I just wish he’d stop talking about the Patriots like he speaks for our entire fan base. His comments on PTI that Boston fans are growing tired of Brady’s act were really annoying. Just because your pals don’t like his hair doesn’t mean that Patriots Nation is sick of Brady.
Cris Collinsworth
Collinsworth runs more hot and cold for me than Brandon Meriweather. This week on Inside the NFL, Collinsworth acted like the entire NFL nation had it wrong saying the Patriots have a young secondary and that’s the reason for their problems. Instead he blamed the lack of outside linebackers like Mike Vrabel and Willie McGinest, who were big, long and physical enough to dominate the line of scrimmage.
That’s fine, but Cris the Patriots won the AFC East last year without those guys at linebacker. Yes, he’s right to an extent that the Pats need better OLB play, but that isn’t any more the reason for the Pats struggles than subpar play at any other position on defense. So stop acting like we’re all idiots and you’re the only one who has it figured out.