As everyone has seen 10 billion times Tom Brady received a really nice welcome to this NFL season, by tearing his ACL 10 minutes in to the Pats 17-10 victory over the Chefs. I'm glad Vegas didn't have odds for this game or I would have lost lots of money. Backup for life Matt Cassel came in and played decently well, enough for the win anyway, against a sub par Chiefs team. A few talking points that should be addressed are: 1) Was it a clean hit on Brady? 2) What the fuck are the Pats going to do now? and 3) What I think the Pats should do.
Was it clean? Yes. 1 million times yes. I don't think it was even fair to Bernard Pollard for anyone to insinuate that hit might have been dirty, because now he will forever be known as the guy who took out Tom Brady and that's already bad enough. So let us put to rest the conspiracy theories and chalk it up to an unfortunate situation, with terrible timing that will have most Pats fans saying "See you next year. " or "Let's kill Bernard Pollard."
The Patriots reaction? Matt Cassel is now their starting QB. A typical, unwavering, stoic Pats move and I expected nothing less. Belichick goes down with the band and so does every other player on his team, (publicly at least) and I'm all for it. The last thing you want is dissension in the locker room during week 2 of your now totally fucked season. I like the confidence shown by the Pats, I just don't necessarily agree with it. Cassel is an uber-backup who hasn't played since high school, but he has backed up some pretty impressive talent (two Heisman winners at USC and Brady since 2005), so really I don't know what to think, my head is fucking spinning.
Rumors were also circulating that the Pats would work out Chris Simms and Tim Rattay. No thank you. I'd rather have the Pats cancel their season than have Tim Rattay taking snaps.
What do I think? I'm a radical and I think the Pats should shake things up a bit. Personally I don't have a ton of faith in Matt Cassel and I have even less in Kevin O'Connell, however I hope Cassel proves me incredibly wrong and keeps this season alive and interesting so I still have something to root for in January.
One name I would love to hear as a potential stop gap is Daunte Culpepper. That's right, I said it. Daunte motherfuckin Culpepper. The same QB who threw Randy Moss 50 something TD's in 5 years playing together and recently retired because no one would give him a shot. I am officially on that bandwagon and will sound the horn to any and all that want to hear it. The Pats have so much talent on that roster even Marcus Vick could win 8-10 games with them, so why not a proven veteran with a cannon arm and a past relationship with the Pats #1 wide out? It is definitely worth the experiment. I would hope that Culpepper would be chomping at the bit to play for a good team again. Those early Vikings squads were good, but never this good and granted shit didn't work out with OAK or MIA but it hasn't for any other QB in recent memory either.
In my eyes things are already fucked. Cassel is unproven and O'Connell even more so. I don't know what his asking price is but someone in the Pats office should give him a call and find out, I'm sure Randy still has his number. So let is be known where this Pats fan stands, Bring back Culpepper!
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