Ah, the trash talk begins. Quite frankly, it wouldn’t really be an important playoff game if we went the whole week without any. It gets kind of old to hear teams that have faced off in such important and closely played games over the years (like the Patriots and Ravens have), heap praise and respect on one another.
So when I saw Brendon Ayanbadejo drop the hammer on the Patriots via Twitter last night as they dropped the hammer on the Texans, I wasn’t concerned at all. In fact, I thought it was great.
For those who haven’t seen the tweets, you can read them here.
Call me crazy but why (if you aren’t a Patriots fan or player) are you upset by this?
People forget sometimes that football players are people too. They watch the games just like you and I and are probably more qualified to speak on them considering they have played the game their entire lives.
Maybe the “hurry snap offense” is a gimmick. Brendon makes a good point that the game is “predicated on mano y mano”. So maybe snapping the ball before the other team is set is a little bush league or cheap. In my opinion it’s cheap, but so are a lot of things done by offenses in the game of football. So it’s no surprise that these words are coming from a defensive player.
However, Brendon was expressing his opinion. A little trash talk never hurt anyone. The “shut up and play” argument is way too antiquated to use now in the days of social media; where direct access to a players stream of conscience is a mere thumb click away on your iPhone.
It seems this happens all the time, people freaking out over what an athlete said about another team on Twitter. You are kidding me if you think that this “hurts” the Ravens chances of winning. Neither team is going to change the way they practice and prepare this week based on a few tweets from a back up linebacker. Tom Brady isn’t going to getting extra, amped to go play the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday and Bill Belichick isn’t going to study anymore film than he already planned. He has spies to do that for him.
The notion that the Ravens poked the sleeping bear is laughable.
Don’t even get me started on the mainstream media. It seems as if there is a conscientious decision amongst the national guys not to talk badly about the “holy” New England Patriots, Bill Belichick and Tom Brady. Brendon didn’t say anything untrue when referencing “Spygate” or their 17-1 season. The Patriots cheated and lost in the Super Bowl after the news came out. This is a fact. So many people forget about this because no one wants to talk about how those Super Bowls they won may be tainted or how they haven’t won another since then.
News flash. It happened. It’s OK to criticize the golden boys of the NFL. Here is a good one: Bill Belichick was and would never have been anything without Tom Brady. See how easy that is. Here is another one: The Patriots are one of the luckiest franchises in recent history. Try it. It feels good. It’s just an opinion. You won’t hurt their feelings. Oh, and let’s not forget about this.
My point is, Brendon Ayanbadejo didn’t do anything wrong. He was expressing his opinion through a tool that is directly used for that purpose. Don’t like it? Don’t follow him (But if you don’t like athletes expressing their opinions, I would suggest you get off social media entirely. It’s not the place for people like you).
Anytime someone criticizes the Patriots is fine by me. It’s refreshing…because no one seems to have the stones to do it.
Good on you, Brendon. But now you have to back it up.
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