Hollywood Donahoe

Still, 1-9 is pretty impressive when he's only faced Shanahan six times. Brady isn't even bound by rules of math.

Hitting the "y" and "o" keys was just a bit too much work, eh? What's bad about picking a defense apart, dictating the tempo of the game by perfectly executing the hurry-up, not turning the ball over, and scoring six times? What does next year have to do with me claiming that Seau proved to be a good pickup for this year? What's there to say? The game hasn't been played yet. The Patriots might win. The Patriots might lose. Some guy on an internet message board saying one team or the other is going to get "b!tch slapped" (the filter doesn't block out "B word," by the way) doesn't really warrant a response.

You and your fellow Nostradumbasses on this board have been saying that for several years now. The LBs (or, at least, Bruschi and Vrabel) are old, certainly, but still playing at a high level. And Colvin and Banta-Cain are not old-timers by any stretch of the imagination. The secondary seems neither excessively old nor young. Along with veterans like Harrison, Chad Scott, and Artrell Hawkins are young players like Asante Samuel, Ellis Hobbs, Eugene Wilson, and James Sanders. The DL, which is among the best in football, is very young (Seymour, Ty Warren, Wilfork, and Jarvis Green all drafted in '01 or later), and locked up for many mere years. Not sure what roster you're looking at, but the Patriots' defense, on the whole, is not too terribly old. This doesn't mesh with your consistent criticism of Brady. Is Brady horrible, or does he do more with less than any other QB in the NFL? You'll have to decide. Criticizing a QB for his play in a game in which he threw 2 TDs, didn't turn the ball over, put up a 101.5 passer rating, led his team on five consecutive scoring drives against a solid defense, and got his 11th playoff win in 12 games just makes you look foolish. He played very well at ILB before his injury. Yeah, it was. His play helped to solidify the LB corps early on.

So now you'd take Simms? Make up your mind!

How's his arm?

He's going to want Bailey money. Someone will give it to him. It almost certainly won't be the Patriots. (Edit: Just realized, though, that the Pats may very well tag him. Should be interesting to see what happens.)

I think the story on Williams is that he's great against the run, and horrible in coverage.

That was pretty funny. Here's a video.

It's now locked in at #24, unless Seattle makes the Super Bowl, in which case it would be #31 or #32. It would have been #22 had Dallas won.

Didn't he?

Just noting that the conventional wisdom disagrees with you. Well, any team "may" beat another on any given day (see Texans over Colts ). Singling out the Jets as a team that New England "may" not get past implied (at least to me) that the Jets chances are better than even, which the oddsmakers insist is not so Yes. The '06 team had the best scoring defense of any Pats team in the Belichick era, and the offense is showing serious signs of life with 104 points scored in the last three games.

You guys realize that the Pats are the biggest favorite of all the favored teams this weekend, correct?

It's just a name. Nothing more.

Hilarious.

When Brady became the Patriots' starting QB in 2001, the team the team was 7-19 in its last 21 games. The previous offseason, Pro Football Weekly published a survey of NFL insiders that revealed that the Patriots were the team everyone thought was least likely to win a Super Bowl. Please explain how the pre-Brady Patriots were an "amazing team with great players and coaches." Because I had to watch those teams, and they looked like crappy teams with scrap-heap players and average coaches. In 2003 and 2004, the Patriots started record numbers of players due to injury, and Brady led them to Super Bowl wins despite it. That's not adversity? Brady has played entire seasons with a separated shoulder and a sports hernia ('03 and '05, respectively). That's not adversity?

Song of the year? What year? 2003?

Young has a decided lack of herpes, for one.

Same here. Animal torturers are among the lowest forms of life on Earth. If the death penalty is fit for anybody, it's them.

Wait a minute... Are Dead Horse Beater's Club and AKC the same person? It all makes so much sense...

I've already filed that one away with questions like "why does the Sun rise in the East?" It just does. And they just do.

This all leads to a very interesting question: Should I change my handle to "Willis McSandwich"? How could it be wrong when it feels so right?

Kennan, you mean.