During the preseason, I’m embarrassed to say I was one of the folks calling for his head come cut day. It’s a good thing I wasn’t in charge. Brady goes down against KC and suddenly Matt is thrown into the spotlight. He struggled with the deep ball early on, opting for check downs, options, and short routes with Wes Welker. In addition, he was jittery in the pocket, going sideways instead of moving up in the pocket like you see so many good QBs do. It was pretty clear the coaching staff was managing the game for him and going for high percentage vs. riskier throws downfield. That, in and of itself, left very little for Moss.

Fast forward to our most recent outing with the Jets. Even thow we lost in OT by a field goal, Cassel did a tremendous job bringing us back from a 20 something defecit and throwing what turned out to be a Randy Moss circus catch in the corner of the endzone. That was followed by a 48 to 28 rout of Miami. Matt received the AFC player of the week and people were crowning him king. Then, the Stillers rolled into Foxboro, MA and layeth the smacketh down on us. Suddenly, Matt’s much maligned by the very sports media who, not a week prior, were proclaiming him the second coming of Brady. They weren’t watching the game. All of our receivers, including Moss, couldn’t find the handle and Welker was taken out by a vicous hit. Cassel was putting the ball where it needed to be, but our receivers weren’t pulling it in.

To sum it up, I think Matt’s doing a pretty good job given all the injuries we’re contending with. Hopefully Brady’s healthy for next year and we don’t have to franchise Cassel (contract up in 08, 10-12 million hit to cap space) and Matt’s able to go somewhere else for good money.

The Pats have never been a “hire a star” type of team. I agree with this philosophy as hiring 1 star to fix your problems rarely works; Ex: if you don’t have a good offensive line, not even LT can get through. At the beginning of the season, I was stoked to see the depth we had at RB. We were carrying 4 RBs, an FB, and a rookie RB on the practice squad. It’s a good thing we had all that depth because 3 RBs were out for a number of games and we had to promote the rookie from the practice squad.

Anywho, to answer your question more directly, the Pats and the fans are not crazy about stars (well, except for Moss). Scott Pioli, VP of player personnel, is aces at finding overlooked or maligned talent that fits the Patriots system (this year, some of his DB acquisitions could be called into question, however). We’re much happier with lots of B or B+ players than a few A+ stars and the rest C’s.

Yes, winning changes a lot of things. The Celtics were certainly king during the Larry Bird era and rightly so; that was a heck of a team. Given 3 SB wins, the Patriots are certainly right up there. But I’m of the opinion this is a baseball town, hence the Red Sox would inch out as king in my estimation. Part of it is success and part of it is the actual venue, believe it or not.

Gillette Stadium is certainly an upgrade from the old Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium of old; that place was a dump. The Garden (more appropriately, Gahden) is nice and all, but it’s, well, new. Fenway Park just seems historic to me; I had my first Fenway Frank with mustard and onions when my dad took me to my first Red Sox game. It’s still the same park; lots of upgrades, mind you, but mostly the same.

BTW, where did you live when you were in Boston? I frequent Union Street near Faneuil Hall quite a bit. Hennessey’s, Bell in Hand, Green Dragon…