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Meriweather Contrite, Patriots Ready To Move On

October 21, 2010 By

Brandon Meriweather continued to be the focus of much of the talk in the local sports media yesterday, and the Patriots safety made a brief statement in front of his locker yesterday, apologizing for the hit and looking forward to moving on and preparing for Sunday’s game against the Chargers.

This topic will no doubt continue to be a hot one, and carry on through to Sunday.

We’ve got three got articles on Patriots Daily this morning:

Randy Moss Is Expecting - Dan Snapp has changed his thinking on the Randy Moss trade.

First Impressions – San Diego Chargers - Greg Doyle has a look at the Chargers, including former Boston College defensive lineman Antonio Garay who has come out of nowhere to emerge as a starter for San Diego.

Worry Wart – Game Six At San Diego - Chris Warner always finds things to worry about.

Patriots better with Mayo - Ian Rapoport has Jerod Mayo making a big impact this year after a disappointing 2009.

Patriots focus on Chargers’ defense - Mike Reiss has the Patriots offense preparing to face the Chargers top-ranked defense.

I encourage you to look over Bill Belichick’s press conference from yesterday and contrast the coach’s responses when asked a technical football question, and when asked about something off the field – the Meriweather suspension. When asked about football, the coach is expansive, even loquacious, but when shuts right down when being asked about something not peripheral to the game. Tom E Curranthough, was still mildly frustrated with Belichick after the session.

Shawn Crable running with it - Ian Rapoport’s notebook has the third-year linebacker happy to finally get on the field.

Shaq’s promise greater than problems as C’s beat Nets - A. Sherrod Blakely says that last night’s preseason finale was a prime example of the good and bad Shaquille O’Neal can bring to a team.

The Three-Pointer: Making a point - Paul Flannery offers up three points from last night’s game.

Celtics’ Garnett looks ready to go after healthy preseason - Jim Fenton notes that KG looks like a different player than a year ago.

Danny Ainge fit puzzle pieces - Steve Bulpett says that Danny Ainge had a better offseason than perhaps even he could’ve hoped for.

Drawing a line for Rajon Rondo - Mark Murphy says that Rajon Rondo can’t shy away from going to the free throw line.

It’s not easy seeing green - In the last year of his contract, and with a work stoppage looming, Glen Davis is trying not to let the situation distract him, the Globe notebook reports.

Make it a Garden party - Stephen Harris says that the Bruins must be a tough home team.

Answering with an attitude - Mike Colageo has the Bruins answering questions that critics had prior to the season.

Five (very) early Bruins observations - James Murphy notes a few things he’s seen about this team.

Bruins Shoot for Fourth Straight Win As TD Garden Opens for 2010-11 Season - Doug Flynn previews the home opener tonight.

Wood have, should have? Yankees reliever thought Red Sox would get him - Alex Speier has the Yankees reliever explaining that he thought he’d end up in Boston this season.

Filed Under: Morning Links
  • latetodinner

    Bruce,

    Over the last 4 days there has been absolute hysteria not just in NE but all over the country about these "devastating" hits leveled by Meriweather and James Harrison. Fines got leveled, national Network News covered the story. The commissioner has had his minions all over local and national sports shows discussing what the NFL needs to tone down in terms of unnecessary violence. Heck the NFL has even decided to not market pictures of those hits to its violence obsessed fans. For the most part you let all of this over the top piling on go on without mocking or ridiculing it for the absurdity of the situation.

    Fans and media in NE call for their own player to be fined and suspended…when has that ever happened before for any franchise. Talk show hosts stereotype all players from the University of Miami as punks and thugs (Felger) as if piling on Meriweather should be a media past time. You had the hypocritical NFL, (how much money has NFL films made from Big Hit videos?) now saying they want to clean this up for the safety of their players. How much time and money has gone into the medical treatment of retired players? How much begging has Mike Ditka and others had to do to get the NFL acknowledge this is even an issue? With all the bitching and moaning about the violence of the hits why are few people (i think I heard D&C discuss for a few minutes) bringing up PED's and how it is not natural for a human being to be 275 lbs and run a 4.4 40…the resulting collusions of two of these people creating devastating impacts.

    I can read pundit after pundit write about how bad the hit was, how Todd Heap could have been injured etc, but I do not remember one critical comment when Brian Cox leveled Marshall Faulk in the fist quarter of the 2001 superbowl setting the tone for the underdog pats to bully and harass the finesse rams. Most importantly we all kind of expect you to point out all of these things, to then Mock the coverage and the people writing these things. You did your part in mocking the NESN-WEEI simulcast…why are you letting this issue linger and get off scot free?

    • Lance_

      late,
      Bruce can answer for himself but I'd suspect because this is a national issue. This site covers BOSTON sports media. As much as WEEI/NESN think they're national, they're not – they're Boston.

      • latetodinner

        Lance:

        I am sure Bruce can talk for himself and whenever I have spoken to him he has done quite well. Verbs, nouns, adjectives and the occasional adverb…who knew people from NH were so articulate. All joking aside the Meriweather part of this story is definitely local. My comments were based on the amount of ink and noise this topic has made locally. WEEI and 98.5 have gone wire to wire with the story for 4 days. The Globe, Herald, ESPN Boston, CSSNE, NESN, Projo and the countless other irrelevant papers across the region have written 4 straight days of stories recapping the hit, the reaction, the reaction to the reaction and so on and so forth. The coverage has been unimaginative, hypocritical, inane and repetitive. It was so bad it took the Brett Favre scandal out of the spotlight. Was that deliberate? Only Peter King seems to be asking that question. The Boston sports press prides itself on being better than anyone else. The fact is they have been complicit in creating this problem, similar to the press' role in the PED scandal in baseball…it was not good for business so they did nothing critical to cover it. In fact they laughed at it, glorified it, reveled in it…but now when they realize people might get hurt (20 years after Darryl Stingley) now it is a story. But the silly thing is they still are not covering it with any creativity or critical thought.

        Think of it another way…other than John Dennis and Gerry Callahan who has been on the forefront of the CTE and head trauma issue? They have had Chris Nowinski on regularly for two years now. Yet ESPN and the NFL network celebrate the "Big Hit" every night. The other shows talk about playing tough. It's endless. Heck the most famous NFL Films event is about a battle that two gladiatorial teams played on the frozen tundra of Green Bay.

        We all look to Bruce, because he is awesome, to expose, mock, ridicule, debase and at times open up a can of whoopass on the local (and occasional national) media types who are doing something dumb. I thought reading BSMW these last few days he has given this story a pass when in reality the coverage has been more over the top than anything since spygate.

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