Falling Back to Earth

Well this past week has seemed to have brought Patriot nation a little back down to earth as far as the high hopes which prevailed after draft day.  Maybe the hopes are still high but I, for one, view the team as weaker without Rodney Harrison and Richard Seymour.  Suddenly the defense doesn’t look quite as dominating on paper.  Although Belichick did note that he has the advantage of already knowing the Patriots system, Asante Samuel missed almost the entirety of training camp and may not be up to game time conditioning yet.  As always it is unclear just when Seymour can come back from his knee surgery.

 Also we can no longer brag about how our players are moral examples to a league plagued by late night club antics, car accidents and DUIs.  Harrison has brought a cloud over this team with his suspension for HGH which makes me equal parts angry and disappointed.   Ex-Punter Danny Baugher assaulted his father after being cut by the team, which I know I can’t blame the team for but it is still a bad situation.  Peter King of Sports Illustrated included a fascinating piece written by a released Defensive Tackle about  what it’s like to be released. This particular player, Ross Tucker, took it pretty well. But it has to suck to be cut when all you know is football.
But in the end the events of the last week just goes to show you that no team is perfect, except for maybe the 2004 Pats team that is.