"The Mariano Rivera Welcome"

NOTE TO THE 60,000-PLUS OCCUPYING GILLETTE NEXT SUNDAY:
Give Eric Mangini “The Mariano Rivera Welcome!”

The talk this week on Sportscenter and sports talk shows will be about how many points the Pats will score on the New York Jets and how badly Mangini will be booed. I say do the opposite.

On Opening Day at Fenway Park in 2005, the Red Sox were playing the New York Yankees. When Public Address announcer, Carl Beam, announced Yankee closer Mariano Rivera the Fenway Faithful broke into cheers. This is the treatment fans at Gillette should give to Mangini.

The national media will be expecting Mangini to be booed and it will show the creativity of Boston sports fans. After all, he did provide the ultimate motivation for the Pats going 19-0. The Patriots are winners; the Jets are whiners! And they are still doing a lot of whining today.

New York Daily News columnist Gary Myers is still whining about how the Patriots got off “easy” and should have been punished more harshly. Myers brings up the Pats first round pick obtained from San Francisco in last year’s draft day trade. He believes Roger Goodell should have taken away the better of the two draft picks. Myers also made a point to address his belief that Bill Belichick should have been suspended for the re-match next week.

It is the sour grapes talking. Myers is just bitter he is covering a poor 3-10 team with no plan for the future. There is no way Goodell could have known the 49ers were going to be so bad and it is not Belichick’s fault San Francisco traded their first rounder in April. You can not penalize the guy for making a trade last year.

But it would be nice the Patriots possibly winning the Super Bowl and having a chance to get Arkansas running back Darren McFadden. Or trading down to accumulate later picks. That would really put a dagger in the NFL and add another reason for people outside New England to hate the Patriots.

And regarding Myers stupid and idiotic comments about Belichick should have been suspended for next week’s game, he is desperately trying to get a Jets win and it shows. Myers, green is not your color.

I have more news for you Myers: the Patriots could beat the Jets without Belichick. I will go as far as saying, the Pats could start Matt Cassel and still pull out a victory. Matt Ryan drive down to spot start and beat New York. Okay I went too far but you get the picture. The Jets are just not good. If it was not for the Dolphins, New York would be the bottom feeders of the AFC East.