well, i have to admit that i am fond of the patriots

other than that, i agree with you 100 percent heterarchy - well said.

in the meantime, i can't wait for football season to begin

right on puddles. fyi, a big reason i can't stand the patriots is that i'm a colts fan... :) besides that i just tend to get annoyed by teams after they've won too many superbowls in a period.. so for all of my not being able to stand the patriots, its mostly just because their so good. :)

yeah. we lost brown, law, phifer. ouch.

but the return of the flutie is priceless. o. wait, you mean we didn't lose brady. oh, and he has three more superbowl rings than fluties? i wish new england would drop the fascination with a guy that had one lucky pass his entire career. wtf?!?

one super bowl would have been enough for me. i grew up near detroit but promptly dropped the lions in favor of the patriots bandwagon once brady pulled a lou gehrig to bledsoe's wally pip. plus, i love belichek as a coach, seeing him out there in that ratty old hoodie just working the sideline like he doesn't give shit about anything else in the world is inspiring, reminds me of the old days when i used to draft by hand in school and wore a similar sweatshirt with the hood up so everyone would no i meant business and they'd stay away.

anyhow, it might not be a super bowl year for my pats, but i am sure that it will be an enjoyable season nonetheless.

maybe the colts will be able to put up more than one lousy field goal next time they face up.

needless to say, I am a big patriots fan, and I will miss Bruschi as well. Not to sound too 'espn' about it, but he always came up big in key sitautions. I will always remember that interception he returned for a touchdown at The Razor in December 2003 against the Dolphins in the snow.

Since we're discussing the Patriots: I would argue that Bill Belichick is one of the most important american "architects" practicing today. He can teach designers more about notions of flexibility, modularity and the manipulation of space than almost any real american architect out there.

moreover, the guy is utterly without nostalgia, which as we all know, is the impulse that destroys much of american architecture and urbanism.

meliasonvt...

we didn't actually lose troy brown...not that the receiving core
isn't stacked without him. and ty law is well past his prime...
the patriots have something like 12 dbs on the roster in an
attempt to replace him. the offense should be scarier than
last year, the defense may not be as good...but this team
right now is probably better than last years...as long as seymour
comes back.

and flutie actually had a great cfl career and is our third string
qb so i don't see how that signing hurts the pats in any way...

thanks for bringing that up vado.. :) yeah, that one kind of hurt.
if you want to see belichick as an architect, he'd definitely have to be an old school modernist. but anyway, yeah, he's a very good coach. i just hope he starts losing games this season... watching the dolphins play better against the pats than the colts did last season was hard to deal with.

j, i say bruschi was a class act because i never heard him make the remarks you're bringing up. a lot of pro sports players make those sorts of remarks, and i never heard bruschi say anthing like that. that doesn't mean he didn't say those sorts of things, i just never heard them.

curious j, what team(s) do you root for?
also, anyone else here looking forward to fantasy season? what sites do you run through? i represent yahoo free league baby.

pats will be playing the falcons in atlanta this year.
should be a good game as long as vick doesn't wimp out like he always does.

i read the boston globe pretty much every day...
and i don't know that bruschi talked junk before the game..
he does however talk smack after the game is over...
he's a very confident player who finds it amusing when
players gab a lot before the game and likes to push it
back after he's had his typically good to huge game
without saying anything beforehand. however, i wouldn't
say he's classless...maybe you could say that about rodney
harrison, but bruschi i don't know. i'd like to see some
links, j.

and as far as the falcons...the pats were 4-0 against the nfc
and undefeated at home...unless they were playing in atlanta
i'd give the edge to the pats at best it's a push...

also tom brady has only gotten better each year of his
career so i'm also wondering how well he'll do next year.
in watching most of his games the guy just doesn't make
major mistakes..(other than miami last year) and i don't
know that that will change because of an offensive coordinator..

yeah, it's hard to tell about a qb that emerges on a great team with great coaches. is he great too, or just benefiting from his supporting cast? either way there's no denying that brady's a very good quarterback, just whether he's a "great one". of course even with the coordinators gone, the casy and head coach are still very good, so this won't neccessarily be a year where we can see tom's true stuff. he'd have to be traded to san fran for that.. :)