With over 5 minutes to go in Monday Night Football game between New Orleans and New England,  the Patriots found themselves in a gun fight with a hand full of knives. So rather than duke it out and go down swinging, the bullies of the monumentally tought AFC East division basically ran.  Yep, they pulled their starting QB (the reknowned, all-world, multi-MVP winning Super Bowl leader) with plenty of time left to go in a tough game.  

Pretty classy, heady move by the  team that has been touted as representing a dynasty the past decade. Now remember….this was as hugely hyped a regular season game as there has been….. biggest game of the year to date to many, especially those in New Orleans – one of the NFL’s up-and-coming franchises. So what better way to end your involvement in said game than by walking away from it while getting your butt kicked.

Yes, now that’s certainly a heady, classy move on the part of a supposedly tough-minded organization.

A few years back some of you might recall that the Tampa Bay Bucs were in the midst of kicking the Colts backside all up and down the field in Tampa Bay in a regular season matchup also on Monday Night Football.  The games are eerily similiar, with the vaunted Colts power-attack being stymied, while the Bucs had Indy down 21 points with 5 minutes and change left in that game.   Tampa Bay was a non-conference team that wouldn’t significantly impact the playoff positioning that season for Indy, so why bother trying to make a game out of it, right? Wrong.

Coach Tony Dungy kept Manning in the game (or Manning refused to believe the Colts were dead, even down 21 with 5 minutes to play) and here came the Colts pulling off a huge comeback, scoring 21 points in the final five minutes to force the game into overtime. Indy gets a FG in the overtime and eventually wins one of the wildest games in Monday Night Football history.

Now I am in no way advocating that New Orleans would’ve fallen completely apart a la the Bucs and allow that to happen in this particular game.  However, what’s to say it couldn’t have happened? We already watched several teams this year come back from double-digit deficits in some contests, including 4th quarter deficits ( the Colts having done it 5 times this season, including against the Pats two weeks ago) so what’s to say it couldn’t happen one more time.

 By pulling Brady the Pats basically thumbed their noses at New Orleans and said, in effect, “ You’re not worth our time or effort to try and comeback against, so see ya later”.  So if I’m a member of the Saints football franchise, rather than thinking so highly of the Pats and that organization, I’d be significantly insulted at the clearly arrogant attitude.

 This is the NFL, not Pop Warner. New England supposedly has one of the most potent offenses in the league. We all know that in part because ESPN  reminds us every 30 seconds. And the rest of the time we’re treated to additional reminders by watching as New England racks up points on other NFL teams around the league, especially when the Pats are winning by 27 with minutes left in the 4th quarter. But hey, the other team may still mount a comeback, so there’s Brady is still out there tossing long passes downfield or into the endzone for Moss and Welker, looking to pad his stats, er, keep the opponent from pulling off the dramatic come-from-behind stunner. 

But again that’s okay for New England, because according to the head coach and the Pats QB, the other team might still be able to mount a comeback. And if they don’t want the Pats to score again, all they have to do is stop them and get off the field. Thus, it’s the “appropriate” thing to do. However, when the Pats fall behind by 21 in the 4th quarter, it’s not time to mount a dramatic comeback or fight to the very end. It’s time to turn tail and run.

 It doesn’t amount to the most…….ummmm….”Patriotic” thing to do…  nor very noble.