Beantown Sports Guys

Welcome to the AFC Least

It's the 2nd week in the young 2006 NFL season and it already looks like the AFC East could be one of the worst divisions in the league this season.

Long gone seem like the fierce AFC East matchups between the Dolphins, Jets, Pats, and Bills that we had only a few years ago.

The Patriots sit atop the AFC East, with two very close wins under their belt. I know it doesn't matter how you win, as long as you win, but how you win is an indication of how well you will most likely continue to play the rest of the season. One of their toughest tests comes up in a couple weeks against the Bengals, but first up is the revenge game against the Broncos next week, in Foxboro no less. With a cushy schedule, they could go 14-2.

The Dolphins simply keep finding ways to lose. They had the Steelers all wrapped up in week 1, and just lost to the Bills. Daunte Culpepper hasn't found his groove yet, and this could be for a number of reasons, starting with the running game. He needs to get his head on straight and play like he is capable, or this will be a very long season in Miami (or short one for him, as they have Joey Harrington backing him up). At this rate, I'd be shocked if they win 8 games.

The Bills lost a close one to the Patriots that they shouldn't have lost (losing on a safety), and beat the Dolphins. They have a decent running game with Willis McGahee running the rock, and J.P. Losman could make Buffalo Nation a believer. Their defense is banged up bigtime right now, so if they can just weather the storm, they could be a 9-7 team.

The Jets could also be a 9 win team, maybe 10. Chad Pennington is healthy, and although he has a young offensive line, if they can all stay healthy, in a couple of years they could be one of the best in the NFL. He has some great outlet receivers, but the running game is what the big question is in the Big Apple. A running back by committee never really pans out for most teams, and with the quality of backs they have I just don't see it working for them either.

The reason why they are the AFC Least is for the most part, aside from the Patriots, the other teams will just beat up on each other in the division. Normally this is fairly common, but to even be a Wild Card team, you need to win those games, and win the other conference games.

We'll see. Maybe they'll all surprise me and they'll hang with it until the end, but the Patriots have played probably two of the worst games they have in two seasons but actually came out on the winning end. That doesn't bode well for the rest of the division for sure.

Losing faith in humanity

I am losing faith in humanity.

Sure, there are good things about people and what they do in the world, but too often, the bad seem to outweigh the good.

A couple weeks ago a kid's football coach stormed the field in Stockton, California, bowling over a little kid who leveled his son after the whistle. Being a football player, sometimes you don't hear the whistle. Sometimes you're just a little amped up. Sometimes you're looking for a little payback when you were burned or leveled on a previous play.

But that is what the refs are for. They control the game. And when they fail, the parents can easily go to the refs or coaches of the other team and point it out. These games are on tape, they have numerous avenues to explore and take their issues down.

The field of play isn't one of them.

Fast forward to last summer.

A T-ball coach offered an 8-year old $25 to bean a fellow teammate so he wouldn't be able to play in a game.

Normally that is just awful, but it gets even worse:

The child he wanted him to bean is autistic and mildly retarded.

Just doing what his coach asked and paid him to do, the little 8 year old hit him not once, but twice. Once in the groin, and once in the ear.

I realize the kid could have known better, but I don't place blame on him. It is squarely on the shoulders of the coach. I am sure the little boy feels horrible for going through with it, especially after talking to his parents, but damnit, that is an awful situation to be in for a little kid.

I don't know if justice prevailed in this case. 29-year-old Mark R. Downs Jr. was convicted of corruption of minors and criminal solicitation to commit simple assault.Downs was acquitted of criminal solicitation to commit aggravated assault, and jurors said they were deadlocked on a charge of reckless endangerment. The judge declared a mistrial on the endangerment charge. I can't see how a jury would not have convicted him on child endangerment. What if the pitcher hit him in the temple and it killed him? What if it hit him in his eye socket and made him half blind? Are you telling me that isn't child endangerment? Not only that, but the mental issues that could accompany this pitcher now certainly should be constituted as child endangerment.

How low can you be on the totem pole of humanity? How deplorable of a person can you be? How can you look at yourself in the mirror?

I hope during the penalty phase of all of this the judge makes this guy pay in the wallet, as well in the form of performing some major community service, not allowed to coach youth sports ever again, and thrown in jail for at least a month.

Maybe people around the country would smarten up then.

Then again, I doubt it.

And that's what really worries me...

Mr. Kraft: You're quite refreshing

It's not very often you have a team that sticks to their guns and lets a player holdout. Many times they concede and just go ahead and cave to the demands.

It's even less frequent when a team sticks to their guns when that player is a Super Bowl MVP.

I said it over two months ago, Deion Branch should have reported and played out the final year of his contract.

Because of his holdout, even if he goes ahead and gets a contract or comes back, he'll have almost $700,000 in fines. The Patriots were kind enough to give him and his agent a week to work a trade that benefits both him and the Pats, and when the Jets and Seahawks tried to lowball the Pats and they balked, Branch took it to the league.

Wrong move.

Branch will lose in his grievances. In the end, he loses more than the Patriots.

He fails to remember that he played for a smaller college (Louisville) that pumps out maybe one spectacular player like himself every 5 years. He didn't play at Notre Dame, he didn't play at Florida State, or USC. The Patriots made him the player he is today. If it weren't for injuries, they would have done the same to Bethel Johnson, for sure.

That said, the Patriots replaced David Givens (or are attempting to) by trading for WR Doug Gabriel of the Raiders today. A plethora of really talented receivers were also released today around the league, including Charles Rogers, Peter Warrick, P.K. Sam, Darius Watts, and Rod Gardner. All guys have tremendous amounts of talent, they just have a tough time putting it together, and a couple have work ethic questions. These are all guys the Patriots could grab and make them better if they can shape them up, and would forget Branch in a heartbeat.

Some people are shocked they are dealing with him in this manner, but he is a result of the system. He may never put these numbers up again in another system unless it's like the Patriots' system because Brady loves the open man. He doesn't have a favorite target. His favorite guy if you had to pinpoint is the open one. If a team tried to make Branch their go to receiver, they could easily double him and shut him down. He's small, undersized, and although he can leap, if you know he is the # 1 outlet, he'll be lucky to get 1,000 yards. Just look at his numbers. He didn't quite have 1,000 yards, but for arguments sake, let's say he did. But he didn't even have more than 5 TDs. That speaks about the system he is in. It spreads the ball to get the open man and the yardage, and isn't like the one in Arizona where they have two 1,000 yard, 100 catch WRs.

I don't think Branch knows his true value, and what kind of system he needs ot be in. He's just looking at the dollar signs, and maybe that is what means the most to him. If so, I am sure he will get what he want in another team. But don't think Bob Kraft is out of his mind, because he is all to in it.

More than we all know.