It’s that time of year when the hot takes about the Patriots flow freely. We’ve all been guilty of it.
There is an upset loss, an angry Tom Brady on the sidelines and the possibility the dynasty is crumbling before our eyes suddenly feels real.
It happens plenty across the country — here in New York and Boston where the motives are different, but the stirring of controversy is there all the same.
Boomer Esiason thinks the radio hosts who interview him weekly on WEEI are “just bored.”
“They are always looking for something. I’ve been doing those interviews for 20 years,” said the former Jets quarterback and “The NFL Today” analyst for CBS.
“And it’s, ‘Talk us off the ledge on the passing game.’
‘Is Lamar Jackson the kryptonite?’
‘What are we going to do about Patrick Mahomes and Tyreek Hill?’ ”
First-world football problems.
That will be the 10-2 Patriots’ challenge this week when they play host to the Chiefs in a highly anticipated rematch of last season’s thrilling AFC title game that was, of course, won by the Patriots. It comes after New England’s 28-22 loss to the Texans last weekend, which featured an offense that has appeared lethargic (maybe this really is the year).
“I call this Patriots documentary season,” Kyle Brandt, a host of NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” said of the six-time Super Bowl champions.
“If you so choose to as a media member, you can be in the Patriots’ season-ending documentary, which they make every year and it includes people who say ‘Tom Brady is washed up,’ ‘this team can’t run the ball.’ Nate Burleson [who works with Brandt at NFLN and Esiason at CBS] is a card-carrying member of the Patriots’ documentary club.
“I am keenly aware of what time it is though, and I do not want to be in the documentary. There’s only two types of seasons for the Patriots: the ones where they go to the Super Bowl and the ones where they go to the title game.”
The Patriots-Chiefs game will be the second half of an exciting doubleheader that fans in New York will have the option to enjoy with the Saints and 49ers playing at 1 p.m. on Fox. Of course, there are Jets fans who will choose to watch their matchup with the Dolphins and Giants fans who are eagerly awaiting Eli Manning’s return to the huddle on Monday night against the Eagles.
Those fans know real NFL pain.
“It’s really frustrating,” said Esiason, who also hosts the WFAN morning show alongside Gregg Giannotti. “I want to give the coaches and players the benefit of the doubt because I have been in their shoes and I know how sometimes things are hard to turn around, hard to change the culture.
“I want to support both Pat Shurmur and Adam Gase because I understand what they are trying to do. I can see it and it’s all about the young quarterbacks and retooling the roster to get players that want to be coached. Going through this is painful for fans.”
It’s been so bad that the return of the 38-year-old Manning, stepping in for injured rookie Daniel Jones (high ankle sprain) for one last starting run, has given some Giants fans a reason to perk up about their 2-10 club.
Brandt has been in New York a few years now with GMFB’s studios in Manhattan and knows plenty about disgruntled fan bases. The former Princeton running back grew up a Bears fan in the Midwest — “It’s a unique pain never having a quarterback,” he said — before spending much of his adult life on the West Coast as a soap opera actor.
“People are so happy he’s back,” Brandt said of Manning. “And they really think he’s going to be out there with Shaun O’Hara and David Diehl in front of him, throwing to Plaxico [Burress] and Amani [Toomer].
“I am hoping for an A or an F. I don’t want Eli to throw for 210 yards, one pick and one touchdown. I want him either to have the Brett Favre night after his father passed, where it was like a religious event with him throwing for six touchdowns, or it be in the second quarter and Eli has already thrown four picks and has three fumbles. I just want an A or an F and if I know Eli he will deliver one of them.”
