Patriots to Don Shula: We do not care for your opinion, sir

November 7th, 2007 | Posted by PostmanR

So, these ‘72 Dolphins, what to do with them. On the one hand, they are annoying; we would like them to go away. Some of them reportedly pop champagne (but not on a plane while getting some brain) after each undefeated NFL team suffers their first loss each season or something close to that. But on the other hand: of course they are going to get called up by reporters and asked for their opinion when a team seems destined to run the table. And, they are very well within their right to state how they feel about it, as Don Shula did when he said a nice little asterisk should be applied to the Patriots record due to Spygate if they do indeed win out.

In a way, it’s not their fault we are some entirely sick of them. IT’S THE MEDIA’S, MAN. In any event, the Pats are not too concerned with what old Donny boy had to say.

“I really don’t pay too much attention to it,” Patriots defensive end Richard Seymour said of Shula’s comments. “I think everyone has their opinions and they’re entitled to them. Nothing that I’ve done or I’ve seen this team do should have an asterisk by it. You can’t put an asterisk by guys being in the weight room, guys being in the film room, conditioning, running across the field and hustling. They are entitled to their own opinions. The only thing we can do is go out and play good football and try to put some wins together like we’ve done so far.”

Seymour’s teammates agreed with his comments.

“He has an opinion, and I mean, he’s a great coach, but at the end of the day it really doesn’t matter,” safety Rodney Harrison said of Shula. “It doesn’t matter. You have to go out there, you have to make plays … you know, who likes for their record to be broken or anything like that? It really doesn’t matter. We have a lot of respect for that guy and he’s entitled to whatever he thinks. It just doesn’t matter.”

“We really don’t worry about that,” tight end Benjamin Watson said. “We are here to do our job every day and our job is to play football, win games and go to practice. That’s what we do. We really don’t worry about anything else.”

In case you didn’t want to sift through that blockquote, let me paraphrase their feelings for you: they don’t pay attention, it doesn’t matter and they don’t care. Oh hey, you know what would be just fabulous? If the Patriots do go undeafeated and and a weekend or two after the Super Bowl they faced off against the ‘72 Dolphins. They could name it the Grand Super Bowl of the Universe and once the Patriots pummel them to death, a gag order will forever be enforced.

Ah, that sounds just lovely.

{Indirectly via Fark.}