Then it all went away. Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard crawled out from under a Sammy Morris block and banged into the planted left knee of Tom Brady. There went the unbeaten season, the Lombardi Trophy, the MVP, the ESPY, the Lifetime Achievement Oscar, and Time Magazine's Man of the Year Award.
Sunday, Sept. 7, 2008, goes down as the day the music died at Patriot Place. The hideously overhyped CBS Scene, open just two days, now stands as a monument to bad luck, hovering over the scene of New England football's crime of the century.
At 3 p.m. yesterday, the Patriots released a one-paragraph statement acknowledging that Brady's left knee will require surgery:
"He will be placed on injured reserve and will miss the remainder of the 2008 season."
At 3:05, a grim-faced Bill Belichick stared at 16 television cameras and said, "We feel badly for Tom. Nobody's worked hard er and done more for this team than Tom . . . He played one position. He played it well. There'll be someone else playing that position now."
Right. Someone else playing that position now.
This is sort of like going to a Springsteen concert, waiting for the Boss, then hearing a bow-tied announcer tell you, "Bruce cannot be here tonight. Someone else will be fronting the E Street Band."
Best of luck to you, Matt Cassel. Nice job Sunday. And could you please furnish press clippings from that high school game of Nov. 24, 1999 - the last time you ever suited up as a starting quarterback?
The Patriots would not give the precise nature of Brady's injury. Nothing unusual there. We all know that if we played for the Patriots, our quadruple-bypass surgery would be described in the team press guide as "treated for chest pain."
This being Boston - a town ever fueled by politics, sports, and revenge - we're into blame.
How about Lil Wayne?
If not for Kevin Faulk's weed bust at a Lil Wayne concert, Faulk would have been blocking Pollard instead of Morris.
What about Gisele Bundchen? Might she be the Black Widow of Patriot Place?
