I dont think a hand hitting a helmet is a penalty, if it grasps the face mask yes or it its a helmet to helmet hit or even someone aiming at a head. But a hand on the head is not really a penalty. Besides back in 01 the NFL wasnt nearly as anal about all the QB babying.
Yes I am giving him credit for a HUGE portion of those wins. If you had a ****ty kicker you would have 0 SBs. Dont know how much more important he could be. They werent 20 yard gimies if I remember correctly.
Just ask the Colts about a ****ty kicker when they lost to Pittsburgh when Pitt won it all. A FG would have sent it to OT and the COlts had the momentum and would have had a good shot at winning.
For christs sake, I didnt say I hope he gets hurt. I said I think it would be funny if someone cuts him out because they are running it up. It would serve BELICHEAT right. Yeah I said it BELICHEAT. From this time on I will call him BELICHEAT in caps because it bugs you.
I am not saying he is a good coach, he is awesome, he is the best in the NFL by a wide margin. But you can still win with class, throwing bombs when youre up by 3 or 4 TDs is just silly.
Btw the whole pumping noise in thing against the Pats two weeks ago, CBS already said it was their deal, they did it. Not Indy.
Hitting the helmet with the hand and in this case he also got facemask IS a penalty.
BTW if you want to try and bug me then from this time on I will edit it out of your posts because I can..
Laughing at a serious injury to anybody is lame. I don't care if you think NE is running up the score, they pulled the starters out when they can while keeping players sharp. A colts fan should not talk about anybody running up the score I remember a lot of games back a few years ago when the colts were setting scoring records or leading the league in scoring where they were winning by large margins and still throwing the ball.
Running up the score is not the reason you want to see brady hurt, you want to see him hurt because it will make it easier for the colts to win a potential playoff game this year..
And one final thing about kickers. In the salary cap era you can not place a high level of importance on a kicker, You need to spend those cap dollars on positions that influence more plays and adding depth behind the first string, look what happened to NE last year in the AFC title game when the backup LB's and safeties could not match up.. Sure there will be a few cases you can point to that a bad kick or a great kick changed the outcome of the game, but those games are rare.. The snowbowl was one of those rare games
BUT
At some point you have to make sacrifices and when your faced with a choice of a great kicker or keeping a player that sees a lot more snaps you have to go with the regular players. What NE did was draft a good rookie kicker and let a aging very expensive one go and so far we have not had one game where we lost because of that choice..
NE would not have been in a position for game winning kicks if it was not for the regular position players and the second string role players, those guys come first if they don't play well then your clutch kicker does not have a chance to be clutch.
The first SB I agree with you adam was huge. But it still took last minute clutch drives by the offense to put him there to kick them game winners. In the other two superbowls sure they were 3 point games but in one o them adam missed a fg.
BTW it's not like they have me kicking FG's they still have a effective kicker and he counts for way less under the cap allowing the pats to fit other players in.
I think it's crazy to give credit for three superbowl seasons to a guy that impacts 4-5 plays a game tops. There are many more big plays in any football game that is not as noticeable or dramatic.. Good blocking for example has a huge impact on the game but it's not as dramatic as a game winning FG that may come up a couple of times a year, now if you chose to keep a great kicker instead of a good one and let go a good lineman and his cheap replacement does not make the key blocks how good will your team be then.
Edit: I let my boss read your post about a kicker not being important.. I've never seen someone laugh so hard in his life. He's also a football coach and has been for years. Thats not saying much, just that he knows and understands how important a kicker is to the game. regardless if he's only in "a handful" of plays.
Read post above. There is many more positions that are more important nobody is saying a great kicker is not important at all, but there is other positions that influence a larger portion of the game. Nobody is saying you should go out and get a crappy kicker but when your faced with a choice the pats were and you need the cap room then you take the lineman or linebacker before the kicker.
BTW I could care less what your coach friend laughs at, a much better football coach made this choice , it was not a popular move at the time but once again he was right.
So I will side in with a coach with 5 superbowl rings thats heading to canton you can side in with your coach friend.
I think you guys are taking a very simplistic view on this..
Think about it, the difference between NE,indy and the steelers compared to bad teams like the niners,dolphins, raiders and rams is not the kicker.. but improvements at QB or to the line on both sides of the ball would sure go a long ways toward fixing those bad teams
you can put a great kicker on any of those teams and not a damm thing will change
This is why I think it's silly to credit three superbowls to a kicker, he would not even have gotten there if the pats did not have a great QB, a very good offensive line and a very good defense to put him in the position to shine.
Oh Jesus Christ.
He DID NOT SAY that he "wished" Brady would get injured.
He said that while the Patriots were busy running up the score for no reason, Brady could take a cheap shot and end up out for the rest of the season.
BTW Bill Cowher commented on the possibility of a cheap shot to Brady 2 weeks ago and it's true!
Cowher is right.. A cheap shot is possible in any one sided game plus I think it's really possible this week against buffalo.
I only have one question for you..
Was it running up the score what the steelers did to the ravens?
Who is making excesses??? If you took the time to read what I said I was trying to make a point about how you need to fill many roles on your team including capable backups and I was trying to make a point on how thats more important than having a high priced kicker.. Since injuries are part of the game what separates SB winning teams from ones that go home can be those off the bench role players.. If the pats had better backup LB's and safeties then they might have not got torched. Thats not a excuse injuries and fatigue are part of the game thats why there is backups they have to play and good teams have better backups than bad teams. It's not just the stars that win games. Hell this can be good for the colts in the long run.. They will now get a chance to get valuable game time for backup and they will improve and the ones the don't they can weed out. 
