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By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
November 2, 2007
Howdy, sports fans, it's time to get fired up for the Game of the Century by breaking down its most compelling matchups: Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning … Bill Belichick vs. Tony Dungy … Scott Pioli vs. Bill Polian.
Why yes, discerning readers, I did just list a pair of personnel gurus in a context normally reserved for people who actually block and tackle. And I did so not simply because this is the last remaining angle that has yet to be covered leading into Sunday's Showdown In Naptown.
When people talk about the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts and trot out the cliché "these two teams just don't like each other," little do they realize they're talking about the respective front offices.
If you think Pioli, the Patriots' vice president of player personnel, and Colts president Polian aren't taking the outcome of Sunday's game personally, I've got some oceanfront real estate near the RCA Dome I'd like to sell you.
The grisly truth is: there's more bad blood between the two franchises' celebrated 'suits' than in "Saw IV."
Polian, who habitually watches games from the press box, is a prickly, ultra-intense, control freak of a man who sometimes makes a spectacle of himself in such settings. In January of 2004, when the Colts were in the process of suffering a 24-14 road defeat to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, Polian angrily and visibly reacted to the rough treatment of the Indy receivers by New England's defensive backs.
After the season Polian, a member of the NFL's competition committee, helped spearhead a "rules emphasis" instructing officials to enforce defensive holding and pass interference violations more zealously. (It was dubbed the "Ty Law Rule," a reference to the then-Patriots cornerback who intercepted Manning three times that day.) The following January the Pats scored a 20-3 divisional round playoff victory over the Colts, again in Foxborough, and Polian at various times pounded his fist on the table and made other angry gestures.
When the Colts finally defeated New England, 40-21, at Gillette Stadium in November of '05, Polian, according to nbcsports.com's Tom Curran, watched then-New England backup quarterback Doug Flutie scramble on the last play and blurted out, "Break his leg."
I didn't hear the remark, but I'm fairly sure he wasn't wishing Flutie good luck.
Last season, during an October game between the Colts and Jets at Giants Stadium, Polian went even further, quite literally taking matters into his own hands. According to a report on FOX's pre-game show by Jay Glazer, Polian became upset before the game that loudspeakers had been set up too close to the field and began arguing with a New York Jets operations employee. At one point, Glazer reported, Polian grabbed the employee by the lapels of his suit jacket and jacked him up against the wall of a tunnel underneath the stands.
According to Glazer, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum raised the issue with a league office, and Polian was later forced to write a written apology.
Here's where the Pats' front office decided to have some fun: Shortly before the Colts headed to Foxborough for a game last November, Pioli contacted the NFL and, citing the incident at Giants Stadium and Polian's past behavior in the Gillette Stadium press box, indicated he was concerned for the safety of the Patriots' employees. Pioli went on to demand that Polian provide a signed assurance that he wouldn't physically harm anyone who worked for the Patriots; otherwise, the vice president said, the team wouldn't issue Polian a credential. To say Pioli, Belichick and various other Pats higher-ups got a rise out of that bit of gamesmanship would be a massive understatement.
Polian sidestepped the potentially embarrassing quandary by getting admission to the stadium through other means and electing not to sit in the press box. He undoubtedly was still seething two months later, when the Colts hosted the Pats in the '06 AFC Championship game.
"That's when he got us back by turning up the heat in the Dome," insists one Patriots source. "If you remember, we had about eight players who'd been suffering from flu-like symptoms and were dehydrated, and it was like 85 degrees in there. The field was slick, our players were slipping all over the place, and they had the usual pumped-in crowd noise. I give him credit. He got us."
My sources in Indy scoff at the notion that Polian or anyone else ordered the temperature turned up, but even if he didn't, the fact that the Patriots believe it to have been the case tells you all you need to know.
Sure, there are signs of mutual respect and even kinship between the two rivals: the growing off-the-field bond between Brady and Manning, for example, or less-publicized touches like the supportive phone call Indy owner Jimmy Irsay placed to his Patriots counterpart, Robert Kraft, in the wake of the Spygate scandal.
But for the most part, these are two organizations angling to take down the other by any means necessary. Consider that Dungy, who normally shies away from controversy, reacted to the scandal by telling reporters in September that it would be "disturbing" if the Patriots were found guilty of having videotaped opposing coaches giving signals on the sidelines, adding, "You kind of feel like there is a code of honor, a code of ethics in the league. You want to win and you want to do things the right way."
He then compared the Patriots to Barry Bonds.
On Wednesday, Dungy stood by his earlier comments. Do you think there's any chance Belichick might be reminding the Patriots of Dungy's words as they prepare for this battle of undefeated foes? Or do you think he perhaps may show a clip of Manning, during the quarterback's Saturday Night Live monologue last spring, vowing that the Colts would "kick (the Patriots') *** again"?
I hope all of that happens, and a bunch of other motivational madness I haven't even heard about yet. Most of all, I pray that I get a nice seat in the sure-to-be-toasty press box near Polian as it all plays out.
That way, if there's a controversial call against the Colts, I can lean over and ask for Polian's personal interpretation – as long as he promises, in writing, not to jeopardize my personal safety.
TAKE IT TO THE ATM
The Tennessee Titans will confound David Carr and defeat the Carolina Panthers, and Steve Smith is going to be very, very grumpy afterward … It might not be pretty, but J.P. Losman will outduel Carson Palmer (yes, I am typing those words) as the Buffalo Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals … Terence Newman, to the house, on Sunday Night Football – you heard it here first.
PLEASE, BOSS, SEND ME TO …
Duh!
LIES, LIES, LIES
1. Martina Hingis was recently spotted wearing a fitted Eagles jersey and tight jeans while snuggling in a seedy Philly lounge with one of Andy Reid's sons.
2. After being dissed by Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress, Jeff George threw a tight spiral through the window of the coach's office at the team's Winter Park training facility, knocking over a glass of water on the coach's desk (Dean Wormer style) while a man took a chainsaw to a dead horse in the background.
3. Jon Kitna and his wife deserve lots of grief for their Halloween costumes, because it's really inappropriate to make fun of a coach who rolled up naked to a Wendy's drive-thru.
By Michael Silver, Yahoo! Sports
November 2, 2007
Howdy, sports fans, it's time to get fired up for the Game of the Century by breaking down its most compelling matchups: Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning … Bill Belichick vs. Tony Dungy … Scott Pioli vs. Bill Polian.
Why yes, discerning readers, I did just list a pair of personnel gurus in a context normally reserved for people who actually block and tackle. And I did so not simply because this is the last remaining angle that has yet to be covered leading into Sunday's Showdown In Naptown.
When people talk about the New England Patriots and Indianapolis Colts and trot out the cliché "these two teams just don't like each other," little do they realize they're talking about the respective front offices.
If you think Pioli, the Patriots' vice president of player personnel, and Colts president Polian aren't taking the outcome of Sunday's game personally, I've got some oceanfront real estate near the RCA Dome I'd like to sell you.
The grisly truth is: there's more bad blood between the two franchises' celebrated 'suits' than in "Saw IV."
Polian, who habitually watches games from the press box, is a prickly, ultra-intense, control freak of a man who sometimes makes a spectacle of himself in such settings. In January of 2004, when the Colts were in the process of suffering a 24-14 road defeat to the Patriots in the AFC Championship game, Polian angrily and visibly reacted to the rough treatment of the Indy receivers by New England's defensive backs.
After the season Polian, a member of the NFL's competition committee, helped spearhead a "rules emphasis" instructing officials to enforce defensive holding and pass interference violations more zealously. (It was dubbed the "Ty Law Rule," a reference to the then-Patriots cornerback who intercepted Manning three times that day.) The following January the Pats scored a 20-3 divisional round playoff victory over the Colts, again in Foxborough, and Polian at various times pounded his fist on the table and made other angry gestures.
When the Colts finally defeated New England, 40-21, at Gillette Stadium in November of '05, Polian, according to nbcsports.com's Tom Curran, watched then-New England backup quarterback Doug Flutie scramble on the last play and blurted out, "Break his leg."
I didn't hear the remark, but I'm fairly sure he wasn't wishing Flutie good luck.
Last season, during an October game between the Colts and Jets at Giants Stadium, Polian went even further, quite literally taking matters into his own hands. According to a report on FOX's pre-game show by Jay Glazer, Polian became upset before the game that loudspeakers had been set up too close to the field and began arguing with a New York Jets operations employee. At one point, Glazer reported, Polian grabbed the employee by the lapels of his suit jacket and jacked him up against the wall of a tunnel underneath the stands.
According to Glazer, Jets general manager Mike Tannenbaum raised the issue with a league office, and Polian was later forced to write a written apology.
Here's where the Pats' front office decided to have some fun: Shortly before the Colts headed to Foxborough for a game last November, Pioli contacted the NFL and, citing the incident at Giants Stadium and Polian's past behavior in the Gillette Stadium press box, indicated he was concerned for the safety of the Patriots' employees. Pioli went on to demand that Polian provide a signed assurance that he wouldn't physically harm anyone who worked for the Patriots; otherwise, the vice president said, the team wouldn't issue Polian a credential. To say Pioli, Belichick and various other Pats higher-ups got a rise out of that bit of gamesmanship would be a massive understatement.
Polian sidestepped the potentially embarrassing quandary by getting admission to the stadium through other means and electing not to sit in the press box. He undoubtedly was still seething two months later, when the Colts hosted the Pats in the '06 AFC Championship game.
"That's when he got us back by turning up the heat in the Dome," insists one Patriots source. "If you remember, we had about eight players who'd been suffering from flu-like symptoms and were dehydrated, and it was like 85 degrees in there. The field was slick, our players were slipping all over the place, and they had the usual pumped-in crowd noise. I give him credit. He got us."
My sources in Indy scoff at the notion that Polian or anyone else ordered the temperature turned up, but even if he didn't, the fact that the Patriots believe it to have been the case tells you all you need to know.
Sure, there are signs of mutual respect and even kinship between the two rivals: the growing off-the-field bond between Brady and Manning, for example, or less-publicized touches like the supportive phone call Indy owner Jimmy Irsay placed to his Patriots counterpart, Robert Kraft, in the wake of the Spygate scandal.
But for the most part, these are two organizations angling to take down the other by any means necessary. Consider that Dungy, who normally shies away from controversy, reacted to the scandal by telling reporters in September that it would be "disturbing" if the Patriots were found guilty of having videotaped opposing coaches giving signals on the sidelines, adding, "You kind of feel like there is a code of honor, a code of ethics in the league. You want to win and you want to do things the right way."
He then compared the Patriots to Barry Bonds.
On Wednesday, Dungy stood by his earlier comments. Do you think there's any chance Belichick might be reminding the Patriots of Dungy's words as they prepare for this battle of undefeated foes? Or do you think he perhaps may show a clip of Manning, during the quarterback's Saturday Night Live monologue last spring, vowing that the Colts would "kick (the Patriots') *** again"?
I hope all of that happens, and a bunch of other motivational madness I haven't even heard about yet. Most of all, I pray that I get a nice seat in the sure-to-be-toasty press box near Polian as it all plays out.
That way, if there's a controversial call against the Colts, I can lean over and ask for Polian's personal interpretation – as long as he promises, in writing, not to jeopardize my personal safety.
TAKE IT TO THE ATM
The Tennessee Titans will confound David Carr and defeat the Carolina Panthers, and Steve Smith is going to be very, very grumpy afterward … It might not be pretty, but J.P. Losman will outduel Carson Palmer (yes, I am typing those words) as the Buffalo Bills beat the Cincinnati Bengals … Terence Newman, to the house, on Sunday Night Football – you heard it here first.
PLEASE, BOSS, SEND ME TO …
Duh!
LIES, LIES, LIES
1. Martina Hingis was recently spotted wearing a fitted Eagles jersey and tight jeans while snuggling in a seedy Philly lounge with one of Andy Reid's sons.
2. After being dissed by Minnesota Vikings coach Brad Childress, Jeff George threw a tight spiral through the window of the coach's office at the team's Winter Park training facility, knocking over a glass of water on the coach's desk (Dean Wormer style) while a man took a chainsaw to a dead horse in the background.
3. Jon Kitna and his wife deserve lots of grief for their Halloween costumes, because it's really inappropriate to make fun of a coach who rolled up naked to a Wendy's drive-thru.
