Chris Gasper: The Patriots are unwilling to accept what they are
Chris Gasper of The Boston Globe joins Felger and Mazz every Friday to discuss the latest in Boston Sports. This week, Gasper discussed the New England Patriots deciding not to sell at the NFL Trade Deadline and wonders, what are they building towards?
Gasper in response to being asked about the Patriots decisions at the NFL Trade Deadline…
Chris Gasper: What’s the advantage for you as a team if you end up with seven wins instead of five? Or you end up with eight wins instead of six? What does that do for you at the end of the day in terms of moving you closer to contending for championships again? I just don’t see the upside.
Felger: So my view on that, Chris, is that the Commanders shouldn’t be held up here as some sort of model, like “the Commanders got it right”. I would never do that. In fact, I think the reason the Commanders sold is because they’re the Commanders. They’re losers. And losing has become okay. And that’s sort of the slippery slope that you inhibit there when you intentionally try and lose. And that’s what I think they’re doing and that’s why they’re losers. And I would not want to be that team. So I know it’s sort of an intangible thing, and you’re talking more about, “lose a few more games, get a higher draft pick that’s better for the future”. I’m looking more at just sort of the juice, the karma, the karma behind the whole thing. You start doing that and you start being that and you become that. That’s what the Commanders are. It’s how I look at it.
FOXBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS – OCTOBER 22: Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots looks on before the game against the Buffalo Bills at Gillette Stadium on October 22, 2023 in Foxborough, Massachusetts. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Chris Gasper: First of all, the commanders have a new owner, so he’s not attached to that losing. You can’t blame that losing on him. And also, aren’t the Patriots the franchise that maximizes value? Can’t you look at the Commanders and say they Maximized value. I’m not advocating tanking. This is where I think people get confused and it gets conflated, I don’t want the Patriots to tank. I’m not saying intentionally lose. If I thought they could sign these guys, I’d say keep them. But I don’t think they’re going to sign them, so why let them walk for nothing? You know, you’re saying like, okay, there’s some sort of karma thing, so two years ago, you won ten games, you made the playoffs. Did you build off that last year? Last year you went into the regular season finale and if you won, you made the playoffs. Have you built off that this year? There’s no connection. You’re not building anything. There’s nothing. There is no good karma. There is nothing that you’re building towards. Tanking is intentionally trying to lose. I look at what Washington did, I don’t think they’re intentionally trying to lose games. I just think they looked at what they were building and said,”this isn’t good enough, we’re probably not going to sign these guys and we don’t want to invest in them. And if we do invest in them, even though we like them as players, it’s not really going to change our plight in the NFL, we have to try something different”, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with that.
