Reactions to the Brandin Cooks Trade are Here and They are Spectacular
As Shakespeare says in Henry IV, “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Being the best in your chosen field, even the best of all times, requires bold and difficult m0ves that are often mystifying to those outside the decision making process. There is simply no other way to the top in any endeavor. And by their nature, bold decisions are polarizing. They invite criticism from the timid, lesser souls who prefer the safe and familiar. Those poor, pathetic wretches who live in fear of gutsy calls that don’t work out. People who seek shelter in conventional wisdom, without being able to see that the conventional is a direct path to mediocrity.
Even the best there has ever been in the business of building and maintaining a dynasty has to put up with it. When a young Bill Belichick helped that blind beggar woman who turned out to be an enchantress who rewarded him with the gift of football clairvoyance, she did not make him immune from criticism. Even after 18 seasons, hundreds of players and scores of controversial personnel moves later, he can’t trade a wideout for a pick nine spots higher in the 1st Round than the one he used to obtain him last year (23 as opposed to 32) without half the world losing their feeble minds over it.
Take for example, the leader in the insane overreaction clubhouse, Skip Bayless:
Yup. Skip is onto him. Belichick is throwing the season just to stick it to Mr. Kraft and Brady for forcing him against his will to trade Jimmy Garappolo. Expect a 2-14 season while he laughs manically into his headset all season long as he makes them pay for their insolence.
Of course The King of Desperately Trying to Create Buzz is not alone. Shockingly, Tony Mazz doesn’t much care for the move:
Which is interesting is so far as Tony Mazz never much cared for Brandin Cooks. But now that he’s gone, we won’t be able to face another tomorrow without him. Though to answer his question, Gronk, Edelman, Hogan, Britt, Allen, Dorsett (who has the same 4.33 speed as Cooks) and a 25-year-old Malcolm Mitchell are, in fact, available to catch Brady bombs.
With the Rams apparently out of the Odell Beckham lottery, it was inevitable for someone who doesn’t have the first clue how the Patriots value and pay wideouts to connect dots that do not connect. Unfortunately, millions did. Not the least of which was Mike Greenberg on the latest product out of ESPN’s Department of Unwatchable Programming:
Patriots Troller-in-Chief Ben Volin was not about to let a moment like this pass without spiking the football and claim full credit like it was his idea:
Tough break for him then that Patriots fans not only have utter contempt for him, they have Internet access. Including to that section of the Internet where Ben Volin suggested the Patriots cut Cooks for nothing but the cap space:
I’m reluctant to include Trey Wingo on this list, because the idea of the Pats moving up in the 1st to target a quarterback isn’t the craziest I’ve heard:
I mean, I don’t see them packaging No. 23 and No. 31 to land one of the Big 4 of Darnold, one of the Joshes or Baker Mayfield. But they have the flexibility to move up or down with either pick and the luxury to find and develop their next Jimmy G while still bringing much needed help at offensive tackle and defensive Front 7.
And while we’re getting saner, here’s Ian Rapoport proactively taking the bat of the hands of those who’ll scream about how Brady is pissed they traded away yet another of his precious “weapons”:
And finally, I’ll end on a high note with what is not merely my favorite take on the Cooks trade written by someone other than myself, it might be my favorite football quote of all time:
Perfect. Just goddamned perfect. All the proof you need from a man doing the same job as Belichick that while the rest of them are playing checkers, he’s finding every Easter Egg in the OASIS and creating his own reality. Lord help me I love watching The Hooded One make the world lose their shit more than anything. What a time to be alive. I can’t wait to see what he does next.