Would somebody get this guy a muzzle? In all seriousness, there are very few people in the world who annoy me more than Mercury Morris. The guy is the definition of a person who just can’t let it go. He’s the guy who sits alone at the bar at Applebees telling stories about his high school football days. No one is better than him or the team he played for. The game was different back when he played. And of course, times were better then.
We all remember how particularly outspoken Morris was during the 2007 season when the Patriots were en route to perfection. New England ended up winning more games than Miami’s ’72 team that season, but in all fairness the Pats’ season was not capped off with a Super Bowl victory. The ’72 Dolphins are still safe, but each and every year we have to hear from someone on their team — particularly Morris — ranting about just how legendary that team was. But don’t worry, he has nothing negative to say about the 2011 Packers.
“I have nothing but good things to say about the Packers. If they [end up] in our neighborhood, they’re a credit to the sport. They don’t have a bunch of guys out there who view themselves as entertainers,” Morris told FoxSportsFlorida.com. “I didn’t like the way [the Patriots] came across . . . They were too much in your face. They wanted you to bow down to them and kiss the king’s ring.”
There we go with the neighborhood talk again. If those Patriots wanted everyone to bow and “kiss the king’s ring,” what exactly is it that you’re looking for? If Morris wants to hate the Patriots for running up the score on everyone in their path in 2007, that’s his prerogative. However, don’t confuse his perceived toleration of the threat the Packers pose with a willingness to be dethroned gracefully.
“I don’t want to hear from the pundits that they’re going to pass us,” Morris said. “We were the first team to do it. They’d be the second team. They won’t be better than us just because they won 19 games.”
Actually, by Morris’ reasoning no team can ever be better than the 1966 Packers because they won Super Bowl 1. They were the first to do it, right? It is unlikely that the Green Bay Packers will be 19-0 come February. In fact, it’s unlikely that any team will ever be 19-0 when a season concludes. That’s not to say the feat is impossible to acheive, but it is not a likely outcome. The fact that Morris feels the need to religiously stress how much better the ’72 Dolphins are than every other team who could possibly go undefeated is pathetic.
If a team went 19-0, it would mean they have won two more games than the 17-0 Dolphins. More games, more challenging feat. It’s that simple. Sadly, that isn’t even the point. If I could get Morris to shut up by making a Lombardi Trophy that’s twice the size of the actual Lombardi Trophy and sending it to him, I would do it in a heartbeat. There truly is just no way to make this guy go away.
Chest bump to Pro Football Talk for the story.
