Should have known this news would be a harbinger of things to come yesterday.
I don't see where this should even have been close, let alone a winner for Smith. Despite the turmoil last season, and with Redmond and Harrington under center, they won 400% more games than did we. This season they came in SECOND, in a division where the record of the bottom 2 teams was a combined 8-23, as compared to the Fins who WON a division in which the combined record of the bottom 2 teams was 16-16. It wasn't Atlanta that etched their place in NFL history by either breaking or tying the two greatest one-year turnaround records.
They already had a 1000 yd receiver, a perennial DE ProBowler, and now an already battle-tested RB who in his last 4 SD years averaged 5.2, 5.9, 6.3 and 4.5 ypc and would have started almost anywhere else if not stuck behind LT. I doubt they flipped 28 roster spots from the prior year. The Patrino, Vick BS was surely bad, but was it really more demoralizing than all those empty orange seats, the fans attending disguised in paper bags, being the butt of the Leno and other Late Night jokes every week or Jim Rome actively pulling for a complete season of dishonor?? Give me a break! Tony got jobbed on this fersure.
While it's true, TS may not have gotten complete credit because of the perception of BP's string-pulling behind the scenes, I maintain he also may have been penalized by the voters who've amassed issues with, or grudges against a very polarizing Parcells over his many years and teams.
