Like a Neighbor Polishing His Bentley

Jason Gay’s column in today’s WSJ about the Patriots and Jets rivalry had me laughing out loud as we flew back from Florida on JetBlue. Here are few of my favorite lines, as he described the two teams and how they compare this year.

First, the rivalry, which is not exactly the Yankees vs. Red Sox. It’s ‘more like Don Draper vs an unhinged fellow on the sidewalk angrily waving a garbage can lid and wearing a banana peel for a hat.’

Then Gay compares the Jets to the Giants…who are like a restaurant for blue hairs, with harsh light and a prime rib special. This isn’t one of those smug Patriots teams, the haughty ones that everyone outside of New England loathed like a neighbor polishing his Bentley.  They’re cooly detached–if the Patriots were a magazine, they would cost $16 and be guest-edited by Sofia Coppola–but they are, at best, a wobbly juggernaut.

Finally, Gay describes the big Pats question mark…Tom Brady. “Pats fans were worried that Mr Brady had gone St. Bart’s on them, in moments, the handsome quarterback appears to occupy an ethereal, unrecognizable place that feels neither Boston nor hard  nosed football. They he goes out and plays like Johnny Unitas on a sausage breakfast. Brady’s simply too good to mock.