Is Bill Belichick still alive?

The NFL is just like physics.

No, no, don't think that I'm going to get all Sports Science on this post and talk about the physiology of a Ray Lewis hit across the middle or how whenever Norv Turner is your coach in the postseason, Murphy's Law will apply.

I'm going to apply a much simpler law to the league: whatever goes up, must come down.

From 2001 to 2008, the New England Patriots were money.  In a span of four years from 2001-2005 they won 3 Super Bowls (two of which were back to back).  Although they lost in the '07 Super Bowl to the Giants, the Patriots were riding an 18-0 winning streak going into that game.  The duo of Brady and Belichick managed to have an NFL record 21 game winning streak from 2003-2004, including regular season and playoff games.  Even after Tom Brady was out for the season in 2008, they still scored an 11-5 record with Matt Cassell as their quarterback.


But ever since Brady's return, the Patriots haven't looked the same.  In 2009, they were bounced in the first round of the playoffs by the Ravens, not to mention had one of the biggest collapses in NFL history when they blew a 17 point lead against the Colts.  This year started off strong with a simple opening win against the Bengals, but they got thrashed by the Jets in week 2.  Although they beat the Bills this past Sunday, their young and inexperienced defense allowed 30 points to a team with no quarterback.

This sort of downfall could be contributed to a number of reasons: bad drafting moves, Brady is still a little shaky after his knee surgery, the departure of too many experienced veterans (Asante Samuel, Mike Vrabel, Rodney Harrison), or maybe Belichick is getting a little too old and outcoaching himself.

We could come up with reasons till we are blue and red in the face, but one thing is certain: what goes up, must come down. Ask the Bills, Brett Favre, the Rams, Terrell Owens, the 49ers, or the Cowboys.

Until the Pats win another Super Bowl or Brady cuts his hair, it looks like the duo of Tom Bieber and his magical hoodie wearing coach has lost its luster and the Patriot dynasty is finally over, bud don't let Jared Larner hear any of this.

Check out Jared's take on the Patriots and how they are the greatest team known to man.

The Dregs of the National Football League

So far this NFL season has further validated a few things we already know to be true: The Steelers have a legit defense, the Jets are the team everyone loves to hate, Norv Turner will always let you down, and the NFC West is by far the worst division in the league.

Ok, sure Seattle has done better than expected and the Cardinals are barely surviving with Derek Anderson .  But, with 2 sub-par teams that had high hopes for this season (San Francisco and St. Louis), we very well could have a team in the playoffs that has more L's than W's.

Check out Bill Simmons' take on the putrid NFC West

The Rebirth of Michael Vick

Prior to serving a one and a half year prison sentence in 2006 for running an illegal dog-fighting ring, Michael Vick was an All-Pro quarterback in the NFL.  Since high school, Vick was widely regarded as the top running quarterback in the game and thought to be the future of the National Football League.  After his release from prison, Vick signed with the Philadelphia Eagles where he was delegated to a backup role…until now.  Last week Sunday, he started his first NFL game since 2006 and will be the starting quarterback for the rest of the season.

Coach Eric Shin weighs in on Vick’s play and how he is reinventing himself in the NFL post jail time.

Born and raised here in Hawaii, Coach Eric Shin is moving up quickly in the high school coaching ranks.  Although he is currently working with the Mililani football team, specifically with the wide receivers, Coach Shin, has also coached at Kaiser, Kalani, and Anuenue.  He has played at the high school, collegiate, and semi-professional levels.  Besides “majoring” in football, Coach Shin also has a public relations degree from the University of Hawaii, where he went to school after playing college football in the mainland. 

Click here to watch the in-depth interview

Punched in The Mouth: When trash talk goes wrong

Leading up to their Monday night season opener against the Baltimore Ravens, the New York Jets all but crowned themselves Super Bowl Champs.  The entire off season has been nothing about the J-E-T-S, JETS, JETS, JETS.  From Hard Knocks to Darrelle Revis to Rex Ryan to their off season acquisitions, New York filled the headlines and almost had everybody convinced that they actually beat the Colts in the AFC Championship game.

They were talking the talk and almost walking the walk until they bumped into Ray Lewis and the Ravens.  Monday night's game was guaranteed to be low scoring with defenses dominating and offenses trying to get into rhythm, but no one predicted how sloppy the Jets would look on both sides of the ball.  While they managed to force turnovers, New York's success was marred by ridiculous holding penalties.  All night long football fans were waiting for the NEW New York Jets to show up, but it was all smoke and mirrors.

For an offense that spent the entire off season "re-vamping", the Jets struggled to get anything going and Mark Sanchez still looked like a rookie as he constantly missed open receivers.  New York went 1 for 11 on third down conversions and started their first game since Hard Knocks, getting knocked hard.  While the Ravens D is no slouch, it seemed as if the Jets were only beating themselves with stupid penalties and lack of communication from everybody.


 While Jets coach Rex Ryan is entertaining with his one liners and "Get Some!" attitude, he needs to realize that while trash talking can be motivating...it's only effective when you put numbers in the W column.  The Jets had hopes to fly high this season and while one loss only causes a delay, they better hope they don't spend the season grounded.

The Wait is Finally Over!!!!!!!!

After months and months of useless summer sports filler such as the LeBronathon, Tiger's feeble attempts to get back on top (no pun intended), regular season baseball, NASCAR, and tennis, football season is finally here again.

Although college football was a good appetizer for fans, nothing beats the entree of regular season NFL football.  There are many storylines going into this season to keep our eyes peeled every Sunday and Monday night, here are a few:

-Favre's "last" year
-The Cowboys quest to be the home team in the Super Bowl
-The New York Jets
-Boldin is a Raven, so is Housh
-Saints trying to repeat
-Big Ben's Suspension
-Peyton Manning's Revenge (By far the most important aspect of the season)

While we can make division and playoff predictions till we are blue in the face, I feel that we should get straight to the point and talk about what will define this season.  After 4 MVP awards, a Super Bowl title, and numerous passing records, 2010 will be the year that defines Peyton Manning's legacy. 

Tracy Porter's pick 6 in last year's Super Bowl did more than give the Saints their first championship. It also supplanted Manning as the league's top quarterback and has henceforth made everyone second guess whether or not Peyton Manning is really the greatest ever.

Leading up to last year's championship, all the talk was focused on Manning and how this win would cement him as the greatest ever, Mr. Untouchable, but on the way to receiving his second Lombardi trophy the Saints showed up and a lot of fans jumped off the Manning bandwagon (only 11 fans showed up to greet the Colts at the airport after the Superbowl).

Throughout his entire career, we have seen Peyton Manning constantly overcome adversity.  For example, when he came into the league he was tearing up the record books, killing the regular season, but he continually struggled against the Patriots.  It wasn't until he beat the Patriots in the playoffs en route to his first title, Manning was validated as a great quarterback.

But since his first title, there hasn't been any championship success.  If he had beaten the Saints, Peyton Manning would easily be considered the greatest quarterback ever.  All he would have to maintain his legacy is pad stats, avoid any potential scandal and retire gracefully (something which has hurt Favre's career). 

2010 is all about how Manning will respond to his critics.

He hasn't faced this sort of criticism since before he won his first Super Bowl and this year is his chance to show the media, fans, and rest of the league why he should be number one.

Until Manning goes Denzel in Man on Fire on the rest of the league, the main thing is footbal is finally back and it's the most wonderful time of the year.

The First Word

Mark Carpenter here presenting what I hope to be one of the more informative and entertaining blogs here at Hawaii Pacific University.  Mark My Word will touch on topics ranging from sports, movies, television, and HPU as well.

I am currently a junior journalism major and an aspiring sports anchor/commentator.  Born and raised here in Hawaii, I'm attending HPU on a presidential scholarship and hope to be graduating in Spring 2012.  Aside from being a student, I am also a PA Announcer for a number of  University of Hawaii sporting events such as women's volleyball, basketball, and softball.  I'm a huge fan of anything sports and hope to one day be living out my dream as an anchor on ESPN.

I'm really excited to use Mark My Word as an insightful and somewhat provocative bastion of ideas.

With that said, let's get talkin'.....