MTZehvor said:
Let's go through this piecemeal.
First, I would honestly hope you're referring to anything but the sexual assault allegations, because arguing that those were only conveniently discovered when he joined the Patriots would be even more absurd than anything else you've put forth so far. Civil cases like this have to be filed long in advance, usually weeks or even months. There is no possible way the accuser could have known he would be on the Patriots at this time. Media outlets picked up on the case as soon as it was filed, and it's received as much attention as any NFL star accused of sexual misconduct. Beyond this, it's just a simple matter of the media choosing to focus in on the latest AB story...which they had been doing for months on end anyway.
Second, we don't know the details of what happened behind the scenes with Pats (as is often the case). My suspicion is BB saw how damaging AB could be to a team's culture if he was allowed free roam on social media, and gave him a strict one strike policy. Regardless of whether you think those texts are "bad" or not (threatening physical abuse is admittedly a bit much looking back on it), it's still communicating directly with an accuser during a civil suit (bad), and directly sharing pictures of her and her kids for people she doesn't even know to investigate (really bad). If you can't trust someone to follow instructions like that, then they're not safe to keep around. Again, this is spitballing one hypothetical way that things could've gone, but there's plenty of scenarios in which there are, y'know, actual reasons for AB to be let go rather than the organization just suddenly caving to media pressure. If he's a previously troubled individual, he gets far less leeway before he's out the door.
Which brings me to the consistency argument. Yes, he was still acting like a dipshit. But that's entirely the point: BB brings these "problem" players into NE with the hopes of, for lack of a better word, reforming them. Randy Moss, Aqib Talib, Rodney Harrison, etc. The idea is that you get brought into NE with a clean slate. They'll forget about what you've done previously if you don't do it here, but if you do anything resembling what you did previously, you're gone. There's little to zero tolerance in NE for going off script, so to speak.
As for NE looking competent, I don't think there's anything involved in this that makes them look especially bad. They took a chance on a receiver who they thought they could straighten out. The chance ultimately cost them $178K (chump change in the NFL), and Demaryius Thomas' roster spot (who's been a mix of injured and playing badly this season anyway). They didn't lose major resources in this, nor were there major casualties to the offense. Maybe some of the younger receivers like Gunner or Jakobi didn't catch on as soon as they would've had they gotten the attention AB did that week, but the team's still 7-0 regardless, so...it's not exactly like they suffered in the meantime.
We also have no idea the extent of Gordon's injury. Being able to participate in practice isn't a great indicator unless it's full contact (which that one wasn't). It's possible it was more serious than originally thought, and that's what I'd imagine. This is Bill Belichick we're talking about here, the guy's won six Super Bowls working as a de facto GM. Have a little faith that he knows what he's doing.
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