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With the Advent of the Dillon Era in New England, we tend to forget how long it has been since we had anything other than a prefunctory running game...with the notable exception of the days when Curtis Martin played in Foxboro. He was just fantastic.
When he got traded to the Jets, I fell in with the line 'They' were spreading: It was a good trade because Martin had just undergone a type of abdominal surgery that no other player had ever fully come back from. One good shoulder pad into his gut and he'd be down again.
Hm. Survey says 'Wrong.'
I remembered the Martin Lesson in the stupidity of dealing excellent players to division rivals when we sent Bledsoe to the Bills. My instincts said it was a good trade. Brady was better, I had really grown tired of watching Robo-Drew toss goofy dump-pass interceptions reather than take the sack, and Belichick owned his mind. The trade strengthened one division rival against our other division rivals, and gave us two slots in the schedule where we were playing against a quarterback whose mind our coach could read at 100 paces.
Turned out I was right, but I held my breath for two seasons because of that Martin trade.
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