Now I never post about the Patriots.  I do not much like the Pats, though I root for them I confess.   I do not much like football either; a brutal game embedded in the American ethos (and financial world) in a most unfortunate way.  And I really did not like that coach at our neighborhood fair trying to recruit my solidly built 11-year old for pee-wee football, or whatever that kid’s league is called.

But the current furor over the Pats “losing” Reavis to the Jets is particularly moronic and worthy of a gentle reminder that another bad part of the football racket is that it is mercilessly against aging (although from my vantage point, none of the people I am about to discuss are beyond the equivalent of childhood).

In the past week or two, the Pats have said goodbye to defensive players Reavis, Browner and Wilfork.  At the start of next season they will be, respectively, 30, 31 and 33.  Reavis was looking at a shot at a long-term commitment also.

Seemingly we are retaining, for now, defensive players McCourty, Collins, Hightower, Jones, Siliga, Butler and Ryan. At the start of next season they will be, respectively, 28, 25, 24, 25, 24, 25 and 24.

What part of TWENTY vs THIRTY do you not get?

I do hope that Brady does not mess up his first few games next season or he, too, will be gone; almost happened this past year.  He will be meat for the grinder also, in his turn.  And I am so fond of his signed jersey, overlooking my pool table downstairs….

Now you can be inept at 25 and skilled at 35, no doubt depending on who you are.  But on fair average, in a sport where if you are not hit by someone weighing 250 pounds that is only because the guy who hits you weights 325, where would you place your bets?

The defense rests.