Last week Dustin Pedroia earned his way onto The Ladder by knocking off former Bruins captain Lionel Hitchman to take over the #94 spot. This week it's a battle of former Patriots as the franchise's all-time leading receiver, Troy Brown (#95), attempts to move up The Ladder by taking on their all-time leading receiving tight end, Ben Coates (#86). T-Brown gets my vote this week...who gets your support?
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14 comments:
I'm probably going to be voting for T-Brown for a while...no disrespect to Coates. I think Brown should probably be somewhere in the 40-60 range....Coates belongs in the 80-100 range. It's the difference between a very good career and a borderline great career.
Coates was a great tight end, no questins about that. Brown was a good WR, a hell of a PR, decent DB and he even took a snap at QB. Also Coates moved on to play somewhere else Brown was a career Patriot (that cant be overlooked).
More inter-sport challenges!!
I voted for TB, Mr. Patriot.
But let's be clear here, both were great, there is no very good & great. Some of these challenges one has to go for personal preference & to try and differentiate does no one a service. As I illustrated in the past the only other TEs that could see Coates in the '90s were Tony Gonzalez, Shannon Sharpe, and Jay Novacek.
When you're at that level there's no need to try and bring a guy down to make a point.
To say that somebody had a "very good" NFL career is not bringing him down. It's saying he was not great. Tony Gonzalez was great. Shannon Sharpe was great. Ben Coates career is not on that level. That's not an insult, it's a fact.
Let me be perfectly clear, NOBODY who gets on The Ladder ANYWHERE has even the smallest thing to feel ashamed of...especially considering all of the great sports figures around Boston who are not on at all.
I just think if you are top five at your position, in any sport, for a decade, (could be lacrosse or bass fishing), you are great.
In a world of 6,000,000,000 people I think that is undeniably true. And won't be convinced otherwise.
Agree to disagree.
(on a Professional level)
Maybe I just have low standards.
I might add, any real Boston sports fan knows that Ben Coates being overlooked is one of the main reasons Drew Bledsoe became so overrated as a QB and allowed him to not only be picked up by other teams (Bills, Cowboys), but pursued [by them].
What is a "borderline great career" - wouldn't that be a very good career.
And lastly one thing about Coates. He owned the record for most catches by a Tight End for a season starting in 1994. (The League's 75th Anniversary, pretty old league). He did not lose that record for another Ten years, and that was to Tony G, a guy most, certainly many regard as the best TE of All-Time.
*5 trips to the Pro Bowl
i vote troy brown. i dont want to get caught up in calling guys good vs great so i will just say there are 2 tie breakers here even if they are both great
1-brown has 3 rings
2-brown never played for another team
those 2 factors are tie breakers for me
as for having more cross sport challenges i do like them but i also find them much more difficult to vote on because its apples vs oranges. i like them either way i guess
As far as the cross sports challenges, I like them because what is the point of having a multi-sport ladder if you are only going to put guys against people from the same team...
I know you do not always do this DK, but I would like to see them (cross-sport ones) more often. And it does make it hard but that's what makes it fun/debates interesting.
Again I did vote for Troy. He should not be so low.
But it [the vote count] should not be 11 to 1, or whatever it is.
Coates may have been less of a winner but he was a player of equal caliber.
I think the vote is in part a reflection of my forgetting to put Brown on The Ladder to start with and not a reflection on Coates. I think this area is about where Coates belongs but Brown belongs a bit higher in the grand scheme of things.
Luke, I agree about the cross-sport challenges. I try to do them when it doesn't seem like it would be too crazy/irrelevant (like my Vinatieri vs Yawkey challenge).
Since it's nice to have you back Luke I'll let you pick this week's challenge. It appears Randy Moss will be the Challenger....who should he challenge?
# 74-Tony Conigliaro
# 75-Carlton Fisk
# 76-Johnny Pesky
# 77-Bruce Armstrong
# 78-Steve Nelson
# 79-Satch Sanders
# 80-Luis Tiant
# 81-Tiny Thompson
# 82-Francis Ouimette
# 83-Jonathan Papelbon
It looks like Paps may actually win, which would also give you the option of #73 Drew Bledsoe.
Still your call Luke...if you make it.
If it's Paps then do Steve Nelson.
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