IS IT OKAY TO LEAVE THE GAME EARLY? TOM BRADY DOESN'T THINK SO!

Now normally, Tom Brady and I see eye to eye. Today according to Boston Herald.com site Tom had this to say during an interview.....

“The road environment is very different than our friendly home crowd, who when I looked up, half the stadium was gone when we were up 21 points early fourth quarter, which I wasn’t so happy about,”

Now I have been on both sides of the crowd that leaves early in the 4th quarter of football games (and the game 7 of Stanley Cup Playoffs but that's another story)

Usually those who leave early fall into two categories, maybe three.

1. Home team blowing out the visitors.

2. Getting woodshedded at home.

3. Drunk and get thrown out by the 3rd quarter or arrested and thrown in stadium jail(nasty Philly Fan)

Now I prefer #1 and you have to understand that it is quite possible you will miss something monumental such as a record broken or a comeback. Let's face it your team needed you as the 12th man to lock it up! You also miss the hour of waiting in traffic or this, a game that I still think about to this day, every time I see or hear Peyton Manning's name.....

It was October 6th 2003. Huge build up all weekend for the epic Monday Night Tilt at Raymond James Stadium here in Tampa. Colts prolific offense versus one of the Top 5 NFL defenses of all time. Three Keenan McCardell touchdowns by the 3rd quarter had me confident this was locked up. The score was 28-7 Bucs at 3rd quarter end. My buddy Cesar and I began joking about rolling out to beat traffic etc. so we said by the middle of the 4th we would leave to beat traffic. After a good return and a touchdown by the Colts we thought maybe we should stay and watch, it could get interesting. But after after a Bucs 3 and out then a pick 6 by Ronde, we were out! By the time we got back to the car, the game was essentially tied and was going to overtime where Vanderjagt missed the winning field goal but Simeon Rice jumped on the back of one of his teammates so Indy got another chance. As we left the stadium area the Bucs lost on the 2nd chance kick and we missed it!
The Bucs also had 25 first downs that game! Wow it's been a while since they have done that.

#2 The woodshed at home. This should never happen. If it does you can listen to all of last season's post game press conferences by Bucs coach Raheem Morris to justify losing at home. All 3900 fans that watched the Bucs last season left at halftime and it could be even worse this year because the Rays are the hot ticket here in the bay area. Well, almost. The Rays couldn't even sell out the Yankee home game (economy).

Back to Tom, I wouldn't call the fans bandwagon or even compare them to the Jets fans, but I would say they were thinking ahead. The Bangles are fun to watch but you know they can't come back to maul you (oh wait!) The game was over. So from someone that has felt the pain of leaving too early, it is worth the gamble of not sitting in an hour+ of post-game traffic. Patriot fans you are great and yes, it is safe to leave early if your team is up big, I said it was okay.

That game was still great wasn't it Cesar?