VARITEK AWARD FOR MOST OVERRATED PLAYER OF THE DECADE

Boston fans tend to overrate many of their athletes. This Award was a tough one to narrow down to nominees, then to actually pick a winner.

Nominees:

Jason Varitek - Red Sox
Tedy Bruschi - Patriots
Antoine Walker - Celtics
Brian Scalabrine - Celtics
David Ortiz - Red Sox
Richard Seymour - Patriots

And the winner is...

Tedy Bruschi.



I'll preface my remarks by noting that I'm a Tedy Bruschi fan. I have a silver Tedy Bruschi jersey (like the one he's wearing in the above photo after picking off the Dolphins for a score in a 12-0 win). I think TB54 is a sure-fire Patriot Hall-of-Famer. But he's not going to Canton, OH. When he retired this year, believe it or not, there were some out there who felt that's where he belonged.

Bruschi fit perfectly into a scheme. He and his defensive cohorts made big plays because they each did their jobs. Ted Johnson, Willie McGinest, Richard Seymour, Rodney Harrison, Ty Law, and him all helped each other out.

But he's not great. He's good. He's solid. But he's not great. In fact, his last few seasons were subpar or worse. He missed tackles, missed assignments, couldn't cover, and was negligible as a pass rusher.

I'll honor Tedy Bruschi as a key part of championship teams, but he's nowhere near as great as most people in New England think so.