The World Can Quit Linking CeeDee Lamb, or Any Other Top-Tier WR, to the Patriots Any Time Now, Thanks

Abbie Parr. Getty Images.

Stop me if you've heard this before, but there's a talented, productive, Pro Bowl, former 1st round wideout in the NFL who's unhappy with the state of his contract negotiations. 

And stop me if you've been hearing this nonstop since about November of 2019, but the Patriots are struggling on offense. Including this week in joint practices with the Eagles:

Now if you could just stop stopping me for just a bit while I try to stop the people who are inevitably connecting these dots between Disgruntled Wide Receiver and Team Desperate for Offensive Weapons. Because this is what we do in New England. This is what we've always done. And while it got embarrassing a long time ago, at this point it's downright humiliating. Which isn't stopping anyone trying to sell the public on the idea that CeeDee Lamb wants to come to New England and the Patriots should go get him:

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To anyone promoting this narrative, I'll go full McCarthy Hearings when I say, "Have you no sense of decency, Sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?" Good God, man. Clickbait is one thing, but is it worth more to you than your dignity? 

How many times is this franchise going to have to go through this before the media and fans fully except where we stand? How many times can the Patriots be the guy the chick at the bar starts talking up just to make her boyfriend jealous before we catch onto the game being played? Calvin Ridley did it. Brandon Aiyuk did it. In 20 years, Canton is going to be filled with wideouts from this era who used New England, its desperation, and its cap space as leverage to get what they wanted. 

So this is my plea to all the Boston sports networks, websites, radio stations, social media accounts and homeless guys shouting at passing cars to quit it, forthwith. The days of Randy Moss taking a massive paycut to come catch ideally placed, geometrically perfect spirals from Tom Brady are a distant memory. In need of a good repression. 

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Now isn't the time for pulling old Belichick quotes where he praised a guy to the heavens in order to sign him once he hit the market. That worked great with, say, Hunter Henry. But it's not going to work now. Spare us from digging up games where said player lit the Patriots defense up and drew the whole personnel department's attention:

Because when you're 12-22 over the last two years, you're describing half the league.

Let's just try to keep some semblance of our self-respect as Eliot Wolf and Jerod Mayo try to turn this ship around. Let's agree to resist the urge to fall for the next shiny object that gets dangled in front of us and accept that there will be no shortcuts to this thing. No elevator to success; we're gonna have to take the stairs. And that means drafting, developing, and coaching the bejeebers out of the receivers who are already here. And the franchise quarterback who'll be working with them until they're the ones making CeeDee Lamb money:

Hopefully. 

Mainly, this is just a plea for Patriots fans to take reality on reality's terms. To not degrade and humiliate ourselves and each other by buying into not taking the cheese every time a big name is rumored to be available. The Patriots have lost more than they've won over the last two seasons, but that doesn't make them a loser franchise. And for sure, there's no reason for us to become the kind of loser fanbase who conducts themselves in this manner. After nine Super Bowls and six championships over 20 years, we earned the right to claim we're better than that. So be better.