Where's the hate?

I think one of my favorite memories of last football season was after the New England Patriots win on the road over the Chargers in week two. That's when ESPN's Chris Berman first floated the idea of the Patriots going undefeated on the season.

Week two, and the drumbeat had already begun. No wonder everyone was so sick of it by the end of the season.

Is it just me, or has the national sports media not fixated on this year's 9-0 Titans with the same hysteria that gripped us a year ago?

For proof that this year is somehow different, let's look to the biggest Patriots hater of them all, former Miami Dolphin Mercury Morris. He was on the 17-0 team in 1972. Here's what he said when the Titans were 5-0:

I’ll be watching the Tennessee Titans, and I hope to see them go unbeaten. We’d like a little company.

Talk about a flip-flopper.

Here's a guy who spews hatred every time a team gets to November without a loss and now he says he wants some company?

Whatever. I pick the Titans to finish 12-4.