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Patriots Not Content With Pissing Off Enough Players, Leave JC Jackson Off the Pro Bowl Ballot

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Update: The Patriots added JC Jackson to the Pro Bowl Ballot. We did it.

This is the kind of small, petty stuff that won’t fly when the Patriots are going 9-7 without Tom Brady. It’s one thing for a player to suck it up and ignore chasing accolades when you’re going to the AFC Championship eight years in a row. But when that gravy train leaves town, intentionally hurting players’ chances of individual accolades just comes off as petty. If I’m JC Jackson I am BULLSHIT this morning. There is absolutely zero reason for the Patriots to do this other than wanting to keep “Pro Bowler” off of Jackson’s resume when it comes time to negotiate a new contract this offseason. It’s not like he was just the low man on the totem pole as a young player either, there are legitimately extra spots for the Patriots to add cornerbacks to the ballot.

This is the kind of move that could very easily have a player say “you know what to hell with this place I’m out” and I wouldn’t blame him.

Believe me I don’t want players that are only it for themselves and the personal achievements, but this is just a player getting recognized for his production. Jackson has been arguably your best player this season when you’ve needed him more than ever with Stephon Gilmore hurt.

Patriots Wire literally called him the most underrated defensive player in the NFL earlier this year and Pro Football Focus had the numbers to back it up.

It just seems penny wise pound foolish to not let Jackson get a little bit of shine. Especially when it’s a player YOU signed as an undrafted free agent and YOU developed who is showing flashes of becoming a stud cornerstone player at 25-years-old. That would be a huge win for Belichick’s recent draft record, which we’ve absolutely hammered here. Jackson has an INT in five straight games and leads the league with six picks. Yea, lets needlessly tweak that guy.

In Bill We Trust?

#RushHourRap – 21 Savage – A Lot

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I pray for Markelle ’cause they fucked up his shot,
Just want you to know that you got it
Though I never met you, I know that you special
And that the Lord blessed you, don’t doubt it
Dennis Smith Jr., stay solid

With the NBA Draft today I was looking for a relevant #RushHourRap (we already did Draft Day) so what better excuse for some more J. Cole? On last year’s Grammy winning 21 Savage track “A Lot,” Cole swoops in with one of the best features of his career as he gives life advice to everyone, including Orlando Magic point guard (and friend of The 300s) Markelle Fultz.

Fultz promptly unliked our tweet after all the blowback his twitter activity got. We miss ya, Markelle

Check out just how impactful that J. Cole line was for a struggling Fultz in this interview with NBA.com:

A verse written by J. Cole in that song helped inspire Magic guard Markelle Fultz and let the former No. 1 overall Draft pick know that not everyone had given up on his struggling basketball career.

Here’s the backstory: J. Cole and Knicks guard Dennis Smith Jr. are both from Fayetteville, N.C., and have known each other for years. Smith is also close to Fultz from NBA Summer League and the two refer to each other as brothers. Roughly a year ago, Smith described how his “brother” was hurting to the five-time Grammy nominee.

Less than a year after being chosen by the Sixers in 2017, Fultz suffered from a shoulder injury and was later diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome, which robbed him of his full-range shooting motion and jeopardized his future. Fultz played only 33 games his first two seasons and the Sixers virtually gave him to the Magic last February.

“He was going through a situation and it was a tough situation for someone mentally,” Smith Jr. said. “Cole said, ‘Let me holla at him.’ They just locked in. Cole chopped it up with him and one thing led to another. Crazy.”

Billboard Magazine rated “A Lot” by 21 Savage and J. Cole as the No. 6 song of 2019. It has gone platinum three times and Cole’s lyrics were hailed by critics. Fultz was nearly moved to tears the first time he heard it.

“It was dope,” Fultz said. “Him shouting me out on a song really showed the love and the person he is. I play it a lot, all the time. I love it. To get put in a song is like, dope, an honor.”

Fire Flames Jersey Alert: Bruins Going Gold for Their New Alternates

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Stop beating around the bush and bring back the Pooh Bear jerseys you cowards! Okay, now that I got that out of my system I actually really, really like this “reverse retro” jersey as they’re referring to it.

It’s a color flip of their jerseys from the early 90s that Cam Neely and Ray Bourque wore back in their playing days.

Which were basically a throwback to their jerseys from the late 70s that Mike Milbury and the boys sported.

This is far from the first time the Bruins have opted to go with gold as their primary color. Look no further than the 2010 Winter Classic sweaters.

The Bruins also wore gold in the early 60s

But it will be hard to ever really top the Pooh Bear jerseys of the late 90s. An absolute icon that the Jacobs family is afraid to bring back for some reason.

Now it remains to be seen what the team will go with for pants and socks, but they could go all out with gold on gold on gold. The Bruins coming out of the locker room rocking next season:

I already own the 2010 Winter Classic jersey so I am undecided if I’ll add another gold jersey to my collection (until I drunkenly charge it to The 300s company card), but these new alternates are so choice. Well done.

#RushHourRap – J. Cole – Friday Night Lights

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It’s been 10 YEARS since J. Cole dropped his “Friday Night Lights” mixtape. Now if we’re being honest, if we’re in the trust tree together, I’m more of a “The Warm Up” guy, which dropped the year before FNL. Either way, Jermaine has been spitting heat for over a decade and I am now starting to feel old. J. Cole’s mixtapes were A+ chill with a few beers music back in college. This was still in the relatively early days of YouTube, which went live just a little over three years before The Warm Up came out. So yes I was a cheap college kid either ripping mixtapes off DatPiff or cranking the speakers until my walls were shaking blasting YouTube videos three minutes at a time.

Your Guide to Betting The Masters

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Looking to throw down a few bucks on The Masters this weekend? Preferably in a way thats not completely random and reckless so you might actually walk away a richer man? Well, look no further. I picked Xander Schauffele and Brooks Koepka to win at Augusta last year, both of whom tied for second place one stroke back of Tiger Woods. Here’s to hoping for a little more luck this year so I can continue my outlandishly expensive habit of actually playing golf.

With that being said lets take a look at the odds on some of the top names in golf to take home the green jacket this year.

Bryson DeChambeau (+800) is the betting favorite currently and will be the player to watch as he’s just been mashing this year with his Happy Gilmore-esque drives. He took home the US Open trophy earlier this season by outdriving, and outputting, everyone on tour. So while he’s finished outside the Top 25 his last two outings at the Masters, 2020 has been his year.

Tiger Woods (+3400) returns to Augusta this week in what is presumably the longest Masters title defense ever without actually repeating as Tiger won the green jacket 19 months ago. Tiger has been inconsistent recently, but those are some excellent odds for the defending champ.

Dustin Johnson (+900) has been hands down the best golfer in the world this year with nine Top 10 finishes and two wins, including an absolutely ridiculous performance at The Northern Trust when he shot a -30 and won by 11 strokes. DJ however is coming off an unforced vacation after he tested positive for the coronavirus so it remains to be seen if there are any lingering effects or rust he’ll need to shake off.

Jon Rahm (+1000) and Justin Thomas (+1100) are the No. 2 and No. 3 ranked golfers in the world so they should be in the mix this weekend. Not to mention Rahm hit maybe the greatest shot of all time with this practice round hole in one yesterday.

Collin Morikawa (+3300) made his PGA Tour debut in 2019, but he blew onto the scene with his ballsy win at the PGA Championship earlier this season so we’ll see if he’s ready for the gigantic stage of Augusta.

Xander Schauffele (+1400) finished second at the Masters last year (and cost me a big chunk of change) and has seven Top 10 finishes in 2020 (including a win at the Tour Championship) so he’s been knocking on the door for a while.

Rory McIlroy (+1200) is always a favorite to win anytime he steps onto the course, which is no surprise since he’s the No. 5 ranked golfer in the world with six Top 10 finishes on the year. What else is there to be said about Rory that hasn’t already been said? A slight knock on Rory is the fact that he did immediately kill the PGA Tour video game franchise after taking over for Tiger.

Brooks Koepka (+1600) is coming off a knee injury that forced him to miss some time this season, but as everyone knows Koepka ALWAYS shows up for majors. It’s actually kind of crazy when you look at the numbers. Koepka has seven career victories on the PGA Tour with four of those coming in majors. He’s won the 2017 US Open, the 2018 US Open, the 2018 PGA Championship, and the 2019 PGA Championship, which made him the first golfer ever to hold back to back titles in two majors simultaneously. More than half of his PGA Tour wins have come in the biggest tournaments in the game. Thats banana land.

Webb Simpson (+3300), Tyrell Hatton (+2800), and Patrick Cantlay (+2500) round out the Top 10 of the Official World Golf Rankings so those guys are always a safe bet.

Patrick Reed (+2800) is one of my favorite golfers to watch because he is an absolute hothead like your buddy that snaps his club in half after a bad shot. No, literally.

Patrick Reed: the people’s golfer for people like me who sometimes flip out on the course. But Reed did win the Masters just two years ago so he’s always in play.

Keep an eye Matthew Wolff (+3300) too, who was in great position to win the US Open this season before melting down on the final day when he shot a 75 and ultimately finished second as DeChambeau took home the trophy. He’s a pretty solid dark horse bet, plus how great would it be to see a 21-year-old with the most unconventional swing in the game win at the most storied course in the world?

Although he’s been shaky on the PGA Tour lately, Phil Mickelson (+7000) is a 3x Masters champ so you can never count him out at Augusta. He also has battered the competition so bad on the Senior Tour, excuse me the PGA Tour Champions, that it should realistically be considered elderly abuse. My point is that while he may be “just” the 64th ranked golfer in the world currently, he’s far from washed up. I don’t know if I’d bet more than some pocket change on him, but if you’re looking for long shots you could do a lot worse than Lefty.

The Official Pick:

As my long shot I’m going with Collin Morikawa (+3300) because even though he’s been pretty off since winning the PGA Championship, he showed he’s got ice in his veins when he’s in it down the stretch. Then I’m hedging a bit with Brooks Koepka (+1600) since he is absolutely nails in majors and to round it out I’m taking Xander Schauffele (+1400) because this man has been banging on the door for a while now with five Top 10 finishes at majors.

So who do you think takes home the green jacket? Tweet us your picks @The300sBoston

#RushHourRap – Benny The Butcher – One Way Flight

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What’s a stage with no mic and no voice of a poet?
What’s more important, the flower or the soil that grow it?
Yeah, it’s cool, but one rule, don’t get caught in the moment

As Ron Burgundy once said, “Drink it in, it always goes down smooth” and thats exactly what this track is: smooth. Benny the Butcher released his new project “Burden of Proof” last month, which HotNewHipHop is calling “one of the best albums of the year.” If you needed any more convincing, the whole album was produced by Hit-Boy, who if you didn’t know has produced some of your favorite songs like Paris by Jay-Z and Kanye, Trophies by Drake, Clique by GOOD Music, Drop the World by Lil Wayne, Sicko Mode by Travis Scott and the list goes on and on. Get your earbuds in and get this album going right now.

Shoutout to Gary for the rec

Patriots Jets Monday Night Football Key Matchups

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Patriots (2-5) vs Jets (0-8)
MetLife Stadium
Kickoff: 8:15 pm

I spent more time than I care to admit this morning looking for the old Keyshawn Johnson “Key Matchups” SportsCenter commercial, but it’s nowhere to be found. For a network that has made feature film length highlight shows of nothing but SportsCenter commercials to have one of the best examples completely scrubbed from the internet is odd, but I digress.

Patriots Inactives (Stephon Gilmore, N’Keal Harry, Ja’Whaun Bentley, Lawrence Guy, JJ Taylor) via PatsPulpit

The Patriots also have more than a dozen players listed as Questionable heading into Monday night including Ryan Izzo, who if you’ve been paying attention is the only active tight end on the roster that traveled with the team. So Cam Newton may have to just forget the tight end position is even an actual eligible receiver at this point. Not to mention, Julian Edelman is still on IR with a knee injury so it’ll be another night of throwing to Jakobi Meyers, Damiere Byrd, and the stable of running backs.

Jets Inactives (Blake Cashman, Trevon Wesco) via SportsIllustrated

Sam Darnold is also doubtful to play with Joe Flacco most likely to get the start. I don’t know how the typical Jets fan feels about Darnold, but I like the player and I’d take him tomorrow if the Jets decide to draft a QB and move on. I get the sense that he’s yet another player that has been poisoned by the touch of offensive guru Adam Gase (see Tannehill, Drake, Stills etc.). Calling Gase an offensive guru at this point is, well, offensive.

Joe Flacco is forever living off that 6 week stretch when he got HOT and lead the Ravens to a Super Bowl in 2012. He was rewarded handsomely for that run with a 6-year $120 million extension, making him the highest paid player in the NFL at the time. All this for a player who ProFootballReference.com says has had a comparable career to that of Jay Cutler, Andy Dalton, and Matt Hasselbeck. And that seems pretty accurate. Flacco has/had the physical tools to be elite at times, but was often a middle of the road QB and at times a complete bum. With that being said he’s been OK this year despite an 0-2 record, throwing for 1 TD and 1 INT albeit with a garish completion percentage of 51.9% So the Jets best hopes of finally stomping out the Patriots probaly went out the window once Darnold was ruled out, but the Pats are so bad this year you can’t rule it out.

Cam Newton/Jarrett Stidham/Brian Hoyer have not been much better though aside from the Seattle game, which seems like it was years ago at this point. I’m curious to see if the Pats double down on keeping the ball in Cam’s hands as much as possible with designed runs or if they take a step back after last week’s game ending fumble. This is a roster devoid of offensive talent outside of the running back position though so there aren’t a ton of other options for Josh McDaniels and the Patriots.

Jamison Crowder is expected to play after missing yet another game last week. When Crowder does play he has been a high end WR2, but he’s already missed four games this season so he’s been impossible for fantasy owners (like me) to rely on. Despite missing four games, Crowder still leads the Jets in targets, receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a big game from him, especially if the Pats go up early.

Spread Patriots (-9.5) vs Jets (+9.5)

Despite being 2-5, the Pats are still nearly double digits favorites over the Jets (they’re even getting 10 points in some books). But even against the 0-8 Jets, I’m not comfortable laying 10 points with this increasingly ineffectual Patriots team. This is not the Patriots offense of my twenties so I’m not expecting a blowout tonight.

Prediction: Pats 17 Jets 10

The Jets have only scored more than 14 points twice this season so that doesn’t bode well for Gang Green, even with Stephon Gilmore out tonight. On the other side, Cam Newton has only thrown for 2 touchdowns with 7 picks in 6 games against varying strengths of defense. So I think the Patriots run day and night, control the clock, pop a couple TDs and get the hell out of there with an ugly W as the Jets continue their lonely march towards drafting Trevor Lawrence next year.

Dave Chappelle Delivers an A+, Raw, Uncomfortable, and Blistering 16 Minute Saturday Night Live Monologue

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“Did I trigger you?”

Dave Chappelle returned to SNL for the first time in four years, when he again was given the duties of being the first host following a presidential election. In 2016 Chappelle called for people to give the newly elected President Trump a chance during uncertainty. This time around though he wasted no time laying into EVERYONE.

A few weeks ago we all applauded Bill Burr for going on SNL and not changing a thing about his defiant brand of stand up, regardless of the audience. Well Chappelle walked out smoking a cigarette and proceeded to absolutely bulldoze the SNL audience with a raw, uncomfortable, and blistering 16 minute monologue.

“I’m sorry Lorne, I thought we were doing a comedy show,” Chappelle laughed to himself as the crowd fell uncomfortably quiet.

Chappelle joked about COVID, slavery, racism, sexism, classism and more as he dropped way more n-bombs than the typical Saturday Night Live crowd is used to hearing. If you’re a devout Chappelle fan like me then it was a classic takedown of the country as it currently stands. But you can hear a lot of hurt in his voice as he reveals the only way to make people listen to the issues he sees in our country today is by making them laugh about it.

“I can’t even tell something true unless it has a punchline behind it. You guys aren’t ready. You’re not ready for this. You don’t know how to survive yourselves.”

I applaud SNL for recognizing the moment and bringing in a first ballot Hall of Fame standup comedian to host at a point in time where it would have rang hollow to have anyone else sticking their head in the sand. Sure, SNL has always been pretty liberal in its skewering of some and lionizing of others, but Chappelle has always been able to just speak the truth regardless of politics.

As uncomfortable as he made that audience at 30 Rock, this was comedy at its absolute best: painfully honest.

Patriots Acquire WR Isaiah Ford From the Dolphins

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The Pats just made their big move of the deadline, trading a 2022 7th round pick to the Dolphins for WR Isaiah Ford, a 2017th 7th round pick out of Virginia Tech.

My initial reaction in GIF form:

Ford hasn’t exactly lit up the stat sheet with just 18 catches for 184 yards and 0 TDs on the season, but he is a big body at 6’2″ who should help the suddenly barren WR room in New England.

It’s hard to fault anyone for not being familiar with Ford’s work, but Belichick does have a tendency to trade for guys with multiple skillsets, and guys who despite modest stats have lit him up in the past. Ford checks both of those boxes.

It’s not an apples to apples comparison because he ended up being one of the best receivers in Patriots history, but there is a similarity to another player Belichick acquired from the Dolphins. In 2006 the Dolphins’ Wes Welker had 9 receptions for 77 yards, returned 4 kickoffs, and returned 2 punts against the Patriots in Week 5. Belichick was smitten and despite a 1 catch performance in the Week 13 rematch, he traded a 2nd and a 7th for Welker that offseason.

I was just looking at the numbers and good lord you forget just how prolific Wes Welker was in this Patriots offense. He had triple digit receptions in every single year except his first season back from a torn his ACL. 112, 111, 123, 86, 122, and 118 receptions in each year in New England. Preposterous.

Now obviously that is best case scenario and one of the greatest trades in Patriots history so thats not a fair comparison, but there are parallels. He’s even got some slick moves in the slot for a guy his size!

If you believe Schefty it sounds like the Pats plan to stick him in the slot while Edelman is on the mend, which makes sense considering thats where the Dolphins have primarily used him this year.

I don’t know what to expect from Ford, but some Dolphins writers were calling him the biggest steal of the 2017 draft. So there’s that. He’s not exactly a burner with a 4.6 40, but check out some of the positives from his BR scouting report.

Often, on his deep targets the defenders stay on his hip and he must make spectacular catches, which he flashes the ability to do. As he showed with his broad jump of 127 inches, Ford has explosive leaping ability that he uses to outjump defenders He has great body control in the air and near the sidelines, showing nice adjustments to the football. His combination of size, leaping ability and body control give him an excellent catch radius.

Now I’m not encouraging everyone to take their pants off reading scouting reports and watching college highlights because look how that turned out with N’Keal Harry, but Ford does have some impressive body control in his Virginia Tech highlights.

So it’s not a sexy name or a big splashy trade, but those are rarely the ones that wind up being the most successful moves in New England so I’ll be keeping a close eye on this one.