Category: Patriots

The 300s Podcast: Red Sox Chasing 100 Wins & the Gang Fights a PED Suspension

By on • ( Leave a comment )

A new episode of The 300s Podcast is hot off the presses! This ep is a grab bag of news as we’ve got headlines everywhere from drug rings to a historical run by the Red Sox to PED suspensions and back to NBA free agency. Click here to listen or download on iTunes or Google Play. Subscribe, rate, and review today!

It came out the other day that Hanley Ramirez was allegedly Pablo Escobar andddd now he’s apparently not. Whoops.

The Red Sox are on pace to win 100+ games for the first time since 1946 and I’m still not sold on this team.

Julian Edelman is pulling a Ryan Braun and appealing his 4-game suspension on the way his test was physically handled more so than the actual results.

LeBron “The Decision” James reportedly doesn’t want a recruiting circus this time around in free agency. Is this the height of hypocrisy or has LeBron learned from getting roasted after The Decision?

The 300s has a very exciting announcement to make and that my friends is what they call a big market tease.

Tom Brady Has Put Everyone’s Brain in a Pretzel This Week

By on • ( Leave a comment )

NBCSports – Somebody needs to tug on Tom Brady’s sleeve and let him know that fun’s fun, but he’s drifting into Brett Favre territory now. Forty-eight hours hadn’t passed since the Oprah Orchard Interview in which Brady said his retirement was coming “sooner rather than later” and there he was on Instagram Tuesday afternoon insinuating in Spanish that he’s back to playing until he’s 45. Given that he’s 40 right now and his contract expires at the end of the 2019 season, 45 seems like later not sooner. That’s standard fare this offseason.

Tom E. Curran wrote an article yesterday about Tom Brady’s back and forth retirement timeline plans thats definitely worth the read. Curran is as tied into the Brady family as anyone so when he writes about Brady I pay attention.

It’s definitely frustrating to not know when exactly Brady will ultimately play until, but thats the cross you bear for having a 40-year-old quarterback, who just won the MVP by the way, leading your team. I’m sure 99% of the NFL would swap places with Patriots fans right now.

The waffling and the mind games are what will drive people up a wall though. Saying ad nauseum that he’s playing until his mid-forties or beyond, only to tell Oprah that he’s going to hang em up “sooner rather than later” only to then cryptically comment “45” in Spanish on an ESPN post on Instagram.

The Brett Favre comparisons will only grow louder unless Brady makes a definitive public statement declaring his intentions one way or the other, but why would he? It’s frustrating, but I get it. If my job asked me to commit to 3-4 more years I would give them a big shrug emoji.

Did Brady likely bitch and moan to the owner to get his heir apparent in Jimmy Garoppolo shipped out of town? All signs point to yes, but its not Tom’s job to make sure the Patriots are set up for 2024. That’s on Robert Kraft and Bill Belichick.

Listen, if Brady up and retires tomorrow it is a massive dick move and is a complete about face from everything he’s preached for the last few years. That would be unforgivable after he basically forced Kraft to ship Jimmy G out of town….but fans would forgive him sooner rather than later. Sure, Bill may never talk to him again outside of Hall of Fame inductions and such, but its become pretty clear over the past several months that these guys aren’t exactly ripping it up together on the VII Rings in Nantucket.

Back to Curran’s larger point here though. Brady joked after the Super Bowl when asked about retirement “Why does everyone want me to retire?” Thats just it. Everyone, outside of New England at least, does want him to retire. The rest of the league has just been counting down the seconds on the imaginary doomsday clock thats been ticking, and ticking, and ticking since the day the Pats drafted Garoppolo and we all became aware of “Tom’s age and contract situation.” So yea no kidding everyone wants to know when Brady is retiring. So they can start planning to maybe possibly be competitive or even potentially win an AFC East title for the first time in nearly 20 years.

“does he not get that his and the Patriots stranglehold on the NFL isn’t like Jordan’s on the NBA. It’s closer to Godzilla’s on Japan, and that every other NFL team and fanbase is counting the seconds until he walks.

That’s why every throat-clearing, every pause, every social media “like” is scrutinized for clues as to which way he’s ultimately leaning.”

The end is coming. I don’t know when, but we’re not quite there yet. They may have announced last call at the bar, but they haven’t turned the lights on just yet. So until then lets just enjoy the ride.

Former Jets QB Christian Hackenberg is Visiting the Patriots Today

By on • ( Leave a comment )

How about that Belichick, man? When the rest of the league is playing checkers he’s playing chess. He trades away his elite young backup QB and then just sits in the weeds waiting for the Jets to outsmart themselves and dump Hackenberg onto the Raiders who then cut him less than 2 weeks later, and thats when Belichick POUNCES.

In all seriousness I hated this pick by the Jets from Day 1. Well technically Day 2 since he was a second round pick. But the guy flashed as a freshman at Penn State with 20 TDs and 10 INTs under old friend Bill O’Brien. Then he regressed the next two years throwing 12/15 and 16/6 before going pro and getting drafted by the New York Football Jets, despite never posting a completion percentage above 59% in college.

In two years with the Jets he threw a grand total of zero passes despite being surrounded by bums like Bryce Petty, Geno Smith, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Josh McCown. Not exactly murderers row ahead of him.

But before we all freak out lets just remember that the Patriots, as does every other team in the NFL, routinely workout guys that they never sign. Guys they never even hope to have to sign. These are often just workouts to keep the pipeline full in case disaster strikes and guys on your roster get injured.

Or Belichick is dabbling in the dark arts again and has grand plans for young Hackenberg. Jimmy Garoppo-WHO am I right??

The Patriots Have Become TNT: We Know Drama

By on • ( Leave a comment )

The latest episode of The 300s Podcast is LIVE! Click here to listen or download on iTunes or Google Play.

We talk about Julian Edelman’s possible suspension and how apparently the NFL doesn’t even know what he tested positive for, how does this all affect Tom Brady and TB12, some good old fashioned Boston media on media crime and more! Listen, subscribe, and review us on iTunes, Google Play or wherever you get your podcasts!

Now the NFL Doesn’t Know What Edelman Tested Positive For; NFL Scientists Trying to Figure it Out

By on • ( Leave a comment )

SI – “I know what Julian Edelman posted on Instagram in the wake of the suspension news (“I don’t know what happened”) came off as a little weird, but there is an explanation for it. I was told Edelman’s result was triggered by a substance that wasn’t immediately recognizable, and there are scientists analyzing it. And as to the timing, the test did happen during the offseason (a couple months ago), which means it’s not for any kind of stimulant. You might remember the rash of players saying they got popped for Adderall—the rules have changed now so that offseason use of stimulants falls under the substances of abuse policy, rather than the PED policy.”

Late last week Julian Edelman got popped for PEDs, but it wasn’t immediately known what he had actually tested positive for. However, Bert Breer of MMQB reported today that Edelman’s “I don’t know what happened” defense may not be totally unfounded because apparently the NFL doesn’t know what happened either.

“I was told Edelman’s result was triggered by a substance that wasn’t immediately recognizable, and there are scientists analyzing it.”

Ask anyone who has read “Game of Shadows” or “Juiced” or followed really any of the Olympic track scandals over the past 20 years; the steroid scientists are always ahead of the league scientists. Its just a constant game of catch up as the leagues are trying to reverse engineer everything and figure out what to test for. With that being said, when they do pop someone its usually a hybrid substance or a masking agent of another substance that triggers the test. Breer makes it seem like Edelman tested positive for something the NFL has never seen. But if thats the case, then is the substance he took actually banned? Did Edelman even know if it was or wasn’t?

I mean technically, if its not a banned substance then you can’t suspend a guy for it. You would have to at least inform the NFLPA that it will soon be banned and that it will be tested for in the future. Without knowing all the details its hard to say who’s more in the wrong here (neither Edelman nor the NFL are in the right) because if you’re the NFL how can you suspend a guy for something you didn’t know even existed let alone banned? If you’re Edelman WTF are you doing taking something that isn’t 100% approved by the NFL. A lot of players won’t even step foot in a GNC anymore because who the hell knows whats in half of the supplements they sell? If you don’t know, then don’t risk it.

So the real question is what did Edelman test positive for? Adamantium? Vibranium? The symbiote that forms Venom?

Or is it a TB12 cocktail? I’m certainly not going to point the finger because it would be criminally negligent for Alex Guerrero and Tom Brady to be signing off on anything even approaching questionable as part of the TB12 Method. Doing so would essentially submarine a potential billion dollar business in a second.

But thats not to say the media won’t make the connection, allude to the connection, or nearly come to blows arguing over the mere mention of a possible connection.

Either way the Patriots have become a constant source of drama and gossip this offseason, which is the antithesis of what this team has been for the past 18 years. Thats tough to ignore because where there’s smoke there’s usually fire. But until that shoe drops, I fully expect the team to win 12+ games and be chasing another Super Bowl this year. So for all the critics calling for the end of the dynasty, saying every great team run ends the same; It only ends once. Everything before that is just progress.

Julian Edelman Just Got Popped for PEDs and is Facing a 4 Game Suspension

By on • ( 1 Comment )

ESPN – New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman is facing a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s policy on performance-enhancing substances, league sources told ESPN on Thursday. The suspension is currently under appeal as Edelman has taken “hundreds of tests” and has not tested positive before, a source told ESPN..Edelman, who has been a regular participant in the team’s offseason program, OTAs and minicamp, is returning from an ACL tear during the 2017 preseason that forced him to miss the entire season. He turned 32 years old last month and is entering his 10th season in the NFL.

Goddamnit, Jules.

This is not what the Patriots need right now. Not with all the drama surrounding Brady v Belichick. Not with Gronk nearly retiring to become a wrestler. Especially not with the receiving corps being comprised primarily of cast offs and new faces. If Edelman misses the first 4 games that means the Patriots receiver depth chart will look something like this (barring roster cuts):

  • Chris Hogan
  • Kenny Britt
  • Phillip Dorsett
  • Malcolm Mitchell
  • Jordan Matthews
  • Cordarrelle Patterson
  • Riley McCarron
  • Braxton Berrios
  • Cody Hollister
  • Matthew Slater

Besides the fact that we lose Edelman for a month, does anyone really care about the sanctity of the game? Football fans aren’t a bunch of MLB HOF voters wielding the vaunted morality clause, which is the biggest difference between football and any other sport. A baseball player tests positive and its the lead story on SportsCenter and that athlete is required to do the Game of Thrones shame walk with the crazy nun before they’re allowed to play again.

I heard Edelman got popped for PEDs and I just thought oh goddamnit, now we’re really gonna miss Danny Amendola. Totally unfair to baseball, but thats what happens when you build your entire sport around numbers and records and then a couple of juiced up sluggers completely destroy said record book by ingesting and injecting everything under the sun into their bodies.

I really just don’t care mainly because I’m jaded having grown up in the rise and fall of the steroid era. I read “Juiced” and “Game of Shadows” in high school and witnessed the fallout with all of these athletes getting outed over the years so many times that I just am numb to it.

The most similar example of then 31-year-old Edelman’s case has to be Rodney Harrison in 2007. Harrison was also suspended the first 4 games of the season for PEDs after coming off a serious shoulder and knee injury that ended his 2006 season at the age of 34. My point being, whether its naive or not, HGH is probably the No. 1 supplement to help an athlete recover from an injury. Is it banned? You bet. But if I’m in my 30’s staring down the barrel at the end of my career, then you bet your ass I’m taking whatever I can to get back to 100% as fast as possible.

What will be really interesting though is the connection, real or imagined, that is made between Edelman’s PED usage and his time working with Alex Guerrero and the TB12 Method. There’s probably no connection as it was made abundantly clear in Tom vs Time that Edelman loves to lift weights more than anything the TB12 Method could offer in terms of pliability and exercise bands. But, as we all know Guerrero has a shady past selling all kinds of shit so the questions will be asked no doubt.

PS – I will be using this as an opportunity to go on the attack if people start with the “Patriots are cheaters” bullshit, particularly in the wake of Peyton Manning’s HGH scandal. Jerry Thornton is doing God’s work over at Barstool keeping everyone apprised of that story. Basically Manning’s lawyers confirmed that Peyton took the HGH, which he publicly denied taking, saying it was for his wife. So a guy who had made over $100 Million in his career was getting his wife’s medicine shipped to some shit hole clinic in downtown Indianapolis IN A STRIP MALL. Get outta here with that nonsense.

 

The 300s Podcast: Red Sox on Pace for 100+ Wins? Are You Team Brady or Team Belichick?

By on • ( 1 Comment )

The latest episode of The 300s Podcast is LIVE! Click here to listen or download on iTunes or Google Play.

On this episode Red and Big Z discuss:

-For a team on pace to win 100+ games I don’t feel overly confident about this Red Sox team in the playoffs.

-The Sox cut their No. 3 hitter and it took less than a week for it to blow up in their face with both Dustin Pedroia and Mookie Betts now on the DL.

-Is JD Martinez the Best Red Sox Free Agent Signing Since Manny Ramirez?

-How concerned are Red and Big Z about all this Patriots drama?

-Are you Team Brady or Team Belichick?

Is Ben Roethlisberger Feeling More Pliable? Steelers QB Says He Wants to Play 3-5 More Years

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Ben Roethlisberger takes an absolute beating for a quarterback. Big Ben is the huge, lumbering, aging, savy veteran thats always extending plays in the pocket and running around before taking some big shots like he’s Cap Rooney.

As a result of that style of play, the last couple of offseasons have unsurprisingly been filled with questions of whether or not Roethlisberger would retire. Well the Steelers just happen to draft a quarterback in the 3rd round and Big Ben conveniently drops this line the other day:

“The way our O-line is put together, as good as they are, they kept me healthy as can be the last couple of years. I really feel I can play this game another three to five years.”

This seems to have shades of Tom Brady and Jimmy Garoppolo, who the Patriots drafted when Brady was *also* 36 years old. When asked why draft a QB, Belichick replied with this famous line that spawned the TB12 institute as we know it today:

“We know what Tom’s age and contract situation is. I don’t think you want to have one quarterback on your team. I don’t think that’s responsible to the entire team or the organization.”

That pissed Tom Brady off more than we’ll ever know and made him recommit to the game. Numbers don’t lie and Brady, albeit slightly, had started to slip a bit at that point in his career. The Pats drafting his heir apparent was likely the thing Brady need to drive him even harder. Starting in 2014, Jimmy G’s first year on the roster, Brady’s numbers improved across the board and of course our favorite vocabulary word was forever etched into the New England lexicon; Pliability.

So is Ben Roethlisberger feeling a little bit salty that his team is planning his funeral and sizing him for a casket while he’s still battling for Super Bowls? You’re goddamn right. Maybe he’s feeling a little more pliable than he was this time last week. Sorry Mason Rudolph, unless Cap Rooney gets his head taken off by a linebacker, you’re ass is riding the pine. God forbid Big Ben finds his way to a TB12 facility, the kid won’t touch the field until his second contract. And I can’t blame Ben either. Imagine your boss telling you this kid is taking your job?

Not a chance in hell kid.

 

Boston Movies 101

By on • ( Leave a comment )

Braxton Berrios, the senior wide receiver out of Miami who the Patriots drafted last week, has been billed as the next Wes Welker, Julian Edelman or Danny Amendola. Whether or not the 210th pick in the 2018 NFL Draft will have that kind of impact on the Patriots, or even make the team this year, is anyone’s guess. His tweet from yesterday brings up a good point, though. If you knew a guy who was moving to Boston, which movies would you recommend he watch to get a feel for the place?

[For this discussion I’m only going to consider movies released since Berrios was born in 1995. The Friends of Eddie Coyle and The Brink’s Job may have been great movies 40 years ago, but they don’t really help explain Boston to a 23-year-old today.]

Good Will Hunting Quintessential Boston movie that put two Boston stars – Matt Damon and Ben Affleck – on the map. Robin Williams won an Academy Award for his performance in this film. Possibly responsible for a resurgence of Boston movies over the last 20 years.

21 Based on the book Bringing Down the House, 21 follows the exploits of the MIT blackjack team. I debated whether or not to include this one on the list as the college students aren’t necessarily from Boston and a lot of the action takes place outside of Boston, but I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to showcase the Hub as a beacon of higher education.

The Town Ben Affleck is back in Boston (Charlestown to be specific) as a career criminal bank robber. This movie makes this list instead of The Departed because it features better accents and because the city itself is a bigger part of this movie. I don’t remember Frank Costello trying to take down Fenway Park.

Ted  A Boston comedy for the Family Guy generation. Mark Wahlberg turns in a solid performance in another Boston movie (after The Perfect Storm, The Departed, and The Fighter). This movie always sucks me in when I see it on FX. Eminently quotable and rewatchable.

Manchester by the Sea Yeah, this one is definitely a downer, but I’ve never seen an actor portray a Bostonian better than Casey Affleck did in this film. Casey Affleck won an Oscar for his performance in this film. Subtle townie references, including  Affleck’s Dugout Cafe t-shirt, reinforce this film’s spot on this list.

And Braxton, if you don’t have time to choke down these five films fear not. Seth Meyers can catch you up on most of what you need to know about Boston in less than five minutes.

Tom Brady’s Agent Don Yee Says He Expects Brady to Play in 2018

By on • ( Leave a comment )

ESPN – Despite a certain level of uncertainty within the New England Patriots’ organization, Tom Brady’s agent, Don Yee, said he expects his client Tom Brady to return for the 2018 season. “Tom’s intentions have not changed,” Yee said Monday. “He’s consistently said he’ll play beyond this contract and into his mid 40s, or until he feels he isn’t playing at a championship level. I understand the constant speculation, but this is one point he’s been firm about.”

Hallelujah. For all the snarky folks on Twitter saying Tom Brady is under contract and shouldn’t have to announce he’s going to play, it should be expected. Well, sure I mean technically you’re right, but here in reality we’re dealing with a 41 year old player who has been ominously tight lipped about his employment status for 2018. So while it shouldn’t be required, its definitely helpful for my sanity because if we’ve learned anything this offseason its to expect nothing without confirmation.

I don’t need any kind of tacit, unspoken agreement right now, I need someone to come out and tell me without a shadow of a doubt that Tom Brady will be under center this coming season. And while this isn’t quite that, its without a doubt the closest thing we’ve heard to date. Especially with this little thing called the NFL Draft coming up in 3 days. So yea it helps to know we’ll have a QB this year and the Patriots don’t HAVE to draft a new signal caller on Day 1. They still might, but at least we have Plan A ready to go. The last thing you want is to go from one play away from winning the Super Bowl immediately into the succession plan 7 months later with a rookie QB.

There is only one thing we say to Tom Brady retirement rumors.