Another week, another chance to check in and see who’s doing great and who’s doing shit.
Trending Up:
Tom Cruise
Mission Impossible 6 is getting glowing reviews across the board and if you bet me 10 years ago that we’d be getting a sixth installment starring this couch jumping lunatic, well I would have joined Scientology. This franchise has been getting better and better with each release and it just goes to show you that there are still quality action films out there to be made that don’t involve Tony Stark.
Star Wars Fandom
Episode 9 officially started filming Wednesday with J.J. Abrams back in the Director’s chair. Confirmed to return are Mark Hamill, Back-From-The-Dead Carrie Fisher, and everybody’s favorite space pimp, Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian. I’m hoping for a satisfying conclusion to the sequel trilogy as the last chapter left a lot to be desired for me personally. More Adam Driver is always welcomed though.
Jose Reyes
Reyes made his pitching debut this week and it could have honestly gone a lot worse. Mets got completely blown out for the worst loss in franchise history and we’re at the point where I’m just here to see how low and hilarious this can get. Reyes gave up two homers and followed it up the next day by hitting two homers, which is the first time anyone’s done that since 1876. Hard to believe this team was in the World Series in 2015. Amazing Mets indeed.
At this point it is rarer to go into this chain and come out healthy than it is to get sick. 683 people have now claimed to have gotten sick eating at an Ohio location which is absolutely believable. Are we cooking chicken in Easy Bake Ovens or something? Guac remains extra, but diarrhea is free of charge.
The Wilpons
Two years ago, the New York Mets were in the World Series. They lost, but they were good enough to get there. Between countless injuries, mishandling of players, and constant penny pinching, it’s time Major League Baseball stepped in and did something about the worst ownership in professional sports. This team is a piggy bank to Wilpon family (a piggy bank that Bernie Madoff enjoyed dipping his hand into over a decade ago, but ownership would like you to think happened last week). Mets fans are tired of the nonsense, and these two frauds will not see another dime of my money til something is done.
Yahoo – EA Sports apologized on Thursday night for the editing out of Colin Kaepernick’s name in the soundtrack of its “Madden 19” video game , calling it “an unfortunate mistake.” The gaming company also said that it will provide an update for the game that will add Kaepernick’s name back into the song. “We made an unfortunate mistake with our Madden NFL soundtrack,” EA Sports said in the statement. “Members of our team misunderstood the fact that while we don’t have rights to include Colin Kaepernick in the game, this doesn’t affect soundtracks. We messed up, and the edit should never have happened.
Morons. Absolute morons that just cannot get out of their own way. I honestly don’t think anyone inside the NFL offices can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Yes, I’m 100% pulling out my Jump to Conclusions mat on this one…
but, I’m sure the NFL heavily influenced this situation by EA Sports to censor the song. Even if they didn’t its just a bad look for everyone involved. Not to mention, it’s excellent fodder for Colin Kaepernick’s lawyer in their collusion lawsuit against the NFL.
Nothing screams that you’re blackballing a guy like going so far as to censor the mere mention of his name from appearing in your video game IP.
Unintentionally hilarious explanation of the lyrics that were censored too:
“The song, “Big Bank” by YG featuring 2 Chainz, Big Sean and Nicki Minaj, is one of several songs featured on “Madden 19.” In the song, Big Sean raps the following lyrics:
Feed me to the wolves now I lead the pack and s***
You boys all cap, I’m more Colin Kaepernick
In these words, Big Sean expresses his admiration for Kaepernick as someone who is focused on being true to himself instead of playing up his accomplishments, as explained by genius.com.“
“As explained by genius.com.” We’ve all been there. Listen, I love rap, its my favorite genre of music, but even I don’t know what the hell guys are talking about half the time.
Would it have been easier to just, ya know, not include the song? Sure, but that would be too easy. Theres too many lawyers in those closed door meetings looking for the most convoluted solutions to every problem. Occam’s razor, boys. The easiest solution is usually the best solution. Instead they had to overthink it and created national headlines about Colin Kaepernick once again.
Keep messing up like this and ESPN NFL2K is gonna rise from the dead to come for that ass.
After playing grab ass for the past few months with reported interest from Decker on signing with New England and with the team officially working him out this week, it all came to ahead when Jordan Matthews blew a hammy and the Pats cut him. The Patriots were looking pretty damn barren at receiver with Edelman out for the first month of the season. They would have been relying on Chris Hogan, Philip Dorsett, Cordarrelle Patterson, Kenny Britt, and whoever else winds up actually making the roster. Can’t have that. Can’t pretend its 2006 again and give Brady a bunch of scrubs and expect him to carry the entire team.
So I love the move, I’ve always been a big Eric Decker guy. Only had 1 TD last year, but he caught 54 balls for 563 yards. Not bad with a mobile QB in Marcus Mariota throwing you the ball. Cut out 2016 when he was limited to just 3 games because of injury and Decker had 4 straight years of 74+ catches.
Not to mention Josh McDaniels drafted him in Denver and knows Decker’s strengths inside and out so I would expect him to be a great fit. He’s always been solid, he’s got good hands, he’s handsome AF and his wife is an absolute must follow on twitter.
I’m a thug wife livin my life poppin babies out & holding a mic I’m chill about the weather. I got big dick decker to hold me tight #poetrypic.twitter.com/Rj9JUoxdWo
Jessie James Decker is a true ride or die that you don’t see the likes of these days and I for one am psyched to have the Deckers in my life once again.
I say once again because I have watched multiple, multiple episodes of Eric and Jessie while hungover on the coach and it is an excellent show. I suggest you all catch up so you know what we’re dealing with here.
Plus it would be an added bonus to take a guy the Jets couldn’t get much out of and make him a stud again as the Patriots tend to do.
WCVB – One of the most secure facilities in Boston is beginning to experiment with one of the world’s deadliest viruses.
Boston University‘s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories announced Thursday that it had received samples of the Ebola virus and the related Marburg virus. Researchers said the first step of their research will be propagating the rare but life-threatening viruses to produce enough material for their planned experiments. Tens of thousands of people were infected and more than 11,000 died in West Africa in a 2014–2016 Ebola outbreak, the NEIDL said. The outbreak also traveled to Europe and the United States, prompting the lab to call the virus a “global public health threat.“…The NEIDL was granted permission to work with the most dangerous pathogens on Earth about eight months ago.
Oh cool, I am really glad I don’t live like 2 miles down the road from Patient Zero. This is how plague movies start. Am I the only one that saw 28 Days Later or I Am Legend or Contagion?
This is how it starts guys. Some cocky scientist throwing caution to the wind takes a few risks that don’t exactly pan out and he gets us all killed or running from undead creatures.
Look, I’m not naive enough to think stuff like this isn’t happening, but at least keep it under wraps. Just lie to me. Lie like a rug. I do not want to know about shit like this. And maybe don’t experiment with one of the deadliest viruses in the world in my backyard. Maybe do it in one of the flyover states that nobody visits to begin with. Just a thought.
I just imagine Noah Emmerich slowly going insane just researching Ebola all by himself in the crypts of Boston University.
Hopefully they have the self destruct button though when the lab coats take it too far and nearly infect Comm Ave.
Last week, we kicked things off with a look at what is likely to be a committee approach at running back for the Pats this season – a group which, come to find out, might actually have a pretty cool nickname – even with shiny new toy Sony Michel in town.
Now a full week into training camp, most people are focusing on exactly whom is going to replace the production of both Brandin Cooks – who was responsible for 1,082 receiving yards and seven touchdowns last season – and Julian Edelman – who may not have played last year but was expected to be Brady’s main target once again in 2018 and now won’t be available for the team’s first four games.
To be entirely honest, while guys like Jacob Hollister and Phillip Dorsett are getting quite a bit of love from local-area beat guys over the past week, I still feel like it’s just way too early to speculate on anything on that front.
We’ll get there, but this time around let’s focus on who’s going to protect Brady’s ass (literally) this season. I’m talking, of course, about the battle at left tackle.
It all really comes down to two guys: rookie Isaiah Wynn and fourth-year man Trent Brown, the latter I have decided to give the nickname “Juggernaut” (for all my X-Men fans out there).
Just in case you’re wondering, he’s listed at 6’8″, 380 pounds, per the team’s website. Good Lord.
(Also, here’s a picture of Juggernaut for those who aren’t a nerd like me):
After Nate Solder departed via free agency this offseason, as expected, one of the team’s top offseason priorities was finding someone to protect Brady’s blindside. All in all, Solder was a pretty solid left tackle who, except for an injury-plagued 2015 campaign, kept TB12 pretty clean for the past seven seasons.
Still, he wasn’t worth the nearly $16 million a year the New York Giants decided to give him, and the Pats instead chose to select Wynn out of Georgia with the first of their two first-round selections in the draft this past May. While Michel might be getting most of the attention, Wynn was actually the top BULLdog (GET IT??!!) in the war room that night.
Horrible pun aside, I actually liked the pick. Even though I definitely thought we could have addressed other positions of need first, after doing a bit of research on Wynn it was hard not to get excited.
First and foremost, he’s extremely versatile, as he played both tackle and guard in college – and we all know Belichick loves versatility. Most experts projected Wynn to strictly be a guard at the NFL level due to his “smaller” size (6’2″, 310 pounds), but the guy was a Second Team All-American as a tackle last year and absolutely DOMINATED Alabama in the national championship. Even though his Bulldogs lost the game, Wynn looked flawless and didn’t allow one sack against one of the very best defenses in the country, which featured two 2018 first-round picks as well as another fourth-rounder.
Seriously, check out how good he looked (he’s No. 77):
If that didn’t do it for ya, I’mma just leave this right here:
1,104 pass blocking snaps by Isaiah Wynn (at guard and tackle) since 2014.
Before even selecting Wynn with the 23rd pick in the draft, Belichick traded the 95th overall pick to San Francisco at the end of April in exchange for the 25-year-old and a fifth-rounder (which ended up becoming Ja’Whaun Bentley, a linebacker out of Purdue).
After being selected by the 49ers in the seventh round of the draft in 2015, Brown didn’t play very much until the end of his rookie season. However, he took over the right tackle spot completely in Year 2, starting all 16 games at the position in 2016 and continuing to do so last season until he was placed on injured reserve with a shoulder issue in December.
As if going from seventh-rounder to starter in less than a year wasn’t impressive enough, how about this quote from Von freakin’ Miller (h/t San Francisco Gate):
“He’s the best right tackle in the National Football League. And he may even be a top-five tackle, period, in the National Football League. There’s not another tackle who’s that tall, that big and can move the way he moves.”
That’s some pretty insane praise from a guy who many consider to be one the very best defenders in the league, if not THE best.
As of right now, it looks like the big(ger) fella is in the lead. Even though he has been a right tackle throughout his career, it seems like the team is confident that Brown’s beautiful synergy of size, strength, and mobility make him a perfect fit for the left side.
So where does that leave Wynn? If he loses out to Brown for the left tackle spot, is he going to replace Joe Thuney or Shaq Mason at guard – two really good lineman in their own right who were both ranked as top-15 players at their position last season, according to Pro Football Focus? Probably not. He’s also not going to replace David Andrews at center or Marcus Cannon at the other tackle spot.
So then what the hell? Would the Pats really spend such a high pick on a reserve offensive lineman? I certainly hope not, but here are a few different ways I can see this playing out:
Maybe the Pats decide to move Thuney or Mason via trade this summer. Though Mason is definitely the better of the two, he is also in the final year of his current deal; since we all know Belichick won’t break the bank for offensive lineman, maybe he’ll try to get something for him now.
Wynn really does serve as the team’s top reserve/swing lineman in 2018, and he simply takes over one of the guard spots next season after Mason walks.
Besides that, I really don’t see any other logical explanation for the embarrassment of riches the Pats currently have up front.
Either way, it’s a good “problem” to have, and it’s nice to know our elder statesman at quarterback will have some good protection in front of him once again in 2018.
Be sure to check in with The 300s next week for Part 3 of the series before the Pats kick off the preseason schedule against Washington next Thursday night!
ESPN – Former NFL linebacker Shawne Merriman has signed a deal with the World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) to compete in a boxing match later this year. Merriman, 34, has teased the possibility of competing in combat sports, notably mixed martial arts, for years. A three-time Pro Bowl selection with the San Diego Chargers, Merriman — whose nickname was “Lights Out” during his playing career — retired from professional football in 2013… A date and opponent for Merriman’s bout has yet to be determined. The event will take place this fall in Casper, Wyoming, and is expected to air via pay-per-view online…
Merriman was a standout linebacker at the University of Maryland and a Chargers first-round draft pick in 2005. He notched 39.5 sacks during his first three seasons, despite serving a four-game suspension in 2006 after testing positive for a banned substance. Injuries derailed the final five years of his career; he played just 33 games during that span.
Let me just Papa Doc my headline real quick before any of you have the opportunity to chirp me. Yes Julian Edelman is currently serving a suspension for taking a banned substance, yes Rodney Harrison served a PED suspension, yes Tom Brady was suspended for deflating fucking footballs
(Now that thats out of the way, back to the blog.)
But none of that changes the fact that Shawne Merriman is one of the biggest enigmas of our generation. The guy was an absolute savage, a preposterously strong, athletic, and menacing linebacker that tormented the league for years. Racked up 10, 17, and 12.5 sacks in his first 3 years in the league then he got popped for PEDs and had 6 sacks over the next 5 years. Maybe it was the PEDs, maybe it was injuries piling up (33 games over the final 5 years), but either way the guy was never even close to being a replacement level player ever again. Thats a pretty clear line of demarcation. Sorry, Chargers fans.
Not to mention the reason all Patriots fans loved to hate Shawn Merriman; the silly “Lights Out” sack dance.
The guy would put on this whole show after sacking a QB. But god forbid anyone mocks his pre-planned, organized dance, which is exactly what the Patriots did after yet again upsetting the favored Chargers in the playoffs in 2007. The Chargers all flipped out because doing the dance that was thrown in everyone’s face all year long was not classy.
“I would never react in that way. I was very upset,” Tomlinson said. “When you go to the middle of our field and start doing the dance Shawne Merriman is known for, that is disrespectful. They showed no class and maybe that comes from the head coach.”
Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers said he saw some Patriots pointing to the scoreboard, mimicking the dance and stomping on the Chargers’ logo at midfield.
“Every time I will play New England it will be a personal grudge,” linebacker Shaun Phillips said, according to the Union-Tribune. “That was very classless.”
Either way, I will absolutely be watching this bare knuckle boxing match as long as its not more than like $20. While I enjoy ragging on Merriman still all these years later, I will watch him try his hand at combat sports. Dude probably has a bundle of frustration built up over the past decade just waiting for someone to catch these hands after the way his football career ended.
We’ve been talking about going to one of the northeast Comic Cons for years now, but its always either a tough date, the lineup is terrible, or we all just flake and bail on doing it. Not this year. The 300s will be headed to Boston Comic Con on Saturday, August 11th with Red and Papa G to nerd out, shoot some video, and hopefully get a wave from Amy Jo Johnson.
We’ll be looking for the best, worst, and weirdest cosplayers, interviewing anyone moderately funny, and hopefully getting a reaction out of the celebrity guests by bringing up their most obscure roles.
If there’s anything you think we need to do or see or you just wanna get in on the video tweet it at @The300sBoston and let us know!
USA Today – Mercedes-Benz Stadium’s crown jewel when it opened last year was the futuristic retractable roof that looked super-cool when it opened and closed. Except the roof had a ton of problems – there was a leak during the college football championship game and the thing had problems opening and closing.
The Falcons finally figured out how to work the sunroof on their own stadium. Just shy of a year since it opened too!
All these hype videos are cool, but fail to mention the fact that the roof itself takes EIGHT MINUTES to open. This is 2018, I don’t have eight minutes.
Apparently the guys building the stadium last year realized they weren’t going to have time to finish it so they just mailed it in.
“The issue with the roof… is ensuring that the weight distribution along each section of the rail is precise to keep the panel level and keep it from wearing down the rails.
“We got to a point, quite frankly, where we said, you know what, let’s just sit that aside for a little and get everything else in 100 percent tip top shape, and then let’s just come back and work on the fine tuning of the roof afterwards.”
Almost have to respect the move. But hey its all good now, the Falcons have a nifty roof! The envy of the Brewers, the Blue Jays, the Astros, the Cowboys and retractable dome teams everywhere. Definitely worth $700 million in taxpayer money.
USA TODAY – It’s not exactly pennies from heaven, but McDonald’s is planning to make it rain coins to celebrate the Big Mac’s 50th anniversary.
Starting at the lunch rush on Thursday, customers can receive a MacCoin with the purchase of a Big Mac at 14,000 participating restaurants across the United States, McDonald’s announced Sunday.
And what’s the coin good for? Another Big Mac.
Customers can redeem the new currency for a free Big Mac starting Friday and running throughout the rest of 2018.
A+ move by McDonald’s once again. These MacCoins are going to turn the #1 into the adult Happy Meal and they are going to be hunted down like McDonald’s Beanie Babies in 1999. In 1999, though, I had to convince my mom to take me to McDonald’s. This time around I’ll be able to eat as many Big Macs as it takes to collect all five MacCoins.
I’ll bet these MacCoins will be hoarded like those Beanie Babies, too. More than six million MacCoins will be distributed, but how many will actually be redeemed? Why redeem it for a free Big Mac now when I can put it into a change jar for 14 years and then sell it on eBay for $28?
It would be really cool if they didn’t have any expiration date, like cash. McDonald’s could create its own shadow currency, backed by the full faith and credit of Ronald McDonald. What better way to put the Big Mac Index to the actual test? How many MacCoins would it take to buy a house?
Just make sure to watch out for the Hamburglar. That guy would turn into Vito Corleone in the new Big Mac Economy.
But with an expiration date of December 31, these coins will turn into MBTA tokens pretty quickly. Maybe if we’re lucky, someone on Etsy will turn them into cuff links next year. No way you can run a McDonald’s if you’re not rocking Big Mac cuff links.
So it looks like I’ll be heading back to the McDonald’s I got my Big Mac sauce from last year for lunch on Thursday. Maybe dinner too.
The 300s 