Win or Lose Super Bowl LIII, Tom Brady Will Be Back Next Season

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With a tumultuous offseason that saw Tom Brady skipping OTAs and going on a world tour to promote TB12, coupled with the reports of tension between him and Bill Belichick, there was plenty of speculation that 2018 could be Brady’s last season. Don’t get it twisted, Tom Brady is my favorite athlete of all-time, but it would be a gigantic dick move to retire a year after essentially forcing the Patriots to trade away his young replacement in Jimmy Garoppolo. Brady was incredible last season; he was the MVP of the league and brought the Pats to the brink of another Super Bowl title in 2017, but it would be fair for fans, not to mention Robert Kraft, to be a little pissed if Brady left the team high and dry like that with no succession plan in place.

I never thought I’d see the day I wrote this, but it looks like Devin McCourty may retire before Tom Brady does. The GOAT seems to have outlasted yet another teammate a decade plus younger than him. Incredible.

Now, Brady has long said he wanted to play into his mid 40s, but he then released the mini-series Tom vs Time that literally ends with him openly questioning his love of the game and why he’s still doing it.

Soo it was naive at best, disingenuous at worst, for Tom Brady to wonder why people would question his commitment to the Patriots now. However, Brady put that to bed and triple stamped a double stamp this week when he told ESPN that there is a 0% chance he’ll retire after Super Bowl LIII. I don’t know about you, but I breathed a sigh of relief and I’m a guy that thinks Brady will play until he’s collecting social security. It’s just nice to know that when Sunday night comes and I am screaming and resisting the urge to kick a hole through my TV in what will undoubtedly be another stress filled game, it’s nice to know that I won’t also have to be worrying if this is the last time I ever see No. 12 on the field.

Will Tom play play until he’s 45? He’ll be 42 when next season starts, which means he’d have to play another 3+ seasons to hit that mark so I don’t know about that. But, he still looks better than the majority of quarterbacks in the NFL over longer stretches and is still the best in the NFL in clutch, gotta have it situations. So he should be in no rush to retire.

TB12 will always be there. Tony Robbins will always be there. But the NFL won’t.

So for now Tom Brady is still the King in the North and is my quarterback from this day until my last day.

SUPER BOWL WEEK DISTRACTION – Breaking Down Gronk’s Senior Basketball Profile

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Blogger’s Note: I meant to start these yesterday as we lead up to the game on Sunday. This is the most stressful week of (almost) every year and we could all use a distraction or 7. This one is Pats-related but  I promise the remaining three will be absolute nonsense and will take your mind off things….

To leverage one of the most prolifically used, intoxicating television quotes of all time, “He is a loathsome, offensive brute. Yet I can’t look away.”

That line, first used to describe not just a painting, but a perfect encapsulation of the essence of Cosmo Kramer, also applies seamlessly to this Portrait of a Young Gronk. From the head to the answers to the rest of the pose, this would give an alien who randomly landed on earth this very day an accurate representation of what the greatest TE of all time was and grew to be.

To start with the picture, I’d like to first point out that Gronk barely ages. If you look at this picture and then a picture of him now, his shaven head, which is a choice, is really the only difference. I’m sure people would point to other features of his face, but what I see is a kid still half asleep at probably 8:00am, dragged into a gym and told to put his uniform on for team pictures. The Gronk abides. Then we get to the hair. I have no doubt Gronk’s hair looked exactly like this all through high school. Papa G would agree this is known as the “Mark Hoppus circa 2004”. In Gronk’s case however, he isn’t a pop punk God who just tapped into his love for the Cure, he’s a 17 year old man-child pre-programmed to dominate varsity athletics and who doesn’t care what his hair looks like because it will either be smashed inside a helmet or matted with sweat at some point in the day any way. Probably multiple times.

Then there is the pose. HO MAN the pose. Can you imagine the energy that radiated through Robert James Gronkowski when he found out that he was invited to give everyone a sneak peek to the gun show on an otherwise unremarkable week day morning? He probably found some small dumb bells, or some resistance bands, or a freshman and got a few quick sets in to give himself some pump and tone. He through on that jersey and flexed, giving his best Blue Steel for the camera. Amazing.

Finally we have his answers. His “parents’ names” are, I suppose, not noteworthy if it wasn’t for the fact that they weren’t a bit out place. In 2019 that would be called a majjjjjor info sec breach. For “college choice” not only does Gronk peacock that he is leaving the dreary Northeast for the University of Arizona, but he is doing it on a full athletic scholarship. I can imagine he actually told the person asking him these questions (0% chance he wrote them out himself) something like “full boat for football” and the transcriber cleaned the answer up a bit. No harm no foul. Then comes the last question. The piece de resistance. Rob Gronkowski’s “hobbies”. I mentioned he was a pre-programmed sports machine and indeed he mentions sports as his #2 hobby.  That is, of course, only because #1 is working out, i.e preparing to dominate in said sports more efficiently. Then comes #3. The last but certainly not least. Chicks. Nothing in particular. Just chicks. Gronk like to talk about them. Gronk likes to talk to them. Gronk likes to do un-Christian things with them in back seats. It is and always will be his passion, his calling. If Belichick ever got him to take a vow of celibacy he’d probably go off for 120/1800/25 every year. He was close as it is.

So that is it folks. Your daily distraction in the form of breaking down a hoops profile of a young Gronk. Yo soy fiesta indeed.

-Joey B.

#RushHourRap – Logic – Keanu Reeves

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Logic is still the most underrated rapper in the game today who, aside from his 1-800 song, has yet to really get much shine by the mainstream. I did just see last night that Eminem recruited him as an opener for his Hawaii show so that’s pretty massive. Either way, Keanu Reeves is another dope track by Logic that dropped from the clouds the other day.

Did Deion Sanders Just Reveal Devin McCourty May Retire After the Super Bowl?

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What the HELL guys?? I don’t know if this was an open secret or not, but this is the first I’ve heard of Devin McCourty potentially thinking about retirement.

He’s only 31 so this came as a completely jaw dropping moment for me in my living room. This all came about 10 minutes after Julian Edelman broke Deion Sanders brain so I think he felt the need to redeem himself with a Woj bomb of sorts.

McCourty did suffer a concussion towards the end of this season though, the first that I can recall him ever having, so that may have changed things for him. Well shit. We’ll update you guys if we hear anything else.

The 300s Super Bowl Opening Night Live Blog

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Opening Night has become a media tradition ahead of the Super Bowl as we wait to see who says the most outlandish stuff. We’ll be updating this blog throughout the night so keep checking back.

#RushHourRap – J. Cole – Middle Child

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Any time Jermaine drops new music I am all ears and his latest track Middle Child does not disappoint. For a guy thats been putting out bangers for over a decade now (holy hell I feel old) he is still at the top of his game. I missed his most recent show in Boston, but I will never forget seeing him at the Paradise in 2014 for $1. Seriously, he was on his Dollar and a Dream tour and literally sold tickets for a dollar. He then proceed to kill it.

BREAKING: Anthony Davis Wants Out of New Orleans

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After years of dreaming, wishing, and hoping that NBA superstar Anthony Davis would eventually make his way up to Boston, we got a major WOJ BOMB regarding the Pelicans’ All-World forward early Monday morning:

*HEAVY BREATHING*

But, in the words of the great Phil Collins:

“Hold on my heart.
Just hold on to that feeling.
We both know we’ve been here before.
We both know what can happen.”

Everyone knows that anything Wojnarowski says is pretty much Bible. BUT, before you go throw on your Green jammies, I’m going to crush your dreams (and mine) and inform you right away that the Celtics are not allowed to trade for The Brow right now, no matter what they’d be willing to offer.

Why? I’mma let Boston.com’s Nicole Yang explain the reason why:

Both Davis and Irving signed their contract extensions under the “Rose Rule,” named after point guard Derrick Rose because he was the first player to sign such an extension. The “Rose Rule” allows certain players coming off their rookie-scale contracts to earn 30 percent of the salary cap as opposed to 25 percent. To be eligible, a player must have achieved one of three accolades during the first four seasons of his career: MVP award, Defensive Player of the Year award, or two All-NBA selections. (When Davis and Irving inked their extensions in 2015 and 2014, respectively, two All-Star starter nods was in place of DPOY.)

NBA teams cannot trade for more than one player who has signed an extension under the “Rose Rule” — a limitation that is only applicable when the players are still on their “Rose Rule” extensions. The Celtics acquired Irving via trade in August 2017, so they cannot deal for Davis — or any other player that has signed such an extension — until Irving leaves or agrees to a new deal. Irving will become an unrestricted free agent at the conclusion of this season and has expressed his intention to re-sign with the Celtics. The earliest he can do so is July 1, 2019.

Seriously, that SUCKS, but such is the reality right now. Sorry to ruin your week already.

Again, it doesn’t change the fact that the Celtics are the team with likely the best combination of current players AND future assets to offer New Orleans. And, with the way the team has been playing this year, I’m pretty much ready to deal anything and everything we’d need to in order to get it done.

But, alas, we can’t do a damn thing.

Everyone now assumes that the Lakers will make a Godfather offer in order to bring Davis to L.A., which would pair him up with the King. The Lakers may not have the same abundance of draft capital the Celtics have right now, but they do have plenty of young talent that could tempt the Pelicans into moving the 25-year-old. But truthfully, who knows where he could end up? When a player this good hits the trade block, pretty much any team would jump at the chance to get him.

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Seriously, this man is a true franchise-changer.

Davis is also signed through next season, with a player option for 2020-21. This makes him even more enticing, as whoever obtained him in a trade wouldn’t just be getting a rental. However, this also means the Celtics can’t just wait until next summer and try to sign him because: 1) he won’t be a free agent and 2) something could happen well before then anyway.

All the team can do is hope that he stays with New Orleans through the rest of this season. Then, after July 1, hopefully we’ll have already locked Kyrie up for the long term and we’re able to put together a package to acquire Davis before next season. And it’s really not all that crazy of a scenario, as the Pelicans don’t “need” to trade him any time soon, and they know they’re unlikely to get as good of a deal from anyone else as the one they’d get from the C’s.

So, sorry to break it to you, Celts Nation. But hey:

Stay tuned…

Missed Chances Kill Celtics in Heartbreaking Loss to Golden State

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Never in my life have I seen a team blow so many chances and do everything they could not to win a game as I saw in the Celtics’ 115-111 loss to the Golden State Warriors on Saturday night.

Yes, the Warriors are really good. And, sure, some people may look at the fact the team only lost by four as a “good” thing. Some may also say the team was coming off a five-game winning streak, which started with a sound victory against No. 1 seed Toronto 11 days ago. But let’s also not forget that three of those wins came against some of the very worst teams in the league (Memphis, Atlanta, and Cleveland).

Back to Saturday night. The Celtics were able to keep it pretty close the whole contest, save for a nice little run by Golden State in the second quarter, helping the Warriors build a nine-point lead at one point. The Celtics battled back, however, and cut the deficit to only two at the half.

From there on out, it was a battle. The Warriors did get the lead back up to six by the end of the third, after Jayson Tatum almost single-handedly kept the C’s alive throughout the quarter with 14 points in those 12 minutes. Then it was a fight to the finish in a neck-and-neck fourth quarter, with Al Horford and Kyrie Irving leading the way. (And I also can’t forget to mention the clutch three-pointer that Marcus Smart nailed in Draymond Green’s eyeball to tie the game at 111. Seriously, that was a sick shot.)

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Tatum stepped up big when it counted last night.

Yet when you really look at how that fourth quarter went down, the Celtics simply gave the game away. Plain and simple. It actually physically hurt to watch.

First, there’s the fact that they committed SIX turnovers in the quarter, and finished the game with a grand total of 14  – with nine (!) coming from Kyrie and Big Al alone. To be fair, Golden State committed 14 turnovers on Saturday night as well, and the total was not at all far off from the Celtics’ turnover-per-game mark of 13.4, which is actually the fourth-best in the whole league. But, as they say, timing is everything in life, and six giveaways in the final eight minutes are not going to do you any favors. Period.

It’s even worse when you consider that Golden State made just five shots from the floor in the fourth quarter, for a total of 11 points. However, they were able to sink 14 points at the line – aided by some horrendously soft calls from the officials, yes – and the Celtics even out-rebounded the Warriors 15-13 over the game’s final frame.

But the final half-minute of action tells the whole story. Just look at this cluster-eff of events that happened in the game’s final moments: with Golden State up just two points and 32 seconds left, Durant tries to throw the game away (literally) with a horrible pass that sailed out of bounds; the Celtics get the ball and Kyrie misses a two-pointer; Draymond Green then tries to grab the rebound and muffs it out of bounds; Celtics get the ball back AGAIN and Marcus Morris misses a three; Green gets the rebound again, is immediately fouled by Horford, and MISSES BOTH FREE THROWS; but, of course, the ball is rebounded by Steph Curry, he’s fouled by Kyrie, hits both shots at the line, and the game was pretty much over.

WOOF! Just brutal.

While the team did prove that they still have the firepower to hang with the league’s best, it was an awful way to end the game. And the team still sits fifth in the Eastern Conference, barely making up any ground on the four teams ahead of them, even with their five other victories over the past week. Besides two respective matchups against Charlotte and Oklahoma City, the Celtics have a beatable slate of opponents coming up over the next two weeks. Hopefully they can bounce back quickly from this one.

A few more quick notes on the Green:

  • After being arguably the Celtics’ best player besides Kyrie over the first half of the season, Marcus Morris is starting to come back to down to Earth a little bit, averaging just 9.5 points over the team’s last seven contests. After failing to score in double-figures just once from Thanksgiving through the first week in January, Morris has surpassed 10 points in just four-of-the-last-nine games.
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Still love ya, man, but what happened?

  • Terry Rozier is also really struggling to find his place on this squad. It’s been up and down all year long for the 24-year-old, with much of that likely having to do with the inconsistent minutes he’s been given, seeing well over 30 minutes of play some nights and just barely over 15-18 in others. Also, it has been U-G-L-Y for him over the past two weeks, as he is shooting an abysmal 18 percent from the floor (YUCK!) over the past nine games. He is a guy who needs a ton of volume to be successful, and he just ain’t gonna get it here. Danny, I think it’s time to move the young guard and at least get something for him before he becomes a restricted free agent this summer. (Remember, in the NBA, if a team fails to match an offer sheet, the other team is NOT required to provide any compensation.)
  • The same goes for Gordon Hayward. One of the team’s all-time biggest free-agent acquisitions is simply not living up to the hype. He was absolutely invisible against Golden State, going 0-for-5 from the floor in 22 minutes of action. And besides two 18-point games this month, he’s failed to crack double-digits in six-of-his-last-eight games. Maybe he’s still healing. Or maybe he’s just not used to playing on such a loaded squad. Regardless, he’s been a major bummer.
  • On a good note, Marcus Smart may finally be developing a three-point shot! I already mentioned the huge one he hit on Saturday night, and the defensive intensity and grit-and-balls attitude he brings to the table every night has long been well-known. Most people probably aren’t aware that he is shooting 41 percent from deep since Thanksgiving, even though he is at just 36.3 percent for the season overall. If he keeps trending in this direction, Smart could become the true X-factor on this team.
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Yeah, I see you, Marcus!

  • Things have taken a bit of a turn for our boy Robert Williams – aka the “Time Lord.” After playing in only six games since Christmas, he was officially sent back down to the G-League just three days ago. But we know it’s only temporary, young fella! You’ll be back up in no time, and we’ll be waiting with baited breath.

So there’s your quick little Celtics round-up after Saturday night’s heartbreaker. Be sure to keep checking in with The 300s for all your news on the Green all season long.

What the Hell Does LeBron Think He’s Doing Sending My Man Videos?

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LeBron was on his IG stories singing some Fetty Wap song about lost love and tagging my man Kyrie Irving. Just look at these lyrics:

I know you’re with him now but soon you will be mine
If I could bring it back, I’ll probably press rewind

What the fuck man? This would have been odd a few weeks ago, but after Kyrie went out of his way to tell the word he called LeBron to 1.) apologize for past behavior and 2.) publicly bitch about the young guys on his own team, I am not liking this one bit.

Best case scenario? Kyrie has buried the hatchet with every Celtics fan’s blood rival so they can play grab ass on social media. Worst case scenario? These two are boys now that Kyrie understands the burden of leadership and LeBron is using that as a recruiting ploy for this summer.

Color me concerned.