Right in the middle of getting geared up for this weekend’s divisional round showdown, Pats Nation found out late this afternoon that they’re reportedly about to lose one of their own.
NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport first broke the news this afternoon:
Sources: The #Dolphins have narrowed the focus of their search to #Patriots defensive play-caller Brian Flores as their new head coach. No deal yet, nothing official. But that’s their target.
First and foremost, congrats to Brian Flores, who is getting his first crack at running an NFL team at just 37 years old. Truly. This could be the opportunity of a lifetime. The trend in the league lately seems to be hiring fresh faces as opposed to falling on bad habits and recycling older, failed former coaches. With guys like Sean McVay (32) killing it out in Los Angeles, and others like Kliff Kingsbury (39, Arizona) and Matt LeFleur (39, Green Bay) being hired as first-timers just this week, I guess the news shouldn’t be so surprising.
The young hotshot certainly started quite the trend.
Since first coming to the Pats as an assistant in the scouting department in 2004 – after a pretty solid career as a linebacker at Boston College – Flores has continued to ascend at a rapid pace, making his way onto the team’s coaching staff just four years later. He’s worn many different hats over the past decade, but he finally got his real shot at glory when he was given the responsibility of calling the defensive plays this year after Matt Patricia bounced to Detroit.
The fact that he’s only been in such a prominent position for such a short period of time makes the move even more interesting. But, in truth, he was even being looked at as a candidate by some teams last offseason, and his defense did allow the seventh-least amount of points per game in the league this year (20.7). And, again, teams around the league seem to finally be flouting the idea of “experience over everything,” and instead seem willing to roll the dice on newer guys with new ideas.
Seems like teams are finally learning to leave guys like Ole Jeff in the dust.
To be honest, though, the news has got to be a bit deflating to guys around the locker room right now. Here you are zoning in on the first postseason obstacle facing you in just two days, and you learn that one of your coaches is likely off to sunnier skies next year – win or lose.
Now, it is important to note that nothing is official yet. Flores has yet to sign any contract or issue any public statement regarding the news – and likely won’t say anything at all until, at the very least, next week – but the writing seems to be on the wall. He’s heading to South Beach.
I want to be clear that I am not criticizing him for taking the role, if he so chooses, and I really am happy for him. The timing is just a bit of a bummer – but, as they say, that’s showbiz, baby!
I’m sure, though, as a Belichick disciple, he knows how to ignore the noise and still get the boys ready for the Chargers on Sunday. We’ll be just fine. I’ll stop raining on the parade.
Congrats to Brian Flores. I’m just sorry that I have to hate you now.
Former #RedSox 3B Will Middlebrooks, who suffered a serious injury to his left leg in spring training with the #Phillies last season, is retiring. Played parts of six MLB seasons and had 17 HRs for the ’13 WS-champion Sox.
Though in a much, much smaller sample size and not nearly as popular a player as No. 5 ever was, I could never shake the parallel between the two guy’s careers. Just like Nomar Garciaparra, Will Middlebrooks was a young, homegrown talent that raked when he got to Fenway as a rookie in 2012. Hit for power, hit for average, looked like a staple in your lineup for years to come. Until a fastball caught them both in the wrist, vastly altering the projection of their careers. Nomar rebounded and made a few more All-Star teams, but was never again the same player as the one who flirted with hitting .400 before the injury.
Middlebrooks effectively fell off a cliff after the broken wrist. Before the injury Middlebrooks was hitting .288 his rookie year with 15 home runs and 54 RBI in just 286 Plate Appearance. His emergence at third base was part of the reason the Red Sox traded fan favorite Kevin Youkilis just two months before.
Thankfully Middlebrooks locked down a ride or die woman in Jenny Dell because he was never the same player. In 2013 he hit 17 home runs, just 2 more than he had in his breakout rookie campaign with nearly 100 more Plate Appearances, and his average dropped 61 points. Unfortunately he never hit double digit home runs in a season again, plagued by injuries, as his Batting Average hovered around the Mendoza Line for the rest of his career.
It’s a damn shame because I remember watching him and seeing huge potential.
Either way, Will Middlebrooks will always be remembered as a key cog in the 2013 World Series winning team as well as party to one of the weirdest plays in World Series history.
Can’t take away that championship ring though. Congrats Will, enjoy retirement.
Boston.com – After years of debate, state transportation officials Thursday announced the final design on the biggest highway project in Boston in a generation: rebuilding the Massachusetts Turnpike at ground level in Allston and elevating a section of Soldiers Field Road along the Charles River onto a new viaduct above the highway.
I think one of the cooler daily blogs (I think it is the only daily blog) that we put out here at The 300s is Red’s #RushHourRap blog. It’s always sweet to learn about some old school hip hop you don’t know about.
What you may not have gathered from that blog is that the reason Red has a knack for musical discoveries is that he spends half of his waking life stuck dead in traffic commuting to and from work, surfing satellite radio for anything that will entertain him enough to keep his finger off the detonator of a suicide vest. It is the brutal, tedious way so many of us go through our Corporate American life. It is especially draining in the avant garde design of the Boston commute infrastructure. It is the bottleneck of the rat race.
And now, the state is sure going to make it worse. Not only are they going to conduct construction in around the areas Red has to navigate Monday through Friday, but Massachusetts has a rich history of completely fucking these kinds of problems up. So not only we staring down the barrel of typical construction traffic, we are looking at a full fledged clusterfuck of heavy equipment, detail cops, and broken dreams that will for sure go about 100x over budget, which currently stands at $1.1 billion.
So is this it? Is this the “improvement” that finally sends our Founder and EIC over the edge? Is he going to be found Kony 2012’ng down Storrow Drive after having moved 100 feet in three hours? I hope not, but I won’t hold my breath.
Yahoo – New York Knicks center Enes Kanter is both a large man and an athlete. In order to keep himself in playing shape, Kanter requires more carbs than a normal person could dream up. Normally, his diet likely consists of healthy items. Lean proteins like chicken and starches like potatoes. Occasionally, though, he indulges himself in a cheat day.
Wednesday just so happened to be one of those days for Kanter. The 26-year-old made sure to show off his spread on Twitter. It was excessive. Kanter’s binging session doesn’t come with a happy ending, however. A day after eating all that food, Kanter left Knicks practice due to an illness, according to Newsday’s Steve Popper.
My dude Enes Kanter can EAT and he knows how to do a cheat day right. Three TRIPLE patty burgers with eggs on top, and then four more burgers with a tray full of fries on the side.
When you have a cheat day you want to eat so much greasy, fatty food that you are straight up sick the following day so you never want to eat unhealthy as long as you live. Well that is exactly what happened to Kanter. He literally made himself physically ill. Guy will probably eat like a monk for the next year. Savvy veteran.
Enes Kanter probably knows all about the Cheeseburger Picnic.
I remember I held off on seeing Thor until I had to no choice since it was a prerequisite for understanding the Avengers. Similar to when Iron Man first came out I had absolutely zero idea who the hell Thor was so I had pretty low expectations coming into this one. The story itself is a bit out there, but it presented the first opportunity for the MCU to really expand its grasp beyond that of Earth and it does it pretty well. It also does a great job of introducing SHIELD in a universal, nay galactic, role without totally shoehorning it into the movie. The highlight of the film though is definitely Chris Hemsworth, who was a complete unknown at this point, but became instantly enjoyable with his brash, aloof demi-god character.
Synopsis
Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, and Stellan Skarsgård as Dr. Selvig are storm chasing, looking to unearth some type of astrological phenomenon, when they end up smoking an unidentified person with their van, who we learn is Chris Hemsworth falling from the sky.
An Anthony Hopkins voiceover explains the concept of life beyond Earth, officially introducing intergalactic characters into the MCU. The Frost Giants are introduced as the original big baddie with a weapon of mass destruction. This blue cube looks exactly like a lot of other colorful glowing cubes in the MCU, but this is *not* in fact an Infinity Stone. It’s actually The Casket of Ancient Winters.
(The first reference of an Infinity Stone in the MCU won’t be revealed until the end of this movie actually.) So as the Frost Giants tried to take over the universe, including Earth, Odin defeats them (and loses his eye in the process…just like his son would also do years later!) and returns home to Asgard with the ancient relic for safe keeping.
Years later Thor is on the precipice of being crowned the new king of Asgard and Loki is visibly bullshit. But, wait! Before Odin can officially say the words to make Thor king the Frost Giants have “somehow” snuck into Asgard and they want their blue cube back.
We also meet The Destroyer, who protects all of Odin’s dangerous toys and subsequently kills the Frost Giant intruders. Don’t sleep on this guy because he’ll be back.
Thor defies his fathers wishes and goes to Jotunheim, home of the Frost Giants, looking for answers and starts a big old battle. Key scene here shows one of Thor’s warriors getting burned by a Frost Giant, yet when Loki gets touched his skin turns blue and we see the wheels start to turn in his head. The battle goes on before Odin not surprisingly has to come rescue the crew before banishing Thor for disobeying him.
I have to say, in the beginning of this movie, Thor sounds an awfulll lot like Prince Joffrey now that I rewatch it.
Full of arrogance, mean, and just itching to start a war before Odin shuts him down.
Back to Earth.
Along with Thor Odin sends his son’s hammer, Mjolnir, to Earth saying only he who is worthy of its power will be able to wield the weapon. (Not you, Loki)
In a direct reference to Excalibur (the director has a fondness for Shakespeare and such), Thor’s hammer lands in the New Mexico desert and people come from all over trying to pull it from the ground before SHIELD quarantines the entire area.
Natalie Portman has all of her scientific research confiscated by SHIELD and now that her and Hemsworth are acquainted, Thor promises to give her all the answers she seeks if she drives him out to the crash site where Mjolnir currently sits.
We’re also introduced to Hawkeye for the very first time in this scene as Thor tries to fight through the SHIELD base to get his hammer back.
How about Jeremy Renner? Remember when he was tapped to be the next biggest movie star on the planet? He was in The Town, Thor, Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol, and the Avengers back to back to back to back. Thats four absolute heaters in a row he starred in before making the snooze fest that was The Bourne Legacy followed up by Hansel and Gretel. WHO IS HIS AGENT?
Unfortunately Thor comes to learn without his powers he is unable to lift Mjolnir, which is what finally breaks his spirit from the cocky warrior that he has been. Luckily Dr. Selvig talks his way into getting Thor out of SHIELD custody.
THIS IS WHERE THE MOVIE HITS THE WRAP IT UP BOX
Thor’s righthand men and women (Lady Sif and the Warriors Three) take the bifrost bridge and teleport to Earth as they look to bring back their rightful king, which Loki doesn’t appreciate so he send the Defender to Earth to destroy them all. Once Thor’s crew promptly gets their asses kicked, the Thunder God offers his own life to spare the others. His apparent death is the selfless act necessary to grant the return of his powers and Mjolnir. Thor then makes quick work of the robot from The Day the Earth Stood Still.
This is where things get a little confusing. Loki cuts a deal with the Frost Giants to let them into Asgard so they can kill Odin…so he can become king…I guess. Then despite opening the goddamn door for them, Loki kills the Frost Giant before it can kill Odin. A cunning trickster indeed.
Loki reveals his grand plan is to open up the bifrost to destroy the Jotunheim.
Huh?
His plan was to rescue his father and then wipe the Frost Giants out to earn his father’s respect and become the true heir. I think? By starting war and committing genocide, which Odin was openly against from the start of the movie and is exactly what got Thor banished in the first place.
I don’t know, this never gets explained very well.
I’m pretty sure the third act of this movie is used solely to set up Thor’s reason for even being around during the Avengers. To stop Loki, Thor is forced to destroy the bifrost.
Odin wakes up from his dirt nap and a defeated Loki lets himself fall from the broken bridge as we’re left to wonder where he went.
Apropos of Nothing:
Heimdall is still the best. It’s a shame how criminally underused Idris Alba was in the whole MCU.
Loki really is one of the best anti-heroes in comic book history. After learning of his Frost Giant heritage he flips out on Odin and gives us one of the most popular GIFs of all time:
The whole exchange gives Odin a heart attack and as he drops Loki cries out for the guards. Despite all the evil shit Loki does in the following movies, you can’t help but feel for the guy.
The Breadcrumbs of the MCU…
“I knew this scientist, the pioneer in gamma radiation. SHIELD showed up and he wasn’t heard from again.”
What Has Aged Well
The one liners still land remarkably well.
Thor walks into a pet store and yells “I need a horse.”
“That still doesn’t explain how he was able to tear through our defenses?”
“STEROIDS!”
“Is that one of Stark’s?”
“I don’t know, he doesn’t tell me anything anymore.”
Thor calling Agent Coulson “Son of Cole.”
Thursday = Thor’s Day
What Has Not Aged Well
It took me seven years to figure it out, but I finally realized why Chris Hemsworth looks so weird in Thor 1 compared to all of the other movies he’s in. They died his goddamn eyebrows for some reason in the first movie, but then never did it again.
Thor 1:
Avengers 1:
Thor 2:
Oh my god the product placement. I must have seen that 7/11 sign no less than 30 times.
Asgard has fucking TERRIBLE security as the whole realm gets invaded in 2/3rds of Thor’s standalone films.
The Frost Giants look a hell of a lot like the White Walkers. Thor came out a month after Game of Thrones officially premiered, so GoT technically got the jump. After 7 seasons of Thrones they have the icy blue look on lock.
Rating
Thor was the first pleasant surprise of the MCU. Iron Man was great, but we had literally zero expectations for that. Hulk was always a disaster so anything after the Eric Bana mess would have been good enough. Thor was the first MCU movie that I was actively not looking forward to at all. A space god with long blonde hair directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, a guy best known for Henry V, Hamlet, and Shakespeare? Sounded like a recipe for a disaster, but ended up being very entertaining. Thor holds up surprisingly well seven years later and sets up the MCU to tackle stories beyond that of just Earth.
One of the first great concept tracks in hip hop history was Common’s human personification of the rap game. A classic song and a precursor to Common’s calling card; incredible story telling mixed with socially relevant themes throughout.
The 300s Dream Team already hit you with a Pats/Chargers preview podcast yesterday, but ya boy Mattes is here with a little bit of a deeper dive into what to expect on Sunday.
It seems like Pats Nation is banking on the fact that this game is in Foxborough, a place where the Pats are undefeated in their last nine playoff contests, winning each of those games by an average of over two touchdowns (15.8 points to be exact). In fact, it’s been over half a decade since they’ve lost at Gillette in January, as the team hasn’t been defeated in a playoff matchup at home since 2012 against Baltimore.
There’s also the fact that Philip Rivers has beaten the Patriots just once in his career. The 37-year-old Chargers signal-caller also owns an overall record of 5-5 in postseason play, with an 11-to-9 TD-to-INT ratio. So, he’s pretty much been just as good as he has been bad when playing after the regular season ends.
But anyone who’s taking this matchup lightly is foolish. I’m not saying the Chargers will win, but I am saying they probably have the best chance of doing so of any home playoff opponent that Brady’s ever faced in his career (or at least over the past few postseasons). The Chargers feature the league’s 11th-ranked offense and the ninth-ranked defense, possessing the ability to hurt you in many different ways. I’ve said it a few times already that this might be the most talented roster, pound for pound, in the AFC right now – yes, even more talented than Kansas City.
Seriously, these guys are GOOD.
On offense, it all starts with Rivers, who truly may be the best quarterback to never win a Super Bowl. While a great argument can be made that such an honor should instead go to Dan Marino, Rivers is top-eight all-time in both passing yards and touchdowns, and he will likely surpass Marino in both categories as long as he plays for at least another 2-3 years. He also chucked it for over 4,300 yards and 32 scores this season. His postseason track record may be pretty average, but his career clock is ticking, and he could come out guns blazing on Sunday.
His No. 1 receiver, Keenan Allen, finished the year with 97 catches and almost 1,200 yards. He’ll prove to be a tough matchup, even for an All-Pro like Stephon Gilmore. (Although Allen might actually see more coverage from Jason McCourty due to the fact he plays over 50 percent of the time in the slot.) Guys like Mike Williams (10 TDs in 2018) and Tyrell Williams are a nice pairing behind him, and the Chargers are bringing back tight end Hunter Henry this week as well. Though Henry hasn’t played since last December due to an ACL tear, he was a second-round pick in 2016 and did have 12 touchdowns in his first 29 career games; he gives Rivers just one more weapon in the arsenal for Sunday, especially down in the red zone.
The team’s stable of backs may be even more impressive. Melvin Gordon was a top-three running back over the first half of this season, before being slowed by injuries toward the end of the year. As a result, the Chargers were forced to work with backups like Austin Ekeler and Justin Jackson much more than expected. But they never skipped a beat, as all three backs have averaged over 4.1 yards per carry this season, with each also flashing as a receiver, posting over nine yards per catch. (Actually, both Gordon and Ekeler averaged over 5.0 yards per carry this year.) All three will be used against the Pats on Sunday, making it impossible for Bill to zero in on eliminating the opponent’s top weapon, like he usually does.
Everyone wants to focus on Melvin Gordon, and rightfully so. But Ekeler (above) can’t be slept on either.
On defense, L.A. is completely stacked, with two First-Team All-Pros in the secondary and two ferocious pass-rushers up front. While they may be a bit weak at linebacker, the Chargers are absolutely loaded in both the front and back ends of the D, finishing ninth against both the pass AND the run in 2018. They’re also particularly good against tight ends and the short passing game – literally the Patriots offense in a nutshell.
So how do the Pats match up with L.A.? What can our boys do to counteract the Chargers’ fire power? Here’s my rundown of what to watch for on Sunday.
(All About the Secondaries): Both the Chargers and the Pats feature one of the league’s top defensive secondaries, with three combined First-Team All-Pro players across both rosters. (Cornerback Stephon Gilmore for the Patriots; safety Derwin James and cornerback Desmond King for the Chargers. AND let’s not forget about Casey Hayward, who was a Second-Team All-Pro at corner for the Chargers last year. I told you, these guys are loaaadeddd.) Even outside of them, both teams have plenty of other Pro-Bowl-worthy talent at both the safety and cornerback positions as well. In fact, the Chargers are so loaded back there that they used at least seven d-backs on 58-of-59 defensive plays last week against the Ravens. And they did so with tremendous success, holding Lamar Jackson to less than 30 yards passing through the first three quarters. But again, the Pats have also been a stalwart against the pass; since the bye week, the Pats have allowed a paltry 206.6 yards through the air in those six games. They’ve also held guys like Aaron Rodgers and Ben Roethlisberger to 250 passing yards or less when facing off against them this year, ending any argument that “we just haven’t played good quarterbacks lately.” Both teams will absolutely live and die by their secondaries on Sunday.
The rookie, James, has been sensational this season.
(Sony Could Be the X-Factor): As I said above, according to the numbers, the Chargers have been equally as good against the run as they have against the pass this year. But there’s no doubt that, much like the Pats, they are severely lacking over the middle of the defense. Especially after their second-leading tackler, Jatavis Brown, was placed on I.R. this week, Sony Michel could do some damage on Sunday if he reaches the second level. Of course, James, the Chargers’ leading tackler, will be back there waiting as well, along with S/CB/LB hybrid Adrian Phillips, who had the third-most takedowns on the team. Michel will also need to get past the Chargers’ fearsome front four, which is no easy task either. But if the Pats can rely on the rookie to help grind out the clock, keeping the ball out of Rivers’s and his talented supporting cast’s hands as much as possible, the team could be OK on Sunday.
(Big Game for Brown and the Boys Up Front): According to NFL Next Gen Stats, the Patriots had the third-best pass-block win rate of all of this year’s playoff squads. We’ve mentioned before that the O-line has been a major strength for the team this year, with pretty much everyone playing well at all five spots. The Chargers also totaled just 38 sacks on the year as a team, good for just 19th in the league. But you cannot forget about Joey Bosa and Melvin Ingram, who have combined for 54 sacks over the past three seasons – and let’s not forget that Bosa missed half of this year due to injury. Ingram also had seven tackles and two sacks just last week, giving him plenty of momentum heading into this weekend. With Trent Brown set to become a free agent at the end of the season, he could literally make or break his next contract depending on well he protects Brady’s backside in this one.
We’re gonna need you this week, big fella.
Just a few more quick notes:
As mentioned above, the Chargers defense has absolutely dominated tight ends this season, finishing No. 1 overall in DVOA against the position. Brady should be able to spread the ball around well enough to combat L.A.’s strength against the short passing game overall, but don’t expect a big game from an already-ailing Rob Gronkowski on Sunday – like maybe at all.
After missing the season finale, Cordarrelle Patterson is back. Devin McCourty and Deatrich Wise are also expected to be OK after injury scares two weeks ago. Besides some lingering ailments throughout the roster, the Pats are expected to play with a full squad on Sunday.
In the playoffs, experience matters, and Sunday will mark Bill Belichick‘s 40th career playoff game as a coach; Anthony Lynn is heading into his second. It will mark the biggest discrepancy in playoff games (40-2) and playoff wins (28-1) in NFL history, according to Elias (h/t ESPN Boston).
Prediction
This is going to be a battle, and that 15.8-point average margin of victory in recent home playoff games is going to go down a bit. Not only that, but with both defenses being so good, this should be a lower-scoring game. (Don’t take the over!!!) With the Chargers being much more loaded on offense, though, they’ll be up by a score at halftime, before the Pats tighten up in the second half. Then, it’ll be a fight to the finish line, with the Pats punching in a late score, barely giving them the edge. In what will be the Pats’ most difficult divisional round test in years, they’ll scratch and claw their way to a 21-20 victory.
But hey when it’s the first time you’ve made the playoffs since the 2014 season when you got SMOKED by the Patriots, then you have to take what you can get. And right now a 1-0 in the playoffs banner is the best it gets in Indianapolis.
It will never get old dumping on the Colts because of all the fun we had dismantling them in the playoffs (except for the 2006 meltdown), the pumped in crowd noise, the owner’s fondness for driving around with drugs and cash, and of course being the rats behind Deflategate. Oh and don’t forget, Colt and Griff!
I try not to be too much of an arrogant Patriots fan, but this is just sad. Have some self respect guys. I know Lucas Oil Stadium is no Gillette, which literally had to be redesigned after the Patriots Super Bowl win over the Falcons because they had TOO many banners.
Before:
After:
It’s good to be a Patriots fan, but I would think a normal fan would at least settle for not hanging participation trophies to start.
ProFootballTalk – The Oakland Athletics expect Oklahoma quarterback Kyler Murray to declare for the NFL Draft this weekend….The report cites a source saying Murray is leaning toward playing football.
You know how the old saying goes, “the NFL Draft gets real shaken up when the Heisman Trophy winner suddenly decides to declare.” And that is exactly what is apparently the case folks. Rather than go play pro baseball for the Oakland A’s, who drafted him 8th overall, Kyler Murray intends to to enter the NFL Draft and possibly play pro football instead. The general public has been begging him to do this, as you know, he’s a Heisman winner, so while this is surprising it’s a logical choice.
What might be a little surprising is that Murray seems to be seen by many teams as a 1st round prospect. While other smaller, mobile QBs such as Baker Mayfield were denounced until the day of the draft because of their stature, Murray seems to have a clear path to Round 1. I mean, in this weak QB class he may now be the top talent to some teams. It could be that due to the success of Mayfield and a couple others, maybe pure stature just isn’t being looked at as much as long as the signal caller can make all the throws. Makes sense to me. Unless you have a 6’7″ center. Then no bueno.
There is also the possibility that teams don’t just see Murray as a QB. Maybe some team will look at the modern NBA and realize not all positions and players have to be concrete and static. A smart team may look at Murray and see a guy they can give a package of plays to at QB, which defenses will have to respect due to his arm and ability, and otherwise use at RB and WR. Think of any of the duel threat RBs in the league now, but then give them an arm and a lifetime of playing QB. Scary right?
This also puts a lot of question marks over the heads of incumbent starters on teams that have a new Head Coach. For instance, I know Kliff Kingsbury sang Josh Rosen’s praises, but would it be out of the realm of possibility that he has a thing for Murray and his ability to both run and pass? I for one can’t say “no” for sure.
Editor’s note: Some are speculating that Kingsbury could even trade Rosen and take Kyler No. 1 overall.
Kliff Kingsbury back on October 28, 2018:
“Kyler is a freak…..I would take him with the first pick of the draft if I could.”
The next hurdle for Murray is whether or not the A’s allow him to go to the combine, which is scheduled for when he should in camp with the team. This would also require the approval of the MLB, which just LOVES aberrations from the norm.
This is one of the difficult things I’ve ever written. Not in the eulogy sense – I’m not getting choked up or lost in a trance of nostalgia. It’s just, how do you reflect on the debut of, in the opinion of many, the greatest television show of all time and one of the most impactful occurrences in pop culture history.
20 years ago today the first episode of “The Sopranos” aired. It starred little known actor James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, a physically imposing, violent, scheming, yet emotionally complicated and psychologically, crumbling gangster prince from New Jersey. We followed Tony through his exploits, criminal and (semi-)legal, and daily life, flanked by fellow non-A-listers (at the time) such as Edie Falco, of HBO’s most recent hit at that point “Oz” fame, as Tony’s wife Carmella; The E Street Band Guitarist Steven Van Zandt as Tony’s right-hand man Silvio Dante; and Dominic Chianese, formerly known as Johnny Ola in “The Godfather Pt II”, as Tony’s Uncle and, reluctantly for both sides, mentor Corrado “Junior” Soprano. It should be noted that this cast was largely filled out by Mafia medium veterans such as Tony Sirico (“Gotti”, “Love and Money”), Kathrine Narducci (“A Bronx Tale”), and a crew of actors from “Goodfellas” including Michael Imperioli, Lorraine Bracco, and Frank “Now get your fuckin’ shinebox” Vincent. To go off on a bit of a tangent because I missed this earlier, Sirico of course was also in “Goodfellas”. In the show, he played fan (and my) favorite, Tony’s soldier, Paulie “Walnuts” Gualtieri.
Audiences became infatuated with Tony’s gangster life but also, and maybe even more so, his relationships. They were sometimes loving, but mostly violent and almost always manipulative. We came to know Tony’s view of the world and people around him in just pre- to post-9/11 Metro NY not just through observing his bull-in-a-china shop pirouette to power, but also through his sessions with his psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi(Bracco). Indeed this was one of the most important plots of the show, for those both behind and in front of the fourth wall, if not the genesis for the story being told: How could someone who finds success and fortune via a complete apathy towards the vicious and Machiavellian also need to seek therapy for severe panic attacks and bouts of manic depression? Could it be that just like so many out there, Tony’s flaws and undoing was simply caused by a toxic relationship with his mother, Livia (Nancy Marchand)? To us, particularly at a time when mental health was not as much at the dead front of the public consciousness as it is now, this was as intriguing as it was perplexing. It was a most startling juxtaposition and one that could have only been brought to life by a brooding, smoldering James Gandolfini, who was so invested in his performance of a lifetime that he admitted to being troubled by his character’s frequent callousness and malicious indifference
I think in the end what truly drew us to the show, the plot, and the man himself, as well what not so ironically what brought the Tony to see Dr. Melfi, is how torn he was. Was he a doting albeit expectant father to his daughter and son (Jamie Lynn Sigler, Robert Iler)? Was he a larger-than-life leader to his crew, as well as sometimes mentor to his “nephew”, Christopher Moltisanti (Imperioli)? Did he see himself as a Tony Montana-esque force of nature who would be the king no matter who lost their head? Or, in the end, was he just sick of it all? Of the path he chose for himself and that his father chose before him. Of the monotony and tediousness in the packs of cigarettes and trunks of stereos that came with being a gangster. Of the killing of the aloof and just-post adolescent that sometimes came with the job description. Could he be all of that at once? Could any human being contain that much contradiction? For parts of nine years and over 6 (the sixth being a double) seasons, viewers asked themselves this. Audiences obsessed over this question as if they could put Tony at peace if they could answer it. They became so engrossed in the on goings of these North Jersey gangsters that for an hour at a time, we forgot we weren’t a part of it. Full disclosure: Sopranos came out as I finished elementary school. I saw an episode here and there but then truly binged and digested the show when I was 25. My own anecdote of immersion is that I would save this tantalizing, life-changing show for Sundays, where I would binge 6+ episodes at a time. And what would I order to accompany it? Pasta. My blood is 100% Celtic but for the majority of the day every Sunday for a financial quarter (I missed a day here and there), I was a Pisan in my own mind.
The legacy of the “The Sopranos” is, basically, the absence there of. After David Chase’s tidal wave came and then went in 2007, Mafia shows and movies were put on hold, scrapped altogether, or simply never even considered. The genre was all but a taboo. Why? Because how could you top it? One could argue that, over a decade after it went off the air, the mob genre in Hollywood still hasn’t regained traction in “The Sopranos” shadow. I mean, “The Departed”, easily the most successful gangster movie since, killed off the Italians straight off the bat. I suppose you could make an argument with “Boardwalk Empire”, but that was as much of a period piece and a tale of political corruption than it was about the mob, despite having Mafia characters. The success, popularity, and perfection of “The Sopranos” have simply been, too much for Hollywood to top, at least head on.
After the show went off the air, and even during its final days, there were rumors and whispers, maybe just glorified hopes, of a possible movie. There usually is with shows that become as omnipresent in the day’s pop culture as Sopranos was. Those dreams died with James Gandolfini, who passed away tragically and suddenly of a heart attack in 2013. He was 51 years old. With Gandolfini, who brought Tony Soprano to life as Chase could have only dreamed, went our hopes of ever finding out what happened to Tony after “Don’t Stop Believing” and the final scene ever simply and without warning cut to black. It just wasn’t meant to be. David Chase is, however, now working on a movie prequel called “The Many Saints of Newark”. This will follow the story of Tony’s father and idol, Johnny aka “Johnny Boy”, Soprano as well as Christopher’s father Dickie Moltisanti and a host of other names Tony bemoaned as being from the past hey-day of “this thing of theirs”.
As of yesterday, it was even confirmed a young Tony Soprano would make an appearance.
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The 300s 