Tag: Patriots

New England Patriots Were Nearly the Bay State Patriots Which Reminds Me of AJ Wright

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ESPN – Forty-six years ago today, the Boston Patriots officially became the New England Patriots. Not a bad day for a history lesson of sorts. Initially, the Bay State Patriots was the choice of some involved in the process. But according to McDonough, NFL commissioner Pete Rozelle didn’t like that name, and felt if there was going to be a change, the name should be reflective of the entire New England region.“It was mixed. Some people thought it was a good deal, and then others thought we were the Boston Patriots and that should be it,” recalled Gino Cappelletti, who played for the franchise from 1960-70 and is in the team’s Hall of Fame.

With yesterday marking 46 years since the Boston Patriots were renamed the New England Patriots, it only made sense to discuss what could have been. Apparently the Bay State Patriots was a favorite, according to Mike Reiss’ article. I’m pretty sure the only organizations that refer to themselves as the Bay State anything are high school sports leagues so its probably for the best the Pats went in another direction.

But man that would be some choice throwback/irrelevant swag. Makes me miss the good old days of AJ Wright, may she rest in peace. If you aren’t familiar with AJ Wright, its basically Marshalls and TJ Maxx on steroids. Along with that came some of the most outrageous purchases of my life. Some Starbury’s for $10 bucks, an $8 Randy Moss jersey and of course the greatest one of them all…Larry Legend with the stache:

Fashions fade, style is eternal.

 

 

Ep 005 of The 300s Podcast Has Arrived!

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Episode 005 of The 300s Podcast is straight fire flames. We talk the early mayhem that is NFL Free Agency, Jimmy G on the trading block, Bruins surging after canning Claude Julien, the Celtics making zero moves at the trade deadline, Red Sox Spring Training and why the World Baseball Classic is a disaster.

Marquette King Punting Moon Shots Will Change Your Opinion of Punters Forever

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So Oakland (read: Las Vegas) Raiders punter Marquette King was showing off his bionic leg for some charity event recently and holy hell. All punters more or less look like guys that just wondered off the soccer field and fell into a million dollar salary ass backwards. But when you see shit like this from up close, my god I will never (not true) disrespect a punter again.

Marquette King may be my favorite non-Patriots player in the entire league when you pair that video with his electric, flag inducing celebration dances.

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Hey Raiders, you move to Las Vegas and I’ll be first in line to get a Marquette King jersey.

Super Mario to the Patriots, Revisiting the 2006 Draft and Talking MTV’s Two a Days

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Another aging, overpaid and undermotivated former NFL star is cut and whats the first thing everyone in the league does? Looks to see what Belichick does. At first glance this does look like a player that the Patriots would take a chance on, especially with some potential holes to fill in the defensive line this offseason. But Mario Williams is now 32 and his numbers have gone down across the board the last 3 years. He doesn’t strike me as a high motor veteran in a shitty situation like Chris Long this past season. But hey if he wants to take a massive pay cut and reserve his spot on the Duckboats for next year, far be it for me to stop him.

Super Mario did outlast his incrediblyyy hyped up peers from the 2006 draft though. I still remember ROASTING the Texans for passing on Reggie Bush, who had just finished one of the greatest college careers of all time at USC.

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What a wacky draft. Then of course there was Vince Young at No. 3 who had the highest of highs winning Rookie of the Year and landing on the cover of Madden before having some personal issues and fizzling out. He is on the comeback trail now though!

There were some pretty good players in that draft with Pro Bowlers like D’Brickishaw Ferguson, Jay Cutler (pre-smoking Jay Cutler meme days), Vernon Davis, Donte Hitner (Whitner). But holy shit do I feel old looking through the rest of this draft class. These guys have either been in the league for 10+ years or are already retired: Haloti Ngata, Tamba Hali, DeAngelo Williams, Nick Mangold, Devin Hester, D’Qwell Jackson (the original fall guy for Deflategate), Maurice Jones-Drew and my man Antonio Cromartie.

Required to post any time Antonio Cromartie is mentioned:

I’d be remiss without mentioning the thunder to Reggie Bush’s lightning, my man LenDale White. And how about these two HOF picks from Belichick himself; Laurence tap-dancing Maroney and Chad Jackson. Yuck.

Chad Jackson’s No. 1 claim to fame to this day is still having been on MTV’s Two a Days back at Hoover High (RIP Angels and Airwaves).

PS – Ever wonder what happened to those guys? This is absolute porn for anyone that used to actually watch Two A Day’s like me. And yes Hoover HC Rush Propst is 100% Bud Kilmer from Varsity Blues.

Adrian Peterson to the Patriots? This Move Would Be More Albert Haynesworth Than Corey Dillon

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A move like this just screams Joey Galloway, Albert Haynesworth and Chad Ocho Cinco more than it does Corey Dillon or Randy Moss. A guy who at one point was one of if not the premier player at his position who now is a bit older and admittedly has some baggage. We’re not even gonna get into the details of whether or not AP is a good guy, because beating the shit out of your kids does not a good person make you. As a pure football fit, I just don’t see it. The guy looked toast last year and *then* he blew out his knee. So running backs on the wrong side of 30 with multiple knee injuries don’t really do it for me.

Plus its not like AP is gonna take the veteran’s minimum to play alongside Tom Brady. He just does not seem like that kind of guy. I’d rather the Pats stick with what they have, maybe sign some other decently talented (and younger) running back like oh idk KARLOS WILLIAMS. Rather than bring in this guy and try and force a square peg into a round hole. Would it be nice to have the Adrian Peterson from 2012? Of course, but this guy is not that guy. He’ll be 32 when next season starts and he has taken a *beating* over the past 10 years with over 2,400 carries. The next guys on that list who are either still active or just recently retired? Matt Forte, Marshawn Lynch and Chris Johnson. Not great company.

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Plus the Pats did just fine if I recall correctly, winning a Super Bowl with LeGarrette Blount carrying the ball primarily. A guy that Felger and Mazz ripped on and complained about how terrible he was from Day 1, despite rushing for 18 TD’s and almost 1,200 yards. I think TB12 and the Pats can make due without Adrian Peterson.

PS – Never forget the most frightening NFL commercial of all-time with AP just angrily running towards the camera in slow motion.

Patriots Super Bowl Parade Recap

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What a time to be alive. Another Super Bowl victory lap for the New England Patriots with millions of fans coming out in a bitterly cold and miserable day. And seeing 5 Lombardi trophies all together at once is rarer than getting all of the Dragon Balls together.

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Jacoby Brissett rocking the Tom Brady jersey, Gronk sacrificing and partying for the fans, every single RB shouting out James White, Ninkovich getting AFTER IT, Brady and Belichick cementing themselves as GOATs and the fans capping it all off with the chant of “We Want Six.”

Patriots Win 5th Ring with the Biggest Comeback in Super Bowl History

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“Its only fitting the greatest player in the history of the sport and the greatest team in the history of the sport had maybe the greatest victory in the history of the sport.”

Leave it to Michael Felger to start his show today with a statement that sounds like something your buddy says after a bakers dozen Bud Lights. But its not hyperbole. That was Tom Brady and Bill Belichick cementing themselves as the greatest QB and coach of all time in perhaps the greatest Super Bowl every played.

Down 25 points and on the brink of death the Pats just keep coming back. 28-3, 28-9, 28-12, 28-20, 28-28 and finally 34-28.

The Patriots are Jason Voorhees. No matter what you do, no matter how bad it is, the Patriots are never out of it. You cannot kill them. Down 20+ points, I was taking solace in the fact that the Falcons were burning timeouts like they were firewood, as my friends did their best to ignore my delusional rants.

But I keep coming back to how much this game reminded me of one from 2012 against the 49ers. It was a game the Pats ultimately lost 41-34, but similar to last night, after getting down 31-3 the Pats ripped off 24 points in the fourth quarter. So while I realized they were all but done, evidenced by the numerous Ari Gold gifs I tweeted out,

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it was hard to forget that Niners game. The Pats are better than anyone in the league at getting hot and turning a game on its head. And thats exactly what they did last night.

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In a game full of spectacular plays I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about one of the biggest of the night; Edelman’s circus catch in the 4th quarter. It may not have been a 4th down do or die play, but it was a huge gain that kept the Pats momentum going (and burned the Falcons final TO via challenge). Watching that last night I found myself thinking we *deserved* that play. After getting hosed by so many ridiculous circus catches over the years at the absolute worst time, David Tyree, Mario Manningham, Jermaine Kearse, we *deserved* this catch.

And holy shit was it close. Kept the drive going, Pats bang it in for the score, get the 2, OT, game over.

Now the Patriots are in rarified air; truly in a class of their own. We’ll enjoy the t-shirts, the hats, the parade, the Super Bowl DVD but then we’re on to Minneapolis and Super Bowl 52. On Feb 6th the Patriots are 6-1 favorites to win their 6th ring in Minneapolis. Drive for 5 and One for the Thumb were perfect for this year. But next season? Minneaposix

Drive for 5 is Complete. ROGER THAT

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What a game. What a comeback. What a night. First OT game in Super Bowl history. Biggest comeback in Super Bowl history. Most Super Bowl wins by a QB ever. Most Super Bowl MVPs ever. The Drive for Five. Fire Goodell. One for the thumb. And to cap it all off the absolutely nuclear commercial from Tom Brady. #ROGERTHAT.

Would This Be Tom Brady’s Most Impressive Super Bowl Win Ever?

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So we talked about this on this week’s episode of The 300s Podcast, but would winning Super Bowl 51 be Tom Brady’s most impressive Super Bowl win ever? When you look around at his supporting cast on offense you have:

  • Julian Edelman (7th round pick)
  • Chris Hogan (undrafted lacrosse player)
  • Danny Amendola (undrafted)
  • Martellus Bennett (4th team in 8 years and acquired for a 4th round pick)
  • Dion Lewis (traded and cut by multiple teams)
  • LaGarrette Blount (originally acquired via trade for JEFF DEMPS and then resigned after he was cut by Pittsburgh)
  • James White (4th round pick)

If you want to go by what Keyshawn Johnson said this week, not one of these Patriots receivers would even make the 53-man roster of another NFL team. Bennett was an unwanted malcontent on a last place Bears team. Lewis and Blount were castoffs and White is Brady’s latest shotgun running back that he’s molded to his whims. It’s like he builds these guys in a lab somewhere with Ernie Adams.

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Oh and he also missed four games, which could have easily derailed the season or at the very least caused Brady to not be at the top of his game. But nope, he went out and played at an MVP level.

And did we mention that he doesn’t have his best weapon, one of the most most dominant players in the NFL in Rob Gronkowski? Name one other team that could stand losing a player of Gronk’s caliber, I’ll wait. Instead the Pats haven’t missed a beat and finished with a top 3 offense in the league.

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Brady’s done this his whole career with guys like Troy Brown, Deion Branch, Wes Welker, Shane Vereen, Danny Woodhead etc. The one time he had a Hall of Fame talent was with Randy Moss in 2007 and he threw 50 fucking touchdowns.

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So would winning a Super Bowl title without his best weapon, a stable of late round picks, undrafted players and castoffs from other teams all while missing a quarter of the season be Brady’s best ever? Without a doubt. Now hit the music.

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