***OFFICIAL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS SEASON THREAD*** (13-4) - Patriots @ Broncos - Sun 3:05PM EST - Bra

All I know for sure is that this whole team is going to be have an EXTRA chip on their shoulder. My main man Jules but to get squirrely out here :smokin
 
good read on Jimmy....

Jimmy Garoppolo, Tom Brady’s fill-in, learned to play quarterback by imitating him

Adam Kilgore, The Washington Post

The phone call seems surreal to him now, because small moments so rarely become the start of something so meaningful. In 2007, Jeff Christiansen received a plea from Doug Millsaps, the head football coach at Rolling Meadows High in Illinois. “I have a sophomore starting linebacker on the varsity,” Millsaps told Chirstiansen. “And I think I may want to make him a quarterback.”

Christiansen, a former NFL backup, ran a quarterback training academy in nearby Lockport, Ill. He agreed to meet the sophomore. Into his facility walked a 16-year-old named Jimmy Garoppolo, the son of Tony and Denise, a baseball pitcher and slick-passing point guard who had never played quarterback.

“It’s going to be a lot of work,” Christiansen told Garoppolo.

“I know,” Garoppolo replied.

It is borderline spooky, Christiansen said, how all of the work from then on fused together. Garoppolo transitioned from linebacker to high school quarterback. By his senior season, Christiansen told him, “You’re going to be in the NFL.” Garoppolo went off to Eastern Illinois, an FCS school. Four years later, the New England Patriots drafted him in the second round. He became the backup to Tom Brady, the coincidence Christiansen viewed as almost cosmic.

The work Garoppolo undertook since he gave up being a linebacker landed him, ultimately, smack in the middle of the biggest sports story of the year. Brady will appeal the four-game suspension the NFL slapped on him Monday for his role in the DeflateGate scandal, so nothing is certain yet. But if the suspension holds, or only shrinks by a game or two, the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots as they begin the defense of their fourth Super Bowl championship will be Garoppolo, a 23-year-old from suburban Chicago.

The part that makes Christiansen shake his head and gives him chills is how Garoppolo trained. He did not learn to play quarterback, really. From the start, Jimmy Garoppolo learned to imitate Tom Brady.

At the Throw It Deep academy, Christiansen made Brady the template his quarterbacks studied. He showed Garappolo “tens of thousands” of images of Brady, he said. When he needed an example of how to read defenses, he showed video of Brady. When he taught how to use the angle of your shoulders to dupe a defensive back, he showed still photographs of Brady. The proper head placement on a play-action fake? Brady. Throwing motion? Brady. Every photo, every detail, was Brady. Always Brady.

Garoppolo digested everything. By the time Garappolo became the starting quarterback at Eastern Illinois, where he continued to work with Christiansen in the offseason, his form mirrored Brady.

“If you put the film side by side, there are some throws that are just eerie,” Christiansen said. “Like, frame for frame, everything is identical.”

The Patriots can only hope Garoppolo mimics Brady on the field. Playing in a division that saw all three foes improve on paper, the Patriots face a steep challenge in holding on to the AFC East crown. They face two playoff teams – the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys – in the first four games, plus the Jacksonville Jaguars and much-improved Buffalo Bills. How Garappolo adapts, pending Brady’s appeal, may determine New England’s fate.

“I know how he’ll handle it emotionally,” Christiansen said. “He’ll just handle it. You can bet your tail on one thing: He’ll be prepared. He’ll know his playbook like the back of his hand.

Those around Garoppolo still marvel at how he arrived here. He did not take a snap until his sophomore year of high school. “I was a decent athlete at the time,” Garoppolo told CSNChicago.com in 2013. “I could throw the ball well because of baseball, so it worked out.”

In two years starting, Garoppolo earned a scholarship to Eastern Illinois, a three-hour drive from his Arlington Heights home. New Orleans Saints Coach Sean Payton, Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo and Christiansen, a fifth-round pick by the Bengals in 1983, all attended Eastern Illinois.

Late in the recruiting process, Garoppolo received interest from small FBS programs. But Christiansen encouraged him to stick with his alma mater, where they would build the offense around him. As a senior, Garoppolo broke Romo’s school record for passing touchdowns.

In college, Garoppolo still came back to Lockport to work with Christiansen. One offseason, Christiansen asked Garoppolo if he remembered a conversation they had years ago about mechanics: how if a quarterback doesn’t close his front shoulder, the ball will sail. Garoppolo repeated the entire conversation verbatim.

“You don’t realize he’s putting it into a photographic memory and he’s never going to forget it, because it means so much to him,” Christiansen said. “He was recording all those little things in his mind. And all those little things added up to this.”

As a rookie, Garoppolo showed the Patriots the same aptitude. He appeared in three games during meaningless action, completing 19 or 27 passes for 182 yards and a touchdown. His value came in how he prepared the starting defense.

After the Super Bowl, Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich praised Garoppolo’s athleticism and how he mimicked Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson. Garoppolo used his quick release to beat cornerback Malcolm Bulter on a slant pass at the goal line – the precise play Butler recognized to make his indelible, game-clinching interception.

This winter, Christiansen was talking with Garoppolo, far removed from his days as a high school linebacker. “Do you remember when I told you you would play in the NFL?” Christiansen asked him.

“He gave me the, ‘Are you stupid?’ look,” Christiansen sad. “Like, ‘That was the plan, wasn’t it?’ ”

The plan did not include Garoppolo ascending to starter status owing to suspension and legacy-tarnishing controversy. But Garoppolo’s sudden rise still makes Christiansen shake his head.

“I can’t even talk about it,” Christiansen said. “I don’t want it to end. Very few things in your life go perfect. This one here went perfect.”
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My brother (Eagles fan) and I just booked our flights for the game in December.  He plans to watch the Eagles in every NFL stadium, and this will complete us seeing the four great quarterbacks of this era in person(Brady, Manning, Rodgers, and Brees).  Not sure what the set-up is like around the stadium, but do you guys have recommendations for somewhere to eat for lunch before the game?   
 
After talking reckless last season he realized where his bread is really buttered :lol:. Can never hate on added LB depth though and he's a solid run stopper.
 
ISU 42 said:
My brother (Eagles fan) and I just booked our flights for the game in December.  He plans to watch the Eagles in every NFL stadium, and this will complete us seeing the four great quarterbacks of this era in person(Brady, Manning, Rodgers, and Brees).  Not sure what the set-up is like around the stadium, but do you guys have recommendations for somewhere to eat for lunch before the game?   
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Patriot Place is pretty much like a mall surrounding Gillette; there's tons of places to eat and shop. It snowed for us when we went, which was great and not so great, but when the weather is nicer it's cool to just walk around before or after the game. Here's a list of restaurants that are in Patriot Place:

http://www.patriot-place.com/tags/Restaurants#.VVn6Q_lViko

We hit up Splitsville and their menu is more than legit for a pre-game meal :smokin

We were going to hit up CBS Scene but the line was already pretty long by the time we arrived.

One note on our trip to Gillette; it was an amazing game experience (11/2/14 vs. Denver) as the stadium was absolutely electric and no one sat down for the entire game. Definitely worth the price of admission and worth visiting again even if you're an opposing fan traveling.
 
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Posted this in the NFL thread earlier but it seems to have gone over everyone's head or more likely than not,no one gives a damn about the actual facts in this matter :lol: :smh:

http://itiswhatitis.weei.com/sports...m-employees-prior-to-discipline-being-issued/

Everybody says well if they did nothing wrong, then why are the Patriots suspending them and here is the deal behind that: Essentially, the NFL called the Patriots prior to the discipline being handed down and basically explained to the Patriots that in the best interest of the league the smart thing to do would be to suspend those two employees. New England went along with it,” Schefter said. “New England thought it was acting at that time, prior to the discipline, in the best interest of the league and so they went along with the league’s request to suspend both of those individuals. That essentially came from the NFL, not the Patriots. That is how it came down. That is how those two got suspended and that is the answer to the questions that people have asked as to why McNally and Jastremski have been suspended if they’ve done nothing wrong.”
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So basically Rog and his cronies at the league offices decided to make the team look guilty before handing down their punishment :stoneface:
 
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The NFL offices accomplished what they set out to do; tarnish Brady's name and distract the Patriots from their ultimate goal of the winning the Super Bowl. I wonder how many points they would have won by if they were able to focus solely on the game? Pete was gameplanning while BB was overseeing experiments with footballs . Didnt eem matter though, because when it came down to it, Bill's guys were STILL more prepared to make a big play based on practice reps and studying game film, not some miracle heave and catch. That says a lot IMO

Anyway,
Now that the NFLs ******** is coming to the light a little bit, Iwonder what the new punishments will be :nerd:
 
With Kraft's begrudging acceptance of the punishment handed down to the team,I'm expecting Brady's suspension to be reduced when Rog hears his appeal. If not then we can probably still expect a Brady v. NFL legal battle in court.

The more I look back on his time here,the more I like bringing back Spikes. He's one of the only dudes in the league I've seen do this to Beastmode :smokin
 
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Loved that we brought Spikes back :smokin

Our LB corps is real serious this year. Good luck trying to run on this squad :smokin
 
Bruh if we can just add a solid veteran presence at corner..this years D will be something to watch :smokin. On paper it looks like a surefire a top 10 unit,I'd even say top 5 if it wasn't for the legion of whom :lol:
 
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:lol: Revis

enjoy life as a Jet, my friend. forever grateful but why do you need to even go there? you realize YOU won your lone ring with us. with the team "that has a history of doing things". :lol:


just read that grant land article (even though i hate bill simmons and grant land by association :lol: ). has me nervous about Brady and his future. will this be the thing that crosses the line in his mind? not using the money you freed up for the team on weapons is one thing, but getting thrown under the bus and left out to dry is another. wonder if he sees it that way. hope he doesn't. hope Kraft let him know what the true motive is, assuming there is another true motive. this better not be the start of the "post Brady" era. when there were whispers of it early last season, it drove me crazy. not ready for it yet :lol:

the article for anyone who missed it:

Days of Our Foxborough Lives: Robert Kraft Surrenders; Tom Brady Discovered Under Bus Wheels

BY CHARLES P. PIERCE ON MAY 21, 2015

Earlier this week, in a hotel ballroom in San Francisco, possibly because both Appomattox Court House and the deck of the battleship Missouri were booked for the holiday weekend, Robert Kraft, the owner of the New England Patriots, simultaneously surrendered to the National Football League, common sense, and inevitability. By accepting the institutional penalties levied on his team by league commissioner Roger Goodell, whose feet have not touched the bottom of the pool since the World’s Dumbest Scandal first broke, Kraft grumblingly admitted some vague form of guilt for the purpose of keeping faith with his only true constituency — the dozens of extremely rich humans who own football teams. The way you know that this occurred is that Kraft capitulated even though the NFL’s own official report absolved the Patriots from any institutional blame. Kraft won himself and his team an acquittal and only then (one suspects) entered into a plea bargain. It’s all backward, unless Kraft’s true motivation was to maintain the power and influence he has built up within the structure of the league itself.


In New England, the reaction to Kraft’s surrender brought an even sharper edge to the comedy that has been essential to this whole episode right from the jump. In a number of Internet forums, Patriots loyalists have denounced Kraft as 20 pounds of sellout in a 10-pound bag. Many of the complaints are touchingly naive; these come from the people who bought the whole notion that Kraft was the one NFL owner who operated his team as a public trust, and not a vehicle through which he could make himself — and his fellow owners — wealthier. Many of the complaints are brimming with frothing outrage; these come from the people who claim that their stalwart defense of the Patriots online, or against the guy in the Colts shirt on the next barstool, has gone criminally unrewarded and now has been betrayed at the very highest levels. (These include the people who went to New York and got themselves busted at NFL headquarters while protesting the penalties.) I make it no worse than even money that Kraft gets booed at home whenever they raise the Super Bowl banner next fall.
Which would be a shame, because what Kraft did was wholly in the long-term interest of his franchise. Once the fanatics in the fan base realize that it is in their interest to have Kraft remain an influential insider, rather than turn late in life into a 21st-century Al Davis, the better off everyone will be. There was an argument made quite seriously in some quarters that, since the league is “out to get” the Patriots anyway, the team should embrace a heel role, the way the Raiders did before Davis steered that franchise into the absurdity and futility from which it may never emerge. Is sticking it to Goodell really worth paying that kind of price? Kraft apparently made the quite logical calculation that it would not be.

However, in doing so, Kraft does leave himself open to one serious charge that could cloud the team’s future considerably. At the moment, the only person still fighting the NFL’s sanctions is Tom Brady, who has taken his case to the NFL Players Association, as is his right. The four-game suspension that Goodell dropped on Brady is still the most disproportionate element of the whole affair, and the one that most clearly demonstrates that the commissioner remains over his head in his job. There is some informed speculation that a reduction in Brady’s penalty was part of the terms of surrender to which Kraft agreed. This would be the most logical resolution to the whole business, which is probably why it also is something that Goodell thus far has denied. (Goodell seems hell-bent on asserting the Eric Cartman prerogatives of his office, asserting that Brady has not respected Goodell’s authoritah as regards cooperating with the league in its investigation.) For the moment, then, Kraft has left Brady out on an island, alone, as the only alleged miscreant who hasn’t yet atoned for whatever happened in the first half of a 45-7 football game and, as the only person still fighting the NFL over it, the focal point for the ginned-up national outrage about “cheating.” The possibility still exists that Kraft and the team sold out the franchise’s greatest player — and, undeniably, its greatest asset — for the purpose of getting right with Goodell and the rest of the owners. Maybe Brady should go to New York and chain himself to a desk or something.


Right from the moment the silliness started, Brady and his team have seemed curiously at odds, their interests at loggerheads on some deeper level. At the initial press conference in January, after apparently studying up on the combined gas law in his spare time, Bill Belichick dropped the onus of the actual alleged shenanigans right into Brady’s lap. In retrospect, that could appear to account for the very odd aspect that Brady presented on the podium later that day. Pretty clearly, if there was some strategy being developed by the Patriots at that point, Belichick, representing the team, and Brady, representing himself, had received different memos.

For a while thereafter, however, the team and its quarterback seemed to have been on the same wavelength. Kraft defiantly demanded an apology from the league. Belichick went shell-mouthed, leaving thermodynamics once again to the experts. Brady won another Super Bowl with a performance for the ages. Even when Goodell first handed down his penalties, everyone involved on the Patriots side of things was singing from the same hymnal of offended innocence. But, clearly, beneath all the declarations of outraged solidarity, the schism apparent at the January press conference still existed. Agendas were at cross-purposes. Influences were in conflict. Faith was being kept with different constituencies by different people. We saw the results this week. Again, unless the outlines of a sub rosa arrangement become plain prior to Goodell’s personally hearing Brady’s appeal of Goodell’s own sanctions — “Kafka? Mr. F. Kafka? White courtesy phone, please” — Brady has been left out there in the wind to twist. He has been positioned by his own team as the last unpunished “cheater.” And even if there is a deal in place, what happened to Brady this week is unconscionable.

Were I as bullgoose paranoid about the Patriots as some Patriots fans apparently are about the NFL, I might wonder if this maneuver were nothing less than the opening days of the post-Brady era in Foxborough. He is 37 years old, and a cheaper option is waiting in the wings. This is a demonstrably unsentimental franchise, willing to cut ties even with valued and beloved players before those players go too far down the other side of the hill. One might think that Brady would be immune to this kind of thing. But one also wonders if the team’s virtual abandonment of him this week is a muted shot across his bow. This will become an infinitely more interesting question should Jimmy Garoppolo play well in Brady’s absence this season. After all, there was an active discussion of whether Brady was at the end of the road at the beginning of last season, when New England started 2-2. It grew conspicuously louder when Brady was lifted in favor of Garoppolo during a catastrophic 41-14 loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the fourth game.

I would reiterate here that I believe there was some jiggery-pokery done to the footballs used in the first half of the AFC Championship mismatch, and that it beggars belief that the quarterback didn’t know anything about it. I also would reiterate here that the whole fiasco has been such a self-evident waste of time, and money, and media attention that it’s hard to believe Donald Trump doesn’t have a hand in it somewhere. This is something that should have been laughed off the airwaves 15 minutes after the story broke. It was gamesmanship, pure and simple, worthy of a $25,000 fine and a stern letter of reprimand.

Instead, the whole situation has spiraled into a grotesque piece of paranoid performance art in which puffed-up morality collides headlong with institutional arrogance and disciplinary slapstick. At this point, so many people have invested so much in the performance that it may run longer than Cats did on Broadway. Regardless of whether a deal has been struck, we will have the Brady hearing, and then another ruling from Goodell, which is always good for a laugh. Then there will be whatever Brady and his people have decided to do next — lawsuit? Pistols at dawn? — and the NFL’s inevitable response. Then it will be time for what promises to be a circus of a training camp followed by an opening-night game against the Steelers that could devolve into an extended exercise in civil disobedience. And, at the moment, the only person who is out there fighting is Brady. This week, by accepting the league’s punishment, Robert Kraft lined up with his fellow owners against his own quarterback as surely as the Steelers will line up against the Patriots in September. He made Tom Brady into the Last Cheater. It is possible that this will not end well at all.
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I'll check the article later but they've been doing Brady kinda dirty for years. Dude sacrifice money and they don't even really use it properly 
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Dane Fletcher is back on a 1 year deal. I like the pick up, he has familiarity, can help out on special teams etc.
 
should be no surprise...but Brady was at OTAs :pimp:

wasn't sure if suspended players could attend but i guess they participate in training camp and preseason games, so makes sense
 
That's probably the best Brady-Manning game to date. Stuffing Edge on the goaline on their 3rd attempt,who was one of the best backs in the league at the time, for a hard fought W in Indy will always be appreciated 
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The last min of that game/goal line stand 
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I remember Willie saying he baited Peyton into audibling to a run play for Edgerrin because he came up on the slot as if he was in coverage 
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Big Vince jr? 
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Can't wait to see this dude clogging up the middle in the future 
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