There’s been much speculation about Adalius Thomas and his perceived rift with the Patriots. There have been reports linking him to a move to the Jets mostly based on his past with Rex Ryan. However, Thomas says that simply isn’t the case.
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Tom Brady is moving soon but that doesn’t mean he’s leaving the Patriots. At least not yet. Brady is in the process of building a mansion in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. Brady paid $11 million for the land that he plans to build on back in late 2008.
The new home will allow Brady to live closer to his 2-year-old son, Jack. He lives nearby with his mother and former Brady girlfriend Bridget Moynahan. Apparently, Arnold Schwarzenegger will also be one of their neighbors. You know, when he’s not at the Governor’s mansion in Sacramento. Here’s a shot of the lot where the home will be built:
Brady isn’t exactly trading down. But he is trying to sell his home in the Back Bay section of Boston. The $10 million penthouse was just put on the market a few months ago. Hmm… maybe Brady really is planning to get out of Boston.
Tags: back bay, brentwood, football, gisele bündchen, home, house, los angeles, new england patriots, NFL, tom brady
Yes, Jay Mariotti irritates me. But it’s even worse when he acts like he’s “calling” something that a blogger wrote about a month ago. The man who looks like he could be Patton Oswalt’s less handsome brother wrote that the Saints are “headed to 16-0.” Way to go out on a limb once they beat (what appears to be) the best team standing in the way. Here’s the majority of his simplistic reasoning when he isn’t knob-jobbing Drew Brees or name-dropping Hurricane Katrina (late on those too):
The legitimacy of the Saints as an NFL powerhouse no longer can be doubted. Not only did they pummel the Patriots, 38-17, but they also made a very robust claim that they could repeat New England’s 16-0 season of two years ago. Have you looked at the schedule? Next weekend, they’re at Washington, a lousy, poorly coached team racked by injuries. Then they’re at Atlanta, normally a difficult draw, but not when Matt Ryan and Michael Turner are injured. The only losable game is against Dallas, but it’s at the Dome on a Saturday night before Christmas, not a favorable assignment for the skittish Tony Romo and the buffoonish Wade Phillips. Tampa Bay at home? Rout. At Carolina? History.
Uh, was anybody doubting that the Saints, the team tied for the best record in the NFL, were a powerhouse? Yeah, I didn’t link Mariotti’s piece on purpose. That’s because WithLeather put forth better reasoning when the Saints weren’t even at the halfway point. And thank fucking goodness PUNTE managed to get through his post without writing “Who Dat” once. Plus, the WithLeather piece was INSIGHTFUL considering when it was posted. As for Mariotti, he’s spending 2000+ words telling us that the Saints are good. Seriously? He even goes so far as to call Reggie Bush, a guy who’s averaging 53.8 yards/game (the worst of his career), “game-breaking.”
I respectfully disagree with PUNTE and disrespectfully disagree with Mariotti. The Saints aren’t bulletproof. In week 8, the Falcons were only down a score going into the 4th quarter. The following week, New Orleans was only up by FOUR on the Rams heading into the final frame. They were even down by seven to the Panthers in week 10 until Drew Brees hit Robert Meachem for a 54-yard strike as time expired in the third quarter. There’s a reason that teams don’t go 16-0 all the time: it’s hard to win NFL games.
Sure, we can look into the future. But I absolutely HATE the concept of “schedule-watching.” Why? Because the Eagles lost to the Raiders, the Steelers lost to the Chiefs, the Packers lost to the Bucs, and the Patriots lost to the Jets. There’s little difference in skill level between most NFL teams and most underdogs have AT LEAST a 40% chance of winning each Sunday. You may say, “Oh, but they Jets had Kris Jenkins and Leon Washington at the time.” You’re right! That brings me to my next point: injuries can ruin everything. The Saints were an extremely vulnerable team without Sedrick Ellis from week 8 to week 11. They were also missing three of four of their starting CBs and Reggie Bush against the Pats. They were good enough to overcome those issues in the past, but it will be extremely difficult to keep it up.
Mariotti’s (lack of) reasoning makes me wonder if he even watches the NFL. He dismisses all of the Saints remaining opponents except for Dallas. That must be based purely on their records. In my opinion, the Redskins and Panthers are the teams most likely to take them down. Why? Because both Washington and Carolina rank in the TOP THREE in pass defense. Don’t think the Redskins have a chance? SURPRISE, the Skins aren’t as bad as “experts” would have you think. In the last three weeks, they’ve beaten the Broncos and lost to the Cowboys and Eagles by a total of four points. Washington also ranks seventh in the NFL in total defense. Though, the Skins’ chance to win takes a major hit if DeAngelo Hall is out next week. Think Carolina sucks too? They’ve actually gone 4-4 since starting 0-3. The Panthers also have the 4th ranked rush offense in the NFL while the Saints rank 20th in rush defense. Oh, and let’s not forget that the potentially 15-0 Saints would probably rest their key players for a good chunk (all?) of that week 17 matchup.
Clearly, I’m not going out on a limb predicting that the Saints won’t go undefeated — and I’d be quite impressed if they did. But I just can’t stand a mediocre sportswriter acting like he’s spitting truth. If you’re going to rip off a blogger, at least do it well.
Tags: 16-0, bloggers, carolina panthers, dallas cowboys, football, jay mariotti, new england patriots, new orleans saints, NFL, undefeated, washington redskins, withleather
America’s primary power couple (sorry, Kate & Alex) hit Miami this weekend. Tom Brady had the week off as the Patriots were on their bye week.
Tom and Gisele dined at Prime 112 on Ocean Drive and, amazingly, were left alone by other patrons. The couple was staying in Victoria Secret executive Ed Razek’s pad.
Gisele now looks EXTREMELY pregnant and can’t hide her baby bump anymore. She should start preparing herself to be abandoned by her douchebag husband.
You know that asshole that goes out of his way to make everybody feel underdressed? That’s Tom Brady. Yes, he looked sharp. But there’s a thin line between professionalism and alienating everybody around you.
The guy was wearing a $6000 suit before he goes to sleep on a seven hour flight to London. You may say, “Oh, but he’s the quarterback and a marquee player in the NFL!” And you’d be right. He’s a quarterback not James Bond. Couldn’t he have just rocked his standard TB12 hat?
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Alright alright, Brady just wanted to look good for the paparazzi when the team arrived 5:35 AM at Heathrow. Judging by his conference call with the British press, the Brits don’t deify the Golden Boy as one might expect. They didn’t even ask about Gisele!
It’s not likely that Brady will be greeted with Patriots jerseys when they arrive either. Jim Donaldson of the Providence Journal reports that the most popular fan item in London seems to be a Yankees hat. The Pats are set to face the Bucs at Wembley Stadium on Sunday. It’s also interesting to note that Tampa Bay Owner Malcolm Glazer owns soccer powerhouse Manchester United as well. However, the Patriots should destroy the Buccaneers.
Tags: airport, football, heathrow, malcolm glazer, new england patriots, NFL, suit, tampa bay buccaneers, tom brady
We saw some surprising things on Sunday in the Broncos and Patriots matchup. The Broncos busted out insanely ugly (but somehow, I liked them) brown and yellow jerseys. Kyle Orton threw his first interception of the season. It came on a hail mary at the end of the first half. He was also gloveless for the first time this season. Oh yeah, the Broncos won to go 5-0 and send the Patriots to 3-2.
Hilariously, Patriots cornerback Leigh Bodden said, “They kept running the same plays, and our offense is similar to it.” That’s right — the Patriots got beat at their own game with Kyle Orton doing the bulk of the damage. Kyle Orton finished 35 for 48 with 330 yards and two touchdowns. The Broncos did all of the scoring in the second half to send the game to overtime tied at 17-17. The Boston Herald said Tom Brady’s second half was the #1 problem of the game:
While Tom Brady [stats] finished 19-of-33 for 215 yards and two touchdowns, he was only 5-of-14 for 63 yards after halftime and wasn’t able to generate a scoring drive. Brady misfired a pass to a wide-open Wes Welker with about four minutes left that probably would have gone for a long touchdown.
Other than that, Eddie Royal had his first good game of the season with 10 receptions. Jerod Mayo returned with limited reps for the Patriots and caused Knowshon Moreno to fumble on his first play in the game. Moreno had a fairly good game as a feature back gaining over 4 yards per carry. And Jabar Gaffney made the statement of the day by twisting his socks so the stripes created a brown and gold candy cane spiral (below). Can the NFL fine him for not wearing the stripes in their intended vertical pattern?
The Patriot brought Fred Taylor in this season in another “genius veteran acquisition.” New England looked pretty smart when Taylor went for 105 yards against the Falcons on September 27th. Last week, The Fraud suffered an ankle injury on his last carry of the game.
The ankle will require surgery which Taylor characterizes as “more serious than a scope” and won’t be able to return until at least December. Personally, I thought bringing in Taylor was a good move. But it’s a move that says more about Laurence Maroney’s play than Taylor’s.
With Wes Welker hurting and Fred Taylor shelved, the Pats might be one injury away from disaster. Tom Brady has attempted a league leading 174 passes which is 21 more than the next quarterback on the list. The Patriots will be competitive in any case, but they’re becoming much easier to gameplan against. Maybe that’s why the Golden Boy is sporting an 83.7 QB rating.
Tags: football, fred taylor, laurence maroney, new england patriots, NFL, tom brady
Let's call this one "Before" and the "After" picture can be seen after the jump
How better to open your season than against your team’s long hated arch rival. For the 16A squad no bigger enemy exist then Tom Brady, his merry band of Patriot teammates, and Bellicheat Arnold. Yes. Opening Day was going to be a good one this year.
Opening Day is a time to forget the sins and sadness of the prior year, and a time for hope and anticipation for the upcoming year. The Board, fresh from its annual cleansing, was anxious and ready for the season ahead. A moment of silence was held for those team members who did not make it through the winter. No – not Mangini and Farve, they were free to rot in their new homes – but a serious moment of silence for two 16A squad members who had passed away in the off season. Bright Green “Skippy Squad” hats on head, tailgate goers honored Skippy’s long standing tradition: crack a beer and finish it while emptying the remaining beers into the coolers. Surely with his pull in Heaven Skippy wouldn’t let down the tailgate faithful.
Moment of silence over – Grillmaster’s call to victory ensued:
Grillmaster: “What are we going to do to these guys?”
Tags: new england patriots, new york jets, tail gateHetero-tainment will be a semi-regular feature that will allow me to write very little. It will cover sports in entertainment and also give me reasons to post pictures of attractive women. This is the first post — so quality should improve. No guarantees though.
Here’s a picture of Megan Fox from the Transformers premiere. It has nothing to do with sports, but are you really going to complain? And please do not try and start a “Megan Fox is not as hot as people say” discussion.
Megan Fox is moderately attractive
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Tags: dennis eckersley, gisele bündchen, kayak race, Kerry Rhodes, megan fox, mike birbiglia, new england patriots, new york jets, people magazine, supermodel, tom brady
