PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

Archives for July 25, 2017

5 Most Intriguing Patriots of Training Camp

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-JomKcygQ0&t=91s

I drove by Gillette this morning and the excitement in the car was palpable. Inside the stadium, I imagined the Patriots’ rookies getting thrown into the deep end of the NFL training camp pool, preparing for their conditioning tests and the month-long grind upon which they’re about to embark.

The Patriots entered this offseason with a huge amount of cap space, so we knew there were going to be significant additions and extension and the team did not disappoint. For a team that just won the Super Bowl, their offseason looked far more like one of the offseasons where they had fallen just short of the ultimate prize.

So it’s difficult to pin down which players I’m most excited to see. I mean, if I don’t write Tom Brady here is it sacrilegious? Because of course I’m excited to see him, as well as Gronk back out there with a “healthy” back and all the rest of the players who we’ve grown to love in recent years.

This list of most intriguing

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State of the Blog

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With the opening of training camp just a couple days away I wanted to take a brief moment to update you all on what to expect this coming season here at PatsPropaganda because, well, things are about to get real.

It’s been an insane 2017 for me. My family and I moved back to Massachusetts from California and now as I type this I’m sitting in our new place, a stone’s throw from Gillette Stadium. Going to Patriots games was always my annual pilgrimage home and Gillette was such a magical place to me.

Now I’m there multiple times a week, doing grocery shopping, going to movies and grabbing food. That has been surreal. But obviously it’s been so cool to be back amongst my peeps, especially when I’m randomly running into people wearing my 28-3 tee (which was largely responsible for making the move happen).

The move itself is quite the story, the lowlight of which was tearing my MCL which I’ve been dealing with the last month. After years of writing about knee injuries it’s not fun to see what they really feel like. And let’s just saying assembling new furniture and lifting moving boxes isn’t easy when your knee can give out at any moment. Luckily it’s healing and I should be off the PUP list shortly.

I drove cross country with my Dad, which included stops at Notre Dame to see Football Jesus and the Pro Football Hall of Fame. Canton was pretty cool, but the best part was the Super Bowl 51 movie they were showing which was so well done. Of all the summers we picked to stop at the Hall of Fame this was the best one. The movie was intense, with a huge screen and glaring sound. I’ve never experienced a football game like that, and there isn’t another game in the history of football I would’ve picked. Chills. SO. MANY. CHILLS.

But the most exciting part is that the site is about to take some major steps forward. This starts with the Patriots graciously credentialing me for some training camp practices this summer, starting this Sunday. But regardless of the credential, I’m going to be at a shit ton of camp practices, which means the access here is about to take a big leap forward.

Not being able to see training camp was one of the biggest disadvantages for the blog. I prefer to see things with my own eyes and do my own analysis, but by not being at camp I had to rely on the consensus of the camp reports. No more. Now I’ll be there and posting all my own analysis from camp almost every day. And on the days I’m credentialed I’ll get an even closer look and get to actually talk to some of the coaches and players that I’m writing about. It will be such a new experience for me and one that I’m so excited to tackle.

The second new twist for the blog will be more video. Yes, I know a lot of sites are going in this direction but with my background in television (what paid the bills for the last decade while I developed my Patriots blogging) the time has come to merge the two. I will never stop writing and that will still be the driving force behind the blog, but now I’ll be able to supplement it with video. Look for the first one this week from Day One of camp.

There’s even more in the works as far as video goes, something pretty huge, but I’ll save that announcement for the next couple weeks.

That’s it for now. It’s hard to express how exciting it is to be back home, and to be able to focus on the site like this, especially with the Patriots primed for another kickass season. Stay tuned, it’s all happening.