PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

tom brady

Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective

by

Yes, this was the worst loss of his career, but damn did he look good running out of the tunnel.

With all the fluff out there about drafting quarterbacks, bad draft choices and discontent between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it’s time to drop some hard-hitting journalism here on the blog. Let’s get serious and talk about how this is sadly the last year Tom Brady can wear his helmet of choice.

One of the things that instantly made me like Brady was that he just had the perfect quarterback look. Yes, 12 is the number for signal-callers, but it was Brady’s low-rising helmet that put him on another level. At that point, Peyton Manning had already set the NFL world on fire, but if it came down to simple looks on the field, I was already taking Brady before he had even started a game.

But it wasn’t like Brady jumped right into the perfected look that he’s now known for and he even experimented with other helmets for a few games in 2011 and 2012.

Let’s take an important and possibly ground-breaking look back at Brady’s helmet-look over the course of his career and figure out what he might switch to in 2019.

[Read more…] about Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective

Tom Brady Will Finish Career as Patriot, On His Own Terms

by

After almost a whole two days of talking about real Patriots news and the draft, the focus was ripped back away from football and back to the 2017 season and just how happy Tom Brady really is after he sat down for a rare offseason interview with Jim Gray. His lengthy talk gave plenty of fodder to whichever side you choose to take in the spring of the Patriots’ alleged discontent.

No matter what you want to believe, the remaining fact is Brady will be quarterbacking in Patriots training camp in July, where football betting lines still have New England as Super Bowl favorites. We are of course nearing the end of the Belichick-Brady run, and things have certainly evolved, but the important issue — going after Super Bowl 53 — remains unchanged and unlikely affected.

It didn’t take long before the warring factions who cover and follow the Patriots started trading jabs over Brady’s answers. One side focused myopically on Brady’s “plead the fifth” comment at the start, while the other pointed to Brady’s later comments on how much respect he has for Bill Belichick, and around and around we go. Social media can be so fun these days.

The truth, as always, is somewhere in the middle. And as usual, the arguments are often in bad faith. Brady is clearly transitioning to the end phase of his career. He’s making more time for his family and he’s training his way. He has said those things implicitly a number of times. He knows Belichick can no longer unexpectedly ship him out of town so he’s doing what he wants.

[Read more…] about Tom Brady Will Finish Career as Patriot, On His Own Terms

Making Sense of Brady, Gronk and the Future of the Patriots

by

This offseason sure has had a different feel to it than any other in the last 17 years. Yes, there was always turnover, interesting moves that surprised us all, but the holy duo of Belichick and Brady were always secure and that meant that the Patriots were basically secure.

Now, after a year with plenty of rumblings about off-field problems, we still don’t know if Brady or Gronk are fully in for the 2018 season and that uncertainty is splitting Patriots fans down the middle even as they prepare for what should be an exciting couple of weeks featuring the release of the schedule and the draft.

There are so many camps right now within Patriots Nation. There’s those still furious and waiting for an explanation from Belichick about why he benched Malcolm Butler in the Super Bowl. There are those who are frustrated with Brady and Gronk for dragging this stuff out well into the offseason as we’re staring down the barrel of 2018. And then there are those outside of New England, content to watch it all finally burn to the ground.

I also know there are plenty out there who think it’s all “fake news”, that this is all media-driven and everything will be a-okay when the opening game comes around, with Brady throwing touchdowns to Gronk then both high-fiving Belichick as they begin another campaign for title number six. As a faithful blogger of the team I’ve been a big “Ignore the Noise” kind of guy, but there’s too much noise this time to believe it’s all a total fabrication, especially when reports are coming both locally and nationally.

There’s too much smoke for there not to be some kind of fire and now the million dollar question is can that fire be put out in time for another run in 2018?

[Read more…] about Making Sense of Brady, Gronk and the Future of the Patriots

Tom vs. Time Finale Review

by

Tom Brady dropped the final episode of Tom vs. Time on Monday, the fascinating six-part documentary that gave a rare look behind the curtain of all things TB12. The finale dealt with the Patriots’ Super Bowl loss, with a special focus on Brady’s thumb injury that had us all holding our breath leading up to the AFC Championship game.

If there was one takeaway from this series for me it was how cool it was to see Brady reacting to wins and losses just like we the fans do. Certainly, there was a humanizing element to the series like seeing Brady at home with his kids, how impossibly dedicated he is to training and even a supermodel like Gisele just at home cooking a meal in her kitchen or supporting her husband’s unquenchable desire to win football games was also a highlight.

But most all we just get so used to seeing the even-keeled reaction of the players after games, toeing the line to the press, not showing their excitement or heartbreak. Here we got a glimpse of how they really are just like us. From telling Gronk how lucky they were to win the AFC Championship without him, to Gronk being amazed at how good Danny Amendola is in the playoffs, to the crushing disappointment of losing a Super Bowl. Many of those conversations feel ripped right from my own discussions with fellow fans.

[Read more…] about Tom vs. Time Finale Review

2017 Pats Left More Questions Than Answers

by

The strange turns of the 2017 spilled over into the offseason once again yesterday with Tom E. Curran writing that Rob Gronkowski was in fact unhappy with football this season dating all the way back to training camp. In retrospect this article from Ryan Hannable is even more interesting.

There were rumors of Gronk wanting to retire, to maybe give WWE a try instead, just after the Super Bowl but I mostly dismissed those as just being end-of-disappointing-year grumblings. But when taken as part of the big picture of the Pats 2017 season and it’s hard not to think things were different behind the scenes this year, no matter how much you do or don’t want to buy into the old Seth Wickersham piece, the rumors about Brady, Guerrero, Kraft, Belichick, Malcolm Butler and now even Curran’s piece about Gronk.

For the most part, fans want to dismiss these things because distrusting the media is all the rage these days, but there’s so much smoke from a variety of places that it feels like something most definitely was off with this team. Here we are, 17 years in, and the closest kind of contemptuous season to 2017 came in 2009.

[Read more…] about 2017 Pats Left More Questions Than Answers

Too Many Cooks Takes: Was First-Year Receiver a Disappointment?

by

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfZkaVPwOPE

I’ve tried to take a break from the old cycle of “reporter makes dumb take, everyone responds with outrage thereby giving said reporter the attention they’re looking for” but it hasn’t been easy the last couple of days. The pinnacle was Adam Jones’ take that re-signing Brandon Bolden was somehow a bad thing.

Now I could go off on how stupid this is in a longform article — how the Patriots must build a 90-man roster and a beloved veteran who’s a special teams stud and can fill in at any running back role at a veteran minimum salary is an easy slam dunk, but again, I’m trying to break the cycle and the only way to do that is not to play their game. That take wasn’t even based in football reality, but another one kind of was.

That take came from Ben Volin, who I also ignore for the most part, that the Pats should extend Brandin Cooks or, if he won’t play ball, cut him outright and re-allocate his $8.5 million cap hit. This was a jumping off point to debate how good Cooks really was in his first year with the Pats. On paper, 65 catches for 1082 yards and six touchdowns looks pretty damn solid, especially for a first-year receiver with the Patriots.

However I do think it’s a more nuanced discussion than simply slapping down Cooks’ stats and feeling great about his season. His arrival as a “deep threat” raised expectations for the offense, but without Julian Edelman, some fundamental flaws came to light over the course of the season, that Cooks couldn’t solve.

Let’s take a deeper look and ask if a thousand-yard season can be a disappointment?

[Read more…] about Too Many Cooks Takes: Was First-Year Receiver a Disappointment?

Prayers For Any Quarterback the Pats Draft

by

As everyone turns the page from head-scratching Super Bowl loss to the offseason, the focus is becoming increasing clearer that the expectation is the Patriots must draft Tom Brady‘s successor in a couple months.

Last year, we knew we were likely headed into the last season of the Brady-Jimmy Garoppolo duo, and barring something catastrophic, it was likely that Garoppolo would end up elsewhere. What we didn’t know, and should have, was that Garoppolo would be hung around the Patriots’ and their fan’s necks for the rest of his career. The questions of how much compensation the Pats should’ve gotten, of whether getting rid of Brady a few years early to get another 10 with Garoppolo was worth it, and so on.

As Patriots fans we’re stuck with Jimmy Garoppolo and his “woulda/coulda” relationship with the Patriots. But it’s not quite as bad as what is coming down the pike for the poor rookie signal caller who will be saddled with not only being the heir apparent to Brady but also have his career constantly compared to what Garoppolo does in San Francisco. The weight of those implications must be seriously considered by the Patriots.

Drafted quarterbacks are no strangers to pressure, especially when they’re taken high in the draft and immediately dubbed a franchise savior. The Patriots draftee will be in a different position, but one that will be almost more difficult.

[Read more…] about Prayers For Any Quarterback the Pats Draft