So. Many. Diamonds.

Ed Hillel

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There is no Rev said:
https://twitter.com/deeepthreat/status/566994941990428672
 
The more removed we get from the game, the more I am starting to appreciate just how amazing Brady was in the fourth quarter against Seattle. One could argue that it was the best quarter performance in NFL history, given the gravity of the game itself and the opponent. He made a couple of unbelievable throws and plays, not limited to the 3rd and 14 throw to Edelman (great pocket awareness and a tight window), the 3rd and 9 throw to Edelman (more great pocket awareness and a much more difficult throw than it looked), and particularly that 2nd and 11 throw over the middle to Gronk on the last drive (took an absolute blasting about .2 seconds after release and hit Gronk in stride). The TD to Amendola was a perfectly placed ball, as well, and he didn't have space to plant. I really hope it doesn't get overshadowed completely by the "Hawks losing the game" at the end, because it was really a special performance.
 

Al Zarilla

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snowmanny said:
Those scenes reminded me of Ortiz huddling up the offense in game four of the 2013 World Series, telling them to relax and do what they had done all year.
Very similar, same great result. I saw a clip after the series with Pedroia saying that he couldn't really understand what David was saying there, but the Sox all got fired up. Great franchises we get to follow.
 

Smiling Joe Hesketh

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Don Buddin's GS said:
I'm in suburban Detroit and Rob Parker used to write for one of the papers and was also on one of the sports radio stations here.
 
He is, was and always has been a douche nozzle.
 
Parker was the guy who asked Rod Marinelli, during the 0-16 season the Lions had, if he wished his daughter had married a better defensive coordinator. (Marinelli's son-in-law was the DC for that team). Parker's a douche's douchebag.
 

mabrowndog

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tims4wins said:
Is this real?
 
I doubt it. It was on Sealver Siliga's twitter feed (a retweet of Masshole Sports), and the image doesn't seem to be anywhere else online. Plus the right-most trophy has no spacing from its neighbor, so it's likely Photoshopped.
 
But I don't care. Still awesome.
 

Fisks Of Fury

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mabrowndog said:
 
I doubt it. It was on Sealver Siliga's twitter feed (a retweet of Masshole Sports), and the image doesn't seem to be anywhere else online. Plus the right-most trophy has no spacing from its neighbor, so it's likely Photoshopped.
 
But I don't care. Still awesome.
Yep, if you look at the right-most trophy, it's clearly copied from the left-most, with an identical "inclusion" in the exact same place.
 
But boy, do I not care...
 

Salem's Lot

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mabrowndog said:
Since the ring says "Estrella" on the side of it I would assume it's Matt Estrella's super bowl 39 ring that he was auctioning off with a fourth trophy added through photoshop.
 

loshjott

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Not to nitpick something so awesome, but why have 4 trophies on the ring when only one player and probably very few other team personnel were there for all 4?
 
I think I'd prefer a stand alone ring for 2014/15.
 

jsinger121

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loshjott said:
Not to nitpick something so awesome, but why have 4 trophies on the ring when only one player and probably very few other team personnel were there for all 4?
 
I think I'd prefer a stand alone ring for 2014/15.
All teams do this. It signifies the amount of championships they have won as an organization.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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Salem's Lot said:
Since the ring says "Estrella" on the side of it I would assume it's Matt Estrella's super bowl 39 ring that he was auctioning off with a fourth trophy added through photoshop.
 
Agree -- rings won't be ready until at least May or June and there's no way a sample/design is ready for a preview now.
 

dynomite

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jsinger121 said:
All teams do this. It signifies the amount of championships they have won as an organization.
 
(Edit: First of all, HOW AWESOME IS IT THAT WE ARE TALKING ABOUT THE PATRIOTS SUPER BOWL RINGS!??!?!!!)
 
Second, exactly.  Here's the Steelers 2005 ring, the organization's first since the 1970s:
 

 
I do think that they could move on from that format, however (and probably will need to once organizations have been around long enough to win 8/9+ championships... so the Patriots should have until 2019).  I wouldn't mind subtle allusions to the overall number of championships (like DirtyNine did on those MLB soccer uniforms, right?), but I agree that making it the focal point of the ring seems like overkill.
 
For instance, the Red Sox didn't seem too concerned about it.:
 

 
Edit: To extend the thought even further, I think the 2014 Patriots are one of the few teams that should have the 4 championships prominently featured -- to emphasize the Kraft/Brady/Belichick dynasty -- while a team like the 2005 Steelers is really stretching.
 

Dick Drago

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I've watched all the hi-lite shows about ten times. Did we ever find out who Baldwin was targeting when he simulated taking a dump after his TD? He said something like "the guy knows who he is".

Also, after the Amendola TD Brady trips, and Amendola looks pissed, like he thought the Hawks player did it on purpose. Anyone else catch that?
 

Reverend

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dynomite said:
 
For instance, the Red Sox didn't seem too concerned about it.:
 

 
Edit: To extend the thought even further, I think the 2014 Patriots are one of the few teams that should have the 4 championships prominently featured -- to emphasize the Kraft/Brady/Belichick dynasty -- while a team like the 2005 Steelers is really stretching.
 
Psssssssssssst.
Look at the side of the ring.
 

dynomite

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There is no Rev said:
 
Psssssssssssst.
Look at the side of the ring.
 
Hah.  I thought they were just reminding the Yankees how many rings you need to be the franchise leader in the 21st century.
 
No I know -- but the 2013 championship trophy and the hanging socks are the main face of the ring, while the prior championships are just on the side of the ring.  On the Steelers 2005 ring it's the opposite: the 5 franchise trophies on the face, the 2005 details mostly on the sides.
 

Byrdbrain

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Dick Drago said:
I've watched all the hi-lite shows about ten times. Did we ever find out who Baldwin was targeting when he simulated taking a dump after his TD? He said something like "the guy knows who he is".

Also, after the Amendola TD Brady trips, and Amendola looks pissed, like he thought the Hawks player did it on purpose. Anyone else catch that?
You are absolutely correct on the trip, I did notice it but from what I could see it looked like it was just an accident. I never heard anyone bring it up after.
No idea on your first question.
 

LogansDad

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Byrdbrain said:
You are absolutely correct on the trip, I did notice it but from what I could see it looked like it was just an accident. I never heard anyone bring it up after.
No idea on your first question.
This is probably a bit homerish, but I almost never hear the Patriots bring stuff like this up about their opponents, win or lose.
 
The rest of the league could learn something from them, but alas.
 
Apr 7, 2006
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Having watched Sound FX and Turning Point and Inside the NFL (and whatever else) pretty much on a loop, I feel confident that the following is true:

Had Seattle won this game and, therefore, thrust Kearse into some historic spotlight beyond what his circus catch has already managed to do, I would not be capable of movement beyond sitting on the floor of my bedroom, Glenn-Close-in-Fatal-Attraction-like, dead-eyed and tugging a lamp on and off, given Kearse's deeply, deeply lame and obnoxious sideline chatter. From his cocky, shrugged (if, admittedly, accurate) "They can't guard you. They can't guard you." to Chris Matthews to his earlier quasi-prediction of Matthews as "MVP? MVP?" - honestly, such a jinxy little uber-douche.

Since Seattle lost, however, I find myself positively giddy at the anguish he must have felt on those same sidelines when Malcolm Butler made The Play. Kearse wandering the sideline telling anyone who would listen, and possibly a couple who weren't, that "they just benched 25" just reeks of dorky exuberance and trying to fit in with the big boys. Whether his comments are justifiable or my biases are running away with me, I don't care. He is cringe-worthy to the nth degree.

Carroll, meanwhile, is a walking, talking, clapping, cock-sure, dork-SURER humiliation on the bench. Which makes it all the more frustrating that my old line about him, which I still wish to irrationally and wrongly embrace - that "you can't win with a clown shoes cheerleader coach like that" - is demonstrably and completely untrue. Which of course annoys me more. But then I remember how it all ended and I just laugh.

THIS IS SO EFFING GREAT. I will never NOT be psyched about this win.

EDIT: Aaaaaaand then I put on Sound FX and it lands on Kearse talking to Butler after a play and he is completely awesome to him, just the right blend of talky and the best kind of good sport. Now I feel dirty.
 

Hendu for Kutch

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I mentioned this elsewhere, but I thought Kearse came off really well, just kinda playful and talkative.  Baldwin was the one who managed to come off as a huge douche in very limited screen time.
 

minischwab

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Hendu for Kutch said:
I mentioned this elsewhere, but I thought Kearse came off really well, just kinda playful and talkative.  Baldwin was the one who managed to come off as a huge douche in very limited screen time.
 
If you go back through the season of stories on issues in Seattle, pretty much every one mentions unnamed players saying this and that about the situation. Baldwin was the unnamed player in nearly every single one of those stories.  The guy just has to mouth off to the media any chance he gets, but never wants to put his name to it.  Seeing Matthews and Kearse play so well in that game, and even Lockette and Willson at other times this season, I seriously question if Baldwin is even worth keeping around.  He can destroy a locker room. 
 

PseuFighter

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has anyone turned this speech into a poster yet? and if not, why not?
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aa-L0necxhA
 

Soxy

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Ed Hillel said:
The more removed we get from the game, the more I am starting to appreciate just how amazing Brady was in the fourth quarter against Seattle. One could argue that it was the best quarter performance in NFL history, given the gravity of the game itself and the opponent. He made a couple of unbelievable throws and plays, not limited to the 3rd and 14 throw to Edelman (great pocket awareness and a tight window), the 3rd and 9 throw to Edelman (more great pocket awareness and a much more difficult throw than it looked), and particularly that 2nd and 11 throw over the middle to Gronk on the last drive (took an absolute blasting about .2 seconds after release and hit Gronk in stride). The TD to Amendola was a perfectly placed ball, as well, and he didn't have space to plant. I really hope it doesn't get overshadowed completely by the "Hawks losing the game" at the end, because it was really a special performance.
 
Shutdown Corner podcast had a pretty good episode last week, with one of the segments talking about how the media had run with the storyline of "Seahawks blow Super Bowl" as opposed to "Patriots win Super Bowl."  Why that storyline resonated more with the general populace is a pretty interesting topic to discuss.  
 
One of the Shutdown Corner guys made a good point about how all the Patriots haters refuse to give the Pats any credit, because it acknowledges that they are a great team and franchise.  Which completely undermines the whole Spygate/Cheatriots narrative that so many want to believe.  He asked the question, "Why is it so difficult for people to acknowledge that Brady and Belichick are the greatest QB/coach combo of all time?"
 
Making it all about how Seattle lost it rather than the Patriots winning it reinforces the narrative that those people want to believe.  Anecdotal for sure, but all of the Pats haters I encountered shortly after the Super Bowl (and there were many) made it sound as if Seattle handed that game to us on a silver platter.  No acknowledgement of Brady's 4th quarter heroics.  No mention of Malcolm Butler making perhaps the greatest play in NFL history (I'm not being hyperbolic... one can make that case, given the significance of the game and the situation).  It's all "Seattle blew it."  Because that shifts the focus away from the plays that the Patriots made and onto the plays that Seattle failed to make (and how the Patriots were mere benefactors of "luck").
 
I'm not stating anything that posters here don't already know, but most people prefer to choose a narrative and then cherry pick whatever facts fit that narrative, as opposed to searching for real truth.  This is simply another case of that.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Haters gonna hate and diminish. We know. Good enough for me. People remember what happened last. Do anyone other than Rams fans remember how well Kurt Warner played in Super Bowl 34 or do they remember Jones' tackle? Does anyone remember Warner threw for 414 yards? I didn't until I just looked. Over time, many people will forget who Marshawn Lynch was and even that he was on that team and was pretty good at breaking tackles. Some will even forget what down it was, let alone what Brady did in the fourth quarter. We won't. Every one will remember Malcolm Butler, and I'm cool with that. I just hope they remember it as a great play by an eventual all pro when he was just a rookie.
 

Al Zarilla

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Even videos from guys on well deserved vacation are showing up.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_n3aCInORok
 
Where does he find a bathing suit...
 
Nassau, Bahamas.
 

SeoulSoxFan

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Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt said:
I had heard somewhere that the Baldwin thing was also directed at Revis, but I found it hard to believe.
 
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/12336473/doug-baldwin-apologizes-td-celebration-says-was-directed-darrelle-revis
 
Baldwin also revealed Revis was the intended target of the celebration after saying in the game's immediate aftermath, "That is between me and the guy it was directed at."
...
"Obviously there was competitive stuff going on in that game, and in that moment, I just let out what I felt personally."
 
So even when apologizing to his fans and weeks removed from the game, Baldwin still can't bring himself to say Revis' name. 
 
Oh, and when you're completed erased in the Super Bowl and only catches a TD because the ref picked "the guy", it really wasn't "competitive". 
 

mabrowndog

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I keep coming across interesting photos of this game and the aftermath. Both of these are by Joshua Trujillo of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
 
The NBC broadcast is over and Belichick has left the field, making his way through the bowels of the stadium back to the locker rooms with the Lombardi tucked under his arm. And look who's there, waiting behind the barricade to congratulate him.
 
Say what you want about Russell Wilson as a QB, but for him to do this instead of joining his somber teammates and retreating to their quarters to wallow in mutual misery after a crushing loss spews shitloads of class.
 

 
 
Such a simple shot, devoid of people, that speaks volumes:
 
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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Yeah, as much as I'd really like to hate Russell Wilson, he's quickly approaching Mariano Rivera territory.  A guy who not only says all the right things, and has since day 1, but also appears to sincerely believe them.
 
Apr 7, 2006
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Yeah, hard to hate on that guy. 
 
One thing thats easy to hate - the Seahwaks-ish neon green of the lanyards on the assistant coaches, which continually confuse me for split seconds watching replays and mic'd up segments.  (It's hard to be me.)
 

ivanvamp

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Russell Wilson can be my quarterback any day, so long as Tom Brady is not available.  
 

mabrowndog

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Who know these guys held their own parade before making the jaunt down Boylston & Tremont?
 
Brandon Bolden, LeGarrette Blount, Jonathan Casillas & Darius Fleming riding in style (Jordan Stead/SeattlePI.com)
 
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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Here's a nice little interview between Randy Moss and Brady from back in november:
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BHvPQu2QczM
 
I enjoy the mental image of the two of them surfing in Costa Rica right now, kinda like Red and Andy Dufresne.
 

Matty005

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Mugsy's Walk-Off Bunt said:
Yeah, hard to hate on that guy. 
 
One thing thats easy to hate - the Seahwaks-ish neon green of the lanyards on the assistant coaches, which continually confuse me for split seconds watching replays and mic'd up segments.  (It's hard to be me.)
 
I don't think he's a jerk by any means, but someone who thinks his "God" favors him comes off extremely narcissistic to me.
 

E5 Yaz

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Matty005 said:
 
I don't think he's a jerk by any means, but someone who thinks his "God" favors him comes off extremely narcissistic to me.
 
Just because God hates you, don't take it out on him
 
Apr 7, 2006
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That reminds me. I need to point out to the self-righteous, uber-devout moralizers-slash-Haters on my FB page - my Oklahoma cousins, primarily - that God apparently wanted the Patriots to win. Woo-hoo!!!
 

timelysarcasm

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That's my only knock on the guy, the God stuff grates, especially when it's over the top like the NFCCG.
 
Otherwise, I have no problems with him. He's a good, talented kid proving once again that scouting QBs is an utter crapshoot.
 

Ed Hillel

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Remember when Trot Nixon basically said Jesus took over his body and hit a walkoff home run against Oakland in 2003? That was awesome.
 

E5 Yaz

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Ed Hillel said:
Remember when Trot Nixon basically said Jesus took over his body and hit a walkoff home run against Oakland in 2003? That was awesome.
 
Especially since he was supposed to sacrifice
 

PedroKsBambino

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E5 Yaz said:
 
Especially since he was supposed to sacrifice
 
You can't expect someone who possesses as much worldly knowledge as God does to listen to Grady F'in Little, can you?
 

SeoulSoxFan

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ent5 said:
What a great photo, my respect for Wilson increased 100 folds.

he is the little QB that could, and I wish nothing but success.
 
Here's a little story relayed during MMQB podcast. 
 
When the Patriots interviewed Russell at the combine, they asked him "we got a pretty good QB in Tom Brady, are you okay with that"? To which Russell allegedly replied "if you draft me and I'm coming to the Patriots, I'm going to take his job". 
 
P.S. As an atheist, Warner nor Russell never bothered me. And Tebow's deal was grating at worst. If Russell is genuine about his faith, who am I to knock it?
 

BornToRun

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patinorange said:
When Kearse caught that ball I started to wonder if the kid was onto something.
Thankfully we were almost immediately given evidence that if God is real, He obviously doesn't give two thirds of a fuck about football or hates Russel Wilson.