The Nation's Tears: Volume II
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I wish we had some data that showed whether Brady was polarizing or not. Maybe a poll by a respected firm that showed that he was simultaneously the favorite and least favorite QB in the NFL.
Wait, we do and to top things off it was already posted in this very thread.
There is definitely some hyperbole in that statement, and this thread had provided a number of great examples, but he's certainly up there. To me, the fundamental difference is between Brady and other polarizing athletes is the question of his actual talent based on the integrity of his actions. Yes, obviously Bonds, Arod, etc fall into that category, but you still have to be able to hit a baseball even if you can hit it further. From Spygate to Deflategate to the Doug Flutie helmet story to Matt Walsh, there's a question among other fans about the legitimacy of anything he's accomplished.
And you definitely haven't left New England or visited another team's board if you don't see it.
I had to Google 'Doug Flutie helmet story'. That's literally the first time I've ever heard of it.
I did the same thing, never heard of it either.
That's three minutes of my life I'll never get back.
I remember hearing references to "Ted Johnson's audible story" years ago, but I always thought it was referring to the year that the Pats played the Dolphins in the last week of the regular season, and then again in the first round of the playoffs (either '97 or '98) and completely destroyed the Fins because they reportedly had figured out their audible scheme. I don't remember any Belichick-era stories from Ted Johnson aside from the concussion stuff.
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http://www.nytimes.com/1997/12/29/sports/pro-football-patriots-get-good-laugh-at-expense-of-dolphins.html
That remains hilarious to me after all these years, complaining that the Pats defense knew their audibles that they hadn't changed all season.
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Of course you don't. That's kinda the point. I just read it when I Googled the helmet story. Apparently, Johnson said he used to find a list of audibles before game time.
In my defense, the guy is (according to google) 24, and I have a 4 yr old daughter and have barely paid attention to baseball since she was born, except for ball games on the radio on a summers evening.
Google told me his age, but nothing about why he'd be a rotating pulsar of polarity. He's not even the first 'Bruce' to show up.
But at least you guys know what's up with Bryce, right?
He's a 24 year old four time All Star who has been in the league for six years, won an MVP and was on the cover of SI when he was 16; very famously graduated high school early and went juco to circumvent draft rules, became the most hyped prospect at least since ARod if not ever, got the largest position player signing bonus in the history of the draft and will likely sign the biggest FA deal ever after next season.
I'm not even busting your balls here, I'm genuinely asking you how you ended up finding this board if you're that oblivious to baseball? I'm actually curious, this is meant with sincerity. We all find our way here differently and have different haunts, but it's generally baseball that leads us to this place.
(And yeah, it's really not comparable to the Doug Flutie helmet story, since throughout DFG that never got brought up once by anyone and they were pretty much drifting up every possible thing they could. An obscure quote from a NYP writer about his book isn't exactly front page news. Or the Ted Johnson story.)
The Flutie story has nothing to do with DFG, it's just part of the mosaic of Brady hatred. I'm surprised some people never heard it before. The sad thing is Flutie never even bothered to come out and deny it publicly. Tom listening in to Charlie Weis or Ernie or whoever telling him, "throw left, throw right, blitz coming!" leads some people to say, "oh, ok, now I get how a skinny 6th rounder won those Super Bowls when my athletic 1st rounder busted out of the league." The story itself makes little sense but it's no different from Peyton talking about bugs in the locker room. It all just adds to the grander story. At this point it's impossible to separate what might be real and what is generally accepted as fact. And of course, all of this flies in the face of Belichick as well.
And most importantly, the tabloid NY media runs with and supports all of this stuff and it gets syndicated around the world to influence every casual fan from Tennessee to Beijing, so don't tell me this stuff isn't a real thing: http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/they-are-cheaters-spygate-the-nfl-scandal-that-started-it-all/
And most importantly, the tabloid NY media runs with and supports all of this stuff and it gets syndicated around the world to influence every casual fan from Tennessee to Beijing, so don't tell me this stuff isn't a real thing: http://nypost.com/2014/10/12/they-are-cheaters-spygate-the-nfl-scandal-that-started-it-all/
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Didn't say it has anything to do with DFG, my point was that it's not part of the narrative and this rumor never got legs with casual fans, let alone many even diehards. I assure you, I suffered through much of the Spygate and DFG nonsense coverage and if they were consistently referring to the bullshit John Thomase story about filing practices, they'd surely have referenced this if anyone read the rags and gave them any weight. I'm sorry, but this is not and was never a 'thing'.
If you weren't reading Poutine's diary entries on every thread, you would never have said that. You never would have thought that. I'm concerned.
He's been on the national baseball scene for 8 years and I'd wager more than 90% of the posting members of this board knew of him in high school.
That said, I have to ask--Pokey or Bellhorn?
I mean can we really blame him? His parents taught him that it was polite to treat your ladyfriends to crabs after they spend the night.
I used to watch like 80 or 90 Sox games a year.
I haven't watched 80 games in the last 8 years.
These days I listen to games on radio now and then while the kids run around.
Life changed. Work, wife, kids... it happens.
I don't have the mental energy to worry about a position player on the Nationals, and Sports Illustrated has never been much on my radar.
As a barely-casual baseball fan I don't know the guy. People who don't at all follow sports are aware of the polarization of Tom Brady. My wife's 94 yr old grandmother knows about TB.
I don't even understand the question.
Bellhorn hit it off the pole.
Pokey Reese picked up the game winning grounder.
The steal?
I'm still a fan of Wakefield eating the innings in game 3, after the walk-off in game 7 the year before.
Edit: sorry, game 3 not game 4.
I feel like this is the owl calling my name.
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Where the hell is Fletch when we need him? He's abandoned us. He'd have a response here.
I know I have only posted 9 times in 11 years on this board, but this is too delicious to ignore. Surely worthy of a new thread - something like "2017 Falcons: Embrace the Suck"? The one thing that would truly suck is if it actually works for them... but the world will have to wait at least 6 months and probably more like 8 to find out.
http://www.patspulpit.com/2017/5/15/15644620/after-epic-super-bowl-collapse-the-atlanta-falcons-2017-motto-is-embrace-the-suck
http://www.patspulpit.com/2017/5/15/15644620/after-epic-super-bowl-collapse-the-atlanta-falcons-2017-motto-is-embrace-the-suck
I actually think that's a good attitude to have. I see it more like embracing the reality of what happened and owning it so they can move forward.
It's really odd to me that Quinn won't stop talking about it. Maybe it is just my BB-imposed mindset of "we're on to. . . ", but I feel like Quinn won't stop harping on the SB to the national media. It is either going to end in a laborious 8-8 season, or maybe it is exactly the approach they need to "embrace the suck", I don't know. I just can't see BB even talking about the game at this point and probably issuing a "don't talk about the SB" to all of the players come training camp.
It could also mean "Get ready to work really hard - practice, workouts and study sessions - it won't be fun. It will suck. Welcome to the suck."
It is an extremely confident move. It will look extremely bad if they don't have a great year next year. He wants his guys to be accountable. I expect internally the layers and coaches have the attitude that getting to the superbowl is awesome for most teams but anything but winning it "sucks" for the Falcons.
This is exactly what his intentions are. If you read about it on other platforms than Pats Pulpit, it's more clear and they did the same last season. The WaPo touched on it:
(emphasis mine)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/05/16/embrace-the-suck-the-story-of-the-2017-atlanta-falcons/?utm_term=.11f7aa196b8e
Perhaps they should have gone with "We Need More Suck".
Your post reminded me of Belichick doing a 180 from what Quinn is doing when BB buried a football after a 1-3 start in 2001.
But here's the difference. There were no expectations here a quarter of the way through the 2001 season.
Quinn damn well knows that scores of reporters will be dogging his team from the day camp opens. And he's probably trying to pre-empt a bit of it or at least tamp down its power by bringing it out himself.
I rather doubt that will work. But the attempt is understandable. Atlanta will be a shark tank all year, especially if they get off to a slow start.
Quinn damn well knows that scores of reporters will be dogging his team from the day camp opens. And he's probably trying to pre-empt a bit of it or at least tamp down its power by bringing it out himself.
I rather doubt that will work. But the attempt is understandable. Atlanta will be a shark tank all year, especially if they get off to a slow start.
The AJC had a good article on it as well http://www.myajc.com/sports/football/anger-from-super-bowl-lingers-quinn-driven-fix-falcons-defense/UctnzWsPdTucIRTNy8B5jO/, but what AJC missed was your bolded about the Falcons using the same motto last year. Clearly it worked -- right up to the 4th quarter of SB51. But if they get off to a slow start this year (paraphrasing dcmissile a bit) it will expose them to a fair bit of ridicule.
I believe there's a "polarizing" meter on Kickstarter, but it's months away from shipping.
TTAC has always been a self-congratulatory edgy blog. Anything they say that is apart from cars is highly suspect at best, and I say this as someone who's a fan of the site.
One thing that's funny about Brady's Aston Martin deal is that Brady endorsed the Dodge Dart not that long ago.
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