I’ve been remiss in not mentioning Mrs B’s PatriotWorld site. A great place for pictures and news. Don’t forget about the podcasts, especially during training camp.
And don’t diss her steak tips!
But it’s unlikely. Very unlikely.
Q: Does anything about this Tedy Bruschi-on-the-sidelines routine smell funny? Doesn’t this seem like a WWE-style ploy by Belichick? What if we get to the first round of the playoffs, with the Pats on the road, and they need a lift? Wouldn’t the triumphant return of Bruschi be the spark they need to get the three-peat? Couldn’t the Pats hire Jim Ross for the night, just to have a “Good God, that’s Tedy Bruschi’s music!” moment?
– Bart Shirley, DallasSG: Loved the idea, but I think you screwed up the timeline. Bruschi is eligible to be activated after Week Six. Realistically, he could scrimmage in all the closed practices without anyone knowing, and then emerge from the tunnel during that Week 9 game against the Colts at Foxboro, which, in my opinion, would be the single most exciting moment in Patriots history if it happened — even better than both Super Bowl kicks — as well as football’s first Willis Reed moment. The Colts would be finished. D-U-N done. I’m getting the chills just thinking about it.
Seeing the look on the faces of Manning, Dungy, Irsay, and the rest of the miserable whiners on that team would be the second best thing.
Some of us were wondering why Oakland defenders weren’t flagged for (apparently) horse-collar tackling Troy Brown and Tim Dwight. Turns out it’s not just as simply as pulling someone down by the collar, as this article on NFL.com mentions:
The committee also seeks to eliminate “horse-collar tackles,” where the defender grabs the ball carrier inside the back of the shoulder pads and immediately drags him down while also falling on his legs. Such tackles would be deemed unsportsmanlike conduct, a 15-yard penalty.
The Oakland defenders never fell on anyone’s legs, so I imagine that’s why no flags were thrown.
Speaking of rules changes, I totally missed the announcement of the change whereby penalties on the kicking team during a punt return can now be tacked on to the end of the return at the receiving team’s option, instead of the receiving team being stuck with either forcing a re-punt or just declining the penalty.
…but I didn’t mean it this way:
Geez — Seymour and Green? Poole and Scott? Ye gods!
Here’s Zip’s review of the game. Make sure to check out Modi’s Doghouse and Ostend’s Awards.
At long last, the NFL season has started! And about time — I couldn’t take it any longer. That final week was horrible as I got very little work done at all. Talk about being tough to focus. And getting to see the tailgate gang again, and seeing RP feeling better were both high points. And, well, getting to hold the SBXXXVI and SBXXXVIII rings, too 
I again have to thank the big RP for putting us in his ticket draft, which is what allowed us to go to the game. It’s the first time I’ve ever been present when one of my teams raised/revealed a World Championship banner. I hope I have many other chances to see such a thing, but I’m going to be realistic. This may well could have been my once-in-a-lifetime chance.
I also had a blast giving some friends a similar chance. She’s been a Pats fan since age 6 (but had never been to a game), he’s a Phins fan (but we don’t hold that against him — too much ) At the relatively last minute I was able to (legitimately!) get my hands on a second pair of tickets and managed to convince them to fly out here from New Mexico to see the game. They had a great time, participating in the Full Tailgate Experience(tm). She’s even worse than I am re: game tension. Watching on TV, she sometimes has to pause the TiVo, or even worse, stop watching, wait for the game to end, find out the final score, then finish watching. I can manage to stick with a game all the way through, but I’ll go into serious pacing, screaming at the TV, etc. Interestingly, she felt it was less stressful to watch a game live. I think I can see that — certainly, being able to scream at the top of your lungs without policemen coming to your door to see what’s going on does help relieve stress.
Was it worth it? Absolutely yes!
The pre-game didn’t need to be excessive as it was. The remote feeds were borrrrrring and failed to build up any momentum with the crowd given that they were always stopping so the national telecast of the ceremonies could go to commercial. I do have to say that one of the highlights of the remote part of the show was the long and lusty booing of that racist crackhead Kanye West. Good to see that Pats fans have some sense, even after being bombed on $7 swill masquerading as beer. Props to Santana, though. He did a nice job, even if our side of the stadium only saw his back. But the Oz-man ruled! Even though we had been tipped off to it, it was still a blast. And in our seats we were only about 30yd from him. Ozzy must’ve been on the happy juice, though . And of course the banner reveal. Just amazing. Having been a Pats fan since 1976, it’s truly incredible to see how far the team has come. Any of you Johnnie-come-latelys need to read Felger’s Tales From the Patriots Sideline to get a feel for how it’s been to be a Pats fan over the years.
Oh yeah…there was a game…
Have to say I didn’t have a good feeling in that first quarter. Sure, Brady was carving up the Raiders (and please, please let Watson turn out to be even half as good as Ben Coates!), but the Riders cut right through us. Of course, as you’ve all read by now, the good guys switched to a 4-3 and shut the Raiders down after that.
It was still tense into the second half, until Wilfork’s INT (which in shades of (horrors!) golf or baseball was rescored days later as a fumble recovery. Boo Elias Sports Bureau and the NFL!) Once the team got up 16 I was able to relax. The blocked punt undid a bunch of that relaxation, but once the 2-pt conversion failed, I knew the game was over.
Speaking of that conversion, how stupid is Randy Moss? He basically tackled Asante Samuel to prevent an INT, but apparently forgot that on a 2-pt conversion, incompletion is just as bad as an interception — both mean the try fails. He should have tried all-out to get the catch. Fool!
Obviously I’m glad for the win, but the team still needs a lot of work, especially on special teams. Getting a punt and an PAT blocked. Ruining a big punt return by Dwight with a stupid hold. Constantly letting the Raiders advance KO returns past the 30. Ugh!
And while it’s true that the switch to the 4-3 shut the Raiders down, I don’t like that they had to do it. A 4-3 is significantly less versatile than a 3-4. Being able to stop the run out of a 3-4 really makes the entire defense better. I hope Brown and Beisel can get it together soon.
Guess that’s all for now…
Someone had a great post over on alt.sports.football.pro.ne-patriots:
Yeah, during the game things happened so fast I did not even notice Brady getting whacked in the helmut, but noticed it on the last several thousand replays. Has Brady ever mentioned about getting hit on that play?? As for that call; it did not lose the game for the Raiders. (They did a damn good job of losing it themselves). It just didn’t win it for them. They had MANY other chances to stop the Patriots AFTER that play, but could not! The best team won, regardless. Shoot… Anyway it is water under the bridge now. I guess the controversy will live in some Raider fans hearts forever, just like the phantom roughing the passer call against Sugar Bear Hamilton in 76 does in the hearts of some of the old Pats fans.
That’s football.
Except that was really an instance where the refs f*cked up. Actually, in all honesty, the “Tuck Play” is perfect. I get the satisfaction of knowing Raiders fans feel cheated out of a victory AND I get the satifaction of knowing the truth is they weren’t.
That truly is the best of both worlds.
