Posts tagged Bill Belichick at FanHouse

Sorting the Sunday Pile looks back at the NFL weekend that was. It's also an unofficial Mittens blog.


Sunday was supposed to be a coronation of sorts; Tom Brady would take his first snap in seven months, the Patriots would resume their quest for perfection, and the rest of the football-watching world would have front-row seats for the awesomeness that was sure to ensue. And then, in the time it took New England running back Sammy Morris to block Kansas City safety Bernard Pollard to the turf -- and into Brady's knee -- the Patriots' season was over.

Obviously, they'll still play the remaining 15 games on their schedule, but as Peter King so somberly explained during "Football Night in America," "Tom Brady is football." That's a bit much, I think, but I take the point; the Patriots go as Brady goes, and without him, they're just a team and Bill Belichick is just a coach.

There's still much to sort through, especially in terms of tailoring the offense to highlight backup Matt Cassel's strong suits (more broken plays that result in awkward quarterback scrambles?), but one thing is certain: in no way was the hit on Brady dirty. Following the game, Randy Moss disagreed, but I suspect that had more to do with being in shock at the situation he currently finds himself. Brady saved Moss' career a year ago and the prospect of having to catch passes from a guy who spent his college career handing out water to Carson Palmer and Matt Leinart whenever they came to the sidelines has to be disconcerting.

While most of New England is coming to grips with the idea that Tom Brady's 2008 season is in the books, and more sobering, Matt Cassel is the future, New York -- the New York Post, in particular -- took great delight in the the Jets' sudden change in fortunes.

I think the back page of today's rag pretty much says it all: "Bring on the Pats", followed by the unimaginably less subtle: "Yahoo!: Brady out for Year."

Yep, I'm pretty sure somebody's definitely going to hell over that last one. Look, I dislike Brady as much as the next guy who doesn't drink the Kool-Aid, but I'd never celebrate the his knee getting blowed up. He's fun to hate because he's so good, otherwise it's sorta overkill.

But Favre-mania has gripped New York, and that resounding six-point win over the mighty Dolphins yesterday, coupled with Brady's injury, has emboldened Jets fans (or at least those who write headlines and try to sell papers).

I suspect this'll be part of the round-the-clock Brady'08 media blitz, and if there's a silver lining, head coach Bill Belichick's found his motivational angle: you know all those times he's convinced his players that nobody believed in them and they somehow channeled that perceived slight into gutty on-field performances? Well, you got your wish, Bill; nobody on the planet thinks the Pats have a chance this season. Including Tom Brady.

UPDATE: A reader makes what should be an obvious point: the "Yahoo!: Brady Out for Year" header is probably pointing out that Yahoo! the web site broke the story, which must make CBS Sportsline very unhappy. I'd like to think that's giving the Post too much credit, but it's more likely the case that I'm not very smart. Moving on...

If the early speculation is true -- that Tom Brady has a torn ACL -- the Patriots' Super Bowl aspirations, and maybe even Bill Belichick's evil genius label, are in the Thomas H. Crapper.

Brady didn't take a snap during the preseason because of a foot injury, and it took less than a quarter before he hobbled back to the locker room for the rest of the day, and maybe longer. Chiefs safety Bernard Pollard hit Brady just as he released the ball, but there was no flag for a low hit. Probably because Pats running back Sammy Morris was pushing him in the back.




That didn't make any difference to Randy Moss, who took issue with Pollard's tackle. But he doesn't want to get into it.

"I don't really want to get into it, but me personally, I think it was dirty," he said.

"Like I said, I didn't really see anything; I was running down the field. When I came back in [and watched it], it looked dirty to me. I've never been a dirty player. I honestly don't even know how to play dirty. I just play the game. Any time you see something like that, that looks foul, it looks dirty, it opens your eyes. So, me personally, it looked dirty."

To recap: Moss doesn't want to talk about it, he doesn't even know how to play dirty, but the hit looked dirty to him. Duly noted.

Pollard defended the play as undirty.

The New York Jets don't expect to see Tom Brady when they play the New England Patriots in Week 2.

Tom Curran of NBC Sports reports (via PFT) that Jets players were saying in the locker room after today's win over the Miami Dolphins that they believe Brady suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament, which is usually a season-ending injury.

"Everybody I talked to said it's a torn ACL," said one Jets player. "Players AND coaches. When we came in here that's what people were saying, 'Brady's got a torn ACL.' "

Patriots coach Bill Belichick didn't provide any useful information about Brady in his post-game comments, saying only, "I don't have any update on Tom. They're looking at him, doing some tests on him. I don't have any information yet. Not that anybody would be interested in that."

No, no one is interested at all.

Randy Moss is obviously a Hall of Famer, all time great wide receiver. Etc. He is glitter. He is glisten. He is awesomeness. And he is also now the holder of the following "records": 13 most receiving yards in NFL history (13,014) as he passed Jimmy Smith, who is busy not driving today I'm sure, and third most all time 100 yard receiving games in the history of the NFL.

The catch (yes, pun intended)? The deep ball -- a 58 yarder -- he caught to go over 100 for the game and to break get these milestones was a pass thrown by Matt Cassel. You know, the guy with the second cushiest job in America behind Jim Sorgi? Until today, anyway, when he had to come in and replace an injured Brady in the first quarter of the season opener.

The lesson, as always? Bill Belichick doesn't even need Tom Brady. All he needs is personnel that cares enough about winning and "TEAM" and that tries hard and focuses and keeps their mouth shut ... okay that's not the lesson. The lesson is that the Chiefs stink. And the Patriots are a very talented team and I could probably hook up with Moss for a touchdown this week. So everyone can stop freaking out. For now.

Update: Moss and Cassel love each other so much they decided to hook up for a touchdown. Awww.

Way back in April, I wrote that the Patriots might've found a viable replacement for Asante Samuel, who had recently inked a big-money contract to play for the Eagles, when they signed Lions castoff Fernando Bryant.

I based that not on the fact that head coach Bill Belichick must know something the rest of us don't because HE'S A FREAKING GENIUS (New England signs a boatload of defensive backs every spring, and inevitably, most of them aren't around by the start of the season), but because Detroit head coach Rod Marinelli spoke in glowing terms about Bryant, and stressed that the decision to release him was strictly a financial one.

Maybe that's true, and maybe Marinelli really does think Bryant is "very physical" and "a tough tackler," but I'm guessing Belichick disagrees.

When you hear 49ers offensive coordinator Mike Martz in an interview, he sounds like a reasonable, extremely intelligent football mind. Apparently, he's also an awesome actor. Because once he steps on the field, It's Mr. Hyde time.

Cardinals starting quarterback Kurt Warner regaled the San Francisco media with stories of what playing for Martz entailed during their time together in St. Louis. Basically, it was a one-way conversation involving Martz denigrating his quarterbacks. Sounds like a lot of fun.

Which segues nicely into to this revelation from Yahoo's Michael Silver (via Niner Insider):

Mike Silver at Yahoo sports wrote a provocative story about the 49ers' quarterback situation. According to sources cited by Silver, offensive coordinator Mike Martz would muttered aspersions at [Alex] Smith after feeding him a play at practice. And daily, he buried Shaun Hill in meetings. All this suggests that Martz wanted [J.T.] O'Sullivan to be the starter all along and made sure that it happened.

Eh, I'm not sure this is evidence Martz wanted O'Sullivan to win the job. Instead, as Warner pointed out, Martz is just a perfectionist who also happens to be a humongous a-hole. I'm guessing if either Smith or Hill had played better, they would be starting right now. As it turns out, they were less impressive than a journeyman and Smith's days are likely numbered.

Road Chalk and Alaskan Pipelines is Will Brinson's NFL gambling column at FanHouse. Because everyone loves a loser.

Oh. Hello there. Do you like to gamble wager on sports make plays gamble? Excellent. You're in the right place. Each week here at 'RCAP' I will be walking you, hand in hand, to the promised land of guaranteed winnings, should you choose to follow my advice. You will be 100 percent guaranteed to win at least 90 percent of your picks, almost 11 percent of the time.

And yes! There will be an occasional Anchorman joke or two. No, seriously though, I guarantee nothing. Instead, what I'll do is probably talk about something in this space, show you the lines, sprinkle some snarky commentary amid quasi-analysis and then make a selection.

Why should you keep coming back? Because, I, a career loser of at least two commas in sports wagering, am either going to thrash Brandon Lang's picks -- I believe he will also be shown on FanHouse each week -- and end up with an insanely high winning percentage, or I will go down in flames faster than David Carr in the face of a two-backer blitz prevent defense.

Onto the winners.

This morning, PFT posted a link to Boston radio station WEEI reporting that an August MRI revealed a cracked bone in Tom Brady's foot. This, apparently, is news to Brady's old man, Tom Sr.

The information ran counter to what Brady Sr. had previously discussed with his son.

"He did tell us that he had stress on the bone, and that's why he wore a [protective] boot for a day – one day," Brady Sr. said. "He has never told us that he had any broken bones or fractured bones in his foot. All I knew is that he had stress on a bone, and there is a difference there."

You see, Thomas the Elder, this is what happens when you have a family member join a cult. The symptoms couldn't be more obvious if Junior had his fridge stocked with Kool-Aid and kept talking about moving to northwestern Guyana.

Brady Sr. did admit that he didn't directly ask his dream-tastic son about the injury, and it could very well be true. Surprisingly, head coach Bill Belichick wasn't interested in getting into specifics, but he did say that he expects Brady to play against the Chiefs Sunday.

Seriously, is sounds like he'll be fine; Brady won't be the first guy to play injured, and if we learned anything from Super Bowl XLII, it's that he can take a hit. Or a bunch of them. Still, Jason Whitlock thinks Belichick should give Matt Cassel a chance to lose his first NFL start, but I just don't see that happening.

For five years Asante Samuel was a key cog in the Patriots secondary, shutting down his side of the field and snatching interceptions by the boatload (27, to be exact, including five in the post-season). Of course, Patriots fans might remember the interception he didn't make more than the ones he did make, and perhaps that explains, at least in part, the cold shoulder he received in his return.

Last night, Samuel, now sporting Philadelphia green-and-white after signing a massive contract as a free agent, made his first appearance in his former stomping grounds. And it would seem the once friendly confines of Gillette Stadium aren't quite as friendly as they once were. Case in point, from Baxter Holmes at today's Boston Globe

Samuel returned to Gillette Stadium last night, and though he wasn't the star he was in last year's regular-season game between the teams (the Eagles' special teams outshined everyone last night), he still received an introduction that, if anything, showed how little fans remembered of his five years with the Patriots.

"I was kind of doing an interview on the sideline with somebody, some TV network, and they were chanting [negatively] over there," Samuel said after the game.