The next one

Tom Brady has been asked "What's your favorite ring?" many times over the years. He often answers by telling a story from when he was a quarterback at Michigan in the late '90s. He said he once asked his offensive coordinator which of his many Big Ten championship rings was his favorite. "He looked at me and said 'The next one. The next one'," Brady recalled. "I said, "Ya. The next one."

Brady gets a shot at the next one today. It should be a great game. It got me thinking of all the great playoff games that Brady has played in. Before Brady and Belichick the Patriots had appeared in 17 playoff games in 40 years of football and their record was an underwhelming 7-10. There were some great games in there but also some heartbreakers (Steelers 7, Pats 6 in '97 is a good example). Since Brady walked on the field in September of 2001 the team has played in 21 playoffs games, going 16-5. What a run it has been.

As the Pats get ready for another Super Bowl, it's a good time to look back at the last decade and rank the top playoff games (not including this year just yet). It's not really a ranking as much as a list of great memories...

10. '06 Divisional Round (vs. Chargers): The only non-Super Bowl year game to make the list. This was one I watched mostly with my hands partially blocking my eyes, fearing the Chargers next score that would have blown the game open. San Diego led 14-3 early but the Pats scratched their way back to 21-13 with eight minutes to go. The Pats were teetering on the brink of disaster the whole game and when Brady was picked by Marlon McCree with about five minutes left it looked like they were done. But McCree kept running with the ball and the ever-alert Troy Brown stripped it and the Pats recovered. New life! Brady quickly cashed in on the second chance with a TD and two-point conversion (direct snap to Faulk of course) to tie the game at 21. The Pats D held and Gostkowski nailed a 31-yarder for one of the all-time great playoff thefts.

9. '04 Divisional Round (vs. Colts): When a team's most impressive, dominating defensive playoff performance of the decade only comes in at #9, well, you know you've been treated to some great games. This was the "Clock Killin' '' Corey Dillon game. This was the game where the unstoppable force (Colts' offense) met the immovable object (Pats' D). The league had changed the rules after the Pats beat the Colts (and beat them up) the year before, allowing more freedom for the receivers. The new rules didn't help. Bruschi ripped the ball from Dominick Rhodes's hands. The Pats (with the help of the cold and snow) ripped the heart right out of the Indy offense. They beat the Eagles for the title two weeks later but this was the '04 Super Bowl.

8. '03 Divisional Round (vs. Titans): The coldest playoff game in Patriot history. Every now and then a shiver will run through my body leftover from that day. How the players were able to play such a great game is beyond me. It took all my strength just to drink my beers. Brady hit Bethel Johnson on a 41-yard bomb as if it was a sunny September afternoon. Rodney Harrison hit everything in sight (and had a pick) and Adam Vinatieri hit yet another huge kick, nailing a 46-yarder with five minutes to go. I can still hear his foot smack the frozen ball as if he was kicking a cinder block. It hurt just to listen to it.

7. '01 AFC Championship (vs. Steelers): I watched this one at a bar with Paul. I was supposed to be at work. It seemed like a good day to take a three-hour lunch break. Other than the Sox Game 7 win over the Yankees this was the best bar game I've watched. The place was raucous. The Pats were big underdogs. The Steelers were way too cocky. Then Brady went down and Drew Bledsoe came in to play the role of hero. It was Bledsoe's shining moment as a Patriot -- and his last. He sure deserved it. Troy Brown made two huge special teams plays and the Pats found themselves headed to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

6. Super Bowl XXXIX (vs. Eagles): A Super Bowl not in the top 5? A Super Bowl that gave the Pats back-to-back titles not in the top 5? That's right. It wasn't all that great a game. The Pats only won by a field goal (24-21) but the game never felt that close. Not every Super Bowl is a classic. The key is just to win it. The beauty always lies in the final score. The Eagles and T.O. put up a good battle but the Patriots were too experienced, deep, and confident to let the chance at history get away. Linebacker Mike Vrabel made an acrobatic TD catch and Rodney sealed the victory with a pick, ending the game by flapping his arms like Eagles wings. The Pats had soared to the level of a dynasty.

5. '03 AFC Championship (vs. Colts): When someone says Gillette Stadium isn't a great home-field advantage its pretty clear that they weren't there for this game. The rivalry was just starting to build at this point. If you asked most people (outside of NE) which of these teams was about to win back-to-back titles I bet 90 percent of them would have chosen the Colts. They would have been wrong. The Pats D forced Manning to throw four picks (three by Ty Law) by harassing him and knocking his receivers all over the field. Rule changes would follow. And so would more Pats victories.

4. '04 AFC Championship (vs. Steelers): Oh, this game was fun to watch. The rematch with the Steelers in Heinz Field. Three years later the Pittsburgh players were still whining about their '01 loss and, having put a beating on the Pats in the regular season, were predicting a blowout. They were right. It was a blowout. Pats 41-27. And it wasn't that close. Deion Branch caught a TD bomb to open the scoring and then ran one in on the reverse to close out the scoring. Brady was an efficient 14-21 for only 207 yards and two TDs. But the D forced three picks -- Rodney taking one 87 yards for a touchdown. Blowout.

3. Super Bowl XXXVIII (vs. Panthers): One of the strangest Super Bowls ever. And the most exciting. The first quarter was a defensive war. Neither team scored. Then Vrabel forced a fumble, Brady hit Branch for a touchdown, and the two teams busted out to score 24 points in the last three minutes of the half. 24 points in three minutes after a bruising defensive first half. I've never seen anything like it. The two teams went back into their defensive stance, both coming up empty in the third quarter. That all changed again in the fourth quarter when the teams combined to score 37 points. Most of them on big plays. The game kept swinging from a standoff to a shootout. The Pats had Brady and Vinatieri. They got off the last shot for one of the greatest Super Bowl victories in NFL history.

2. Snow Bowl (vs. Raiders): "After review, the quarterback's arm was going forward ..." Tuck that! I'll be watching the tape of this game when I'm a happy old man. Hopefully I will be able to remember what it was like to be there as well as I can now. I think I will. The weather. The old stadium. A franchise's luck changing forever. A kick for the ages. A game for the ages. Most of the talk now centers on the fumble-that-wasn't and Vinatieri's clutch kicks, but the Pats receivers (Patten, Brown, Wiggins, Faulk) made some incredible catches in the blizzard. It was a memorable way to close out the old place. There's only one game that could top this instant classic.

1. Super Bowl XXXVI (vs. Rams): I was sitting on the floor next to the television in my parent's den. I wanted to be as close to the TV as I could. Brady spike the ball with just seven seconds left, the ball bouncing straight up and landing gently in the palm of his hand. Everyone was silent as Vinatieri walked out for the kick. "If he makes this we are Super Bowl champs," ran through my mind about 100 times in 30 seconds. I'm sure it was going through the mind of everyone in the room. But no one dared say it. The ball was snapped. Vinatieri kicked it smoothly. The camera angle switched to behind the goal post, the ball heading right towards me. It was right down the middle. Right down the middle! We yelled and danced and hugged and laughed -- and even cried a little -- for hours. The kick was good. I still can't believe it.

Here's hoping there's a new No. 1 for the list by the end of the day today.

It's good! It's good!

Ten years ago today I sat on the floor in my parent's den -- a foot from the TV -- as Vinatieri's kick sailed right at me and right through the uprights.

Maybe Gostkowski can recreate that moment Sunday. I'll be in the same spot. But with a better TV.

Ride on, Dennis

Dennis Hopper was usually one of the last things I saw before I went to sleep each night when I was about 8 years old. It was 1970 and "Easy Rider," the seminal road film that Hopper co-wrote, co-starred in, and directed a year earlier, had left an impression on many people about to enter or already in college, including my 17-year-old brother Richard.

It also left an impression on me. I shared a room with him and my other older brother Jim. On the wall next to the shelf with the 8-track player was a long horizontal poster of Hopper and Peter Fonda gliding along the highway on their choppers with the Southwest landscape behind them. Fonda with his American Flag custom paint job, no helmet, hair in the wind. Hopper with his mustache, bushman hat, and buckskin pants and tassle-covered coat. I would lie in bed listening to the Stones, Doors or Jefferson Airplane coming from Richard's or Jim's headphones and stare at the poster. Fonda and Hopper. Both wearing sunglasses, leaning back, on the road. They were the picture of cool. I often fell asleep imagining where they were riding to. I could almost hear the engines.

It was several years until I actually got to see the movie. There were no R-rated DVDs for kids to watch when their parents were at work when I was 8. No On Demand. You either snuck into the theater or waited -- for years. I was a little too young for sneaking. But just looking at that poster every night slowly made me part of the "Easy Rider" faithful.

When I finally did watch it, Hopper's Billy was like no other character I had seen. Hopper was like no other actor. I would see many characters like Billy again from those who Hopper inspired to do their acting over the edge. Jack Nicholson was one of those actors. His drunken ACLU lawyer George attracted most of the attention (and Oscar nomination) and sparked a legendary career. But it was Hopper's Billy that I remembered after leaving the theater. The actor's most famous lines come from his roles in "Apocalypse Now" and "Blue Velvet,'' but it was Billy's line in the scene with George in the darkness of night -- only a campfire reflecting on their faces -- that I think of first.

Nicholson's George tells Billy the establishment is afraid of what he and his friends represent. Billy says "Hey man. All we represent to them, man, is just somebody who needs haircuts.'' Oh no, man, George tells him. What they represent to them is freedom. Billy answers with one of my favorite movie lines and one that captures the late '60s/early '70s as well as any lyric or line from that time.

"What the hell's wrong with freedom, man? That's what it's all about."

Hopper's death the other day had me watching bits of "Apocalypse Now" and "Heart of Darkness" for some of his best moments. It also had me watching another classic clip of his that many have probably not seen -- or at least don't remember seeing. And here is where this post fits in on a tailgating blog.

Hopper's career suffered at the hands of his over-the-edge style. He took his visions -- even the non-drug induced ones -- too far and became too big of a hassle to deal with. He was in exile most of the '70s. He returned in the '80s with "Rumblefish" and "Blue Velvet" and "Hoosiers" and then became the movie villain of the '90s starting with his role in "Speed." It was at this time that the NFL brought him in to do little promo videos for Monday Night Football and other big games. Some of them rank among the best in TV shorts. My favorite (attached below) is the one he did before the Patriots home opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers in September of 2002. That was quite a night. One of the all-time greats in Foxborough: http://tjtailgatetales.blogspot.com/2009/11/we-are-champions.html The Pats were defending their first Super Bowl on a Thursday night in their new stadium. The banner was raised. The Steelers destroyed. I got home late that night and, as I often do, popped open a beer and popped in the video tape of the game.

I fast-forwarded through the pre-game talk till I saw a blurry Dennis Hopper going by. I stopped and hit rewind. Then play. I still laugh when I watch it. It captures just how amazing it was that the Patriots really won the Super Bowl. And note the very end. Hopper predicts the Patriots dynasty. "Every year, man! Every year!"

Playoffs?! Playoffs?!

At the start of this decade the Patriots had played in 17 playoff games in 40 years of football and their record was an underwhelming 7-10. There were some great games in there but also some heart breakers (Steelers 7, Pats 6 in '97 is a good example). In this decade the Pats have played in ... 17 playoff games. In just ten years. Their record? 14-3. It's still hard to believe.

As the Pats get ready for the playoffs in a new decade, it's a good time to look back at the last 10 years and rank the top playoff games. It's not really a ranking as much as a list of great memories. 14-3. Three titles. What a decade.

10. '06 Divisional round (vs. Chargers): The only non-Super Bowl year game to make the list. This was one I watched mostly with my hands partially blocking my eyes, fearing the Chargers next score that would have blown the game open. San Diego led 14-3 early but the Pats scratched their way back to 21-13 with eight minutes to go. The Pats were teetering on the brink of disaster the whole game and when Brady was picked by Marlon McCree with about five minutes left it looked like the Pats were done. But McCree kept running with the ball and the ever-alert Troy Brown stripped it and the Pats recovered. New life! Brady quickly cashed in on the second chance with a TD and two-point conversion (direct snap to Faulk of course) to tie the game at 21. The Pats D held and Gostkowski nailed a 31-yarder for one of the all-time great playoff thefts.

9. '04 Division round (vs. Colts): When a team's most impressive, dominating defensive playoff performance of the decade only comes in at #9, well, you know you've been treated to some great games. This was the "Clock Killin' '' Corey Dillon game. This was the game where the unstoppable force (Colts' offense) met the immovable object (Pats' D). The league had changed the rules after the Pats beat the Colts (and beat them up) the year before, allowing more freedom for the receivers. The new rules didn't help. Bruschi ripped the ball from Dominick Rhodes's hands. The Pats (with the help of the cold and snow) ripped the heart right out of the Indy offense. They beat the Eagles for the title two weeks later but this was the '04 Super Bowl.

8. '03 Divisional round (vs. Titans): The coldest playoff game in Patriot history. Every now and then a shiver will run through my body leftover from that day. How the players were able to play such a great game is beyond me. It took all my strength just to drink my beers. Brady hit Bethel Johnson on a 41-yard bomb as if it was a sunny September afternoon. Rodney Harrison hit everything in sight (and had a pick) and Adam Vinatieri hit yet another huge kick, nailing a 46-yarder with five minutes to go. I can still hear his foot smack the frozen ball as if he was kicking a cinder block. It hurt just to listen to it.

7. '01 AFC Championship (vs. Steelers): I watched this one at a bar with Paul. I was supposed to be at work. It seemed like a good day to take a three-hour lunch break. Other than the Sox Game 7 win over the Yankees this was the best bar game I've watched. The place was raucous. The Pats were big underdogs. The Steelers were way too cocky. Then Brady went down and Drew Bledsoe came in to play the role of hero. It was Bledsoe's shining moment as a Patriot -- and his last. He sure deserved it. Troy Brown made two huge special teams plays and the Pats found themselves headed to New Orleans for the Super Bowl.

6. Super Bowl XXXIX (vs. Eagles): A Super Bowl not in the top 5? A Super Bowl that gave the Pats back-to-back titles not in the top 5? That's right. It wasn't all that great a game. The Pats only won by a field goal (24-21) but the game never felt that close. Not every Super Bowl is a classic. The key is just to win it. The beauty always lies in the final score. The Eagles and T.O. put up a good battle but the Patriots were too experienced, deep, and confident to let the chance at history get away. Linebacker Mike Vrabel made an acrobatic TD catch and Rodney sealed the victory with a pick, ending the game by flapping his arms like Eagles wings. The Pats had soared to the level of a dynasty.

5. '03 AFC Championship (vs. Colts): When someone says Gillette Stadium isn't a great home-field advantage its pretty clear that they weren't there for this game. The rivalry was just starting to build at this point. If you asked most people (outside of NE) which of these teams was about to win back-to-back titles I bet 90 percent of them would have chosen the Colts. They would have been wrong. The Pats D forced Manning to throw four picks (three by Ty Law) by harassing him and knocking his receivers all over the field. Rule changes would follow. And so would more Pats victories.

4. '04 AFC Championship (vs. Steelers): Oh, this game was fun to watch. The rematch with the Steelers in Heinz Field. Three years later the Pittsburgh players were still whining about their '01 loss and, having put a beating on the Pats in the regular season, were predicting a blowout. They were right. It was a blowout. Pats 41-27. And it wasn't that close. Deion Branch caught a TD bomb to open the scoring and then ran one in on the reverse to close out the scoring. Brady was an efficient 14-21 for only 207 yards and two TDs. But the D forced three picks -- Rodney taking one 87 yards for a touchdown. Blowout.

3. Super Bowl XXXVIII (vs. Panthers): One of the strangest Super Bowls ever. And the most exciting. The first quarter was a defensive war. Neither team scored. Then Vrabel forced a fumble, Brady hit Branch for a touchdown, and the two teams busted out to score 24 points in the last three minutes of the half. 24 points in three minutes after a bruising defensive first half. I've never seen anything like it. The two teams went back into their defensive stance, both coming up empty in the third quarter. That all changed again in the fourth quarter when the teams combined to score 37 points. Most of them on big plays. The game kept swinging from a standoff to a shootout. The Pats had Brady and Vinatieri. They got off the last shot for one of the greatest Super Bowl victories in NFL history.

2. Snow Bowl (vs. Raiders): "After review, the quarterback's arm was going forward ..." Tuck that! I'll be watching the tape of this game when I'm a happy old man. Hopefully I will be able to remember what it was like to be there as well as I can now. I think I will. The weather. The old stadium. A franchise's luck changing forever. A kick for the ages. A game for the ages. Most of the talk now centers on the fumble-that-wasn't and Vinatieri's clutch kicks, but the Pats receivers (Patten, Brown, Wiggins, Faulk) made some incredible catches in the blizzard. It was a memorable way to close out the old place. There's only one game that could top this instant classic.

1. Super Bowl XXXVI (vs. Rams): I was sitting on the floor next to the television in my parent's den. I wanted to be as close to the TV as I could. Brady spike the ball with just seven seconds left, the ball bouncing straight up and landing gently in the palm of his hand. Everyone was silent as Vinatieri walked out for the kick. "If he makes this we are Super Bowl champs," ran through my mind about 100 times in 30 seconds. I'm sure it was going through the mind of everyone in the room. But no one dared say it. The ball was snapped. Vinatieri kicked it smoothly. The camera angle switched to behind the goal post, the ball heading right towards me. It was right down the middle. Right down the middle! We yelled and danced and hugged and laughed -- and even cried a little -- for hours. The kick was good. I still can't believe it.

We are the champions

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE
Pats 30, Steelers 14 (9/9/'02): A day I never thought would come. The Pats were raising a Super Bowl championship banner. The joy from the moment when Vinatieri's kick went through the uprights in New Orleans was still with everyone as we gathered in the lot in front of our brand new stadium! A Super Bowl title and a new stadium! Were we in Pittsburgh? Dallas? San Francisco? No. We were in New England. After nearly 30 years of rooting for a team sure to break your heart, I was getting ready to watch my team raise a banner as the best in the NFL. In a brand new stadium. Surreal.

It was 80 degrees on a Thursday night in September. The NFL had come up with a new way to spread football throughout the week by having the defending champ open at home on a Thursday night. The Pats were re-matched against the Steelers, the team that they had upset on the road in the AFC title game to advance to the Super Bowl. Everyone remembers "The Snow Bowl" against the Raiders and, of course, the Super Bowl. The game in between often gets overlooked. The Pats walked into Steel Town and punched them in the face to take the AFC championship. The Steelers still think they were the better team and deserved to win. Of course after Spygate broke players such as Hines Ward said things like "Hey, I knew they were cheating! Where are our championship rings?" On the fingers of the Pats, right where they belong. Spygate or not, the Pats beat the Steelers because of Troy Brown's special teams play (which you don't need illegal videos for) and Steeler QB Kordell Stewart's not-so-special play. Simple as that.

Bitter Steeler players were quoted before the season-opening game as saying "There's nothing like knocking off the champs." The champs? That's right. We are the champs!

The parking lot was like Mardi Gras. Fans shot off fireworks. Music blasted. People danced. The food was better and the drink was sweeter. We were the champs. We arrived inside Gillette Stadium and made our way to our new seats... in Section 109 at the 45-yard line. It was official: me, Paul, Bergs, and Shep had died and gone to heaven. The new stadium was impressive. And this was before KraftWorld, a.k.a. Patriot Place, came to be. There was a big ceremony planned with former players introduced and a highlight film of the team's Super Bowl run on the big screen. Nick Carter sang the National Anthem (OK, not everything was magical). One of the loudest cheers came for the announcement that the new stadium was built with private money and without PSLs, the dreaded personal seat licenses. If I ever meet Bob Kraft in person I know just what to say. "Thanks for not charging me thousands of dollars for the right to pay you thousands of dollars to buy my tickets." He could have gouged the fans (of which he was a long-suffering one) and he didn't. A class act that should never be forgotten.

The players were introduced as one, just like the Super Bowl. The roar for Vinatieri was deafening. Then the lights went out and Mr. Kraft started "You've been waiting 40 years for this" and the roar got louder. U2's "Beautiful Day" played, just like in the Super Bowl, and a spotlight hit the south end zone where the championship banner was unveiled. It was like New Year's in Times Square. Hugging. Cheering. Laughing. Kissing.

The energy from the ceremony carried over to the game. The Steelers scored to tie the game 7-7 in the first quarter and then the Patriots steamrolled them. Scoring the next 23 points. Brady and the offense had almost 350 yards for the game and Kordell Stewart reprised his role of mistake-prone QB by throwing three picks. Final score 30-14.

At one point during a TV timeout in the fourth quarter, Queen's "We Are the Champions" blasted out over the new stadium's speakers. The crowd began to sing along ... "Weeee are the cham-pions, my friend. And weeeee'll keep on fighting ..." It was almost a Patriotic moment. President Bush would have gotten teary. A group of Americans singing as one about winning. The crowd continued to sing louder and louder and then, as the commercial break ended and the players lined up for the next play. the music, as it always does, stopped. But the crowd did not. "Weeee are the cham-pions. Weeeeee are the cham-pions ..." 60,000 plus singing a cappella till the final line. "Weeee are the cham-pions! ... of the woooooorld!" That night we were.