The fog lifted

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE
Pats 28, Steelers 3 (1/5/'97): Known as "The Fog Game." This was the first home playoff game during Part II of being a season-ticket holder and the first home playoff game with Bill Parcells as coach. The Pats had never won a home playoff game. Never. The franchise was created in 1960 as the Boston Patriots and 37 years later Pats fans had still not witnessed a home playoff win. There were some great playoff victories up to that point (at NY Jets, at Oakland, and at Miami in three consecutive, amazing weeks in '86 for instance), but none at home. For me, Mark, Shep, Toph, Bergs, and Billy the whole week leading up to the game was like Christmas Eve.

The Pats were far from a sure thing to make the playoffs that year so having a home playoff game was almost a shock. And to make it better, or worse, the Pats were playing the Steelers. The Steelers had lots of home playoff victories. And road playoff victories. And Super Bowl victories. One of the all-time great franchises against one of the all-time saddest. Even better was the fact that the Jaguars had gone into No. 1 seed Denver the day before and done what very few teams had done. Beat the Broncos in the playoffs in Denver. As I sat on my couch watching the Broncos lose, Mark called. "If we win this game tomorrow we would host the AFC Championship game. The AFC Championship game!"

I woke up early that morning, or maybe I never got to sleep. I don't remember. The car was packed the night before and we all met up at the Bickford's... One of the big differences between tailgating now and then is cell phones. Now you can all get to the lot at different times and just call or text each other to meet up. Then you had to gather at a parking lot somewhere outside the stadium lots. If you went in separately you might never find each other... The morning had started under a heavy blanket of fog and by the time we pulled into the lot the old stadium, which sat up on the top of a hill, was barely visible. It looked like a giant freighter on the ocean horizon on a foggy morning. It was a cool sight.

But it was a problem because with Drew Bledsoe having a break-out year the Pats were a passing offense. It went against Parcell's every instinct but that's what they were. Curtis Martin was a hell of a back. Hall of Fame level. But Bledsoe and the Pats were a passing team when it counted. But we weren't worried about that at the moment. We tailgated in the drizzle and fog. Security was strict about throwing footballs in the lot before and after games ("Hey! You behind the guys smoking the weed. Stop throwing that football around!") but since you couldn't see more than 10 feet we were able to throw the ball without getting harassed. And without being able to see the ball. "I hope the visibility is better inside the stadium," Toph said as we dropped pass after pass.

It wasn't. As we came up the stairs and into the stadium the fog was pretty bad. When we reached our seats all the way up in Section 311 about 10 rows from the top of the stadium, the field was a grey ghost. "Holy shit," I said. "Let's get that running game going." As the National Anthem ended fireworks burst in the sky. Or at least it sounded like fireworks. You really couldn't see them. Seems that the Pats were celebrating their first home playoff game in many years with fireworks. Fireworks make smoke. Lots of smoke. Due to the thick fog the smoke couldn't rise and instead mixed with the fog to make something thicker than smoke and thicker than fog. Smog? Shep started laughing. It was typical Patriots. Aren't fireworks for after you win the game?

The crowd roared as the Pats defense stopped the Steelers. But people were nervous. We had never won a home playoff game. You can't see the ball if it's 10 feet in the air. We had already shot off fireworks. Nervous. The Pats got the punt and the ball at about their 45-yard line. The offense came out and lined up for their first play. Bledsoe dropped back to pass. I looked left and saw rookie receiver Terry Glenn (who had a huge regular season despite, or because of, the fact that Parcells rode him like a Derby also-ran) take off at the snap and race down the far sideline towards the Steelers end zone. I looked right and saw Bledsoe rear back and toss a bomb high and deep... and into the fog. The ball disappeared. Completely. I looked left again and saw Glenn burn past the cornerback by three strides and turn and look up over his left shoulder. He waited. And waited. We all waited. And then the ball dropped out of the fog and fell right into his arms. Glenn cradled the ball and cut through the fog till he was tackled at about the five yard line. A 52-yard bomb on their first play of the game.

In all the games I've been to over the years I've never heard the crowd explode like that. All those years of disappointment seemed to be released in the fog with that one pass. We high-fived and screamed and then Martin crashed the ball in for a score on the next play and the Pats never looked back. A romp. A home playoff victory. Finally.

After the game we celebrated in the parking lot, grilling, drinking, and listening to the post-game radio show. The Tuna came to the podium. There were a lot of great things about Parcells. One of the best was his press conferences. He alternated between being the funniest wise-ass around to talking about what the defense did to stuff the other team on third-downs in a way only a great coach can. After answering all the questions Parcells ended with a message for the fans going to the AFC Championship game the following Sunday. "I want to thank the fans for the way they were behind us today," he said. "We've got another game next week. And there's even more on the line. Tell them to be ready to go again and be in their seats a little earlier."

Yes sir, Bill. Thanks for that first home playoff win.

Get me rewrite!

WEEK 3
Patriots 26, Falcons 10 (9/27/09): It seems the sky isn't falling. And it seems the Pats aren't done just yet. You won't see any retractions or corrections. But you should. In Week 3, Bill Belichick's Patriots did what they have done season after season this decade. Put the distractions and doubts aside and go out and play a solid, winning football game. The Falcons are a good team and they played a good road game in damp conditions but the Pats were better. If a few missed deep passes connected this game would have looked a lot like some of the '07 romps. You just have the feeling it's a matter of time before the offense puts up 40 points. Not next week against Baltimore. But soon.

Picking up Mark at the commuter rail station in Providence, the expected steady rain was starting to kick in. As we got closer to Gillette. the rain let up. Like the predictions of the Patriots demise, the forecast of very wet weather was slightly overstated. It turned out to be a decent day. With the help of the canopy we now have (After 15 seasons of tailgating we finally got a canopy. That either proves we are getting smarter -- or just older.) After enjoying the spareribs that Shep and Matt had ready for us when we got to the lot, we headed to our seats. I was not expecting to be dry at the start of the game. Fortunately I was.

I also did not expect Randy Moss to be suited up, due to reports he had a bad back. I figured there was no way the Pats risk Moss on a wet field even if they already were missing Wes Welker. I was so sure of it I benched Moss on my fantasy football team in the league I'm in with my two brothers, sister, and five nephews. My team, Moss Racing (renamed so after Randy bought a racing team), was off to an 0-2 start so I couldn't afford to have an inactive guy starting for me. Down went Moss and up came TJ Houshmandzadeh or however you spell it. So I sit down with my two Don Julio margaritas and fortunately (or unfortunately for my fantasy team) there was #81 looking ready to go. "Any one in the stands have a laptop?" Doh!

There were too many empty seats for such a big game, especially in the upper decks. I guess people watched the same forecast I did. Or they decided to move to one of the standing-room sections that is much closer to sea level. The attendance may have been a little dampened but the Patriots -- especially Moss, sore back and all -- were not. They were ready to put the Jets loss behind them.

And Belichick made sure they did. As if to personally rebut Bill Simmons's column that he may have lost the fire to win, he goes for it on 4th and 1 from his own 24-yard line with just over five minutes to go in the third quarter up by six. Analysts saw this as a sign that Belichick had no confidence in his defense. The defense that is ranked in the top 10 in just about every category in this young season. What it looked like to me was Belichick saying "If the guys on this offense are as good as they think they are then they should be able to make a stinking yard at a critical moment in the season." And they did. Belichick wasn't protecting his emerging defense, he was challenging his talented offense. Show me another coach who would go for it on that play. There isn't one.

The Pats may not win it all this year. Hell, they may not even win the AFC East which is looking pretty competitive. Even 0-3 Miami is a dangerous team. But this game showed that any forecasts of a long, dreary season were nothing more than knee-jerks. The Pats have a tough season ahead, but that's the way it usually is. Back-to-back 14-2 seasons and that 16-0 run seem to have created a ridiculous level of expectations. Those seasons are rare and are to be enjoyed. But there's something just as enjoyable about watching your team battle to say, 10-6 or 11-5, and fight for a playoff spot. That's all you can really ask as a fan. Just be competitive and don't beat yourself. And the Pats will be able to do at least that for a while. That's my forecast.

The sky is falling

I knew that the loss to the Jets would stir up many questions about the team. As I said in a previous entry ("Swamp thing"), there would be three trains of thought on the game -- in particular Brady.

1. Brady was gun shy after the knee blow-out, 2. He was rusty, 3. It was just one of those games. What I didn't realize is there's a fourth possibility.

4. The Pats are on the decline and the days of Belichick/Brady being perennial Super Bowl contenders are over. I really hadn't thought of that one. Because, oh, it's absurd.

But it's not absurd to Michael Rosenberg of SI in his column titled "Tom Brady ... What If He Never Gets It Back?" Two weeks into the season and he writes that Brady may never win another Super Bowl. Good point. But he will win a lot more games. Super Bowls? Who knows. It's Week 2. Rosenberg compares him to Troy Aikman even though he then admits Aikman's situation was completely different. Oh well. Good point?

And it's not absurd to Ron Borges (big surprise) who wrote that the Patriots decline is a direct result of poor drafting since the last Super Bowl and that the man to blame for the drafting is (again, surprise!) Bill Belichick. Yes, the Pats have missed over the past few years. Every team does. But when you go 16-0 just one season ago are there really a lot of spots for young guys? Chad Jackson. Ouch. Jerod Mayo. Hell of a pick. Borges says Belichick is to blame for the mess he's in... mess? You want a mess? Try 1-15. Belichick makes mistakes. Doesn't like to stand there while the media asks their mostly lame and obvious questions after the game. But really? At 1-1 you are going to start writing the obit? OK, but be prepared to add the column alongside the ones that said Bledsoe should get his job back and that Seymour (or most any other pick) was a mistake.

But it's ESPN's Bill Simmons who seems to have really jumped the shark. Not because he disses "Funny People" (most likely movie of 2009 to be a hit on DVD), but because he writes "Watching a documentary about the 2003-04 Pats recently, I couldn't shake one thought: Most of these dudes are long gone. The only remaining 2004 cogs are Brady, Dan Koppen, Kevin Faulk, Ty Warren and Vince Wilfork. That's it. When someone casually throws out the whole, "It's the Patriots, they'll be fine" line, they're banking on the great coach/owner/GM trifecta and assuming that an overhaul of 90 percent of the roster since 2005 went splendidly. Not really."

I watched that "America's Game" DVD recently. Maybe he has the three Super Bowls on one DVD that I just bought. I love it. When I watched it I thought "What a great team. What a great season. That was so fun. I want to watch that again." But he's right. Most of the '03-'04 Pats are gone. That was five seasons ago. In the NFL that's a hell of a long time. And yet two short years ago this team, without many of those players, went 18-1. One of the greatest seasons in NFL history. Last year Brady goes down, the team battles to 11-5 with Matt ("Cut him! Oh, never mind") Cassel as QB. Other than the Steelers and Giants I don't think there is a team in the league who wouldn't take those last two seasons. But after a Week 2 loss to the Jets, the run could be over.

It seems that being a columnist in the 24/7 sports news world is a competition to be the first to say something is great -- or something sucks. "Hey, it's Week 2 and the Pats didn't look that good. Oh, and they didn't make the playoffs last year! They are done!" If you write the "Team X or Player X Is Done" story enough, eventually you will be right. But writing it about the Patriots after the loss to the Jets?

P-e-r-s-p-e-c-t-i-v-e.

Please.

The Simmons column is a great. Loaded with stats. Loaded with humor. That's what makes him the best. He doesn't just write a "I'm Worried The Pats Are On The Way Down" story like most newspaper columnists and then go have dinner and watch "Dexter." He puts in facts. He looks shit up. Like the record of teams who have eight-straight nine or more win seasons and what happened to them the next year. Like I said, it's a great column. And if he had written it in Week 10 when the Pats were 4-6 (I think that will happen in 2016) then I would have quoted from it in every water cooler chat about the Pats. But Week 2? Just one season removed from 18-1?

Come on. Don't go there. Because if the Pats go out and beat the 2-0 Falcons you are going to look silly. And you will.

The part that really disappointed me was when Simmons said about Belichick: "Total armchair analysis, but he seems to me like someone who made a ton of money, earned a whole hand of Super Bowl rings, feels pretty secure about his place in history, and continues to love coaching football ... only maybe it's not quite life or death anymore."

Total armchair analysis is right. If you are at the game and watching the Pats' bench you know it's still life or death. It may seem tempered by the confidence and accomplishment of three titles, but it's not. The man coaches every second of every game. He's not high-fiving after a TD or a pick, he's not giving the team the old pep talk when they are behind. Nope. He's coaching. Come to a game and watch. One of the other team's guys on punt coverage goes out of bounds and then comes in and downs the ball. Belichick sees it and alerts the ref. Flag. The offense comes off the field after a good drive, but one that ended in a field goal. Belichick takes Brady and Moss aside and shows them something on his clipboard. Then talks to the QB coach. Then checks in with the offensive line down the end of the bench. Simmons makes a big deal that Belichick is 57 and guys like Landry, Parcells, Shula began to fade in their 50s. So Belichick must be fading. Come watch a game. He's not fading. He really is the best coach the game has ever seen. He's Red Auerbach without the stogie. He will do anything to win and can win with almost any kind of team. Red had Russell. Belichick has Brady. If this was the NBA of the '50s and '60s the Pats would be working on their seventh straight title. No doubt about it.

But it's not. It's the NFL of 2009. And just competing for a title year in and year out is a hell of an accomplishment. If anyone has doubts about Brady and the Pats this year... come to a game. In fact, come to the Atlanta game. You'll see what you are missing.

Swamp thing

WEEK 2
Score one for Rex Ryan. Jets 16, Patriots 9. From my view on the couch it was a case of missed opportunities in the first half that really killed the Pats. They dominated in time of possession (18 mins-11 mins) but three times had to settle for field goals deep in NY territory. Give credit to the Jets D which hasn't allowed a touchdown yet in two games. Their defense looks playoff caliber at this point. If the Pats score a touchdown on just one of those drives its a different game. Cash in on two and its a romp. But Tom Brady missed some open receivers at the goal line and they only put up 9 first half points despite carrying the play.

Why? That will be the question asked all week. Is Brady gun shy because of his injury? Is he still trying to shake the rust off from a year away from the game? Or was it just one of those games that every team/QB have now and then. Remember, Brady hadn't lost a regular season game since '06 and the Pats hadn't lost in the swamps of the Meadowlands since 2000. Sometimes you are just due to lose.

The Jets were bringing pressure most of the game but Brady often had enough time to plant and get a throw off. At least it looked that way from my couch. It might have looked a little different from Brady's perspective. That is what separates Brady (and all the great QBs), the ability to stand in the pocket that extra second or two giving the receiver a chance to get a step on the defender. Some of it is fearlessness, some of it is the presence of mind to know you have that extra second. It's like Cam Neely or other great goal scorers in NHL history. The game moves slower for them and they know they have that extra second to look before they shoot.

Yesterday, much like in the first half of the Buffalo game, Brady didn't take that extra second. He was often throwing off balance when it looked like he didn't have to and his passes were off the mark. Not far off the mark but just off enough. The O line actually seemed to do a solid job in protection. Brady got roughed up a bit but you have to expect that from a Rex Ryan defense. (A side question: Is it me or does Tom Brady take an extra hit/push on almost every play and never a yellow flag flies. Not that I'm calling for flags on those plays. It's the NFL, the QB is going to get hit. But watching the highlights of yesterday's games there were several roughing the passer calls that were no worse than some of the hits Brady took yesterday after he let go of the ball. It's like defensive pass interference. The officiating is so inconsistent on these plays from crew to crew that it can be maddening.)

Brady got knocked around by the Jets, but there were a lot of makeable plays. Especially in the first half when the Pats could have taken control of the game while the Jets offense sputtered. But like the Buffalo game, the Pats just didn't take advantage. And in the second half the Jets did. Ryan's speed-dialing of season ticket holders paid off, although it took till the second half. If the Pats had cashed in early, he would have ran up a big phone bill with very little to show for it.

A lot will be made of this game -- at least for a week. The Jets smacked the Pats in the mouth and got away with it. What's wrong with the offense? The Jets have locked up the division! That's what happens in today's 24/7 sports world. Everything is analysed within an inch of its life and as a fan you get sick of listening to it. But it all means nothing. Last year, if I remember correctly, the Brett Favre-led Jets beat the Patriots in that wild overtime game in Foxborough and then beat the previously undefeated Titans the next week to go to 8-3. There were a lot of people ready to hand the Jets the AFC East title right then and there in Week 11. They only won one more game and finished third. And that was in Week 11. This is Week 2.

I went to the U2 concert at Gillette and looked up at the three championship flags. I remembered in those three seasons there were games just like the Jets game where the Pats looked confused and average. In each of those seasons they rebounded with huge victories. Of course this is a different team. Every season is different. But I'm already looking forward to Matt Ryan and the Falcons coming to Gillette next week. I think the Pats will be ready.

It's not easy being Green

Week 2 approaches and it's the renewal of the AFC East Holy War. Pats against the Jets. When I was a kid in the '70s, the war was with the Dolphins. That continued through the mid '80s, culminating in the '86 AFC Championship Game in Miami where the Pats exorcised all the Shula demons. But now it's the Jets. It's their last season at the Meadowlands in Jersey. Beating the Jets in the Meadowlands is the highlight of any regular season. OK, maybe a win in Denver is better. But that's only happened once in my lifetime so I don't expect it. But a win in the Meadowlands, that I look forward to every season. It doesn't always happen, but it often seems to happen at the right time.

The first road win against the Jets that I really remember is the playoff game in '86. It was the first of three straight road playoff victories (an NFL first) that, even though it led to the smackdown at the hands of the Bears in the Super Bowl, are still three of the greatest weekends I can remember. I can still see Andre Tippett slamming Ken O'Brien into the turf time and time again. But the Pats got whacked in the Super Bowl. That was always the thing about the Pats and the Jets rivalry. It was shared misery. Other than Broadway Joe's title in '67, the Jets and the Pats mirrored each other in futility and frustration.

That changed when Bill Parcells arrived and turned the Pats into a real NFL team. It was extra sweet to have Parcells be the one to do that because he was the man who led the NY Football Giants to two titles. We got the New York guy. The Big Tuna. The Jets floundered around with coaches like Coslet, Carroll, and Kotite while the Patriots headed to the Super Bowl. The two teams were going in opposite directions. And then, after losing the Super Bowl, Parcells decided to bolt the Pats. To the Jets. There was the Tuna in front of a Gang Green curtain with the hideous '90s Jets logo. He made his famous "Groceries" speech. The NFL version of Nixon's "Checkers" speech. "If they want you to cook the dinner, they at least ought to let you shop for some of the groceries," he said. Then he flashed his "you guys don't know shit" grin at the media -- which I usually loved. Not this time.

And to make matters worse Mr. Kraft made one of his few big misteps during his ownership. Hiring Pete Carroll. Oh sure. He's currently the king of college football, winning national title after national title with USC. But as a pro coach he was in over his head. He was bad with the Jets and worse with the Patriots. I think he single-handedly ruined Drew Bledsoe's career. Then Parcells started raiding the Pats roster, signing the best running back ever to play for the Pats: Curtis Martin. The team slowly declined under Carroll while the Jets got back to the playoffs under Parcells. The Big Tuna quickly grew tired of coaching again and decided to turn the reins over to his longtime protege Bill Belichick. And then the rivalry got really strange.

Let's see if I can recap this quickly: Belichick took the Jets job. Then next day he changed his mind and resigned as the "HC of the NYJ." Then the Pats sent the Jets a first-round pick for the rights to make Belichick their head coach. He then donned his grey hoodie and led the franchise to three titles in four years while the Jets fell to the basement. Then the Jets hired Belichick protege Eric Mangini. Then Mangini ratted on his old boss about that little video business Belichick had going on the side. And the hatred between the two franchises was cemented forever.

So now we head to Week 2 of the 2009 season and the Jets new coach Rex Ryan has decided to elevate the game to playoff importance level. Week 2. Ryan is a great addition to the rivalry. The perfect replacement to Mangini. He's calling Jets fans and leaving voice messages telling them to amp it up in the stands. Gotta love that. It's the last trip into the swamps of Jersey (barring a playoff game). It's always a fun time. The Pats have been mostly having their way with the Jets in recent years. It's going to take more than a Week 2 win by Ryan's Jets to change that.

Not your Father's football game

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE
My years as a season-ticket holder are broken up into two parts. Part I was from 1987 (yes, the strike year) through the 1990 season (yup, the 1-15 season). Part II started a few years later in 1994 (the Tuna's second year) and is still going. The first time I had season tickets I was 25 and bought two in Section 210. The map said it was on the 15-yard line but that sure looked like the goal line to me. The Pats had been to the Super Bowl two years earlier and won their division again the next year. Things were good. Won't mention the drug scandal the day after the Super Bowl loss. Right. The biggest loss in Super Bowl history at the time. Won't mention the score. Or how the star young receiver "accidentally cut his hand in the kitchen while in an argument with his wife" the week before the Super Bowl. Never mind that. Things were good.

And then they weren't. By 1990 the Pats had fallen about as fast as a sports team can fall. The record had dropped to 5-11 and Super Bowl coach Raymond Berry aged 80 years and was fired. Going into my fourth year with the tickets the team had chosen as coach the only guy that every fan was in agreement should not get the job. Rod Rust. No doubt if Rod Rust's team had won nine or eight or even five games I might feel differently. But they won one game. And lost 15. And that one win came on the road. Eight home games. Eight losses. Please don't send me a season-ticket renewal form. (To the fans that stayed on through the next few years and were later rewarded: You really deserved that).

Even before the 1-15 season the mood among the fans was pissed off. This was not the Gillette Stadium experience that you get now. No McDonald's fries. No wide concourses with lots of bathrooms. No cup holders. And no seatbacks. This was the Sullivan Stadium experience. 90 percent guys ages 20-50. About eight bathrooms in the whole place. Ice cold aluminum benches. And no seatbacks. My Dad was not a big fan of standing outside in the cold so he had only been to a few early season games over the years. The Pats were playing the Packers in an exhibition game and the weather was great so my Dad said he would go. At the very least we could spend three hours talking about what a bum Rod Rust was... and he hadn't even coached a game yet. We picked up a few extra tickets (when your team is 5-11 tickets are pretty easy to come by) for my brothers and a few cousins. After a low-key tailgate we headed into Sullivan Stadium. Or as I called it the giant concrete toilet bowl. After a 40-minute cattle crawl through the gates we moved with the crowd up the ramp to the concourse. The concourse was really an extra big hallway under the seats. There was hardly a time when it wasn't shoulder-to-shoulder under there, mostly because the lines at the few bathrooms spilled 30 or 40 out the door and into the hallway, er, concourse. As me and my Dad made our way past the bathroom we came to a chain link fence that a row of guys were taking a leak through. And another row of guys behind them waiting for their turn. I looked at my Dad and could see he wasn't quite sure he was seeing what he was seeing. He was.

Early in the game the Pats showed hints of what was to come that year and the crowd got soccer-level drunk in the sun. I'm not sure how many fights security breaks up in a season these days but I bet the number is pretty close to the number in one game back then. The place was an out of control party that when the team was good was a blast and when the team was bad was a different kind of blast. One not suitable for those who were not males 20 to 50. Sometime in the second quarter the fans were in full self-entertainment mode when two sections began a back-and-forth with the "Tastes Great. Less Filling" ad campaign from Miller Lite. One section yells "Tastes Great." The other section responds "Less Filling." Back and forth. Louder and louder. My Dad and I laughed as we watched them shout. "Tastes Great!" "Less Filling!" "Tastes Great!" "Less Filling!" "Tastes Great!" "Less Filling!" "F--- You!" "Eat Me!" "F--- You!" "Eat Me!" Louder and louder and louder... My Dad and I looked at each other again. "I don't think I'm coming to another game," he said. He never did. No matter how many times I told him that things were different and the Krafts had cleaned the place up.

Bruuuuuuuuuuuuuuschi!

There was something very different at the season opener against Buffalo. Something was missing. Tedy Bruschi.

This was the 16th season opener for me, Bergs, Shep, and our gang. We sat in Section 311 in the old stadium, not too far from the top but still with a great view of the game. Our four seats at Gillette are in Section 109 on the 45-yard line behind the Pats bench. About 15 rows back. I wouldn't think there are too many seats with a better view of the game -- and of the bench. One of the best parts of sitting so close has been studying the interaction of the players and their head coach.

It's been fascinating to watch as the defensive players huddled with Belichick on the sideline while Brady and the offense are on the field. Belichick would gather the veteran defensive guys around him, sometimes with a dry-erase board in hand, and start going over what the other team is doing and how to stop it. And the players would soak in every word. Bruschi chief among them. He was like having another coach on the sideline. From the moment he joined the team, Bruschi was a player you just loved to root for. And I've rooted for him for 13 years. The fact that he is now a fan favorite is no surprise. And it's no surprise that he was drafted by Bill Parcells. He finished his career as a Belichick guy, but he was a Parcells guy long before anyone knew there would be such a thing as a Belichick guy.

He came to the Pats in the '96 draft with Lawyer Milloy and Terry Glenn as part of Parcells's rebuilding project. Along with Drew Bledsoe, Ted Johnson, and Ty Law they formed the young nucleus that helped turn the franchise around. Bruschi was a defensive lineman for Arizona State, tying the NCAA record for sacks with 52. But he was considered too small to play the line in the NFL. So where to play him? That was a problem Parcells had for a while. Bruschi was moved to linebacker but saw little playing time at first because the Pats had Johnson, Willie McGinest, Todd Collins, and veteran Chris Slade. A pretty solid foursome. When he did get into the game he made an impression. Mostly on special teams. You could see from when he was in the game that he could make things happen. I would yell down from Section 311 to "Get Bruschi in there" but I don't think Parcells heard me.

In 1997 Bruschi became a starter and quickly developed into a clutch playmaker. He made so many great plays that listing them is a timeline of the Patriots run from 2001 till he retired before the season started. There are so many Bruschi highlights that it is difficult to pick out just a few, but here are my top 5 Tedy moments in no particular order:

• The Rhodes "fumble." Second of the great Pats-Colts playoff games. Pats hold a mere 6-0 lead against the high-octane Colt offense in the cold and snow. Manning and the Colts are driving. He hits running back Dominic Rhodes with a pass over the middle and Bruschi arrives a second after the ball doesl. And he came away with the ball, wrestling it from Rhodes with sheer will. It is the Bruschi moment. He just outhustled the other guy. He came to the sideline and raised the ball in the air barking "They're looking for this! They ain't got it! They ain't got it!" The Pats went on to a 20-3 victory.
• Fireworks! The snow game against Miami in 2004. It was snowing so hard that as I sat in my car on Route 1 not moving, the guy on the radio announced "If you aren't at the stadium yet you should turn around and go home." Turn around and go home? I've been in traffic for three hours. I'm a mile away. Screw that. I'm glad I didn't take the advice. Bruschi makes the big play of the game, picking off a pass inside the 10 and returning it for a touchdown, sliding on his knees in the snow as he crossed the goal line. That was followed by those who did make it to the game tossing the snow into the air in celebration. Bruschi started tossing snow too. Winter fireworks.
• Down goes Drew. The sack of Drew Bledsoe in Week 3 of the 2004 season put away a close game as the Pats were driving for their record unbeaten streak. Bruschi sacked Bledsoe, forcing a fumble, and after nailing Drew to the field, got up and threw the block that let Richard Seymour take the fumble in for a TD and the 31-17 victory. One of my all-time favorite Pats' highlights.
• The comeback. After suffering a stroke just a few days after winning his third Super Bowl, Bruschi comes back to play in a home game in Week 7 against the Bills. Nine months after nearly dying. I always felt that he would play again if he recovered fully. He was in the prime of his career and from being in the stands week after week you could see just how much he loved being on the field. I can still remember the ovation when he was introduced. It was just one of those great human moments that sports can give you. He was on he field for more than 70 plays that game and made 10 tackles. And of course the Pats won.
• What the Faulk. The first Super Bowl title. 2002. The underdog Pats pull the upset over the high-powered Rams by playing football the way it was meant to be played. Nasty. Not loud-mouth Ray Lewis style of nasty, but workmanlike Tedy Bruschi hit 'em till it hurts style. Early in the game the Rams superstar RB Marshall Faulk takes the ball and heads right toward a gaping hole. Bruschi steps up from his linebacker spot to take on Faulk -- one-on-one. Faulk goes to deke his way to a big play and Bruschi hits him square in the midsection and takes him down. Hard. He gets up and lets out a roar. That set the tone for the rest of the game.

Bruschi is the Terry O'Reilly of the Patriots. Not the fastest. Not the biggest. Not the most skilled. But the hardest worker and the smartest at how the game is played. O'Reilly was the spiritual leader of those great Bruins teams of the late '70s and early '80s. He was and is my favorite Bruin. You could see how much he loved the game and he set a work ethic that everyone else on the team felt driven to match. When Bill Belichick called Bruschi "the perfect player" he could have been talking about O'Reilly. The word is heart.

I can understand how football fans across the country hate the Pats. I've got no problem with it. It's how I felt about the Cowboys on the '80s and the Steelers in the '70s. After a while you get sick of seeing the same team at the top. But anyone who doesn't love to watch the way Tedy Bruschi played the game isn't really a football fan. You may have tired of his "Patriot Way" talk but he meant it. To him the Patriot Way was all about hustle, effort, and dedication.

Can the Pats replace a guy like Tedy Bruschi? You can never replace a player like him. But what you can do is just enjoy the memories from 13 great seasons. I've been fortunate to have a seat to root for him all those years.

Thanks, Tedy.

Crowd noise

WEEK 1
Patriots 25, Bills 24 (9/14/09): A memorable season opener. The Pats are 1-0. Nothing surprising about that considering they were at home, against the offensively-challenged Bills, and Tom Brady was back. My thinking during the tailgate (What a tailgate! 78 degrees. Shorts. Giant inflatable beer bottle. Steak wrapped in bacon.) was a 34-13 Pats victory if the game played out as expected. Well, it didn't. But come time to decide who makes the playoffs and who doesn't... it counts as a W.

Lots of story lines after this one. Brady and the offense misfiring in the early going; then catching fire down the stretch for the dramatic win. The question-mark defense looking very much like a question mark, at least till the final moments. The introduction of the Pats all-time team at the half (big cheers for Troy Brown, Rodney Harrison, and, of course, Tedy Bruschi). The blood oath that coach Dick Jauron has with his good friend Bill Belichick to do whatever it takes to stop his Bills from winning when they play each other.

A storyline that won't be talked about, however, is the Gillette Stadium crowd. Or should I say the much-maligned Gillette Stadium crowd. The noise -- or lack thereof -- at Pats games in the "new" stadium has long been an annoying topic. One of those "Are we really talking about this?" issues. Perfect to kill time on sports talk radio during slow days. It goes back to 2005 when Richard Seymour (you remember him) said after a lackluster 16-3 win over the Jets: "It is really disappointing. The loudest they ever got was when there was a Victoria's Secret model on the scoreboard. They don't know when to cheer. You look up and see half the stands empty."

First: That Victoria's Secret model was Gisele. As in the future Mrs. Tom Brady. As in one of the hottest women in the world. So I would say that proves that Pats fans do know when to cheer. Second: I was at that game. It was boring. The weather was lousy. Both teams were lousy. It was cold. Snowing. Not every game has the atmosphere of a playoff game. It is what it is. Granted. It was against the hated Jets. But it was a bad game. During a season of several bad games. The Pats finished 10-6 that year. It was win one, lose one. Win two, lose two. One of those years.

Early in the season the Patriots were 2-1 (having come off a great road win against the Steelers) and were hosting the explosive Chargers. It was the game of the week. And the crowd was into it. Better than any regular season game at the old Schaefer/ Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium. If, like me, you have a large collection of videotapes (yes, VHS) of old Pats games go back and watch the first half of that game. It was electric. Both teams were playing at a high level, matching each other big play for big play. It was a beautiful late summer day. There was a moment late in the first half where the Pats were driving to tie the score at 17. Brady, coming off back-to-back 14-2 Super Bowl seasons, was looking more and more like the best QB to ever play the game. Everyone was on their feet anticipating a touchdown. I looked around and soaked in the moment. After all those years in a crappy stadium with a less than mediocre team, I almost couldn't believe my good fortune to be standing in this state-of-the-art building watching a team led by one of the best coaches and quarterbacks of all-time. I looked at Paul, another newspaper guy, and I could tell he was thinking pretty much the same thing. We were football fans and it didn't get any better than this.

Unfortunately the Chargers proceeded to destroy the Pats in the second half, rolling off 24 unanswered points. A real buzz kill in every sense of the phrase. Antonio Gates had his way with every DB and LB the Pats put up against him. It wasn't pretty. And the Pats never really recovered that season, struggling to stay above .500. By the time they got to the Jets game they also had been spanked by the Colts and the Chiefs. They hadn't lost a home game in the previous two seasons, this year they lost three. The Jets couldn't score. Their inept offense being as much or more the reason than anything the Pats D was doing. The crowd was cold and only mildly riled up when the Jets offense was on the field because there never seemed to be much threat of them suddenly doing anything. But on third downs, as is pretty much mandatory unless you have an injury, the fans were up and making noise. (If you're not gonna get up and make noise on third down plays to disrupt the other team's offense, please stay home on your couch.) The Pats won what was your run-of-the-mill regular season snoozer. One that I paid $135 to watch. And was glad to. Not sure how much Seymour had to pay to be there.

Back to opening night. Brady's return. Lots of questions and lots of promise. And even though the somewhat lowly Bills were playing the Pats even and then playing the Pats ahead by 11, a good 85 percent of the fans were still there, still cheering, still believing. Because they've seen Brady do some amazing things and you don't want to be in your car when he pulls off another miracle win. The Pats drove down the field and scored to cut the gap to five and the place went nuts. Still down by five with less than three minutes to go and the crowd that doesn't know when to cheer was behind their team as they had been all game. As they have been all decade.

ESPN's Bill Simmons, the go-to sports columnist of the day if you are a Boston fan and even if you aren't, wrote a piece last year about the lack of crowd noise. How the new stadium is the "Gillette Mausoleum." How loud and into the game the fans at the old stadium were. How his friend Bug didn't have as much fun at Gillette. Oh, how good things look through the golden haze of nostalgia. With all respect to Mr. Simmons, it doesn't sound like he's been to too many games over the years. Certainly not too many at Gillette. I've been to close to 200 games over the last 20 years. Is it different at Gillette? Of course. But the fans are more into the game. The other night the guys in front of us were talking about possible LBs they could bring in to replace Mayo in case he was out for weeks (which turns out he will be). A few others were debating Maroney vs. Fred Taylor (my vote: Taylor). In other words, when not cheering we were talking about the game. Except for when the woman in the tight pink Welker jersey and very small skirt stood up to wave her sign. But then we would go right back to talking about the game.

There wasn't too much of that in the old stadium. Lulls in the games usually meant fights in the stands. Or beer getting spilled all over you as someone tried to wedge themselves along the rows of people jammed into the aluminum benches. Or having crap hurled at you from the seats behind you which was surprising in our case since our seats at the old stadium were only about 10 rows from the top. Sure it was fun. As I said in a "Tales from the Tailgate" post ("The Snow Bowl"): The place was a pit and sometimes I miss it. But there were more games there where the crowd was asleep. Well, mostly passed out. Everyone thinks of the old stadium and thinks of the Snow Bowl. Or the '96 AFC title game. Or some of the great Drew Bledsoe led victories. But for every one of those games there were 10 where the game was bad, or boring, and the crowd was out in the lot grilling by the end of the third quarter.

The idea that Pats fans are spoiled by the success of the past decade has never made sense to me. There were always fair-weather fans and there always will be. And if you are under the age of 30 I guess you might think that if the Pats don't win it all then the season is a failure. But not me. And not the people I talk to. The beauty of the NFL is that each game is an event. In baseball when the Kansas City Royals (out of contention before the season starts) knock off the Twins or some other division rival late in the season it's no big deal. Just one of 162 games. But go to a Chiefs-Raiders game in Week 14 with both teams out of the playoff hunt and you will think you are at a playoff game. Pats fans are no different. If the game is exciting the crowd is into it.

Sometimes the games just aren't that good. That was true in the old stadium, and it's true at Gillette. But the crowd still drinks (Don Julio margaritas in the snow! Nice call Mr. Kraft), still has a good time, and still cheers the D to make a three-and-out and still yells "first down!" after another Brady-Moss hookup. Gillette isn't as good a home-field advantage as the old place? The team's record at Gillette: 52-12, with two 14-2 seasons, a 16-0 season, and two Super Bowls. 52 and 12! So much for that. Gillette has seen the two classic playoff battles with the Colts, the game after Spygate broke when the stadium rallied behind their coach and the team destroyed the Chargers, and the great snowstorm game against Miami where the snow was used like fireworks by the fans to celebrate Bruschi's pick-six. Just to name a few. I don't know about Bug, but Gillette felt alive to me on those days.

Some might say that a regular season game like Pats-Bills would have been a lot louder in the old stadium. They would probably be right. During the third quarter when the Pats were losing and the Gillette crowd wasn't all that loud, the highly-intoxicated crowd at the old stadium would have been much rowdier and noisier. No doubt about it. They just wouldn't have been paying too much attention to the game.

Is it cold out here or is it just me?

TALES FROM THE TAILGATE
Pats 17, Titans 14 (1/10/'04): What better place to start recalling some of the "tales from the tailgate" than with the coldest game in Patriots history. The record shows that it was four degrees above zero at game time. I guess that is the temperature at which vodka freezes. And the temperature where the brain goes numb. Well maybe that has as much to do with the vodka as the temperature.

The main characters in these tales were all present for one of the great playoff games not just in Pats history but NFL history. Shep (the key to us moving from Section 311 in the old stadium to Section 109 in the new stadium... a story for another day), Mark (a drunken discussion one night led to him standing in a snowstorm for hours to buy four season tickets), Bergs (the guy who makes sure there's no meat left uneaten), Billy (there's one in every group), Matt (Shep's son who was new to the group at that point but would later become so dedicated to the tailgates that he would make the drive to and from New York for the games), and Toph (Mark's brother and master Dead-mix maker) brought as many things to keep us warm as we could think of.

We had season tickets since 1994 and during that time we had enjoyed an incredible... almost ridiculous... run of great weather for football games in New England. And I'm not just talking about the 70 degree early season September games. There were late December games in T-shirts and shorts (give him a day above 40 degrees and Bergs will wear shorts). There were many times as we sat there in the parking lot of the old Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium enjoying the meal and drinks of the day where one of us would be heard to say "One of these days I hope we get one of those really really really cold days. How fun would that be."

As we unloaded our gear that day I thought of those words. Actually, it was so cold I could almost see my thoughts as one can see your breath. "... one of those really really really cold days." Uh huh.

My personal plan was to bring as many layers as I thought I could fit into and slowly add them as the temperature around and inside my body dropped. A normal number of layers for a cold day is three maybe four. That day I had 10. Thirty minutes into the four-hour pregame tailgate and I was on layer number six. Coincidentally the same number of vodka and cranberry juices that Bergs was on. We all have our own way of keeping warm. Everywhere you looked around the stadium lot you could see barrels and fire pits blazing away with men and women bundled in what looked like very flammable clothing standing just inches away from the flames. At one point a barrel positioned too close to a porta-john tipped over and the john caught on fire with the flames rising higher and higher. The fire engine on standby at the lot had to fight its way through the growing crowd gathered around the john for warmth. When the fire was extinguished there was an audible groan. Just the sight of the fire had made everyone in the lot forget how cold we were.

We cooked up our usual assortment of steaks, sausages, stews, and burgers with each of us trying to eat the food as quickly as we could before all the heat had been drained from the meat which was usually in less than a minute. A good two hours into the tailgate I stood next to Bergs and Mark talking excitedly about the game but they looked at me as if I was Kenny from "South Park." My "I think we can get some pressure on McNair and force him to make mistakes" turned into "I thmmm sommm prmmmm formmmm mmmak mmmtakes." Bergs, using a spoon to break up the ice chunks of vodka in his drink, said "I think your face is frozen. I have no idea what you just said." So I spent the next 15 minutes in the car getting the feeling back in my face and upon stepping back outside added layers seven and eight.

As game time drew near we packed everything up, dumped the hot charcoals in a pile on the pavement, inserted the hand and feet warmers into our gloves and boots, and poured ourselves a drink to sober us up before we go in (Dunkin's coffee and Grand Marnier with a little whipped cream blended in). As we stood around waiting for everyone to get their layers in place Billy said happily "These feet warmers are really great. My feet are already getting really toasty!" We all looked at him and laughed. And then Mark said very matter of factly, "Billy, you're standing in the pile of red hot coals. Your boots are on fire."

Letting Favre Be Favre

Watching Brett Favre's first game in a Vikings uniform. Glad to see him back. It's been a good 3 minutes since there was any mention of the Mississippi marvel so I was starting to worry about him. Vikings are ahead by 11 with less than 8 minutes to go. Looks like a W for Favre. Nice break catching the Rat and his Browns for your first game with a new team. That sure helps. A decent game by he-whose-name-we-must -say-repeatedly. 110 yards with no picks. Yet. There's still a few minutes to go. Brian Billick appeared to be playing the "Hi Bob" drinking game with "Brett Favre" during the telecast. He acrobatically inserted Favre's name into sentences where it clearly didn't belong. Such as "Cleveland is a great football town. With a great football tradition. Not as great as the great Brett Favre is great, but great." Or something like that. There were many "When you have one of the all-time greats ..." At one point near the end of the first half with the Vikings in control of the flow of the game, Billick wondered if the Vikes would stay conservative or if they would let "Favre be Favre." The Vikings have the best running back in the league, have the ball inside their own 30 with the half winding down, and Billick is wondering if Viking coach Brad Childress is going to have Favre fling it. And he sounded like he thought that was a great idea. That's what Favre can do to people. Make a smart football guy like Billick start saying things that make no sense. If there was any other QB on the field Billick would have said "I don't know about you but I'd give the ball to Adrian Peterson on every damn play." Instead he wants them to let "Favre be Favre." And Childress tried it. That's another thing Favre does. He gets coaches to let him throw the ball when he should be handing it off. Favre drops back, makes a risky and poor throw out into the flat that is behind the receiver and falls incomplete. 2nd and 10. OK, I'm thinking, you just give the ball to Peterson twice and get into the half on the road with a lead. Nope. Favre drops back. Has time. Stands there. Stands there. And gets sacked by a blitzing DB who everyone in the stadium but Favre saw coming. Next play the Vikes smarten up, hand off the ball, and punt. Let "Favre be Favre." They did. The only thing missing was a game-changing pick. That will come in time. You can count on it.

The fourth Lombardi

It's been a great decade to be a New England Patriots fan. If I had a blog back in 1989 -- or '99 -- I could have never imagined writing that sentence. But from the moment Adam Vinatieri's kick sailed through the middle of the uprights on a February Sunday in 2002, being a Pats fan has been an amazing ride. Some might say it was when Tom Brady came on the field while Drew Bledsoe limped to the bench spitting up blood in the September of that season. But not me. I've seen many teams come to the Super Bowl, lose, and then slide right back into the mire of mediocrity (or worse). If Vinatieri's kicked had sailed, say, wide right, who knows what would have happened. The odds were good for the Rams to win in OT since the Pats' D was gassed. If the kick doesn't go through, and the Pats lose, who knows how that would have effected the team. Winning gave that group of young but experienced players a confidence that has influenced everything they have done since. Lose and we'd still be talking about that holding call against Willie at the goal line. We saw it in '86. We saw it in '96.

A lot has happened since Gil's cries of "It's goood! It's gooood!" with the sound of Gino laughing in disbelief in the background. Most of it a lot of fun to watch and cheer for. The Pats have had several shots at winning a fourth title but haven't been able to close the deal. Take away two improbable catches (one by Reggie Wayne in the '06 AFC title game and the other one we all know about) and the Pats could have five Super Bowls in eight years. Oh, and a perfect season. Just a few highlight reel catches away from having the greatest decade in NFL history. But that's what makes football so great. There's no best of seven. After a long, punishing season, you get one game for it all. And any team can win. As much as a bummer as it was to watch them lose leads in the AFC title game and the Super Bowl in back-to-back seasons, you have to give credit to the Colts and Giants. They made the plays. The Pats didn't give those games away. The other teams took them. The Pats have been sooooo close to #4. And now they take another shot at it.

Brady is back and Shep, Matt, Bergs, Mark, Steve, Jim, and the rest of us are ready for another season. We have to enjoy this while it lasts. As we were reminded last year when Brady went down, this won't last forever. But we knew that. We say it all the time. Let's just enjoy it while it lasts because we remember what it was like to root for a 1-15 team. You always hear talk radio referring to the "spoiled Pats fans" who take winning for granted. I haven't met one yet. But I guess they are out there.

I'm going to blog every week this season (not every day... I have a job) as the Pats try to close out the decade with their fourth title. Win another Super Bowl and they will cement their place in the rankings of the top four franchises of all time: 1. Pittsburgh 2. Dallas 3. San Francisco 4. the Pats. (If they had beaten the Giants they'd already be at #2. That's what a 19-0 season would have meant.) I'll follow the season from the tailgate to the fourth quarter of every game at the ever-expanding Patriot Place, uh, I mean Gillette Stadium, (There really is a football stadium back there, I checked on it the other day while going to the movies.)

I'll also look back at some of the best memories of the last decade of football in Foxborough -- in the parking lot and on the field -- in the posts labeled "Tales from the Tailgate." And I'll keep track of the NFL using all the 24/7 outlets on radio and TV that have changed what it's like to be a sports fan. But mostly the NFL Network. Love Prime Time. From Brett Favre and TO to the new Cowboys stadium where the video screen that hangs over the field is so large that punts are hitting it. It should be a great season. Love the NFL.