You know you are a Pats Fan when...

PatsFanInVa said:

...you're the one who can answer the question... "Chris Canty? I thought he sucked... is he still in the league?"

(AKA, you remember "the bad Chris Canty")

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and the worst part about Chris Canty was the draft pick we burned on him. Good old Bobby Grier.

.......you STILL have a shrine in the corner of your basement to Bob Windsor for sacrificing his knee and his career to beat the the Purple People Eaters in THEIR stadium when they were the best team on earth.

Seacoast Fan said:

and the worst part about Chris Canty was the draft pick we burned on him. Good old Bobby Grier.

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Yeahhh, it was a first-rounder... but only pick 29. But late 90s first-rounders in retrospect? Not THAT bad...

1999, pick #17, your New England Patriots: Damien Woody (he done okay for us... two rings, right? Short career but not a fall-on-your-sword bust...)

pick # 28, your New England Patriots: Andy Katzenmoyer. Woulda coulda shoulda. Can't call him a bust or a success... just very sad, looking back.

1998, pick # 18, your New England Patriots: Robert Edwards. See 1999, pick #28. (*#$& the pro bowl.

pick # 22, your New England Patriots, Tebucky Jones. "Lucky Tebucky," instrumental for the 2001 team. Peaked kind of early.

1997, um, the bad Chris Canty.

1996, pick #7, your New England Patriots, Terry Glenn. She was pretty good for a while. Lower down in that same draft... Lawyer Milloy, Tedy Bruschi... and let's not forget, Marrio Grier. Hmmmm. Nah. I know Parcells stormed out because he couldn't buy the groceries but... nah, couldn't be.

So those are just the #1s, plus the outcome of the 96 draft where Parcells got the nut-punch from Kraft (at least in his eyes) in favor of Grier, resulting in Terry Glenn.

Grier's greatest hits, bolding really key contributors

95, before The Grier Supremacy truly kicked in...Ty Law, Ted Johnson, and Curtis Martin
96 - Glenn, Milloy, Bruschi;
97 - pretty much ohfer
98 - Robert Edwards, Tebucky Jones (asterisks: for Edwards, OUCH. For Jones, lots of "yeah he sucked but did good" analyses out there at the time). Other than that nobody worth mentioning except Leonta Rheams, but only because his name was so close to Leanne Rimes
99 - Woody not really a hit. Katzenmoyer not fair to call a bust. Kevin Faulk, unarguable hit. Then a bunch of trash.
2000, just before his firing: Just complete **** tbh, until pick #199. But a lot of people forget pick #239... Patrick Pass. Not bad for a 7. In respect to pick #199... yes, the narrative is that by then you're deep in the crap shoot. But one NFL exec, count 'em, one, called Lloyd Carr at Michigan about that skinny kid. Yes, Bobby Grier.

Pioli's greatest (draft) hits...let's not get into those deals that brought Moss, Welker, etc. etc. etc., just drafts...

2001 - Richard Seymour, Matt Light, then ****.
2002 - Dan Graham, Deion Branch, Rohan Davey (not because he was worth a damn, but because you gotta love a QB named after a country in Lord of the Rings), Jarvis Green, who gave us pretty good play, given his draft position, and David Givens... at pick 253
2003 - Ty Warren, some serviceable types but flawed (Eugene Wilson, Bethel "um how about the kick return game?" Johnson, Dan "I'm really good if I'm playing against the Pats" Klecko, then Asante Samuel, a bargain where drafted, Dan Koppen, and I'm gonna say at pick 239, Tully Banta-Kain. Come on. Pick 239, and he ever started a game? Give it to him.
2004 - Wilfork, Ben Watson, then names you'd remember but really you can't think of as memorable.
2005 - Logan Mankins, Ellis Hobbs (pretty productive), Cassel at 230, and goddammit, he came through for us that one year.
2006 - the grand-daddy of "Wahhh we cant draft anymore" drafts. Only hit: Gostkowski. Busts: Maroney, Chad Jackson, all the non-kicker lower picks, except the moderately serviceable Dave Thomas (mainly significant b/c we could call him "Wendy's")
2007 - Oh wait, maybe this is the "we can't draft anymore" draft. Meriweather. And that's the high point. Not a hit. But still in the league, so - meh.
2008 - Mayo, then Slater if you count special teamers

Post-Pioli - recency creates questions about who to bold. If we hate guys now but they have played a while and did the job for a while at a high level... I'm granting a hit. So it's easier to be a hit here. I'll all-cap the real real hits.
2009 - Darius Butler (?), Seabass Vollmer, and at pick 232... JULIAN EDELMAN
2010 - Devin McCourty, GRONK, Spikes when healthy sometimes, pre-killing-spree HERNANDEZ, The Zoltan (for a while.)
2011 - Solder (for a while and possibly again at some point,) Vereen to a limited extent, Ridley, was just coming into his own this year
2012 - CHANDLER JONES, Dont'a Hightower, Tavon Wilson, can't bold him but he does the job sorta, at 224, Alfonzo Dennard (Combination of some good play and a truly low draft position)
2013 - Truly cannot judge this yet, but here's who I think have the chance to be the bolded among them after a lookback period:
Jamie Collins, Logan Ryan
2014 - See 2013, but moreso. Expected bolded: Garoppolo, one day; semi-impressed at times with Easley especially. Don't trust it... yet. The linemen are getting "blooded" early, and I wonder whether we won't have a few bolds out of that bunch by season's end.

Now the money category... pre-Grier hits/busts in rounds 1 and 2 (where it's truly bad if you can't hit sometimes...)

1994, 1st round - McGinest (lest we forget... there was some crap-talk about him early on)
2nd - Kevin Lee, WR

1993, 1st round - Drew Bledsoe, then the names we'd remember are Chris Slade (was he a bust or just a meh 2nd rounder?) then nine miles of ****, then at 198, Troy Brown

1992, pick 13, Your New England Patriots, outstanding bust of the decade unless you count Anna Nicole Smith: Eugene Chung. We did get Sam Gash at 205.

And before that... well I guess we all remember the top picks in the early 90s/late 80s...

I just got started and couldn't stop.

Seacoast Fan said:

LOL.... nice post...
I was going to post something about Marion Butts in the thread about Parcells. God did Butts suck when he played for us yet for the first 5 or 6 games of the season Parcells kept putting him out there and getting him the ball. It drove my friends and me crazy. We used to call him Marion "Loss of three" butts. Not only did the first guy to hit him always bring him down, but usually it was well behind the line of scrimmage. it finally got so bad even Parcells had to give up on him.

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It was reported that Butts led the league in one yard gains that year.

shmessy said:

.......you STILL have a shrine in the corner of your basement to Bob Windsor for sacrificing his knee and his career to beat the the Purple People Eaters in THEIR stadium when they were the best team on earth.

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I will never forget that play!

I don't remember yesterday...

K-State Canty. Nice walk down memory lane PatsFanInVa. My only real quibble would be your not all-capping guys like Seabass and McCourty.

So hard to tell what we'll look back and see SEA Pat, w/relatively recent drafts, over the career.

Just look at 1987 4th round pick Rich Gannon, for YOUR New England Patriots...

(Not to mention the bad Ricky Williams, RB, drafted Rd 9, 1983...) - I know, I know, wrong Ricky Williams.

...when you remember 1985 when just earning a playoff berth was enough to send the crowd into a frenzy, rushing onto the field, ripping up the turf, and tearing down the goalpost from the south end and carrying it out onto the highway only to get electrocuted when the goalpost hit high-powered lines going across the road.

Post-script: The fans who got hurt from doing that later sued and won $5m in a bizarre ending to a bizarre story.

Today, getting a playoff berth has somehow turned into an entitlement.

You remember when we played just good enough to get in position to make the playoffs with just a little help at the end, and the help never came.

You remember that all changing for good at the end of 2001, when the Jets gave the Raiders a loss that sent them here in the last game at the old place.

You remember how awful it was in the old days to bring female friends or family to games because of the rudeness of the drunken, out-of-control fans.

1960Pats said:

You remember when we played just good enough to get in position to make the playoffs with just a little help at the end, and the help never came.

You remember that all changing for good at the end of 2001, when the Jets gave the Raiders a loss that sent them here in the last game at the old place.

You remember how awful it was in the old days to bring female friends or family to games because of the rudeness of the drunken, out-of-control fans.

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Fans pyssing in the bleachers did not help...

when you are looking at jersey prices on the proshop website and you hover over the new tab and notice, yep they sell women thongs.

chasa said:

when you are looking at jersey prices on the proshop website and you hover over the new tab and notice, yep they sell women thongs.

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Let me know when they're selling C-Strings with the Pats logo. The best part starts at about 1 minute;

mgteich said:

Squish the Fish means something (bonus if you still have a tee shirt).

You think it might have ended differently if Grogan had started.

You remember the Toilet Bowl.

You remember thinking that moving to CT is better for us than St Louis.

You think of 1976 as the good old days.

You remember that Foxboro is NOT the house that Brady built.

You know what the "elephant' position is.

You remember a great 8th round draft choice.

199 has a special meaning.

A snow plow coming out to the field brings a smile.

The name "Mosi" being a smile to your face.

You thank the good Lord every night that Kraft bought the team.

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Actually, I'd thank Gawd he bought the stadium.

Triumph said:

You will always hate the Raiders for Darryl Stingley, winning with Jim Plunket and the 76 screwjob.

You are grateful for Parcells, but also cant forget how he quit on the Pats in the Super Bowl.

You will always despise the Bears for putting in William Frig Perry on the goaline TD in the Super Bowl.

The old Pat the Patriot logo is cool, but brings back lots of bad memories.

When the NY Jets lose its like Christmas.

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Actually I felt glad for Plunkett because I saw what he went through.

resdubwhite said:

sorry to be a pedant but doesnt everyone know Steve Rogers is Captain America.

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The secret identity of Steve Rogers is Tom Brady!

The best part was seeing Shula try to get the ref to put the snow back. http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-netwo...8bba/Top-Ten-Weather-Games-The-Snow-Plow-Game
That link makes you happy.

you refuse to eat papa johns pizza

A mention of Manning ... any Manning...

is worse than having intestinal cramps and exploding diarreah while the port-a-john shows it is occupied.

DarrylS said:

Fans pyssing in the bleachers did not help...

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Lines of fans pissing over the top of the railings because the urinals were all blocked.

The security cops had arrested more people than they could hold, so the prisoners were hadcuffed to the chain link fence. Some guy with a master key (large steel bolt cutters) was going down the line and cutting the cuff chains so the folks could get away, If the cops asked for a name, they'd give the name of a coach or player for Oakland. That led to a rumour later on that half of the Raiders were under arrest for indecent exposure and intoxication displays. The media was all over that until they realised it was just the locals having some fun.

Good times....... Good Times.......

Gronkowski123 said:

you refuse to eat papa johns pizza

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We've been buying from Dominos lately. Close by, with better sauces, dough and sides like their pasta bread bowl. This way, on game days, daddy gets to order and NOT cook, I used to order from Papa Johns, but their sauce formula changed and not fo the good, Plus, being associated with gomer & goober is a real turn off to me.

I have a shrine to Our Lady of Football. I layout a table of offerings, and say the proper prayers before partaking, We ensure that the acolyts read from the book of "Its a Football Life." then pass out holy cards of the famous Saints of New England, Hannah, Brown, Morgan, Coats & Faulk.