The "Patriots = Hulk" Thing

[Iron Helmet]

I am really getting tired of fans/media thinking that opposing team's players walk on egg shells when it comes to discussing the Pats. "Man he was really stupid to diss the Pats...now they are really dead." Players are not thinking "if we piss them off, they are going to beat us up even more, so lets not say anything so the beating is less severe". The Pats are going to play as hard as they can. Period. They are not the Hulk, and gain extra strength the angrier they are, or get faster. Nor do they get better at making reads. Smack talk is part of the game...ALL teams try to discourage it.

 

[Wildo7]

I am really getting tired of fans/media thinking that opposing team's players walk on egg shells when it comes to discussing the Pats. "Man he was really stupid to diss the Pats...now they are really dead." Players are not thinking "if we piss them off, they are going to beat us up even more, so lets not say anything so the beating is less severe". The Pats are going to play as hard as they can. Period. They are not the Hulk, and gain extra strength the angrier they are, or get faster. Nor do they get better at making reads. Smack talk is part of the game...ALL teams try to discourage it.

I get what your saying, and normally I'd agree, but the Pats seem to have bigger games following weeks in which members of the other team talk sh.it (Chargers, Vanderjagt back in the day 21-3 etc.) so I do actually think that they know being on top they have to search for that last little bit of whatever you want to call it (adrenaline, anger, chip on the shoulder mentality). They realize they need something to balance out the fact that, for the guys lining up across them, this is their biggest game of the year. Finding that edge every week is tough when the other team usually has nothing to lose and you're expected to win, and I think turning them into the enemy that has said something to disparage you and what you've worked so hard for is probably the easiest way to tap into that emotion. You can play as hard as you can every week, but there will always be that reservoir of emotion that if you can tap into, it can make all the difference.

 

[Ahriman]

ALL teams try to discourage it.

You really are some sort of MENSA candidtate, aren't you? You just refuted your whole premise with that conclusion. If it were so meaningless, unimportant and only pertaining to the realm of fandom, then why would teams try to discourage it? Exactly, McFly.

As I said in the other thread, what gets annoying are the sanctimonious fans who put players on such a high pedestal, so as to make any and all forms of gamesmanship beneath them and their moralizing ways. I mean, seriously, have you watched this team at all for the past 7 years? This stuff fuels them big time. There are endless articles, quotes and snippets about which players really play this stuff up in the Pats locker room and how they respond after wins to what other players have said about them.

The coach isn't even above this sort of thing. One only needs to go back to the "they hate their coach" craziness and how Bill responded.

 

[SVN]

My 2 cents - its overblown and media sensationlizes it - not only in case of pats but in case of all teams . "this guy gurantees win, that guy calls out X guy". When teams win people justify those actions when they lose they forget.
Bottomline is this -
Pats have won consistently because of who they are -well prepared, well coached team.Other teams say some stuff because they dont see the 'talent' at least before this yr to think that the pats can be so good for yrs to come.Once the pats win , the players question about what the others were saying .it adds nothing to the game or to BB. Maybe during pre superbowl speeches BB rouses all this kinda stuff but our team is too mature and professional to go and look for material to fire them up. They just laugh it off on the field and win because of playing better. it just a coincidence that people think pats get extra motivated because they win all the time.

 

[patsox23]

The Patriots blow stuff out of proportion, create disrespect and feed off of it. I'm really tired of people saying that it somehow matters that bulletin board material "shouldn't" make a difference. WHO GIVES A CRAP IF IT SHOULDN'T? It does.

 

[bokonon]

Belichick SMASH!


(sorry hadda say it)

 

[FirstAndGoal]

Chargers == Biggest smack talkers == most full of themselves == nothing to show for it

 

[Flying Fungi]

I am really getting tired of fans/media thinking that opposing team's players walk on egg shells when it comes to discussing the Pats. "Man he was really stupid to diss the Pats...now they are really dead." Players are not thinking "if we piss them off, they are going to beat us up even more, so lets not say anything so the beating is less severe". The Pats are going to play as hard as they can. Period. They are not the Hulk, and gain extra strength the angrier they are, or get faster. Nor do they get better at making reads. Smack talk is part of the game...ALL teams try to discourage it.

awww

steeler fan no like Hulk??

 

[spacecrime]

You really are some sort of MENSA candidtate, aren't you? You just refuted your whole premise with that conclusion. If it were so meaningless, unimportant and only pertaining to the realm of fandom, then why would teams try to discourage it? Exactly, McFly.

He misses Joey Porter.

I think Iron Helmet needs a hug.

 

[BTTA]

I am really getting tired of fans/media thinking that opposing team's players walk on egg shells when it comes to discussing the Pats. "Man he was really stupid to diss the Pats...now they are really dead." Players are not thinking "if we piss them off, they are going to beat us up even more, so lets not say anything so the beating is less severe". The Pats are going to play as hard as they can. Period. They are not the Hulk, and gain extra strength the angrier they are, or get faster. Nor do they get better at making reads. Smack talk is part of the game...ALL teams try to discourage it.

Boy, when this quote hits the bulletin board in the Pats locker room, the guys are going to go crazy! BB will save it for the Steeler game, I'm sure.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

The whole premise is silly. The Patriots are NOT The Hulk. We are Captain America. Look at the uniforms. You guys are IronMan. The Chargers are Black Lightning, the affirmative action comic from the 70s. And the Colts, well, they're some guy on "So you wanna be a super hero" in a uniform he made in his garage. You know, calls himself The Leprachaun, can toss horseshoes with deadly accuracy...

 

[TruthSeeker]

My 2 cents - its overblown and media sensationlizes it - not only in case of pats but in case of all teams . "this guy gurantees win, that guy calls out X guy". When teams win people justify those actions when they lose they forget.
Bottomline is this -
Pats have won consistently because of who they are -well prepared, well coached team.Other teams say some stuff because they dont see the 'talent' at least before this yr to think that the pats can be so good for yrs to come.Once the pats win , the players question about what the others were saying .it adds nothing to the game or to BB. Maybe during pre superbowl speeches BB rouses all this kinda stuff but our team is too mature and professional to go and look for material to fire them up. They just laugh it off on the field and win because of playing better. it just a coincidence that people think pats get extra motivated because they win all the time.

I pretty much agree. There's some motivational value to some of the absurd things said by members of other teams, but primarily the Patriots do well because they are talented, focused and hard-working.

 

[ctpatsfan77]

The whole premise is silly. The Patriots are NOT The Hulk. We are Captain America. Look at the uniforms. You guys are IronMan. The Chargers are Black Lightning, the affirmative action comic from the 70s.

Did anyone else see the guy at the Cleveland game dressed up like Captain America, except with a Flying Elvis on his chest? [They showed him two or three times. . . .]

And the Colts, well, they're some guy on "So you wanna be a super hero" in a uniform he made in his garage. You know, calls himself The Leprachaun, can toss horseshoes with deadly accuracy...

 

[Ring 6]

I have never believed that in a sport where you either kick an ***** or get yuour ***** kicked that 'being fired up' affects the outcome.
Anyone who has played the game knows that if you are lackluster for ONE PLAY you either get your ***** kicked or at least are embarassed.
Anyone who can play the game at the level you need to in order to be an NFL player refuses to get their ***** kicked or be embarassed. If it didn't bother them their football career would have ended after High School.

On top of this, NFL players are big and strnog enough that that ***** kicking is a big one.
I just cannot fathom how someone truly believes that Vince Wilfork, for example, cares more about winning or losing 60 one on one battles in a game because of something a WR or coach said in the newspaper.


This is VERY SIMPLE.
Physical combat is never affected by 'motivation' in the NFL. Its affected by pride, fear of emabarrassment and not getting beaten up.
OF COURSE THERE IS A PURPOSE TO BULLETIN BOARD MATERIAL. There has to be or teams wouldn't try so hard to avoid it. (I don't buy its superstition)

The reason is PREPARATION AND FOCUS ON PREPARATION.

A football player will always be focussed when a 300 lber is trying to knock him on his *****.
Studying, and practicing and preparing for the game is a different story.
OVERCONFIDENCE, LOOKING AHEAD, ETC are reasons to be lazy in preparation. No one will break your arm if you are a bit lazy in preparation like they would if you are lazy on the field.
Bulletin board material, us against the world, 'being dissed' are all things that affect your mental appraoch to preparation and INCREASE YOUR FOCUS ON PREPARATION where otherwise it may seem mundane.

 

[sieglo]

Anyone who claims that the Pats don't use the opposition and the media to get themselves fired up to obtain an edge has obviously never watched postgame footage of Radney coming back into the locker room. It's the same every time after a big game.

"They didn't think we could do it..."
"They said ...."

Etc.

 

[Ring 6]

Anyone who claims that the Pats don't use the opposition and the media to get themselves fired up to obtain an edge has obviously never watched postgame footage of Radney coming back into the locker room. It's the same every time after a big game.

"They didn't think we could do it..."
"They said ...."

Etc.

That has nothing to do with whether it has any effect on what is happening on the field.

Are you really telling me that Rodney Harrison decides to try harder because the other team said something he didn't like, and wouldn't care as much about winning if they complemented him?
I think you are out of your mind.

Once again, those mental tactics help FOCUS ON PREPARATION. I cannot believe you have ever played the game at a level above Pop Warner, if you really think that what you do on a play is impacted by how you feel about the other guy. I can just see it now. Inside Rodney Harrisons head:
"Here comes TO. He has a bad attitude toward the Patriots. I'm gonna play hard this play and intercept the pass"
"Here comes Lee Evans. Wow he really respects how good we are. I think I'll let him catch this one".

Or Ty Warren.
"That damn Ryan Diem is across from me. I won't let him knock me on my ***** because he bad mouthed us"
"OK, its Kareem McKenzie today. He hasn't said anything bad about us. He even used to be a Jet and he was a nice guy. I'm not going to try to hard today, because I don't mind getting physically pummelled by nice guys"


Ludicrous.

 

[aluminum seats]

Football is an extremely emotional game, and it's unquestionably true that players use slights, real or perceived, as an additional emotional boost.

 

[PatsFanInVa]

That has nothing to do with whether it has any effect on what is happening on the field. ...

Once again, those mental tactics help FOCUS ON PREPARATION. I cannot believe you have ever played the game at a level above Pop Warner, if you really think that what you do on a play is impacted by how you feel about the other guy. I can just see it now. Inside Rodney Harrisons head:
"Here comes TO. He has a bad attitude toward the Patriots. I'm gonna play hard this play and intercept the pass"
"Here comes Lee Evans. Wow he really respects how good we are. I think I'll let him catch this one". ...

Ludicrous.

I can compare the general feeling regarding the Colts to that regarding the Chargers, at least from a fan perspective. I think it might translate:

Colts - you can NOT sleep on them for one second. You WILL get burned.
Chargers - you can NOT sleep on them for one second. You WILL get burned. Then they're run their fuggin mouths again. Not that they won't if they lose.

I completely agree on the thought that "bulletin board material" and all of the rest of it affects preparation and motivation pre-game, not in-game, except insofar as pre-game affects in-game.

I think the caricature of a player looking across at another player and thinking leisurely complete sentences is fine as a rhetorical device, but I don't think anyone believes this is what happens. They're talking about whether one is emotionally "flat" or "fired up."

Truth? My guess (not being an NFL player) is that you come in after having trained and trained for a week on that particular opponent, and all your energy and focus has gone into the coach's idea of what to do against that opponent, and your role in that idea. The idea becomes a set of plays you need to execute, and your assignment in each play becomes your focus against this team. And you practice it as often as time allows, attempting to ingrain your role into something like "muscle memory", like being able to play a chord or a riff on a guitar: second nature, without conscious thought. Then your conscious thought is freed up to determine any tactical adjustment after that first split second of the play.

Here's the other corrolary with music: just as music is a combination of tone and time, football is a combination of actions and time. Just as it does you no good to play a whole note a half-beat late, it does you no good to execute the actions that would result in a beautiful pancake block a split second too late, when there's nothing to block. So yeah, those leisurely full-sentence thoughts are unlikely to have a place in a game as fast as football.

But "you're STILL coming off the ball slow" ("you're going to embarass this team and lead to overall sucking, you ass, because you're not focusing") might have a little more weight if you knew what the __________s said about your team the previous week.

Now if I may connect to "CameraGate"? That is the perfect motivational story, the gift that keeps on giving. Because whether someone voices it or not, enough has been said that the Pats can go into learning their assignments EVERY WEEK with the thought, Be Perfect. Because they're all still talking about how you never "really" beat the crap out of the league before. This is your chance to show them how very, very wrong they were.

But you need to focus to do it. Every snap in practice. Every second in film. Every down, every play, that's our motto. Wait sorry, that was from the NFL Network commercial.

PFnV

 

[Iron Helmet]

You really are some sort of MENSA candidtate, aren't you? You just refuted your whole premise with that conclusion. If it were so meaningless, unimportant and only pertaining to the realm of fandom, then why would teams try to discourage it? Exactly, McFly.

As I said in the other thread, what gets annoying are the sanctimonious fans who put players on such a high pedestal, so as to make any and all forms of gamesmanship beneath them and their moralizing ways. I mean, seriously, have you watched this team at all for the past 7 years? This stuff fuels them big time. There are endless articles, quotes and snippets about which players really play this stuff up in the Pats locker room and how they respond after wins to what other players have said about them.

The coach isn't even above this sort of thing. One only needs to go back to the "they hate their coach" craziness and how Bill responded.

We'll between the 2 of us, I think I would qualify as the Mensa candidate before you. Unfortunately for you, you really don't understand the NFL. The reason crap talk is discouraged is the same reason endzone celebrations are fined, and bad behavior severely punished. The NFL's mission is to deliver a product that comes across as a honorable, fair and classy product. Thus my comment about it being discouraged.
Read Andy Johnsons post. Get educated Mensa man.

 

[sieglo]

That has nothing to do with whether it has any effect on what is happening on the field.

Are you really telling me that Rodney Harrison decides to try harder because the other team said something he didn't like, and wouldn't care as much about winning if they complemented him?
I think you are out of your mind.

Once again, those mental tactics help FOCUS ON PREPARATION. I cannot believe you have ever played the game at a level above Pop Warner, if you really think that what you do on a play is impacted by how you feel about the other guy. I can just see it now. Inside Rodney Harrisons head:
"Here comes TO. He has a bad attitude toward the Patriots. I'm gonna play hard this play and intercept the pass"
"Here comes Lee Evans. Wow he really respects how good we are. I think I'll let him catch this one".

Or Ty Warren.
"That damn Ryan Diem is across from me. I won't let him knock me on my ***** because he bad mouthed us"
"OK, its Kareem McKenzie today. He hasn't said anything bad about us. He even used to be a Jet and he was a nice guy. I'm not going to try to hard today, because I don't mind getting physically pummelled by nice guys"


Ludicrous.

Sure, the game of football is only about preparation. Once you're on the field, there is no emotion involved whatsoever. None!

Do you seriously think the Pats won't be more emotionally charged the next time they play the Jets than they will be the next time they play Miami? And that this emotion won't impact behavior on the field?

To put it in your terms, here's what Rodney is thinking:

Ludicrous.

"That loudmouth Freddie Mitchell is coming across the middle again and if the ball goes to him I'm going to pop him harder than he's ever been hit so next time he will just shut the **** up."

vs.

"Patrick Crayton is coming over the middle.... Got to hit him if he gets the ball and stop the big play."

There is a difference.