2018 Patriots begins

[aluminum seats]

And the only way we "know" that is because that's all that the media is feeding us while deliberately leaving us ignorant AF about what "normal" is behind closed doors.

Tom Curran strikes me as a pretty pro-Pats kind of guy. At a certain point I don’t think we can just blame the media.

 

[patriot1136]

Doesn't Brady usually skip OTA's anyway? Can anyone confirm this?

 

[maineman209]

Tom Curran strikes me as a pretty pro-Pats kind of guy. At a certain point I don’t think we can just blame the media.

This isn't at all about whether a guy is "pro-Pats" or not. It's about how much of their time and effort they devote to feeding the rumor mill/soap opera, conflating fact with speculation, and spinning grand gossipy theories (that may bear no semblance to reality whatsoever) that are stated in deliberately button-pushing terms like "open revolt".

They're turning the Patriots into the freakin' Kardashians.

So, yeah I can and I do blame the media for all of this because theirs is the only story we have access to and apparently very, very few people are willing or able to question that story anymore.

And that's sad.

 

[Sciz]

Chris Price went through the pictures and video and made a full list of who is confirmed to be present. He noted that Edelman, Hightower, Mitchell, Rivers, and Ebner are all participating after season-ending injuries. That doesn’t mean others aren’t there, just that they’re not visible in one video and a handful of pictures.

 

[maineman209]

Doesn't Brady usually skip OTA's anyway? Can anyone confirm this?

"Skip"?

Kind of a loaded word. Makes it seem like he just casually or arrogantly doesn't show up.

I'd guess that Brady doesn't attend every voluntary OTA session every year. I'd guess that there are more than a few players who miss a couple sessions here and there due to prior commitments to charity work or to family and that those absences are "excused".

But how TF would we know? The mediots note in 10 words or fewer that one or another "star player" misses the first session and then spends 990 words doing the "OMFG!! This could mean that .... !!!!" thing - instead of, you know, actual reporting.

 

[1960Pats]

I couldn't care less about Gronk and Brady not attending.

What I'd really like to hear about from the mediots is how the injured players from last season are doing. But, then, that would involve some actual journalism be performed, so, y'know, fat chance.

They should go to Belichick and ask him. I'm sure he'd love to fill them all in on the injuries.

All this "culture change", "Brady leading a revolt", "Gronk holding out/retiring" is pretty much just overwrought speculative media ******** based on what they've heard from "sources". It brings in advertising revenue for media corporations, but it's totally worthless to me.

Brady (and other older vets) not being "regular participants" in voluntary workouts in the spring is not at all irregular. As BB himself has said, "nothing new there." It's just the media turning it into something it's not.

If these "journalists" would get off their butts and do some real reporting (and/or if their bean-counting, corporate bosses would allow them to), they'd be at these "lifting/running" sessions and taking notes about who's participating in what types of activities and about how they looked. As a fan of football, that would be way more interesting and useful to me than yet another media turd added to the already huge, steaming pile of teen angst, soap opera crap.

Honestly, I'm so sick and tired of all the ******** rumor mill threads taking up space on the thread list that I've started automatically putting them on Ignore Thread. And I'll be taking a break from this forum altogether from shortly after the draft until a few days before Camp because it's pretty clearly destined to turn into nothing but a supermarket tabloid for the duration.

Seriously, sports media has all but destroyed my enjoyment of football. I was so fed up with hearing about nothing but "deflategate" that I stopped following football completely (I didn't even watch the Pats) from shortly after the 2014 Superbowl until about halfway through the 2016 season. Once Belichick retires, I'll be done with football completely and permanently - if I even last that long.

I'm a little more disappointed in the smarmy attitude of our HC than I am with the journalists. It's that attitude that contributes most to the lack of info about the team, especially in the case of Butler. We definitely can agree that it's getting more difficult to follow the NYFL.

 

[RobertWeathers]

They should go to Belichick and ask him. I'm sure he'd love to fill them all in on the injuries.


I'm a little more disappointed in the smarmy attitude of our HC than I am with the journalists. It's that attitude that contributes most to the lack of info about the team, especially in the case of Butler. We definitely can agree that it's getting more difficult to follow the NYFL.

So now you are disappointed? When it comes to injuries hes been a closed door for 18 years. Has has not changed one iota.

 

[long distance]

Chris Price went through the pictures and video and made a full list of who is confirmed to be present. He noted that Edelman, Hightower, Mitchell, Rivers, and Ebner are all participating after season-ending injuries. That doesn’t mean others aren’t there, just that they’re not visible in one video and a handful of pictures.

Here's the video..

 

[maineman209]

They should go to Belichick and ask him. I'm sure he'd love to fill them all in on the injuries.


I'm a little more disappointed in the smarmy attitude of our HC than I am with the journalists. It's that attitude that contributes most to the lack of info about the team, especially in the case of Butler. We definitely can agree that it's getting more difficult to follow the NYFL.

How often has BB said anything but positive things about a player or his performance at a presser?

He cuts Ealy and says, "He did everything we asked him to do, put in a solid effort and made some improvements. But in the end, it just didn't work out."

In the past, when someone hasn't played, BB says stuff like, "We put the players on the field who we felt were best able to help us win THIS game."

So, he ducks questions about Butler's "benching" because maybe he couldn't answer them honestly without disparaging Butler's performance in practices?

Is that being "smarmy"?

The problem is that almost no one is willing - even after all these years of ultra-consistent behavior and approach - of taking what BB says at face value. They're constantly looking for some "hidden meaning" or speculating wildly about some "incident" that they've heard rumors about.

And the media is to blame for encouraging that all-too-common gossip/scandal hungry mindset.

 

[maineman209]

Here's the video..

Did anybody take a head count? There are 72 players on the roster. Were all 70 who are not named Brady or Gronkowki present and accounted for?

 

[1960Pats]

So now you are disappointed? When it comes to injuries hes been a closed door for 18 years. Has has not changed one iota.

Yes, I'm now disappointed in Belichick's smarmy attitude after 18 years of it. The loss of so many of my favorite players hasn't helped either, although that isn't injury related.

 

[RobertWeathers]

Yes, I'm now disappointed in Belichick's smarmy attitude after 18 years of it. The loss of so many of my favorite players hasn't helped either, although that isn't injury related.

OK so two separate issues. Sick of BB even though they go to the Super Bowl every year and losing binkies because they are paid more elsewhere has you down in the dumps

 

[Deus Irae]

And the only way we "know" that is because that's all that the media is feeding us while deliberately leaving us ignorant AF about what "normal" is behind closed doors.

That's simply not true.

Brady (and other older vets) not being "regular participants" in voluntary workouts in the spring is not at all irregular. As BB himself has said, "nothing new there." It's just the media turning it into something it's not.

That is not true, either.

 

[long distance]

It seems Jules has a pretty good idea where 2018 Pats are headed..

 

[Ochmed Jones]

At some point years from now, the real story is going come out about what is going on.

A while back the Comcast guys reported that bb broke trust in the locker room by not monetarily rewarding butler, then stabbing him in the back with the Gilmore signing.

Could they be right? Was the butler thing the match that started this firestorm? It would explain so much.

 

[luuked]

When your two team leaders and two of the greatest players to ever put on a helmet are absent, pissed off and pouting, it’s kind of hard to give a damn about what Malcolm Mitchell and Vincent Valentine are doing in the month of April.

I respect you too much to hang a disagree on that but it is exactly the other way around because we are in the month of April. People should be more interested in how the recovery of certain players is going than whether veterans show up for voluntary running and weight training workouts.

The symbolism angle is also totally overrated at this point. If the two show up to mini camp and to all other activities who will still give a **** that they skipped the voluntary conditioning stuff in April.

If the two start missing time during mandatory events we can talk about holdouts and whatnot. Until then it makes me yawn.

 

[luuked]

At some point years from now, the real story is going come out about what is going on.

A while back the Comcast guys reported that bb broke trust in the locker room by not monetarily rewarding butler, then stabbing him in the back with the Gilmore signing.

Could they be right? Was the butler thing the match that started this firestorm? It would explain so much.

Except nothing BB did with Butler is any different than he had operated over the last 17 years. Him and Caserio put a value on Butler, the player disagreed with the evaluation and didn't sign the discussed extension and then got replaced by a substantially better player.

Nothing here is new and nothing here would create a locker room issue. But people like to create big, connected narratives even though they make no sense.

There are multiple things going on at the same time that are not connected at all. Butler was one of those. Guerrero another. I am sure there are another 5-6 things going on that we didn't even hear about.

 

[supafly]

I respect you too much to hang a disagree on that but it is exactly the other way around because we are in the month of April. People should be more interested in how the recovery of certain players is going than whether veterans show up for voluntary running and weight training workouts.

The symbolism angle is also totally overrated at this point. If the two show up to mini camp and to all other activities who will still give a **** that they skipped the voluntary conditioning stuff in April.

If the two start missing time during mandatory events we can talk about holdouts and whatnot. Until then it makes me yawn.

It’s good to see that we’re starting to get some info trickling out about the injured players, but I’m not sure that it really tells us all that much, since they’re basically only lifting weights. I would assume that’s something that Edelman and Hightower have been doing for quite sometime, now. Probably almost everyday for months. That was pretty much my main point. Well, that and the fact that my specific examples (Mitchell and Valentine) are two fringe players who could both easily be on the bubble depending on what happens in the draft.

To each his own, though. I get where you’re coming from and I certainly don’t think you’re wrong. I’m simply explaining my comment. I’ve done a good job of ignoring all of this media chatter with the idea that none of it would matter until they made an official stance, so that’s where I’m at, personally. That stance has now occurred, and while you’re right that it may not matter in the long run, it’s got my attention more than anything else right now.

 

[long distance]

Matthew Slater puts emphasis on team-building at Patriots workout


Others who have left indicated New England was a tough place to play under coach Bill Belichick.
http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/...tt_patricia_to_new_team_we_re_better_than_9_7
“Well, certainly, it’s challenging, but it’s the National Football League, though,” said Slater. “I think if it was easy, a lot more people would be able to do it. It’s tough. It’s very difficult. I don’t think it’s unique here. Every place is tough. This is a very competitive league with some of the best athletes in the world. There’s a premium put on winning wherever you are. Everyone wants to win and have success. Everybody’s going to be judged whether or not they’re winning. That’s what it comes down to. I don’t think this place is unique in that regard. I think every team in this league is on a quest to win and have success, and that quest is not an easy one.”

 

[1960Pats]

OK so two separate issues. Sick of BB even though they go to the Super Bowl every year and losing binkies because they are paid more elsewhere has you down in the dumps

So you think Belichick, not Brady, is the reason they're in so many SB's. I think you and those who agree with you are dead wrong. His record without Brady proves that.

And I guess you also think that the Pats wouldn't be in the SB as much if Belichick actually treated the fans and the media respectfully. Another point I disagree with, but we don't have a won/lost record that can substantiate that because he's rarely respectful.