Jenkins: It's all in the details

[n1997y]

From Reggie Wayne, re-telling a story from his eleven days as a Pats player that illustrates just what is meant by “attention to detail”:

Wayne was a champion worker in his own right, part of a Super Bowl team under Coach Tony Dungy in the 2006 season. But in his few days with the Patriots he was struck by the absoluteness of their concentration and absorption with details that might become critical inflection points in big games. In one 45-minute meeting on “situational football,” they reviewed not only the two-minute offense but exactly how players should give the ball to the referee between plays.

“Lot of guys, you see them toss the ball to the ref,” Wayne says. Not the Patriots. “You don’t know if the ref can catch or not, so if they drop that ball and it’s bouncing around, that’s time running off the clock.” The Patriots were drilled to sprint to the ref and hand it to him, to get a quicker spot and save a second. They would “go over and over and over it,” Wayne said, and didn’t seem to resent the monotony.

 

[Patriot Missile]

Wish she’d come to Boston permanently. She already puts most of these hacks to shame. Would definitely be a breath of fresh air.

 

[cmasspatsfan]

Shank is too busy preparing his “The Rams are tomato cans and Brady and Belichick aren’t good” article.

He already set it up today, he knows they're going to win, his monday column is ready to go.

 

[DaBruinz]

Things that caught my attention:

- That the Patriots practice how to get the ball to the Ref
- The claim that Phil Simms is a "Bill Belichick Confidante"
- That Belichick seems to always want to be in before his players.
- That outsiders notice that the players push eachother in practice more than the coaches