We’re at the halfway point already, and here’s a look at this morning’s top stories.
Amendola gave up millions to stay a Patriot – In New England when you’re a perennial contender, there’s only so much cash to go around when it comes to the salary cap. That cash holds even more value when it comes to trying to keep top talent together, which has been one of the biggest challenges for every team throughout the NFL in today’s salary-cap driven league.
The Patriots have that practice down to a science and they have a formula that works when it comes to placing values on their players. The team sets the bar of what they’re willing to pay based on looking at a player who is performing well, which leaves their peers at that position who come in above that number under the microscope when it comes time to make decisions that shape their roster.
Danny Amendola fell into that category this offseason after carrying a cap number of $6.8 million, with a base salary of around $5 million plus incentives for 2016. That would have been more than teammate Julian Edelman, whose cap number was at $4.4 million.
That wasn’t going to happen. The writing was on the wall for Amendola which likely left him to either cut his salary or potentially spend the rest of the offseason looking for work.
Fortunately he took the former and according to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, the team decreased the receiver’s cap hit from $6.8 million to just under $3-million. But the jarring part of that equation was the amount of money he gave up.
According to Volin, Amendola will make just $1.6 million this season, waiving good-bye to $4.4 million just for the ability to catch passes from Tom Brady for another season and hopefully be a part of helping this team win another championship.
There have been plenty of people who have been negative about him since Amendola arrived in Foxboro, but when you look at his track record, he’s been a man of his word since he’s been here.
This is a player who offered to donate money shortly after joining New England when the bombings happened at the Boston Marathon, making quite the first impression with fans.
After injuring himself during the preseason, he knew the team needed him and he sucked it up in Buffalo during the season opener and played through a torn groin all year in his first season in 2013. You could see it clearly affected him and hurt his production, and despite the ongoing criticism he received over that span, Amendola never made excuses or said a word.
When Julian Edelman began to grow into the player he is now, Amendola’s role was reduced. Still he played on, never becoming a malcontent or making any negative statements. Amendola instead did everything he was asked and came through in the punt return game and found redemption in the postseason when he became the missing piece of the puzzle alongside Rob Gronkowski, Edelman and Brandon LaFell. Make no mistake, without Amendola, they don’t make it to the Super Bowl that season, nor do they beat Seattle.
It might seem a little unbelievable, but his presence on the roster and his ability to adapt and continue working as hard as he has is something that definitely deserves to be recognized. Considering the players who started off great and later became malcontents in Foxboro over the years, there’s no way many of them would have responded the same way had they been in Amendola’s shoes.
Thanks to his decision to take another hit in his wallet, he’ll be around for at least one more season and that’s terrific news for a team that appears poised for another championship run. They’re certainly fortunate to have him and it wouldn’t be surprising at all if Amendola ends up being a big part of their success yet again in 2016.
 Hopefully Brissett enjoyed wearing #12 in College because that will never happen in New England. |
No #12 For Jacoby Brissett – Brissett wore the number twelve in college, but obviously that number is taken here in New England by a certain quarterback everyone knows and loves. According to ESPN’s Mike Reiss, Brissett’s number has been assigned and he’ll instead be wearing the number 7.
Reiss also listed the uniform numbers assigned to some of the newcomers, and here’s a rundown of what number many of them will be wearing for the foreseeable future.
7 – QB Jacoby Brissett
9 – CB V’Angelo Bentley
16 – WR Devin Lucien
19 – WR Malcolm Mitchell
24 – CB Cyrus Jones
27 – RB D.J. Foster
31 – CB Jonathan Jones
35 – CB Cre’Von LeBlanc
44 – TE Steven Scheu
47 – LB C.J. Johnson
48 – LB Kamu Grugier-Hill
51 – LB Elandon Roberts
62 – C/G Joe Thuney
65 – DT Anthony Johnson
74 – DT Woodrow Hamilton
75 – G Ted Karras
81 – TE Bryce Williams
99 – DT Vincent Valentine
However, there will likely be more than a few that may not make it to training camp depending on how things shake out over these next two months.
Soccer Team Described as the ‘Patriots’ of the league – After being described as the ‘Patriots’ of MLS, LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena got a kick out of the comparison after Philadelphia Union head coach Jim Curtin referred to Arena’s team in that manner.
“They’re a team that has had the big names and they have won [MLS Cups], and that’s something that gets recognition,” said Curtin during his press conference on Tuesday. “They’re the gold standard of the league in recent years for sure — the Patriots of MLS — and they have a way of winning.”
Arena laughed off the idea, although he appreciated being compared to one of the world’s most elite franchises.
“You think it was the New England Patriots or the Patriots in the sense of the founding fathers in Philadelphia?” Arena told LA Galaxy Insider. “I don’t know what that means, but we’ve been called worse. I’m going to accept that terminology for our team.”
So there you have it.
Brady’s Cookbook Sold Out – Apparently a lot of people out there are curious about how to make avocado ice cream.
Tom Brady decided to share it, and now you too can enjoy the favorite dessert of a 4-time Super Bowl champion.
The veteran quarterback released a cookbook with a selling price of $200 that includes the recipe for that along with many others, which he released on his website called the “TB12 Nutritional Manual”.
The book features 89 recipes in total, with Brady calling it “another step toward achieving your peak performance” when he posted a picture of it on his Facebook page.
Like Brady, the book is just working on getting better, with the description on the site reading that anyone who buys it will receive additional pages with new or modified recipes.
For now his site lists it as sold out, with more that “may be available” early next month.
Gronk Sneaks to East Longmeadow School to Shoot Commercial – Rob Gronkowski is obviously one of the biggest stars on the planet these days and when he shows up anywhere it tends to be a little chaotic.
So when he elected to shoot a commercial on the site of a local high school, it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise when word traveled quick and within 30 minutes 200 people were there to see the charismatic tight end.
Despite the discretion that was kept surrounding his appearance, the school’s principle, Gina Flanagan, told MassLive.com that thanks to social media and texts, it didn’t take long for the word to get around.
“In half an hour, over 200 people were there,” Flanagan told the website. “Our kids were absolutely thrilled to see him.”
Gronkowski was at the school’s stadium on Monday after school let out for the day, which was reportedly rented out in order to shoot the commercial.
Flanagan said, “After filming was complete, we were able to get some of our students on the field” to meet and get photographed with Gronkowski.
“He was very charismatic; very gracious,” she said.
Just Gronk being Gronk.
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Ian Logue is a Seacoast native and owner and senior writer for PatsFans.com, an independent media site covering the New England Patriots and has been running this site in one form or another since 1997.
