PatsPropaganda

An Independent Patriots Blog

History

The Greatest Belichick-Brady Pats Game of All Time Is…

by

Pats Pulpit put together the perfect offseason activity, a Pats Madness bracket of the best games of the Patriots’ dynasty. It’s no surprise that the final four games are all Super Bowls.

The earlier rounds were tough, choosing between games like the 2006 playoff win in San Diego and the impossible 2013 comeback against the Broncos wasn’t easy.

The whole exercise made me wonder, what makes the truly perfect win? It was the question I had to conquer before making my decision between the final four and narrowing it all down to my pick for the best game of the Belichick-Brady era.

[Read more…] about The Greatest Belichick-Brady Pats Game of All Time Is…

Goodnight Sweet Gronky

by

It’s hard not to sit here and try to write about Rob Gronkowski’s career without a big fat smile on my face. The Patriots selected him just a couple weeks after I focused all my three-years-of-blogging energy into my own site, PatsPropaganda. So Gronk has very much been a main character here for almost nine years.

From that very first glimpse of him, it was clear that Patriots football just got a whole lot more fun. Little did we know we were about to witness perhaps the most spectacular career the NFL has ever seen from a tight end.

Gronk would play just nine seasons, with injuries marring significant games of the 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2016 seasons. But among the rest he put together an easy Hall of Fame career with three Super Bowl rings.

Let’s take a look back at nearly a decade of Gronk spikes.

[Read more…] about Goodnight Sweet Gronky

Patriots 2001: Preview of a Dynasty

by

As I’ve been enjoying the Patriots sixth Super Bowl title over the last month, I found myself glancing back at the 2001 season and how much has happened since then. The Patriots going on a second three-Super-Bowl run has certainly given things a complete feeling. I’ve been saying everything else is gravy but this is getting ridiculous thinking they’re not done.

2001 was a lifetime ago and for the Patriots it was the last time that there were no expectations for them. Really, no one outside of New England really cared about this football team back then, and now, 17 years later, the Patriots are loved and hated around the globe.

I popped the 2001 NFL Films Yearbook DVD in this weekend and was fascinated to see what a microcosm of the dynasty this season really was, how so many games against so many teams would encapsulate so much of what Brady and the Patriots would experience en route to winning five more Super Bowls. The themes that would recur over and over across the next two decades of football.

Let’s take a look at some of the notable moments and pieces that would echo well into the future.

[Read more…] about Patriots 2001: Preview of a Dynasty

Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective

by

Yes, this was the worst loss of his career, but damn did he look good running out of the tunnel.

With all the fluff out there about drafting quarterbacks, bad draft choices and discontent between Tom Brady and Bill Belichick, it’s time to drop some hard-hitting journalism here on the blog. Let’s get serious and talk about how this is sadly the last year Tom Brady can wear his helmet of choice.

One of the things that instantly made me like Brady was that he just had the perfect quarterback look. Yes, 12 is the number for signal-callers, but it was Brady’s low-rising helmet that put him on another level. At that point, Peyton Manning had already set the NFL world on fire, but if it came down to simple looks on the field, I was already taking Brady before he had even started a game.

But it wasn’t like Brady jumped right into the perfected look that he’s now known for and he even experimented with other helmets for a few games in 2011 and 2012.

Let’s take an important and possibly ground-breaking look back at Brady’s helmet-look over the course of his career and figure out what he might switch to in 2019.

[Read more…] about Tom Brady’s Helmets: A Retrospective

Choosing from Patriots Hall of Fame Finalists

by

The Patriots announced the three finalists to be inducted into the team Hall of Fame this summer, putting us all in a bind over trying to choose amongst our favorite players from the original days of the dynasty. This year Matt Light, Mike Vrabel and Richard Seymour are those whom we have to choose from, no easy decision by any means.

All three burst onto the scene in 2001, with Light and Seymour stepping in immediately as impact rookies and Vrabel being one of the first of many veteran castoffs who found success under Bill Belichick in New England.

Let’s take a quick look at all three and then decide who gets the PatsPropaganda vote this year.

[Read more…] about Choosing from Patriots Hall of Fame Finalists

A Look Back: Tom Brady’s House of Horrors

by

The Patriots loss in the 2005 AFC Divisional game was one of the seminal moments of my Patriots fandom/obsession. It was at that moment we finally saw Bill Belichick and Tom Brady lose a playoff football game together, and it suddenly dawned on me that there would be a finite end to their dominance. There would be limited opportunities for Super Bowl trophies and the clock was ticking.

Did I think that 12 years later they’d still be going strong? No way. Did I think that their successful run would spawn an entire side career of blogging fun for me? Never. All I knew was that the Patriots should’ve beaten the stupid Broncos that night and I was going to hinge on every Patriots game from there on out like it was life or death.

Little did I know but some of the most disappointing moments of the Belichick and Brady reign would continue to come in Denver. For whatever reason, things have just never been easy there but the history is rich with interesting storylines that have spanned a decade-and-a-half.

Let’s take a look at some of the more interesting moments from Tom Brady’s house of horrors in Denver.

[Read more…] about A Look Back: Tom Brady’s House of Horrors

Coffin Corner: Can Belichick Learn to Share His Roster? *Coughs up a loogie*

by

By far, the most amazing thing about parenthood is watching how children learn stuff. Every time, you see a neurological spark that connects a cause to an effect your heart swells: “My kid’s a forking genius.” The kid sees a stopped bus then he sees the red light. Then says: ‘bus stop at red lights’. “My kid’s a forking genius.” Every time he notifies me “I poop”…. I greet the disgusting revelation with “My kid’s a forking genius.”

It’s the most amazing thing to witness. And yet it happens to every parent, for every kid. Language, understanding spatial relationships and even the tenants of physics are innate naturally developed cognitive skills. My son learned Einstein’s theory of gravity the first time he walked down the stairs carrying three trucks, did a “yard sale” and bloodied his chin. “Fork!  My kid’s not a genius.” But one thing that child professionals, teachers and pediatricians tell you is that the concept of sharing is not innate. There is no inherent understanding for humans to share. If you left four kids in a Biosphere, they would likely never learn to share. Sharing is a learned trait, instilled by the teachings of families, parents, mentors, religions and communities.

And as we know Bill Belichick is happy to share… some things. He always shares credit graciously, he shares his personal feelings about how dumb writers are with aplumb, he shares his workplace with his children, his life with a spouse or girlfriend, but there’s one thing that he has had a pretty hard time sharing over the years.  Final say over roster construction.

Everyone does their job.  Brady is the CEO on offense, the Krafts are the CEOs of the company and Belichick is the CEO of the roster. That is the biggest reason that he is in New England in the first place.  He was promised limited owner intervention into the team building aspect, also the fact that the Jets suck donkey butts. And let’s just say that after 5 Super Bowls, 16 going on 17 winning seasons, 14 AFC East titles, it’s been a good recipe for success. Stay in your lane.

But at appears on first blush that Trading Jimmy G marks a huge forking fork in the road.

[Read more…] about Coffin Corner: Can Belichick Learn to Share His Roster? *Coughs up a loogie*