But it’s such a scandal if true that gate needs to included. So Inflatehategate?Inflatehate seems like a good title for all of this.
But it’s such a scandal if true that gate needs to included. So Inflatehategate?Inflatehate seems like a good title for all of this.
Yes. What is up with the snowflakery here?As an outsider/non-Pats fan I'd be pretty pleased about this. Bill will post this thing all over the locker room and use it as Pats v. the world like only he can, Brady will be in fuck you mode the entire playoffs, and you'll likely steamroller your way to another Super Bowl.
"If Tom Brady did this, it would be news to Garoppolo's camp https://twitter.com/ProFootballTalk/status/949100222319349761 …"Official Jimmy G spokesman says Brady didn’t do it.
If there was prior evidence, it would’ve been big news. Any rifts in Foxboro rarely are public knowledge.The horrible NFL ratings book having come in, no doubt there are people at NFL HQ who are increasingly in fear for their jobs and really don't want to see the Pats win another SB. Great sources for Wickersham. Very hard to swallow Brady as Salomé, Kraft as Herod, and JimmyG as John the Baptist.
Brady and Belichick have a close working relationship with private meetings every week. I have never seen a smidgen of evidence that they have a significant personal relationship beyond the workplace. Is there any such evidence?
Quibble? That quote totally contradicts what Bruce Allen said to start out with.One could quibble and say that certainly doesn't say Brady "demanded" a trade at all.
If Jimmy is John the Baptist, our next QB is gonna be realllllly good.The horrible NFL ratings book having come in, no doubt there are people at NFL HQ who are increasingly in fear for their jobs and really don't want to see the Pats win another SB. Great sources for Wickersham. Very hard to swallow Brady as Salomé, Kraft as Herod, and JimmyG as John the Baptist.
Brady and Belichick have a close working relationship with private meetings every week. I have never seen a smidgen of evidence that they have a significant personal relationship beyond the workplace. Is there any such evidence?
Yes. So, one could quibble and say that it contradicts the tweet. Which is what I said. He was posting it to buttress his point. And I quibbled.Quibble? That quote totally contradicts what Bruce Allen said to start out with.
The TB12 Method: Keeping Brady limber enough to do the Dance of the Seven VeilsThe horrible NFL ratings book having come in, no doubt there are people at NFL HQ who are increasingly in fear for their jobs and really don't want to see the Pats win another SB. Great sources for Wickersham. Very hard to swallow Brady as Salomé, Kraft as Herod, and JimmyG as John the Baptist.
Poor Jimmy “Garappolo”...Allen has the internal ESPN memo regarding the story
I disagree. There’s a clear implication that Brady “repeatedly” told Kraft he wanted to play to 45 in order to get Kraft to act.Quibble? That quote totally contradicts what Bruce Allen said to start out with.
Very hard to swallow Brady as Salomé, Kraft as Herod, and JimmyG as John the Baptist.
The 40 Year Old Vermin.We need a clever title for the ESPN game thread tomorrow.
Well, Brady "wins" by having an uber-clear path to being the starting QB for the Pats for the next 3 years or so.The memo clearly wants that to be the implication:
Brady tells Kraft he intends to play into his 40’s—>Kraft tells BB to trade JG——>BB unhappy—>Brady “liberated”/“He won”
Unless Brady had a stake in JG being traded, how is he “winning”?
How is that a story? Of course BB would want to keep both if financially feasible, and there's no reason to expect either to take a discount at this point.Bedard's story is that BB was determined to somehow keep TB and JG for a couple of more years for a smooth transition but Kraft told him it wasn't going to work. I'm guessing the only way it would work would be if TB restructured and JG took a below market two year deal, and one or both balked. I can see TB refusing to accommodate this, and I can see that being interpreted as him forcing the issue. Bedard talks coyly about this on the radio, but won't write it, presumably to protect a source.
I would think Jimmy would have been the one that balked if anyone did (if it even happened this way).Bedard's story is that BB was determined to somehow keep TB and JG for a couple of more years for a smooth transition but Kraft told him it wasn't going to work. I'm guessing the only way it would work would be if TB restructured and JG took a below market two year deal, and one or both balked. I can see TB refusing to accommodate this, and I can see that being interpreted as him forcing the issue. Bedard talks coyly about this on the radio, but won't write it, presumably to protect a source.
To be fair, if BB went to Kraft with a strong recommendation on personnel, and Kraft said no, that would be newsworthy. And if it involved Brady, doubly so.How is that a story? Of course BB would want to keep both if financially feasible, and there's no reason to expect either to take a discount at this point.
Didnt Belichick already say that JG was unwilling to sign an extension this year?Bedard's story is that BB was determined to somehow keep TB and JG for a couple of more years for a smooth transition but Kraft told him it wasn't going to work. I'm guessing the only way it would work would be if TB restructured and JG took a below market two year deal, and one or both balked. I can see TB refusing to accommodate this, and I can see that being interpreted as him forcing the issue. Bedard talks coyly about this on the radio, but won't write it, presumably to protect a source.
Tag.Didnt Belichick already say that JG was unwilling to sign an extension this year?
Tag him and then what? Sit him on the bench to make more money than your starting GOAT QB while the backup QB’s money eats away 60% of your free cap space?Tag.
So you’ve seen his contract?It's amazing to me how many local media types want this team to crash and burn so bad they they're missing the obvious point. Belichick has roster control in his contract. If he wanted to keep Jimmy G and trade Brady, he can tell Kraft to fire him if he doesn't like it. So maybe the more likely scenario is he played it out with the two of them as long as he financially could, and then made a decision. That doesn't make good talk radio though so that can't possibly be what happened.
The inability of people to even try to understand the salary cap when posting about keeping Brady and Jimmy in 2018 is inconsistent with how I usually think of this place. It is a non-starter. Anyone who says it was BB's desire to do so should not be taken seriously, unless the term "desire" is used in the sense that I desire to be an MLB center fielder. It is not a serious suggestion. It would not work. The idea that Belichick would commit $48.5 million to one position for another year of pushing the same decision down the road is simply not credible.Tag him and then what? Sit him on the bench to make more money than your starting GOAT QB while the backup QB’s money eats away 60% of your free cap space?
Exactly - it was basically a bunch of stuff we already know or could reasonably assume with a big bomb (belichick will leave!) tacked on to the end.It reads like fan fic to me. Didn't seem like there was much we didn't know in there.
I did a bit of research last week and noted the Pats should have about 40 million in cap space after factoring in the projected increase, money coming off the books, and obvious cuts, but they’ll also have some key areas of need (LT, RB, DE, LB, TE, etc.). They could, in theory, have tagged Jimmy, but he possibly would have needed to protect Brady’s blindside in the interim.They really didn't have many options here. This story just doesn't pass the smell test, because math.
Good to see that ESPN really worked assiduously to prepare this article, or is Joe Dolce Brady's friend quoted here?"Tom changed," says a friend of Brady. "That's where these a lot of problems started."
I find the first sentence hard to believe. Beyond that, wasn't the $28 million signing bonus really designed to protect Tom in the event that he got stuck with the Deflategate suspension?Belichick and other Patriots staff had to abruptly leave the NFL combine in Indianapolis to be part of the process. Brady's two-year contract, with a $28 million signing bonus, was designed to set up 2018 as a key year, when the team could, in theory, look at a 41-year-old Brady and his $22 million cap hit and decide if it made sense to transition to Garoppolo.
To be fair, I had not previously known about the allegedly very sizable offers made to JG.Exactly - it was basically a bunch of stuff we already know or could reasonably assume with a big bomb (belichick will leave!) tacked on to the end.
This is exactly right. It struck me as I was reading it that there seemed to be a whole lot of creative writing weaving together very sparse facts.It reads like fan fic to me. Didn't seem like there was much we didn't know in there.
...twisting innocuous words and actions into an admission by the Patriots brass that Deflategate was actually a thing. Glossing over the fact that the team might have parted ways with Jastremski and McNally because they violated team policy.Now 76 years old, Kraft ultimately will attempt to broker a solution. He has paid both Brady and Belichick tens of millions of dollars, won and lost some of the greatest games in NFL history with them, and has stood by both at their lowest moments. He apologized in front of a room of owners for Spygate. And he stood by Brady during Deflategate, even after he backed down and accepted the NFL's penalty. Kraft did so even though many staffers in the building believed there was merit in the allegation, however absurd the case. The team quietly parted ways with both John Jastremski and Jim McNally, the equipment staffers accused of deflating footballs -- they've never spoken publicly -- and Belichick reorganized the equipment staff. Kraft has privately told associates he knew that he went too far in his attacks against the league. "I had to do it for the fans," he has told confidants.
Curran always has been an informed and sensible guy. Everything in this piece seems informed and sensiblePretty interesting piece from Curran (despite a major typo -- I think the word "not" is missing from the first sentence here "I was told more than once that Robert Kraft did tell Bill Belichick that he wasn’t allowed to trade or release Tom Brady. However, I was also told that if Belichick had brought it up, he would have been discouraged from doing so.").
Upshot is: there is smoke here, but not enough to blow things up.