Category: Following Sports

In the week leading up to Super Bowl XLIX, we’re profiling the important characters of the game. We’ve already run posts on New England’s coach, Bill Belichick and quarterback, Tom Brady. Now it’s time to learn a little about the rest of the New England Patriots offense.

LeGarrette Blount, Running Back

The Patriots are a little different from every other football team in the league. As a result, there are some players who just seem to play well for them but poorly for everyone else. LeGarrette Blount is one of those players. He’s had a long and checkered past with other teams, from college to professional, but he’s only ever truly thrived in New England. He’s a big, powerful runner who seems to get better as the game goes on, especially if he’s utilized by coach Bill Belichick as a hammer, punishing opposing defenders. If the Patriots start out giving him the ball 25-35% of the time, it’s a good sign that they think they can with the Super Bowl by beating up Seattle’s defense.

Shane Vereen, Running Back

If LeGarrette Blount is the Patriots hammer, Shane Vereen is their Swiss army knife. He catches the ball a lot for a running back and he is at least as good a receiver as a runner. This season, he ran the ball 96 times for 391 yards and caught the ball 52 times for 447 yards. The opponents know what he’s good at too, so when he’s on the field, they know to look out for a pass. For that reason, he’s another good canary in the coal mine to watch. If he’s on the field for more than 50% of the snaps that have a running back on the field, it’s a good sign the Patriots are going to try to win by passing the ball a lot.

Julian Edelman, Wide Receiver

No one on the Patriots epitomizes coach Bill Belichick’s love for versatile players more than Julian Edelman. Edelman played quarterback in college at the College of San Mateo and Kent State. The Patriots drafted him to play primarily as a wide receiver but in his six seasons with the team, he’s also returned kicks and punts, played sporadically as a defensive back, and has been used as a runner and even a couple of times to throw passes. He’s slightly under-sized for a wide receiver at six foot and 200 lbs (and it’s always good to be suspicious that round numbers like those are inflated) but he’s quick and tough and has more than proven himself as an NFL contributor.

Brandon LaFell, Wide Receiver

Brandon LaFell played for his first four years in the NFL on the Carolina Panthers. He improved every year, which is probably what the Patriots were counting on when they signed him during the last offseason. He’s has the most prototypical stature of all the Patriots pass catchers, he’s tall, lanky, and fast. He’s not quite enough of an athletic freak to be considered a true threat to catch deep passes but that is the role he plays on the Patriots. Two facts about him that might be of interest: apparently his nickname is “Jo Jo” and Tom Brady called him the “toughest guy” he’s ever played with.

Rob Gronkowski, Tight End

Ah, Rob Gronkowski. What can I write to describe him? In a league full of bros, he is the bro-iest. In a league full of dudes, he is the most dude-like. He’s a 6’6″, 265 lbs, 25 year-old millionaire who likes to party (almost? maybe more?) as much as he loves to play football. When he’s healthy, which he hasn’t been for the past three years but is now, he’s the most unstoppable force on a football field you’re likely to see. He can catch, he can block, he can run, and when he scores, he spikes the ball with more raw enthusiasm than anyone else. He’s often photographed dancing with his shirt off, in various states of undress with porn stars, or with clumps of college students surrounding him. During this year’s Super Bowl media day Gronkowski sang Katy Perry songs and read an excerpt from a pornographic novel written about him!

Nate Solder, Left Tackle

Nate Solder scored his first touchdown in the NFL during the Patriots last game. It was his first NFL touchdown. He’s an offensive lineman and they don’t often score touchdowns. So, clearly, he and his teammates were excited. This is how excited they were:

Prepare for the Super Bowl with Dear Sports Fan. We will be running special features all week to help everyone from the die-hard football fan to the most casual observer enjoy the game. So far we’ve profiled Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, and the Seattle Seahawks secondary offensive characters. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter or either of our Football 101 or 201 courses, do it today!

In the week leading up to Super Bowl XLIX, we’re profiling the important characters of the game. We’ve already run posts on Seattle’s coach, Pete Carroll and quarterback, Russell Wilson. Now it’s time to learn a little about the rest of the Seattle offense.

Marshawn Lynch, Running Back

Marshawn Lynch is a powerful running back whose specialty is bouncing off tacklers or hitting them before they hit him. His nickname is Beastmode. He has a penchant for skittles, not talking to the media, and grabbing his own crotch when he scores. Some view his behavior as fun antics, others as serious infringements, still others are concerned about his mental health.

Doug Baldwin, Wide Receiver

Doug Baldwin is the leader of Seattle’s mostly unknown receiving core. He played college football at Stanford, overlapping with Seahawks defensive back Richard Sherman. Baldwin was an unheralded player, and was not even drafted after his college years. Seattle signed him as a free agent in 2011 and Baldwin went on to lead the team in receptions and receiving yardage that year. Perhaps because of his undrafted status, Baldwin loves to play the “No one believes in us” card. Just last week, after the Seahawks amazing comeback win over Green Bay, Baldwin went off on a rant against reporters who “didn’t believe in” the Seahawks. It’s amazing that a member of a defending Super Bowl champion team can twist himself into believing this motivational thought, but Baldwin does. During the Super Bowl, he expects to be covered by Patriots cornerback Darrelle Revis, who is known for shutting receivers out entirely.

Jermaine Kearse, Wide Receiver

Jermaine Kearse is a Washington man, through and through. He grew up in Lakewood Washington, played college football at the University of Washington, and was signed, like his teammate Doug Baldwin, as an undrafted free agent by the Seattle Seahawks, where he’s played his whole career. Kearse had perhaps the weirdest game ever for a wide receiver in the Seahawks win over the Packers. Four of the first five passes that were sent his way ended up as interceptions for the Packers. Two bounced off his hands before being caught by the other team. That’s a devastating day for anyone in any football game, much less a professional in the NFC Championship game. In overtime, Kearse got one more chance when quarterback Russell Wilson threw his way on a long pass down the middle. Kearse converted it into a 35 yard, game-winning touchdown. He’d surely like to be the hero again but I’m guessing he’d be happy with just a more consistent performance in the Super Bowl.

Luke Willson, Tight End

Other than sharing (almost) a last name with quarterback Russell Wilson, Luke Willson is a relatively unknown quantity. He took over as the starting tight end early this year when Zach Miller got knocked out for the season with an ankle injury. Willson is not a remarkable player but he’s certainly proved himself this year. In week 16 against Arizona, he had 139 yards and two touchdowns. That’s pretty good! He played an important role in the Seahawks win over the Packers when he caught the miraculous two-point conversion that put Seattle up by three points. Also, he’s Canadian.

Russell Okung, Left Tackle

With all the unheralded players on the Seattle offense that we’ve profiled so far, you would be forgiven for thinking that the Seahawks don’t have any top draft picks on offense. Not true! As is often the case these days in the NFL, their Left Tackle was drafted very, very high. Russell Okung, 6’5, 310 lbs, was drafted number six overall by Seattle in the 2010 NFL draft. A star in college, at Oklahoma State University, Okung has struggled with injuries in the NFL. He’s missed 21 games over his first five seasons but when he is healthy, he’s one of the best players at his position. He’s healthy now, and although the Patriots have some good pass rushers to go against Okung, I expect him to win most of those battles.

Prepare for the Super Bowl with Dear Sports Fan. We will be running special features all week to help everyone from the die-hard football fan to the most casual observer enjoy the game. So far we’ve profiled Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady, and Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter or either of our Football 101 or 201 courses, do it today!

Russell Wilson, the Seattle Seahawks quarterback, has as clear an image as any public figure I’ve ever read or written about. He never wavers, he never blunders, even when he plays poorly. As much as we can tell about anyone from afar, Wilson seems to be who he seems to be. It’s refreshing, heartening, and a little boring, to be honest.

What is Russell Wilson’s background?

Wilson was born in Ohio and raised in Virginia. His father was a lawyer and his mother had the interesting job of using her expertise as a nurse to consult on medicine related court cases. The Wilsons were and are an athletic family. His grandfather was a college football and basketball player before becoming president of a university. His father played football and baseball at Dartmouth and almost made it into the NFL as a wide-receiver. Wilson’s older brother played college football and baseball and his little sister is one of the top high school basketball players in the country. Harrison Wilson III, father to Harrison IV, Russell, and Anna, died in 2010 of complications from diabetes.

Like his Super Bowl counterpart, Tom Brady, Russell Wilson excelled at multiple sports in high school and college. If anything, Wilson was more distinguished as a baseball player and football player than Brady. In Collegiate high school in Virginia, Wilson won the state championship as a football player and served as class president. He went to college in nearby North Carolina State University. There, he sat out his first year, won the starting job part of the way through his second year and played so well that he became the first ever freshman (players can sit their first year and still be considered freshman) to be named as first-team All-ACC quarterback. His next two years went according to plan, with Wilson starring on the football field and the baseball diamond, as well as graduating a year early and taking graduate level courses.

In 2010, things took a turn when Wilson got into a dispute with NC State’s football coach over whether or not he would be able to continue to pursue baseball in addition to football. Wilson had been drafted by the Baltimore Orioles in 2007 and later by the Colorado Rockies in 2010 (don’t ask me how that works… well, I guess if you’re not going to ask me, who would you ask? Fine, ask me later!) and was determined to keep his options open. The dispute was not to be mended. Wilson decided to leave NC State and transfer to Wisconsin. In his first year at Wisconsin and his last eligible year in college football, he led the Wisconsin Badgers to a Big 10 title and a place in the Rose Bowl. Wisconsin lost but the season had been a success.

Again, similar to Tom Brady, Wilson was not drafted high in the NFL draft. For Brady, the knock was that he was neither experienced, nor athletic enough to succeed in the NFL. The criticism of Wilson seems even stupider in retrospect. Wilson was drafted in the third round of the 2012 NFL draft with the 75th overall pick because teams thought he was too short to succeed. That has obviously not been the case. Wilson won the starting job in his first preseason camp. In three seasons, he has won 36 games and lost only 12 games in the regular season. He has been to the playoffs every year and has so far only lost a single game. Last year, he won the Super Bowl.

What’s he all about?

Russell Wilson is a devout man. According to Wikipedia, he “became a devout Christian at age 14 when he said he saw Jesus in a dream.” His Twitter profile refers to John 3:30 which states, “He must become greater; I must become less.” He also proclaims himself to be “too blessed to be stressed.” When not tweeting bible verses, Wilson is an enthusiastic promoter of his team, his teammates, the companies he endorses, and, most charmingly, his little sister and her basketball career. He caused a slight controversy after the Seahawks game against the Packers, when Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers objected to Wilson’s post-game attribution of the win to god by saying, “I don’t think God cares a lot about the outcome.”

Controversy is one thing that Wilson has pretty much avoided so far in his career. His image is clean and controlled. He has very few friends other than a tight group of people he knew before stardom that help him manage his life and career. The only small to-do that Wilson has been involved with was the insinuation earlier this year from some of his teammates as reported by Mike Freeman, that he may not be “black enough.” That insinuation probably deserves its own essay written by someone more authoritative in sociology than me. It’s worth reporting that shortly after that story, the Seahawks traded wide receiver Percy Harvin, rumored to be one of the players cited by Freeman, to the New York Jets.

On the field, Wilson is a menace to opposing defenses. He is an accurate passer and moves well to avoid being sacked by defenders. When deployed in zone-read plays, where he is given the option of handing the ball to his running back or running with it himself, Wilson is deadly. He led all NFL quarterbacks this year in rushing with 849 yards and six touchdowns. Those stats would put him tied for 16th as a running back, much less as a quarterback. There’s great debate about whether clutch play actually exists but if it does, Wilson has it. He seems to get better as the game goes on and plays with more poise and determination when his team is losing and needs him the most.

What will it mean if he wins? What will it mean if he loses?

There are only eleven quarterbacks who have won more than one Super Bowl. Russell Wilson joins that group if the Seahawks win this game. He’ll also join an even more elite group of quarterbacks who have won consecutive Super Bowls. Of this group, only his opponent, Tom Brady, isn’t already in the Hall of Fame. It’s tempting to say that Wilson will have more chances, even if he loses, but things change fast in the NFL and nothing is certain. What is likely though, is that Wilson has many years of productive football ahead of him. He should be able to overcome the setback a loss would pose to how he is seen as a quarterback.

Prepare for the Super Bowl with Dear Sports Fan. We will be running special features all week to help everyone from the die-hard football fan to the most casual observer enjoy the game. So far we’ve profiled Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll, New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick, and New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter or either of our Football 101 or 201 courses, do it today!

You rarely hear someone refer to Tom Brady without following his name with the phrase, “the golden boy.” Brady is the prototypical quarterback. He’s tall, handsome, and athletic. He’s an unquestioned leader. He is successful on the field and off the field. He inevitably evokes a strong response from people. Either you want to be him or want to be with him or you can’t stand his smug, arrogant ways and you are annoyed that one person (other than you) could be so lucky.

What is Tom Brady’s background?

Tom Brady was not the star athlete in his family as a child. Nope, that was his three older sisters, Maureen, Julie, and Nancy. Each of them played sports and Tom went along with his parents to cheer them on. Jeff Arnold describes the family in his 2012 article on The Post Game as being extremely close. It certainly sounds like that was true. As a child, Brady loved football and convinced the family to go to San Francisco 49ers home games, just a short drive from their home in San Mateo, but his first sport was always baseball. He was good enough at baseball to be selected by the Montreal Expos in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft. Instead of committing to baseball, Brady chose to go to the University of Michigan as a quarterback.

This turned out to be a great decision but it may not have seemed like one at the time. According to Wikipedia, when Brady first went to Michigan, he was seventh on the quarterback pecking order! For the first two years of his college career, he sat while the incumbent quarterback, Brian Griese led the team. After Griese left, you might have thought the job would go exclusively to Brady, but it did not. Although he started every game, he continuously had to battle another quarterback, Drew Henson, for playing time. Michigan’s coach at the time though it was a good idea to rotate quarterbacks during the game. Despite this, Brady played well and became an acclaimed and successful college quarterback.

Given his success in the NFL, you would be forgiven for assuming that Brady was a high draft pick. He was not. The New England Patriots drafted Brady in the sixth round of the 2000 NFL draft as the 199th player selected. Why so low? To start with, very few successful NFL quarterbacks have trouble winning the starting job in college. Brady did. On top of that, Brady performed poorly at the annual NFL combine where players are measured on physical attributes and perform drills to measure their athleticism. Brady was relatively slow and weak. It’s actually pretty remarkable. If you watch the videos from back then, Brady looks slow and somewhat awkward not just in the context of football. It almost looks like you or I could beat him in a race.

New England saw through that and selected him anyway, even though they had a starting quarterback in the prime of his career. Brady, familiar with the bench from his college days, went right back there in his first year as a professional. Then, in the second game of his second year, the Patriots starting quarterback, Drew Bledsoe, took  a bad hit to the ribs, suffered internal bleeding, and had to be removed from the game. Brady went in and the rest is history. Or… almost. Brady wasn’t an immediate success, but it was close. His first two games as a starter were only so-so. From then on, he’s been very close to great his entire career. He took the Patriots to the playoffs and won the Super Bowl in his first, third, and fourth years as a starter. At that point, in 2004, he was 9-0 as a playoff starter, and already being talked about as one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history. He’s been back to the Super Bowl two times since then but lost twice, both times to the New York Giants. He survived an ACL tear in 2008 and now, in 2015, at the age of 37, is still going strong.

What’s he all about?

Tom Brady perfectly epitomizes himself in the way he plays quarterback. When he drops back with the ball in the pocket (protective area his offensive linemen endeavor to create for him) he is more still than any other quarterback. Most quarterbacks bounce around in there, moving up and down, side to side as they look for someone to throw the ball to and prepare to be hit or take evasive action. Brady just stands there. Still, calm, collected, he stands. This behavior expresses what seems to be the core of Brady’s personality. His focus on football and winning is totally relentless. His confidence in his own abilities is limitless.

As evidence of his focus on football, consider how Brady, who is married to Gisele Bundchen, often referred to as the world’s number one model, prioritizes his time with her. In a 2009 profile of Brady in GQ by Adam Rapoport, Brady says “Gisele understands the job requirements. I get some time with her on my day off, Tuesday, and then Wednesday, Thursday, Friday nights. Probably after wins I’m more with her. After losses, I don’t think much of anything other than the game. This morning at breakfast, for instance, I was talking to her, but I just wasn’t there.” Brady has crafted his entire life around his devotion to football. He goes to bed at 8:30 every night, (presumably except for evenings with Patriots night games) and has put himself on a strict seasonal diet that is “80 percent alkaline, 20 percent acidic” according to Greg Bishop in Sports Illustrated. In a recent profile of Brady in the New York Times, Mark Leibovitch writes that Brady “used the word ‘grieving’ to characterize the period that follows postseason losses. He described losing as a “quality-of-life issue” for him.” Brady is determined to play for as long as he possibly can, saying only that when he “sucks” he will retire. Along with his diet and schedule, Brady is devoted to his body to the point of obsession (kinda makes sense that he would develop a relationship with a model, no?) His consiglieri in this obsession is Alex Guerrero who Brady describes as his “body coach.” Here is Leibovitch’s wonderfully pithy description of Guerrero: “Guerrero, 49, is a practicing Mormon of Argentine descent with a master’s degree in Chinese medicine from a college in Los Angeles.” Brady believes in Guerrero’s techniques and his own abilities implicitly. He openly talks about playing deep into his forties. His father, when asked, had an even later estimate of Brady’s true desires: “It will end badly,” he said. “It does end badly. And I know that because I know what Tommy wants to do. He wants to play till he’s 70.”

Despite Brady’s very high-profile job and marriage, he has managed to hide his personality fairly well. Either that, or there isn’t actually anything underneath the veneer of competitor, husband, and father. One great moment in Leibovitch’s New York Times profile was when he gives us a glimpse into Brady’s thoughts on religion: He marched me back into the house, through the kitchen and past a shelf that displayed a large glass menorah. “We’re not Jewish,” Brady said when I asked him about this. “But I think we’re into everything. . . . I don’t know what I believe. I think there’s a belief system, I’m just not sure what it is.” I suppose we’ll understand more once we see what Brady does once he finally retires. It seems likely that he and Guerrero will continue their mission to train and prepare bodies for peak performance, just with other people’s bodies. When that time comes, maybe Brady will allow himself the occasional beer or ice cream made of something other than avocado… but I doubt it.

What will it mean if he wins? What will it mean if he loses?

The result of a single game is a funny thing. On one hand, it shouldn’t mean much for anyone’s legacy, certainly not someone as accomplished as Tom Brady. It does though, and maybe for Brady more than anyone else. If the New England Patriots win this game, Brady joins Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only three quarterbacks with four Super Bowl wins. He puts an end to some of the Deflategate fueled talk that attributes his winning to Belichick’s coaching or the Patriots’ nefarious ways.

If the Patriots lose, Brady will drop to 3-3 in Super Bowls with all his success having come early on in his career. The last ten years of his career will be devalued slightly and the controversy swirling around his football’s pressure will gain steam.

There’s one last note about what a win or a loss might mean to Brady. Earlier this season, Brady restructured his contract with the New England Patriots. On the surface of things, this looked like a routine move by a loyal player to help his loyal organization by freeing up cash to use on surrounding him with even better teammates next year. Some people, Patriots fans in particular, read the small print and realized that what Brady got back in return for his financial largess was flexibility. This has set off a round of speculation that Brady might leave the Patriots after this year. Given Brady’s character, it seems like a loss in the Super Bowl might make him more likely to stay and plot his revenge with coach Bill Belichick. At this point, it is all speculation. We’ll have to wait and see.

Prepare for the Super Bowl with Dear Sports Fan. We will be running special features all week to help everyone from the die-hard football fan to the most casual observer enjoy the game. So far we’ve profiled Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. If you haven’t signed up for our newsletter or either of our Football 101 or 201 courses, do it today!