Marquis Murrell on moving forward

It looks like OL Marquis Murrell may not be making the Pats' final roster, which is unfortunate because he has one of the best names currently in Foxborough.  What makes this even more unfortunate is the fact that he apparently says great things in interviews too:

"Murrell played in 10 games last season and recorded 12 tackles. He played in the Jets’ AFC Championship game loss to the Colts and had two special teams tackles, but Murrell isn’t thinking much about his previous seasons.

“That’s behind me,’’ he said. “You never look into the past. You might turn into a pillar of salt.’’"

He's got that Patriotspeak right down.  I say, keep him.

(I know, I even went to Extra Points for this one.  My taste in blogs is clearly deteriorating.  But this article was proofread!).

Tom Brady wins my heart forever

I'm just copying the whole story. It's too much awesome to really paraphrase (apparently this was said in a jocular fashion, but it's still hilarious):

Brady no fan of ‘Hard Knocks’ show about Jets

By HOWARD ULMAN, AP Sports Writer 1 hour, 14 minutes ago

FOXBOROUGH, Mass. (AP)—Tom Brady says he won’t watch HBO’s “Hard Knocks” show featuring the New York Jets because he hates them.
In his weekly contractually-mandated appearance on WEEI radio on Monday, the New England Patriots quarterback said he hasn’t turned on the show about the Jets training camp.
Brady says, “I hate the Jets, so I refuse to support that show.”
He does say he’s sure it’s great television and he’s glad people like it but he has no interest in watching. He say, “I’d love to say a lot of mean things, but I’d rather not do that, either.”


Oh, and I am in no way recommending that you watch 'Hard Knocks' unless you enjoy seeing a whole lot of Rex Ryan.  But I do recommend that you read this summary of 'Hard Knocks,' which is classic.  I fully intend to read the summary, without fail, every week.

Stick a fork in 'em

14-0, Blue Jays lead, top of the 7th.  Lester gave up 9 of those runs.  Pedroia is back on the DL.

Yeah, it's over.  If the pitching could be more consistent......but it's not.

What did Albert Haynesworth do today? Second edition

He did not practice because of a headache.

Seriously, you don't even want to know how much he got paid to do this.

What did Albert Haynesworth do today?

This may have to become a daily series at the rate he is going.

What Albert Haynesworth did today: he practiced for ten minutes, then was taken off for dehydration.

This now concludes your Albert Haynesworth Update.

Impeccable timing

If you're a Red Sox fan and if you've ever listened to a single game on the radio, then you are aware that there is a whole ad campaign based around the idea that a ball got out of Fenway, landed on Landesdown Street, and took out someone's windshield.  The solution in this situation?  Call 1-800-54-GIANT.

Also, if you've ever lived in New England, you likely walked around with their commercial jingle in your head on more than one occasion.  And here's the guy you have to thank.

Anyway, that's what makes D-Mac's home run from last night funny.  Note the ad behind the plate.

And we're on again, Rusty Old Man-style

Apparently, the Rusty Old Man showed up today in Minnesota via a private jet decked out in the Vikings' colors.  Cameras were live on the scene to capture the whole thing.  Wow.  Just, wow.  I laughed really hard when I read the headline.

In other QB news, Eli is still not feeling 100% (and it was 12 stitches).  He might not play the next pre-season game.  If you're not sure, then you shouldn't play him in a pre-season game, seeing as how it counts for nothing.  Two words: plantar fasciitis.

Do you know what other story has been cracking me up this season?  The Haynesworth saga in DC.  First, it took him, like, 8 tries to get through the conditioning test.  Then apparently today, he was taken out because he was sick.  That's some good spending 'way too much money on a player stuff there.

I feel sorry for the Bills already

Bills fans, I feel your pain.  Actually, I grew up just north of your fair city and lived there during the 90s, so I am fully aware of what you had to endure.  But now things are just that little bit worse, because apparently two of your contributors, Fred Jackson and Marshawn Lynch, are out.  Both are running backs.  From what I recall, Jackson did a nice job last year.

Yeesh.

That is just a bad luck franchise.

In other football news, Eli got decked in the head and received somewhere between 3-12 stitches, depending on which news feed you read.  He is apparently just fine.  He will still stand around with his mouth open not looking all that bright, but that is in no way related to this head injury.

In finding that picture, I also located one of a shirtless Eli.  Really?

He wins

Belichick is back and in fine form.  When asked about any possible injury to Tom Brady's fingers, he answered as follows:

"I don't think it's life threatening."

He also expressed great (sarcastic) joy in filling out injury reports this season.  And with that, the title goes to the master with Belichick taking home the inaugural Belichick of the Week.

If you're curious, I do feel slightly icky about just having posted a link from the Boston Herald.  Hopefully we will all get through this together.

If I were Mike Lowell...

It seems unlikely that I would be Mike Lowell, but if I were, I would totally choose 'Back in Black' as my song when I went up to the plate.  After all, who could have guessed that we would have kept him around for three-quarters of the season, only to need him when Youk went down with a fluke injury?  Most Red Sox fans have been screaming to trade him and give him the chance to go somewhere so that he can play for real, yet have been hesitant to argue for him having a starting spot on the team.  And yet, here we are.

I think that his actual song is 'Rock the Casbah.'  Not bad, but 'Back in Black' would be so much cooler.  Plus that would just kind of be fun to walk to the plate to, in a kind of swaggery-AC/DC way.

Patriots win utterly meaningless game, I get super excited

Tonight, the Patriots beat the Saints in the first pre-season game.  It counted for absolutely nothing.  I hadn't even planned to watch it, in fact.

And yet....and yet.....I love those boys so much!

You know who was awesome?  Julian Edelman (who was also awesome in last year's playoff fiasco).  You know who else?  Randy Moss.

It was nice to see the team strong near the end and holding the Saints to a field goal when they were within 1st and goal.  Smooth play calling by the Saints, incidentally -- they almost pulled off a pretty good semi-QB-sneak (I don't know what to call it!).  But their 3rd-string QB evidently went to the Laurence Maroney School of Running Sideways Instead of Forward, which ended in basically naught.  Nothing like when your 3rd-string team can outplay the other 3rd-string team.  Final score was 27-24 for the Pats.

It's official: I am ready for some football!