Patriots

On Boston Brat, Angela registers her disgust with Modell's, where she went in search of some clothing with which to support her beloved Patriots:

... I frantically searched through rack after rack of work out pants, sports bras, and jogging suits. Finally, I found one rack with something, and I'll be God Damned, it was a PINK FLIPPING SWEATSHIRT with a Patriots logo. PINK! PINK!!!!!! Show me one spot of pink in the Patriots uniform and I’ll shut up. Oh yeah, you can't because THERE IS NO PINK IN THE UNIFORM! I don't even look good in pink, I look pasty. On the other hand, I look wonderful in Navy blue which actually is in the Patriots uniform. I could save myself $60 and just buy a plain FLIPPING PINK SWEATSHIRT because you wouldn't know the flipping difference! ...

Patriots season-ticket holders who might have their tickets taken away now that the Patriots can get their names from StubHub get no sympathy from Angela:

... If you want to sell your tickets, fine. If you want to sell your tickets for well above the face value, fine. But don't get upset when you get in trouble for doing so. Don't try and make yourself look like the good guy being picked on by the giant. It's illegal and it's unfair to people who want to go to games but aren't lucky enough to have season tickets and rich enough to afford your ridiculous markup. ...

7-0!

DJDiva: I LOVE Tom Brady.

And vice-versa? Dan Shaughnessy Watch has been chronicling the CHB's latest affectation.

It wasn't the way the guy on the bicycle was talking on his cell phone while weaving in and out of traffic on Rte. 62 in Bedford during rush hour that got Michael Gee's attention. It was his 1993 Drew Bledsoe replica jersey.

Turns out Kraft's company is a backer of Matchmine, a startup that attempts to aggregate user ratings of all sorts of stuff to give you recommendations on new things you'd like (anybody remember Firefly?). In fact, the core technology comes out of the Patriots' technology team. This video is mainly of the company CEO explaining the technology at this week's DemoFall conference, but Kraft shows up about three-quarters of the way in, and flashes that ring and talks about winning a Demo God award for best presentation at the show:

Full disclosure: By day, I'm an editor at Network World, which puts on the Demo shows.

Kristen feels compelled to post why she won't apologize for being a Patriots fan.

I'm with Amy: Fitzy, you're scaring me! If you're at work, don't watch this (or the pro-Britney scream it's in response to), without at least headphones, lest people get the idea you're making a grown man cry:

Soxaholix sums it all up. Kristen also sums it up. She adds:

... I am tired, like, completely and utterly exhausted with the whole hating the Yankees thing. Now, don't get me wrong. I still hate them. A lot. Fire of a thousand exploding suns and what have you. But it is physically exhausting expending the energy necessary to work up the requisite level of hatred for the bleachers at Fenway. ...

Former p.r. guy Seth Gitell writes how Belichick could have made things easier on himself.

Or maybe she was really trying to impress a point on him. Jason Schwartz goes to the same Newton temple as Kraft and reports on her Rosh Hashanah sermon, in which she discussed, for some reason, the goodness of Cal Ripken Jr. and how he is an especially good model in an era of sports scandals:

... This was really awkward.

The guy sitting next to my dad leaned over and whispered, "Does she even know Bob Kraft goes to this Temple?" and a hefty portion of the congregation craned their necks over to Kraft's pew toward the front. ...

Mats Tolander explains why Bill Belichick really has nothing to apologize for and adds:

... Jets head coach Eric Mangini is a total douchebag who would never have had a job in NFL had it not been for Belichick. I hope Patriots run up the score in the most grotesque fashion the next time the two teams meet.

If a Belichick could check signals, how many signals could a Belichick check?

The answer to this new tongue twister is "all of them" apparently as Bill has admitted and apologized.

As opposed to the woodchuck in the original, whom we found out couldn't chuck wood period.

http://steves2cents.blogspot.com/2007/09/if-belicheck-could-check-signal-how.html

Kristen tells the Patriots to knock it off:

... We're very upset. You've put us in the unenviable position of having to defend the team's indefensible actions to freakin' Steelers and Colts fans (I've still never met an actual Colts fan), and Chargers players since The Danian obviously has something to say about this. WE WERE PERFECTLY HAPPY KNOWING THAT WE WERE WINNING BECAUSE WE WERE BETTER THAN EVERYONE ELSE. And I'm not saying that we're not. I still think we are, BUT I DON'T APPRECIATE THE ABUSE I'M GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE HERE. Do you understand? ...

Angela: For the first time since 1991, it really sucks to be a Patriots fan:

This whole spying thing has effectively ruined my week. I'm pissed. ...

Lance: In some ways, it smacks of Nixonian paranoia:

... In the context of one specific game, the stealing of signals via videotape is not that big a deal. The way the NFL works, the offense sends in it's personnel package, the the defense sees who has come onto the field and makes there calls based on down, distance, and offensive personnel. There is almost no way that a team could have someone videotape a signal, call it in to an offensive coach, and have it relayed to Tom Brady in time for him to make an adjustment to the play.

On the other hand, it is a very big deal because the practice is explicitly prohibited by the league. In fact, not only have the Patriots been accused of doing this a number of times, but the entire league was strongly warned before the start of the season that these sort of practices would not be tolerated.

Yet, the Patriots did it anyway. ...

It's not enough that Marty got a Tedy Bruschi autograph at Brookline Booksmith today (after waiting in line for an hour), he also spotted Kevin Youkilis walking around with his wife and kid:

... And the guy managed to walk through town without being harassed or stopped for autographs or photos or anything - not even by me. I wanted to say hi, or take a picture with him, or ask how his knee was (he was walking with a brace on it), but I resisted. Although, we did give each other the "I know you"/"I know you know who I am" looks. ...

Yes: any substance that has harmful effects on a players’ health should be banned. And Harrison should be punished for breaking the rules. And I’d love to see harmful steroids and supplements eliminated.

First, many of us break the rules every day - stealing from work, lying on taxes, speeding, intentionally running red lights, watching or listening to copyrighted material online, bloging at work thus stealing company time, etc, and no one calls us "liars, cheaters, and thieves" - yet we are.

The fact is many of our favorite players use steroids, HGH, banned performance-enhancing substances, etc - they just haven't been caught (I'd bet a large sum that Harrison isn't the only well-loved Patriot who has used questionable substances). I'd also wager that almost all championship teams of the last 20 years across all leagues include prominent users, so the Pats’ record is no more or less tainted than anyone else.

Steroids were prevalent in baseball during the 70s. But up until the last few years, testing in baseball has sucked. This means it is possible that many of your 70s & 80s "pre-steroid era" baseball heroes juiced. Yet they will never be held accountable because we can't go back in time and test them. All the while they can act "shocked" and "disgusted" that today's players juice up.

Carmen knows this because she got his autograph yesterday at the Mt. Auburn Street Shaw's, which snagged him to help celebrate the re-opening of its pharmacy (really).

Lance cuts Harrison no slack:

Meet Rodney Harrison. Cheater, liar, thief. ...

Angela is more heartbroken than angry:

... Rodney made a huge mistake that hurts the Patriots and for that, I'm pissed. I'm not going to throw his jersey into a fire or boo him. ... he's going to have to make it up to me in October when he returns to the field. ...

Mats Tolander says it's a shame because now the Patriots' record is tainted

Steve Garfield objects to Dunkin' Donuts calling itself "Official Coffee and Breakfast Sandwich of New England Patriots Fans:"

... Sure, Dunkin Donuts can sign a contract with the New England Patriots to be the Official Coffee of the New England Patriots, but I never agreed to allow Dunkin Donuts to be the Official Coffee of Patriot Fan Steve Garfield.

Mats takes a few photos of the Patriots cheerleaders at the game against the Titans.

The ED ads are bad enough. Even worse is when he starts cracking jokes about them, Angela reports.

Meredith O'Brien harrumphs:

Thanks to Tom Brady: I got to have an awkward, torturous conversation, highlighted by pretzel-like contortions at the dinner table last night when my kids asked me how Patriots quarterback Tom Brady (whose jersey they have, a poster of whom decorates my 6-year-old son Casey's wall) can become a father without being married to the mommy. ...

Dan Shaughnessy Watch explains why.

Mats Tolander was among the several thousand fans who got up wicked early on Sunday to watch Patriots practice at Gillette Stadium.