The Patriot Way – Saturday, 2/1/2014
By Hal Bent
Jan 19, 2014; Denver, CO, USA; Denver Broncos quarterback Peyton Manning (18) shakes hands with New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick after the 2013 AFC championship playoff football game at Sports Authority Field at Mile High. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Happy February! Welcome back to the Patriot Way, the best link available for all your daily New England Patriots news.
The Boston Globe has the news on the Patriots unveiling variable pricing for season tickets. It was a long time coming, and I am in favor of anything that makes it easier for more fans to get to the games as the season ticket holders can make the “less desirable” tickets available for resale at a reduced rate. Maybe the Patriots can get some louder fans at the games to make Gillette Stadium a little louder and increase the home field advantage.
Mike Lupica at the New York Daily News has an interesting piece with Bill Belichick’s thoughts on playing against Peyton Manning. Fascinating read to see how much respect Belichick has for Manning. Great line by Belichick on Manning: “I look at him the way we looked at Joe Montana: You beat him with an entire team game. The more you can keep him on the sideline, the more pressure you can put on him to make a play when he’s back on the field.”
Tom E. Curran, Patriots Nation’s premier Hair Replacement spokesman with Wes Welker in Denver, looks at owner Robert Kraft’s comments on Friday about a centralized replay system. All well and good, but the time to comment was after the game, not now. It comes across as a little sour grapes. Certainly another win would have matched Denver and wrested home field away potentially, but the loss at Miami was simply poor execution in the red zone at the end of the game, the defense made Geno Smith look like an all-pro in the loss to the Jets, the offense was anemic against Cincinnati (6 points!), and the Patriots defense let them down again in Carolina. Add in New Orleans and Cleveland being last second wins (and that pass interference call against Cleveland was more of a gift than any other call all season in the NFL) and Kraft’s comments come off a little bit like sour grapes.
Alex Peters at iSportsWeb looks at the Patriots possibly drafting a defensive tackle in this year’s NFL Draft. While Sealver Siliga was a diamond in the rough, Joe Vellano and Chris Jones struggled mightily stepping in, although in their defense they were #4 and #5 on the depth chart…hardly a couple of players expected to start for extended periods. There are some interesting prospects out there and Alex highlights some interesting late round prospects who could help out down the road.
Greg Hanlon at SBNation has an excellent piece on former Patriots and Giants running back Dave Meggett and his disturbing activity off the field. For a player I remember rooting for back in the day it was a disturbing read about his actions off the field that landed him in jail. Definitely not a light read, but informative, well-researched and well written.