We are under two weeks from the NFL Draft and thank goodness for that. The speculation of who is going to go where after Caleb Williams is selected number 1 by Chicago is starting to drive me nuts. Usually I love the not knowing of who is going to be picked at the top of the draft because it adds so much suspense and intrigue, but when it’s your team and the Boston media gets ahold of a “Daniels vs Maye vs McCarthy” triple threat at 3, well it quickly because an exercise in futility. (Is this what it’s like to be a Jets fan, do they do this every year? And then to lose anyway. Just seems cruel, even to them.) Emptying out the Notebook before the Draft, we’ve got some Patriots thoughts before we go full on Draft preview next week.
- The biggest non-Patriots/Patriots news (non-news) is that Tom Brady said (while getting a hair cut on some sort of web/podcast/not television show, I think it was a Tik Tok now that I think about it) that if a team reached out to him about coming back, he wouldn’t be opposed to it. And this set off 3 days of sports media “will Tom Brady comeback?” “Should the Patriots not draft a QB and have Brady comeback for one more year?” While it is really fun to think about Tom coming back and playing quarterback for the Patriots again, there’s such a zero level of probability of this actually happening. A barber with a face tattoo asked the greatest football player of all time, if he’d answer the phone if a team called him and he said he’d answer the phone. That’s just plain courtesy and I would expect nothing less from the GOAT. But actually making a comeback to the NFL?
Tom Brady retired last year at 45 years old. Notebook Stats and Info says that if Tom Brady came back to play this season, he’d be 47-years old. He owns a small part of the Raiders and has a contract that is usually reserved for center fielders who slug 50-homers, to broadcast games for Fox this fall. Not to say that there isn’t any incentive for him to return, we know how hard it was the first time for him to stay retired after Adam Schefter jumped the gun, but the thought of him returning now isn’t serious and the people who believe this to be a possibility are what Logan Roy would call “not serious people.”
Add in that the Patriots are inducting TB12 into the team’s Hall of Fame on June 12th and that just seems like way too many ties binding Tommy against a Favre-ian return to quarterbacking. Notebook Stats & Info also says there has never been a part owner/broadcaster/team hall of fame inductee, who was also an active player for a third team. (Not the one he owns or is inducted into, but another team that then employees him, also separate from the network he broadcasts games for. Confusing, but that’s what NSI is here for.)
- Speaking of Tom Brady’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony this June, season ticket holders have been sent out the invitation to buy tickets to this spectacular in-stadium affair. If there are tickets remaining after the STH on-sale, then the remaining lot will be made available to the public. I’m fascinated to see what the interest level is from Pats Nation. I mean, Gillette holds just under 70,000 and there will be some seats that are going to be blocked off by the stage, so say there are even 60,000 available, can they sell 60,000 seats to a ceremony?
The Celtics sold out the old Boston Garden for Larry Bird night, but that was a shade under 15,000. Ticket prices to season ticket holders is $36, word is when they release what’s left to the public, the price will be “starting at $100.”
I will be in the house for this event, a season ticket holder friend,Don, made a couple of his seats available to me, so watch for a special Hall of Fame edition of the Notebook the morning following the event. (Let’s be honest, it’s mid-June, so I’ll probably also write a preview for the for the ceremony as well and maybe a fan fiction of what it would have look like if I had written the script for the night. A LOT to look forward to in the Sterling Notebook this summer!!! Tell your friends to subscribe!)
- After announcing his retirement two months ago, Patriots legend Matthew Slater was spotted this past week on the first day of Patriots off-season work outs. Slater was photographed walking into the facility with WR Juju Smith-Schuster, carrying what looked to be the Bible. The only surprising thing about this picture was: I kind of forgot Juju was still on the roster. (30% of me thought he was released with DeVante Parker.) When asked what Slater’s role with the team was, Jabrill Peppers eluded that he was some sort of advisor.
My only surprise in seeing Matthew Slater back at 1 Patriot Place was how soon it was. I thought he may take a couple of years off but it looks like he’s going to hit the ground running on his second act. This is exactly the type of person the Patriots need. My worry with the losses of McCourty and Slater the last two years was getting away from the strong leaders that they’ve had. Keeping Slate in the building in a flexible, advisory, player resource sort of role is genius. With all the changes we’ve seen since the pandemic, this feels like a strong link to the dynasty era.
- Speaking of signing up for more years, Kyle Dugger inked a 4-year, $58 million extension with the Patriots last week. The trend of this off-season has been retaining our talent and Kyle Dugger is amongst our most talented players. Dugger is an athletic playmaker who has a nose for the ball and flat out makes big plays AND is the prototype for where the league is going. The league is trending towards position fluid defensive players who are either big safety’s or small linebackers who you can move around the field and just be athletic. That is essentially what Dugger has been since the Patriots took a chance back in the 2nd round of the 2020 drafty on a kid from Lenoir-Rhyne University, I’m excited to see his play develop further in New England.
Now do the same but with Christian Barmore.
- We’ll end on this one, I want to give Julian Edelman his flowers, his podcast Games with Names has been fantastic this year. He started the show in the fall of 2022 and it was okay. He and a comedian friend of his (who I didn’t always care for) would have a guest on to talk about an iconic game. It was a solid premise and the product was good, not great.
This year, Edelman is back, has built his own studio in his house and is running the show on his own with help of a couple of on-mic producers who he has good chemistry with. What has helped #11 is that because of his in-home set up in California, he has all of his guests in person, sitting on the couch with him. So they quickly build a closeness and the show is very conversational. The specific game they use is merely a jumping off point, such as when he had Terry Bradshaw on to talk about the Immaculate Reception, they spoke about that game about as much as Bradshaw does in any other interview, but the chat was great.
Where Edelman has really hit his stride this year and what makes it appointment listening (or viewing, the full episodes are on Youtube) is that he has leaned into what people thought he would do and brought in a plethora of Patriots guests this year. Whereas last year it was like he was trying to do the show without talking about the Patriots, this year it’s like he’s counterprogramming against The Dynasty. He’s had Gronk on twice, did 3 hours with Matthew Slater, 2.5 hours with Ty Law and of course a long episode with Danny Amendola. But maybe the most impressive is that two weeks ago he did 3-hours with Ernie Adams talking about Super Bowl 36!
1. I can’t imagine Ernie Adams doing a podcast.
2. I can’t imagine Ernie Adams doing a 3 hour podcast.
3. I can’t imagine Ernie Adams and Julian Edelman doing a 3 hour podcast.
But it was fantastic. You learn more about this mythic figure than we ever could have dreamed and it came from Edelman’s platform. Who would have thunk? Do yourself a favor and check these shows out, as a Patriots fan, they are absolutely outstanding and might, just might, get us through this offseason.