***OFFICIAL NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS SEASON THREAD*** (13-4) - Patriots @ Broncos - Sun 3:05PM EST - Bra

[mr marcus]

Thread has me

 

[prez t]

this secondary is screwed

 

[str8drop]

Ninkovich got his 2.45 mil salary essentially doubled plus more guaranteed money for the upcoming season

 

The Patriots increased Ninkovich’s compensation for the 2015 season to a total of $5 million, with $4.5 million fully guaranteed (base salary and signing bonus combined) and the remaining $500,000 in workout and roster bonuses.

In his previous deal, Ninkovich was scheduled to earn $2.45 million, with a base salary of $2.1 million ($1 million became fully guaranteed last Saturday) and the remaining $350,000 in workout and roster bonuses.

 

Maybe he can do a turn around like Chung if utilized correctly

See, that's the thing though. Chung was able to turn it around because BB catered to his strengths and put him in a position to succeed. But let's be real here, that was really just another supplementary benefit of having Revis here. Revis dealt with the top guy and that opened it up for everyone else. 

Yeah I agree, Revis was definitely the key to making it work.

From what I've read tho their DB coach was really against giving safety help over the top even when they were struggling. Cary Williams wasn't as bad but he looked mediocre last year too and he's about to replace Maxwell in the LOB so maybe they saw something that led them to believe it was scheme/coaching and not skill. BB/Caserio and co. LOVE grabbing dudes at their lowest point and trying to make it work so we'll see 

 

[DeadsetAce]

looking like they brought fletcher and mcclain on to make the lot of ryan, arrington, dennard, and butler looking decent. once people see fletcher out there getting cooked, they'll be screaming for logan ryan to line up against the opposing team's 1

 

[str8drop]

Logan Ryan lining against 1's *vomits*

Hopefully Fletcher looks different in zone coverage with a safety over top 

 

[celticspride34]

Malcolm Butler is doing a meet and greet and signing autographs tonight at my work...

 

[rolaholic]

Pretty good article keeping things in perspective given all that's happened so far in free agency,this team isn't going anywhere anytime soon 

. The AFC East AFC NFL still runs through Foxborough 

. BB's setting everything up to continue the success even after Brady.

[h2]The Patriots Keep Getting Younger[/h2]
By Rich Hill   @PP_Rich_Hill  on Mar 21, 2015, 6:37p 14  

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The New England Patriots were a notoriously young team to win a Super Bowl. They're actually getting younger.

If any football player was secretly Benjamin Button, it would be Tom Brady. No one learns to be a more mobile quarterback at the age of 37, no one changes their workout regimens to become more flexible at the age of 37, and no quarterback is supposed to carry their offense at the age of 37.

Old man time is twiddling his thumbs waiting for Brady to slow down, but the quarterback's avocado ice cream shield seems impenetrable.

Brady turns 38 on August 3rd and it's important because he's seven years older than anyone else on the roster. That's longer than the average career of NFL athlete.

New England waved good-bye to Vince Wilfork  and Brandon Browner  and Darrelle Revis  in a seemingly concerted effort to remain youthful. Dan Connolly, who turns 33 on September 2nd, remains unsigned and the Patriots  don't seem to be in any rush to sign him, even though they definitely want him back.

Of the players currently under contract with the Patriots, three will be 31 by Opening Kick-Off Thursday, September 10th, 2015. They are kicker Stephen Gostkowski, edge defender Rob Ninkovich, and right tackle Sebastian Vollmer. Kickers can play until their 40s, so New England's in no rush to replace the most accurate kicker in NFL history, but the Patriots have already made moves for Ninkovich and Vollmer.

The Patriots restructured Ninkovich's contract  and converted his playing time incentives into a signing bonus to allow for a rotation on the defensive edge with the newly signed Jabaal Sheard. The Patriots reached a contract extension with Marcus Cannon  this past season and drafted Cameron Fleming  in the 2014 draft, both players who are fits for Vollmer's right tackle role.

A further four players will be 30 on September 10th. All Pro special teams captain Matthew Slater  turns 30 on September 9th, while newly acquired Scott Chandler  turns 30 over the summer. There are two defensive tackles who will be 30, as Alan Branch  signed a new deal and Antonio Johnson, a former Colts  and Titans  defender the Patriots offered a futures/reserve contract to last year, both turn 31 in December.

Wide receiver Danny Amendola  will turn 30 in November. No one else on the roster will be 30 by the end of the season.

In total, there are eight players who will be over the age of 30 by opening weekend. The players 31 or older all have younger back-ups and potential replacements on the roster. The 30-year-olds are all rotational players, and Johnson might not even make the squad.

The Patriots have made an effort to remain young as a team. They return ten of their Super Bowl  starters (and potentially all eleven if Connolly signs back) and eight of their defensive starters. This is a roster that's technically entering its prime over the next few years.

Some teams go through rebuilds. The Patriots are still reloading.

 

[DeadsetAce]

some insight into Travaris Cadet from Sean Payton:

Running back Travaris Cadet is one of the Patriots' more intriguing free-agent acquisitions because his potential seems to be a bit untapped.

In three seasons in the Saints' crowded backfield, Cadet totaled 11 carries for 37 yards but caught 45 passes for 345 yards and two touchdowns. There's no doubt he has been a more proven receiver than ball carrier, and the Patriots have an obvious hole to fill after Shane Vereen's departure. Cadet could be useful when the Patriots spread it out.

"He’s a real smart player," Saints coach Sean Payton said this morning at the Arizona Biltmore. "He’s exceptional as a receiver. His ability to run routes other than just from the running back route tree, he is someone that can jump in the receiver line and run out-routes and run comebacks and actually has experience doing that. So when he came to us as an (undrafted) free agent in ’12, he came the first week or two and was in receiver meetings and receiver drills. He is exceptionally smart. He is a great teammate. He is someone we would have wanted to have back were we not able to sign C.J. Spiller. But I would say his hands and his football IQ are exceptional."

Cadet finished his Appalachian State career as a running back, but he spent earlier seasons shifting between quarterback, wide receiver and running back, so he is still somewhat raw. His development might have been stunted in New Orleans because he was stuck behind the likes of Darren Sproles, Pierre Thomas and Mark Ingram. Cadet did flash when given the rare opportunity.

At 6-foot-1 and 210 pounds, Cadet has the build to withstand regular playing time, but he'll need to round out his game. Payton noted Cadet is a smart pass protector who needs to work on his technique in that area, and that will be a huge focus if he wants to get on the field with the Patriots. Payton estimated Cadet only had to pass block 10-12 times per season with the Saints, so he'll have a lot of work ahead of him in that regard.

“He was a receiver coming to us, so it’s a work in progress with regards to protection," Payton said. "He’ll know who to have, but he just hasn’t had the snaps or the experience that so many of the other running backs have because he hasn’t played the position that long. He’s tough enough. He’ll know who to have. That will be a technique and an ongoing skill and development. We felt like he definitely could become a protector because what keeps guys from being that third-down back is they don’t know who to block. That’s the first thing that keeps them from playing that position. They scan and see the guy that’s free. The problem with that is when the guy they are supposed to block doesn’t come and they’re in the backfield still and you have a flare-control issue -- he’s supposed to be out in the route, but he’s floating in the backfield before he leaves. It doesn’t work. So he’ll know who to block. It will just be a matter of technique.”

 

[rolaholic]

Cadet could become a pretty good weapon in the passing game,he's one of the more intriguing signings so far. I'm still interested in seeing how/if they'll incorporate Gaffney and James White as well.

The league stays inventing new rules to catch up with this team . First the Colts couldn't beat them and got a rule change now the Ravens do the same

Baltimore Ravens [emoji]10004[/emoji] @Ravens
NFL owners have passed the rule proposal banning the use of ineligible receivers like the Patriots did in the AFC divisional playoffs.

 

[str8drop]

@ the rule change

Cadet is essentially a receiver playing RB

He definitely has upside tho, he's gonna need to put in a lot of work on the blocking end

 

[DeadsetAce]

@ the Ravens posting it the way they did. bunch of cry babies who staying *****ing and moaning about getting beat

 

[rolaholic]

Same with the Colts,it really is funny everything that certain teams go through to try to catch up 

.

Am I the only one kind of hoping to open up the season against the Jets? They're feeling themselves a little too much right now. I'd love to knock them down a few pegs and show them who's still top dog in the division,plus it'll be the closest they get to any banner raising this decade 

Here's the gold trim for next seasons jerseys in honor of SB50

Probably gonna have to cop one of those 

 

 

[DeadsetAce]

Here's the gold trim for next seasons jerseys in honor of SB50

View media item 1461260

Probably gonna have to cop one of those   

and yes...would love to kick the **** out of the jets after they watch us hang another banner

 

[ggarvinxx3]

The jets smh the armpit of the league

 

[illoquent aka dsk]

Ravens franchise could suck a **** as a whole. I don't **** with those ****** anymore after Ray and Ed left + how they've handled all these situations through the public in the past year.

 

[rolaholic]

mike freeman         [emoji]10004[/emoji]  @mikefreemanNFL

Gutless of teams to get beat by Belichick on trick play, and then take that play away. Stop crying about him and beat him.

Basically how I feel about it,the Ravens are petty as hell. They have a reputation for "toughness" and being "no nonsense" yet they're arguably the biggest cry babies in the league,how are you gonna cry about others having an advantage when you're the biggest beneficiary of PI calls? A few years running too...clowns 

They're getting up there with Indy as the biggest whiners in the league,basically the NFL versions of Randall Weems from Recess 

F the Jets as well while I'm at it 

 

In other news,how bout them compensatory draft picks? BB's always stacking picks

. Now they have 5 picks out of the first 101 and 4 in the first 3 rounds 

 

 

[str8drop]

What's hilarious to me is Chip Kelly did that in 2013 and ****** was like " Chip is an offensive genius ", we do it and everybody like " typical Pats stretching the rules"

Can you imagine if we would've been faking crowd noise or got caught texting from the sidelines mid game like the Falcons and Browns? It would've been a ****show with dudes calling for picks to be taken away and BB suspended. That **** has largely been a non story tho, funny how that works

Wish draft day was sooner, really interested in seeing our approach

 

[DeadsetAce]

What's hilarious to me is Chip Kelly did that in 2013 and ****** was like " Chip is an offensive genius ", we do it and everybody like " typical Pats stretching the rules"

Can you imagine if we would've been faking crowd noise or got caught texting from the sidelines mid game like the Falcons and Browns? It would've been a ****show with dudes calling for picks to be taken away and BB suspended. That **** has largely been a non story tho, funny how that works

Wish draft day was sooner, really interested in seeing our approach

people love to eventually tear down something that's been at the top of the game for too long. as our buddy harvey dent once said, "you either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain". he meant it in a slightly different respect, but it applies here. we used to be the underdog champs and people loved us. now they hate us and see us as some evil franchise. **** it...let's get TB12 #5

 

[rolaholic]

The funny thing is that no one gave a crap when the Lions tried pulling off the same play earlier this year and failed 

. Even Alabama had it in the playbook last season but it's all of a sudden a brand new and dirty tactic when BB does it,down 2 TD's in the 2nd half during the playoffs no less...

Here's a dope vid thats breaks it down well. The lions play is at around 4:50


I feel you guys 100% on everything,I'm embracing this evil empire stuff all ran by Darth Hoody 

 

[nooera]

now they hate us and see us as some evil franchise. **** it...let's get TB12 #5

 

[earldagoat]

 

[rrickrude]

Brady Busting 3's

How do you embed instagram videos??

 

[rolaholic]

Greatness in those MJ TB vids 

. He was probably getting jealous of all the fun and attention Gronk was having at Ultra,saw him post a cliff diving vid earlier in the week 

.

The legend of Edelman grows...

http://www.maxim.com/entertainment/sports/article/new-england-patriots-julian-edelman-little-big-man

“If there’s someone out there who’s better or cheaper or something like that, I’ll lose my job,”
 

At least dude know's how BB is running things 

.

“It’s a temp job,” Edelman said. “With Mr. (Michael) Strahan, you see how he seized opportunities. I guarantee he worked his *** off to get where he’s at and do what he’s doing right now. You look at that and you have nothing but respect.”
 

He's been smart about the way he's been marketing and making a name for himself,I could definitely see him trying to follow Strahans media path after retirement.

 

[rolaholic]

Rolando McClain is visiting today...we could use the added LB depth with Hightower and Mayo recovering from injury and he's an Alabama product. We all know BB loves his SEC boys . He really revived his career in Dallas last season,he ended up 2nd on the team in tackles.

 

[DeadsetAce]

Updated: April 13, 10:52 AM ET
Julian Edelman enjoys his moment
By Kevin Van Valkenburg
ESPN The Magazine


This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's April 27 NFL Draft Issue. Subscribe today!

JULIAN EDELMAN IS hesitant, at first, to break out his Bill Belichick impression. He is well aware that even a playful needling of his head coach, the closest thing the NFL has to a Tywin Lannister, carries a certain amount of risk. But he cannot resist.

He's sitting in the back of his favorite Los Angeles sushi restaurant, Sushiya on Sunset Boulevard, chomping on a second plate of edamame and re-creating the moment when Belichick called him to say the Patriots were drafting him in the seventh round of the 2009 NFL draft. Edelman's impression is less an accurate rendering of his boss than it is a vocal marriage of **** Cheney and Kermit the Frog, but it works because there are hints of genuine affection in it. Edelman commits to the character in full, adding a half sneer and a furrowed brow: "I pick up the phone and he says to me, 'Eeeeeeedelman, I don't know what we're going to do with you, but you're a hell of a football player.'"

The Patriots knew they were taking a flier on Edelman. A quarterback out of Kent State, he'd never played any of the positions -- wide receiver, punt returner, cornerback -- Belichick was contemplating for him. The team certainly had no intention of making him a Brady backup. But that phone call set in motion one of the most unique career arcs in recent NFL history. Edelman spent his first four years toiling on the margins, almost getting cut one year to the next, before exploding for 197 receptions over the past two seasons. He attained full New England folk hero status by catching the go-ahead score in this year's Super Bowl.

After fighting and clawing just to stay in the NFL for most of his career, it's safe to say that Edelman, 28, is enjoying his moment. Over the past three months, he has paraded through Disneyland, presented at the Grammys and become a fixture on the talk show circuit. He partied atop a duck boat during the Pats' Super Bowl parade, beating his chest, taking off his sweater in a mock striptease and punching out a giant picture of Richard Sherman. He popped up on a red carpet looking like Daniel Craig's James Bond and appeared in a blurry video lifting up his shirt for a flock of admiring females at a Harvard keg party. He, of course, screened the Entourage movie, in which he has a cameo, with Mark Wahlberg, Justin Bieber and Rob Gronkowski. He might have even passed Gronk as the team's Good Time Charlie when he showed up in a picture, either asleep or passed out in bed, posted by a woman on the dating app Tinder, alongside the caption, "Just f---ed Julian Edelman, no lie!" Gossip sites rejoiced. Edelman laughed it off.

But for Edelman, things aren't as carefree as they seem. After all, it was just three seasons ago, he says, that Belichick called him into his office and told him he was no lock to make the team. The Patriots are notoriously ruthless and unsentimental, and Edelman -- who's spent most of his career playing at the league minimum -- knows it. There are rules, and you break them at your own risk. You don't talk about injuries, especially concussions. (Edelman declined to discuss the apparent blow to his head during the Super Bowl.) And you're allowed to be playful and goofy only while you're at the top of your game.

"As long as you're doing your job on the field, you can have fun," Edelman says. "But if you start slipping, you're going to start hearing s---. Everything is about football with Bill. I love the guy to death. He's the man who gave me the opportunity. But I know the day I start slipping, the day I'm not producing enough and there is somebody cheaper, I'm gone. That's just Coach."

Which is why, despite what his extended post-Super Bowl tour de fiesta might have you believe, Edelman is living the life of a football monk. A mere 40 days into his offseason -- a time when most players are still recovering from the grind of a long year -- he insists on eating nothing but edamame and drinking ice water (with lemon) for lunch while he chats.

"I'm actually on this crazy little diet right now," he says. "I try to pack all my nutrients into a smoothie right when I wake up. I'll go out to restaurants at night sometimes, but I count pretty much every calorie."

If it seems strange that the receiver could live simultaneous lives of excess and asceticism, the explanation is simple: He understood, long ago, that all of this could be gone tomorrow.

PART OF EDELMAN'S calculus this offseason has been trying to figure out how to maximize his time in the spotlight. In the era of Chris Borland, every NFL player is thinking more about his future, and over the past year, Edelman has put in motion a calculated business strategy, literally designed to capitalize on his moment in the spotlight.

Turns out, he knows what he's doing. Two years ago he teamed with a Boston marketing firm called Superdigital to build and grow his Internet stardom. And lately, their efforts have kicked into overdrive. He films comedy sketches to post on YouTube, and although higher-profile stars have more followers, Superdigital claims that fans interact with Edelman on social media at a higher rate than any other NFL player outside of J.J. Watt. Whether or not that's true, it's hard to find a pro athlete who leverages his digital brand more deliberately than the Pats receiver.

"I think Jules has always approached his career with a small-business mentality," says his father, Frank Edelman, a mechanic and the owner of A-1 Auto Tech in Mountain View, California. It's a month after the Patriots' Super Bowl triumph and, dressed in a blue shirt with his name stitched above his heart, Frank is looking up at the pictures of his son plastered across his office walls. "No one wants to hear you complain. They want you to get the part they need, and they want you to fix their car.

"Every day," he adds, "your job is on the line." Frank Edelman's own dad died when Frank was 3 years old. He spent much of his childhood living in a trailer park, playing very few sports. To support himself, he learned to fix cars and became a certified mechanic by 19. After opening his shop in 1987, he would come home each day and drag Julian and his older brother, Jason, to the park. He would hit them ground balls, pitch to them or have them work on throwing a football until it got dark. Even when they hated it. Even when they tried to refuse. "I think my dad still needs shoulder surgery from all the batting practice he threw us," Edelman says. "He wanted to live through us a little."

Sports came naturally to Julian. "A total daredevil and a ball of energy," says his mother, Angie Edelman. "He'd go up the slide, then jump off instead of slide down. His whole life, you had to watch him closely." His Pop Warner team, coached by his father, won the youth football Super Bowl with Edelman playing tailback and linebacker. His father didn't let him lift weights, but every day they worked on agility drills. Pushups. Situps. Changing directions like a squirrel running for its life. Sometimes, when firing another endless string of passes, Edelman would pretend he was Tom Brady, a local kid starting for the Patriots who'd played high school football at Junipero Serra in San Mateo, just 9 miles from Redwood City.

Edelman was a small kid, but that was hardly reason for his dad to go easy on him. Once, during a session of batting practice when he was in eighth grade, Edelman accused his father of throwing inside once too often and warned him not to do it again. Frank, not one to back down or be mouthed off to, fired the next pitch even closer to his son. Edelman charged the mound and leaped into the air in a rage, his fists whirling, but his father was ready. He caught him in midjump and slammed him to the ground. Frank laughs as he tells the story. "Jules jumps up and tries to head-butt me. I kind of pin him down, and he's kicking and screaming, and he cuts the inside of his lip because he'd just gotten braces that day. There was blood all down the front of his jersey. People were looking at us like we were lunatics. By today's rules, they'd probably have put me in prison. It wasn't all peaches and cream."

Going into his junior year at Woodside High School, Edelman was still barely 5 feet tall and less than 100 pounds. "Kids would tease him all the time, and he was getting into fights," Frank says. "He'd come into my room and just cry and say, 'Dad, when am I going to grow?'"

The growth spurt finally happened, and Julian grew 7 inches in less than a year. His senior year of high school, he quarterbacked Woodside to a 13-0 record.

"I thought to myself, 'OK, now it's on,'" Frank says.

IT STILL TOOK years for Edelman's ambitions to take shape. He wasn't recruited out of high school, so he spent a juco year at the College of San Mateo, then transferred to Kent State. He won the starting quarterback job right away, but it didn't exactly prepare him for a future in the NFL. Despite setting a school record for total offense, he wasn't even invited to the 2009 combine. He wondered if, after graduation, he could find work as a firefighter. "I started checking out firehouses in Cincinnati," Edelman says. "I didn't know what I was going to do. I was starting to get scared."

It was in preparing for the NFL draft that he first decided to train as if his football survival depended on it. Every day he'd wake up at 5 a.m., climb into his truck and drive 50 minutes in the freezing cold to Cleveland, just so he could run routes and catch passes from former Browns quarterback Charlie Frye. The truck's heater didn't work, so most of the time he'd wrap himself in blankets for the drive. When he came home, he'd catch passes from a Jugs machine for an hour, trying to suppress any feeling that it might all be for naught. "I did that every day for three months," Edelman says. "I really grew up. I started to get addicted to the Jerry Rice mentality. I can get up before anyone else does. I can outwork anyone." At Kent State's lightly attended pro day, his time in the shuttle drill was faster than that of anyone else who'd attended the combine that year. The Patriots decided he was worth the late-round gamble.

He was a mess during his first training camp. During a break for Wes Welker, Edelman was thrown in with the starters, and he dropped his first pass. At another practice, he lined up on the wrong side of the formation, and Belichick snarled at him, asking if he'd even bothered to study his playbook. "I thought I was studying so hard," Edelman says. "I had flash cards I'd go over constantly, but it was like going from junior high to getting your Ph.D. in terms of complexity." He'd often stay late at the facility, sometimes just staring at his helmet, trying to soak it all up in case he got cut the next day.

He was convinced that his chances of making the team were so thin, he kept from the medical staff that his groin was in agony. He believed the team would simply give him an injury settlement and release him. "I was an idiot, but you feel like you don't have a choice," Edelman says. It wasn't until the year was over -- 37 catches for 359 yards in 11 games -- that he found out he'd just played through multiple sports hernias. "Julian is a tough kid," Belichick told reporters recently. "We knew that right from the beginning."

NOT SURPRISINGLY, EDELMAN spent his first few years with the team in quiet awe of Brady, hoping the quarterback might invite him to work out during the offseason when they were both back in their native California. They shared an agent and grew up near each other, so it seemed like a possibility. The first offseason, Brady called just one time.

As the years went on, the calls became a bit more frequent, even as Edelman's playing time diminished. In 2010, his second year, Edelman caught just seven balls. In 2011, the year the Patriots went 13-3 and played in the Super Bowl, he had only four catches and moonlighted as a corner to help hold on to his roster spot. Yet Edelman obsessed over what routes Brady liked best­ -- the nuances, like where he preferred to place the ball on certain throws and the way he could convey his intentions with a presnap nod. One year, Brady called to throw while Edelman was at a family barbecue. "I ran so hard, I puked," Edelman says. "He ran me to death." But it paid off: A friendship began to emerge. "He's like a big brother," Edelman says. "He taught me everything about how to be a professional. We'd throw three times a week, then we'd go have lunch at his house, and at first it was surreal for me. Just me and Tommy, hanging out. Is this for real? But then it became just normal. I stopped being scared of him."

Edelman was still a journeyman type in the eyes of everyone else, though, including his head coach. In 2013, when Welker signed with the Broncos, Belichick brought in Danny Amendola from the Rams as his replacement. Edelman trusted, however, that the countless hours he'd invested with Brady would be his secret weapon. When Amendola had trouble staying healthy, Brady started firing darts Edelman's way. By the end of the year, he'd caught more passes (105) than he had his entire career. As a free agent following the season, he might have gotten more money elsewhere, but he re-signed with the Pats because he wanted to keep playing with Brady. "Julian and I share the same work ethic and commitment to the team concept," Brady says. "It's been great watching him grow as a person, as a player and now as one of the leaders of our team."

Watching the way Brady handled his business, both on and off the field, also pushed Edelman to think about a life outside of football. Leading up to the 2013 season, a mutual friend set up a lunch meeting with Assaf Swissa, the creative director for Superdigital. As Edelman's profile grew, Swissa persuaded him to star in a series of playful -- and surprisingly funny -- YouTube videos in which the wide receiver hosts a fake talk show, shares his favorite smoothie recipes and conducts bumbling mock interviews like he's a slimmed-down Zach Galifianakis. "SmoothieTyme" and "BurgerTyme" soon racked up some 250,000 views each.

"It's fun. You get to show the fans a little bit about you," Edelman says. "It's kind of a way to say, 'Hey, I like Dumb and Dumber too.'"

Edelman's Facebook page has grown to 621,000 followers, Instagram to 465,000 and Twitter to 392,000. A parody of the Growing Pains theme song, "Growing Pats," that was posted to Edelman's YouTube page just before the Super Bowl, has 1.6 million views to date. All of it raises his profile -- and might give him more career options when the NFL is done with him.

"Videos and social posts and cool T-shirt designs, this is the new Rolex watch for athletes," Swissa says. "This is the new cool thing you get to show off."

And so when Edelman threw a surprise 51-yard touchdown pass in the Patriots' AFC divisional playoff win over the Ravens, a pass that helped his team erase a 14-point deficit for the second time, Swissa knew exactly what he needed to do. He left Gillette Stadium around midnight and didn't get back to his house until nearly 1 a.m., but he immediately sat down in front of his computer and started designing a T-shirt with a silhouette of Edelman throwing the touchdown to Amendola. He finished the design around 4 a.m., sent it off to production and got the shirt up for sale on Edelman's website by 10 a.m. Within hours, Swissa says, Patriots fans were flooding the site with orders for the $29.99 shirt.

Back on the field, Edelman had been so focused all these years on surviving in the NFL, he'd forgotten how good it felt to uncork a touchdown pass. As he walked to the sideline, high-fiving Brady, Amendola and the rest of his teammates, he was briefly transported in his mind to the park near his parents' house in Redwood City, throwing footballs with his dad.

Weeks later at the Super Bowl, with under three minutes to play, Edelman ran a perfect route, shook free from Seahawks defensive back Tharold Simon and caught a touchdown from Brady to give the Patriots a 28-24 lead. But there was no time for reflection. When Brady came over to praise him on the sideline, Edelman growled back, "It doesn't mean s--- unless we win."

When New England prevailed, Edelman stood on the platform during the trophy presentation and scanned the crowd until he finally spotted his father, and the two locked eyes. I love you, Edelman messaged in sign language, a gesture they'd often used growing up. Frank signed the same words right back, and Julian began to cry.

Months later, as he pops edamame, Edelman's nostalgic mood has passed. There will come a day, he says, when he'll try to let the unlikeliness of his career sink in. But he's not there yet. If he's learned anything from Frank Edelman and Bill Belichick, it's that every day your job is on the line. His next moment is yet to be earned.

good article on minitron