1.Patriots

* OPENING THOUGHTS

* Other than the hand injury, I’m going to say that most of Gronk’s injuries occur running after the catch. Turn him into a Red Zone specialist where he is just catching the ball

* I’ve said this before – being a wide receiver in the Brady offense is dangerous - Injuries to Edelman, Hogan, Dorsett, Amendola, Gronk and Hawkins would rather go to Columbia than get hurt

* Is Ryan Allen off to a bad start? Gostkowski another missed extra point

* Patriots have lost back to back coin tosses

* How great is Belichick – just watch the Patriots kicking team run onto the field and line up for the end of the half kick – amazing thing everyone was involved – offensive players were spinning their index finger around while they ran off/ McDaniel was waving a towel over his head – amazing.

* BRADY

* Treasure every game with him representing you as your quarterback

* He won two arguments with officials and Romo was reading his mind – first time was the pick/rub at the line of scrimmage that got overturned / second was the too many men on the field (see #9 below for more Romo thoughts)         

* Brady will “love” watching film when Hogan points to where he should have thrown the ball in the end zone

* OFFENSE

* Running back touches – Gillislee 18 / White 10 / Burkhead 5 / Lewis 5 / Devlin 1

* Nice game plan by McDaniel – more creativity and diversity

* Austin Carr is on the Saints but got no play on Sunday – Patriots should offer them a 7^th round draft pick – he knows the system

* DEFENSE

* Former Razorbacks - Wise and Flowers are going to make a nice pair

* McCourty is an amazing tackler

* Chung chasing in coverage

* Gilmore looked confused again on a ball down the right sideline

* Jonathan Jones just seems to make plays

* Ninkovich traveled to New Orleans?

* No Hightower – he is fragile

* KRAFT SIGHING / BILL’S GARB

* Mr. Kraft with 27 seconds left in the second quarter – he didn’t look good, put some weight on and needs a hair cut

* Bill going with the blue windbreaker with short sleeves

* OTHER

* Be prepared to hear this on sports radio some morning – “the Patriots have called for an impromptu press conference – word out of Patriots camp is Rob Gronkowski is retiring.”

* Gronk’s fluorescent underwear waste strap must have distracted the defenders

* It’s painful when a cameraman keeps the camera on a cheerleader for too long – once she goes through the pom poms, the “Go team” and throwing a kiss there isn’t a lot of material left in her routine.

* I have a funny feeling there will be some extra sprints this week after Dwayne Allen jogged off the field and got the team flagged for too many men

* Saints receiver Michael Thomas couldn’t stand on his own after hitting his head and then was cleared to come back in the game

* Gronk will be joining Bobby Orr, Cam Neely and Larry Bird for careers that ended too soon

2. Red Sox

*  Tampa used 19 pitchers in the three game series

* Pedroia played in two games and went 0-12 losing 10 points off his average!

* Red Sox have played 15 games this summer over 4 hours – insane

* Red Sox analyst hit a new low Saturday with Saltlimacchia talking about ghosts that he has seen and telling the viewing not to be scared of them

* Averages since All Star game – Bogaerts .217 / Young .187 / Hanley .206 / Leon 194 (153 point lower than Vazquez)

* If Devers played a whole season – his errors would be pro-rated to a Butch Hobson level 44

* Betts and Benitendi have a high number of 10 combined errors in the outfield

* Here is a bad stat – from the ten Red Sox third basemen this summer they have more than double the errors than home runs 30 to 14 – ugh

* Sale needs 13 k for 300 – has two starts left

3. AROUND THE NFL

* I think the AFC Title comes down to the Steelers backup quarterback

* Jacoby Brissette decent numbers – 20 for 37 / 216 yds     

* From the I miss Tom Brady column - No carries for Blount in Philly

4. AROUND COLLEGE FOOTBALL

* Michigan has 280 plays in its playbook / Ole Miss has 28

* Freaky watching a game played at Cal Berkley – there is an earthquake fault that runs through the football field – so there is a spot behind the end zone they can’t use turf because the shifting plates constantly rips it

* Gary Pettis of California Angels son Dante of Washington ran back his 8^th punt return for a TD Saturday tying Wes Welker’s record

* Best games of the Day – USC 27 – Texas 24 / Memphis 48 – UCLA 45

* Why is a back up kicker wearing Tim Tebow’s number at Florida – can’t believe it wasn’t retired upon graduation

5. BOSTON COLLEGE FOOTBALL

* The worst thing you could say about a coach is that his team quit

* What a message Addazio sent to his team with 18 seconds left in the first half and the ball on the Notre Dame 44-yard line and two time outs and he virtually took a knee – how ironic that the school who threw the most famous Hail Mary pass in college football history doesn’t even trust their team to throw a ball into the end zone – how did the team respond – they were outscored 35-10 in the second half before Notre Dame decided to stop scoring (BC should play big games with a nothing to lose dangerous attacking spirit)

* BC gave up 515 yards rushing (515!) to a team that last week ran for 55 yards on 37 carries

* Defensive end Harold Landry finished last year with 7.5 sacks in four games – could have went into the draft and made millions – came back to play for Addazio and has one sack in three games and his future less green

* BC last eight games against opponents ranked in the top 25 – 0-8

* Has recruited one four-star player  

* Central Michigan is a must win in two weeks – because they play top 15 teams Clemson, Louisville, Florida State and Virginia Tech over the next 6 weeks

* Take a chance and hire a coach that needs a job – Mack Brown (old doesn’t matter), Les Miles, or how about this - hire despicable Art Briles and make him donate his entire contract to Rosies House and put insane restrictions on his tenure and player’s behavior

6. Since 1980 Mt Rushmore – Brady, Bird, Neely, Pedro

7. Amazing Stat - Quarterback Luke Falk of Washington State’s in his last 28 games has thrown 85 TD passes / Boston College last 75 games - has thrown 83 touchdown passes

8. Old School – A stat from MLB Network – Yankees completed their 25^th straight year with a winning record which is fourth behind the Bruins’ 29 straight years 1967-1996 – thank you Bobby Orr

9. Just a Little Bit Outside -  Wow – Tony Romo – his voice wasn’t perfect but his insights were superb and a lot of them:

* Talking about Brady’s flat-footed throwing
* Brandin Cook and Brady not being on the same page and that Brees didn’t fight to keep him
* About Brees trying to add yards to his stats at the end of the game like he used too

* He read Tom’s lips talking to the trainer about Gronk

* Belichick running a certain defensive front to throw off game prep for future teams – really interesting

10. Randomocity

* Ironic David Ortiz is doing a documentary on Ted Williams seeing Ortiz has gone out of his way to say the red seat in the bleachers is fiction

 * What has John Henry done with the Boston Globe – it shows up later and doesn’t have up to date scores or stats – with today’s technology this should be the easiest thing he does over there

* Colin Kapernick - Never seen a quarterback who has won 9 of his last 31 games get so much attention – Tebow fans aren’t as insane

* Great stretch of weather – should rent a cottage in September not August

1.Patriots

* When Brady lost in two openers he came back and won the next games outscoring his opponents 61-17 / 4 TD to 0

* If Hightower can play this week then he shouldn’t have sat the other night

* How many tattoos did Marsh get this week - should get one of toast

* What is the over- under of Patriot fan arrests on Bourbon Street

*Patriots 38-17

2. Red Sox

* David Price has made $454,545 an inning this year

* Pedroia needs two hits for 1,980

* I would say that Hanley’s helmet falling off to hits ratio has to be 5 to 1

* Red Sox on pace to win 92 games
* Sam Travis should start getting bats over Hanley who is under .240 now
* Pedroia 45 strike outs / 45 walks

* Betts 72 strikeouts / 72 walks

3. Players or sports personalities we hated to see leave:

* Danny Ainge

* Terry Francona

* Phil Esposito

* Isaiah Thomas

* Leon Gray

* Michael Haynes

* Carlton Fisk

* In retrospect - Sparky Lyle

* Bill Parcels

* Theo

* In retrospect - Paul Westphal

* Paul Silas

* Andy Moog

* Frank Lahey, Gary Williams, Tom Coughlin, Dr. Tom Davis (and the bounce pass)

4. The attendance for the last five home games of winning streak in Cleveland

Win 18 vs. Baltimore – 21,259

Win 19 vs. Detroit – 18,521

Win 20 vs. Detroit – 24,654

Win 21 vs. Detroit – 29,346

Win 22 vs Royals - 30,874

5. Rick Porcello giving up home runs as compared to a guy whose nickname was - Way Back

* Porcello given up 35 home runs this year or one every 5.1 innings

* Wasdin gave up a home run every 6.2 innings when with the Red Sox

6. First three years David Pastrnak scored 59 goals in 172 games

* Seguin 56 goals in first three years - 203 games

* Kessel 66 goals in first three years - 222 games

7. Amazing Stat - Drew Brees has thrown 466 TD’s to Tom Brady’s 456

8. Old School – Fisk vs. Munson (less at bats for Munson)

Fisk - .269 average / 23.3 at bats per HR / threw out 34% of runners / Rookie of Year

Munson - .292 average / 45.8 at bats per HR / threw out 44% of the runners / Rookie of the Year and MVP

9. Just a Little Bit Outside - Racism sign dropped from the green monster - what signs should have been dropped:

* Players AND manager - Stay off the sideline reporters

* Someone wake up John Henry

* Is the bat boy eligible for social security

* You could buy a 12 pack for the price of one Fenway beer

* How do we get down from here

* Was that from North Korea or is Porcello pitching

10. Randomocity

· Joe Montana crossed the picket line

* Indians are 31-5 since Jay Bruce arrived

· How does Japan know if the North Korean missile had a nuclear warhead. And was there any defense systems in play over there?

* Lynn Swann went to Brady’s high school

* ESPN ranks Al Horford 40th best player and shockingly Jae Crowder 38th (Irving 25 / Hayward 20)