(Part 2) Top products from r/Patriots

> I know that on offense the QB can either pass it to the receivers downfield (is this the position that Gronk plays?)

Yes and no. Gronk is a Tight End. This is a special position, which typically lines up at the end of the offensive Line. From that spot he can either help block or release downfield for an reception. Or both.
Its different in the sense, that typical receivers, so called Wide Receivers, ar lining up more towards the sideline. They are usually less bulky than TEs, they are mostly faster and more agile. But this really depends what type of routes the team wants them to run.

> or run the ball while the linebackers keep the pocket open

no, linebackers are on the defensive side.
You probably think of the offensive line which consists of 2 tackles, 2 guards and a center...like that:

Left Tackle - Left Guard - Center - Right Guard - Right Tackle

This line's duty is to block any/all rushers the defense sends towards the Quarterback, who receives the snap from the center and then either hands the ball off or steps back behind them and looks for a throw downfield. The line tries to push aways any rushers that want to come around through the ends or up the middle, which should creat an area of 1-4 yards, a bubble of safe space for the QB, thats the pocket.

> but on the defensive end I'm really not sure about the positions and roles. I guess the linebackers are the ones trying to sack (am I using this word right? Haha) the opponent QB while the backs are chasing the receivers (so this is what Hightower does right?).

Think of it as 3 layers.

1st layer: there is the defensive line. Defensive tackles in the middle and defensive ends on both sides. like that:

DE - DT - DT - DE or DE - DT - DE

we call that a 3 man front or a 4 man front, which is just depending on the system or the players a team has. DT are more beefy and DEs are usually a little less beefy but more agile/speedy.
DTs directly collide with the Center and Guards and try to eat up as much space as possible by binding blockers or just penetrate the pocket by beating the matchup - means they try for a sack but pushing the pocket often results into it collpasing, which also means its harder for the QB to escape and/or make a clean throw.
Same applys to DEs with the difference being, they try to get by Tackles on the outside of the line and just flat out trying to sack the QB.

2nd layer: the linebackers
those can have multiple jobs, depending on skillsets. mostly they cover the middle of the field, help closing running lanes or - as you said - are sometimes an additional rusher. Hightower does this very well, as you can put him anywhere behind or outside the defensive line. If the opponent doesnt account for him he has a free rushing line towards the QB for example.

depending on how many Receivers are on the field and how many Players are on the Defensive line there are 2 to 4 LBs on the field. Thats just a scheme thing and, as I said, influenced by what formation the opponent runs.

finally there is the 3rd layer: the defensive backfield
its a little more complex but these are usually 2-4 Cornerbacks and 1-3 Safeties.
The cornerbacks are usually directly assigned to the opponents Wide Receivers, while the safeties usually stay a little more behind and go whereever its needed, clean up lanes and help the Corners by doubleteaming good receivers.

------
This is just a VERY basic overview. Roles shift and alter all the time and so do their duties.

If you are really interested into this I recommend the book "Take your eye off the ball" by Pat Kirwan. Its great for learnign the basics, easy to understand and fairly cheap in most regions.

there is a 2.0 version of it out for a year: link
I cant speak for the differences to version 1.0: link
Just a note though, v1.0 has a spiralbound version with a DVD. I dont know exactly what it contains, but I guess it supports with visualization by showing plays. Might be worth a look.

> Apart from that, player positions like Safety and the part about
> >
> > Belichick purposefully taking a safety because he knew his defense would big-dick the other team's offense are still unclear to me.

dont mix that up, the term Safety has two meanings. Its a player position on the field and also a playevent. When the offense starts on its own 1 yard line and the ballcarrier after the snap gets tackled in the own endzone, thats called a 'Safety' aswell. It results in 2 points für the opponent and you have to kick away the ball next play, aka changes possession.

The intentional safety mentioned above was a tactical genius from Bill Belichick that day.
Trailing the Bronocs 23-24 with around 3 minutes to go in the 4th quarter, Patriots couldnt move the ball out of their own Redzone, 4th down & 10 at the own 1 yard line.
Belichick decided to take an intenional safety, which made the game 23-26 for the Broncos. He gambled that the D would stop the Broncos, resulting in a 3 and out and likely in a better field position for Brady and not much time wasted. The D delivered and Brady had the Ball back with ~2 minutes remaining, driving down the field for a TD, Pats win 30-26.

> Lastly about the part about having to deal with hate...ummmm kind of sorry to break it to you as a Pats fan who has to deal with that, but I live in Southeast Asia where the other Football is super popular, and where the NFL has 0 presence. The worst case scenario would be people judging me for following American Football instead of "real" Football, but even that's really unlikely. So I'm all safe and cushy from sports hatred all the way on the other side of the world haha. The worst thing that could happen to me as a fan would be having to watch games at 3am in the morning over here? And losing another Superbowl of course.

Yeah pretty much the same here in Germany, although the sport gathers some steam and with streaming services growing, access is that much easier. I dont mind the hate though. Nearly everyone here is even less educated on deflategate/spygate so in 99% of the cases I can shut them up within a few minutes or I realize the hate for the sake of it and there is just no point argueing.

I enjoyed it! I had a question though, what mic are you using? I think the audio quality could be GREATLY improved with a condenser mic. Some of the voices sounded tinny and actually kinda hurt my ears because of it. It's not your voice, it's the mic.

A great condenser mic I can wholeheartedly recommend is the Shure SM58 Get that and a mixer, I use the Behringer Q1202USB Mixer. With those you will have FAR superior quality. They're really not that expensive either, I recommend getting the 4 channel mixer in case you ever want to expand with more people. But they do offer cheaper 2 channels. The SM58 mic is amazing quality for the price you pay.

If you fix the audio then I'll listen in every week for sure, also having the good audio will really allow you to compete with bigger podcasters like PFW.

Not everyone agrees with my pedagogy, but I do honestly think the following will help you, not simply in a patriots reddit, where you completely misjudge the person to and with whom you are conversing, but in life; these kinds of messups take their toll, eventually.

http://www.csus.edu/indiv/m/mayesgr/phl4/handouts/phl4contradiction.htm

Check out this too, if you want a more indepth look at logic and grammar; needless to say, it will do you, kksred, a great deal:

https://www.amazon.com/Trivium-Liberal-Logic-Grammar-Rhetoric/dp/0967967503/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1503198807&sr=8-1&keywords=the+trivium

Oh, for sure. I put it up on Amazon if you guys are interested. Thanks!

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KSFTRXY

There are several others that go into other aspects of his career. Going over the same information just a different narrative presentation. An Education of a Coach I enjoyed very much.

New book came out this year Belichick: The Making of the Greatest Football Coach of All Time I'm gonna give that a read soon.

Thanks for listening everyone and thank you for your patience! I'm sorry it was a few hours late. I've been sick the last couple days and that threw a wrench into the editing process.

Thank you /u/bendandrea25 and /u/cocoboco101 for joining /u/fakejakebrowne and I this week, thank you /u/sisig for desigining our new logo, and thank you Erik Frenz for joining us to talk about his new book.

P.S. We added another couple hundred listeners last week, passing 730!

Timestamps

3:02 - Texans @ Patriots
21:48 - Other Divisional Round Games
31:13 - News (McDaniels/Patricia staying, Chargers moving to LA)
34:11 - Interview with Erik Frenz
1:10:41 - Packers @ Falcons Preview
1:13:19 - Steelers @ Patriots Preview

It's like 7 on Amazon and well worth it!

I'm not even a Patriots fan, but this article was fucking gold.

Some background information on Michael Rosenberg.

Before Rosenberg made it to SI he was a sportswriter in Detroit. I should mention here that Detroit is to shitty sportswriters what Kenya is to long distance runners. Most of you probably don't follow Michigan football, but in 2009 Rosenberg, who worked for the Detroit Free Press, didn't like then-Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez. That's fine. He gets paid to have an opinion and since Rodriguez had led the team to a 3-9 record the year before, few others in Ann Arbor liked Rodriguez.

The problem is that Rosenberg used his bully pulpit to tell bald-faced lies in penning an expose about "rules violations" that occurred under Rodriguez at Michigan To hear Rosenberg tell it, Rodrigeuz was running the equivalent of a Third World sweatshop in Ann Arbor. As fellow U-M grad and columnist Jonathan Chait pointed out, it's a pretty shoddy journalistic practice to assign someone with an agenda on a subject to do investigative reporting on that same subject. The meat of the allegations boiled down to Michigan was making their football players practice well and above the weekly time allotment of twenty hours. Horror!

To belabor an obvious point, Division I football players spend well in excess of 20 hours per week working out and training. The coaches may only be officially conducting practice for 20 hours, but if you want to be seeing the field you're lifting weights, studying film etc. at all hours of the week. Still, when it rains it pours and Michigan was just not a good team. The NCAA and the university did their own investigation... and found a half dozen instances where players stretched fifteen minutes past the alloted time while supervised by a graduate assistant. The NCAA slapped Michigan with probation to make it look like it Was Doing Things It Was In Charge of Doing. The notoriety Rosenberg earned from his scoop helped catapult him to his current position at Sports Illstated.

TL;DR - Michael Rosenberg can eat all the bags of all the dicks.

I got the Champions again book signed. http://www.amazon.com/Champions-Again-Story-Patriots-Championship/dp/1940056195

They're actually pretty cheap on Amazon. I'm going to bet that this is from some expensive prismatic glass window though.

https://www.amazon.com/New-England-Patriots-Updated-Illustrated/dp/0760345139

Go big or go home!


But more realisticly check their YouTube channel and their website they do loads of character profiles and introductions etc. Good places to meet the team as it were

The Essential Smart Football
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1470125595?pc_redir=1408853370&robot_redir=1

And Take Your Eye off The Ball are must reads.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1600783910?pc_redir=1408944148&robot_redir=1

Haha, Blount too.

The gunslinger reaches across the couch as he shakes his head. Because he's wrong, he realizes. Parcells wouldn't bash Julian for the arm-reach, even though it was an odd, lame-looking thing. Bill thinks it might even be possible that Parcells might grunt some word of compliment - such a rarity that the player to whom it happened hardly ever knew how to respond; he was left gaping like a fish pulled from cook's barrel.

So Belichick shook /u/jedelman11 's hand.

You mean like X's and O's? Otherwise: https://www.amazon.com/Education-Coach-David-Halberstam/dp/1401301541

It takes you 5 minutes to put on a loose over-vest? I'm not saying change uniform. I'm thinking of those light mesh over-shirts you used to use in gym class to define one team (something like this) that would take maybe 10-15 seconds to throw on and could usually be done on the sidelines (or you can wear around your waist like players who keep towels).

Right now the rules say to switch you have to go report your eligibility status to the referee before every play and then the ref has to announce it to the defense before every play. If you want to go back to your original eligibility status, you have to go out of the game or wait for a clock stoppage/timeout.

That's silly and requires the refs to keep things straight which they've shown they can't be relied on to do this. (Just think of how many times the penalty is announced as one # when it was totally someone else; now imagine that being done on an eligible/ineligible play where the defense was told to block the wrong player by the ref announcing the wrong #).

Paperback is available again

$9.09 on Amazon? Just bought myself a copy.

I'm a keeper, too!

This one, maybe?