Wanted to add a pic I have, article follows after!

YUM:



Just a little article for us Pat's fans. I enjoyed this one...




Boy-next-door grows up, becomes NFL quarterback, wins Super Bowl, captures the nation's heart, remains incredibly wholesome.


What is this, something from Boys' Life? That Rover Boys stuff doesn't get it these days. This is the "me" generation. If you've got it, flaunt it. Self-aggrandizement is in. That type of thing.

And then, charmingly, refreshingly, thankfully, along comes Tom Brady, exemplifying forgotten virtues. Self has no part in his approach to the NFL, the New England Patriots and, at the moment, to the Patriots' game against the Chargers here Sunday.

What Brady had to say about this one after his side's 41-38 overtime escape last week against Kansas City, a third consecutive victory for the Super Bowl champions:

"Last year we didn't start off very well. Coach made a point that we are going to start well this year, and you can't start better than 3-0. You know, the only thing better than 3-0 is 4-0. So that is the goal. The second road trip, and it is going to be warm. You know, we played this team last year and we had to beat them in overtime (29-26). It will be a challenge for us."

How like him. Mature. Professional. Which are words Don Yee, Brady's Los Angeles-based agent, uses when he discusses his client.

The question for Yee had been whether Brady has permitted the attention he has received (gobs of it) since the Patriots' 20-17 conquest of favored St. Louis in Super Bowl XXXVI to change him.

"Not at all," Yee said. "Not a millimeter. I would say that he's just a regular guy – the kind of guy you like to spend time with. He's your typical, normal 25-year-old, but he's got a terrific sense of maturity and professionalism."

Yee, 41, said that since XXXVI, Brady has had countless endorsement opportunities from firms wishing to associate themselves with his spiffy-clean image. "Including internationally," said Yee.

He has accepted very few.

"It's like going to the greatest buffet you've ever seen and taking nothing," Yee said.

If ever a young man has had temptations thrust at him, it would be Brady, young, single, wealthy, princely handsome, a football hero. According to The Boston Globe, total strangers have proposed to him on the street. Teen-age girls drive to his apartment and ask him to be their prom date. One woman, desperate for Brady to notice her, lifted her blouse.

Adulation for Brady is constant. "Overwhelmed?" Brady has said. "I'm overwhelmed all the time – until I get where I'm most comfortable, on the football field."

There, he is what Yee said he sensed Brady could be when the agent watched him play at Michigan. "Everybody is looking for leadership, and he's got it in spades," said Yee, who remembered a game that convinced him to seek to represent the quarterback. Michigan was opposing Alabama in an Orange Bowl that the Wolverines won in overtime.

"He just showed unbelievable composure and poise," Yee said. "You could see the coolness. He threw for 400 yards, or close to that, but after the game he never said anything about himself. It all seemed genuine."

Brady is not a man reluctant to accept challenges. Coming out of Serra High in San Mateo, he was tendered an athletic grant by Cal, where he likely could have started sooner, but he was determined to attend Michigan. In Ann Arbor, he had to alternate with Drew Henson.

For all the publicity Henson received, students of Michigan football remember that when the team needed to make a play to win, Brady generally had the football in his hands.

"I learned from it," Brady has said of his Michigan experience. "When I was in college, I compared myself to other guys. I'd spend all day saying, 'He does this, but I do that better. Why does he get time when I do this?' It was an immature approach to competition."

The Patriots took him in the sixth round of the 2000 draft (as the 199th player named) and decided that as slender as he was, to expose him to NFL defenses would not be wise. Brady threw three passes as a rookie. One was complete. But he persevered. When he rejoined the New England club for his second season, he was stronger, heavier (at 225) and wiser.

His opportunity came after Drew Bledsoe suffered a severe chest injury in Week 3. Brady seized on it. In Super Bowl XXXVI, he was the game's MVP, although his statistics were not stunning: 16-of-27 for 145 yards, with one touchdown. The Rams' Kurt Warner threw for 365 yards (28-for-44), but Warner, his customary accuracy missing, twice was intercepted. Brady and his associates never turned it over.

For being Super Bowl MVP, Brady, then earning the NFL's second-year minimum of $298,000, received a Cadillac Escalade EXT. He had been driving a Dodge truck.

"My team is why I am here; my team is why we won the Super Bowl," Brady said the morning after the game. "I don't want to not think about next year, but I want to think about this one for a little bit."

At this season's beginning, the Patriots still did not have many believers. The Las Vegas odds on them winning XXXVII: 12-1. Six teams were shorter prices. In their first two games they were underdogs, but they handled Pittsburgh 49-21, then the New York Jets 44-7.

Brady's passing accomplishments this season have been solid: 294 yards against the Steelers, 269 against the Jets and 410 against the Chiefs. Brady does not shout them.

"There's one thing that's most important for a quarterback: winning," he said. "A lot of guys can get wrapped up in statistics, but I don't play to throw four touchdown passes in a game. If we run it in four times and win, fine. You don't play team sports for personal gratification. The goal is something bigger than yourself."
[This message was edited Wed Sep 25 12:36:40 PDT 2002 by CarrieLee]

Pat's, who?

He got so little respect that he wasn't even drafted in my fantasy league but I was lucky enough to pick him up (I did draft him in my other league) so I must say that I am rooting for him.

I think the country is finally coming around that the Pats might be for real.

We sucked for so long, it's nice to finally have pride in our team!

Now if those Red Soxs would get their act together we'd be golden!

Celtics did pretty good last season too...

sag10 said:

CarrieLee said:

Do you remember when my Packers beat the Patriots in the 1996 Super Bowl?

lovemachine said:

blah blah blah...

I'm anxious to see how this Sunday's game goes against San Diego...

CarrieLee said:

I'm thinking they will win quite easily. Let's just hope that Tomlinson can score (I ave to root for my fantasy team).

We'll see. They are favoring the Pat's for this game which is usually bad luck for them!!!

....Big fat EDIT!
[This message was edited Wed Sep 25 12:36:56 PDT 2002 by CarrieLee]

that baby is seriously stoned

AaronForever said:

I think it's cute!!! A hairdresser from Foxboro, MA sent this to me. Tom was building a house down the street from her. She's such a gossiper but I love this picture!

AaronForever said:

Gas.

Supernova said:

is that like huffing paint thinner fumes?

AaronForever said:

Looking at that bambino again, it appears so.

AaronForever said:

You guys are mean!!! BTW, that's Tom's nephew!