Tony Romo played for the Cowboys for fourteen years. From 2005 to 2016, he was their starting quarterback. He had to retire suddenly because of a back injury. CBS picked him up as a Broadcaster and started him in a lead position, a move that no one else has made and some people think is controversial. In my opinion, it was a great move by CBS. Tony Romo brings something special to broadcasting because he knows football so well from the inside. He also brings excitement and enthusiasm that seems like it also comes from playing the game so long. He feels it in his bones, and you can hear it in the way he covers the games. Many people talk about how good he is at predicting plays, and it is incredible to watch the action happen just the way he says it will. Even more interesting and entertaining is the way he sometimes watches what is going on on the sidelines, the conversations between players, between players and coach, between referees, and he adds his words to their movements and actions. Just the way he predicts the plays, you can usually see that he has gotten the dialogue right. It is hilarious to watch, and it also gives a little bit of inside scoop about what goes on between the people involved in the game.
Dallas Morning News: Sports
Since Tony Romo is a broadcaster and not a writer, his skills don’t translate directly to sports writing, but watching him and thinking about what he brings to the game has influenced some of the things I try to add to writing about football. Bringing enthusiasm to either broadcasting or writing is one of the most important things. Most serious fans are already pretty excited about their team, but I think it makes a difference to try to add to fans’ energy and excitement. In blogs, pictures are a great way to do this. There are so many great photos on the internet, and while it is great to look at them all at once, it is also fun to pick out a few and try to make them connect to the subject you are writing about. I can see that anything I write looks a hundred times better once I have added the photos. They really bring the writing to life in ways that surprise me every time. It is like turning on the lights on the Christmas tree. I might think that I have written an article that isn’t very exciting, but when I add photos, it comes to life. Another way I try to add to the excitement in writing a blog is to try to focus on details instead of being too general. Tony Romo is a master of this, both the way he predicts plays—he is so involved in the game and the details of the game that he is almost playing it—and the way he speaks for the characters on the field. Tony Romo, I think, has a real talent for bringing the game to life, not just because he played it so many years, but also because he has such a good eye for detail. Maybe that is part of what you learn by playing professional football.
NBC
My experience this week showed me how demanding writing for deadlines is. At the beginning of the week, it was easier, but writing an article a day was tiring, and by the end of the week, I was watching the clock a couple of times to make sure I hit the 9 am deadline. Even though that was hard, it was also a little exciting, and it was a relief to find out that I could do it. I hit one of my deadlines at exactly 9:00. That was a little too close…My experience this week, as I said above, showed me how much photos add to writing and what a difference that can make to a blog. Seeing how much the photos changed the articles I had written was really a surprise to me and one that I didn’t expect at all.
I enjoy listening to Tony Romo broadcast a game. I mainly enjoy the things I have described, but I also just like his sense of humor and energy. He is an inspiring model as a sportscaster, a character and a good comedian. It would take a lot of experience to imagine doing anything close to what he does.
The Patriots had a major win last Sunday over the LA Chargers. All of the team was part of this win. Belichick made an unconventional choice after he won the coin toss. The Patriots, surprised by being receivers, dominated the first half of the first quarter and put their team on the scoreboard early. The defense held back the Chargers, and the first half ended with a score of 35-7 for the Patriots. In spite of the Patriots’ final victory at 41-28, the news stories this week have focused on the usual questions: Is Tom Brady at the end of his career? Is the Patriots’ Dynasty over? Even though Gronkowski/Edeleman said on Sunday evening in the post-game interview that the team took a couple of hours off before they went back to work for the next game, many of the post-game interviews showed that the team had gone straight back to work as players talked about the Patriots’ position as underdogs in the upcoming game against the Chiefs. Much of this week has focused, like last week, on the odds of the Patriots losing. The Patriots have made it clear that if they can’t “ignore the noise,” and they will use the noise as motivation, but the bigger question is why is there so much attention to the possible defeat of the Patriots? Is this attention based on analysis of the team and the players’ performance? And are these the best or the only measures of a team’s success? What do we know about how ready the Patriots are for this game and whether they can win?
New York Post
First, let’s look at the Patriot’s offensive game. Quarterback to quarterback the game is very close and has many people already on the edge of their seats. Tom Brady, senior quarterback and age 41, is matched up against Patrick Mahomes, age 23 and an explosive talent. These two are deadlocked, making for a major competition and an exciting game. Brady’s experience, record, his history of wins with the Patriots are pitched directly against Mahomes age and talent, this game seems to have even more importance than a usual AFC championship.
Full Press Coverage
The rest of the Patriots’ offensive team also looks very strong going into this game, but the Chiefs also have a very strong offensive team. James White, Julian Edelman and Rob Gronkowki looked in great form during last week’s play off game, and sports writer, Ryan Spagnoli believes that a strong performance from all three of these players need to be at the top of their game to win on Sunday. There were some worries that Sony Michel, the rookie, would be affected by nerves in his first play off, but he more than rose to the occasion, rushing 129 yards and scoring 3 touchdowns. The challenges for the Patriots offensive line is that, as Spagnoli points out, the Chiefs “have figured out a way to slow New England top offensive weapons a bit in the past, so coming up with a gameplay to get them going early is crucial for the Patriots this Sunday.” The Patriots, in other words, need to do this week exactly what they did last week against the Chargers.
247 Sports
Next, let’s look at the strength of the defense. The Patriots’ defense was weak last season, and they needed to improve their defense to be competitive this year. In the patriots.com website from August, 2018, there are four reasons given to “hope that 2018 is better”: 1. Hightower is back from his injuries. He is a player who can make plays when it really counts. 2. Stephen Gilmore, a talented corner, has been on the team long enough to find his place and be effective 3. The Patriots have added players so that they can improve their pass rush: Adrian Clayborn, Trey Flowers, Dietrich Wise, Jr. and Derek Rivers. 4. The Patriots have increased the depth of their talent. As Kyle Van Noy, linebacker, has said, the Patriots have “some of the best secondary defense in the league. They don’t get noticed enough. “Van Noy identifies some of these players: Devin McCourty, Patrick Chung, and Stephen Gilmore. Overall, the Patriots’ defense team’s performance this fall was mixed, but they did show that they could perform under pressure, especially at the playoff game against the Chargers. At the same time, their defensive team is seen as more balanced than the Chief’s. The Patriots’ defensive team is looking the best it has this year, and that is a good place to be just before this game.
SB Nation
External factors may also play a role in who wins. In this match up, it has been looking like weather could be a major factor because of reports of arctic cold, but as the game day approaches, it looks like temperatures will be more moderate, ranging in the twenties to low thirties. This still could give some advantage to the Patriots since Brady has a win-loss record of 24-4 when the temperature is below 30 degrees. Neither team has a significant advantage based on team injuries. Berry, playing for the Chiefs, has been out with an injury, but he has recently been at practices and is expected to play this weekend. One significant advantage that the Chiefs have over the Patriots is that the game will be played on their home turf. Arrowhead stadium is known to have a major noise advantage for the home team, and the Patriots have a bad track record for away games. In addition, the Patriots had a tough defeat against the Chiefs at Arrowhead in 2014. This game started the first rumors that Brady and the Patriots were deteriorating and that Brady might be thinking of retiring. In his recent post game interview, Brady described the game as “a crappy loss.” The Patriots have also had a weak record at winning games away from Foxborough, and they will have to overcome that to win. One piece of good news here is that the Chiefs, in spite of their home game advantage, have been beaten at Arrowhead–by the Chargers.
Boston
Internal factors like team motivation also affect the Patriots and may be the key to this game. Belichick’s coaching success is based on hiring talented players, creating skillful plays, studying the strengths and weaknesses of opposing teams, and managing and adapting the team that he has. Boston Sports.com reports: “No team in the NFL adapts as well to its needs like the New England Patriots, a matter we’ve come accustomed to over the past 18 years with Belichick.” Belichick also has a powerful calm and focus–that drives many of his opponents crazy, but keeps his team focused and preparing for a win right up to the minute the game starts. He has created a team culture that keeps his ready and able to adapt to whatever they need to do to win. In last week’s game, Gronkowski turned the spotlight over to Michel to carry the ball and worked as a master to block for him. This week, expect the same kind of teamwork as the Patriot’s try to find the way to defeat the Chiefs.
USA Today
Finally, let’s look at how the Patriots are dealing with the unusual position of being the underdog. As a team, the players used the postgame interviews with the Chargers to let everyone know that they have been hearing all the rumors that, as Brady put it, “they suck…and can’t win any games.” As a team, they have turned their new position into a strategy to win against the odds. Edeleman’s “Bet Against Me” t-shirt shows just how strong their determination to shake off their critics is. Everyone knows just how closely these teams are matched. The Patriots are not trying to run from their position as underdogs–they are going to try win from it. The Patriots are going into this game to try to get to another Super Bowl. They have been to eight and won five. If they go to the Super Bowl this year, it would be their third straight and fourth in five years. Not a bad record for underdogs–and they are doing their best to try to beat it.
How long have we been talking about whether Tom Brady is too old? No one ever seems to get tired of this topic, but this year there is a new take on it. There are two aging quarterbacks headed to both the AFC and the NFC Championship games—Tom Brady, age 41, for the Patriots in the AFC, and Drew Brees, age 40, for the Saints in the NFC. And to make things even more complicated, these quarterbacks are “old enough to be the fathers” of the quarterbacks for the opposing teams in each league, Patrick Mahomes, age 23, for the Chiefs in the AFC, and Jared Goff, age 24, of the Rams in the NFC. What this means for Brady and Brees and what this might mean for football in general is one of the hot topics being debated as the Championship games approach.
The Sportsbook Review
Andrew Beatop and Jonathan Clegg of the Wall Street Journal report that the wins of the games this weekend are not just about which teams go to the Super Bowl, and they also “make a statement about the league’s future direction.” These writers don’t believe that what is at stake in these championship games is just about aging or about skill, they think that what is on the table is whether there will be a change of style brought in by younger quarterbacks. According to Beatop and Clegg, this change of style is a huge change for football: “Brady and Brees have ritualistically carved up defenses for years in the most diabolical way, peppering opponents with precise and traditional attacks. Mahomes, the Chiefs’ quarterback, and the Rams’ Goff have invaded the league’s elite by playing completely differently. They star in explosive offenses that renounce the same norms that Brady and Brees mastered en route to Super Bowl wins.” There is definitely a different style between the two older quarterbacks headed for these championships and the younger ones, but will this new style dominate or will the wins be divided between the players that Beatrop and Chegg call “the shockingly nimble fogies” and the “free-wheeling youngsters”? Are these games about age or talent—or even both?
Sporting News
CBS Sports writer Sean Wagner-McGough, like the Wall Street Journal sports writers, see this years’ championship games as not “just a battle between the top-four scoring teams in football. It’ll also be a battle of the old vs. the new.” Wagner-McGough sees the conflict between old and new/young as exciting as the Wall Street Journal writers do, but in a different way. In his opinion, the match is “a doozy.” Wagner-McGough compares the match up between Mahomes and Brady to the match up between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. Anyone who knows anything about Star Wars understands that this sports writer also sees these championship games as epic. His analysis of the NFC match up is focused on statistics, strategy and talent. In his ranking of the four quarterbacks playing this weekend, Wagner-McGough puts Mahomes as the top quarterback, Brady comes in second, Brees is third and Goff is fourth. Even though he does not say so, his ranking of the four quarterbacks who qualified for the championships and his thoughts about each game’s match ups suggest that talent is more important to him than whether age is a factor in these games or the future of football. As he says about Mahomes: “ Mahomes is the best quarterback on the planet right now. He’s so much better than the second-best quarterback on the planet that his lack of postseason experience is rendered completely insignificant. He belongs on top of the list, above two future Hall of Famers, one of whom might be the greatest quarterback of all time. And it’s not particularly close.” There is no shortage of talent among these four quarterbacks, and these games promise to be very exciting! We will see on Sunday what they mean for the teams, individual players and for the NFL.
CBS Boston
As many reporters have said, both the AFC and NFC championships will most likely to be high scoring games .What the scores will look like, who scores and what all of it means is anyone’s guess.
Devin and Jason McCourty are identical twins and NFL defensive backs. Devin McCourty joined the Patriots in 2010. Jason McCourty played with the Tennessee Titans for eight years beginning in 2009, then moved to the Cleveland Browns for one year and was drafted by the Patriots last March. The McCourty twins have been playing together as Patriots since September and will be going to the AFC Championship game together this Sunday. This is the first time that any twins have played for the same team since the 1920’s when the Goldsen twins played together for the Louisville Colonels.
Jerry McCrea/Star-Ledger
At age 31, both Devin and Jason McCourty are experienced players. They both played for Rutgers in college and, according to the New Jersey Monthly, the twins brought national attention to the team by increasing their number of game wins and contributing to their first win at a college bowl in 137 years. In 2009, after college, Jason was drafted as a cornerback by the Tennessee Titans. A year later, Devin was drafted as a cornerback by the Patriots, and in 2013, he became a safety. In addition to their football records, for the past 6 years, the McCourty twins have been advocates for finding a cure for sickle cell disease and have raised over a million dollars for the cause. The twins have also been finalists for the Walton Payton Man of the Year Award, which is given to players based on their excellence on and off the field.
The Boston Herald
The twins’ biggest fan has always been their mother, Phyllis Harrell, who made many personal and financial sacrifices to send her twin sons to a tuition school for high school and has always been the biggest supporter of their academic and football lives. As reported by 247sport.com, Ms. Harrell is thrilled to give up her old jerseys which were divided in the middle with one side a Patriots shirt and the other side a Titan or Brown jersey. This year she is still wearing a split shirt, but this one has two Patriot halves, one blue and one white.
Bonner County Daily Bee
The McCourty twins, being identical, have an identical weight—195 pounds, though Jason’s height is listed as 5’11”, an inch taller than his brother. From birth, it has been a challenge to tell them apart. According to an article from nj.com, when they were born and the nurse brought each one in to see Ms. Harrell, she told them it was the same baby. Telling them apart is still a challenge. NJ.com reports that this challenge makes “even the normally stoic Patriots coach Bill Belichick” smile, and he admits to having trouble telling which one is which: “It’s hard to tell them apart….I’ve got to take a second look. They’re both great workers, have a great understanding of football, they’re very instinctive, good teammates, enjoy having them around—except I have to look a little closer to make sure I am talking to the right one if they are not in uniform.” Meanwhile, at the game, Devin McCourty will be wearing #32, and Jason McCourty will be wearing #30.
Sunday’s game was predicted to be close—some sources had the Patriots winning by 4 points, others had them losing, but no matter who you listened to, the game was expected to be a nail biter. So, what happened? And can the Patriots do it again against the Chiefs next Sunday?
Preparation, coaching, strategy, teamwork and mental toughness seemed to be the mix that led the Patriots to a victory over the Chargers that was even greater than the score of the game showed. As both players and commentators reminded fans over and over again during and after the game, the Patriots had studied the Chargers, watching hours of video footage, and they held extra hours of practice working on plays targeting success against their competition.
Getty Images
Belichick’s coaching, as always, was evident throughout the game. As Ben Volin of the Boston Globe pointed out, Belichick started the game with an unusual move. When the Patriot’s won the coin toss, he did not defer to the Chargers and set the Patriots up to receive the ball and make the drive that got them on the scoreboard, used up half of the first quarter and set the tone that the Patriots were prepared to win.
USA today
Teamwork was also flawless, both in terms of offense and defense. As several commentators have noted, the whole team participated in the victory. More than most games, you did not hear one players name over and over again—instead you heard many players names. Gronkowski was a great example of the kind of teamwork that went into the Patriots’ scoring. Michel scored three out of four of the team’s touchdowns, but it was Gronk’s blocking that helped make way for him to get into the end zone. In the post game interview, Brady talked about Gronk as a team player, “He’s a great blocker. I think that’s something that goes a little under the radar.” Brady also talked about how the team was successful against the Chargers’ strong defense, “We did a good job of keeping them off balance.” In his post-game interview, Belichick summed up how they got the win, “it was a good team win in all three phases…everybody stepped up today.” In his interview, Brady agreed and gave the formula for success against the Chiefs, “You can’t get one dimensional in these types of games. We’re gonna have to be good in all phases—running it, kicking it, throwing it, defense—everything. We have to do it again.”
NBC Sports
The final ingredient in the success on Sunday and one they will need again next Sunday against the first cede in the AFC is mental toughness. In his post game interview, Gronkowski talked about how the team deals with “the noise”: “You gotta ignore the noise…through the week…you gotta ignore it in a way where it doesn’t ruin what you’re trying to do, ruin what you’re trying to accomplish that week. If you can take it in, take it for motivation, that’s great, other than that you can’t let it get you down….We just laugh at it, laugh at whatever they say and just keep moving forward.” In his interview with Tracy Wolfson, Brady also talked about the noise: “I know everyone thinks we suck and can’t win any games…so we’ll see…It’ll be fun.”
Elise Amendola
This week the Patriots were able to put together all the elements they needed to score a huge victory. As Gronkowski said, they took a couple of hours off last night to enjoy the win, and today they are back to work in the same way that they worked last week. Next week, they might also have a little help from the weather with temperatures predicted in the teens. And they have one last thing that Brady mentioned in passing: “I like winning.”
Early in the week, when the playoff matchup between the New England Patriots and the LA Chargers was first announced, there was a lot of attention to the two senior quarterbacks who would be facing off for maybe the last time. As the game gets closer, many writers and football analysts have determined that the key to winning this game may not depend on either of these star quarterbacks.
One of the players who has gotten a lot of attention recently is Melvin Ingram, defensive end for the Chargers and a star in last week’s game between the Chargers and the Ravens. Stephen White is one sports writer who sees Ingram as a key to the Patriots winning the game this Sunday. White argues that while Ingram’s stats might not be as strong as the stats of some other players when you watch him perform, he gets the job done. While White recognizes Joey Bosa, the Chargers’ more stat-friendly defensive end as a major player, he sees Ingram as “the glue” to the Chargers’ defense.
Mike Reiss also sees Ingram as a player for the Pats to keep their eyes on, reminding us that in the game against the Ravens Ingram made seven tackles (two sacks), one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. Reiss also is impressed by Ingram’s speed and the way he can be used on the inside as well as the outside of the field.
Luckily, unlike the Ravens, the Patriots seem to be aware that keeping their eye on Ingram and slowing him down is a key part of what they need to do on Sunday. Belichick has his eye on both Joey Bosa and Ingram. Talking about the two players, Belichick says, “There’s not many teams in the league that have one player like this. They have two.”
Luckily, the Patriots get to learn from the mistakes of the Ravens–they seem to be aware that keeping their eye on Ingram and slowing him down is a key part of what they need to do on Sunday. Belichick has his eye on both Joey Bosa and Ingram. Talking about the two players, Belichick says, “There’s not many teams in the league that have one player like this. They have two.” Coming from Belichick, we ought to pay attention.
Tanya Ray Fox/USA Today
If Belichick is saying that, we Patriots fans may be on the edge of our seats this whole game. Fortunately, Belichick seems to be aware of the situation, and if anybody can help a team navigate some heavy-hitting players, it’s him.
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Pats The Reliable 