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yourdailykitsch · 7 years ago

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Your blog is phenomenal. You are just wonderful and incredibly informative That Interview magazine article just wrecked me, what a truly beautiful and sensitive soul Taylor is. Do you happen to have the entire article? I'd love to know more as I am completely lost and new in the world of fandom. Thank you for your time and all your efforts in promoting and sharing your love of Taylor.

Thanks for the blog love! Always love sharing Taylor information with new fans.

The Interview Magazine article is probably the most he’s ever opened up to date. Sometimes he’s super guarded in interviews and other times he really opens up. It’s interesting

Here is the entire article, it’s long:

When I told a female friend I'd be interviewing Taylor Kitsch, the actor who broke out as the hard-nosed, brooding fullback Tim Riggins for five seasons on NBC's Texas high school football melodrama Friday Night Lights her jaw actually dropped. Kitsch's rugged looks - he's a former model and junior hockey player - and world-weary onscreen demeanor, often have this effect on women; another friend referred to him as a "classic hunk." But the 32-year-old British Columbia native possesses a surprising absence of vanity. Kitsch bought a home in Austin while filming FNL, and still lives there, ducking the Hollywood spotlight as much as possible. When I met up with him in New York, he wore a T-shirt and jeans to a luxury hotel lounge and asked if I was planning to "get some grub." He's remarkably grounded, with a ready laugh and a tendency to pepper his speech with the word fuckin'. The lack of pretense shows in his latest effort, the gritty drama Lone Survivor, which happens to be Kitsch's third collaboration with director Peter Berg (after FNL and the big-budget action pic Battleship, 2012). Based on former Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell's nonfiction book, the film, which co-stars Mark Wahlberg, Eric Bana, Emile Hirsch, Ben Foster, and Alexander Ludwig - depicts a botched 2005 mission in Afghanistan. Kitsch playsLieutenant Michael Murphy, one of four SEALs drastically outnumbered by Taliban forces. The protracted gunfight at the center of the movie is unsparing, graphic, and hyper-realistic, but Lone Survivor surrounds it with moments of unsentimental tenderness among its band of brothers.Lest you think Kitsch is only interested in stoic roles as athletes and soldiers (he was also a Civil War veteran transported to Mars in 2012's John Carter), he's subverting his image with upcoming turns as a gay activist in a TV-movie adaptation of the 1985 Larry Kramer play The Normal Heart, and as a doctor in the Canadian comedy The Grand Seduction. And he recently wrote, directed, and produced a half-hour short about small time criminals, Pieces, which he's planning to adapt into a feature. I sat down with Kitsch to talk about the movie, his time spent sleeping on subways in New York and his car in Los Angeles, and inevitably, how he reacts to his female admirers. (To my awestruck friend, and other aspirants: he's single - but read on for how not to approach him.)TEDDY WAYNE: I didn't really know the story behind Lone Survivor. What, other than Peter Berg's involvement, drew you to it?TAYLOR KITSCH: There's not a day that goes by that you don't think about it, really. [Marcus] Luttrell's become a great friend of mine now, and I was talking to him about it. It's not even the responsibility of just the performance or just the memory of Murph being part of the SEAL community - this is a torch I have for the rest of my life. How often in this gig do we get to have that, and want it? You didn't know of the book or the story, and now you're going to think of my performance when you think of Mike Murphy, and that's an incredible responsibility.WAYNE: How much of that is solely inspired by the real figure and how much of the work is purely fictional?KITSCH: I think so much of it is that it actually happened, that these guys are still out there doing it. When you meet guys who were buds with Murph, guys that fought right next to him, you really do see how much it means to them that the film's done right. You have the opportunity to be like, "Okay, let's see what I'm fucking made of here, let's see what I'm capable of doing," and training to do it.WAYNE: So what was the training?KITSCH: There's a workout called the Murphy that he created when he was in the SEALs. It's, like, a mile run and then a hundred pull-ups, 200 push-ups, 300 sit-ups, then another mile run, with a 40 - to 50-pound weighted vest. Some guy claims to have done it in under 30 minutes. I couldn't get there. I was under 35, which is a fucking insane time. I was in the best shape of my life.WAYNE: How about the weapons training?KITSCH: We went to Albuquerque. We had guys who had fought with Luttrell to teach us the weapons systems. And that's live fire; it's not like standing there and just shooting at a target. They call it bounding, and all these other things these guys do as a team. Murph was the leader of the guys, so he's making the call, and you really do see it kind of seamlessly int he film. When he makes a call of "peel right" or "peel left" or "get on line," it's those things that the SEALs fucking love. We got the technical part of it.WAYNE: Was there any improv?KITSCH: Absolutely. Some of this funnier stuff - when I'm in the hide with Mark [Wahlberg] talking about a girl and a Coldplay concert, that was roughly scripted and we just went with it, and Mark is fucking on it. That guy has endless energy, he's quick. Pete would call cut, and the whole crew would burst out laughing. Or we would even have a bit of a camera shake because the camera guy's dying, you know?WAYNE: You were a junior hockey player in Canada before you injured your knee at age 20. Do you feel like you were on the path to professional hockey?KITSCH: Yeah, at least semi. I was hopefully going to go on a scholarship and turn pro. If I even scratched the lineup, it would've been fourth line, up and down from the minors, but, I mean, a minor career was a dream as well.WAYNE: When that injury happened, was it clearly career ending?KITSCH: In retrospect I think it was career ending. But at the time, it was that denial of, "fuck it, I'm gonna recoup it." But then I recouped it, and my first game back it blew out again.WAYNE: So what were you thinking in terms of life plans?KITSCH: Oh, it's over. I was devastated. It really is close to art simulating life in the sense of what FNL was - if you wreck your knee, that's it, everything is gone. Obviously it's not; it's a blessing in disguise, but at the time I remember my best friend came and took me off the ice and I was a wreck. My mom was in the stands and she was a mess, and then I was in the dressing room and I refused to take my gear off. I just knew the second time I did it - like, buddy, uh-oh.WAYNE: So did you do any acting by that age?KITSCH: I loved it. I always grew up winning all these public-speaking competitions in school.WAYNE: Did you move to New York soon after the injury?KITSCH: Yeah, at 21.WAYNE: I read that you were, at points, homeless and sleeping on subways - is that true?KITSCH: It's true. Only for a couple weeks. It wasn't like I was walking around with a grocery cart. I didn't have a visa; I couldn't get fucking work. I wish I could've waited tables. I was taking classes for free with my acting coach, Sheila Gray - she's been amazing, and so I finally paid her back after the first movie I did - and then I just ran out of money. I was staying at my best friend's place. He sublet a bedroom in a big family house, and I was sleeping on his floor, then I wore that out, and I leased a place up on 181st Street in Washington Heights, pretty fucking sketchy area, and I couldn't get electricity because, one, no money, and two, I had no Social Security. So from that best friend, I would take his girlfriend's blow-up mattress and use candles. And then that wore out, got kicked out of there, and I would go back to my buddy's place, and at midnight or whenever, he wanted to go to bed, I'd be like, "All right, I'm gonna go stay at" - make up somebody's place - or a gal's place or whatever, and then that ran out. [laughs] Quite literally. And then I'd sleep on the subway until 5:30, 6 in the morning, and I'd go to the gym and work out for god knows how long and have a shower and just loiter.WAYNE: And you were also a model at this point?KITSCH: Yeah, but I was completely out of work. Didn't work, really. And I was living in a spot that they give you, and by the time you get a job, you owe them so much back end that you're in debt anyway, so then I left that because that was just stupid to just keep building debt.WAYNE: What was your first big break?KITSCH: While I was homeless, I met my manager through one of the guys at the modeling agency. She's like, "Yeah, I'll take a meeting, whatever," just being nice to him. So I had a meeting, and 10 minutes in, she's like, "Okay, I'll take you on." Then my first reading - still homeless - I got but I couldn't do because I didn't have a fucking visa again. So I stayed and studied more and then I moved away to Barbados to work with my dad and dig ditches, and that was the most time I ever spent with my dad in my life on a one-time basis. I made like, 6K. Then I bought a little - it's called a Firefly or a Chevy Sprint, which is like a 12-inch wheel hatchback car that lives on fumes. It'll go forever, and so I bought that when I got to Vancouver - moved back - moved down to L.A., sublet a room for two months. That money ran out, and then I lived in my car.WAYNE: So you had two homeless stints. And both times you picked the transportation choice of the city you were in - subway in New York, car in L.A.KITSCH: Yeah, that's a good point.WAYNE: You need to be in a seaside place for a while and live a few months in your boat.KITSCH: I know! I was super-angry one day in L.A. - my car's a piece of shit, and then the front window wouldn't go down, and so I'm screaming at the handle, forcing it down, the window shatters, and it's the bigger one, 'cause it's a hatchback. So now I'm fucking homeless and I got a plastic bag with duct tape. So I stayed over at my best friend Josh Pence's place, and I'm like, "I think I'm gonna go home," and his mom overheard it, and she's like "You're not fucking driving 23 hours to Vancouver with a plastic bag," and so I went to the junkyard and got it replaced for, like, $75.WAYNE: I thought she was going to say, "No, you should stay here and fulfill your dreams," but she was just making sure you got a new window.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah! When you're doing it, it's not like, "Oh, man, I'm really paying the price." You just did it. I'd go to Trader Joe's and get a big thing of cottage cheese and brown rice cakes, like, four bucks - that's all I'd eat. And I'm a nutritionist, so I'm like, that's probably the best bang for my buck. I've got protein, carbs..."WAYNE: You start doing the protein-price ratio. Split pea soup is good for that, too.KITSCH: Yeah, garbanzo beans-WAYNE: Tuna fish.KITSCH: Yeah, the cans, that was New York. The Sunkist cans?WAYNE: Starkist, right? But it should be Sunkist - just drinking Sunkist orange soda all day long.KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, have diabetes at 25. So she gave me the money, I got the thing, drove from three in the morning till midnight, straight. Back at home with mom and then my first or second reading was Snakes on a Plane [2006]. Got it. And then The Covenant [2006] and then Friday Night Lights.WAYNE: In the first few episodes of FNL, Riggins seems to be a secondary character.KITSCH: He was. I was told he wasn't gonna last.WAYNE: What happened? People started responding to you?KITSCH: Yeah, I guess. Whatever it was, people clicked to me, and the studio loved him and what we were doing with him.WAYNE: Most of the humor comes from Riggins off-the-cuff moments.KITSCH: Yeah, the dry humor that Riggins has - that's mostly improv. I played hockey my whole life. I was just hanging out with a bunch of pro-hockey players who were good friends. Calling everybody six, seven, two, zero - that's Riggins. Calling that whole apology on the field, all of it was made up on that day of.WAYNE: You mentioned digging ditches with your father was the most time you ever spent one-on-one. You were raised by your mom for the most part?KITSCH: Yeah, for the most part, with my two bros. I'd see my dad every Christmas for the most part growing up, but he left when I was one-ish, and then I'd spend a couple weeks over Christmas with him. I remember going fishing with him; I remember snow-mobiling. I remember him carrying me around on the ice because he played hockey growing up, too. I remember those flashes, and I don't know if it's made up in my head - but I do remember blips, and being super pumped that he's letting me, at 6 years old, rip on the open lake in the snowmobile.WAYNE: Riggins didn't have a father around. Not to get too precious about it, but did that inform the role?KITSCH: Absolutely. I had no doubts when I was going to play it. It just felt super-organic.WAYNE: Do you see your dad more often these days?KITSCH: No, maybe once or twice a year. Not even. I haven't seen him in years. I've stayed in contact via e-mail, but I don't reach out as much as I should, I guess, but I don't have that - this may gut him, but I don't have that...where I'm like "I want to know what's going on," or "Why did you..." My brothers and I talk about it a lot but - and sometimes it's joking, you know, but...I think it's affected them more, especially one of them a bit more, just because he was older - he was 8. And my mom was with an older guy, and he was a super-sensitive man, and he connected more with me than either of my two brothers. So I think I got a lot of that sensitive part that allows me to be that kind of actor through him. My mom and he split up when I was 12, and I wanted to go live with him, and then I would still go spend weekends, neither of my brothers would, but I'd go spend a weekend with him as much as I could. And he was getting older, and I was not conscious of that either, and then my mom told me he'd died not long ago - man, and it was shitty that I couldn't have reconnected before he did, because it had been five, six, seven years from the last time I saw him. And he was just the softest soul.WAYNE: You live in Austin now. What were your thoughts when you first got there for filming FNL?KITSCH: I didn't even know where Austin was. Quite literally, I'm like, "We're going where to shoot this fucking thing?"WAYNE: You thought it was Boston? "Massachusetts Forever."KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Which doesn't have the same kind of tone does it? And Austin was like nothing what it is now. It's, like, the fastest-growing city in the U.S. now. But I bought a place end of second-season, and that's my place now, just a little 1,000-square-foot condo.WAYNE: What's your life like there?KITSCH: I golf a lot. I'm in a men's hockey league. I've made some great friends there. I'm on my motorcycle a lot. Kyle Chandler [of Friday Night Lights] lives there, so whenever we can make time, we'll go on these long rides together. Had a great gal there. Southern belle.WAYNE: "Had," you said?KITSCH: Yeah, it's been tough lately. You never know how it's going to turn out. But I was with her for years.WAYNE: And she was from Austin herself?KITSCH: From Corpus [Christi]WAYNE: How did you meet her?KITSCH: Through my stunt double. He's like, "You gotta meet this gal; she's ridiculous active." She's a yoga instructor now, but she wasn't when we met. But just a super-sporty Southern belle, you know? Great.WAYNE: I don't want to embarrass you, but I told a female friend I was interviewing you, and she was momentarily stunned. I feel like male actors don't often discuss this, but does it ever get almost boring, or do you ever feel objectified if women respond this way? I mean, it's a good problem to have, but is there ever a point where it's like, be careful what you wish for?KITSCH: You're conscious of it. I mean, I'm never going to be like, "Oh, this attention from women sucks." It's flattering 99 percent of the time. After the premiere screening in L.A., there was a young woman, beautiful, mid - to late, twenties, and you're pretty crushed after this movie, it hits you hard, and I was talking to a guy who had served. All of a sudden this girl comes up and she's like, "Hey, I just gotta say this movie was this-and-that, but that fucking scene of you walking down the hall [in which Kitsch is shirtless]..." And then it inevitably went to, "What are you doing later tonight? Can I give you my number?" I kind of took offense to it. That's the one shitty experience out of it, but it's still flattering. Out of every thing in that fucking movie, that's what you took?WAYNE: Is dating a non-actor much more appealing to you?KITSCH: Absolutely. I mean, it's hard because you're all in or I'm all in, and I become super-myopic with work and kind of shut everything else out, and I don't know anything different because that's what's gotten me this far, so I live a pretty unbalanced life. And it's tough because the gal can't really relate in that sense. It doesn't mean she's not supportive, but that part of it wasn't relatable. She didn't understand, "Oh, okay, this guy's gonna be off the grid basically for whatever it is."WAYNE: That'd be tough no matter what.KITSCH: Yeah, it is, but if you're dealing or dating another actress or whatever who goes through that same process, then maybe they might have a bit more acknowledgment of it.WAYNE: But you seem pretty divorced from the Hollywood scene. You're not tabloid fodder that much. How do you safeguard your privacy?KITSCH: Austin helps. No Facebook. If anyone ever thinks I'm on Facebook or Twitter, it's not me, for the record - it's never me.WAYNE: But you are on MySpace right?KITSCH: [laughs] Totally.WAYNE: It sounds like you've preserved your lifestyle pre-acting, pre-fame as much as possible.KITSCH: I try. When I'm in L.A., I'm with one of my best friends, who's an actor coming up, and it's good to have that dialogue. In Austin I don't have that a lot. So that's one of the downfalls of being in Austin, if there is one, that I don't have another couple artists to bounce shit off. It's great to decompress, but it's tough because it goes from a hundred miles an hour living this fucked-up lifestyle to you're in your apartment, dead silence, and you're like, "Oh, what do I do today?" I guess I go for a coffee by myself and just read a couple scripts or something.WAYNE: You're doing a couple different movies this year - The Normal Heart, The Grand Seduction. Far different from Battleship and John Carter. These are more in an indie direction.KITSCH: I was always on that track, from The Bang Bang Club [2011], which is one of my proudest things I've ever done in my life. And that's kind of my personality, too. I'm going to keep swinging for the fences. I'm not going to play another Riggins - that's done. I can go and now try and disappear into Normal Heart. I was just talking to Ryan Murphy about it, the director, who took a fucking leap of faith with me to go and play this, another true story - that's a bigger risk than what John Carter was, because if you don't go in there and nail that role, this could be a fucking career-ender.WAYNE: Do you have any ambitions beyond acting?KITSCH: I wrote and directed a short [Pieces] that Oliver [Stone, who directed 2012's Savages] has seen, that Berg has seen, that [John Carter director Andrew] Stanton has seen, all the producers of John Carter have seen, and I just got two to four million bucks to make it into a feature. So I'm going to hopefully write it in January, February. Pete's mad for it, and Pete will tell you - man, he'll fucking rip it in half - but he's been incredibly supportive, so hopefully, I'll go shoot that in Detroit and Texas.WAYNE: Can you see yourself transitioning at some point to someone who directs, like Peter Berg did?KITSCH: Absolutely. I'd be fucking stupid not to be taking notes from a Stone or a Berg. The way I direct is open. I want to empower you as an actor, and when you're not on track, I'll tell you, but when you are, I want you to fucking just go with it. And so I cast Derek Phillips, who played my brother in Friday Night Lights - he's unrecognizable in the film. And then my best friend in L.A. [Josh Pence], whose mom gave me money for the window, he plays the other guy in the short.WAYNE: Would you ever do an over-the-top comedic role?KITSCH: I'd love to, it's just got to be the right one. When I work, I take it super-seriously, but when you get to know me, man, I'm not - I laugh as much as possible. Growing up, I was that guy at school getting kicked out of class every day to make someone laugh. Voted funniest guy in the school twice.WAYNE: Just twice? What happened the other times - you finished second?KITSCH: [laughs] Yeah, totally! Last. The jokes didn't hit that year. I was off.

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rickhorrow · 6 years ago

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10 To Watch : 22519

10 TO WATCH FOR THE WEEK OF FEBRUARY 25

MAYOR’S EDITION

While Cactus and Grapefruit League games intensify, baseball sees its most significant participation gains since 2014. According to the Wall Street Journal, the number of people who played baseball in the U.S. "surged 21%" from 2014 to 2018, with nearly 15.9 million participants. Most of the gain has come from casual players who play baseball 1-12 times a year. The ranks of those "dabblers grew 53%, or by nearly 2.3 million people" since 2014. The growth of "more frequent baseball players was a modest 5% over four years." However, those numbers are better than in most other amateur sports. Tackle football participation "dropped 3.4% in the past five years," and hockey and soccer saw respective one-year drops of 3.8% and 4.3% in 2018. MLB credits the growth in part to a "program it launched" in 2015, Play Ball, that "holds programs across the nation." Last year, MLB and USA Baseball also "started a program for schools to introduce the game to kindergarten through fourth-grade students in gym classes." Drop offs in other sports are clearly baseball’s gain, and MLB is smart to partner with USA Baseball, Ripken Baseball, and other organizations teaching personal growth and leadership skills alongside baseball fundamentals.

And the Oscar for best ad sales goes to…the Internet. Disney-ABC TV Group's ad sales team confirmed it "sold off the last available unit" for ads during Sunday's Oscars telecast, and thirty-second spots were fetching $2.1-2.2 million, according to AdAge. But the big ad winner this year is digital. Spending on such digital channels as desktop, mobile, search, and social media is expected to pass traditional media formats in the U.S. this year, according to eMarketer, while spending on non-digital TV, radio, print, and billboards is projected to drop. Digital ad revenue was $26.2 billion in the third quarter of 2018, up 22% versus the year prior, according to a report from PwC U.S. It is highly likely that when the Nielsen ratings come in for this year’s Academy Awards telecast they’ll be down from years past – just like every other appointment viewing mega event including the Super Bowl. But it’s a safe assumption that mobile and social numbers for the global event will leap higher than Spike Lee into Samuel Jackson’s arms following his first ever Oscar win.

Investor Kyrie Irving stars in Beyond Meat campaign. Vegan food maker Beyond Meat has already gotten plenty of attention from athletes minding what they put in their finely-tuned bodies. According to Hashtag Sports, Beyond Meat put one of its new investors, Kyrie Irving, in the center of its new paid media push as the company, which has raised $122 million so far, gears up to go public. More and more NBA players are embracing a plant-based lifestyle that increasingly cuts red meat out of the picture. Irving isn't the only athlete interested in the venture; other new investors include a variety of retired and current sports stars including Shaquille O'Neill, Chris Paul, DeAndre Hopkins, Victor Oladipo, Lindsey Vonn, DeAndre Jordan, Harrison Barnes, Shaun White, and Luke Walton. Many athletes have sought to raise their performance by changing their diets. Now, they are literally putting their money where their mouths are as they financially back Beyond Meat.

The NBA ranked No. 3 on Fast Company's 2019 list of the Most Innovative Companies. The magazine noted that in 2018 the NBA "broke attendance records for the fourth straight season," had total revenue increase 25%, and saw its streaming service grow subscribers by 63%. Another reason for the NBA's ranking was the NBA 2K League, the "first extension of pro sports into esports, which has 21 teams and games that stream on Twitch." The NBA last year also "made a deal" with MGM Resorts International, "making it the first pro league to integrate real-time data into a gambling platform and enable the king of in-game micro-betting that keeps viewers watching each and every play." Other organizations with sports ties that were mentioned in the Fast Company rankings include Disney (No. 4), Peloton (No. 14), and Fanatics (No. 40). While the NBA’s competitive expansion has been undertaken by other American sports leagues, the NBA’s international makeup and the success of its many foreign national players have been major factors in its worldwide popularity.

The Raiders "appear to be close to wrapping up a deal to keep the team playing" at Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum this year and "possibly" in 2020. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, an announcement is expected "this week or early next week.” A source said, "It's for one year for sure, with an option for the second year." Under the proposed deal, the Raiders would pay $7.5 million this year, with the rent rising to $10.5 million "if the team stays on" through 2020 in the event that its new $1.8 billion Las Vegas stadium is not ready. Of all the relocation possibilities floated in the last couple of months, from playing in San Francisco to Santa Clara to San Diego, staying put in Oakland is the most sensible plan for the Raiders, and certainly for their fan base there. With the Warriors set to relocate across the Bay to San Francisco next season and the A’s continuing to push for a new bayside ballpark, the Raiders will have more of the hometown spotlight to themselves, which could come in handy if their win-loss record doesn’t improve.

The United States Soccer Federation provisionally sanctioned the National Independent Soccer Association as a professional soccer league, clearing the way for the league to begin play in the fall of 2019. Clubs in Atlanta, Charlotte, New England, and Philadelphia have already announced their efforts to be part of the league, with the rest expected to go public in the coming days. Unlike other American soccer leagues, NISA will play a fall-to-spring season with a winter break, allowing time off during December and January. Upstart offseason pro leagues seem to be all the rage in both football and futbol these days. While NISA has not yet announced a TV carriage deal, the cities on board thus far have proven to be strong soccer markets, which should bode well at least for modest success.

Tom Dundon rescued the Alliance of American Football with a big cash infusion, proving he’s not one of Don Cherry’s “Bunch of Jerks.” The Alliance of American Football has introduced NHL Hurricanes Owner Tom Dundon as the league's new Chairman after his commitment of $250 million last week "enabled the AAF to meet" its financial obligations, according to The Athletic and other sources. Without new investors, there was a "good chance it was going to miss payroll last Friday." Dundon "will continue in his role" with the Hurricanes. About the AAF, one source said, "Without a new, nine-figure investor, nobody is sure what would have happened.” The Hurricanes have also been in the news cycle recently over the comments made by announcer Cherry about their unique victory celebrations, which recently included a limbo line. The team turned Cherry’s “Bunch of Jerks” criticism into a $32 T-shirt that fans have snapped up close to 5,000 so far.

Hulu kicks off its new live sports campaign with some help from basketball athletes. NBA stars Joel Embiid, Damian Lillard, and Giannis Antetokounmpo have signed endorsement deals with over-the-top streaming platform Hulu. Embiid and Lillard activated their deals during the recent NBA All-Star weekend with TV advertising campaigns and social media posts. The campaign is centered on the concept of the players “selling out” to promote Hulu’s live sports content, as accounts for each of the players would have such hashtags as #ad, #paid, #sponsored, #hulupaidme, #neversellout, and #hulusellouts. Although Hulu is best known as an entertainment streaming platform, it also offers live TV on a short-term contract option. According to SportsPro, Hulu also said it added eight million subscribers in 2018 and closed its fiscal year with more than 25 million total subscribers across its subscription on demand and live TV plans in the U.S. The key will be convincing users to shell out big bucks for its live TV service, which comes in at $39.99 per month.

Basketball Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman promotes healthy lifestyles and educational opportunities for young girls and boys at her gala. According to CultureMap Dallas, celebrities such as actor Burton Gilliam, ESPN “Sports Center” anchor Jay Harris, and country singer Imaj mingled with an array of athletes including Deion Sanders, Rick Barry, Ed Belfour, Tim Brown, Homer Bush, and Rick Carlisle among many others on a night when Lieberman presented NBA champion Julius "Dr. J" Erving with a Trailblazer Award, and actor-musician Ice Cube with the Lifetime Achievement Award. All proceeds from the evening go to Nancy Lieberman Charities, which are dedicated to expanding and ensuring that educational and sports opportunities exist for economically disadvantaged youth. Lieberman’s network of charities serves students across the U.S. with basketball camps, clinics, Dream Courts, college scholarships, and school supply programs. It’s a good time for “Lady Magic” to spearhead a gala, as WNBA coverage is on the rise and her storied career and business experience could be crucial for popularizing the women’s league.

Cleveland Browns QB Baker Mayfield raises money for the Special Olympics. The event is a Special Olympics Ohio Cleveland Polar Plunge that raised money for athletes who are petitioning for the full inclusion of people with intellectual disabilities. According to 247 Sports, the February 23 event at Edgewater beach and Mayfield also gave away a pair of signed Bose headphones to one lucky participant. The quarterback had previously announced that he was teaming up with Barstool Sports to benefit the Special Olympics in the greater Cleveland area with a merchandise line featuring flags, sweatshirts, and T-shirts. 100% of net proceeds go towards supporting the Special Olympics. After Mayfield and fiance Emily Wilkinson played Secret Santa during the holidays and the quarterback played in a charity softball game to benefit victims of the fires and shooting in Thousand Oaks, the No.1 pick shows no signs of slowing down his charitable arm.

#10 #10towatch

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dubsism · 5 years ago

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Today’s Movie: The D.I.

Year of Release: 1957

Stars: Jack Webb, Don Dubbins, Jackie Loughery

Director: Jack Webb

This movie is not on my list of essential films.

NOTE: This installment of Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies is being done as part of something called the Send In The Marines Blog-A-Thon being hosted by J-Dub from Dubsism and Gill from RealWeegieMidget Reviews. The premise is simple. Since this event coincides with the anniversary of the founding of the U.S. Marine Corps, this blog-a-thon is dedicated to films or television programs either about the USMC, those in which actual Marines appear, or feature actors who served in the Marine Corps.

The Story:

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Like most of the productions he’s most known for, 1957’s “The D.I.” was produced by Jack Webb’s production company Mark VII Limited. It was also directed by Webb, who just so happens to play the lead role of Technical Sergeant Jim Moore. And like Jack Webb’s “Emergency!” which starred his ex-wife Julie London, “The D.I.” features former Miss USA Jackie Loughery, who Webb would marry in 1958.

“The D.I. ” was the first screenplay by James Lee Barrett; it was adapted from his play “The Murder of a Sand Flea” which was based on his experiences as a Marine recruit on Parris Island in 1950.

Webb’s “Sergeant Moore” is a hard-nosed drill instructor on Parris Island who has a problem recruit named Private Owens (played by Don Dubbins). Moore believes Owens has “the right stuff” to be a Marine. But for reasons Moore can’t fathom, Owens has a bad habit of caving in under pressure. But Moore believes he can drive Owens to pass muster if continues to push him. But the harder Moore pushes, the more Owens fails. As a result, Owens attempts to desert.

A subsequent discussion between Owens, Moore, and the company commander Captain Anderson (played by Lin McCarthy) yields the discovery that Owens had two older brothers who were Marines, and they both were killed in action in Korea. Anderson has had enough of Owens and is ready to discharge him. But then Owens mother (played by Virginia Gregg) makes an announced visit to Parris Island. She tells Sergeant Moore that Owens’ father was also a Marine who was killed in action during the invasion of the Marshall Islands in World War II. She also tells Moore that she made a mistake coddling her only remaining son, and that if he fails to make it as a Marine, it will destroy him. Owens’ mother then begs Moore not to give up on him,. assuring Moore that Owens can take whatever Moore can offer, and to keep driving him.

At this point Captain Anderson changes his mind and tears up Owens’ discharge paper, and the film ends with Owens well on his way to earning his eagle, globe and anchor.

The Hidden Sports Analogy:

When National Football League scouts look for a quarterback, they have particular things in mind. They either want an athletic guy who can extend plays with his ability to evade tacklers, or they want a tall guy with a cannon for an arm. If they find a guy who has both, they will collectively salivate over him. But if you are a quarterback who is neither of those things, you may never get the chance to show what a great football player you really are.

That brings us to the tale of Drew Brees.

If you are a current NFL fan who hasn’t suffered a traumatic brain injury, you know not only is Drew Brees one of the best players in the game today, he’s one the greatest quarterback to ever step on the gridiron. He’s a first-ballot lock for the Hall-of Fame, and he’s re-written the record books for passers; as of this writing nobody has amassed more passing yards in the history of the NFL than Brees. The Dubsism list has him ranked at #5 all-time.

But there was a time when nobody thought he could play in the NFL, because he’s not one of the two things scouts are looking for.

The skepticism over Brees began back in his high school days. Despite the fact he shredded the record books in the hotbed of high-school football known as Texas, the big-time college programs both in and out of Texas weren’t interested in a short, slow quarterback who didn’t have the “big arm.”

But there was one football coach who believed in Drew Brees. His name was Joe Tiller, and he was the head coach at the University of Wyoming. To be honest, Brees wasn’t exactly thrilled about trading in football-crazy Texas for Laramie, Wyoming, a cow-town 7200 feet up in the Rocky Mountains, but Tiller was the only coach interested in him. But then fate stepped in when Joe Tiller became the head coach at Purdue University.

That meant instead of being in the backwaters of college football, Brees had a shot to ply his wares in the heart of Big Ten country. Granted, the Purdue Boilermakers weren’t very good at the time, but being in the Big Ten still meant the biggest stages and brightest lights college football has to offer. Together, Tiller and Brees put Purdue football back on the map, taking the Boilermakers to their first Rose Bowl in over 30 years in 2001.

Later that same year, NFL teams were still skeptical of Brees when Draft Day rolled around. Despite his stellar career at Purdue and having just finished third in that season’s Heisman trophy voting, every NFL team passed on him in the first round. Brees was selected with the 1st pick of the second round by the San Diego Chargers. In contrast, the two guys who finished ahead of Brees in the Heisman voting, quarterback Chris Weinke of Florida State and Josh Heupel of Oklahoma weren’t selected until the 4th and 6th rounds respectively. Weinke won two NFL games in his career, with 17 straight losses in between them, and Heupel never played a single down in an NFL regular-season game.

However, Brees struggled in his first three seasons with the Chargers. He threw only 29 touchdown passes against 31 interceptions and notching a 10-17 record as a starting quarterback. Brees was so bad the Chargers drafted a quarterback with the 1st overall pick in the 2004 Draft. Brees hung on to the starting job for two more seasons in San Diego, all the while with young gun Philip rivers waiting on the sideline.

All bets were off when Brees injured his throwing his throwing shoulder late in 2005. The Chargers wasted no time handing the ball to Philip Rivers, and made it known Brees’ contract would not be renewed. That meant the quarterback nobody wanted was now without a job, and to make matters worse, he now had an injury which only added to the questions about him. Originally, only the Miami Dolphins showed any interest, but ultimately they did not offer him a contract.

But in another intervention of fate, the New Orleans Saints hired Sean Payton as their new head coach; he was previously the Dallas Cowboys’ offensive co-coordinator. Payton himself was also an ex-quarterback nobody wanted, having been in the Arena Football League, who then sold his rights to the Ottawa Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League. But most notably, Payton was the replacement quarterback of the Chicago Bears during the player’s strike in 1987.

In any event, Payton was not a believer in Aaron Brooks, the quarterback he inherited. Instead, Payton was the driving force behind the Saints locking up Brees with a six-year, $60 million contract. At the time, that was considered to be a huge gamble, but it has clearly paid off. Just look at the list of Brees’ accomplishments since then:

Super Bowl Champion (XLIV)

Super Bowl MVP (XLIV)

First-team All-Pro (2006)

Second-team All-Pro (2008, 2009, 2011, 2018)

NFL Offensive Player of the Year (2008, 2011)

Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year (2010)

Associated Press Male Athlete of the Year (2010)

Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year (2006)

NFL passing yards leader (2006, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2014–2016)

NFL passing touchdowns leader (2008, 2009, 2011, 2012)

If that weren’t enough, Brees holds several NFL records:

Most career passing yards

Most career pass completions

Highest career pass completion percentage

Highest single-season completion percentage

Most consecutive games with a touchdown pass

Most pass completions in a season

Most 5,000 yard passing seasons

Most touchdown passes in a single game (tied)

Now, one might think that a guy who has reached the top of the mountain like Brees has would be happy just to enjoy the spoils of success. That would not be the case. In fact one of the reasons Brees was featured in this installment of Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies is he has been known to hang out and train with the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Djibouti.

The Moral of The Story:

Another post in this Marine blog-a-thon featured a moral about people really don’t know what they have inside of them until somebody drags it out. But for that to happen, the “dragger” has to believe in the “draggee.”

Check out Dubsism’s Movies and Blog-A-Thons page for a full schedule of projects past, present, and future!

Got a question, comment, or just want to yell at us? Hit us up at [email protected], @Dubsism on Twitter, or on our Pinterest, Tumblr, Instagram, Snapchat or Facebook pages, and be sure to bookmark Dubsism.com so you don’t miss anything from the most interesting independent sports blog on the web.

Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies – Volume 60 “The D.I.” Today's Movie: The D.I. Year of Release: 1957 Stars: Jack Webb, Don Dubbins, Jackie Loughery Director: Jack Webb…

#Blog-A-Thon #Classic Movies #College Football #Drew Brees #Joe Tiller #Purdue #Sean Payton #Sports Analogies Hidden In Classic Movies

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itsjaybullme · 7 years ago

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'Designated Survivor' Actor LaMonica Garrett Goes from High School Football Player to Hollywood Star

Per Bernal / M+F Magazine

The first time LaMonica Garrett Discovered the secret to persevering in a competitive field, he was a high school football player with more of an attitude than a work ethic. His family had moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles not long before, and he’d transferred with one of his friends to a high school where he thought his athleticism would earn him more visibility. Instead, his friend got pulled up to the varsity, and Garrett got held back on the JV team.

“It was everybody else’s fault,” he says. “I came in with an ego that I had to check. I wasn’t working hard. I thought my name alone would bring me in.”

Few actors working in Hollywood today have a first name as mellifluous as Garrett’s—his parents were fans of former Oakland Raiders quarterback Daryle Lamonica, and Garrett hopes to someday continue the tradition by naming a son after his childhood hero, 49ers quarter-back Joe Montana. But it’s also true that few successful actors have worked as hard, both in workouts and in auditions, to succeed as Garrett has. At age 42, after spending years sculpting his body and starring at a made-for-TV basketball hybrid called Slamball, after working in short films and taking on small roles in TV series and films, Garrett finally caught his biggest break.

[RELATED1]

He plays badass good-guy secret service agent Mike Ritter in the hit ABC show Designated Survivor, starring alongside Kiefer Sutherland. And he attributes much of his success to that high school wake-up call, which taught him both humility and accountability—and drove him into the gym.

Garrett’s dad was a semi-pro football player in Chicago. Since Garrett grew up near the 49ers’ former home, Candlestick Park, he has long been drawn to the sport. After he failed to make the varsity at Burbank High School, he started pushing himself in the weight room, building the titanic abs he’s now known for and becoming a standout player on offense. He went to a Los Angeles junior college for a year, where the only spot open was at linebacker, so he hit the gym even harder, bulking up to play the position. And after transferring to NAIA powerhouse Central State in Ohio, Garrett worked out so much that the team’s strength and conditioning coach gave him his own key to the weight room.

“I got there, and the guy in front of me [on the depth chart] was a stud, but I just kept my mouth shut and worked. He got hurt the first game of the year, and I led the team in tackles,” he says. “That’s been my whole life. I’m not going to be outworked. And I’m not going to stop until I get it right.”

Garrett put on 20 or 30 pounds at Central State, grew a few inches, and started thinking about the NFL—his teammate Hugh Douglas had been drafted by the New York Jets in 1995, so Garrett figured pro football was worth a shot. He had a great Pro Day in front of scouts and coaches—“I still remember my numbers: 37-inch vertical leap,” he says—and had a couple of workouts with the Lions and Rams, but it didn’t pan out. Yet Garrett wasn’t done chasing after long-shot dreams: He’d always been interested in acting once his football career was over, so he moved to Los Angeles and told himself he’d keep after it until he succeeded. If actors like Samuel L. Jackson and Hugh Jackman could persevere for years before making it, so could he. “This is it,” he said to himself. “I don’t have a Plan B.”

He took a job driving a FedEx truck to pay for his acting classes, delivering packages to Clint Eastwood’s production company and to the Warner Bros. lot. He observed on the set as shows like ER and Friends were being filmed and thought to himself, “How can I angle to do this?” But he kept coming back to what he’d learned in high school, even as friends (like Isaiah Mustafa, another former football player, best known as the Old Spice guy) began to succeed first: There is no angle except hard work.

[RELATED2]

He started playing slamball, a hyper-adrenalized basketball hybrid involving trampolines and forceful dunks, and eventually became the league’s leading scorer. It was an outlet for his athleticism, a reason to stay in shape, but acting was still his driving force. When the TV show One Tree Hill decided to film a slamball-related story line, Garrett begged for an audition. He nailed it, got the part, and landed an agent, and then smaller roles in shows like NCIS and Mike & Molly led to bigger roles in shows like Sons of Anarchy, which led to the Designated Survivor audition.

“We needed someone who could throw Jack Bauer into a car, you know?” says David Guggenheim, the creator of Designated Survivor (which will begin its second season this fall). “But there’s also an emotional core goodness to LaMonica—he’s a protector in this role, so you sort of want that. And I think it’s always great when you get someone who’s clearly been working their ass off and understands some of the struggles, so they appreciate what they’ve got.”

Even now, Garrett isn’t above owning up to his failures. Ask him about one of the terrible auditions he survived amid his ascent, and he has to go back only three or four years to a time he was up for a high-profile role, saw a bunch of recognizable actors in the waiting room, and choked. “I’m like, ‘Man, how am I even here?’ ” he says. “I just forgot everything I studied. I just kept blacking out on the lines. I tried it once more, blacked out again, and then the next time I blacked out I just said, ‘Hey, guys, I’m sorry for wasting your time,’ and walked out of there.”

But Garrett had learned long ago how to move on from a bad day, and how to endure in the fickle worlds of both sports and Hollywood. His remedy remains the same as it’s been since high school: He hits the gym, another one of those places where there are no angles beyond hard work.

“To me, working out, yoga—it’s my therapy,” he says. “That’s how I wake up in the morning and keep myself grounded.”

from Bodybuilding Feed http://www.muscleandfitness.com/athletes-celebrities/interviews/designated-survivor-actor-lamonica-garrett-goes-high-school-football via http://www.rssmix.com/

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cover32-yahoopartner-blog · 7 years ago

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New England Patriots vs Houston Texans: Five Key Matchups to Watch

Each week the game comes down to the match-ups. These are the top 5 matchups that will determine which team emerges victorious on SUNDAY AFTERNOON

The New England Patriots are coming off a strong bounce-back game against the New Orleans Saints. The Patriots went on the road and defeated the Saints 36 to 20 in the Superdome.

The New England Patriots opened the 2017 NFL season being soundly defeated on the opening Thursday night at Gillette Stadium against the Kansas City Chiefs. They began the defense of their Super Bowl 51 Championship with a 42-27 loss to Kansas City. After being burned by the big plays against the Chiefs, the Patriots did a solid job on defense of slowing the explosive New Orleans offense.

New England returns home to Foxboro to face the Houston Texans. The Texans and the Patriots spent two days conducting joint practice sessions at the Texans summer training camp facility this summer–something that rarely happens with teams who face each other during the regular season. In addition, the Patriots and Texans faced off in week two of the preseason.

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The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS and locally on Boston’s WBZ-TV Channel 4. Ian Eagle will be on play-by-play duties with former Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts as the color analyst. On the radio, Westwood One Sports will carry the game nationally with John Sadak and former Patriots’ defensive coordinator Al Groh calling the game.

Locally, the Patriots’ flagship station 98.5 FM The Sports Hub will carry the game on the Patriots Radio Network. The game is on the radio on 40 stations throughout the nation and will feature broadcasters Bob Socci and local media member and former Patriots backup quarterback Scott Zolak.

Now that you know how to watch and listen to the game, here are the five key match-ups to watch on Thursday that will determine if the Patriots continue their winning ways against the Texans or if the visitors will pull off the upset on the road.

NE RT Marcus Cannon/Cameron Fleming vs HOU Edge Jadeveon Clowney/Benardrick McKinney/Whitney Mercilus

The Houston Texans defense can bring the pass rush. Even without J.J. Watt last season in the divisional round of the playoffs, the Texans got after quarterback Tom Brady. Brady may have been only sacked twice in that game, but Whitney Mercilus, Benardrick McKinney, and Jadeveon Clowney brought the heat all game long as the pass rush forced Brady into throwing two (and what should have been three) uncharacteristic interceptions.

The Patriots got to see the Texans pass rush up close again this summer. Especially with a banged-up secondary, Houston has no choice but to try and get pressure to force the offense into turnovers.

The Texans will have a bit of an advantage as New England has injuries affecting the right tackle position. Last year right tackle Marcus Cannon blossomed into a second-team All-Pro, allowing just one sack for the entire regular season. Last week he was clearly hobbled by an ankle injury suffered at the end of week 1 against Kansas City.

Cannon is not only dealing with the ankle injury but is also in the concussion protocol. This means that there is a very good chance that he may be inactive on Sunday. As the best pass-blocker on the New England offense of line, the loss of Cannon could have a huge effect on the outcome of the game.

If he cannot play, his snaps will be taken by backup tackle Cameron Fleming. Fleming is not a starter for a reason–he is huge but lacks quickness. He is a solid stop-gap, but will not hold up against the pass rushers Houston can line-up opposite him. The Patriots will likely keep veteran tight end Dwayne Allen in to help on the right side in pass blocking.

Clowney and Mercilus have both been held sackless this season and will be looking to end that skid. McKinney has two of the three sacks for the Texans this season after having just five last season (all statistics from Pro-Football-Reference.com unless otherwise noted). McKinney has improved as a pass rusher and is in position to pick-up some sacks with so much attention spent on the rest of the pass rushers.

Regardless where the Texans line-up their pass-rushing linebackers, they will be targeting either a wounded Marcus Cannon or a potentially overmatched Cameron Fleming. For the Patriots, this is a difficult match-up and they will need to win a bunch of one-on-one battles to keep the offense humming.

NE WR Brandin Cooks vs HOU CB Johnathan Joseph

Another key for the New England offense is getting one of their few healthy wide receivers active in the offense. Brandin Cooks has had a pair of big plays in the first two games of the season. However, the explosive wide receiver has only five receptions for 125 yards through two games and has yet to find the end zone. Cooks is too talented to be held in check for the entire season.

Just like New England did with Deion Branch in their offense, Cooks is a dangerous weapon in all three levels of the passing game. He can work underneath in a horizontal attack as he showed in week one with his 15-yard reception against Kansas City where he turned a five-yard crossing route into a first down.

The intermediate routes working outside the numbers were bread-and-butter for Branch in this offense. Brady has been effective with those routes since then with Randy Moss, Brandon Lloyd, Kenbrell Thompkins, Brandon LaFell, and Malcolm Mitchell last season. There have been instances where Cooks is open on these routes on game tape, but Brady has been looking to the other side of the field.

Cooks has made some big plays in the deep passing game, most notably his 54-yard catch in week one. Against the Saints, he was open deep in the middle of the field and should have had a touchdown but Cameron Jordan got to Brady and disrupted the pass. Even so, it was a nice adjustment and catch by Cooks and New England scored a play later.

Last season Houston was able to stay close in the Divisional round of the NFL Playoffs by being able to lock-up the Patriots’ wide receivers in single coverage while stunting their pass rushers and flooding the middle of the field. Houston lost A.J. Bouye in free agency. Their 2015 first-round draft pick Kevin Johnson is likely out for the rest of the first half of the season with a knee injury and won’t play on Sunday.

Further depleting their depth at cornerback, starter Johnathan Joseph was banged-up against Cincinnati leaving the game with a shoulder injury. He is expected to play but not be at 100 percent. That leaves Houston with veteran slot cornerback Kareem Jackson and special teams player Marcus Burley.

With Danny Amendola likely to return, Jackson will be focused on the slot receiver meaning Houston will have to match Cooks up with Joseph or Burley. With the lack of depth at cornerback, Houston will likely be forced to play more zone than they would prefer and keep their safeties over-the-top to defend deep shots down the field with Cooks and Chris Hogan.

With Johnson and Joseph healthy, the Texans could carry out their man-zone scheme from last year even with Bouye gone. Without Johnson and Joseph at 100 percent, it will be difficult for Houston to stop the New England passing attack the same way. As Cooks develops chemistry with Brady, he will become a bigger and bigger part of the offense.

With the injuries at cornerback for Houston, this is a great match-up for Brandin Cooks to have his first big game for the Patriots.

NE RG Shaq Mason vs HOU DE JJ Watt

Last season the Texans gave the Patriots a tough game in the Divisional Playoffs with the score just 17 to 13 at halftime. This time, Houston has the electric DeShaun Watson at quarterback instead of Brock Osweiler. In addition to having a healthy JJ Watt in their lineup. Watt is a disruptive force on the defensive line and New England will have their hands full trying to slow him down.

The Patriots faced Watt in week three in his last game before going on injured reserve and it was clear he was not even close to 100 percent healthy. He went on injured reserve after that game and New England dodged the Watt bullet twice that season facing him hampered and then out in the playoffs.

New England has always paid special attention to blocking Watt with extra blockers finding him to keep him off of Tom Brady. Watt has just a half-sack against the Patriots in his career and that is due to diligent planning and strong execution by the interior offensive linemen.

With Watt back (and just a finger injury potentially slowing him a pinch), he will likely see a lot of New England right guard Shaq Mason. Although Houston moves all of their pass rushers inside and outside, Mason will be tasked with taking on the big, strong and uniquely athletic defensive end.

Mason has been enjoying his best season through two games holding up in the passing game and using his quick feet to spring the running backs in the running game. Mason has been the most consistent blocker this season as he finally is growing into his potential he showed coming out of Georgia Tech.

This week is a huge test for Mason and the entire New England offensive line. If they can’t slow JJ Watt and give Brady time to throw it could be the biggest deciding factor of the game.

NE CB Stephon Gilmore vs HOU WR DeAndre Hopkins

The New England Patriots paid a premium to bring in cornerback Stephon Gilmore from the Buffalo Bills this offseason in free agency. Gilmore was signed to a five-year $65 million contract to step in as the top cornerback and fill the role of the aggressive, man-to-man lockdown corner that the team has been trying to fill since Aqib Talib went to Denver in free agency.

While Malcolm Butler has played well as a starter the past two seasons in New England, he does not have the length and strength to go along with the high-end quickness and speed that Gilmore brings. Like Talib–and Ty Law at the beginning the New England Dynasty–Gilmore can match up with the bigger wide receivers in the league who are becoming the norm.

This week the Patriots face a Houston team with a rookie quarterback in Deshaun Watson and a dynamic wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins. Gilmore was brought in to cover the big number one receivers like the six-foot-one and 215 pound Hopkins. Gilmore played very well against the Saints big duo of wide receivers last week and showed improvement over his premier performance against Kansas City.

Hopkins is not only the top target in Houston–he is the only one. The Texans quarterback threw 60 passes in the first two weeks and 29 of them were sent Hopkins’ way. There is no wonder why: 2016 first-round draft pick Will Fuller is out injured, Braxton Miller is still learning the position as a college quarterback, and Jaelen Strong was surprisingly released and claimed by the Jaguars, and Bruce Ellington is returning from concussion protocol and based on his career may have been a better point guard at South Carolina than wide receiver.

New England will mix-and-match coverages as usual on defense but expect to see Gilmore on Hopkins and Braxton Miller matched-up against Malcolm Butler. Eric Rowe has a sore groin and is questionable so it may be more Jonathan Jones at cornerback this week after his strong showing last week in New Orleans. Jones is a special teams ace who showed he has improved his technique and held off some good, young cornerbacks the past two seasons. His sub-4.4 speed should allow him to negate Ellington in coverage.

Gilmore could give up five or six catches to Hopkins and still have a strong game–Hopkins is simply that good. He will make a number of catches, and some of them will be downright filthy. He is a polished technician with great hands and–as he showed with the inaccurate Brock Osweiler last season–he can snatch passes out of the air even outside the normal catch radius.

Gilmore does not need to shut out Hopkins, just slow him down and make a few plays on third down. Hopkins will make some plays, but as long as Gilmore makes a few plays as well the Patriots should be able to slow the Houston offense.

NE RB James White vs HOU LB Zach Cunningham

Patriots running back James White has been an integral part of the offense. Despite just 49 yards rushing, he leads the New England running backs with 11 receptions for 115 yards in two games. White had a strong game last week against the Saints catching passes out of the backfield and converting first downs.

After Super Bowl 51, White is no longer sneaking up on opposing teams. Along with quarterback Tom Brady and tight end Rob Gronkowski, White is a premier contributor on the New England offense. With fellow running back Rex Burkhead injured and unlikely to play on Sunday, white may have an even larger role in the game.

Last year White racked up 60 receptions for 551 yards and five touchdowns. The 5-foot-9 205-pound running back saved his best performance for last as he scored three touchdowns in the Super Bowl. He set a new record with 14 receptions good for 110 yards and a touchdown, rushed six times for 29 yards and added two more touchdowns and a two-point conversion. White set a scoring record in the Super Bowl scoring 20 points in the game.

The Houston Texans spent a second-round draft pick this past season on linebacker Zach Cunningham. Cunningham is not as large as a traditional inside linebacker, but he is representative of the new style of linebackers coming out of college.

Cunningham comes into the NFL with excellent athleticism, first-step explosion, and advanced coverage skills. With linebacker Brian Cushing suspended, the Texans will be leaning on Cunningham more than they had planned.

Cunningham had a strong game in coverage against Cincinnati last week. Dangerous Cincinnati running back Giovani Bernard was held to just two receptions for 16 yards. The strong play of Cunningham in pass coverage contributed to holding the Cincinnati offense to just nine points.

With the ferocious pass rush of the Texans defensive line, One way New England will look to slow that pass rush is by slipping the running backs out into space to catch the ball and make plays. If New England can get James White and Dion Lewis involved in the passing game, it could be a long day for the Texans defense.

– Hal Bent is a Staff Writer for cover32/Patriots and covers the New England Patriots. Like and follow on Follow @halbent01 Follow @cover32_NE and Facebook.

#_lmsid:a0Vd000000DIJnLEAX #_uuid:c5563114-4142-3770-9ad4-025651c31a45 #_revsp:cover32_362 #_author:Hal Bent

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footballleague0 · 7 years ago

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Andrew Sendejo: Watching Like a Hawk

Andrew Sendejo’s locker at Winter Park is guarded by a large hawk statue.

The Vikings safety enjoyed the Christmas gift he received last year from former teammate Audie Cole so much that the former Rice Owl left it facing out a few feet from his locker.

“He watches over everything,” Sendejo says with a laugh. “Sometimes we’ll put different outfits on him and dress him up. Sometimes he’s just there. Nobody really knows what he does when we leave.”

The hawk has stood watch for 11 months but remained somewhat of a mystery until Sendejo recently explained its origin and role in the locker room.

Teammates often make jokes about names of the hawk, adding levity to the few quick breaks between meetings, workouts, practices and recovery sessions.

After quickly downing a cup of high-protein chocolate milk — “one of the best natural recovery drinks you can get” — Sendejo explains there are names like Ethan (a nod to the actor) and Tony (in homage to the skateboarder), as well as Stephen Hawking (in reference to the physicist).

The personal favorite of this writer is Ed “Hawkuli” because of the tie-in with NFL referee (and attorney) Ed Hochuli, whose buff arms are on par with the “sun’s-out” readiness of Sendejo’s.

A poster of Terence Newman running out of the tunnel is propped up against the back of Sendejo’s locker, mostly hidden by shirts on hangers.

There are a couple of Hot Wheels cars that defensive backs coach Jerry Gray began distributing to Vikings DBs in 2015 for jobs well done.

Sendejo has locker nameplates of former teammates Jamarca Sanford and Mistral Raymond, who remain in a group text with Sendejo and Harrison Smith.

One more name is prominently plastered in Sendejo’s locker, that of former quarterback Shaun Hill, whose second stint in Minnesota included the past two seasons. Hill signed different versions of his autograph, approximating how his signature changed over time, on a large collage of headshots from different seasons.

The artifact collection has clearly grown over the years, as has Sendejo’s hair, beard, role on the defense and level of confidence.

The items are mementos of a journey that began professionally in 2010 with former Vikings Head Coach Dennis Green’s Sacramento Mountain Lions and the Dallas Cowboys as an undrafted free agent. Sendejo bounced from Dallas to the New York Jets before being signed by Minnesota late in 2011.

Sendejo was a special teams ace in 2012, ’13 and ’14, swooping his way through opponents’ return teams and totaling 37 special teams tackles in 45 games. He started 10 games in 2013, cracking the opening lineup for the first time when the Vikings played the Steelers in London.

He returned to a reserve role to start the 2014 season, the first under Vikings Head Coach Mike Zimmer, but stepped in for Smith in Week 14. Sendejo forced a fumble by Chris Ivory near the goal line.

Sendejo started the final three games that season and all games he’s played since, recording 188 tackles (coaches’ tally), three interceptions and 11 passes defended.

The tackles include an important stop in Week 1 of this season when he denied Saints receiver Ted Ginn, Jr., from the end zone during a jet sweep from the Minnesota 9-yard line. The drive stalled, and New Orleans had to settle for a field goal.

Gray, who arrived in 2014 as a member of Mike Zimmer’s staff, said confidence is where Sendejo’s game has grown the most.

“I knew he was tough,” Gray said. “I knew he was smart when we watched him on special teams, but then we got a chance to play defense … you’ve seen his confidence grow, ‘Hey, look, I’m a starter, and I deserve to be here, and I’m going to keep proving myself that I deserve to be here.’ ”

Gray, a first-round pick in 1985 who made four Pro Bowls with the Rams and also played for the Oilers and Buccaneers, said he’s learned every new player to the NFL starts with a blank sheet of paper.

“When you come in this league, you can be drafted in the first round, but your résumé looks just like a free agent,” Gray said. “There’s nothing here. It’s up to you to build where you’re going to go.

“Basically what he’s shown me is that he’s willing to work and persevere to be one of the guys. He took the hard route,” Gray added. “He didn’t get drafted, he had to work on special teams, [on different teams], and all of a sudden he’s here in Minnesota. I think he’s maybe been here five or six years, and you see a guy that his path just keeps getting better and better and better, and that means that he’s working. He’s never thinking that, ‘I’m just good enough.’ He’s always working to get better.”

Sendejo has earned the trust of teammates and coaches but considers it an ongoing process.

In-season off days that once included some dabbling with the guitar or piano — he taught himself to play both by ear — have turned the page to early prep work for the next opponent.

“If you have any downtime, you’ve usually got to take advantage of it to look over stuff and kind of get ready for the next week, Sendejo said. “If you go into the week already ahead of schedule, you know the things you need to look at, you’re just one step ahead.

“It kind of takes a couple of times looking at things before it’s engrained,” Sendejo continued. “You don’t want to walk in here on Wednesday and see something for the first time. You want to have already watched it on Monday or Tuesday, and that way, when you get here Wednesday when we go through our meetings, it’s kind of like you already have it in there, ‘Oh yeah, I saw that when I watched that game.’ ”

The deep dive helps Sendejo and Smith, who enable Vikings coaches to play either near the line of scrimmage or deep.

“It gives you an opportunity to make certain plays in the run and in the pass when you get to do both,” Sendejo said. “I like the things I get to do.”

Gray said having safeties that can work interchangeably helps the Vikings secondary and overall defense.

“When you have a guy that can play in the box and deep, you have a double threat, because now they just can’t say, ‘Well, this guy’s always a box guy,’ [or] ‘He’s always back, if we catch the wrong guy, we can do this.’ To me, when you have guys like Harrison and Sendejo that can do both – they’re athletic, they’re physical in the run game and athletic enough in the passing game, that’s the best of both worlds.”

Although there is usually a weeklong gap between football opponents, the Vikings rely on cohesion and communication within the group that has enjoyed continuity.

Sendejo and teammates use hawk-like focus during film study, looking for details that will become indicators for what a team is likely to try with a certain personnel grouping or formation.

“[Individual players] can’t watch everything,” Sendejo said. “I know every guy is studying, and we’ll go to each other, ‘Hey, did you see that play against this team when they ran that route?’ You kind of get to bounce things off each other.

“If there’s a play I haven’t seen, someone will say, ‘How would you play that?’ We’ll do that a lot, too,” he added. “Everyone tries to watch as much as they can and kind of collab, it makes it where you can watch all of the things you needed to see throughout the week to get ready for Sunday.”

The post Andrew Sendejo: Watching Like a Hawk appeared first on Daily Star Sports.

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