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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Think of it as 3 layers.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Read Keep Your Eye off the Ball. Read The Essential Smart Football. Pay for NFL GamePass. Watch the Coach's Film (All-22). They've archives going back to 2011. It's especially helpful if you watch a game (or series of plays) you're already familiar with. Get pen and paper out and take notes. Watch what each player is doing, both before and after the snap, and be ready to rewind over and over and over and over.

There's a lot of good analysis on YouTube too, if you are a learn-by-watching type.

>Start here, on Brett Kollman's channel. He's a former NFL Network production assistant. Most of his videos are story heavy and analysis light, but that video is about how to watch film.
>
>Sam's Film Room, with Samuel Gold, a writer for the Athletic. Good for beginners. I think he started out at r/nfl.
>
>The QB School, with former Patriots QB, JT O'Sullivan. Focuses on quarterback play, both good and bad.
>
>Dan Orlovski's Twitter has a bunch of quick analysis videos, usually focusing on QB play.
>
>Peyton Manning's Detail is wonderful show, but is stuck behind a paywall at ESPN.com. There are two short videos free on YouTube. Resourceful people can find it elsewhere as well.
>
>Strong Opinion Sports, with Division III NCAA QB Zac Shomler. He has a lot of football video podcasts, but also a QB film analysis playlist.
>
>Baldy Breakdowns, with former Cowboys OLineman and current NFL Network analyst Brian Baldinger. No true focus, but has great insight into offensive line play.
>
>Gamepass Film Sessions. NFL Players and coaches analyze their own plays. The full version is on NFL Gamepass. I'm a particular fan of the one with Joe Thomas.
>
>Voch Lombardi. Focuses on talent evaluation and line play. Funny as fuck.
>
>The New England Patriots YouTube channel has Belichick Breakdown and Coffee with the Coach. Breakdown is the more analysis focused of the two.

If you're REALLY interested, the resources are out there. Good hunting.

For fiction, I recently finished A Gentleman in Moscow and while some would consider the story slow going, I found the language used to tell it enjoyable enough to see it all the way through.

If you're into biographies, I'm just now finishing Washington: A Life, by Ron Chernow, the guy whose Hamilton Bio inspired the play. Sometimes I think he tries to undersell Washington's involvement with slavery, but that's just my bias and I think on the whole he does a fair job of it. Edmund Morris' three book set on Teddy Roosevelt was what got me reading biographies to begin with, and ironically enough I found it from a reddit comment years ago, haha.

For a lighter read on a really interesting true story, I'd recommend "Stranger in the Woods," by Michael Finkel--especially if you're an outdoorsy type.

Oh! And if you're into productivity definitely pick up Deep Work by Cal Newport. Changed the way I structure my time, and since I started changing my schedule my efficiency has skyrocketed.

I don't know if you're the sci-fi/fantasy type, but anything by Steven Brust, especially To Reign in Hell is both snappy, smart, and fun to read.

And if you want dry, but grammatically sound textbooks on psychology and personality theory, let me know 'cause I've been required to read tons as of late, lol.

Sorry for the delay in the response, if you give me a genre or area of interest I could probably be more help. I love to read, and I read a bunch of different things, but this is what I've most recently finished.

Sebastian Vollmer #76 LT / RT (2009 - 2016)

Sebastian Vollmer is the 21st most valuable player in the Bill Belichick era, as ranked by football-reference.com AV  

Notable accomplishments:

• 2x Super Bowl Champion
  
  
• 98 games played, 90 games started
  
  
• 1x 2nd Team All-Pro (2010)
  
  Acquired:
  
  Vollmer was drafted in the 2nd Round (58th overall) of the 2009 Draft from the University of Houston.  Vollmer was not invited to the NFL combine but impressed during a private work-out with Dante Scarnecchia.  
  
  Departed  
  
  Vollmer was placed on PUP during 2016 training camp due to off-season shoulder surgery.  He was never activated and retired the following off-season.    He played his entire 8 year career in New England.  
  
  Where are they now?
  
  Since retiring Vollmer has dropped a ton of weight and is legitimately ripped now.  He has done play-by-play for Patriots games in German.  He has also written a best selling book (in Germany) about his time in the NFL
  
  Other highlights:
  
  

1.  Vollmer blocks Allen Bailey allowing Steven Jackson to gain 8 yards behind him in the 2015 Divisional
   
   
2.  Vollmer collapses the entire right side of the Colts line allowing Danny Woodhead to get to the secondary untouched (GIF)
   
   
3.  Vollmer holds off Elvis Dumervil to allow Brady time to find Gronk over the middle GIF
   
   
4. Vollmer mauls the defensive end helping Ridley go off tackle for a nice gain vs. the Saints
   
   
5. Vollmer and Markus Kuhn give Tom Brady German lessons, and TB12 gets very into it
   
   For previous entries in this series, click HERE

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

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

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

Just a friendly reminder for those that may not be aware. Peyton and Tom are friends. They have dinner together, they keep in touch. They are both very competitive. Anyone who hasn't yet should read the Brady Vs. Manning book by Gary Myers. It's a quick read and gives some great insight. Peyton's skits are hilarious, and he definitely feeds into the media's perceptions about the two.

https://www.amazon.com/Brady-Manning-Untold-Rivalry-Transformed/dp/0804139393

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

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

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

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

I'm sorry you had such a short time with your friend. Parrots are awesome.

I don't know if the timing is right, but Alex and Me tells an amazing story. One of the kind that makes one wonder about the nature of the soul.

Peace

Have you been down on your ability to test well for long? If you have, I may have a remedy, or at least a partial correction.

It's this book. And it really helped me out of a psychological jam a few years back. It was recommended to me by my therapist, who went to meet the author, Dr. Burns, at one of his local speaking engagements.

What it does (I quit my anti-depressants ~a year later, thanks to this book) is it allows you to examine your own thought pattern, as if looking at a map. It addresses things you don't even think about, like how perfectionism can be self-destructive.

I felt better, mentally, when I finished chapter one. It's been in print so long it's probably available at the library.

I will be at the game (and tailgating, of course). I will happily hand them out in the parking lot. I found slightly better deals than that one too.

100 noses coming out to 15.5¢ per nose.

25 noses coming out to 15.9¢ per nose

We should really see if we can get several redditors to hand these out in the lots.

Seriously, he is the only NFL player they made to have a goofy ass expression on his face

Also, both Tom Brady and Gronk are in production, but have both sold out already.

EDIT- Wow, what a great audience!

A few points in favor of Dale and Holley.

1. They just added a 3rd man and IMO the best patriots blogger out there, Jerry Thornton. Thornography
   
2. Michael Holley wrote this great book on the patriots rise to dominance. War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team

There's pretty good book on it too if you want to check it out. Also, "1 vs 199" would be an awesome title. If they ever made that, "Duel of Fates" has to be the theme song.

https://www.amazon.com/Brady-Manning-Untold-Rivalry-Transformed/dp/0804139393

^The linked tweet was tweeted by @SInow on Mar 30, 2018 17:07:00 UTC (61 Retweets | 176 Favorites)

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"Sometimes I just feel like I'm not gonna find that nowhere else."

Despite Super Bowl LII, Malcolm Butler is grateful that Patriots fans will always love him. And the feeling's mutual. https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B077GGRG3H/ref=atv_3p_stv_c_ztrea_brws_3_1?ie=UTF8&pf_rd_i=sportsillustrated&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_p=3386299042&pf_rd_r=EXERPS3K34HKWE0CRRTR&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_t=12806

Attached video

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^^• Beep boop I'm a bot • Find out more about me at /r/tweettranscriberbot/ •

Yeah was definitely something else, just on a different level and they/fans had so much confidence then (in the defense anyways) . Have you checked out the Superbowl year dvd's? They have all of the games highlights and playoffs etc. They also have the 3 games to glory DVD's.

You can get them all reasonably priced on amazon. http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Films-XXXVIII-Patriots-Championship/dp/B00011D1GS/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_img_z

Micheal Holly's book Patriot Reign goes into fascinating detail about how BB and Romeo Crennel devised the defensive game plan for SB 36.

Not only did it work, every team in the league copied it and the "Greatest Show on Earth" never won another game. They opened the 2002 season 0-5, Warner was benched and The Show ended. Not only did the Patriots win the game, they laid a blueprint that took apart and destroyed one of the most effective offenses in NFL history.

Hmm. Interesting. We've only ever heard Bill speak off the cuff. Why is he doing this? Is he a military history buff? I would guess that his management style is somewhat influenced by military culture. I'm reading War Room: The Legacy of Bill Belichick and the Art of Building the Perfect Team right now and I can see a lot of similarities between Belichick's leadership/organizational style and the time I spent in the military.


I mean, if Bill wants me to come play, you know... I'll show up on time for team meetings n' stuff.

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

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

This DVD is really good and was arguably their best season

http://www.amazon.com/NFL-Films-XXXVIII-Patriots-Championship/dp/B00011D1GS/ref=pd_cp_mov_2

If you have time, you'll want to check out at least these two books:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FC2RT0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1

https://www.amazon.com/Education-Coach-David-Halberstam-ebook/dp/B007SO33MI/ref=pd_sim_351_3/142-2988695-0727455?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B007SO33MI&pd_rd_r=e097729a-76f2-45ab-b22e-0057b35e8fe9&pd_rd_w=lKbTg&pd_rd_wg=wo5v8&pf_rd_p=5abf8658-0b5f-405c-b880-a6d1b558d4ea&pf_rd_r=DEKC3848V0PX0B9DA953&psc=1&refRID=DEKC3848V0PX0B9DA953

These two I know are worth your time. This third one I haven't read but it came up when I was looking for those two and it sounds like it's right up the alley of this topic: https://www.amazon.com/Strategy-Concepts-Bill-Belichick-Leadership-ebook/dp/B013WCW31G/ref=pd_sim_351_4/142-2988695-0727455?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B013WCW31G&pd_rd_r=e097729a-76f2-45ab-b22e-0057b35e8fe9&pd_rd_w=lKbTg&pd_rd_wg=wo5v8&pf_rd_p=5abf8658-0b5f-405c-b880-a6d1b558d4ea&pf_rd_r=DEKC3848V0PX0B9DA953&psc=1&refRID=DEKC3848V0PX0B9DA953

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

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

I feel the same way CinnamonToastCrunch5 does. If you have followed the team closely, you'll know most of the stories. I would also recommend checking out Brady vs Manning: The Untold Story of the Rivalry That Transformed the NFL. Although its a little outdated now (I believe it was written before Manning's last SB victory), there's more stories in there that I had not heard before.

Found these on amazon.


http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006Q94BY/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00011D1GS/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&seller=

Read this book http://www.amazon.com/War-Room-Belichick-Building-Perfect/dp/006208240X

$5 and $4 on Amazon, hell yeah!