Morning Sports Update: Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola ‘excited’ to have Tom Brady back
The two wide receivers combined for one catch and 16 receiving yards with Jacoby Brissett Sunday.
It was a busy Sunday in Boston sports as the Patriots suffered their first loss of the season and David Ortiz played his last regular season game.
Edelman, Amendola excited to have Brady back Monday: ‘He’s our leader’: Unlike their coach, Julian Edelman and Danny Amendola took a glass-half-full approach to yesterday’s game. Aside from the loss, yesterday was marked by the conclusion of Tom Brady’s Deflategate suspension, and the team was happy with the 3-1 record they compiled without him. (CSNNE)
Martellus Bennett: Pregame scrap ‘would have been different if I was out there’:
Before yesterday’s game even started, the Buffalo Bills were harassing quarterback Jacoby Brissett. A handful of Bills defenders started shoving Jacoby Brissett, and the Patriots coaches and wide receiver Malcolm Mitchell came over to support him. Martellus Bennett was not nearby, but said after the game that “it would have been different” had he been there. Bennett is also reportedly okay after injuring his shoulder. (WEEI)
Bill Belichick short and sweet about his team’s ‘pretty obvious’ no-show against Bills: The Patriots were shut out in Foxborough 16-0 yesterday, the team’s first shutout since 1993, and Bill Belichick was predictably abrupt in his post-game conversations. Belichick was fairly condemnatory of the team’s play, saying that no unit performed well enough. “Nothing was good enough at any position, in any phase of the game,” he said. “It just wasn’t good enough.” (WEEI)
Rex Ryan: ‘My sources inside the Patriots building’ said Jacoby Brissett would start at QB: All throughout the week, Bills coach Rex Ryan claimed to know who would be starting at quarterback. After the game yesterday, he continued to maintain that assertion, and attributed the knowledge of whether it would be Jimmy Garoppolo or Jacoby Brissett to “[His] sources inside the Patriots building.” Did Rex really know it would be Brissett? Does he really have a ‘mole’? (MassLive)
For Ortiz, Red Sox’s charitable gesture outweighed retiring his number: While the Red Sox have been commemorating Ortiz all weekend during his last regular season series at Fenway Park, yesterday’s ceremony was the most memorable of the entire year. The city announced that it would be renaming a bridge, “The David ‘Big Papi’ Ortiz Bridge” in his honor, and the team revealed that it would be retiring his number “34.” But for Ortiz, an off the field move was the most important. (NESN)
Commissioner: ‘Entirely possible’ David Ortiz did not test positive in 2003: Though Boston lost it’s final regular season game 3-2 to the Blue Jays, Big Papi received another huge “gift” from commissioner Rob Manfred in the form of a potential exoneration. The one thing that has nagged Ortiz more than tired feet, the red seat, and contract disputes the last few years has been his Hall of Fame case – one that has been marred by an appearance on a 2003 list of steroid users… until now. (Boston Globe)
Farewell to David Ortiz, the best thing ever to happen to the Red Sox: While some pundits are harping on those who would dub Ortiz the best baseball player Boston has ever seen, another chooses instead to ascribe Ortiz a different accolade – the most important person in the history of the franchise. (Boston.com)
Loss to the Bills won’t exactly haunt the Patriots for long: With Brady’s return against the winless Cleveland Browns this weekend, the Patriots have to be optimistic going forward, even if the team may not be able to aim for 19-0 anymore. It should also help the team avoid too much disappointment after a bad loss yesterday. (Boston.com)
5 reasons the Patriots lost to the Bills: While Belichick concisely surmised that “everything” went wrong for the team against Buffalo, and it did appear that way at times, there were also five key factors that contributed to the loss, not least of which was a dependence on a run-game that proved completely ineffective from the get-go. (Boston.com)
Here’s what Bill Belichick had to say after the Patriots’ loss to Bills: If you want to read just what Belichick had to say for his team’s failures, you can check out his transcribed Q&A with the media right here. (Boston.com)
Tempers flared pregame between the Bills and Patriots: The pregame shoving match started when Bills safety Robert Blanton took offense to Brissett and Mitchell being on their side of the field. He and a few other defensive backs began shoving the two, and Mitchell reacted strongly, before the Patriots coaches rushed onto the field to stop the scrap. (Boston.com)
‘David Ortiz’ returns to SNL to talk Yankee Stadium, and also more endorsements: Kenan Thompson reprised his lauded role as ‘David Ortiz’ on this weekend’s SNL to talk about what he will miss most about Yankee Stadium: “Lunch.” (Boston.com)
Watch Bill Belichick throw his tablet in a moment of frustration against the Bills: Bill Belichick quickly lost his cool in yesterday’s game, and his frustration culminated in the hooded head coach tossing his expensive tablet computer to the ground in a fit of rage. (Boston.com)
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