Morning sports update: Former NFL running back predicts prolific 2020 season from Tom Brady
"He’s going to thrash 2007."
On Sunday, the Boston Cannons won the Major League Lacrosse championship with a 13-10 victory over the Denver Outlaws. The title was on amid the league’s pandemic-shortened season, which began earlier in July.
Elsewhere, Kemba Walker made his debut inside the NBA’s bubble, helping the Celtics to a win over the Suns in a scrimmage.
Kemba Walker made his return today and helped us pull off a 117-103 victory over the Phoenix Suns. pic.twitter.com/uIiWgb6IQL
— Boston Celtics (@celtics) July 26, 2020
And the Red Sox lost to the Orioles, 7-4, dropping two out of three from the 2020 season-opening series.
Maurice Jones-Drew on Tom Brady in 2020: While the expectations for Tom Brady’s debut season with the Buccaneers have been mostly optimistic, one former NFL player thinks Brady will once again summit the heights of statistical achievement he attained in 2007.
Speaking on NFL Network’s “Good Morning Football,” ex-Jaguars running back Maurice Jones-Drew weighed in on where he thinks Brady will rank in the upcoming season. For him, Brady’s 2007 season (in which he set an NFL record for touchdown passes) will be a hurdle the veteran quarterback will clear with his new Tampa offense.
“You know what, I’m going to go out on a limb,” Jones-Drew began, “he’s going to thrash 2007. I think he’s gonna throw 55 touchdowns, 4,500 yards passing, close to 5,000. The Bucs are gonna be one of the toughest teams to stop, and that’s because the defense causes turnovers and will get him more opportunities.”
Brady threw 50 touchdown passes (a new NFL record) in 2007, with 4,806 passing yards and just eight interceptions in what was by far the most prolific year of his career. In 2013, Peyton Manning set a new record with 55 touchdown passes in a single season.
Though the Buccaneers offense has many of the ingredients necessary for success, including an array of talented receivers and an aggressive coach in Bruce Arians, the six-time Super Bowl winner turns 43 in August.
Brady, who left New England to sign with Tampa as a free agent earlier in 2020, will open the season against the defending NFC South division champion Saints on Sept. 13.
Trivia: Which veteran wide receiver, a 2010 first-team All-Pro who played most of his career for a Patriots rival, was a late training camp cut in 2015?
(Answer at the bottom).
Hint: He went to the University of Miami for college.
More from Boston.com:
- Boston Cannons win Major League Lacrosse championship
- Justin Verlander denies report that he’s done for the season
- Here’s a brief overview of the Patriots as training camp begins
- Red Sox drop 2 of 3 to Orioles in opening series
- Mike Antonellis was ready to take a step closer to broadcasting in the majors, but the pandemic put it on hold
- Patriots release 9 players ahead of training camp
- Trump bows out of throwing first pitch at Red Sox-Yankees game
- 20 years later, a look back at Bill Belichick’s first training camp
- Bruins finalize their playoff roster
- Patriots will start lining up for their COVID-19 tests Monday
Charlie McAvoy was disappointed that Otto didn’t make the Bruins’ roster
:
Unfortunately, Otto didn’t make the traveling roster. 🙁@CMcAvoy44 | #NHLBruins pic.twitter.com/W92gDkz9ls
— x – Boston Bruins (@NHLBruins) July 26, 2020
Jackie Bradley Jr. has already made multiple diving catches in the 2020 season:
This 𝙄𝙎 𝙉𝙊𝙏 an old highlight. pic.twitter.com/r51k1elJQU
— Red Sox (@RedSox) July 26, 2020
On this day: In 1986, Greg LeMond became the first U.S. cyclist to win the Tour de France, defeating Bernard Hinault, his teammate and rival. Though Hinault, a five-time Tour winner, had agreed to support the younger American in the ’86 race, he famously had second thoughts on multiple occasions during the course of the three-week event.
Even amid efforts from his team’s manager and owner to subordinate his ambition to that of Hinault, LeMond managed to win. Notably, no French rider has won the Tour de France since Hinault’s final victory in 1985.
The dramatic story became the subject of an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary, “Slaying the Badger,” in 2014.
Because both Lance Armstrong and Floyd Landis have had their wins vacated due to their usage of performance enhancing drugs, LeMond remains the only American to officially win the prestigious race.
Daily highlight: Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang provided one of several quality goals on the final day of the 2019-2020 Premier League season.
Trivia answer: Reggie Wayne.
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