Patriots, Seahawks and the story lines to watch for in Super Bowl XLIX Elaine Thompson/ASSOCIATED PRESS Richard Sherman and Tom Brady will be reacquainted after the Seahawks corner got into the Patriots’ quarterback’s face following a game two seasons ago. One year ago, the weather forecast was the dominant story in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl at MetLife Stadium. Instead of a foot of snow, it was 49 degrees at kickoff. This year, one of the dominant stories leading up to Super Bowl XLIX in Arizona — — will be Richard Sherman’s mouth. The forecast is for lots of trash talk. This is going to be an entertaining game, but then I thought Broncos-Seahawks would be competitive last year until Denver came out scared and Seattle won by five touchdowns. There are so many compelling storylines over the next two weeks. Here are a few: Sherman got right in Tom Brady’s face moments after the Seahawks erased a 23-10 fourth quarter deficit against the Patriots in Seattle in 2012 and then posted the picture on Twitter with the headline, “u mad bro?” After Sherman intercepted Brady in the third quarter, Sherman claims Brady started chirping at him and safety Earl Thomas. Sherman was imploring Brady to keep throwing his way. Little known fact: Brady is an excellent trash talker. “He said a few words,” Sherman told me. “He’s confident, just like the rest of us. He’s a trash talker and maybe everybody doesn’t see that because he’s a fantastic person off the field. We had a little altercation and he said, ‘Come see me after the game after we win.’ So I came and saw him.” Sherman says he forgot what he said to Brady after that game — Russell Wilson threw two TD passes in the final 7:21, the winner a 46-yarder with 1:18 left — but claims he has no bad feelings for Brady. “I’ve only played him once,” Sherman said. “I love his game. I love it. They can say anything they want about, ‘u mad bro?’ and all that, but as a competitor, as a player in this league, I love him. I relish competitors like that. You love his fire for his team to win games. You don’t usually see that.” In his weekly WEEI radio spot in Boston on Monday morning, Brady addressed the confrontation with Sherman. “Truthfully, at that time, I thought he was coming up to say, ‘Good game.’ That’s all I thought it was,” Brady said. “It was loud after that game so I didn’t really hear anything. And then I went into the locker room after the game and everyone said that whatever it was the next day, that he said he was, I don’t know, talking trash to me. I just thought he came up and said, ‘Good game.’ So that was all a bit of a surprise to me.” Elsa/Getty Images Darrelle Revis will get a chance to prove he’s the top corner in the game on the biggest stage. following Revis’ final season with the Jets that ended when he tore his ACL in the third game. The issue, of course, was who was the best corner in the NFL. Revis felt Sherman was trying to make a name for himself off him. “I never seen a man before run his mouth so much like girl. This dude just steady putting my name in his mouth to get notoriety,” Revis tweeted. A few weeks earlier, Sherman actually did a funny video at the Super Bowl in New Orleans when he went around the French Quarter asking fans whether he or Revis was the better “lockdown corner.” Most interviewed by Sherman picked Revis. Sherman’s reaction was priceless. The fans he interviewed didn’t realize it was him until he introduced himself. In the last two years, he’s become a much more recognizable face. Offenses stay away from him just as they do with Revis. Hopefully, Sherman is 100% for the Super Bowl after injuring his elbow against the Packers. “We got the best corner in the league in our locker room,” Patriots safety Devin McCourty said. “I think he’s proved that year in and year out in the NFL.” Robert Kraft’s first choice to replace Bill Parcells in 1997 was Bill Belichick, who had become close to the Patriots owner in his one year as an assistant in 1996. But Kraft felt he needed a clean break from the Parcells era and hired Pete Carroll instead. Carroll made the playoffs the first two years, was 8-8 in his third year and Kraft fired him. He then hired Belichick. “I’ve hired two coaches and I’m happy to say they are both winners,” Kraft said. I spoke to Kraft a few years ago for my book “Coaching Confidential,” and it was clear it pained him to fire Carroll. Kraft inherited Parcells when he bought the team in ‘94 and Parcells never embraced having a hands-on owner after he had run the franchise when he arrived in 1993 under the previous ownership. “Pete is one of the truly great guys in the coaching fraternity and I didn’t give him all the support he needed,” Kraft told me. “Pete was inclusive. Look, in the end, I needed someone to make me feel good. It was good for me to have a guy like Pete Carroll because he’s my kind of guy. I mean, we loved Pete. You want Pete to marry into your family. I love the guy to this day. He’s an awesome guy.” In the 15 years that Belichick has been Kraft’s head coach, I’ve never once heard him say he ever wanted Belichick to marry into his family. Probably too much laundry with all those sweatshirts he wears. Carroll is the fourth head coach going up against his former team in the Super Bowl. The first, of course, was the Jets’ Weeb Ewbank, who beat the Colts 16-7 in Super Bowl III. The Colts fired Ewbank after the 1962 season and replaced him with Don Shula. Atlanta’s Dan Reeves lost 34-19 to Mike Shanahan and the Broncos in Super Bowl XXX. He was fired by Denver following the 1992 season, coached the Giants for four years and made the Super Bowl in his second year with the Falcons. The Raiders traded Jon Gruden to the Bucs for two first-round picks, two second-rounds picks and $8 million in 2002, and then that season Gruden beat Bill Callahan and the Raiders 48-21 in Super Bowl XXXVII. His inside knowledge of quarterback Rich Gannon helped the Bucs defense pick him off a Super Bowl record five times. In each case, the coach who left went up against the coach who replaced him. TIM FARRELL/REUTERS Pete Carroll gets a chance to defend his Super Bowl title against his former team. Go Blue. On Wisconsin. It’s Michigan vs. Wisconsin in the Super Bowl. Brady, who spent five years in Ann Arbor, is the Wolverine. Wilson, who spent one year in Madison, is the Badger. Brady is the only quarterback to win three Super Bowls in his first four years as a starter. He only threw three passes his rookie year. Wilson is trying to become the only quarterback to win two Super Bowls in his first three years in the league. If he does, he will have defeated Peyton Manning and Brady, two of the five best QBs of all time, in back-to-back Super Bowls. I still have Joe Montana first on my all-time QB list. I have Brady second. Montana was 4-0 in the Super Bowl. Brady is 3-2. If Brady wins this one, I will flip-flop them — they will be tied with victories but Brady will have started two more Super Bowls. Brady grew up in the Bay Area and Montana was his idol. Montana was more athletic and mobile than Brady. Brady has the better arm. Montana had Bill Walsh. Brady has Belichick. I’d take either one of them. The Patriots and Seahawks each turned their seasons around after losses in Kansas City. The Patriots were blasted 41-14 in the fourth week on a Monday night and were just 2-2. Then they won seven in a row and 10 of their last 12 and two playoff games. Seattle was a mediocre 6-4 after a 24-20 loss in KC. But the ‘Hawks then won their final six games of the regular season, giving up just 39 points, and have made it eight straight with playoff victories over the Panthers and Packers. DAVID J. PHILLIP/AP Bill Belichick looks to raise the Lombardi Trophy for the fourth time after losing out on the chance his last two trips to the Super Bowl. Cornerback Brandon Browner missed the Seahawks run to the Super Bowl last year. But he’s playing for the Patriots in this one. He was suspended by the NFL toward the end of last season and the first four games of this season for violating the substance abuse policy. “I was suspended over there and I was still able to get a ring,” Browner said. “That’s a decision by the owner and the coach over there to give me that. They didn’t have to. I’m always going to have love for those guys at the end of the day. It will be sweeter to beat those guys.” The Patriots were not the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champs when they won back-to-back in 2003-04 — they were the eighth team to do it — but they are the last to have done it. So it is appropriate that in order for Seattle to get its second ring in two years, it will have to beat the Patriots. By the way, the Patriots are trying to become the AFC’s first No. 1 seed to win the Super Bowl since they did it themselves in the 2003 season. The Patriots are 3-4 in the Super Bowl. Their victories over the Rams, Panthers and Eagles were all by three points each. The Seahawks are 1-1 in the Super Bowl. Their one victory was by 35 points. Belichick’s playoff trickery almost wants me to forecast the winning TD coming on a pass from Gronk-to-Brady. But it will be the more conventional: Brady-to-Gronk to win it. Related Stories Super Bowl XLIX matchups: Patriots, Seahawks are NFL’s best Myers: Belichick’s ballsy past gives new scandal credibility Deflate-gate: NFL probing if Patriots deflated footballs Seahawks look to join best defenses ever Seahawks tweet MLK quote with Russell Wilson crying pic Seahawks look to join best defenses ever Tags: Super Bowl Source: nydailynews/ newsnyork/patriots-seahawks-and-the-story-lines-to-watch-for-in-super-bowl-xlix-2/
Posted on: Tue, 20 Jan 2015 10:30:46 +0000
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