GO PATS!
They are better than "very good"
GO PATS!

Tom Brady's Knee
The dreams of Patriot's Nation were dashed Sunday when marquee quarterback Tom Brady went down with a knee injury. It was later revealed that Brady would miss the entire 2008-09 season with a torn ACL and would require reconstructive knee surgery.
It has always been said the team could deal with any injury except one to Brady. We'll see how it goes.
I created a "flow chart" of the implications Brady's injury will have on the team:

I Can't Believe They Lost!
I just can't f___ing believe the Patriots lost the Super Bowl. Even though they went undefeated during the regular season, they couldn't win the big one. I am shell shocked.
Oh well, pitchers and catchers report in a few weeks. Time to crank up the hot stove for THE RED SOX! (they were pretty good last year if you recall).

Perfect Patriots
Readers of the Hot Dog Truck site KNOW I am a huge Red Sox fan. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I am also a New England Patriots fan. I just haven't written about them much on this site-I don't want to rub it in! This team is certainly the best team in New England Patriots history, if not in the history of the NFL! If they win the Superbowl this year, They WILL be considered the best NFL team EVER!
I know a bit about New England Patriots history. I was a season ticket holder from 1986-1992, known by some in these parts as "the dark years." The team was AWFUL. Actually, with only a few exceptions, they were pretty much a joke of an NFL team for most of their existence. They never sold out, so you couldn't watch home games on TV (the NFL blacks out games in the local market if the stadium doesn't sell out). The stadium was disgusting too-I've been in better HIGH SCHOOL STADIUMS. If you had season tickets, you couldn't GIVE them away. If you wanted to go to a game, it was a VERY EASY TICKET.
New England Patriots history all changed when Robert Kraft bought the team. James Orthwein had owned the team prior to Kraft-he brought in Bill Parcells which gave the franchise instant credibility. The year Parcells came to town was the last year season tickets didn't have a huge waiting list. When Kraft bought the team he paid around 180 million bucks and everyone thought he was nuts. (the New England Patriots are now worth over $1 BILLION) Kraft, who is a local businessman and life long season ticket holder, said he wanted to do three things: "bring stability to the franchise, build a new stadium, and bring a championship to the fans of New England." MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, Bob! He will be forever loved by the fans of New England because he did exactly what he said he was going to do. If only the politicians in this country could take a lesson from Mr. Kraft!
Now, after years of suffering as the NFL's worst joke, the New England Patriots franchise has a chance to make history. I have watched every game and I have never seen a team with an offense like this. It's almost boring, you just know Tom Brady can lead the team to the end zone at will whether they're up by 30 points or down by 10. I almost feel sorry for my kids, they think the New England Patriots have always been this good. I made them watch the Miami game with me and I kept telling them "the Dolphins are what the New England Patriots used to be!"
With a somewhat improbable showdown with the San Diego Chargers coming up this weekend, I am merely waiting for the coronation on Superbowl Sunday. The New England Patriots will play either the Green Bay Packers or the New York Giants in the Superbowl and they will beat either team handily. I'd personally like to see the Packers because I like Brett Favre and I'd like to see the New England Patriots avenge their loss to them in Superbowl XXXI.
GO PATRIOTS!!

Cell Phone Returned to Ref
If you saw the Pats vs. Colts game (which my Patriots WON), you'll get a kick out of this one:
According to Bob Ryan of the Boston Globe, as the teams were leaving the field
after last Sunday's game, Randy Moss found a cell phone on the floor of the tunnel to the visitor's locker room at the RCA Dome.
He immediately recognized it and returned to the field to give the phone to rookie
referee John Parry.
Parry was grateful to get his phone back, but inquired of Moss how he had known who the phone belonged to.
"Easy," Moss told him, "I just looked at the display. It said, 'Nine Missed Calls.' Figured it had to be yours..."

Clicker Etiquette
We have four TVs in our house. One in the kitchen, one in the playroom for the kids, one in our bedroom and one in the living room. The living room TV is the "good" TV. My wife and I are in a constant struggle for control of the almighty CLICKER.
If we're going to settle down to a night of TV, there are certain unwritten rules we follow. I'm not much of a TV fan. I like a good movie. I watch baseball, football and the news. The only shows I watch are Two and a Half Men and Survivor (I PROMISE I'll never blog about Survivor).
My wife is a clicking fool. She will flip around until she finds the most inane reality show she can find. She watches Survivor. She watches anything to do with reality programming and remodelling while commenting "Oh, that looks like a good project." I cringe when these shows are on. She watches Dog the Bounty Hunter, Flavor of Love, Super Nanny, Biggest Loser, The Bachelor, The Apprentice and the list goes on (and on). If its a reality show, she'll find it.
Now during baseball and football season, there is a struggle for CLICKER CONTROL. I, naturally, want to watch the games on the "good" TV. Here is where the unwritten rules come in. For Red Sox- Yankee games there is no discussion. The ball game is on. If its a game against Kansas City, she'll make some noise, but if I can invent some drama ("hey, Manny's going for Home Run number 500"), I can get the CLICKER without much fuss.
She's getting savvy though. She checks to see who's pitching and for the opponent's record and if it's a "dog" game, she'll protest. Depending on my mood, I may relent if it really is a dog game.
Sunday Football takes precedence, she even watches sometimes (although my brother just got a humongous Plasma-I'll be going over there a lot on Sundays this year). For the Sunday Night and Monday Night Football games, I'll relinquish the clicker if the game is one sided or has no "sporting" significance. Needless to say, the Patriots games are always on.
I got her good once. Last year NFL Network began the NFL Replay on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. They replay two games from the previous weekend each night. I was watching a game on a Tuesday night and she asked what the heck football was doing on TV on a Tuesday night. I told her they were experimenting with new nights. Rolling her eyes and letting out an exasperated sigh, she trotted upstairs to watch some reality drivel. It took her three weeks to figure out the Tuesday and Wednesday games were replays and boy was she pissed when she found out! She actually hid the clicker on me!
Most of the time we reach a happy equilibrium with the clicker, but it's a never ending struggle for CLICKER CONTROL.

Rodeo in Houston
A friend of mine wants me to go to Houston and visit him next spring. I've only passed through Houston, never stopped there. My friend has been there ten years or so and was lucky enough to attend the Patriots Super Bowl a few years back.
While he's no fan of the Houston Texans football team (still a loyal Pats fan), he's become quite a fan of the rodeo. Every spring they have a big hoo doo at Reliant Stadium called the Houston Rodeo. I've never been to a rodeo and neither had my friend when he moved there. He's a big rodeo fan now and swears I'd love it.
Each Rodeo performance is followed by a concert. The bands play on a rotating stage so everyone gets a good look at the performance. I guess these rodeo concerts are the hot ticket in town every March and my buddy wants me to commit to going out there soon so he can get us Houston Rodeo concert tickets before they sell out.
I'm definitely willing to check out the rodeo, but I don't want to get stuck with a country music concert. I guess they have all genres of music so the concert schedule is going to determine when I visit. Aint no way this hot dog cowboy is going to sit through two and a half hours of Reba MacIntyre! I don't think my buddy could stomach that either-I wonder if the Allman Brothers play the Houston Rodeo?
I hope there are good shows in early March as later in March the Hot Dog Truck starts to get busy for the season and we gear up for baseball. Whether I go to the Houston Rodeo or not, I'd like to visit.


The Hotdogman on TV
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