Newton may go way of Jonas Gray
Pats’ QB has tested the team’s patience
The Patriots finally have a QB who can beat the New York Giants.
Rookie Mac Jones tore up Wednesday’s joint practice in Foxboro by decimating Big Blue’s starting defense as Cam Newton remained in COVID-19 testing purgatory.
Newton returned to practice Thursday. And Jones fought through some rough patches and continued to overperform.
Jones has done anything and everything the Patriots could have reasonably asked after taking him with the 15th overall pick in the 2021 draft.
He is unquestionably ready to start Week 1 against the Dolphins. Never mind Week 4 against Tompa Bay.
And more importantly, Jones this week took advantage of the opportunity Bill Belichick said he had with Newton’s absence.
My favorite football cliché is “the best ability is availability,” followed closely by “you can’t make the club from the tub.”
Moving up on the hit list is: “Take the jab or you can’t dab.”
Clichés get that way because they are rooted in truth. Their failing is in the lack of creativity and language used in expressing a common thought in an uncommon manner.
The mantra about “availability” for the Patriots is more an Old Testament dictum than pithy saying.
If Bill Belichick ever took a saunter in the White Mountains and came back to Foxboro bedraggled while holding aloft a pair of stone tablets: “The Best Ability Is Availability” would be chiseled on one of them. Right after “Do Your Job” and “Ignore The Noise.”
Belichick has a notorious reputation for sidelining players who miss meetings or practice regardless of cause.
Remember the late, great Jonas Gray?
He is the greatest one-hit wonder in Patriots history this side of snowplow driver Mark Henderson.
Gray tore up the Colts for 201 yards and four touchdowns on a Sunday night in November 2014. Gray made the cover of that week’s Sports Illustrated. But he failed to properly plug his cellphone charger into the wall on that ensuing Thursday night. Friday, he woke up at 8:30 a.m., an hour after that day’s scheduled team meeting. His alarm was set but never went off because the phone wasn’t charged.
That’s how thin the line once was when it came to success or obscurity under the Patriot Way. Gray issued all the necessary apologies. But it was too late. LeGarrette Blount was on his way to New England. Gray would only gain 91 yards as a Patriot thereafter and didn’t play in Super Bowl 49. He was cut before the 2015 season.
Newton’s failure came in understanding the hoops and potholes set aside for NFL players who choose not to get vaccinated for COVID-19. Technically, the Patriots said “due to a misunderstanding about tests conducted away from NFL facilities, and as required by the NFL-NFLPA protocols, Cam (was) subject to the five-day cadence process before returning to the facility.”
Translation: Cam should have known the rules but royally screwed up.
Belichick continued to show his kinder, gentler side when asked if Newton did indeed screw up on Thursday.
“He didn’t go against team rules. But it was a misunderstanding. … It’s exactly what I said it was in the statement.”
The Hoodie is getting soft in his old age.
If only “Expletive” Johnny Foxboro had it so easy.
The NFL has removed the medicine and politics that have otherwise dominated the debate over whether one should be vaccinated against this virus.
There is one set of rules for those who have been vaccinated. And another for those who have not been vaccinated.
Rightly or wrongly, that’s the way it is.
Jones won’t say if he’s been vaccinated or not. But he’s been spotted not wearing a mask in situations where masks are required for unvaccinated players.
Unvaccinated players will be scapegoated if they are found to be the cause of any infection that forces cancellation of a game.
If a game is spiked because of a COVID-19 outbreak traced back to an unvaccinated player(s), the team with said player(s) will be credited with a forfeit and loss.
Players on both teams won’t be paid. And the team with the unvaccinated must also cover any “financial losses” incurred.
If a vaccinated player is found to be the source? Minimal harm. No foul.
That threat may be the single most-effective way to push vaccines on the unwilling, not to mention break a union.
The NFL players ceded ultimate power in any dispute to Roger Goodell in their current and previous CBAs. Goodell is in absolute command here, at least when it comes to whatever rights or freedoms NFL players think they have.
Because Newton was forced to miss five days of onsite practice after fouling up his testing, we know he is unvaccinated. Vaccinated players do not have to follow the same testing protocols.
Tom Brady has yet to declare if he’s taken the vaccine. Brady did say on Aug. 12, that he wants players to make “good decisions” and added he doesn’t want to miss a game for any reason. Brady also had close contact with Titans head coach Mike Vrabel last week before Vrabel said he tested positive on Sunday.
Last season, Newton’s unreliability was something the Patriots had to accept. He missed one game after testing positive for COVID-19 but was their only legit QB option. That is no longer the case. On July 31, Belichick firmly declared “Cam is our starting quarterback.” Thursday, he hedged when asked about naming his QB1 at the end of training camp. “I’m not sure,” he said.
Jones was the first QB taken by the Patriots in Round 1 since Drew Bledsoe in 1993. He played at Alabama and was coached by Nick Saban, who is Belichick’s closest friend in football. Jones has been a pseudo-Patriot for years.
Newton may not have known it, but he was on the clock once Jones strode to the podium on draft night.
Even if his alarm was plugged in and fully charged.