OT: This is pretty cool of New England.

Both people who have Hernandez jersey's will be happy...

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/new-england-patriots-offering-aaron-hernandez-jersey-exchange-062813

Herandez jersys along with San Antonio Spurs & Boston Bruin championship shirts will be on a boat to Africa next week.

My idiotic sparty buddy made the claim that "Hernandez has the third most popular jersey on the team." I had to laugh and prove him wrong, silly sparty.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

My idiotic sparty buddy made the claim that "Hernandez has the third most popular jersey on the team."  I had to laugh and prove him wrong, silly sparty.

Tom Brady
Wes Welker
Vince Wilfork

??

Precisely, and the idiot cited Mike Valenti as a source.  Here are the first 6 comments on the thread of TWENTY-ONE regarding that topic.
 
"sparty tool"- I believe he was the #3 seller on the team.
 
Me- No way, off the top of my head I can think of 3 that are easily bigger. Brady, Welker, Gronkowski.
 
"sparty tool"- That's what I heard today. Maybe just last year. People might have already owned the other ones.
 
Me- Where do you "hear" your information from? There is absolutly no way Hernandez, a 2nd-string TE, was the 3rd most popular on the team. I already gave you three people who are easily more popular, here's three more: Steven Ridley, Jerrod Mayo, Deion Branch. I'm almost 100% postive that the back-up QB (Ryan Mallet) and the fricking Punter (Zoltan Mesko) were also more popular.
 
Sorry, Branch hasn't been a Patriot for a while but still. Don't forget all of the Tebow-loving people out there that will wear a third-string QB's jersey...
 
"sparty tool"- 97.1 the ticket. We are talking about a 5 year, $40 million TE who is on a team with a lot of 2 TE formations. More of a 1b than a second string.
 
Me- LOL....The Ticket. That's the station with the tool Mike Valenti. There is no way that Hernandez was the third most popular jersey on the team.
 
I was actually looking at the Pats depth chart yesterday and the TE position was listed as 6-deep. TE isn't a glamour position, other than a very few (i.e. Gronkowski, Gonzalez, Witten, Gates) people from different markets do not know who they are. I still would like to see anyone credible say that Hernandez jersey's were the 3rd highest selling on the team.

Well I can tell you are provoking him which I love, but in 2011 Hernandez had more yards than any tight ends not named Gronkowski or Jimmy Graham.

Calling him "the 2nd string tight end" is a bit misleading.

Gronk is first string, so by default Hernandez is second string.

Are you being a dick or did you miss the point?

The point being that by definition he is a "backup", but that is like calling Julio Jones a backup WR in Atlanta. New England runs 2 TE sets as much as other teams run 2 WR sets.

Would you believe me if I said Hernandez took more snaps on offense than anyone not named Tom Brady, Wes Welker, or Rob Gronkowski?

That's all good but he is #2 on the depth-chart. Yes, I hear you about him being on the field often and I do not think that I'm being a dick. Hernandez was benefitting from a system, he's still second-string.

Give me your 2011 New England Patriots 1st string offense, then.

In 2012, the only game where both Hernandez and Gronkowski were both 100% was the season opener. They both played 67 of 67 offensive snaps.

QB Tom Brady -- 67 of 67
TE Rob Gronkowski -- 67 of 67
TE Aaron Hernandez -- 67 of 67
WR Brandon Lloyd -- 57 of 67
WR Wes Welker -- 43 of 67
RB Stevan Ridley -- 40 of 67
WR Julian Edelman -- 23 of 67
RB Danny Woodhead -- 14 of 67
TE Michael Hoomanawanui -- 10 of 67
RB Brandon Bolden -- 6 of 67
FB Lex Hilliard -- 4 of 67
FB Dan Connolly -- 2 of 67
WR Matthew Slater -- 2 of 67
WR Greg Salas -- 0 of 67

Aaron Hernandez, when healthy, was the 3rd best Tight End in the league (behind Graham and Gronk). If you think that Patriot fans liked their punter more than that, you are delusional.

The dude was good.... REALLY good. He is a P.O.S, but he could play football.

But he's listed 2nd on the depth chart....

2nd-string.

You're a piece of work. Hernandez started at Tight End and played 67 out of 67 offensive plays. To you that is a backup.

By your own words, you are nearly 100% positive that a middle-tier punter is more popular than the 3rd best tight end in the NFL.

 

Middle-tier punters are more popular than Pro Bowl Tight Ends (at least in 2nd's world of make belief).

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

You're a piece of work. Hernandez started at Tight End and played 67 out of 67 offensive plays. To you that is a backup.

He was listed second on the depth chart.

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

By your own words, you are nearly 100% positive that a middle-tier punter is more popular than the 3rd best tight end in the NFL.

 

Zoltan has a cult following.

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

Middle-tier punters are more popular than Pro Bowl Tight Ends (at least in 2nd's world of make belief).

Take a poll now (of over 1,000 NE Patriots fans), pretty sure that Zoltan would receive a more positive rating...

No shit, sherlock. A year ago? No.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

You're a piece of work. Hernandez started at Tight End and played 67 out of 67 offensive plays. To you that is a backup.

He was listed second on the depth chart.

Players listed as "WR2" are not 2nd string. They are starters because the standard offense runs 2 WR sets.

In New England, "TE2" is not 2nd string. It is a starting position because they run a majority of 2 TE sets.

It isn't rocket scientist. I'd expect someone who went to UofM to have better logic.

Didn't read through this thread yet, but I agree that what NE is doing in regards to the jersey exchange is first class all the way.

Good for them.

Proud to be a Patriots 'fan' (due to Tommy).

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

You're a piece of work. Hernandez started at Tight End and played 67 out of 67 offensive plays. To you that is a backup.

He was listed second on the depth chart.

Players listed as "WR2" are not 2nd string. They are starters because the standard offense runs 2 WR sets.

In New England, "TE2" is not 2nd string. It is a starting position because they run a majority of 2 TE sets.

It isn't rocket scientist. I'd expect someone who went to UofM to have better logic.

He was not listed as TE2 in what I saw, he was SECOND-STRING.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

hailtoyourvictor wrote:

You're a piece of work. Hernandez started at Tight End and played 67 out of 67 offensive plays. To you that is a backup.

He was listed second on the depth chart.

Players listed as "WR2" are not 2nd string. They are starters because the standard offense runs 2 WR sets.

In New England, "TE2" is not 2nd string. It is a starting position because they run a majority of 2 TE sets.

It isn't rocket scientist. I'd expect someone who went to UofM to have better logic.

He was not listed as TE2 in what I saw, he was SECOND-STRING.

He is not the 2nd string TE. He was a starter.

We'll have to agree to disagree, I guess we just view it differently. Hernandez is the product of a system that utilizes two TE's, and he is listed 2nd on the depth chart thereby second-string.

Still, we got off topic here. was he the 3rd most popular player on the team? Doubtful.

Um, who was the tight end in the system the year before Aaron Hernandez, then? As in who was the "backup" tight end that played the role Aaron Hernandez played?

There was a highly likely chance that his official position was going to be changed to WR because he hardly ever lined up as a tradition TE. I feel like you don't watch the NFL much, because most NFL fans I know knew this.


In 2011, I would have listed the popularity of New England players:
1. Tom Brady
2. Wes Welker
3. Rob Gronkowski
4. Vince Wilfork
5. Aaron Hernandez
6. Stephen Gastkowski
7. Brandon Lloyd

I agree, not top 3. But you are delusional if you think he wasn't known by most NFL fans. He was the 3rd best tight end in the entire NFL in 2011, and would have been top 5 in 2012 had injuries not plagued him. If someone doesn't know the current top 5 Tight Ends then I can't seriously consider them a fan of the NFL.

Hernandez was tied for 10th in receiving TD's for TE's last year in the NFL, 26th in receiving yards, and 8th in receptions. Who is delusional?

He was only "owned" by 39% of Yahoo Fantasy Football managers.

Jim Marshall is also known by most NFL fans, doesn't make him top 3 on his team...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eBrb00pdGw

And your question about the last backup before Hernandez illustrates my point. I don't know who was before Hernandez, I'm not obsessive over backup TEs. I wouldnt know of Hernandez if he didn't kill a guy (or 3).

You lost.

2ndComingOfBo wrote:

Hernandez was tied for 10th in receiving TD's for TE's last year in the NFL, 26th in receiving yards, and 8th in receptions.  Who is delusional?

He was only "owned" by 39% of Yahoo Fantasy Football managers.

Jim Marshall is also known by most NFL fans, doesn't make him top 3 on his team...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eBrb00pdGw

And your question about the last backup before Hernandez illustrates my point.  I don't know who was before Hernandez, I'm not obsessive over backup TEs.  I wouldnt know of Hernandez if he didn't kill a guy (or 3).

You lost.

Hernandez missed the first half of the season with an injury, bright one. Hence the low numbers, but was still top 5 in Fantasy Points Per Game.

You had never heard of the 3rd best Tight End in 2011? That says a lot about your NFL knowledge.

My point about was that if Hernandez is simply a product of a "2 Tight End system", then surely the tight end before him should have put up top 5 numbers, too, right?